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Neolane Social Marketing - FAQs

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Page 1: Neolane Social Marketing - FAQs

Social Marketing FAQs

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Listening – Perhaps the most common use is monitoring, which allows businesses to gain real-time insight into what is being said about their brand. This insight is aggregated, analyzed, and leveraged for a variety of purposes, including product development, marketing, customer service, etc. A natural extension of listening, many brands also use social media to directly respond to service and support inquiries.

Brand Awareness – On the marketing side, social media sites are commonly used to build brand awareness, through a combination of games, contests, quizzes, surveys, and community management.

What are some of the ways that brands are using social media today?#1

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Acquisition & Qualification – As social marketing matures, many brands are now looking to leverage these channels for acquisition and qualification, using forms, Facebook Apps, and other means to collect and enrich customer intelligence.

One-to-One Engagement – Using the rich data available via social media, marketers are starting to deliver highly relevant, personalized experiences, including one-to-one messages and content via Facebook Apps, Twitter direct messages, etc.

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Users – The top social media sites possess enormous user bases. With more than 900 million monthly active users, Facebook would be the third largest country in the world. Twitter, meanwhile, has surpassed 500 million total accounts.

Engagement – What’s more impressive is how highly engaged these users are. Facebook has 526 million daily active users who log 10.5 billion minutes

There are three primary reasons why social media sites are so valuable to marketers are:

Why do social media present such valuable marketing opportunities?#2

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on the site—each day. Twitter has 140 million active users who send a billion tweets every three days.

Data – Lastly, social media creates a tremendous amount of data. These sites offer unprecedented insight into customers’ interests, needs, and behavior—in real time. Acquired properly, this data can be a significant relevance multiplier for marketers.

Charting Facebook’s

impressive growth

and its march towards

one billion active users

(source: iCrossing)

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The reasons consumers like/follow brands may not be what brands or marketers think. One survey1 illustrates the misconception. While consumers ranked purchases and discounts as their top motives for following brands, these reasons were lowest on the list of why brands think consumers follow them.

A Nielsen survey2 further validates consumer preferences, ranking discounts/special offers

Why do consumers really like/follow brands on social media sites?#3

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as the top reason for liking or following a brand, followed by supporting the brand and receiving news/updates. While motives vary by industry, region, etc., it’s clear that value is expected in exchange for the follow.

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Using mass media pricing models, or cost per thousand impressions (CPM), industry pundits have pegged the value of a Facebook “like” at anywhere from $3 to $136. However, these estimates are theoretical and imprecise, with the real answer being zero—until explicit action is taken to acquire, qualify, and engage fans in a one-to-one manner.

As former Forrester Research analyst Augie Ray writes3, “The smart marketer will approach the question of value as if the answer is zero – there is no intrinsic value to a Facebook fan … What’s the value of an email subscriber if the company

What is the value of a brand’s Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers?#4

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never uses the database for anything? … It is what companies do with fans that creates value, not merely that a brand has fans.”

With consumers showing a clear appetite for discounts and offers, there’s an opportunity for marketers to monetize likes and followers by engaging in direct marketing via social media.

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The following social marketing roadmap helps marketers to identify the next logical progression for their brand:

Establish Goals – Brands define their social media objectives, as well as the criteria against which success will be measured.

Build & Listen – After establishing their social presence, brands begin listening and responding to their audiences.

Influence – To increase reach, brands implement basic features (e.g. social forwarding/sharing) and launch mass campaigns via social channels.

Beyond listening and posting, what are next steps for social marketing?#5

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Social Opt-in – Brands identify and acquire fans/followers, and enrich their profiles in a central marketing database. Opt-ins can be acquired through Facebook Applications, web forms, social sign-on, etc. Regardless of the mechanism, some value (e.g. games, promotions, access to exclusive content/deals) is offered in exchange for information.

Engage – Employing direct marketing principles, brands engage fans/followers by delivering relevant, personalized experiences, including one-to-one messages and content via Facebook Apps, Twitter direct messages, etc. All messages and offers are coordinated seamlessly with other channels, creating consistent cross-channel dialogs.

