This document discusses how social media marketing can deliver a positive return on investment (ROI) for brands. It provides statistics showing that social media networks now reach the majority of internet users worldwide. The document then discusses how social media influences consumers, with research finding that recommendations from friends on social media strongly influence purchase decisions. The rest of the document outlines a three-phase approach for social media marketing: growth, engagement, and monetization. It provides examples of how brands have implemented strategies in each phase to achieve a positive ROI.

1. WHY SOCIAL MARKETING WILL
DELIVER A POSITIVE ROI FOR
YOUR BRAND
How to use social media marketing to meet concrete
business objectives

2. Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for Your Brand
Contents
executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The Numbers and Backstory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Where are your consumers?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
H
ow does social media influence users to recommend
and buy?.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Where Your Brand Wins with Social Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3 Phases of Social Marketing for Brands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Grow.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
What do consumers expect when becoming a fan?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
A
dopt these social media marketing tips and GROW a fan community around your brand with
targeted advertising and offers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
GROW done right. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Engage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Earned media is the key to unlocking the power of social for your brand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
A
dopt these social media marketing tips and ENGAGE using an unprecedented understanding of users.7
ENGAGE for ROI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
MONETIZE.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Adopt these social media marketing tips and MONETIZE using the social sales dimension. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
MONETIZE to Convert.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3. executive summary
While most marketing channels have standardized methods for calculating ROI or value, other
channels, like social media, can be harder to quantify. We compiled this report to help you better
understand how social media delivers on real business objectives, and how to get the most value,
and highest ROI, from your social marketing efforts.
According to a series of recent studies, “earned media,” which is the unpaid publicity created by users
about your brand, is the unique benefit of social media marketing. It delivers incredibly high value to
brands because it is based on a trusted recommendation between friends, and social marketing makes
it possible for your brand to seed the creation of this media...at scale.
In fact, a recent study conducted by Facebook and ComScore determined that exposure to earned
media had significant positive impact on purchasing behavior:
• Starbucks fans and friends of fans demonstrated a 38% lift in purchase behavior within 4 weeks
of exposure to earned media
• Target fans and friends of fans were 21% more likely to purchase in Target in the four weeks
following exposure
Target: Exposure to Earned Media on Facebook Drives 21%
Lift in Online and Offline Purchases
4.5%
4.0% 3.9%
4.0% 3.8%
3.5% 3.3% 3.3%
3.0%
3.0%
2.5%
2.0%
1.5% +19% +27% +21%
1.0%
0.5%
0.0%
FANS FRIENDS OF FANS COMBINED
CONTROL TEST
EarnedFans and Friends of Fans Spend like Facebook, thean incredible
media, driven by social media networks More Than has
effect on purchase behavior.
General Population
250 231
209 204
200 197
151 160
150
108 116
100
50
0
AMAZON BEST BUY TARGET WALMART
Index of 100 = Segment spend as much, FANS FRIENDS OF FANS
on average, as the
general population
ComScore also found that fan communities (and friends of those fans, as reached
by earned media) spend more money than non-fans.
The facts are simple: the more earned media your brand generates through engaging with fans
and followers in social media, the higher your ROI will be. Within this paper, we discuss the three-
phase social media cycle for brands. We’ll focus on how to unlock the potential of earned media,
extended reach, and higher conversions in social. We’ll also review the unique approaches six
brands have taken to reaching a common outcome of positive ROI in social.
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4. Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for Your Brand
Introduction Where are your consumers (both current and potential)
The most pressing question in the social media marketing spending their time? The most current numbers depicting
industry revolves around ROI. “What is the return on investment active populations of users on social networks are staggering.
of my social media initiatives?” “What is the value of a social Facebook is the largest network with 901MM users. When
Facebook fan or Twitter follower?” While the definition of ROI Facebook’s user base grows to one billion users— which it will
(revenue minus expenses / expenses) is fairly straightforward, do shortly— the active user population will be representative of
understanding how to measure the value of social marketing one-half of the world’s internet users!
