Socialising Media: How To Activate Social

14. 432,000average readers 410,000 average readers 94,822 average readers 426,000 average readers 992,000 average readers 1.83m Active Users 63.9% visit daily 785,000 average viewers 218,000 average listeners 619,000 average viewers

15. TECHNOLOGY BECOMES MORE USABLE

16. How?

17. A ims udience pproach nalyse Process

18. Aims Leeroy09481 on flickr

19. Jeff Milner on flickr

20. Audience victoriapeckham on flickr

21. Approach On1stsite on flickr

22.

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25. Analyse

26. Analyse Seek The Journey Share Involve Act

27. Analyse

28. CONCLUSION SOCIAL IS THE NEW MAINSTREAM USC NOT UGC MAKE IT EASY FOR CONSUMERS TO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE PICK THE TOOL FOR THE JOB, NOT THE JOB FOR THE TOOL HAVE FUN!

29. CIARAN.NORRIS@MINDSHAREWORLD.COM PSD on flickr

Editor's Notes

Today we’re going to look at the recent changes in how consumers interact with media to argue that it is no longer a case of asking how we can use social media for our brands, but instead how we can make all of our brands’ media social.
We’ll start by putting the recent developments into context, looking not just at statistics but also examining what those statistics means – we’ll look at changes & developments in consumer behaviours as well as in the technologies & platforms they’re using.Then we’ll provide a framework for putting social media into practice as too often people start with ‘a platform, and then ask what they can do there, rather than asking what is the right platform for them to be using, and in what wayFinally we’ll look at some examples of how brands are using social marketing, with examples of the good, the bad and the ugly.
So, to start – why should we be looking at social marketing? Why are we all here today?
Now let’s look at how consumers are interacting with social media. Several years ago Forrester devised this methodology for explaining how consumers engage with social media. At the top of the ladder you have the most engaged; those who create blog posts, or upload videos to YouTube or images to flickr. Whilst there is no charge for most of these activities, they demand some level of technological ability and a willingness to take the time to do them.As you come down the ladder you find larger audiences, if less engaged. This model has worked very well and is one that many still use....(IMAGES – SOMETHING SIMILAR, MAYBE JUST WITH BETTER MARKING FOR THE ARROWS, I.E. NOT DONE USING WORD)
Users creating content, don’t distribute itIf we look at what happened in 2005, during the London bombings, we notice some interesting things.Due to the fact that the bombings took place in underground tunnels the mainstream media were ‘trapped’ above ground – they couldn’t get to the story. And so you had images like this, taken by someone trapped in a tunnel, using his mobile phone, that became the defining ones of the event,But if you look at this picture what’s interesting is that the quality’s so bad (because camera phones weren’t very good in 2005) and also that the only reason that most of us saw this is that when he got above ground he emailed it to the BBC – he was able to create the content but didn’t yet have the ability to distribute it.
iPhones change behaviourIf we jump forward a couple of years to the release of the iPhone we start to see technology changing behaviour.Because whereas with a basic mobile with web access, only 5-10% of people would use it to access the web; and around 50-60% of people with ‘smart phones’ would use it for web access; almost 90% of iPhone users access the web on their mobile.Partly this is because of the flat-rate data bundles, where users don’t have to pay for every piece of data downloaded, but also the UI is so much more intuitive and easy to use; so much more enjoyable.So what this means is that because of improved technology you now have millions of people walking round who can & do access the web at any time. And when you tie this with new services like Twitter, where all you have to do to become a ‘creator’ is send an SMS, the impact can be huge...
For example when the plane famously crashed into a river in New York. The guy going past didn’t have to take a (bad) photo on his phone and then get home to blog about it or email it to the BBC; within 3 clicks it was on Twitter and then, because of the network effect, it was a mass phenomenon.
Which means that the ladder is now on its side – there is nothing to stop consumers becoming creators; the technology is commonplace, of high quality and the effor involved is minimal.
In 2010Google is bringing it all togetherBut now that Google is bringing ‘real-time’ results into its index, and because most people still start online with search, this means that what is, to all intents & purposes, your brand’s homepage, could contain content & comment from consumer creators.So at the very least, as you consider this new challenge, think about the fact that unless you are monitoring/listening to what people are saying about your brand, then there is very little you can do to respond/stave off criticism...
In 2010Google is bringing it all togetherBut now that Google is bringing ‘real-time’ results into its index, and because most people still start online with search, this means that what is, to all intents & purposes, your brand’s homepage, could contain content & comment from consumer creators.So at the very least, as you consider this new challenge, think about the fact that unless you are monitoring/listening to what people are saying about your brand, then there is very little you can do to respond/stave off criticism...
So, to start – why should we be looking at social marketing? Why are we all here today?
Having said that, just because consumers can create content whenever they want, doesn’t mean that they will or that others will necessarily take notice of it. For if you examine the 25 most popular videos in the history of the web, 80% of them were professionally produced, even some of those deemed by others to be UGC.
