5. Microblogging is a form of blogging with significant
limits on the length of posts, typically consisting of
short sentence and links, usually140 characters.
We will focus on Twitter as the primary application for
marketing via microblogging.
A related concept is MWOM (microblogging word of mouth)
which can accelerate WOM communications; this is known as
the Twitter effect.
Twitter’s stock price has fallen, but tweets will now be
available on Google search, which should boost the profile of
the platform.
6. A Brief History of Microblogging
Timeline
2005
2006
The ancestors of microblogs were “tumblelogs” containing stream of
consciousness posts in quick succession.
Twitter was launched and became a public sensation:
2011 – more than 200 million accounts
2013 - a billion accounts worldwide
2015 – 302 million active users
10. Building Your Brand Online
Can search users, posts and subjects and learn specific
topics, how frequently they are updated, how important
the topic is, what the audience is interested in.
Search to Gather Information
When beginning a SMM campaign, search Twitter for the
brand’s name, the competition and what is being said
about each.
Search is made easier by hashtags (#topic). Also, clicking
on topic will draw up other tweets with the same topic;
use hashtags when you tweet.
11. Building Your Brand Online
Know the Audience
Can search users, posts and subjects and learn specific
topics, how frequently they are updated, how important
the topic is, what the audience is interested in.
Twitter’s database of faces attached to personal interests,
provides an optimal arena to study and develop different
user personas.
Find one person whose profile exemplifies a certain
persona. Look at the list of similar people to follow; how
do their interests differ? Continue until another persona
emerges.
Note: the demographics of Twitter do not reflect those of
the general public.
12. Building Your Brand Online
Customize the Profile Page
A good profile page will help to develop a solid following,
provide views to the main site, and more interest in the
marketed product.
Best to use a face picture as the avatar, not a logo
The profile’s description should provide context and
important details, but must be concise.
A user will view the profile page of a tweeter to decide
whether or not to follow.
13. Building Your Brand Online
Tweet Content
Content should be “interesting, fun, and valuable.” Think
about the concerns, interests the target audience might
have, and address those first.
Keep a balance between different types of tweets, but do
not cover too many different topics in quick succession.
Look at the number of retweets to see if they care. You
can make use of the free analytics, to monitor your
tweets.
If an account does not provide appealing content, users
will ignore it.
15. Twitter is set up so that users only receive tweets
from people they are following.
If a profile has no followers, no one will see its tweets.
One strategy: follow others in the hope that they follow back (ex: follow
50,000, get 8,000 back.)
But new rules block users from following more than 2,000 profiles unless
they are followed by about 2,000.
Most of the users who follow back will be mass marketers and spammers,
and will not read the tweets.
16. Equal Ratio Strategy:
keep profile’s following and follower counts close to equal. But slow to get
off the ground. May take weeks or months to gather even a hundred
followers unless the brand is already well-known.
Targeted Follow Strategy:
search for & follow 50-150 profiles with similar interests and ideas or those
that already have members of the target audience following them.
17. Targeted Follow Strategy…(cont.)
To increase the chances of being followed back, consider sending a
mention (hashtag #NowFollowing or similar) to inform the person
about gaining a follower.
The Mention feature makes directed messages simple: a tweet with
“@[name]” will be viewable on the @Mention section of that person’s
home page, signaling that you are worth following back.
Strike up a dialogue when appropriate and begin developing
relationships.
18. Targeted Follow Strategy…(cont.)
In Twitter’s “suggested People” feature, users see lists of similar accounts and
suggested people to follow based on which profiles they view and follow, leading
to related profiles.
Stage 2: choosing which to follow back.
Early on, with less than 500-1,000 followers, follow back nearly everyone; later,
can be more selective.
Targeted following best for marketing objectives, but not the fastest way of
gaining Twitter followers.
19. The Purchase Option: Many services offer to provide
Twitter followers for a fee.
While tempting, it is not advisable.
Likely to be some combination of automated accounts, inactive accounts, and
accounts not in the target audience
Synergize with other media to draw existing
contacts into the Twitter following
Integrate Twitter with Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg
Provide a link from the company website or blog requesting viewer to follow on
Twitter.
20. Synergize with other media… (cont.)
The way websites tell users to follow on Twitter has a dramatic effect on the
clickthrough rate:
“I’m on Twitter” produces a click-through rate of 4.7%.
“Follow me on Twitter” increased resulted in 7.31%.
“You should follow me on Twitter: 10.09%
Providing a link in the phrase “You should follow me on Twitter here” yielded a
clickthrough rate of 12.81%.
Copy a variety of your tweets into a blog post.