ROI is more nebulous.
If one in every two people in the World that has an internet
ROI can only be defined when you understand what results connection is also a Facebook user, how can you afford to deny
provide “value” to your brand. After all, the return of a new “Like” the value of social media to your marketing strategy?
on Facebook is incalculable unless you’ve already assigned a
Furthermore, social profiles are beginning to outpace branded
value to Likes (fans, comments, or any other activity).
websites as the go-to locations for user interaction with a brand.
ROI is a measure of value. What value does social bring to your In fact, according to ComScore, the Skittles brand website (www.
brand? First, we will look at a variety of social media marketing skittles.com) attracted 23,000 U.S. unique visitors in March 2012
studies in order to understand the bevy of ways social can lift while the Skittles brand page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/
your brand. Next, we will explore the social media marketing skittles) attracted 320,000 visitors. That’s 14 times as many visits
success cycle, a 3-phase model of growth, engagement, and to Skittles on Facebook as to Skittles.com. Many brands are
monetization. Finally, no report on ROI would be complete seeing this same trend.
without real-world examples. Within each success phase, we
have included 2 case studies to understand how these brands How does social media influence users to recommend
structured their social marketing approaches to result in and buy?
positive ROI.
The Numbers and Backstory
To understand the unique opportunities for business success
offered by social media, we need to have an understanding
of the social marketing landscape. Where are users spending
their time, what are they doing, and how are these activities
impacting their interactions with brands and businesses?
Where are your consumers?
[Figure 1.1: MarketForce study analyzing influence of social media on user actions.]
How are users affected by social media? Does having a massive
population of consumers congregating and interacting with a
social network influence their actions in any way? Great news:
it does, and very significantly. According to a study of 12,000
consumers conducted in 2012 by Marketforce:
• 80% of users claim that “because of social media, I am more
likely to try new things based on friends’ suggestions.”
• In addition to trying new things, 72% are also more prone to
switching sides and making recommendations to encourage
their own friends to try new products.
You may still wonder: “but, a ‘Like’ is not a purchase,” or
that fans are different from customers. Further analysis by
Marketforce analyzes the impact of social media on purchasing
[Figure 1.0: Active Users Across Social Networks.]
decisions, specifically:
• 81% of respondents indicate that posts by friends directly
influence their purchase decision.
• 78% of respondents indicate that posts by companies directly
influence their purchase decision.
2

5. Users are listening, and they pay attention and react to the Grow
things they “hear” via social media. In the growth phase, your success metric is very simple— fan
count. When the goals you set sound like the following, you’re in
If this remarkably active and engaged community of users
growth mode:
doesn’t convince you to take action with social media marketing,
then these statistics will: • 5,000 new fans by the conclusion of this promotion
• 42% of users claim that because of social media, they are • 15% increase in the fan base by Q3
more likely to share any negative experiences with brands or
• Double the fan base by the end of the year
products.
In order to grow your fan base and recognize some of the
• 32% say they are more likely to “not buy certain products
business benefits outlined above, it is necessary to understand
because [they] learned of a negative customer experience
what users are thinking when they commit their affinity to your
through social channels.”
brand on a social network.
The power of social media is indisputable. If your business
hasn’t been convinced of the value yet, the figures above What do consumers expect when becoming a fan?
demonstrate that being a marketing laggard can hurt your Social network users can be pretty explicit about what their
brand— consumers have declared (and quite publicly) that they expectations are of brands in exchange for committing to “Like”
are comfortable with having interactions about brands using or follow. In a recent study conducted by Lithium, in conjunction
social media. If your brand isn’t a part of these conversations, with the Chief Marketing Council, when consumers were asked
users are content to have them without you, leaving you with what they “expect” when becoming a fan or follower of a brand,
little control over the tone taken by the community or the the top 3 expectations are:
messages being spread about your brand.
