PayPal Australia case study by Switched On Media (Jye Smith) for Twitter BootCamp in Sydney, Australia - July 2009 Presentation shared with permission from Switched On Media (http://switchedonmedia.com.au)

1. WTF?

2. PayPal Australia
Social Media Case Study

3. twitter is a social media tool
Forget the technologies, this is about outcomes and people
Use the RIGHT tools to track the RIGHT things
Compare social media activity with business outcomes
Keep revisiting tactics to ensure they are meeting strategy
JYE SMITH | Social Media Strategist
@jyesmith // skype: jyesmith

4. the objectives
BUSINESS OUTCOMES AND OBJECTIVES
1. Support the sale of tickets to PayPal Developer Days around Australia
• 200 Seats at each city (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth)
2. Create awareness about PayPal Certification Program
3. Begin and continue a dialogue with Australian developers
Twitter should deliver business outcomes
JYE SMITH | Social Media Strategist
@jyesmith

5. the social
SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY TO MEET OBJECTIVES
• Research: Monitoring and Measurement
• Plan: Strategy Developed (Short term and Long Term)
• Twitter Profile
• Hash tag created
• Blogger Outreach Program
Always research and plan before engaging
JYE SMITH | Social Media Strategist
@jyesmith

6. measure it
HOW TO MEASURE SUCCESS
• Tracked each and every link (with multiple tools)
• Tracked page views and visitors to a specific landing page
• Track conversions (register for tickets)
• Analyse the sentiment of conversations and dialogue
Measure only the social media activity that
leads to business outcomes
JYE SMITH | Social Media Strategist
@jyesmith

7. twitter tools
THE TOOLS WE USED
• Bit.Ly
• Radian6
• Custom Twitter Tools
• TwitterCounter
• Twitter Analyzer
• Xefer
• Twhirl
• PEOPLE to analyse sentiment
Do not rely on 1 tool, use human sentiment
JYE SMITH | Social Media Strategist
@jyesmith

8. reaching out
LOCATE, ENGAGE AND DEPLOY
• Find the influencers (research, tools and experience)
• Discover who they are, what they do and what they’re doing
• Engage personally with them and build a relationship
• Discuss opportunities rather than “need from you”
Be human.
JYE SMITH | Social Media Strategist
@jyesmith

9. the results
OBJECTIVE 1: Sell Tickets
• Leads Generated through site traffic: 452 Site Visits Generated
• Next Time: Implement Google Analytics to show conversion rate
Click Throughs
JYE SMITH | Social Media Strategist
@jyesmith

10. the results
OBJECTIVE 2: AWARENESS
• Gained 439 targeted followers
• 78 Messages posted over 1 month
• Hashtag #paypaldd used before, during and after event
*" #!!"
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$'+,-."
$(+,-."
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%(+,-."
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%+,-/"
'+,-/"
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$!+,-/"
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$'+,-/"
Twitter Followers, Hash tags
JYE SMITH | Social Media Strategist
@jyesmith

11. the results
OBJECTIVE 3: ENGAGE IN DIALOGUE
• Communicating with nearly 500 Australian developers
• 75 @ Replies
• 11 Re-Tweets
• Positive Blogger Sentiment
• Total of 6 blog posts before the event, another 4 following the event
• Built relationships with other events and industry profiles
Combination of qual and quant
JYE SMITH | Social Media Strategist
@jyesmith

12. the results
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
In preparing for Barcamp I noticed a Twitter account for PayPal. Strangely, it wasn’t spouting
corporate shillage-speak. Whoever sat behind that Twitter Account was actually interacting with
people.
They invited me along to their Australian Developer Days, and I said yes. Signed up today, applied for
leave, and had an excellent email conversation with them.
Let me tell you why this is important, although you might’ve already guessed.
PayPal is no longer faceless. They talked to me like a real person. Possibly laughed at me singing
a song. Looked at my blog, made reference to a completely different post that needed some
searching to find.
This is good PR, good people skills. This wins people over. At the very least, it’s won me over.
Source: http://stuandrews.com/2009/06/30/paypal-noticed-me/
<3 u 2!
JYE SMITH | Social Media Strategist
@jyesmith

13. twitter
TWITTER-AWESOME
• After research, Twitter was a key communication tool to reach out to developers
• Using our experience we were able to grow the followers quickly, while being highly targeted
• During updates (sell outs, ticket information etc) Twitter proved to be a fast and public means
of delivering information
• At-event and post-event feedback could be responded to in real time
• We could support the developers by sharing and retweeting interesting and useful links
• Personal and Public: Invitations and feedback
• Hashtag meant that more attention delivered to events around Australia from various tweeters
Key was to support sales, marketing and PR
JYE SMITH | Social Media Strategist
@jyesmith

14. for you
5 TIPS BEFORE FLYING WITH THE BLUE BIRD
1. Always have clear business outcomes
2. RESEARCH before you engage, so you can PLAN effectively
3. Analyse, compare and know the relationship between Twitter and business
outcomes
4. Only use USEFUL Twitter tools to either RESEARCH, PLAN, ANALYSE,
COMPARE and ENGAGE
5. Be useful, interesting and human
I’m huge on twitter
JYE SMITH | Social Media Strategist
@jyesmith

15. me
JYE SMITH
Social Media Strategist
twitter: @jyesmith
email: jye@switchedonmedia.com.au
blog: jyesmith.com
work: switchedonmedia.com.au
@jyesmith