Web 2 0 Panel Make Social Media Work For You (Tin180 Com)

Web 2.0Make Social Media Work For

YouModerator: John Blossom, Shore

Communications

Panel:

Reid Conrad, Near-Time

Tom Gerace, Gather

Jeff Giusea, FierceMarkets

Dan Morrison, ITtoolbox

Best Practices for Social Media

Real-World Lessons from the Cutting Edgefor

ABM Digital Velocity 2007

John Blossom

President

Shore Communications Inc.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

We talk about community a lot in speaking about social media, but how do we really build successful online publishing communities from user content? What does it take to attract the kinds of contributors that will establish a successful online publishing community and how do you keep them loyal to your community?


Do you think that brand advertising will eventually find significant success in social media? Is the implied endorsement from social media content stronger or weaker than from traditional media?

While there are some key differences compared to traditional publishing in how social media creates value for publishers there are also a number of important similarities: we are still looking at ad models for pages, subscription models and events as drivers for revenues. Is there anything really new in how a publisher makes money in social media?


How do publishers best approach social media for highly targeted communities, as opposed to mass markets? How can subscriptions play a role within a highly focused community?

Many publishers might tend to think of social media as an add-on to an existing publishing service, but all of you have made social media a central component for driving your revenues. How do you see the long-term prospects for social media becoming a central driver for all publishers' revenues?

RESOURCES FROM SHORE

Downloadable paper Best Practices in Social media

Online community for publisher and content service providers where you can: Exchange ideas about publishing with your peers in a

secure environment Push them out to the public when they’re ready

(or not) Share news, events and jobs

Contentnation.com Signup code: mammoth

FOR FOLLOW-UP…

PHONE 203.226.9488

EMAIL [email protected]

WEB shore.com contentblogger.com contentnation.com

POST John Blossom

PresidentShore Communications Inc.4 Merritt LaneWestport, CT 06880

ITtoolbox Model for User Generated Business Media

Dan MorrisonCEO, ITtoolboxMarch 29th, 2007

What is ITtoolbox? Successful example of user-generated business

media since 1998

One of 20 companies to watch in 2007, Outsell/EPS

Proven model for high performance advertising in social media Up to $120 CPM for display ads Over 780 advertising clients

Revenue Growth Accelerating

2006 Revenue Trend

Q1 2006 Q2 2006 Q3 2006 Q4 2006

Q4 2005

What We Do Leading online community for IT knowledge

sharing

Connect professionals through community platform to share best practices and knowledge

Key statistics: 1.5 million unique visitors monthly 85 million member e-mails exchanged monthly 1.3 million pages of practical UGC

Merits of a Well Developed Community Organic search engine synergy

More Content > More Referrals > More People To Create More Content

Viral growth and competitive barriers Users invest in their profiles and building networks

High margins (low resource requirements) Ability to garner significant consumption Extreme ad targeting from granular content Multi-faceted revenue streams

UGC as Professional Workflow Peer-proven information and best practices to:

Solve problems

Stay current from front line

Compare vendors

Plan and execute projects

Increased productivity and efficiency Online communities on desktop throughout day

Advertising Performance Performance improves as targeting and context

improve

Communities = high volume content, granular topics

Participation = active interest in topic

Ad performance improves by targeting this granular level and active context

Our Community Model Professional Network

Profiles Discussion Groups Blogs Wiki

Proprietary contextual ad system targets ads into granular user interactions

CRM WikiEntries

CRMTechnical

ExpertProfile

CRMFunctional

ExpertProfile

CRMBlog

CRM Discussion

Group

CRMMember’s

Profile

Discussion Groups 700 online and e-

mail groups for ad hoc fact finding

Users exchange over 85 million e-mails monthly

Experience based fact finding on: Strategy/planning Vendor evaluation Technical issues Career advice

IT Blog Community 310 professionals

share real world IT perspectives

Launched 2003, still experiencing > 150% annual growth

300K unique monthly to destination site, 1.5 million total distribution

Largest IT blogging community

Wiki – IT Reference Guide Introduced in 2005

Over 3,000 collaborative definitions, FAQs, and How-Tos

Members connect with topics, edit and see changes made

Professional Networking Social network for

professional communication

Choose whom to communicate with based on expertise

Connect with topics (groups, blogs, wiki)

Track all knowledge sharing activity in one place

Example of Contextual Matching

Best Practices Community building is gradual process (esp.

with business users)

Put the user at the center and in control

Readers ≠ Community To get scalable contributors, build community around

users’ needs rather than publishing assets

Thank you.

