Rust-Oleum: Striving for Success through Social Media | IMC 641

Kaitlyn Reeves
July 22, 2013
IMC 641 | Social Media & Marketing

RUST-OLEUM | SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING PLAN, 2013 2

Table of Contents

Opportunity ......................................................................... 3
Audience ............................................................................. 7
Objectives ......................................................................... 12
Channels ........................................................................... 13
Strategy & Tactics ............................................................. 18
Measurement .................................................................... 25
References ........................................................................ 34


Opportunity
Why does Rust-Oleum need a social media makeover?
With the explosion of Pinterest and do-it-yourself (DIY) projects and
crafts, a strong social media presence for brands such as Rust-Oleum is
imperative. Traditional advertising on television and in magazines is missing a
large portion of current and potential users who spend a majority of their time on
social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and
YouTube.
Sherwin-Williams is a major competitor of Rust-Oleum and has a much
stronger social presence. Sherwin-Williams uses various channels (Facebook,
Twitter, Pinterest) to promote its products, inform consumers of current sales
promotions, and engage with followers through sweepstakes. Rust-Oleum uses
social media, but not as effectively as its competitor. Rust-Oleum should be
seen as a high-quality paint brand with an extensive product offering various
types of products and not just a cheap can of spray paint that can prevent
outdoor furniture from rusting.


What is Rust-Oleum currently doing in social media?
As previously mentioned, Rust-Oleum does currently utilize a variety of social
networks. They are active on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and even Instagram.
The problem is that Rust-Oleum is merely “present” on these sites and not
effectively engaging their followers.
Rust-Oleum’s Facebook page (Rust-Oleum) has 10,152 “likes”, which is a
fraction of what competitor Sherwin-Williams has (160,006). Besides a lack of
followers, Rust-Oleum is also not very active when it comes to posting and
updating their page. So far for the month of May, Rust-Oleum only has a total of
four original posts, and five shares of others’ photos and links. That’s a total of
nine posts for the entire month of May – not very engaging for site like Facebook
with so many users. The posts on Rust-Oleum’s page have very few shares,
likes, and comments. Another important aspect of social media is visibility and
sharing, and this is an area that Rust-Oleum needs to work on with their
Facebook page.
On Twitter, Rust-Oleum (@RustOleum) has an even smaller following than
their Facebook page, coming in at 1,857 followers. According to Statistic Brain,
as of May 7, 2013, there were a total of 554,750,000 active registered users on
Twitter, with 135,000 new users per day (n.d.). Rust-Oleum is missing out on a
lot of impressions, and this probably has to do with the lack of activity on their
Twitter feed. Similar to Facebook, Rust-Oleum has tweeted very little. Rust-


Oleum has one original tweet for the entire month of May, which was tweeted on
May 24. Rust-Oleum does try to engage with its followers by replying to others’
tweets and retweeting other updates as well. Including original tweets,
mentions, replies, and retweets, Rust-Oleum has a total of 15 posts on Twitter
for the month of May – that’s about one post every other day, which would be
okay if these posts were more than just mere retweets and mentions. On a more
positive note, Rust-Oleum does attempt to answer customer questions and
address their complaints on Twitter, but they could be doing more. For example,
on May 17, Rust-Oleum attempted to address and resolve an issue a consumer
had while using Rust-Oleum’s Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover 2x spray paint. Rust-
Oleum responded to the tweet by urging the customer to call the customer
service number. While this is a step in the right direction, Rust-Oleum could use
a better plan to deal with complaints via social media rather than referring the
customer to call the customer service phone number. The customer has already
been inconvenienced by the product and reached out via Twitter, so he or she
might not be willing to spend more time speaking to a customer service
representative over the phone.
Rust-Oleum (Rust-Oleum U.S.) also uses Pinterest, which is a great
opportunity for the brand because of the large number of do-it-yourself (DIY)
and craft projects being pinned and re-pinned. Right now, Rust-Oleum has
2,168 followers, 325 pins, and 35 likes on its Pinterest profile. Of their 16
boards, they feature various paint projects for different rooms in the home,
including the garage; craft projects; holiday projects; how-to photos; how-to


