WEB 1303 SocMedPlay

PLAYBOOK

SOCIAL MARKETING OPTIMIZATION

A playbook for wrangling Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to gain better social conversion and ROI

CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION

THE MASS INFLUENCE OF FACEBOOK,

YOUTUBE AND TWITTER

According to Forrester, Facebook now has a bigger population than that of the United States. It is the number one site where consumers see social content about products and services, far more than any other platform. More than four billion “things” are shared every day, often related to products and brands.

Word of mouth generated through Facebook is playing a growing role in the purchase path. [1] Twitter continues to grow as well, and recently announced it has 100 million active users generating more than one billion tweets every four days. Many of these one billion tweets are created by “mass connectors”– the 6.2% of adults who create 80% of the influence across the entire web. Twitter breaks news faster than any other medium and connects people to brands like never before. [2] And when it comes to YouTube, more than 50% of North American and European consumers watch user-generated video at least once a month, which is more than any other vehicle, including blogs, music and photos on photo-sharing sites. [3]

SOCIAL MARKETING

OPTIMIZATION PLAYBOOK

JAN 2013

SOCIAL MARKETING OPTIMIZATION

A playbook for wrangling Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to gain better social conversion and ROI.

CONQUERING THE WILDS OF SOCIAL MARKETINGThose wild growth days

are here all over again with

mobile and social channels.

Consumers are adopting

mobile devices to connect

to social networks, and vice

versa. Each is driving the

other, and brands that do not

meet their customers’ mobile

and social needs are getting

left behind.

But attributing ROI from

mobile and social efforts is

no easy feat. Investments in

social ad campaigns, tweets

and the pursuit to get more

“likes” – how do these efforts

translate to revenue? Where is

the return?

For most companies, there’s

no clear answer, yet their

footprint into social channels

continues to grow. In fact,

according to Altimeter Group [4], companies now manage

an average of 178 social

accounts, but have very little

understanding of how these

accounts are impacting

their brand, their customer

relationships, or their revenue.

1

SOCIAL ROI: CLEAR AS MUD

The ROI of social channels is notoriously unclear. Organizations have flocked to establish beachheads in the form of Facebook pages, YouTube channels and Twitter accounts, but to what end? According to Altimeter, 56% of brands identify “the ability to tie social media to business outcomes” as the primary challenge with social media. [4]

For retailers in particular, who are masters of the conversion funnel, the value of social media is a black box.

ACCORDING TO FORRESTER [5]:

• 59% of retailers say the returns on their social marketing

strategies are unclear.

• 50% of retailers say the primary ROI from social marketing

is listening and better understanding customers.

Brands are rightly frustrated with the difficulty of tying tangible value to their social media efforts. All marketing efforts should lead back to the bottom line, right? But tracing the long and looping path of the social landscape back to revenue can seem impossible. The path is complex because there are so many disparate data variables.

The good news is these variables are both measurable and improvable. It takes the right discipline, technology and expertise to extract meaning from social data to measurably improve the effectiveness of social campaigns — and it can be done.

LEVERAGING TWITTER’S INFLUENCE TO INCREASE EVENT ATTENDANCE

Because Twitter is dominated by influential tweeters, it is the perfect vehicle for influence-based objectives. For example, when IBM WebSphere wanted to create excitement and increase attendance around its Impact 2011 conference, they engaged technology influencers on Twitter to help spread the word to their 33,000 aggregate followers. This activity doubled conference attendance. [2]

WEBTRENDS OPTIMIZE® PLAYBOOK. © 2013 Webtrends, Inc.

FINDING ORDER IN THE CHAOS: MAKING SOCIAL MARKETING WORKAccording to Forrester, there are four key steps to unlocking Facebook ROI [1], and these can be applied across the social landscape:

• Establish clear objectives for each social channel

• Provide tangible value for your fans

• Use the full social toolkit

• Make social channels part of your regular marketing mix

Webtrends provides Optimization solutions to help make you successful each step of the way.