Questions

Copyright ©2005 Gather Inc. Privileged and Confidential Information. All Rights Reserved.

Media Of, By, and Forthe People

Or…

It’s the Conversation, Stupid

Social Media:When Media and Communication Collide

• You have heard of it (ad nauseum by now):– “The MySpace phenomenon”– “The YouTube phenomenon”– Time’s 2006 Person of the Year: You

• Many have been charged to build it:– Building a social media solution– Engaging your audiences

• But what, exactly is it? …and why is it happening?…and who are we again? And what’s your role?

One Small Step for Technology(Ubiquitous, Free Publishing Tools)

…and tools for interaction

One Giant Leap for Knowledge Sharing, Connection, and Collaboration

• Knowledge in this room• Knowledge contained in the minds of

friends, family, colleagues• Knowledge contained in the minds of

their friends, family, colleagues

…and that’s just a few degrees of separation away

It’s the Modern Water Cooler

• We discuss business• But also…

– Restaurants in New York– Films that will win Cannes– Tiny vineyard with superb red zinfandel– Hidden travel spots – Candidates running for election– Perspectives on the war– New methods for detecting and treating

disease

We Know the Source

• So it’s highly relevant– They are the things that are important to the people that are

important to us– They form the substance of our relationships

• And it’s trusted– Each person has their own brand– We assess opinions based on personal knowledge of the

person and their past recommendations– We use multiple reference points to validate/challenge– Credibility varies by topic

• And it’s social– We can interact with the source– We get direct, personal engagement

It’s True Outside this Room, Too

“Individuals increasingly take cues from one another rather than institutions”

- Forrester Research, February 2006, Social Media

• People– are more sophisticated consumers of information and marketing

than ever before– have better access to information today– have better access to global mass communication today and can

share what they know more easily

• Personal reference is more relevant than traditional media recommendations

• Collectively, people trust individual, multi-source information more than individual media sources

Growth of Social Media

Relevance Matters

Member Demographics

• Reach– 1,500,000 unique visitors in February, 2007– 245,000 contributors – Growing by 1600/day– 91% of membership is domestic;

• Gather members are in all 50 states• Gather members are in 20 different countries

– 83% of readership is domestic

• Registered member demographics– 46% male, 54% female– 73% of audience 30-59 years old; median and median age 42– 72% college educated or higher (3X national norm)– 86.3% of audience has $50K+ household income– 20% of audience has $100K+ household income– 77% own a home– 84% households own computer

Sources: Reach is measured by Compete.com; Gather member profile analysis 4/10/06 and Gather Member Survey 5/11-5/13/2006

The Conversation is Global - Top 500 Gather Access Points WW

Social Media

• Gather members do the heavy lifting:– Create our content– Organize, edit and evaluate our content– Connect with each other– Form groups around common interest– Recruit other members

• Gather, the company, provides platform/focus/opportunity:– Build and enhance a platform for sharing and connecting– Ensures that Gather is a clean, well-lighted place– Recruits, educates and organizes expert content– Create aspirational opportunities

New Homepage Launch (1/30)




User-Driven Organization (gather.com/anything)

User-Driven Organization (gather.com/anything)

User-Driven Content Selection

Creating Critical Mass

- Focused on 9 channels1. Money2. Food3. Travel4. Politics5. Books & Writers6. News7. Health8. Music9. Film

- 3 tier content strategy (recognized contributors, Gather Correspondent Corps, individual members)

- Contextual drill-down within all Gather groups

Essentials: Politics

Adding the Experts

Members Follow the Model (8,200+ groups)

Enable the Conversation



A Space to Share

First Chapters Program

• Gather’s first independent contest, the Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition, launched on 1/11– Contestants enter a manuscript in the

commercial fiction genre– Member voting and editorial review will help

narrow the field– Winner gets $10,000 and a guaranteed book

deal from Simon & Schuster!

• Partners in Publishing and Bookselling:– Publishing partner Simon & Schuster – Retail partner Borders

• 2,683 submissions of complete manuscripts prior to deadline of 3/15

Gather in The New York Times

• First Chapters program was the featured article in the “Books” section on Jan 11

• Front page of the “Arts” Section in the Print Edition

• Announcement picked up by AP and Reuters

• By Friday Jan 12, the announcement was #1 on the Yahoo News “Most Emailed” List

Confidential – Do Not Distribute

Digital Velocity Conference - Social Media Panel

Jeff Giesea – President, FierceMarkets Inc.

You will make mistakes. But so long as you are generous and true, and also FIERCE, you cannot hurt the world or seriously distress her.

She was made to be wooed and won by youth.