1. To be eligible for exclusive offers and content (67%)
2. To interact with other customers and share my
42% of users claim that because of experience (60%)
social media, they are more likely to
share any negative experiences with 3. To find games, promotions, and other unique
brands or products. experiences (57%)
Understanding users’ expectations is an important factor in
shaping your social marketing strategy. If you can meet or
Where Your Brand Wins with Social Media exceed those expectations (bearing gifts of exclusive content,
The remainder of the paper will focus on understanding the offers, promotions, and interesting interactions) you can
expectations of these users and how your brand can approach stimulate the growth of an active and engaged community.
those expectations from the framework of the 3 phases of social Once the fan base is activated and trusts the brand, you can
marketing. By walking through the variety of business benefits unleash monetization initiatives. This tri-phase approach
social media marketing offers your brand, we will lay a solid to social marketing is consistent for all brands— once you
foundation for understanding where you can draw positive ROI understand the three distinct phases of social media marketing,
from social marketing, both immediately and in the long term. you can cater every planned initiative to align with the goals and
success metrics relevant to it.
3 Phases of Social Marketing for Brands
Over the past 250,000+ social media marketing campaigns that Adopt these social media marketing tips and GROW a fan
Wildfire has powered for over 15,000 customers, we have seen community around your brand with targeted advertising
that social media marketing initiatives can be separated into and offers
3 phases. These 3 phases are cyclical, and it is important to The adoption of social media marketing into your organization
recognize which phase your immediate marketing goals address creates many business benefits. Here are three tips for how to
to know how to “score” yourself at the conclusion of your use social media marketing to achieve growth of your brand
campaigns and to measure ROI. through social channels.
[Figure 2.0: Social media marketing initiatives typically align within these 3
cyclical phases.]
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6. Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for Your Brand
1. Use a paid content strategy to drive new traffic to your the company on the network by utilizing content created for
brand in addition to word of mouth. a women’s leadership group sponsored by Citi. Finally, the
YouTube advertisements that show up when a user searches for
The major social networks, including Facebook, YouTube,
“makeup” are two videos about makeup, created as real content
LinkedIn, and Twitter, have robust advertising platforms built
for popular brands MAC and Clinique.
into the marketing experience. Social media marketing is
moving the industry with a constantly evolving advertising 2. Run exclusive promotions and special offers, catered to
format wherein the content is the ad. Each social network new fans and friends of fans, encouraging viral spread.
enables brands to create advertising out of user generated
Users have declared what they want from your brand when
content, enabling the endorsement of earned media. This
they join you as a follower (see page 3)— access to special
considerably increases reach, creating a scalable way to
promotions, exclusive offers, special content, and the like.
promote digital word of mouth.
Social media enables your brand to grow communities around
this specially developed content, and in most cases, “gate” that
content exclusively for users that selectively enter through the
gate by becoming a fan.
Chevy’s Fresh Mex demonstrates one strategy for addressing
this opportunity: running a promotion on its Facebook page
that awards prizes to winners daily. This presents the user
with a reason to return to the fan page often, even after
becoming a fan (which he had to do in order to enter at all)— if
he didn’t win today, he may try tomorrow, as his odds are not
diminished.
Figure 3.1: Chevy’s Fresh Mex hosts a daily promotion, encouraging users to
[
commit to becoming a fan in order to participate, and return often to keep trying
to win.]
3. Systematize growth by launching the same campaigns
across all social networks, maximizing coverage and
integrating your social marketing efforts.