videos; automotive paint projects; and products. The board featuring Rust-
Oleum’s products only features one pin for their Ultimate Wood Stain. It would
be beneficial for Rust-Oleum to update this board to include their other products
so followers know what Rust-Oleum has to offer and what projects can be
accomplished using their products (kitchen countertop and cabinet
transformations come to mind).
Next, there’s Instagram. Rust-Oleum (@rustoleumusa) has only 313
followers and 18 photos. These numbers are very low. The most recently added
photo from Rust-Oleum was from three weeks ago. A few of the photos are of
objects painted with Rust-Oleum products and a couple are of people actually
using the product, but most of the photos are from the Country Living Fairs
Rust-Oleum has attended. Most of Rust-Oleum’s photos have very few likes and
comments – the highest number of likes is only 16 and the most comments on
one photo is seven (one of which happens to be someone recommending
another brand of paint).
It is impossible to engage and communicate with followers if Rust-Oleum
isn’t frequently posting, updating, and maintaining its profiles. Simply having a
profile on a social media site isn’t enough – for social media to work as
powerfully as it does, it has to be maintained.


Audience
Who are we talking to?
For Rust-Oleumʼs social media efforts, I chose to focus on white females
in the age range of 25 to 34. These females are likely married with young
children and, besides being mothers, also work full-time. These females are both
homeowners and renters and can be considered middle-class with a household
income of $45,000 to $75,000 annually. These women live in both city suburbs
and more rural areas.
How involved with social media is the target audience?
According to the social technographics tool available online through
Forrester, females in the United States between the ages of 25 to 34 are
primarily Joiners and Spectators. For the chosen demographic, 74% of all 25 to
34 year old females are Joiners and 78% are Spectators. These two groups,
along with five other groups, classify consumers by the level of social
participation (“Social Technographics,” 2012). Joiners tend to use social media
networks like Facebook and MySpace to connect with others; they maintain their
social media profiles and visit social networking sites (Bernoff & Anderson,
2010). Spectators are those who read blogs, online forums, customer ratings and
reviews, and tweets. Spectators also listen to podcasts and watch videos posted
by other users (Bernoff & Anderson, 2010). If someone within the Spectator


category were doing research before making a purchase, he or she would most
likely go online to do the majority of their research. The social technographics
tool did not specify the percentage of females aged 25 to 34 who are
Conversationalists, but I would consider the majority of the target audience to fall
in this category as well. Conversationalists are those who update their statuses
and post tweets on social networking sites at least once per week (Bernoff &
Anderson, 2010).
Females in the age range of 25 to 34 are much more likely to be Joiners
(Index = 145) and Creators (Index = 129) as compared to the population
average. These same females are slightly more likely to fall into the other
categories, as compared to the population average: Critics (Index = 116);
Collectors (Index = 114); and Spectators (Index = 107) (“Social Technographics,”
2012).


Considering this data, a social media plan with more involvement and
interaction on the part of Rust-Oleum will reach this target audience effectively
because these women already spend a good portion of their time online and are
involved in social media already.
What tools and technologies are being used?
An infographic posted in an article by Adam Popescu on Mashable.com in
April 2013 breaks down which social networking sites are most appealing to
specific demographics:
- Pinterest: Rural residents, women, whites, some level of college
education or higher, middle to higher income.
- Facebook: Women, 18 to 29 year olds.
- Instagram: African-Americans, Hispanics, urban residents, 18 to 29
year olds, women.
- Twitter: 18 to 29 year olds, African-Americans, urban residents.
Based on this information, it would seem that the best ways to reach the
whole of the target audience of 25 to 34 year old women are through Facebook,
Pinterest, and Instagram. Twitter could be useful to reach those younger women
between the ages 25 to 29.
Pinterest and Facebook hold the most potential to appeal to the target
audience, not only because these are the most appealing social network sites,
but because Rust-Oleum can capitalize on the sharing nature of these two sites.