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Social media sites offer unprecedented insight into customers’ interests, behavior, and sentiment. Unfortunately, as Forrester Research notes, “too many companies remain trapped by merely monitoring or passively collecting social media. Few actually reach

How can I use the wealth of data available on social media?#6

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Social Intelligence: driving their marketing and business strategy using the data that social media creates.”4

To achieve social intelligence, marketers must capture social profile data in their central marketing database, integrating it with data from other channels/sources to build a single, real-time customer view. This 360-degree view can then drive intelligent marketing decisions, from segmentation and personalization strategies to channel, offer selection, and more.

Examples include segmenting influential Twitter followers for a special offer; sending Facebook fans a special message/offer on their birthday; a concert promoter leveraging location and likes to inform users when their favorite bands are coming to town; a publisher leveraging likes to cross-promote its titles and authors; a bank sending users who check into a new city a list of nearby ATMs; etc. The possibilities are virtually limitless.

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Data privacy and security is top-of-mind with consumers and brands alike. Given the sensitivity, marketers may be hesitant about marrying social profile data with their traditional marketing datamart. Done properly, however, there should be no cause for concern. Marketers should:

Obtain Permission – By implementing a social opt-in, brands can obtain explicit consent to bring social profile data into the marketing database and use it to deliver increasingly timely, relevant, and effective offers across channels.

Is it ok to capture social media data in my marketing database?#7

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Set Expectations – As with other channels, it’s important to set clear expectations about what data is being captured and how it will be used. In addition, don’t capture data that’s not necessary to create relevant, engaging experiences.

Never Violate Trust – It goes without saying that social profile data should never be bought or sold. In general, always be open and honest and never do anything that could conceivably violate consumers’ trust.

A Facebook App install

screen, showing

exactly what data is

being captured.

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Social marketing strategies are very much dictated by the media.

Twitter – Limited to 140 characters, marketers must be concise and action-oriented, ultimately driving followers to the brand’s website, Facebook page, YouTube channel, etc. Because of its user base, Twitter is a great channel for targeting influencers.

Facebook – Marketers have more real estate and options to engage fans directly within the platform, including:

How should my marketing strategies vary for Facebook vs. Twitter?#8

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Posts – Can be created and managed like email campaigns, with a subject, image, body, and call to action. There are even basic segmentation criteria (e.g. country, city, and language). Because fans don’t frequently visit brand pages on their own accord, posts should be used to drive traffic to Apps.

Apps – Can deliver graphically-rich, interactive user experiences that are fully personalized based on what the brand knows about the visitor, either via their Facebook profile or data housed in the marketing database. Options include promotions, games, quizzes, and surveys, as well as tabs containing personalized offers and other information.

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Listen, Test, and Measure – Because every community is unique, social marketing approaches must be tailored to a brand’s audience and business goals. To determine the right strategy, engage in a continuous cycle of listening, testing, and measuring.

Offer Value for Time – On social media, you compete for your fans’ mindshare not only with other brands, but their friends and family. Thus, in exchange for liking or following your brand, they expect immediate and tangible value—from offers/discounts to some mix of entertaining or educational content.

What’s the best approach for engaging users on social media?#9

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Have a Cross-Channel Vision – As Forrester Research says, “Facebook is not an island. It’s as important to integrate it with the rest of your marketing as with any other medium.”5 Because consumers interact with brands via multiple channels, often simultaneously, social media cannot be managed in isolation. Otherwise, the customer experience—and business results—will suffer.

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Many C-level executives believe that social media lacks a measurable ROI. That’s because, to date, brands have focused primarily on listening and community management—activities that are resource-intensive and don’t contribute to the top line. The secret to unlocking social marketing ROI is applying direct marketing techniques to these channels, including acquiring permission via social opt-in, capturing social profile data, and delivering personalized messages/offers that drive sales conversions and sustainable long-term relationships. By following this approach, social marketing programs will be more in line with consumer expectations (see question #3) and ultimately drive more revenue.

What’s the best way to generate social marketing ROI?#10

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The value of identifying and acquiring contacts from social media into the central marketing database cannot be overlooked. Consider the following example: if a brand converts 5% of its 2,000,000 Facebook likes into identified contacts (assuming 25% overlap with existing contacts), it will generate 75,000 net new contacts. Assuming an average value of $20 per identified contact and an average gross margin of 30%, these contacts will produce an estimated $750,000 in incremental profit.