ESTABLISH CLEAR OBJECTIVES FOR EACH SOCIAL CHANNEL

It may sound simple, even obvious, but success in the social channel comes when clear business objectives drive your efforts. Many brands are so eager to establish a social presence that they do not stop to think about their goals. Is your Facebook page intended to only gather “likes,” or is there a greater business perspective? Are your tweets intended to connect with your existing customers, or create awareness for new ones? Do your video assets have clear goals? Are fans or followers receiving any unique benefit?

For many brands, the ultimate goal of social marketing is to feed the sales funnel. Although Facebook will never be a replacement for ads, depending on how well your fans are engaged it can drive direct response in a measurable, concrete way.

Webtrends Optimization Solutions improve conversion across the entire funnel, and help you correlate social media metrics that seem overwhelmingly vague (generating awareness, connecting with fans, creating influencers, etc.) with tangible goals linked to metrics and results. Our experts work with you to establish clear goals, and test to help you reach those goals. We measure and improve customer experience across all touch points, from the media that attracts your users to the conversion actions they take.

3

PROVIDE TANGIBLE VALUE FOR YOUR FANS

According to the vice president of Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook, brands that succeed on Facebook are “the ones that give people reasons to be fans.” And the first step to providing actual value for your fans is to understand them.

THERE IS A WEALTH OF SOCIAL USER DATA YOU

CAN USE TO TARGET THE EFFECTIVENESS OF

YOUR PROMOTIONS:

• Facebook gives you useful demographic data such as

geography, gender, post impressions, new fans, friends

of fans, etc. If you are using Facebook apps, you can get

even more opt-in user data.

• Twitter provides key metrics like tweets, new followers,

retweeted posts, mentions, etc.

• YouTube shows you who is viewing your videos, where

and how they are viewing them, how much they

watched, and more.

Webtrends unique insight into your customer makeup will give you a clear picture of your social audience—and what types of promotions or value would matter to them. Webtrends also takes this data to the next level, and evaluates changes to your social makeup that could have a bigger impact. Our optimization experts provide A/B and multivariate recommendations and testing within your social channels so you can know you are driving the best results.

VIRGIN AMERICA® TWITTER FOLLOWERS GET SPECIAL DEALSTwitter is proven to be effective at driving direct revenues through promotions. According to Twitter, Virgin America had its fifth-highest sales day ever when it used Twitter to push a one-day promotion. [2]


USE THE ENTIRE SOCIAL TOOLKIT

A social toolkit goes beyond just establishing a page on Facebook, a channel on YouTube, or a Twitter handle. These channels now bleed into each other and across the entire web.

For example, you can:

• Put widgets on your site to illustrate what a user’s

Facebook friends are doing

• Create a feed of relevant tweets

• Tweet links to blogs or other content across the web

• Share your videos or let users post their own

In a world where anything can live anywhere, content can be shared with anyone, and there a “million” other cross-social efforts to tap into, it can be very difficult to understand your unique social funnel.

Webtrends peels through these layers and makes it clear what is working and what isn’t. Through testing and optimizing social content on your site, the impact of your widgets and other social investments becomes measurable and optimal.

CORONA® BLENDS BILLBOARD AND FACEBOOK ADVERTISING TO GENERATE “LIKES”Corona’s “Most Liked Beer in America” campaign had two goals: to create awareness and to drive Facebook likes. The campaign ran on a billboard in Times Square and featured the faces of Facebook fans. The campaign created the reach Corona needed (signs in Times Square typically get 1.5 million impressions per day), and drove 200,000 new likes. [1]

5

MAKE SOCIAL CHANNELS PART OF YOUR MARKETING MIX

In the early days of the social web, CMOs and other C-suite executives imagined social media to be “free marketing,” and often expected impossible results from fairly minimal social efforts. Today it is well understood that social marketing requires investments just like any other marketing medium. Often the most effective campaigns are integrated touch points that blend social and non-social channels.

For example, Marks & Spencer, the British retailer, discovered that incorporating video onto their online shopping pages and into marketing campaigns did the following:

• Products supported by videos

were viewed three times as often

as other products.

• Videos with an educational

element helped reduce returns.

