a introduction to social media

Hi, I’m Rachel Clarke, Head of Social Media division at twentysix. My intention today is to give a very high level overview of Social Media, it’s usage and then look at the ways the tools can be used, with some examples. My fellow speakers will be

going into some specifics, I’m just giving topline overview of what it means and ways you can use it to enhance your brand strategy

Social Media -an Introduction

So what is Social Media?

What the Wiki says

• Social media are media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

Here’s what wikipedia says It’s accurate, it describes what it is.

That’s a good explanation, but there’s a lots of words there, let’s look at the important areas.

What the Wiki says

• “Social media are media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media supports the human need for social interaction, using Internet- and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media” (CGM).

It’s all about social interaction – not just receiving information, but interaction meaning 2 way

It’s highly accessible – a lot of what is being seen is not new, the base technology has been there for a while and the underlying behaviours are fundamental to the human condition. The difference is the tools and technology no longer need any real understanding. You can blog and comment with filling in a few forms and clicking a few buttons. The barriers are down and anyone can do it

We’re all social animals. The tools enable a fundamental human need in a way on a scale that’s new. It’s now not just people you can meet in your local area. It males the world your back yard. The tools also change the paradigm – It’s no longer a broadcast model, it’s moved on from one-to-many...

It’s many to many,....It’s no longer a broadcast model and brands and media companies are just part of the way people get content and interaction. As a user of you don’t need to engage with stuff that is produced for ‘the masses’ to get entertainment or fiction or information

Everyone now is a content producer and can put out their opinion for all to see

The most important part of social media is the social part. It’s all about the people

There’s been an explosion of products, All over the place. There’s no one place, it’s fragmented, growing changing. You have to keep an eye on the whole space to find out what could be useful to you

Because Companies die. Flip, or just continue. It’s a fluid and flexible space

Even with the turnover of companies, the changing landscape, the concepts are here to stay, it’s not a fad

So what are they all doing

What are they doing?

They’re hanging out with friends. They are definitely using social networks, either

actively or passively, maintaining the ambient intimacy of just knowing what’s on or actively promoting themselves or

conversing with many

Hanging out with friends.

29.5m use SN sites

From Comscore, 29.5m UK people over the age of 15. are using social networking, Facebook has been one of the biggest growers over the last year, with 57% increase to 24m; However the champion has to be Twitter with over 3000% increase, although in May

it was still only around 2.6m (although London is the world’s biggest Twitter city). Although Time spent by 15-24 yr with social networks is only 20% of total online time. They are doing a lot more online, so keep options open beyond Facebook and twitter.

Video They’re watching video. 2.4 billion videos viewed on Google sites. It’s not just short form, although that’s easier to watch from work. It’s 79million on the BBC, 34m on ITV. Online delivery of video content is increasing across the board. It’s an alternative to the TV (with far

less ads). It’s place AND time shifting. It even goes on the mobile.

4.6billion videos watched in Apr 2009

They’re blogging - personal publishing for themselves, their friends or for an industry and business

Twitter. They’re microblogging. They’re definitely using Twitter – although ‘use’ has been challenged as active users are a fairly low proportions and many use it in a small circle of friends – or just joined up to follow celebrities.

Hubspot jun 09

They’re using the web on the phone. Mobile is growing at a huge pace. In the last 3 months of last year, UK use of social networking sites via mobile grew 167%. It was at 9% of total mobile users.

Everything is mobile

Even the Government is feeling the impact, with social networks and forums driving more traffic than mainstream media this week. ‘Official’ sources are just not that important or relevant anymore (yes, they still are relevant, but less so). That includes

brands

But why? But why should I do this? How does social media add value to the business? How should I user it. I’m now going to look at different ways that it can be more – not everything, but it’s a good start. The

differences between them can be quite small at times, there’s a lot of overlap., but they provide a framework of thinking about WHAT you are doing this for, where does it fit into the mix. I It’s all about behaviour, not

the tools. It’s how you are using it.

But Why?

There are many reasons. You can look at Short term excitement

Or long term commitment – or both. Which ever you choose,

Advertising campaigns. Advertising./ Short term, campaign related. Usually to do with a specific thing. A video, a website a petitions. Something that is timebound. Usually involving

your agencies. Later on, you’ll see a case study from CMW on Cadbury’s

Advertising campaigns

T-Mobile have taken this to a limit, it’s a fundamental part of their brand at the moment Life’s for Sharing. Dance and Sing. For the Dance, they took the Flash mob idea, combined with the Evolution of Dance and seeded it out through networks, emails,

influencers. The dancers were professional, but they got enough people there at Liverpool st Station, to twitter, blog and record the event, spreading the idea and giving a ready made audience for the video when it got released Dance has 14m views on the official site. For the follow up, they opened it out, the mob was open to all as they turned Trafalgar square into a giant karaoke

event, getting Pink along, and getting alot of footage to use in multiple channels – TV and web. This is one of the best of the fully integrated campaigns, not possible without social media, social networks, video. Instead of just making a video and putting it out

on the web, they created an event – they provided value – and got 13500 influencers in one afternoon. However, the official views on this were only around 1.2m – but the total buzz and awareness was still huge.