Pinterest is an online pinboard where users can “pin” or save links to
content that interest them in order to be easily retrieved at a later time. Pins
range from Animals to Fashion to Food and Drink, and many more, including DIY
& Crafts and Home Décor, which would be ideal places for Rust-Oleumʼs content
to appear considering all the uses for Rust-Oleum products.
According to an article on SearchEngineWatch.com, Pinterest alone has
over 27 million active users and offers analytics to companies using business
accounts. The following information can be collected and customized by date
range: Pins, Pinners, Repins, Repinners, Impressions, Reach, Clicks, Visitors,
Most Recent Pins, Most Repinned, and Most Clicked (De Vivo, 2013).
Facebook is the worldʼs largest social network, with more than 1 billion
active users per month. More than half of all users log in every day and users
spend an average of 19 minutes on Facebook per day. Facebook is the top
photo-sharing site with 250 million photos being added each day (“Facebook,”
2013). There are a variety of third-party analytic tools for Facebook, as well as
analytics provided by Facebook itself. Facebook offers the following metrics to
measure the overall performance of a businessʼs Page: Total Likes, Friends of
Fans, Talking About This, and Total Reach (“Getting Started,” 2013). Facebookʼs
Page Insights also provides demographic data (gender and age, countries, cities,
and language) based on the Likes a businessʼs page receives (“Likes,” 2013).
Each of the four aforementioned sites (Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter) provide unique ways for Rust-Oleum to engage with its target


audience and grow its social media presence overall. The availability of various
analytics through these sites provides Rust-Oleum an easy and accurate way to
measure the effectiveness of its new social media approach.


Objectives
What do we want to accomplish?
 Gain 2,000 followers on Twitter over the course of eight (8) weeks.
 Increase number of shares and comments on Facebook by five (5) per
post in 12 weeks.
 Increase the number of photos shared on Instagram to one (1) per
week, with posting starting within the next four (4) weeks.


Channels
How are we going to reach our audience?
Twitter
Twitter is a solid choice for Rust-Oleumʼs current marketing efforts.
While it may not be the top social media network for the target
audience, it is one of the top three used. Among all Internet users, 16 percent
use Twitter, and 15 percent of those users are women (Bennett, 2013).
Twitter is a great place to promote a brand. Tweets are limited to 140
characters, but URL shorteners are useful for conserving character space.
Brands can link to a wide variety of content – photos, videos, and websites –
using Twitter, making it an ideal choice for Rust-Oleum to integrate its other
channels, including its website.
Twitter also offers a variety of ways to incorporate the brandʼs profile into
its website. Rust-Oleum can have a Twitter button on its homepage to promote
follows. Rust-Oleumʼs website features projects and tips, and Twitter actually
offers a retweet button to add to these posts, making it really easy for a reader to
retweet an article from Rust-Oleumʼs website and post it to the readerʼs Twitter
profile (Hines, 2013).
Pros:
-‐ Effectively reaches the target audience
-‐ Easily incorporated into Rust-Oleumʼs website


-‐ Link to a variety of content; means no limits on what can be posted
Cons:
-‐ 140 character limit can make it hard to create a headline to grab
attention
-‐ Facebook and Pinterest are more popular
-‐ Content isnʼt guaranteed to be shared or retweeted
Instagram
One of the objectives of Rust-Oleum’s social media marketing plan
is to increase the numbers of photos posted on Instagram.
Instagram is primarily appealing to women and those ages 18 – 29, which
covers part of the target audience. A better presence on Instagram will also help
increase engagement with customers.
Instagram provides the opportunity to not only create original content for
posting, but the chance to share customers’ content, too. If someone uploads a
photo of a finished DIY project they completed using a Rust-Oleum product,
Rust-Oleum can ask to share that photo and engage and build trust with
followers.
Pros:
- Reaches a good portion of the target audience
- Platform to post original content to drive engagement
- Ability to monitor hashtags and communicate with customers tagging
the brand/products


- Now available on the web (previously only available on mobile
devices), making it more accessible
Cons:
- No option to link to website
- Re-posting is not simple; requires a screenshot of others’ content.
- Can only view content, not upload new content via web.
Facebook
Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform, largely used
by women and 18 – 29 year olds (Popescu, 2013). One of the
objectives selected for Rust-Oleum was increasing the number of shares and
comments on Facebook. In order to do this, Rust-Oleum must utilize Facebook
to engage its followers by posting relevant and new content. Currently, Rust-
Oleum shares photos from other Facebook profiles more so than creating their
own unique content. Rust-Oleum can focus its efforts more on featuring a
product and linking it to a how-to video (perhaps from their YouTube channel).
This will help integrate Rust-Oleum’s marketing efforts.
Pros:
- Reaches a large portion of the target audience
- Ability to share others’ content, which helps engage followers and
build trust
- Ability to share almost anything: photos, links, videos, etc.