After learning this, Marks & Spencer integrated video across all products and saw uplift in basket size by 25%. By using video as a part of an overall marketing strategy supported by social sharing, and integrating it with other campaigns, they were able to understand exactly what the returns were on their video investment. [6]

With Webtrends, you can correlate the different touch points of marketing campaigns like these, and understand directly the social channel’s role in their success. You can also make this data actionable by testing weaker touch points to increase their impact for greater conversion.


THE WEBTRENDS APPROACHThere are two approaches to understanding and optimizing

the return on your social investments: top down and bottom

up. Susan Etlinger of Altimeter Group explains, “While top-

down approaches provide business context and bottom-up

approaches provide granularity, they are most valuable when

viewed in context of each other.” [4] Webtrends provides

solutions and expertise that combine both, giving you a holistic

view into your social ROI, and helping you take action to

improve that ROI by increasing social conversion metrics.

From a strategic, top-down perspective, Webtrends experience and expertise helps you correlate your social measurements against your ROI objectives, then provides A/B testing to see what content performs best against various populations and in various contests. From a tactical, bottom-up perspective, Webtrends provides a single tag that works across key areas of social and non-social platforms to give you an integrated view into your entire business so you can correlate actions, draw conclusions, and develop ROI benchmarks.

IN A NUTSHELL, WEBTRENDS HELPS YOU:

• Get a better understanding of your Facebook,

Twitter and YouTube engagement so you can provide

more relevant content to unique user segments

• Understand how Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube fans

interact with your brand across digital channels

• Build an ROI model for your social media investments

• Optimize social content to improve the conversion

and ROI of your social channels

7

THE WEBTRENDS SOLUTIONWebtrends provides cohesive insight into the fragmented world

of social data, provides guidance so you can clearly understand

what the data means and how it impacts your business, and lets

you take action to optimize for better social conversion.

OUR SOLUTION COMBINES THREE INTEGRATED

DISCIPLINES TO GIVE YOU:

• Integrated social insights from comprehensive

analytics data

• Content testing to optimize social and mobile content

• Targeting to provide relevant content to social and

mobile customers

UNIFIED SOCIAL INSIGHTS FROM COMPREHENSIVE ANALYTICS DATA

Webtrends measures your social and mobile channels and provides guidance so you can clearly understand what the data means and how it impacts your business. While Facebook in particular does keep much user data private, Webtrends helps you access key pieces of data and align them with your overall measurement strategy. Understanding a baseline for your social ROI begins with understanding the data. Webtrends provides a single view into analytics data across all channels.

(See Appendix A, B, and C for details of what Webtrends measures across Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.)

+135%


CONTENT TESTING TO OPTIMIZE SOCIAL AND MOBILE CONTENT

There are so many social places your brand interacts with prospects and customers. With Webtrends Optimization Solutions, you can isolate the variables and test different social approaches—and see a measurable result in terms of what works and what doesn’t work, where your converting social touch points are, and how to leverage them for maximum return.

Webtrends helps you increase conversions, giving you greater social ROI and measurable revenue lifts by specifically optimizing key components of your Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube efforts for improved conversion.

USING THIRD PARTIES TO GAIN BETTER INSIGHT INTO FACEBOOK CUSTOMERS

If your web site requires users to log in, you can use

third party platforms to let them authenticate through

Facebook, which gives you access to the rich layers of

Facebook user data typically kept hidden.

According to Forrester, Toymaker Step2 built a

Facebook Connect login into its site so customers

could repost their product reviews on Facebook.

The results were that traffic from Facebook grew 135%

and revenue from that traffic grew 300%. [1]

+300%facebook

traffic revenue

9

THE FOLLOWING ARE PLACES IN YOUR SOCIAL PLATFORMS WHERE WEBTRENDS TESTS AND OPTIMIZES TO BE SURE YOU ARE DELIVERING

EFFECTIVE SOCIAL CONTENT:

1. WEBTRENDS OPTIMIZES FACEBOOK BY FOCUSING IN THESE AREAS:

a. Facebook widgets. These are Facebook elements integrated into your own site, such as modules that list “what your friends are reading” or “Like” buttons for users to like content on your site. Available through Facebook’s OpenGraph, they engage users on your site in new and effective ways. Webtrends tests just how effective these widgets are against your conversion goals, and test multiple versions of the widgets to see what performs best, so you know for sure which social widgets are giving you the results you need.

