1. MK 4305
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Discussion, News, Social
Bookmarking, and Q&A Sites
#GSUSocial17
2. THE EVOLUTION OF ONLINE DISCUSSIONS (1 OF 5)
◦ One of the earliest types of social media
is the discussion board, a service where
participants can exchange messages with
each other.
◦ Often, a sense of community develops
around discussion boards, which have
regular members that share common
interests.
◦ This sense of community can motivate
online friendships or feuds.
3. THE EVOLUTION OF ONLINE DISCUSSIONS (2 OF 5)
A discussion board is typically organized
into groups based on topics of interest:
These are made up of forums, which arrange posts and
replies about a specific subject in an indented hierarchical
fashion (a thread) so that users can follow the flow, and see
the chronological order of posts.
A moderator monitors and facilitates discussions,
enforcing discussion board policies and rules.
If users engage in abusive exchanges (flaming), or post
inappropriate material, the moderator acts as an arbitrator
to settle disputes and remove disallowed content.
4. THE EVOLUTION OF ONLINE DISCUSSIONS (3 OF 5)
◦ Many major portal sites have discussion boards (Google
Groups, Yahoo! Groups, Microsoft’s Windows Live
Groups).
◦ Social media platforms like LinkedIn have active
discussion groups, but usually require to user to join the
site to search for or take part in groups.
◦ Branded discussion boards hosted by companies
attempt to build online communities of brand
enthusiasts, facilitate customer support, etc.
◦ Government agencies also use discussion boards to
answer questions & disseminate information.
5. THE EVOLUTION OF ONLINE DISCUSSIONS (4 OF 5)
◦ Traditional discussion boards have declined in popularity over
recent years (the iVillage demise).
◦ Although some predict that they will see a revival in popularity,
but at the end of 2015, not so.
◦ Discussions now take place in many different forms on the
Internet.
Facebook Groups allows anyone (administrator) to create a group
focused on a topic for discussion, and the group may be open (anyone
may join) or closed (membership is by invitation or approval only).
6. THE EVOLUTION OF ONLINE DISCUSSIONS (5 OF 5)
In higher education, use of discussion boards is growing,
especially for online classes. Online learning management
systems such as Blackboard have built in discussion features.
Twitter Chats are sponsored by an organization
during a specific time period during which people
use a hashtag to comment on topics or answer
questions.
Hootsuite recommends that chats be curated using a
platform such as Storify. Hootsuite hosts #HootChat on
Thursdays at 1 pm EST.
7. MARKETING WITH SOCIAL NEWS AND
NEWS AGGREGATION SITES (1 OF 5)
o A social news site lets users submit links to news stories, etc.
to be ranked and displayed, but sites differ in how they rank
and display them.
o Reddit and Newsvine organize content based on readers’
votes, the most popular on the front page.
o Slashdot and Fark use human editors to determine which
articles show up on the front page.
o Most social news sites also provide the means for readers to
discuss and comment on articles.
o These sites appear to be fundamentally altering the way news
is consumed.
o Readers are taking control of the news they view.
#GSUSocial17
9. BuzzFeed & Upworthy are hybrid forms of social
news.
MARKETING WITH SOCIAL NEWS AND
NEWS AGGREGATION SITES (2 OF 5)
Major changes in news sites:
1997– a humorous view of the news;
2004 – the first to introduce voting on articles;
2010 -- a major site redesign and policy changes
caused a crash in site traffic from which it has never
fully recovered.
2005 – Top scoring articles appear on the front page
2010 – launched new website, Upvoted; readers will
not be able to post content, vote or make comments
on stories
(Fig 10.1).
11. ◦On social news sites the payoff is incredible for
stories that become popular,
◦But, Thousands of stories languish in obscurity
with few upvotes and little traffic.
MARKETING WITH SOCIAL NEWS AND
NEWS AGGREGATION SITES (3 OF 5)
Major changes in news sites: (cont.)
Buzzfeed has emerged as a unique tool for
marketers.Buzzfeed also partnered with
President Obama to create a humorous video of
the president taking selfies and doodling on
paper, (See Figure 10.2) to remind people that
the deadline for enrolling in health insurance
was approaching.