Cons:
- Risk of being repetitive with content and losing followers
- Requires a lot of time to manage content and communicate with fans
- Risk losing followers if content is not relevant or valuable
What are our competitors doing?
Sherwin Williams and Instagram
One of Rust-Oleum’s competitors is Sherwin Williams, the United States’
largest producer of paint and coatings (“History,” 2013). They offer a variety of
paints and coatings for multiple surfaces, as does Rust-Oleum. However,
Sherwin-Williams is much more popular and present on social media channels.
Sherwin Williams is quite active on Instagram with over 800 followers
compared to Rust-Oleum’s 360 followers. One of the main reasons Sherwin
Williams is more successful on Instagram is simply the frequency of their posts.
Sherwin Williams posts much more frequently (almost every day) and it’s
important to note their posts are photos of things (objects, nature, scenery,
animals, etc.) that make the world more colorful and inspire the brand. This
unique content is more appealing than just photos of their products and gives a
personality to the brand.


Sherwin Williams uses Instagram for contests too, which further engages
the customer. They also use hashtags, but not too many that they appear
desperate for followers.
In comparison, Rust-Oleum rarely posts new photos, the most current
being from seven weeks ago. Rust-Oleum does attempt to use hashtags,
although not effectively – the hashtag #spraypaint is probably not needed for a
picture of cans of spray paint. Rust-Oleum has not attempted any contests on
Instagram and doesn’t give its followers a reason to stay engaged. If one were
to follow both Sherwin Williams and Rust-Oleum on Instagram, Rust-Oleum
would easily be forgotten because Sherwin Williams posts more frequently and
maintains awareness among followers.
Rust-Oleum has the ability to be as successful or more successful than
its competitors, but their efforts in social media need to increase significantly.
Rust-Oleum needs to spend more time monitoring and updating their social
media channels in order to better communicate and engage customers.


Strategy & Tactics
How are we going to achieve our objectives?
“Before and After” Photo Contest
Part of Rust-Oleum’s social
media plan is to increase the number
of photo shares on Instagram. To
achieve this objective, Rust-Oleum
will be holding “Before and After”
photo contests via Instagram.
Rust-Oleum will use other
channels, such as Facebook and
Twitter, to help promote the contest
and drive the target audience to Rust-
Oleum’s Instagram page.
Rust-Oleum is focused on
home improvement and do-it-yourself
(DIY) projects. A great way to capitalize on this is to ask fans and followers to
share their photos of projects or crafts they’ve completed using Rust-Oleum
products.


To participate in the contest, Rust-Oleum’s Instagram followers must
upload a photo of an object they transformed using Rust-Oleum products. The
photo must show a “before” and “after” shot of the item that was transformed.
Followers should also tag Rust-Oleum in their photos. Tagging Rust-Oleum will
increase impressions because followers of Rust-Oleum’s followers will become
aware of Rust-Oleum’s presence on Instagram and be able to easily find the
profile and follow Rust-Oleum. Hashtags are also very popular on Instagram, so
the hashtag #beforeandafter will be required to be used with the uploaded photo
for consideration in the contest.
After a period of two weeks, the photo with the most likes will be the
winner of the contest. The winner of the contest will be awarded a $100 gift card
to Home Depot, to help with other home improvements.
A contest like this is very well suited for a channel such as Instagram,
simply because it is a very social and very popular photo-sharing site. Asking
followers to “like” a photo to vote for it is easy and doesn’t require a lot of effort,
but still creates an impression. By using other channels, like Facebook and
Twitter, to promote the contest, Rust-Oleum is better integrating its efforts
across multiple platforms. Also, followers on Facebook and Twitter will then be
made aware of Rust-Oleum’s presence on Instagram, and lead to more
followers.


