A discussion of successful social media strategies employed by different organisations.

1. Web 2.0 & Online Communities, Summer School 2011
Day 6: Case studies and the power of free

2. This week (Week 2)
Tuesday (day 4):
– Internet/Web technologies (web server, HTML, AJAX, ...)
Wednesday (day 5):
– Diving deeper into Facebook pages
Thursday (day 6):
– Social media case studies (strategies!)
– Power of free (Phil Osborne ‐ Marketing)
Miscellany:
– Class rep!
– Technical hassles update
– Blog assignment 1 due tomorrow
– Group roles organised ‐ tools & ideas being explored
– Inactive students?
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3. Programme: http://irgo.otago.ac.nz/programme.html
Registration: http://irgo.eventbrite.com
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4. 4

5. 5

6. Part 1: Social media
case studies
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7. Case 1
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8. 8

9. Social media numbers
3, 279,102 friends 620,359 friends
1,043, 850 friends 218,172 friends
1,824 videos uploaded 330 videos uploaded
Channel Views: 20,024,491 Channel Views: 2,221,268
137, 206 followers 4, 848 Followers
[Source: Rahaf Harfoush 2008] 9

10. Other numbers
Overall funds raised:
– McCain $360 million
– Obama $639 million
September ($150 million):
– 67% online
– 33% offline
1 million SMS subscribers
1 billion emails sent
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11. MyBarackObama.com
2 Million profiles created
35,000 volunteer groups
400,00 blog posts
200,000 offline events
70,000 people raised $30
million on personal fund
pages
[Source: Rahaf Harfoush 2008] 11

12. [Source: Edelman, 2009] 12

13. Case 2
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14. Dell’s social media goals
Enter into conversations with customers everyday in
every major language
Address any form of customer dissatisfaction head‐on
knowing that not everything will be solved and some of
Dell’s weaknesses will be exposed
Encourage "crowd sourcing" as the next step in listening
to customers
Use video to personalize the Dell story
‐‐John Pope, digital media senior manager

15. “1 million in 2008”
“3 million in 2009”

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17. My anecdote

22. Case 3
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23. Threadless
Ongoing online t‐shirt competition
Designs submitted by community
Best designs voted on by community
Winning designs then offered for sale

24. “Threadless sold $6.2
million worth of merch
last year and has pretty
much quadrupled in size
each year for the past four
years. This year’s target =
$18‐$20 million.”
‐‐http://www.37signals.com/

25. Why did it work?
Self‐sustaining
Devoted community
Publicity is free and viral
Quality site and products
Fun + playful = engaging
Limited editions
DIY = credibility
Strong brand

26. Case 4
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27. 27

28. Zynga numbers
Created in 2007
Obtained 180 million in new investment
156 (206) employees at start of 2009
561 (712 ) employees at end of 2009
Revenue estimated at $300 million
90 percent of revenue selling "virtual goods"
[Source: http://blogs.reuters.com/] 28

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30. Case 5
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32. Approach
Used social media for a year
Began with filmed wine tastings
Wine Vault TV = 50,000 views (2009)
Website built by Twitter contacts
Business grew by 20‐25%
Gave up all paid advertising (zero advertising
budget

37. Case 6
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38. Skittles
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39. 39

40. 40

41. 41

42. What have we
learned?
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43. END OF PART 1
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