b. Sub-pages within your Facebook page. These are additional pages (also known as “apps” and formerly known as “tabs”) within your brand’s Facebook page. While your brand’s main page is restricted to the Facebook template, if the sub-pages are built using the iFrame format (and most are), these can be tested and optimized. Webtrends helps customers optimize iFrame-based Facebook elements such as contest landing pages, welcome pages, technical support pages, and more. Facebook apps are often used as landing pages for larger marketing campaigns, and optimizing these for maximum conversion can make a direct impact on your bottom line. Webtrends also targets these apps toward different user segments to provide greater relevance for those users, resulting in better conversion lift.


c. Facebook ads. More and more, Facebook ads are part of a standard advertising spend. Webtrends helps you test and optimize Facebook ads so you learn which ones drive the most conversion. Webtrends also leverages user data within Facebook to target ads toward specific users, so what they see is relevant and effective.

2. WEBTRENDS OPTIMIZES TWITTER BY FOCUSING ON THESE AREAS:

a. Links within your tweets. Most Tweets are links to external content. Webtrends helps you optimize the pictures, videos and other external content you share on Twitter by testing different versions of this content, and then letting you know what performs the best so you can maximize click-through. You can also target specific links you tweet toward different user segments so they receive relevant content that provides greater personalized value and return.

b. Landing pages for Twitter campaigns. The sharing nature of Twitter makes it ripe for social contests and other actionable campaigns. Webtrends can optimize your Twitter campaign’s landing page so that you get maximum conversion, and also target specific versions of the landing page to different audiences to increase relevance.

c. Twitter widgets Widgets are Twitter elements integrated into your site, such as a live stream of tweets for an event, or mentions of your brand across Twitter. While implementing these widgets onto your site may seem like a good idea, Webtrends helps you understand the ROI impact is of these efforts, and helps test to optimize widgets in order to make the greatest impact on conversion possible.

11

3. WEBTRENDS OPTIMIZES THESE ASPECTS OF YOUTUBE:

a. Video content. Do the videos on your site affect sales? Are your customers sharing your videos? For different audience segments, which videos are affecting sales for those segments? Webtrends answers these questions to ensure you are serving up the video content that is producing the greatest results.

Webtrends tests and optimizes a range of video content, including:

– Ads displayed before the video plays – Links within the video – Video content – Video player

b. Landing pages for YouTube campaigns. YouTube is a great way to create user generated content around which to run campaigns. Contests that ask users to share their own videos, promotions that encourage tutorials around your product, and campaigns that energize your community all have a valuable place in your marketing mix. But which ones are giving you the best ROI? Webtrends measures the effectiveness of these campaigns and provides tangible conversion metrics for how well they are performing. Webtrends also reveals which strategies are giving you the results you need, putting numbers to the effort and letting you measure results.

In each instance, Webtrends performs multivariate or A/B/n testing to determine the optimal result for the greatest conversion—a best practice recommended by Altimeter. Webtrends also tests and optimizes within unique user segments, so you are serving the most relevant, effective content to specific demographics for even greater uplift from your social investments.

For detailed instructions on how to optimize iFrame-based pages on your Facebook page, refer to Appendix D.


TARGETING TO PROVIDE RELEVANT CONTENT TO SOCIAL AND MOBILE CUSTOMERSIn marketing, relevance is king. And in the social world, data

about prospects and customers is everywhere. By applying

lessons from analytics data and optimization tests, you can slice

and serve content to user segments that is more relevant and

more successful than ever before. Below are examples of social

user segments and how you can provide relevant, timely offers

for greater conversion.