“Monday Makeover” weekly photo post
Rust-Oleum currently has a presence on Facebook, but is desperately in
need of a makeover. Posts and updates are very infrequent and there is a lack
of engagement with fans. To combat this issue, Rust-Oleum’s objective is to
increase shares and comments on their Facebook profile. In order to do this,
Rust-Oleum must provide more content for fans to share and comment on.
Each Monday, Rust-Oleum will be uploading a photo of an item that is in
need of a makeover. The item can be anything, such as an old patio set found at
a flea market or yard sale. Each week, when Rust-Oleum uploads a photo of an
object that needs transformed, Rust-Oleum will ask its fans which product/color
from Rust-Oleum’s line of products would they use to transform the object?
Rust-Oleum will monitor comments and use the suggestions to makeover the
item, and post a follow-up “after” photo by the next week.
By posting
photos of
random
objects and
asking for
input on how
to make them
over, this will
engage fans and increase the number of comments per post. The finished


“after” photos will depict the possibilities that can happen by using Rust-Oleum
products. The “after” photos can be easily shared by Rust-Oleum’s followers,
therefore helping meet the objective of increasing shares.
Currently, Rust-Oleum’s Facebook profile seems to speak at consumers
rather than encourage two-way conversation. The “Monday Makeover” idea will
increase the frequency of posts and engage feedback from followers. Followers
feel more connected with a brand when they can provide their input.
“Weekend DIY Challenge”
Rust-Oleum is active on Twitter, however most of their activity stems
from retweets and replies. There is very little original content posted by Rust-
Oleum. In order to change this, Rust-Oleum will engage its followers by posting
a “Weekend DIY Challenge” each Friday.
Because Rust-Oleum’s focus is on DIY and home improvements,
providing a weekly weekend project for followers to do will help increase
engagement among followers, and will gain new followers as well. Those looking
for easy projects to do in a day or two can follow Rust-Oleum on Twitter for new
projects every week.
Each Friday, Rust-Oleum will post its Weekend DIY Project in the form of
a link to a website (either RustOleum.com or Rust-Oleum’s Pinterest or YouTube


pages or even an outside source) that provides instructions and supplies
needed to complete the project.
The tweet might look something like this:
Rust-Oleum will also post a follow-up tweet encouraging followers to
upload their photos of their completed DIY Challenge and use the hashtags
#rustoleum #challengeaccepted and #weekendDIYchallenge.
Using Twitter for this specific challenge or topic is beneficial because
Rust-Oleum is able to link to its other social media profiles or its website easily.
By using hashtags, Rust-Oleum will be able to monitor the feedback it gains
from this DIY challenge.
Weekly Q&A session with Rust-Oleum product experts
Another use for Rust-Oleum’s Twitter profile is to engage followers by
opening up a chat session each week covering a variety of Rust-Oleum


products. These chat sessions will be presented by a Rust-Oleum product
expert who will be available to quickly answer any questions followers have
about a certain product and also to provide tips and tricks for using the product.
In order to engage followers during the week, Rust-Oleum will host a
weekly Question and Answer (Q&A) session on Tuesdays, to help provide
answers and helpful hints about its products. The Q&A sessions will be limited
to one hour each and as many questions will be answered in the timeframe as
possible. To participate, followers just need to tweet their questions to
@RustOleum and use the hashtag #Q&A. Prior to the Q&A session, Rust-Oleum
will tweet updates to remind followers that it is almost time for the weekly Q&A
session and let their followers know which product/topic Rust-Oleum will be
covering this week.
The goal of the weekly Q&A sessions is not only to engage followers, but
also to increase the number of followers. Followers of the followers who are
tweeting to Rust-Oleum during the weekly chat session will see what questions
are being asked and can go to Rust-Oleum’s profile to find the answers and
follow them so they won’t miss out on future chat sessions.
Twitter is the perfect tool for a timed Q&A session because tweets are
limited to 140 characters, and the answers will have to be simple to understand
because of the character restriction. If a longer explanation is needed, then the
host of the Q&A session can provide a link to more information.