Everyone is a publisher, records their life.

Brand buildingT-Mobile is also an example of Brand Building – enhancing the brands equity in the minds of the customer and

potential customers, establishing – or changing – the brand values. A combination of short and long term components can

be involved in. Although each element has it’s own social media tactics, there is a longer term strategy that helps build

up what the brand stands for

Brand Building

Pr Social media is a perfect vehicle for PR. As well as sending out Press Releases to print media, , many brands are now including online media, bloggers both professional and amateur, in their

press releases and their events. Where information is just a search away, it’s good to have reports of events and happenings easily found online

PR

social media press releases have lots of links – sites,.images, links, quotes, videos etc. They’re about giving digital content to bloggers to make it easy for them to write about the project. They

Crisis management. Not all crises are as easy to fix as running out of toilet paper. Monitoring Social media can be the quickest

way to SPOT a crisis or to respond to it. There’s brand related elements or there are more life-related elements.

Crisis Management

Many government and charities now use social media tools to provide information about various ongoing crises – flu, hurricanes, earthquakes. They don’t just provide information, they’re also providing tools and information you communities to help

themselves – the many to many element.

For brands, social media is an early warning system. Motrin – or habitatuk – both performed online actions that received a rapid backlash. Habitiat used trending hashtags on twitter to ‘promote’ their sales and CRM system. Motrin, a US painkiller, added a

video to their site that caused a lot of upset, calling baby wearing a fashion statement. Both of these blew up online and moved to mainstream media rapidly. Both needed to be tackled via more traditional press relations methods and through social media,

which is were the original issue was.

Innovation Customers are a great source of innovation – they’re the ones that are going to buy it, who use the product and may have an idea of how to change or improve it. Some

companies are tapping into this pool of ideas – crowd sourcing it if you want

Innovation

Dell have their IdeaStorm. They want community ideas on new products. They ask the community to vote on them. They then implement them – 373 times.

Starbucks does exactly the same, (they have the same fundamental design as they both use Salesforce Ideas Platform). They both ask customers what they want from the brand, how they want to shape it and then demonstrate that they are listening

Collaboration Collaboration with customers is an extension of this. The same tools can also be used to collaborate internally, or with business partners. It’s

a continuum of use.

Collaboration

Social media can be monitored for trends. Externally, these are often short term, but sometimes indicative of larger changes – I’d be aware of augmented reality as a trend to keep an eye on at the moment! Monitoring what people are saying about your

brand also provides insight into how your brand is being perceived and any trends there are in this. Bad products, bad service, great changes, they can all be spotted. Above is a tongue in cheek interpretation of Twitter trend analysis. Trends

Surveys Online surveys have often been used on your site. Visit it and you pushed to take a survey. Now you can use social media to

invite people to take surveys – not just about your site and advertising, but a wider range of topics. They can be used to extend your focus groups, both in promoting a survey and getting answers,

Again, they can be used to gather insights from a wider audience that a few focus groups.Surveys

Recruitment

Through more formal methods such as Linked in, Twitjobs or just posting something to your network to see if connections and connections’ connections can find someone. Word of mouth magnified.

Customer Service. social media is a great tool to connect with customers and find out what’s

bothering them!

Customer Service

Two examples of using Twitter for Customer Service

Loyalty

Networking Linked in, tweetups, B2B sites, they all help you network online or increasingly face-to-face. This can

work externally and internally

Networking

Best Buys Blue Shirt Nation (now evolved to be called Mix) is a social network for employees. It has over 25k active employees. They also invite vendors and suppliers into specific areas – away from the main conversation, to improve relationships. It’s task

orientated, around topics departments etc, it brings in near-synchronous communications.

Thought leadership Have something to say? Want to prove to the world you know what you and your company are talking about. It’s all about

show, don’t tell. Instead of using marketing to tell people you’re the best, or the most innovative, get out there and prove your thinking

Thought Leadership

General Motors have been working on this for a while, one of the earliest companies on Social Media. At C level. Of course, just because you use the tools does not mean it solves all your product and marketing issues!

Sales and Acquisition All of this can also lead to increased sales – getting you customers

Sales and Acquisition

Thank you

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