Keeping a consistent marketing message, theme, tone, and
[Figure 3.0: Social media marketing provides a new venue and framework for paid
purpose across every marketing channel is a difficult but
media, where the content is the ad.]
rewarding task that, when executed properly, resonates incredibly
In the three examples pictured, each social network uses well with users. How can you tell? Companies that manage
content created or submitted by users as part of the advertising their integrated marketing strategy successfully tend to have
endorsement. Nestle promotes a post that was published to their message stick. For example, according to BusinessWeek,
its fan page wall, alongside an explicit endorsement of the most people, when polled, are able to instantly recall the brand
brand by friends of this paper’s author. Starbucks promotes associated with the famous slogan “Just do it.” Same for “Think
a tweet originally created by user “bradnelson.” LinkedIn different,” and “You’re in good hands.” How did you do?
allows Citi the capability of advertising a social connection to
Integration of your brand’s marketing message should span
across all the social profiles your brand maintains. Social
4

7. marketing software will enable brands to launch and replicate GROW done right
branding efforts quickly and efficiently, across all relevant
Study, theory, and analysis is one thing, but real world
networks, that are consistent to the integrated marketing plan.
application is the cherry on the sundae. The following two
So Delicious, a dairy-free dessert and milk alternative brand, examples demonstrate companies successfully creating positive
executed a well integrated marketing plan over 100 days in ROI with social initiatives in the “Growth” phase.
2011. The theme was “100 days of change,” promoting healthful
lifestyles and nutritional choices, with celebrity fitness guru CanvasPop
Jillian Michaels as the spokesperson for the campaign. So
Delicious deployed the integrated campaign in a consistent
manner across traditional, digital, and social marketing,
including the print, local event, product design, and Facebook
campaigns depicted here. The results of the social media
component of the So Delicious “100 Days of Change” initiative
are included as a case study in the next section of this paper.
WHO: CanvasPop is a canvas photo printing service. A
customer can upload a photo or any type of image, and
CanvasPop renders it on canvas, creating artwork that can
be hung.
WHAT: CanvasPop wanted to run a group promotion on its
Facebook page to build brand engagement by encouraging
fan conversation and promoting content sharing. The
company also sought to monetize its Facebook fan base
with its group deal by offering discounts on CanvasPop
products, exclusive to its fan base.
Using Wildfire, CanvasPop ran a three-day Summer Group
Deal. Similar to a Groupon, this application offered up an
exclusive-to-Facebook rate of 55% off a canvas print job, but
only if the group deal threshold was reached. CanvasPop
aimed to sell 20 commitments over the three days.
RESULT: The results of the promotion went way over this
threshold— CanvasPop ended up selling 513 deals in just
three days. The buzz around the deal led to CanvasPop’s
Facebook page seeing nearly 3,000 visits, which also drove a
significant amount of traffic to its website.
An interesting side note is that over the three day
promotion, CanvasPop won 700 new fans. This is
particularly intriguing because it was not mandatory to
[Figure 3.2: So Delicious ran a 100-day long integrated marketing campaign
around “100 Days of Change.” The campaign’s print ad and product design, shown
above, demonstrates the integrated message, creative, and tone across channels.]
5

8. Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for Your Brand
become a fan in order to take part in the special deal— RESULT: Fueled in part by So Delicious’ concurrent
what likely happened instead is that users, excited by integrated advertising campaign, the 100 Days of Change
the great value, committed their “Like” to CanvasPop, giveaway was an incredible success. Over the three-month
subscribing themselves to the “insider’s club” of Facebook promotion period, So Delicious saw a significant return on
fans in order to be on the list of folks to find out— via news its investment: it experienced two of its most successful
feed updates— the next time a deal like this was offered up. sales days ever, and ultimately increased its category
share by 60% and sales units by 74%. So Delicious also
enjoyed a sizable growth in its Facebook fan base which
grew by more than 1,000%. In total, 100 Days of Change
So Delicious
received 322,664 entries, averaging 3,226 entries per day.
Engage
Engagement is an entirely different animal than growth. We
often find that our clients devote a lot of time to planning
out intricate campaign plans for growing their fan base, but
neglect to plan appropriately for the engagement phase. Lack of
engagement initiatives means fans hear less from you and have
little reason to return to your page. Less engaged fans translate
to less reach. The more fans you lose to disinterest, the less
fans that ultimately see your messaging, due to the fact that
Facebook’s content sorting algorithm (called EdgeRank; read
more about how it works here) allocates reach largely in line
with how engaging your brand is.