The use of Twitter for a chat session will expand on the customer service
aspect that Rust-Oleum already uses on its profile. It is more of a proactive
approach rather than the reactive one Rust-Oleum is currently using. Right now,
if someone tweets a complaint about a product or has a question, Rust-Oleum
is responding with the answer or providing a toll-free number for the person to
call. The weekly Q&A session will be a way to provide answers up front and
possibly eliminate misuse of the product, which could lead to a complaint. Of
course, Rust-Oleum will still continue to respond to questions and complaints
outside of the chat session timeframe.


Measurement
Did we meet our objectives? How successful were we?
Quantitative measurement:
1. Number of Twitter followers
One objective of Rust-Oleumʼs social media plan is to increase
followers on Twitter, specifically
by 2,000 followers in an eight-
week time span. In order to
determine the outcome of this
objective, a tool such as
HootSuite can be used.
HootSuite provides a variety of analytics to measure effectiveness
of a social media campaign. The Twitter Profile Overview tool, found in
HootSuiteʼs dashboard, generates a report that includes a variety of data
based on a specific Twitter profile. The total number of followers and
follower growth are important metrics to measure the effectiveness of
Rust-Oleumʼs objective to increase followers. The report can be tailored to
include specific dates, which can be helpful in gauging progress during the
eight-week time frame set forth in the objective.


Using this tool, or a similar tool, Rust-Oleum should be evaluating
the progress of the plan by frequently checking the number of total
followers the brand has, and determining their follower growth on a weekly
basis. By tracking the progress, Rust-Oleum will know if itʼs on its way to
meeting its objective in the pre-determined time frame and whether the
tactics being used are effective in achieving an increase in number of
followers.
2. Number of photos posted/Post history
In order to increase its presence and engagement on Instagram,
Rust-Oleum is tasked with increasing the number of photos shared. Rust-
Oleumʼs objective is to increase the number of photos posted by one
photo per week, beginning no later than four weeks from the start of the
campaign.
This is an easy metric to evaluate, especially with the tools
available. One such tool, Statigram (statigr.am), is specifically designed for
use with Instagram and allows the user to promote, manage, analyze, and
engage with followers more effectively based on the statistics generated


by linking the userʼs Instagram profile with Statigram (Statigram, 2013).
Statigram provides the user with the total number of photos
uploaded and the number of photos posted in a rolling 30-day period,
dividing it by month, if necessary. Statigram can also help the user
determine what day, and even what time of day, is the best time to post
photos based on post history (the days and times photos are posted are
cross-referenced with the number of likes/comments each photo receives).


Itʼs not only important for Rust-Oleum to post new content more
frequently, but also to post at times when followers and fans are most
likely to engage with the content.
Statigram updates information every 24 hours for a rolling 30-day
period. Rust-Oleum can check its Instagram stats each day or week to
make sure it is on track to meet its objective of increasing photo posts.
Qualitative measurement:
1. Engagement rate
An objective proposed by Rust-Oleumʼs social media plan is to
increase the number of shares and comments on Facebook by five per
post in 12 weeks.
While looking at a quantitative figure of how many comments or
shares each post receives is an easy measurement of this objective, it is
more important to evaluate the engagement rate. The outcome of
measuring a postʼs engagement ranking can be positive or negative. Rust-
Oleum can use the knowledge from a postʼs engagement rate to
determine whether they are posting quality content, which content is most
engaging (content with the most likes, shares, or comments), and how to
continue to tailor content to its audience in order to meet the objective. Itʼs
not enough for Rust-Oleum to post any content and hope fans will engage,
but rather to post quality content that provides value. Quality content will


lead to more shares and comments, thus allowing Rust-Oleum to meet its
goal.
EdgeRank is an algorithm that measures the importance and value
of each “edge” – defined as any action that happens on Facebook, such
as status updates, comments, likes, and shares – posted on Facebook.
EdgeRank makes its evaluations based upon affinity (the one-way
relationship between a user and an edge), weight (certain actions are
deemed more valuable than others; i.e., commenting carries more weight
than a like), and time decay (how long the post or edge has been online).
Edge value is classified as low, medium, or high. (EdgeRank, 2013).
By using a tool such as EdgeRank, Rust-Oleum can evaluate the
value of its posts and determine what works and what doesnʼt. Obviously,
it will be more beneficial for Rust-Oleum to post more content that has a