Attach the Twitter handle to business cards, email signatures, etc.
21. Best Practices for Crafting
an Effective Twitter Channel
Self-Promote Cautiously
Focus on relationships first.
Respond to Questions
o Quickly respond to customers’ questions.
Gather Feedback
◦ Ask for opinions or product reviews directly.
5 Provide Unique Value
Choose Optimal Tweet Times
Post updates when followers are also updating
1 2
4
3
5
22. Marketing with Microblogging
Because of its versatility, Twitter can assist in
almost any marketing goal:
Increasing brand awareness
Connecting with customers
Providing support
Distributing information
Identify influential people with common
interests
Create valuable relationships
The principles learned here can be applied to
other microblogging platforms.
23. Best Practices:
Building a Personal Brand with Twitter
Lesson #1: Create a complete profile.
Lesson #2: Follow in your area.
Lesson #3: Create lists around your interests.
Lesson #4: Create a follow strategy.
Lesson #5: Post at least three times a day.
25. Creating a Content Strategy
Success requires a clear and meaningful content strategy,
based on the overall firm objectives and brand positioning.
Content marketing as a strategy has three major
components:
The creation of the content based upon target audiences and
personas.
The dissemination of the content through appropriate channels to
achieve marketing objectives.
The measurement of the success of the content through the
analysis of results
26. Creating a Content Strategy
The driving question is:
“What subject areas will interest members of the audience?”
More importantly (see Figure 7.1) how does the content
reinforce your brand image or brand story?
As the channels become more complex, it is important to
develop a powerful story that can be told across channels.
28. Creating a Content Strategy
Overcome the fear of being too specific.
The best strategy to building an audience is to be as niche and
specific as possible.
The future of publishing and content creation lies in serving
niche markets on a large scale.
Bloggers should consider specialized interests they might be
able to market toward, and develop content that will appeal
to such interests.
A few years ago, the mechanics of content marketing were
simple; now the challenge is to create good content across
multiple channels.
30. Creating a Content Strategy
FORMATSTRATEGY CONTENT
TYPE PLATFORM
CHECKLIST SHARING
TRIGGERS
GOALS METRICS
31. Creating a Content Strategy
◦ Strategy - strategy is key to any social media or content marketing effort. Strategy must be the key
in developing strong content.
◦ Format – a single piece of content can be deployed across many types. Email works well for
entrepreneurs and small businesses, white papers for B2B, and so on.
◦ Content type – Different types of content work well for different businesses. Quizzes work well
for B2C and testimonials for B2B.
◦ Platform – Content distribution platforms can be overpaid, earned, or owned media, that is, over
the company’s website, over a social network, or through an advertising platform.
◦ Metrics – metrics help the marketer understand who is reading the content, when, the reach of
the content, and other useful information.
◦ Goals – Content should support the business and brand strategy. If you want more people to view
your content, that objective is brand awareness. An engagement objective involves having people
interact with content on the web and create their own content around a brand.
◦ Sharing Triggers – What marketers do to encourage sharing; marketers use emotional and other
triggers to create responses in the audience (although consumers do not like it if they believe they
are obviously being manipulated). Funny and disgusting work as triggers for sharing videos.
◦ Checklist – Before deploying, use a checklist ensuring that content is optimized for search, to
support the firm’s goals, and other factors.
◦ 4.
32.
33. Blog History
Over 400 million people/month read blogs on WordPress alone; a huge
audience
Timeline
1994
1997
1999
2015
Justin Hall, student at Swarthmore College, began writing about video
games and consoles
The word weblog (combination of “web” and “log”) was created,
eventually shortened to blog. On the old DOS operating system for the PC,
the command .log would bring up a diary format, date and time stamped,
for recording thoughts and filing them
LiveJournal and Blogger were launched
34. What is a Blog?
Blog
A collection of the blogger’s personal thoughts
and ideas around a particular topic.
Naked Conversations lists blogging’s 6 pillars & defines
how blogs are different:
◦Publishable-cheap and easy to set up; free
◦Findable-can be found with search engines
◦Social- conversations about mutual interests
◦Viral- can spread information faster than news
◦Syndicatable- viewers can easily subscribe
◦Linkable- blogs can link to each other
35. Creating and Promoting Blog
Setting Up a Blog
◦A starter blog can be created on WordPress, Blogger or other free sites
◦These are hosted blogs run on another company’s website and server; a
suffix at the end of the URL indicates which service is hosting the blog.
◦A business can self-host a blog on its website
◦The difficult parts of blogging are creating a compelling, relevant subject
for the blog, writing effectively, and improving content over time.