EXAMPLE SOCIAL SEGMENT

TARGETING EXAMPLES

New Facebook fans Offer “new fan” coupons

People who viewed a Facebook post about a new product

Provide custom ads for this product to these users

Friends of fans Include friends of fans on your site with a “share” call to action

Females between 18 and 30 who used your Facebook app

Provide a relevant dedicated email with a customized offer tailored to this demographic

Males on the West Coast who used your Facebook app

Provide relevant ads with a customized offer tailored to this demographic

Returning Facebook app users Provide custom landing page with a call to action further down funnel

Users who registered for your site Using Facebook

Provide an offer for that audience

13

CONCLUSIONWebtrends puts you on the path for increasing your social

ROI and improving social conversions by giving you unique

insights into Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and helping you

optimize social and mobile content for the greatest return. Only

Webtrends provides the experience, expertise and technology to

unlock the potential of your social channels, establish a baseline

for what your social ROI currently is, test to increase it, and

target social content to relevant prospects and customers for

even greater conversion lifts.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WEBTRENDS OPTIMIZATION SOLUTIONS, VISIT:

webtrends.com/solutions/optimization/

CALL OR EMAIL US WITH YOUR QUESTIONS

REFERENCES

[1.] Elliott, Nate. Forrester Research. June 26, 2012. It’s Time to Make Facebook Marketing Work — Best Practices: The Social Marketing Playbook

[2.] Parrish, Melissa. Forrester Research. October 19, 2011 Twitter: The Public Forum for Your Brand — How Interactive Marketers Should Tap Twitter for Real Business Results

[3.] Ernst, Jeff. Forrester Research. August 8, 2012. Emerging Technologies for CMOs to Watch: Q3 2012 – New Technologies Push the Boundaries of Customer Engagement

[4.] Etlinger, Susan. Altimeter Group. July 24, 2012. The Social Media ROI Cookbook: Six Ingredients Top Brands Use to Measure the Revenue Impact of Social Media

[5.] Mulpuru, Sucharita. Forrester Research. April 7, 2011. Will Facebook Ever Drive eCommerce — Demystifying the Hype for Retail eBusiness Executives

[6.] Poltermann, Sabine. Forrester Research. June 8, 2011. Case Study: How Marks and Spencer Uses Online Video to Boost eCommerce


SOCIAL MARKETING


APPENDIX

A. Data Webtrends Measures with Facebook.

B. Data Webtrends Measures with Twitter.

C. Data Webtrends Measures with YouTube.

D. How to Optimize IFrame-Based Facebook Apps and Landing Pages.

FACEBOOK PAGE KEY METRICS

New Fans

Page Likes

Friends of Fans

People Talking About This

Total Reach

Engagement

FACEBOOK APP KEY METRICS

Active Users

Likes

Comments

Views

Authorizations

TREND LINE PER KEY METRIC

Compare 2 time periods

Overlay page posts by owner

Story view provides explanation of key trends

DASHBOARD WIDGETS

Countries

Demographics

Post Impressions

Facebook Post Engagement

POSTS RANKED BY ENGAGEMENT

Reach

People Talking About This

Likes, Comments, Shares

Search content of posts

Filter by Post Type

Review all comments for post

APPENDIX A: DATA WEBTRENDS MEASURES WITH FACEBOOK

1. PAGE KEY METRICS

2. APP KEY METRICS

3. TREND LINE METRIC

4. DASHBOARD WIDGET

5. RANKED ENGAGEMENT

FACEBOOK PAGE AND APP SPACESThe Webtrends Facebook Page Space leverages its big data platform to provide deep insights into Facebook engagement, with Page posts and comments information refreshed every 15 minutes.

Webtrends Facebook App Space makes available the most comprehensive tracking and detailed metrics within opt-in custom Facebook applications. Capture a broad range of app-related interactions, and determine how many visitors click through to your custom apps and complete other conversion-related activities.

KEY METRICS

Tweets

Followers

New Followers

Retweeted

Replied To

Mentioned

Following

TWEETS REPORT

View Fulle Tweet and Reply Messages

Hourly Update of Tweets

Retweets Count

Table Date Available from REST API

Ability to Search Content of Tweets

Creative Date

Replies Count

WIDGETS

Top Tweets

Tweet Time

ANNOTATION VIEW & TWEETS OVERLAY

TIME OF TWEETS

DATA AVAILABLE VIA

REST API

TWITTER SPACEThe Webtrends Twitter Space provides rapid insight into the most engaging tweets through historical and trending reports.

