Buzzfeed - iStrategy Chicago 2012

Turbo Charged Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Social Publishing Secrets from The Syfy Channel and other Innovative Brands

Andy Wiedlin @acwiedlinMonday, October 8, 12

Agenda

• Social Changes Everything

• Social Publishing for Brands

• Case Study: Syfy Channel

• Examples & Discussion

Monday, October 8, 12

The Hottest, Most Social Content On The Web

25 MillionUnique Visitors


Why Do People Visit BuzzFeed?

*Internal Survey

0

16

32

48

64

80

To See What’s Hot To Find Things To Share To Make Viral Stuff


Our POV

• Consumers have moved from portals... to search... to social

• Consumers are looking to discover, engage, and share content

• Great brands are acting like publishers to make their content engaging and sharable to generate true word of mouth marketing.


Facebook has risen over the last six months to challenge Google's place as the most important source of traffic to online publishers for content published in the last 7 days

Social Takes Over The World


Content Gifts

• Is the gift fun to give? Fun to receive? Fun to tell friends about?


The Facebook Test

Want to see it in your feed?Would you click it? Would you share it?


What Is Social Content?








People Share Cute Animals


Key Learnings


People share things that make them look clever and cool.


Sharing is about moments of relevance and timeliness


Create content about groups with strong identities


Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009)10/10/2012.Thales Teixeira, Asst Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, from presentation "Viral Video Advertising".


http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=522373


1) Extroverted People Share More






2) Shocking Them Can Drive Views, But Not Shares






2) Shocking Them Can Drive Views, But Not Shares

3) Humor That Is Positive Drives These Extroverts To Share The Most





• Tell a story

• Involve people emotionally

• Are not heavy-handed

Like Good TV Ads, Social Ads...


If you want a big snowball effect, start with a big snowball


The BuzzFeed Story Unit

• CTRs are 10x-20x industry average

• Ads are in-stream and look like content


Banners vs. Social Advertising

BANNERS • Ignored

• Disruptive

• Can't be shared

SOCIAL ADS • High Engagement

• Native, in-stream

• Sharable


Promote and distribute existing content

Create new, brand-relevant content

Sponsor viral content

We Help Brands...


If Content Can Be Social, Ads Need To Work The Same Way


How Syfy Goes Social

Doreen Rokhsar

[email protected]


Syfy - Face Off Case Study


Shareable “Content Gifts”







Syfy Social Communities posting


A Cascade of Great Social Conversations


Program Success:

323,000 Total Engagements

Custom Content:229,000 paid Engagements

94,000 earned Engagements


Program Success:

323,000 Total Engagements

Custom Content:229,000 paid Engagements

94,000 earned Engagements

108k Earned Engagements = 431k Total Engagements


Examples Of Other Great Brands...






Be a Relevant Voice To Your Audience


“Our relationship with BuzzFeed really put Virgin Mobile Live on the map. These guys know all the tricks to optimizing viral content.”

— Ron Faris, CMO, Virgin Mobile USAMonday, October 8, 12

“We see social branded content as a great way to engage.”— Paul Marcum, Director of Global Digital Programming & Marketing, GE

Social advertising is word-of-mouth marketing at Internet scale.

77%

42%

Total Positive ResponsesControl Group

Via SocialMedia

Exposure“What comes to mind when you think about General Electric (GE)?”

Source: “GE Study Proves Consumers Respond More to Shared Content,” Advertising Age 1/25/2012



You Can’t Guess Which Specific Ideas Will Spread.



You Need To Experiment.



You Need To Experiment.

And Have Some Fun!


Questions?

Andy WiedlinChief Revenue Officer

[email protected]

@acwiedlinMonday, October 8, 12

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]