Successful engagement initiatives result in significant business
benefits including:
• Increased word-of-mouth
• Increased earned media benefits
• Brand lift and increased awareness
WHO: Turtle Mountain LLC, a privately held natural foods
company headquartered in Oregon, is the creator of the So • Brand advocacy and loyalty
Delicious Dairy Free brand. The So Delicious brand includes
The most valuable business benefit that emerges from social
dairy free, soy, and coconut-based products such as milk,
media marketing is earned media. To understand why, it’s
yogurt, and ice cream.
important to understand that there are three types of marketing
WHAT: So Delicious collaborated with Sterling-Rice Group content: Paid, Owned, and Earned. Successful brands own
to design its “100 Days of Change” Wildfire giveaway. So social profile pages bursting with compelling content and active
Delicious wanted to encourage users to embrace and community conversations. They drive traffic and attention to
celebrate positive personal change, create new brand these owned properties with a carefully planned paid media
advocates, and expand its fan base. To attract and interact strategy, crafting advertisements to emphasize and influence
with a wide audience, So Delicious paired its “100 Days of a variety of end-user actions. And hopefully brands are getting
Change” social promotion with a comprehensive integrated earned media as well: this is the coverage you can’t buy, and
print and point-of-sale advertising campaign. includes mentions, recommendations and shares generated by
users who are so engaged by your branded content that they’re
So Delicious ran a series of daily sweepstakes encouraging
compelled to share it with the world (or, their respective social
users to embrace positive personal change and follow the
network world). And when 90 percent of internet users say that
lead of So Delicious brand spokesperson and health and
they find a recommendation from a friend trustworthy (Nielsen),
wellness expert, Jillian Michaels. Each day, the sweepstakes
brands want all the earned media they can get.
offered prizes prompting the winner to change his or her
life for the better, like yoga mats, water filters, iPads, and
treadmills. One lucky winner received a grand prize trip to The most valuable business benefit
Koh Samui, Thailand. that emerges from social media
marketing is earned media.
6

9. There’s a catch though: you can’t buy or create earned Adopt these social media marketing tips and ENGAGE
media directly. Your brand’s Facebook page will only spawn using an unprecedented understanding of users
earned media (likes, shares and comments) if you run
1. With traditional marketing, you choose media placement
marketing campaigns that are optimized for engagement
based on predicted demographic profiles, historical
and sharing activity.
populations, and projected figures.
Earned media is the key to unlocking the power of social A traditional digital marketing network provides historical
for your brand statistics about populations of users with certain interests. But
A recent study conducted by Facebook and ComScore provided what else do you know about the “fitness, diet, health, and
some of the most compelling statistics we’ve seen regarding wellness advocates” that you’re promised to reach by using this
the value of earned media. Recognizing that “many marketers marketing channel? If the fitness oriented user is actually also a
today do not feel well-equipped to effectively measure social car enthusiast, or unemployed, or currently a student, would the
marketing ROI”, ComScore devised a scientific research digital marketing network parse this information for your use?
experiment that would measure lift from earned media Wouldn’t it be productive to your strategy to know more about a
exposure. The experiment was performed for two brands, to user’s social profile?
measure two different user behaviors: Social media networks know a lot about their users. When a
• Starbucks: to measure the effect of earned media exposure brand develops custom applications for these networks, or runs
on in-store purchasing advertising within them, the brand can potentially have access
to a much richer cache of information about the user (with their
• Target: to measure the effect of earned media exposure on permission, of course.) Using this information when crafting a
in-store and online purchasing content strategy can be beneficial, as different types of users
For both experiments, the effects of exposure to earned media will likely engage with different content initiatives. Social media
had statistically significant positive impacts on purchasing provides more insight into consumers than has ever been
behaviors. In fact, Starbucks fans and friends of fans available before.
demonstrated a 38% lift in purchase behavior within 4 weeks
of exposure to earned media (compared to the control group).