User content can speed up spread of mainstream newsThe speed at which this went from a tweet about a national issue to a mainstream international news story is fascinating. People listening to the interview suggested (mostly via Twitter) that Mr Cowan seemed under the weather and possible reasons for this. Journalists then questioned the Taoiseach about it who was apparently completely taken by surprise by the growing controversy.The end results were;1,738 mentions of Mr Cowen in social media sources on the day;Twitter was the most popular social media platform with over 1,600 Tweets published;Simon Coveney’s initial Tweet was ReTweeted (republished word for word) by over 66 other Twitter accounts. Mr Coveney was not the first person to suggest Mr Cowen was drunk or hungover during his interview but his was the most quoted.
Many people have often argued against investing in social marketing by saying that it’s some sort of niche, only of interest to kids or Californian geeks. However, as this chart shows, in the UK (and many markets) Facebook is now one of the largest individual media brands, with a larger & more engaged daily audience than the largest tabloid paper, commercial radio show, men’s magazine, broadsheet or soap-opera – only X Factor can boast an audience that exceeds itsThis isn’t a niche, this is the mainstream but of course it’s also a new mainstream, which doesn’t actually make any content, merely acts as a platform for others to share & discuss this content..
Technology Reduces Barriers To Older UsersAnd such opportunities are only likely to increase as what were once barriers to different audiences are removed.For example, in the past new forms of tech often excluded older audiences – the remote controls were too complicated for parents who relied on their children to programme the video.However, what you now see, with technology such as the iPhone/iPad or the forthcoming Project Natal, are devices to designed to be open to all – usable with just a touch of a finger wave of a hand or the utterance of a word.As technology becomes more usable, and media more social, so all of these things will continue to grow & change exponentially.
Now we’ll look at how you go about planning social marketing activity.
The problem with much social activity is that it is approached in the wrong manner – rather than in a logical, process driven way it’s simply a case of people putting a vide on YouTube because they think that’s what you do.Here though we have a simple & sensible way to approach social marketing so as to ensure it has the best possible chance of success.
Next think about your aims – there are plenty of things you can use social marketing for, from dealing with customer service issues to gaining links for SEO; from driving sales to listening for potential reputation issues.But unless you know exactly what it is that you hope to do you won’t know what success looks like and you won’t be able to measure it. And unless you do that, you won’t be able to test, evaluate and improve your activity.
Next think about your aims – there are plenty of things you can use social marketing for, from dealing with customer service issues to gaining links for SEO; from driving sales to listening for potential reputation issues.But unless you know exactly what it is that you hope to do you won’t know what success looks like and you won’t be able to measure it. And unless you do that, you won’t be able to test, evaluate and improve your activity.
Firstly you think of your audience: not just who are they and what are they interested in, but how do they approach social media? Whilst Forrester’s methodology may not be perfect it has its uses, and one of them is in enabling you to think about how people use social.If you’re looking to target 50YO women, is it likely that they will create a video and upload it? No, but they might enjoy looking at and commenting on videos. You need to think about this as you plan your creative strategy & tactical executions, as well as where you might your activity to take place.
Next you need to think about your approach to entering a dialogue which is what your brand is about to do.Not only do you need to think about the practical issues of whether you have the staff to respond to comments/tweets/updates/etc... But also whether your activity has been undertaken and planned in such a way so as to minimise the potential for reputation issues.Too many people assume that when they get involved in social marketing consumers will cheer everything that they do; but in fact you need to plan how you can ensure that your interests and your consumers align – in other words, how you can make it worth your consumers time to do something in your interest. This is what is known as a choice architecture.Let’s use some examples to show what we mean
Creating and maximising quality Owned assets is key for us going forward.We need to continue with this shift from Paid into Owned and Earned media.Syndication also continues to be of upmost importance to take these Owned assets out to where he is already digitally – youtube, flikr, mobile. This also helps improve our SEO.
When Skittles turned their homepage into a live Twitter-feed of anything posted on Twitter that mentioned Skittles, they thought that people would just post nice things – but there was no real reason for most people to do so. But, if posting something rude or offensive, you could show that to your friends and get a cheap laugh
If we look at Walkers’ Choose A Flavour campaign we might expect to see they same thing; people submitting flavours that have no chance of making a serious product/. But through very simple incentives (1% of profits to the creator of the winning flavour) they were able to run a very successful campaign.
If we look at Walkers’ Choose A Flavour campaign we might expect to see they same thing; people submitting flavours that have no chance of making a serious product/. But through very simple incentives (1% of profits to the creator of the winning flavour) they were able to run a very successful campaign.
If we look at Walkers’ Choose A Flavour campaign we might expect to see they same thing; people submitting flavours that have no chance of making a serious product/. But through very simple incentives (1% of profits to the creator of the winning flavour) they were able to run a very successful campaign.
If we look at Walkers’ Choose A Flavour campaign we might expect to see they same thing; people submitting flavours that have no chance of making a serious product/. But through very simple incentives (1% of profits to the creator of the winning flavour) they were able to run a very successful campaign.

Socialising Media: How To Activate Social

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Socialising Media: How To Activate Social

Editor's Notes