high edge value as opposed to invaluable posts that wonʼt generate
shares and comments needed to achieve the objective.
2. Sentiment on Twitter
It is also important to post quality content on Twitter, not just
Facebook. As mentioned above, quality breeds quantity. In order to help
gain followers on Twitter, Rust-Oleum must post valuable content.
In attempt to measure
how followers and others feel
about Rust-Oleum as a brand,
Rust-Oleum can employ
another analytic from
HootSuite, known as Twitter
Sentiment. By measuring
sentiment on Twitter, Rust-
Oleum will know what type of
content is most valuable and
attractive to Twitter users, and
thus be able to generate more content to gain more followers.
Twitter Sentiment is a custom report that breaks data down into
specific sentiment groups. As opposed to other sentiment analysis tools
(like SocialMention) that merely break information into positive, neutral, or


negative, HootSuite defines its sentiment groups as: Affection
Friendliness, Enjoyment Elation, Amusement Excitement, Contentment
Gratitude, Sadness Grief, Anger Loathing, Fear Uneasiness, and
Humiliation Shame.
However, it may also be
beneficial to use a tool like
SocialMention.com to measure
sentiment in conjunction with HootSuite.
SocialMention searches multiple
platforms, not only Twitter, and provides
data such as how likely it is that the
brand is being discussed (strength), the
ratio of positive to negative mentions
(sentiment), the percentage of which
people discussing the brand will
continue to do so (passion), and range of influence expressed as a
percentage (reach). Sentiment is considered positive, neutral, or negative
and SocialMention displays Top Users – those who are mentioning the
brand the most – and various other information.
This type of information can be used to determine brand advocates,
who can influence their followers to also follow Rust-Oleum.
Return on Investment (ROI) measurement:


1. Socially-referred revenue
Socially-referred revenue is a metric used to measure ecommerce
revenue generated from social media. Revenue that could be generated
from Rust-Oleumʼs social media plan can be traced to Twitter and Rust-
Oleumʼs “Weekend DIY Challenge” and “Q-and-A session” tactics. The
Weekend DIY Challenges are designed to meet Rust-Oleumʼs objective of
increasing the number of Twitter followers and boosting engagement, and
link back to Rust-Oleumʼs website in order to find instructions for
completing the challenge. These challenges require the use of Rust-
Oleum products, so revenue can be generated in this way. The Q-and-A
session tweets can link back to Rust-Oleumʼs website in order to provide a
more in-depth answer. Once a user is on the website, he or she may make
a purchase.
It is only suggested to measure socially-referred revenue because
awareness created due to the various tactics used can lead to more sales.
Socially-referred revenue measurement is tied to the Twitter objective,
because the only tactics that directly link to Rust-Oleumʼs website are both
the Weekend DIY Challenge and the Q-and-A session.
While this is a metric that can be measured, it focuses on
ecommerce and doesnʼt incorporate revenue generated through in-store
purchases. A social media plan may improve sales, but it is hard to trace
the revenue increase back to a specific social media platform.


2. Media equivalent value
Media equivalent value is defined as “the monetary equivalent of
the impressions generated through social media that would have
traditionally been acquired through paid media” (Gold, 2012).
Measuring the media equivalent value is important in order to judge
the effectiveness of the “Monday Makeover” photo posts on Facebook and
the “Before and After” photo contest on Instagram. The purpose of these
photo posts and contests are to achieve the objectives, respectively, of
increasing shares and comments on Facebook and increasing photo posts
on Instagram. The posts on each social media site will also boost
impressions, website traffic, clicks, and engagement, so it is important to
know if these tactics are meeting the stated objectives for Facebook and
Instagram.
The results of measuring the media equivalent value will also inform
Rust-Oleum whether its money and efforts spilled into social media
marketing has a higher ROI than traditional marketing would.


References

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user-demographics_b38095
Bernoff, J. and Anderson, J. (2010 Aug 2). Social Technographics Defined.
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De Vivo, M. (2013 June 10). Pinterest analytics: the ultimate guide to tracking
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Tso, R. (12 June 2013). The Pinterest craze: Marketers, itʼs time to start pinning.
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STRIVING FOR SUCCESS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

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