The Target fans and friends of fans were 19% more likely to
purchase in Target in the four weeks following exposure.
To capitalize on the incredible effects that earned media can
have on your brand though, you have to start somewhere—
with a fan base. Earned media can come from any user that
chooses to tell a story about your brand to their friends. They
do this by “Liking” a status update or a photo, commenting on
your page, interacting with your applications, or just tagging
your brand in a post. The most common source of this activity
comes from your fans.
So, how can you get more earned media? By looking at success
strategies for brands in the engagement phase of social media
marketing, of course!
Starbucks fans and friends of fans
demonstrated a 38% lift in purchase
behavior within 4 weeks of exposure to [Figure 3.3: The digital network can offer historical populations of users reached,
but how much deeper can the user profile go?]
earned media
2. For the first time, your audience is telling you exactly
who it is.
Social media allows users to tell the world who they are. Users
are filling out their own profiles, and declaring to the network
(and its advertisers and brands) what region they live in, what
7

10. Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for Your Brand
their interests are, who their friends are, and limitless other ENGAGE for ROI
information they choose to share. On LinkedIn, they’re sharing
The two case studies of companies that successfully drew
their educational and professional pursuits. On Pinterest, they’re
positive ROI results from their “Engage” phase of social
sharing their style and aspirations, and on Twitter they’re sharing
initiatives are from different parts of the world. That didn’t affect
content that interests them. Savvy brands are on the lookout
the results of each campaign, proving that engagement breeds
for technology that compiles these social profiles together and
trust, earned media, and advocacy despite different languages,
enables brands to provide a truly customized experience for
regions, and users.
each user. Given the incredible speed of development in this
industry, going from communicating to the faceless to putting
faces on our social consumers is not a long way away. Çiçek Sepeti
[Figure 3.4: Similar to traditional lead generation techniques, users can fill out
all of their own information to get access to social networks and the custom
applications within them, like this custom whitepaper download application on
the Wildfire fan page.]
3. Profiling of user interests, friend lists, employment,
education, industry, geography, groups, affiliations, style, WHO: Çiçek Sepeti is Turkey’s leading online flower store
(and more) enables a rich understanding of your consumer. and gift-giving company.
Each social network has a unique set of information about the WHAT: While its e-commerce website already had
users engaged within it. LinkedIn knows users’ employment significant traction (it receives more than 15,000 visitors
histories, industry, seniority, region, education level, and more. and approximately 2,000 orders daily), Çiçek Sepeti wanted
Facebook knows the user’s friends and what they’re interested to grow its fan base and increase fan engagement on
in, what places the user has previously “checked in” to, and Facebook. The company had also recently introduced
brands the user thinks are cool. Pinterest has a running list of several new products, and sought to publicize them using
every item on the internet that the user took time enough to social media.
“pin” to demonstrate their interests and style. How much more Çiçek Sepeti used Wildfire tools to run more than a dozen
powerful would your marketing strategy be if you could access campaigns, including quizzes, trivia, coupons, contests,
a more unified social profile of your consumers, aggregating and sweepstakes, designed to kick-start fan growth and
information about your customers across social networks? promote continued engagement. For one particularly
Combining this social data with data about users’ interactions successful campaign, Çiçek Sepeti used a quiz application
with your brand (have they purchased in the last 3 months? to pose light-hearted questions to its male audience about
Have they claimed but not redeemed a coupon in the last year?) their romantic behaviors. For instance, one question
can potentially create the level of targeting that will nurture your stated, “Your spouse’s birthday occurs the same day as a
communities of advocates into action. championship sports game--what will you do?”
RESULT: The company credited one of its quizzes with a
How much more powerful would your click-through rate 20 times greater than standard Facebook
marketing strategy be if you could ads. On the day the quiz launched, Çiçek Sepeti doubled
access a more unified social profile its “People Talking About This” count, a key engagement
of your consumers, aggregating metric. The promotion ran for four weeks, during which
information about your customers time the online retailer recognized a 20% increase in
across social networks? its monthly revenue, and more than 38,000 visits to its
Facebook page. By the time it ended, the quiz had received
more than 17,000 entries and yielded over 450 “Likes.”
