“The Social Trade”

Jake Aull

www.ZenOfBrand.com

September 2011

•  Trade & Social Media –  Traditional trade –  Difference in social media –  Communities and trade

•  Causes Online:

–  Priceless Stories & Experiences –  Empowering Visitors & Donors –  The power of mystique…

•  Incentivization Online Examples

•  Community Empowerment & The Social Trade

–  The Road Map & Tactical Implementation Plans & Guides

•  Ghost Towns: –  Examples of what not to do

Contents

Trade & Social Media

•  Social Commerce

•  Digital Exchange

•  Social Capital

•  Social Currency

•  Socialnomics

•  Network Effects

Past Models

•  Top-down, one-way communications (traditional models) are insufficient today

•  Communities

•  Two-way dialogue

•  Grassroots-driven growth

•  Companies are no longer separated; it is the rise of the “prosumer”

What does Social Media Mean?

•  In commerce, customers exchange: –  capital & goodwill

–  For organizations’ brand/product/service “experience”

–  Think perceptions and desires; not true needs…

–  At it’s highest level, they seek the church of the brand,

with all that mystique… •  It means becoming a “cult” member of Harley-Davidson or

Apple brands… –  (the Harley logo is the single most common tattoo in the U.S.)

Traditional Trade

•  So, we know social media means organic communities and two-way communications, but what about the end-customer benefit perspective?

•  Don’t forget the WiiFMs

•  Remember Howard’s RIBS? –  Successful online communities contain for the user:

•  Remuneration •  Influence •  Belonging •  Significance •  From Design to Thrive by Theron Howard – see my presentation:

http://prezi.com/qiltxaytwdss/design2thrive_notes/

Digital Experience & The Social Trade

•  In “The Social Trade”: –  Customers are buying a digital &/or social experience

–  This can be understated, or as elaborate as you can dream

–  Think badges and perceived psychological benefit

(Foursquare) and product rewards (redemptions)

–  Think album covers in your “music” section of Facebook

–  At a simple level, what if your product-purchasing was synonymous with the blog you visit regularly? •  Think collectors and hobbyists

–  Even think MMOs and virtual worlds and purchasing within…

Digital Experience & The Social Trade

Social Communities integrated with eCommerce

•  Social Communities integrated with eCommerce

•  (this and preceding screen shot are from adagio.com – to see my digital audit of this site and it’s social/community integrations, visit http://slidesha.re/na3gOp )

Priceless Stories & Experiences Empowering Visitors & Donors

Causes Online:

•  A good feeling? •  An experience? •  Where’s the end-story?

•  Social sites can give a complete story

–  Before and after –  Photos (Flickr, Facebook) –  Video (YouTube, Vimeo) –  Integrated media and written stories (blogs) –  Merits/badges/points for “good”/donations (Facebook)

What do Donors “Buy” from Non-Profits?

•  A child is born with a cleft palette.

•  Photos/video are shown of the child.

•  A donor gives for the child.

•  The child is cured.

•  Photos/video are taken of the recovery.

•  The complete narrative can become a true, full online experience (on a social site).

•  At it’s best – individual profiles can be programmed for each specific donor’s “ROI;” or stories…

Here’s a Non-Profit’s Story

•  These “stories” are “collected” and “treasured” (even “Liked”) on the non-profit’s social media sites. –  With collaborative responses

•  This is the best of digital marketing today –  social media, SEO - all rely on freshness and relevancy of content –  Collaboration supplements organization’s content qty. –  content is king!

•  Story snippets are continually dished out in social media, presenting these narratives (think customer-experience benefits) –  …drawing interest (developing buyer/donor desire and demand) –  Pulling brand community visitors and buyers/donors –  Drawing conversation (two-way social media dialogue)

Purchasing Stories & Experiences…

•  They are the dream, the abstraction, the intangible

•  They are the mystique, the lure

•  They create the social media “digital church”

•  Demand at this point becomes limitless –  Mystique is priceless and can’t be capped…

Stories Become Personal

Incentivization Examples

•  Member-focused (individual donor stories)

•  Stories everywhere

•  “Community powered news”

•  But do the ads kill it all?

•  What do they loose by lack of clear targeting and purpose? –  TMI?

Care2.com home page Google search phrase: non-profit health organization .org cause donations online social community

•  Clear story

•  CTAs

•  See community representation and involvement

•  Ways to share the info and join the community

The Care2 Hook

•  Theme-relevant incentiviation

•  Game/contest incentivization & retention (credits)

•  Maybe a bit too adsy?

The Care2 Hook

The Road Map & Tactical Implementation Plans & Guides

Community Empowerment & The Social Trade

Form your Wheel & Spoke Model

•  Lead-gen/ opt-in

•  Purchasing/donations

•  More info/ Resources

•  Objective/”What”: Achieve revenue/donations

•  Mission/”Why”: “Advance the town’s children health and improve the town’s future.”

•  Target Incentivization/”How”: Trade donations for “stories/experiences”

•  Hub/”Where”: Blog site community of stories and media –  Spokes: Facebook, Twitter, anything to pull visitors

•  Measurement KPIs/”How much”:

–  Opt-ins/leads –  Payments –  CTR (click-through rate) –  Referrals –  Shares –  Comments

Tactical Sample Plan Layout

•  Blog site community (Hub) –  (narrative & pictures/video) –  Story (blog post) 1 – cleft palette –  Story 2 – small pox –  Story 3 – village well

•  Facebook page (Spoke)

–  Wall posts; snippets of blog stories •  Sample photos •  CTA (call to action) to click-through to see full story on blog

site •  “Share” with a friend (community empowerment)

–  Facebook lead-gen incentivization posts/tab •  (“sign up to receive your _____”)

–  Click through to donate…

Tactical Sample Plan Layout

•  Twitter (in a day or 2) –  Tweet 1: Blog Story 1 –  Tweet 2: Pull CTA (call-to-action) to join community –  Tweet 3: Tell a friend

(“Net Promoters”; community empowerment) –  Tweet 4: Story 2 –  Tweet 5: Request donations/purchasing –  Tweet 6: Incentivize lead-gen (e.g., subscribe to

newsletter on tax benefits and history of long-term cultural advancement for the needy location)

–  Tweet 7: Story 3 –  Tweet 8: “Like” Facebook

Tactical Sample Plan Layout (“When”)

•  What’s pulling, what’s not (content/CTAs)?

•  What channels see the most traffic/CTR?

•  Marketing funnel/clickstream/customer journey?

•  Change over time? Why/attribution?

•  What do people share? And comment on? (community empowerment)

Ongoing Measurement Analysis

Examples of what Not to do

Ghost Towns:

Started at Google…

My search phrase (before landing on the above): non-profit organization .org cause donations online social community

I Went, But No One Was There…

If you build it, do they come?

This is Where the Site Sent Me I Clicked on” Giving” Info from “Women’s Health”

Plenty of ads, automation, but no substance – no connections

•  Trade & Social Media –  Traditional trade –  Difference in social media –  Communities and trade

•  Causes Online:

–  Priceless Stories & Experiences –  Empowering Visitors & Donors –  The power of mystique…

•  Incentivization Online

–  What’s your target and positioning? –  What’s your primary role and offering?

•  Community Empowerment & The Social Trade

–  Create, adapt and customize your digital map and plan •  Via ongoing measurement and monitoring

•  Ghost Towns: –  If you build it… –  Make it people-, not corporate ad-driven

Review