13. The most important determinant of an article’s
success will be the title.
o Many hurried users will vote a story up or down based
solely on the title, never viewing the attached content.
o Make the title appeal to short attention spans, since those
dominate the space on social news sites.
To see what sorts of titles have generated a response,
look at items from the Top News or front page of a
social news website.
Lists are favored on social media sites, as they are
easy on the eyes, and quick to read. Buzzfeed
invented the “listicle.”
MARKETING WITH SOCIAL NEWS AND
NEWS AGGREGATION SITES (5 OF 5)
14. Good content alone is not enough to reach the top
of social news sites.
Vote up submissions by other users with similar
interests, and they may return the favor.
Users who submit only their own content are
quickly identified as spammers and ignored.
Even if an article becomes popular, not all of the
viewers will consider purchasing a product.
By providing space for discussion by a wide
reader base, social news can draw comments
and input.
Many conversations occur on social news sites
which cannot be found elsewhere.
MARKETING WITH SOCIAL NEWS AND
NEWS AGGREGATION SITES (5 OF 5)
15. MARKETING WITH SOCIAL BOOKMARKING AND
S-ECOMMERCE (1 OF 3)
◦ Social bookmarking is a way for people to store, organize, search
manage “bookmarks” of web pages.
Most services allow users to organize them by tags, single word descriptors that
categorize the bookmark.
Users can search social bookmarking sites using the descriptor to find content
and bookmark that content within their own accounts.
Social bookmarking is also called folksonomy, collaborative tagging, social classification, social
indexing, and social tagging.
Social Bookmarking Sites List contains a list of sits that accept external content
based on the rules of each site. Entries are verified, & so designated if pop-ups or
sponsored sites
16. ◦ As social media evolves, many other sites are incorporating the
concept. (See Table 10.1.)
◦ As social bookmarking becomes more popular, various social media
sites have attempted to find ways to monetize their traffic. Social
commerce or “s-ecommerce” is ecommerce that incorporates selling
within social networks.
Pinterest introduced buyable pins for specific retailers which allow users to
purchase products from pins without leaving the site (see Fig. 10.3a).
Facebook added a buy button (see Figure 10.3b.)
Twitter has a blue Buy Now bar.
MARKETING WITH SOCIAL BOOKMARKING AND
S-ECOMMERCE (2 OF 3)
19. ◦ Notice two things about these developments:
First, all three examples were of tests, not full-
scale rollouts to all business users of those sites.
The intent was to ensure that all systems were
working properly and could handle the expected
volume of transactions before the opportunity
was offered to a larger set of brands on each
platform.
Second, the emphasis was initially on mobile.
That is a strong hint that marketers believe that
mobile is key to the future of social commerce.
MARKETING WITH SOCIAL BOOKMARKING AND
S-ECOMMERCE (3 OF 3)
20. PERSONAL BRANDING THROUGH ONLINE DISCUSSION,
NEWS AND BOOKMARKING
◦ Lesson #1: Engage in professional discussions related to your career interests.
◦ Lesson #2: Be careful of participating in discussions on controversial topics.
◦ Lesson #3: Your username will be associated with your post and you can’t control the
comments of others.
◦ Lesson #4: Your bookmarks on your registered accounts are available for others to see.
◦ Lesson #5: Properly attribute the source of any content that you pin to your Pinterest or
other bookmarking account.
◦ Lesson #5: Properly attribute the source of any content that you pin to your Pinterest or
other bookmarking account.
◦ Lesson #6: Follow the rules of the bookmarking site.
◦ Lesson #7: Show your expertise by using content curation.
21. MARKETING WITH Q&A SITES (1 OF 3)
A Q&A site lets people pose questions
and receive answers back from anyone
willing and knowledgeable enough to
reply.
Most Q&A sites can also provide fast
answers by looking up questions that
have already been asked.
Q&A sites are not an appropriate place
to promote a product (unless, by some
amazing coincidence, the marketed
product happens to be the answer to
someone’s question).
22. ◦ Sharing information through these sites
builds an aura of expertise.