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While features like Share with Your Network (SWYN) or a mobile-optimized emails might come to mind in terms of blending social, email, and mobile, effectively bringing social media into the marketing mix should be much more systemic. That’s because consumers not only interact with brands via multiple channels; they exert greater control over the terms of engagement. In order to keep fickle customers engaged, marketers must deliver an experience that is truly seamless and highly relevant across a growing spectrum of channels.

Achieving this seamless experience or dialog isn’t built on individual

How can I integrate social media with other marketing channels?#11

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features. It requires an integrated, cross-channel approach to marketing that’s based on:

Single Customer View – To ensure the latest, most comprehensive data is driving offer selection and 1:1 personalization

Central Offer & Personalization Engine – To fuse inbound and outbound marketing strategies and deliver 1:1 content and offers, independent of channel

Seamless Channel Integration – To engage customers and prospects in sustained, 1:1 conversations, seamlessly across touch points

With these elements in place, marketers can put the customer at the center of the relationship, and orchestrate timely, relevant messages driven by their needs, interests, and behavior.

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While social media sites have been used primarily as mass marketing tools to date, there are plenty of opportunities to deliver personalized user experiences.

Twitter – Direct Messages (DMs) can be segmented based on numerous criteria (number of followers, interests, language, location, etc.) and fully personalized, including the addition of personalized URLs (PURLs).

Facebook – Facebook offers the most personalization potential. On a basic level, posts on brand pages can be segmented based on the location and

How can I create personalized experiences on social media?#12

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language of the visitor. What’s even more valuable, though, is ability to personalize Facebook Apps. Once a fan subscribes to an app on a brand page—granting permission to share some of their data—the app content can be fully personalized using not only Facebook profile data but data from the CRM database (e.g. customer status, loyalty points, etc.). Using Facebook Connect, the same level of personalization can be extended to a brand’s website, creating a seamless, engaging experience across digital properties.

In addition, there are emerging options for engaging Facebook fans via one-on-one messages. Once more fully defined and governed, these options could be particularly useful for delivering real-time transactional or service messages, alerts, etc.

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Perhaps the biggest limitation with social media is how quickly the industry is changing. From Facebook’s frequent iterations to new sites emerging on what seems like a daily basis, keeping pace with social media is like drinking from a fire hose. Brands need the right people, processes, and technology to quickly identify, assess, and adapt to evolving market conditions, including potentially restrictive changes.

Take, for instance, Twitter’s daily limit of 250 direct messages (DMs). If brands are using DMs to send personalized marketing messages, they need the flexibility to create business rules in their campaign workflows

Are there limitations that could impact social marketing efforts?#13

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to prioritize recipients and execute messages in waves. Another recent example was the roll out of Facebook Timeline for Brands, which eliminated default landing tabs, forcing marketers to adapt their promotion and communication strategies.

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Contrary to popular belief, social marketing is not just for B2C companies. In fact, according to one survey6, more than 93% of B2B marketers use social media to market their businesses. The same report reveals that B2B marketers are getting results from social media.

While B2B companies generally have fewer fans than consumer brands, it’s quality—not quantity—that matters, with 10,000 engaged fans being more valuable than 10 million passive likes. While LinkedIn is well suited for B2B marketing, Facebook, Twitter, and others each offer unique opportunities to educate and engage target audiences with relevant, content.

Is social marketing just for B2C companies?#14

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1 IBM Global Business Services, “From social media to Social CRM: What customers want,” March 2011

2 Nielsen, Global Online Survey, Q1 2011

3 Forrester Research, Inc., “What Is The Value Of A Facebook Fan? Zero!”, July 8, 2010, by Augie Ray

4 Forrester Research, Inc., “The Road Map To Integrating Social And Customer Data,” October 25, 2011, by Zach Hofer-Shall with Dave Frankland and Allison Smith

5 Forrester Research, Inc., “It’s Time to Make Facebook Marketing Work,” November 28, 2011, by Nate Elliott with Sean Corcoran, Sarah Glass, Sarah Takvorian

6 Social Media Examiner, “2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report,” April 2012

Sources

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