- Winston Churchill, My Early Life

FierceMarkets Inc. All rights reserved.

FierceMarkets OverviewFierceMarkets Overview

A B2B e-media company based in Washington, DC.We help business marketers reach targeted decision-makers through our portfolio of

email newsletters, websites, webinars, and live events.

Highlights:

40%+ annual rev growth and profitability over five years

200+ repeat advertisers

40%+ annual growth of email newsletter circ

400%+ year-over-year growth in web traffic

Details:

17 publications across four core verticals (Telecom, Biotech, Healthcare, IT)

4 platforms: email, web, webinars, live events (soon mobile)

Value-added aggregator content model

Our Vision: Leverage e-media to build a next-generation B2B media company.


B2B social media:

More questions than answers…


Question #1: RelevanceQuestion #1: Relevance

B2B Current Thinking

Audience Development

Content Provider

Reporting

Editor

Platform Agnostic

Folio Magazine

Social Media Perspective

Community Development

Content Platform

Aggregating

“Preditor”, Host…and everyone

Platform Provider

The Programmable Web (Blog)

Good question… How is social media relevant to B2B media?

Better question… How is B2B media relevant in a social media world?


Question #2: Market opportunityQuestion #2: Market opportunity

% of 2006 Spending

Growth Rate

Online 18.8% 19.3%

Print 31.1% 4.1%

Events 25.2% 5.3%

Radio/TV/PR 30.6% 0.6%

Good question… What’s the potential for using social media to serve B2B marketers?

Outsell 2006 Annual Ad Spending Survey

Spending by Business Marketers

% of Spend Growth Rate

Email marketing 14.2% 16.3%

Trade website 6.5% 11.7%

Webinars 4.0% 21.7%

Blogs 1.8% 53.7%

Search engines 16.2% 18.4%

Online directories 3.6% -11.5%

Wireless 1.6% 33.9%

Sponsored content 5.0% 10.1%

General business site 4.7% 25.4%

Company website 33.0% 23.5%

Other online media 9.4% 17.7%

Better question… What role can B2B media play that Silicon Valley can’t?Will spending trends mirror consumer social media? How can social media be leveraged for lead generation?

Outsell 2006 Annual Ad Spending Survey


FierceMarkets ViewFierceMarkets View

Top Five Ideas

1. Mash-ups and feeds for automated content and market-specific data services

2. Market-specific social networks

3. Vertical custom search with user-defined network

4. Wiki-based product directories and data services

5. Industry-specific content and advertising networks

Also…Applying social media thinking to…events

Five Things We Do Today

1. Use wikis for product information – phone wiki

2. Integrate audience commentary into coverage

3. Promote content through Digg, YouTube, etc.

4. Foster blog networks within our markets

5. Leverage ready-made social media technology

• Build community & loyalty

• Expand & enhance content

• Collect market and user intelligence

• Generate new lines of revenue

We view social media as a faster, cheaper way to…

We see tremendous potential for using social media to advance B2B media.(And yes, we do see a future for B2B media.)

But let’s face it, we’ve barely scratched the surface.


Thank you

Contact:

Jeff Giesea

(202) 628-8778 x 18

[email protected]

empowering the 2.0 organization

introduction• Near-Time is a hosted Web 2.0 based new media platform for

creating, sharing and publishing unstructured content

• Intranets and extranets are coming together … employees, contractors, consultants, clients, prospects, suppliers, publishers and authors, subscribers, partners and the Web itself

• Near-Time integrates wikis and weblogs and other advanced features in a hosted, secure environment.

• Founded in 2003, Near-Time has thousands of users in over 40 countries

Near-Time delivers collaborative integrationprivate, semi-private and public collaboration

Business relationships are increasingly dynamic … multi- scaled - small groups, multi-group, Web

Web 1st drives the market

Self service: the information lifecycle at Web speed, empower ad hoc relationships, enable scalability

Communications = Media

SaaS extends access and reach

leverage

continuumNear-Time integrates blogs and wikis in a single platform to maximize interaction and

knowledge development.

Source: Rod Boothby, InnovationCreators.com

interactive publishing

interaction drives the long tail

enabling enterprise 2.0

integrated platform, scalable interaction

Flexible ways to create communities Point to point emails

Bulk emails

Invitation express

Open doorwalk ins

control enables flexibility

near-time premium™ is a business engine to monetize relationships

FOR FOLLOW-UP…

PHONE 203.226.9488

EMAIL [email protected]

WEB shore.com contentblogger.com contentnation.com

POST John Blossom

PresidentShore Communications Inc.4 Merritt LaneWestport, CT 06880