8

11. MONETIZE
Blowfish Shoes
As a fan builds trust and engagement with a brand through
its social channels, they will move towards monetization and
advocacy. A successful approach to monetizing your social
channel presence leads to measurable business benefits such as
• collection of high-quality leads
• lead conversion to sales
• purchasing behaviors
• account retention
Is monetizing your social channel as easy as launching an
electronic shopping cart? If only! We’ve outlined some important
tips to consider when your brand is contemplating its approach
to the “Monetize” phase of social media marketing.
Adopt these social media marketing tips and MONETIZE
using the social sales dimension
1. Users expect specific activities when they’re interacting
WHO: Blowfish shoes is a shoe designer and retailer
with social networks— your typical e-commerce shopping
headquartered in Santa Monica, California.
cart solutions are not intriguing in this medium.
WHAT: Blowfish wanted to expand its email database and
In December 2010 JC Penney launched its first ecommerce store
grow and engage its fan base. It also sought to attract
on Facebook, making waves in the press for breaking ground.
new fans who aligned with the brand – creative, original
Within a year, however, that version of the storefront was
and youthful. Blowfish created a digital sweepstakes
removed from the Facebook page. Now, an evolved shopping
to give away a pair of shoes to a new customer every
app is live on the fan page, driving traffic to the site using
day for a year. Since building its email database was
different social features like “Make it your own,” which uses
a critical objective, Blowfish made sure to develop an
profile information to display offers that (now rebranded) jcp
entry form that prompted entrants to provide their email
considers relevant to the user, personally. Social e-commerce
addresses. Blowfish also supported its sweepstakes by
adds a new dimension to shopping activities, and brands that
running targeted Facebook ads and a YouTube promotion
embrace this dimension will find success in the new industry.
announcing the weekly winners. The company put a lot of
social media savvy behind its promotion, creating fun and
quirky weekly videos animating a pair of shoes walking
into a box and being shipped to that week’s winner. These
personality-infused efforts resonated highly with Blowfish
fans and followers, influencing high engagement and return
rates to the promotion.
RESULT: During the 12-month promotional duration,
Blowfish increased its email database by 865%, and
grew its Facebook fan base by a remarkable 2,488%. The
analytics further showed that 64% of contestants voluntarily
continued to browse Blowfish’s shoe collection after
entering the sweepstakes, and that nearly half of all sales
transactions during the promotion period involved
contestants. The promotion went so well by all accounts
that Blowfish ended up running it a second time, calling it [Figure 3.5: JCPenney’s original approach to F-Commerce.]
their “Second Annual Shoe-a-Day Giveaway!”
9

12. Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for Your Brand
[Figure 3.7: Oscar De La Renta showcases a monthly F-commerce application
that allows users to purchase an item through the fan page that is not available
anywhere else in the world.]
3. Use advanced demographic and psychographic profiling
with segmentation strategies to offer users personalized
and meaningful experiences.
[Figure 3.6: jcp’s new approach to social commerce, adding in a customized
“make it your own” feature that mixes up the shopping experience per user.] With access to more information than ever before about users,
successful monetization tactics should strive to incorporate
2. Social selling involves activity with friends, gamification profiling and segmentation techniques. A unified social profile
of sales, or special offers exclusive to the fan community. will enable your brand to know which of its fans also “Like”
An ideal “social” selling experience should offer a user elements your competitors, or which of those fans have been dormant
of the same expectations they set for brands when becoming in the past quarter. Create monetization efforts based on
a fan. We know users want exclusive content, custom offers, this information, to speed the path to conversion or repeat
and special promotions. How can your brand integrate these purchase.
user desires into selling initiatives? One great example comes
from Oscar De La Renta’s Facebook fan page. The fan page has
a custom application called “Shop Exclusives” that enables users
once per month to buy one item through the Facebook interface
that is completely unavailable anywhere else in the world.