◦For students, Google’s Blogger is easy, with analytics.
36. Creating and Promoting Blog
Promoting a Blog
◦ One way to increase readership is to request an email sign-up; create a
list of readers who receive content on a regular basis (Ex: Huffington
Post).
◦ 80,000 bloggers contribute content to the site (for free), which now
has 126 million visitors each month.
◦ Huffington Post has won several Webby Awards, and in 2012, its first
Pulitzer Prize.
◦ AOL purchased the Post in 2011 for $315 million
◦ Huffington Post was sued for the work of unpaid bloggers, but the
court ruled that the unpaid bloggers received their reward in terms of
publication.
37. Creating and Promoting Blog
Creating a Reputation through Blogging
◦ Robert Scoble famously became the first influential corporate blogger.
◦ He told the truth (as he saw it) about his employer, Microsoft, and its products,
criticizing often, and praised the firm’s competitors.
◦ His brutal honesty and invitation to open communication with consumers
endowed Microsoft with a renewed credibility which it’s much-maligned business
practices had eroded.
◦ He confronted product team leaders with suggestions and criticisms from his
resources, elicited responses, then posted those on his blog.
◦ He also persuaded MS executives to blog within the company; these blogs became
a resource for employees.
38. Creating and Promoting Blog
Creating a Reputation through Blogging
(cont.)
◦ Other corporate blogs began.
The blog of Marriott International’s CEO was praised for its accessibility and
down-to-earth tone
The CEO shares stories and information on the business and helped it to
develop a likable public personality.
Marriott employees make up about 20% of the blog’s readership, and they
comment often.
This gives a sense of camaraderie with the CEO that workers enjoy.
The blog has also generated more than $5 million worth of revenue from
bookings originating from the blog.
40. With the tools available on the web, anyone can become a
publisher at minimal cost.
Today, a website can be created in less than an hour with no expert coding knowledge using Weebly,
Wix, WordPress, or other web-development tools; editing websites is easier.
Online space has changed from a read web where people go primarily to read, to a read-write web,
where it is possible not only to read, but to create content. Users can interact with the content.
Content Clutter
There is such a proliferation of content online that even the highest-quality material has difficulty
standing out and building an audience.
Some blogs have many readers, while many blogs have almost no readers. (See Figure 7.3.)
Most companies consider their blogs as part of their business strategy; consumers increasingly
look to blogs to make business decisions.
Everyone is a Publisher
42. Marketing Benefits of Blogging
Blogging has several unique advantages:
Communicating with (Potential) Customers
Blogs reward thoughtful posts and fully developed ideas.
This makes blogs valuable in a broad variety of industries; every business has
expertise to share.
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
WOM marketing may be more than twice as effective as traditional
marketing
Blogging facilitates WOM marketing by:
oMaking messages portable and easy to share
oCreating new topics, like mini-press releases, for discussion
oProviding a center for conversation re comments & replies
43. Linking a Blog to Marketing
Objectives
Blog Marketing
A small fraction of blogs on the internet create tangible returns for the
blog’s creators.
Many are personal and function like an online journal; their authors do
not expect a return.
There are many professional or corporate blogs that do not accomplish
their objectives, or don’t know what those objectives should be.
Over 50% of blogs are abandoned within 90 days.
The single biggest risk in business blogging is setting the wrong strategy.
45. Monitoring the Blogosphere
A primary benefit from blogging is to learn about the “tone” of the
online community with regard to certain topics.
But relevant comments are likely to be dispersed through a huge
number of blogs.
Stay current on important blogs in the industry and view reader
comments, but do more.
One crude metric for public sentiment is how many views that
posts on different topics generate.
Monitoring software can be costly, but there are free tools in
Blogger and Google Analytics.
Monitoring will help you fine-tune your blog.
46. Video Streaming in the Social
Media Mix
Streaming video is a live video broadcast shared over the
Internet.
Marketers are incorporating streaming into their social
media plans as apps (Periscope, Meerkat) have allowed easy
sharing of video streams.
Best suited to live, interactive content
Viewers can comment on the video and what is happening in the
moment.
Streaming is best done when shared online and when other forms
of social media are also used to interact.
Legal issues include possible video piracy, but the benefits for
marketers are clear.
47. Video Streaming in the Social
Media Mix
Marketing Through Podcasting
Podcasts are media files distributed via subscription on the Internet.
