Table 9 Social Networking

Table 9: Social Networking/Blogging: Heidi Skinner, Critical Mass

The key for the marketer is to balance the scale between appearing authentic to the customer and obtaining the sale.
-Create a relationship to the customer so they trust you and believe what you have to say
-Once you've created this relationship, make sure to ask for the sale

Customers talk about products and companies amongst themselves:
-Find a way to get into that conversation without being invasive
-Make the conversation you have with the customer reach out to them

Two main groups to target:
1) People who are already your customers (Look in your database)
-They have proven to be loyal and will more than likely pass on your message (whether it be a new product, promotion, news, etc)
2) Find people who are influential
-They may not be customers of yours already, but if they like your product then they can get others to like it too

Things to remember when running a marketing campaign. The 4 best practices when contacting people are:
1) Accessibility- Make your content available and easy to get to, so consumers can see it
2) Meaningful- Make your content relate to the people seeing it (Ideal spot: In between "Entertaining" and "Relevant")
3) Usability- Make the content interactive and give them something to talk about. Look at all applications on Facebook.
4) Sustainability- Keep the conversation going, even after the consumer has purchased from you and be ready to respond. Saying I am here to stay. Make a message, don't just push it out and walk away. You have to stand out from other competitors and gain momentum.

Fun Fact #1: 2.84 million new pieces of content are posted on the web everyday (videos, articles, pictures, etc.)

Fun Fact #2: There are over 200,000 Facebook Applications- 98% of them have 100 users or less

Fun Fact #3: 2/3 of the economy is driven by Word of Mouth Marketing

Fun Fact #4: More and more brands are creating applications being used via social networking websites and other medias

A good place to get ideas for marketing campaigns is to look at the MKTG Awards of the Year
-Obama is more than likely going to get a bunch of awards for the marketing tools he used throughout his campaign
-Burger King conducted a campaign on Facebook: Individuals had to de-friend at least 10 people to receive a Free Whopper
(Facebook pulled this campaign because they claimed it violated their user privacy policy)
-Some companies are using Tweeter to advertise but Tweeter is only good for some products and not for high price items

Important Advice

  • Do not make assumptions about consumers.
  • You are not going to win all consumers but you can draw good from the bad. For example Dell recognizes problems and address them instead of brushing them off.
  • Check out collectiveintellect.com, it conducts sentiment analysis to determine who is talking positively or negatively about a product; it is also used to identify any influencers.

Social Media is giving people something to talk about it is Buzz Worthy contact. Differentiating yourself and finding meaningful tid bits to talk about.

How do you get people to start talking/ using your product?
1. Go out and find your existing customers. The people that are already apart of your CRM (database program) and say hey I want you to try this. These are the people that are already loyal.
2. Using social monitor tools- go out and find customers. Put in your brand name and it will crawl the web for every single comment that is mentioned about your brand, it shows how many people are following you on Twitter and facebook. You can also ask them to try your brand/ product.

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