APPENDIX B: DATA WEBTRENDS MEASURES WITH TWITTER

17

2. TWEET REPORT

3. WIDGETS

1. KEY METRICS

5. TIME OF TWEETS

4. ANNOTATION VIEW & TWEETS OVERLAY

APPENDIX C: DATA WEBTRENDS MEASURES WITH YOUTUBE

KEY METRICS VIEWS *

Favorites*

Comments *

Onsite Plays

Onsite Completes

Onsite Impressions

ANNOTAION VIEW & VIDEOS OVERLAY

WIDGETS

Traffic Sources *

Playback Locations*

Top Videos*

Onsite Countries

DATA AVAILABLE

VIA REST API * Sourced from YouTube API

REAL-TIME SOCIAL METRICS FOR VIDEO

ENGAGEMENT METRICS

PLAY LOCATIONS

COUNTRIES

4. REAL-TIME SOCIAL METRICS FOR VIDEO

1. KEY METRICS

6. PLAY LOCATIONS


2. ANNOTATION VIEW & TWEETS OVERLAY

3. WIDGETS

7. COUNTRIES

5. ENGAGEMENT METRICS

OPTIMIZING IFRAME-BASED FACEBOOK APPS AND LANDING PAGES IS NO DIFFERENT THAN OPTIMIZING

ANY OTHER WEB PAGE. HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:

1. Create a Facebook page for your brand.

2. Let Webtrends create an app for your page. You must first have the developer app installed on your page.

3. Once Webtrends creates the new app for your page, it will appear as a custom “box” in the apps area of your page. This new app creates an iFrame in the Facebook page.

4. Create and host an external page. The iFrame references and loads this external page.

5. The external page interacts with Webtrends Optimize to test multiple versions and see what performs best.

APPENDIX D: HOW TO OPTIMIZE IFRAME-BASED FACEBOOK APPS AND LANDING PAGES

YOUTUBE SPACEThe Webtrends YouTube Space enables digital marketers to measure the engagement and success of YouTube videos embedded on their own sites, as well as videos hosted on YouTube’s own domain. Through the combination of YouTube API data plus insights collected via the Webtrends Asynchronous JavaScript tag, it is now possible to measure impression events, action events, and progress events. And display this information in a single, consolidated view.

On the external page, you will need to make three configurations to get it ready for testing. Here’s how to set it up:

1. Include the setup call in the body tag of the page.

2. Use a project alias instead of a page object lookup.

3. Force using third-party cookies with this command:

The last step is to make the encoded variable for the user’s profile information available to the Optimize team. This is passed to the page in the iFrame in a POST variable named “signed_request.” The variable is made of a hashed signature string and a base64 encoded JSON object. Here is an example variable to make available:

YOU’RE ALL SET! THE WEBTRENDS OPTIMIZE TEAM WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE.

19

Inspiration drives us.

Digital intelligence guides us.

Innovation remains our goal as we help brands re-imagine digital marketing.


Inspiration drives us.

Digital intelligence guides us.

Innovation remains our goal as we help brands re-imagine digital marketing.

SOCIAL MARKETING


JAN 2013

CALL US, LET’S TALK

North America

1.888.932.8736

[email protected]

Europe, Middle East, Africa

+44 (0) 1784 415 700 [email protected]

Australia, Asia

+61 (0) 3 9935 2939

[email protected]

For offices worldwide, visit: www.Webtrends.com

WWW.WEBTRENDS.COM

ABOUT WEBTRENDS INC.Inspiration drives us. Digital intelligence guides us. Innovation remains our goal as we help brands re-imagine digital marketing.

Webtrends dramatically improves digital marketing results for many of the world’s most admired and innovative companies. Our solutions have set a gold standard for innovation, performance and value since we helped establish the web analytics industry in 1993.

Our diverse portfolio includes customer intelligence and behavioral segmentation, targeting + scoring, optimization + testing, mobile and social apps creation and Facebook Page management, professional consulting services, real-time web analytics, unified digital analytics across mobile, social and web and general digital marketing wizardry.

Webtrends OPTIMIZE® PLAYBOOK. © 2013 Webtrends, Inc.

Documents

WEB 1303 SocMedPlay