“A podcast is a digital audio or video file that is episodic, downloadable, and
program-driven, mainly with a host and/or theme; and convenient, usually
via an automated feed with computer software.” Journal of Information
Technology & Politics
A podcast may contain only audio or audio and video (vodcasts); they can be
consumed:
1. Played directly off the website on a computer
2. Downloaded to a computer and listened to offline
3. Downloaded to portable MP3 players for listening offline
49. Creating and Sharing Podcasts
Three different
possibilities
Instructional
Informative
Entertainment
Specificity is
valuable
Podcast Content
50. Creating and Sharing Podcasts
Brevity
Avoid overediting
Choose an articulate
moderator
Include music
Create talking points,
not scripts
Producing Podcasts
51. Creating and Sharing Podcasts
Podcasts can be shared at no
cost on iTunes, Zune, Sony
and Phillips, as well as others.
Directories for listing
podcasts, including Podcast
Alley, and iPodder.org.
To assist search engines in
finding podcasts, fill in the ID3
tag (title, author’s name,
description and running time;
the information must be
entered manually.
Delivering Podcasts to Consumers
52. Marketing with Podcasting
Podcasting requires a strong
commitment to creating content
tailored to marketing goals.
Podcasts can bring in independent
revenue
Recruit paid sponsors to
advertise the product
Offer fee-based content (requires
superior content)
But don’t begin with monetizing;
with so many free podcasts, may
be difficult to get subscribers
For a successful podcast, see
Mugglecast and its competitor
PotterCast.
54. Hosting Webinars
Conducted live over the Web; interactive
To attend, the listener calls a phone number or listens live on a
computer’s speakers by accessing the webinar through the Internet.
Webinars are typically B2B marketing activities.
Webinars sometimes contain a visual aspect: a slide show
presentation or live-stream video; the material may also be
streamed.
Most last 1-2 hours.
Webinars resemble a conference or seminar.
55. How to Set Up a Webinar
Easy to set up and run; several free to low-
cost webinar sites available; to choose which,
consider:
The number of attendees
The visual content
The frequency with which the webinar is
held
If there will be visual content, need a
website to host the webinar rather than
using a conference call system
Depending on frequency of the webinar,
better to pay monthly subscription fee or
a one-time webinar fee?
Create a webinar outline of the main
points, schedule the event, and promote.
Hosting Webinars
56. Preparing for and Executing the Webinar
Risks and dangers of Webinar:
No way to gauge audience reaction; no
feedback.
No chance to rerecord if speaker is stumped
or misspeaks.
Time spent preparing will be very well
spent.
Decide in advance whether questions will be
answered as they arise, or at the end.
Prevent interruptions; avoid background
noise.
Start on time; answer questions concisely.
Avoid selling overtly during the webinar.
Hosting Webinars
57. Marketing with Webinars and/or
Podcasts
Advantages of Webinars:
Webinars may gather a large audience (500+) without the
need to travel
Ideal for training sessions or information sharing
The audience can ask questions and get immediate
answers.
Email addresses provided by Webinar participants can later
be used to send targeted messages.
Prior to webinar registration, lead qualification messages
can be asked.
58. May emphasize one medium more than the other
The choice may reflect available technology and resources
(podcasts are less expensive).
Webinars valuable for learning or collaboration
But require planning and coordination beforehand
Podcasts less interactive, but have continuing accessibility
because downloaded.
A natural fit for opinion, information, entertainment
Some firms use both, some one or the other
Marketing with Webinars and/or
Podcasts
Webinars Podcastsor
59. Best Practices for Blogging, Podcasting,
Video Sharing and Webinars
Rule #1: Use catchy titles.
Rule #2: Update frequently.
Rule #3: Keep content focused.
Rule #4: Invite comments.
Rule #10: Promote the Blog,
Streaming Video, Podcast, or Webinar.
Rule #6. Avoid negativity.
Rule #7. Stand by the content.
Rule #8: Cross promote.
Rule #9: Archive the content.
Rule #5. Engage with others.
Rule # 11. Use metrics.
60. Blogging to Build Your Personal Brand: Optimizing
Your Online Brand by Blogging – for Students
Lesson #1. Find your niche.
Lesson #2. Reserve your niche.
Lesson #3. Create meaningful blog content for
your audience.
Lesson #4. Observe good formatting rules.
Lesson #6. (sic) Blog regularly.
Lesson # 7. Promote your blog.
Lesson #8. Respond to your audience.
Lesson # 9. Use metrics to refine the approach.
61. Benefits of Marketing with
Social Networks
A consequence of online social networks is the
blurring of the line between business and personal
life.
Previously, only celebrities and politicians could expect
public scrutiny of their actions.
Now, much personal information (especially of young
people) can be found on the Internet.
Online sharing of popular interest is highly valuable
to a social media marketer.