During the month that this paper was written, the exclusive
shopping experience featured a stylish notebook called “the
Bauble Book,” a $39 purchase available to Facebook fans only.
10

13. MONETIZE to Convert
HauteLook
The two case studies featured below demonstrate brands that
created offers of high value for users, and an even higher value
for these businesses.
Eye City
WHO: Founded in 1996, Eye City Vision is a Lasik eye
surgery clinic located in Texas. Eye City provides patients
with complete eye care, eye wear, cataract care, and Lasik in
one location.
WHAT: Since Lasik purchases had been down due to the
recession, Eye City Vision had already experimented with
print advertising, online advertising, and its website to
generate awareness of its offerings. Looking to grow its
business, Eye City Vision wanted to leverage the power of
social media and drive traffic to Eye City Vision.
Eye City Vision used Wildfire to launch a 6-month long
coupon campaign. The coupon provided individuals who
visited and claimed the voucher on the Eye City Vision fan
page a $1,000 off discount on Lasik.
WHO: HauteLook is an online private sale site that features
RESULT: During the promotion cycle, Eye City Vision had limited-time sale events. Every day, HauteLook partners
its two highest sales months since the company was with premium fashion and lifestyle brands to create private,
founded in 1996, with sales up more than 40% from upscale sale events.
prior year. Though Eye City Vision had been successful
WHAT: HauteLook wanted to attract new users to their fan
in running coupons through print advertising as well, the
page as well as influence fans to visit the website by using
company cited that having coupons accessible via Facebook
an incentive to make a purchase. HauteLook used Wildfire
was a significant and powerful force for their business. The
to run an “Instant Win” campaign which ran for just seven
coupon was claimed by 373 users, impressive since the
days on their Facebook Fan Page, mimicking the urgency
offer for the clinic is only relevant for a two locations that
that HauteLook’s limited-time sales incite in members.
serve central Texas.
Facebook users needed to become a fan in order to redeem
the coupon, which revealed what they won.
11

14. Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for Your Brand
From the user’s perspective, this application seemed like a CONCLUSION
scratch-off lottery card— after filling out the entry form with You understand that successful social media initiatives start
the user’s personal details, she would be served her lottery with an alignment to the social media marketing “phase” the
card with her “winnings.” Every card had a value, from 10% brand is in. You’ve mastered an understanding of the powerful
off an HauteLook purchase, to the more coveted “Buy one ways in which you can use social media to grow your brand and
get one free” item voucher, to the biggest prize of all: one drive real business results. You’ve thought through engagement
$10,000 giveaway. strategies. And you’ve even ushered in buying activity from your
fans who are part of your trustworthy community.
RESULT: Over the seven days of the coupon campaign, the
HauteLook Fan Page’s fan base increased by 4,200 new fans This three-phase framework is cyclical. Continued engagement
who claimed nearly 3,800 coupons. To date, 21% of the with users enables actions, stories, and messages to spread
coupons were redeemed by first-time HauteLook buyers. In through fans’ networks and attract friends of fans to the brand
addition, 19% of the coupons that were claimed were done page (generating earned media), helping to lead into growth
so by “dormant” buyers, or members of the HauteLook site initiatives again. Follow this framework and key stakeholders
that had been inactive for a certain number of months. within your business will recognize the value and ROI delivered
As a result of this social selling campaign, HauteLook throughout each step of this virtuous cycle.
generated $30,000 in revenue and a 250% ROI net of all
campaign and marketing costs.
12

15. Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for our Brand
Wildfire is a powerful, easy-to-use social marketing
platform to grow, engage and monetize your audience
across social networks.
Learn how we can help you today!
888.274.0929 ext 2
www.wildfireapp.com
Redwood City Munich
sales@wildfireapp.com sales.de@wildfireapp.com
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