Many services provide points or rankings to
members who provide the best answers.
In order to build your reputation on Q&A
sites, share answers in a thorough, detailed
way.
Q&A sites can help build links to a personal
profile or product page, drawing more
attention from the target audience.
But beware of many sites that offer to help
build such links; they may be, at best, not
considered good quality by search engines,
and can harm the ranking the site, not help it.
Quora presents unique opportunities for a
social media
MARKETING WITH Q&A SITES (2 OF 3)
23. ◦ A combination of professional networking and
an advice service, Quora presents unique
opportunities for a social media marketer.
Brands cannot be directly involved, but
they may find a way to be indirectly
involved as did President Obama, who,
in his effort to promote health care
insurance, became a Verified Profile on
Quora so he could answer health care
questions there.
Upon joining, users are encouraged to
follow areas and people of interest.
Establish areas of expertise by answering
questions and posting news.
83% of top 100 brands had at least one
discussion thread there.
MARKETING WITH Q&A SITES (3 OF 3)
24. FUTURE OF DISCUSSION BOARDS, SOCIAL NEWS,
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING, AND Q&A SITES. (1 OF 5)
Discussion Boards
◦ In their original form, they are in decline.
◦ But in broader sense, they have become a mainstay of many sites.
Online gamers love to discuss gaming and their own play.
Some companies find discussion boards a great source of product innovation.
Most online retail sites include them for posting consumer opinions and receiving company
feedback.
25. Social News Sites
They continue to gain over traditional news
Key findings from the Pew State of the News
Media report for 2015:
39% of digital news sites get more of their traffic
from mobile than from desktops; mobile users
remain on the site longer.
Traditional newspapers continue to struggle, & cable
news showed a significant decline in prime-time
viewing.
Viewership is up for evening network news and for
early evening and early morning local TV news.
Downloads of podcasts were up a whopping 41%.
Digital news ad revenue growing, but not for
traditional brands.
FUTURE OF DISCUSSION BOARDS, SOCIAL NEWS,
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING, AND Q&A SITES. (2 OF 5)
27. Social Bookmarking
These are enjoying explosive growth, but only on sites that allow users
to share their content & comment on it.
Examples: Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, and Digg.
Baker: The positive effects of social bookmarking for publishers of news
sites, blogs, and other web sites is outstanding. Social bookmarking can
introduce sites to others with relevant tastes, drive traffic to your site,
and [generate] valuable backlinks.”
Data provided by these sites is valuable to search engines.
Panwar: Bloggers should always submit their posts to well-regarded
bookmarking sites.
FUTURE OF DISCUSSION BOARDS, SOCIAL NEWS,
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING, AND Q&A SITES. (3 OF 5)
28. Q&A Sites
◦ The original sites undergoing traffic
decreases.
◦ Whether newer sites like Quora can
revive the sector is an open question.
◦ SMMers must remember that whatever
the platform used, they must listen to
customers'’ issues and respond to
◦ They can also use these sites to
a reputation for expertise that will lend
credibility to the companies they
represent.
FUTURE OF DISCUSSION BOARDS, SOCIAL NEWS,
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING, AND Q&A SITES. (4 OF 5)
29. One Problem…
SMMers are trying to solve the problem of how to track shares of content that fall
within the dark social:
Any website traffic that can’t be attributed to either a search engine or some other
referral that includes a referrer tag
When someone copies and pasts a link into a text, email, instant message or other
app, the referral site tag is lost and the share isn’t tracked.
People have many reasons for doing this (sharing with just one person; not wanting that
story associated with personal social media; convenience).
32% of people only share through dark social.
If even one is found, consumers with privacy concerns will find ways to keep their
private.
FUTURE OF DISCUSSION BOARDS, SOCIAL NEWS,
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING, AND Q&A SITES. (5 OF 5)
30. BEST PRACTICES FOR ONLINE DISCUSSIONS ON ALL
PLATFORMS
01 Stick to the topic
02 Search before posting
03 Use good grammar and capitalization
04 No feeding the trolls
05 Do not post repetitively (or double-
post)
06 No sock puppets
