The Fallacy of Social Media is presented by Chris Tran at Web Wednesday Vietnam: Social Media event on June 26, 2013.

1. Shedding a little light
on Social Media
Chris Tran

2. Welcome to the Social Media
Revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQzsQkMFgHE

3. I love these videos,
because they were
created by people
like us, to
remind us of
how important
and awesome
we are.

4. Social Media – The Land of
Misconceptions

5. Common Misconceptions
Social
Media is
Inexpensive
Social
Media is
Fast
Social
Media is
“Viral
Marketing”
Social
Media
results
can’t be
measured
Everyone is
doing it, so
should I!
I should be
on every
social
network
out there!
Social
media is
too time
consuming.
Social
media is
just a fad. It
will pass
over soon.
However, I think we
can all move beyond
this.

6. But before we jump into the heart of
the matter, some media basics.

7. Media KPIs
Reach Frequency Engagement

8. Advertising
Creative Idea Media Channels Advertising

9. Paid, Owned, Earned

10. Paid Media
A print advertisement for Playboy

11. Owned Media
Owning and publishing a
magazine

12. Earned Media
Giving the magazine to friends to
borrow.

13. P.O.E. Pop Quiz

14. What is SEM?
Paid. You buy SEM
from Google.

15. What is a microsite?
Owned. Brands own
their microsites.

16. What is an EDM?
Owned. Brands own
their EDMs, and
should own their
databases.

17. What is Facebook?
Trick question.
Facebook is a bit
more complicated.

18. What is a Facebook Fanpage?
Owned. Brands
build their own
fanpages.

19. What is a Facebook Share?
Earned. Fans are the ones who
take voluntarily share
information. Brands are lucky if
they can reap the benefits.

20. What is a Facebook Like?
Owned at low levels.
Takes on properties of
Earned at higher levels
through dogpiles.

21. What is SEO?
Both Owned and Earned. On-page is
Owned. Off-page is Earned.
PageRank takes both into effect, as
well as other factors like AuthorRank.

22. Digital Marketing’s problem
In other words, we are all part-raccoon.

24. So what is social media?
• Social Media can be:
– Bought media on
social networks
– Owned media on
social networks
– A unicorn shooting
rainbows out of its
eyes – a.k.a. Viral

25. A typical social media brief

26. The Misconception
• Social Networks do
make it easy for
people to share
content, and generate
earned media.
• Marketers have gotten
confused along the
way, and that this
means consumers
want to share brand
content.

27. The Truth
• However, consumers
dislike sharing
branded content.
• Sharing advertising
brand content makes
people look like the
marketing department
of a brand to their
friends.
• No one wants to look
like a sales person.

28. The Ugly Truth – Viral Campaign
Tactics
Viral tactics built into
digital campaigns are
nothing more than
forcing consumers to
prostitute themselves
for monetary gains.

29. The Ugly Truth – Forum Seeding
• Forum seeding is used to
create the illusion that
consumers are backing a
brand.
• Brands expect that forum
seeding will provide for
them the desired “viral
effect” holy grail.
• However, forum seeding
is nothing more than
forum SPAM.

30. How Forum Seeding works
Forum seeding agency
posts an innocent post on
an unsuspecting forum.
Conversation ensues!
Views and Comments are
generated.
KPIs for the forum seeding
are almost achieved.
Forum seeding agency
adds the brand and
product message to the
topic.
Forum admins notice that
a marketing agency is
taking advantage of its
community.
Flags/locks/deletes the
topic.
However, the forum
seeding agency has taken
a screenshot of the topic
to prove to clients that job
is already done.

31. Some more Ugly Truth about Forum
Seeding
Forums and agencies
are engaged in a
merciless war where
brands are the victims.

32. Some more Ugly Truth about Forum
Seeding
KPIs are shockingly low.

33. Some more Ugly Truth about Forum
Seeding
• And even when KPIs
are met, brand
exposure is a small
portion of that.
• The message is lost
in all the random
noise used to
camouflage the topic
from the admins.

34. There is a time and a place for forum
seeding though.

35. Though that is a topic for another
session.

36. CASE STUDIES

37. Tampons – Two ways to look at them

38. BODYFORM COMPLAINT

39. The Issue

40. Bodyform TVC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qu9U-0v3ns

41. The Bodyform Response
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpy75q2DDow

42. The Complaint

43. Bodyform Facebook page

44. The Response

45. Is it Real?
• Why would a man post on the Bodyform
Facebook page?
• How did the complaint reach 98,000 likes?
• How did Bodyform turn a response around in
one week?

46. OB TAMPONS TRIPLE APOLOGY

47. Overview
• For the last few years, the world has apparently
suffered a terrible shortage of o.b. tampons and
the discontinuation of the Ultra size.
• The Ultra was the largest size previously made
by o.b., which is a sub brand of Johnson &
Johnson.
• Bidding for Ultra o.b. tampons apparently went
up to $99 a box on ebay.com:
• They normally retail for less than $10 a box in
Canada.

48. The Complaint Site

49. The Solution
• Challenge: OB Tampon was in a tough spot.
When they stopped making OB Ultras, there
customers got very angry. So they decided to
say that they were very very sorry.
• Solution: OB Tampon bet that most women
would love to have a gorgeous man to
serenade them. Not to mention having their
name written across the sky, on a tatto and in
rose petals.

50. Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Wl47n6Nqo

51. WHY DOES IT WORK?

52. It’s Funny.

53. It’s Still an Apology.
It acknowledges the problem, but keeps the apology — not
excuse making — front and center. The whys don’t matter
now. Fixing the problem does.

54. Social Sharing ONLY
• It highlights social sharing.
• There appears is no link to the video apology
on the main site.
• The Facebook and Twitter links in the bottom
right are share options, not redirects to other
pages.
• This design implies the campaign will live on
social sharing and media mentions alone.

55. Customizable at five points
• It is customizable at five different points in the video,
which is more expensive to do than one shoutout in
the beginning.
• This effort adds weight to the message — we, o.b.,
apologize to YOU, the consumer:
– Girl, we are so sorry we hired a plane to write your name
in pixels on this screen.
– We are so sorry, we rented a hot air balloon with your
name on it.
– Nothing says sorry like a personalized tattoo
– We are so sorry, we sacrificed 50 roses.
• This song is for you, random customer.

56. Coupon at the End
• It ends with a $2.00 off coupon, giving some
financial teeth to the apology.

57. Thank You.
Chris.Tran@daybreak.am