SOCIAL MEDIA COUNCIL DRAFT REPORT It's All About Marketing.....and Measurement

The Social Media Council held its inaugural steering meeting on Wed. March 18.

Initially, this group was formed by members of the iBreakfast to give some form and understanding to explosive growth of Social Media. What had only recently seemed like one more online time-sucker has suddenly become perceived as a salvation of sorts for marketers, job seekers and consultants.

The most compelling interest of this group was in its marketing value – particularly from the perspective of what works and then, how to measure it. Everyone loves the idea of “viral” – getting your message out for free. But how do you measure it is effectiveness and how do explain its ultimate value – as well as some of its possible drawbacks to a client.

At that same time, we are all users of Social Media and we are concerned with issues of best practices as well as a kind of users Social Contract – what is the best way to interact with uses and what are the right ways to reward or monetize the users’ efforts. Finally, there is a concern – if somewhat less compelling among our tech-savvy members – about strategies and tactics and which social media are best used and how.

DEFINING SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
The biggest concern at this meeting was measurement and expectations: what exactly is a Social Media campaign, how do you measure it and how do you explain to clients and colleagues – in the face of hype, misuse and uncertainty – just what outcomes they can reasonably expect?
The extent of this question quickly came to life in the words of one member who noted that clients just say: “Make us viral!” While that may sound simplistic, Social Media is all about spreading the word.

The next issue becomes a matter of expectations – can clients realistically expect to be the next Obama Girl? Would they really like to be in the middle of the “How to Smoke Smarties” controversy where preteens simulated smoking with a secondary brand of candy. Most of all, what is the real chance of becoming a viral hit vs. what is a more likely to outcome?

(In many cases what looks like a viral hit, was really an orchestrated effort in some hidden, but substantial way. )

Assuming this is how most clients view Social Media then we can start with this basic working definition:

Social Media is about getting the public to promote you, essentially for free, or at least, of their own volition.

(This definition works for individuals and professionals too, assuming they are trying to promote their public exposure).

In terms of marketing, this puts Social Media in a unique category somewhere between PR and paid ads. It is all human-driven content as opposed to the “create once” mentality of conventional ad placement, yet unlike PR there, are a numerous acceptable as well as arguably more controversial ways to drive exposure.

A SUBSET OF PERMISSION MARKETING – BUT EASIER TO GET PERMISSIONS
In many ways, Social Marketing is like Permission Marketing in that you can only proceed with the permission of the users, their rules and etiquette. Blackballing and retaliations are possible – but so is growth. The main difference, however, is that prospects are leery about signing on to opt-in lists is hard because it is assumed to be mostly about marketing and clogging their emails. With Social Media you are trading information, not necesarrily marketing and may do so without clogging their email.

SOCIAL MEDIA “USER COVENANT”
At its bottom, Social Media is an easier way to get permissions. Moreover, it evades Permission Marketing’s Catch-22 rule: it is NOT unethical to ask strangers for permission, again, because is understood not to be purely about marketing but about many kinds of networking that may lead up to some kind of marketing usually in the form of exposure or attention-seeking. However, this is a kind of unstated user-marketer covenant which means that overly aggressive clients need to understand this before proceeding - or they will do so at their peril!

BASIC TOOLS
Most clients view either blogs or viral videos as the key to getting their message across. In many case adding a widget it’s a plus. Games are a great viral ploy. Twitter is now an integral though not fully understood part. Wikis play a role but are generally absent from the marketing conversation.
Most individuals and professional users view blogs and Facebook page plus a business networking tool like LinkedIn or Plaxo as the basic tools for the trade.

(Attendees noted there too many offers from too many platforms for their efforts which opens up a numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs to consolidate or at least harmonize platforms. Filtering is another growing user issue.)

MEASURING RESULTS

The next question is how do you measure results? There are many ways: sign-ups, pass-forwards, Facebook fans, followers, chatter in the form of blog-postings, story leads and ultimately some type of sales.

There are numerous commercial services to help do this. Buzzmetrics offers trending reports that show how a brand is being perceived. Social Media sites like Facebook and council attendee Ripple6 provide comprehensive stats from their platform usages.

METRICS
As the principals of Pandemic Labs pointed out, the industry would be greatly aided by agreed-upon metrics somehow impression-based (like a social media CPM) as well as something engagement-based that traditional marketers could understand. The holy grail would be sentiment-based digital footprint metrics.

Another suggestion from JB Barlow of LifeWorkAlliance.com is a Digg-like model that uses social media to rate social media.

However – Social Media CPMs are different from traditional advertising because they carry blowback risks. So even if measurement is somehow unitized it still has to be seen in the context of an overall campaign strategy.

HOLISTIC MEASUREMENT
What all of these approaches miss is the big picture – what did Social Media, and Social Media only - do for my brands, service, product, career etc? While no media ever can do all that, most media, particularly digital, offer increasing levels of measurement. Social Media however, complicates much of this because monetization at every level is elusive and even among obvious viral successes there have been difficulties in achieving monetization.

Exposure: Giving Up Control & Blowback
The biggest problem for traditional marketers may be that unlike old Media, here the public can talk back. Inappropriate campaigns can get you into trouble. Unlike the old adage of no such thing as bad publicity, here it can be really bad. Often, the negatives can stay around search engines forever. So campaigns carry liability as well as opportunity. Again, as consultants, technologists and campaign providers we need this phenomenon to be an understood issue

CAMPAIGN PROFILES vs. CASE STUDIES AND UNDERSTANDING BLOWBACK
Since it is possible to measure various elements in Social Media, the key then is how we define success. In addition, we need to balance it against the risks – how much does the pursuit of success expose the enterprise. Or another way of asking, how much brand control do you need to give up in order to get the public the freedom to viralize you.

VIRAL VALUE LEVELS
Since creating virality is the holy grail of Social Media we should begin by defining a kind of Viral Value chain.

Viral Hierarchy - from Most Viral to Least Viral
1. Platform: Pass along – users commend – attach themselves
2. Widget
3. Conversational
4. Pass-along
5. Link
6. Mention
7. Banner
8. Adword

CAMPAIGN PROFILES
Just as a Financial Analyst would show a client a portfolio profile based on risk vs. reward Social Media advisors should have a “model portfolio” approach.

High Growth vs. High Risk
Maximum Virality – Wow! or controversial campaign vs. risk of online retribution. Favors breakthrough ideas, outrageous videos etc.

Medium Virality – medium chance of blowback. Favors games, contests, cute ideas or useful tactics like widgets and cool or useful videos.

Low Virality - little chance of blowback. Pass-along with little or no interactivity, commentary etc. Favors videos, pictures, jokes , interesting videos etc.

CAMPAIGN PROGRAM TYPES
Since many attendees of the Council Meeting are in a position to sell campaigns, they asked for standards or baseline measures. Just as the Interactive Advertising Bureau spent its early years developing standards for banners – this group saw a need for Marketing Units or standards as well as away to describe the work effort required.

Social Media Marketing is inherently more complicated. Nevertheless, there is a way to provide standard guidelines both in terms of basic integrated campaigns, their likely outcomes and the level of labor and effort required to establish and support these campaigns. Another measure is the issue of strategic needs: are these branding efforts, product sales, customer retention, reputation management etc.

Some Guidelines are:
Basic Campaign: Integrating Social Network Page (e.g. Facebook) with weekly updated blog and Twitter account.
Estimated development time 20 hours. Estimated maintenance 10 hours per week.
Likely outcomes: customer outreach, modest growth for small enterprises. Modest effort level.
Basic Campaign enhancements – Business Network outreach (e.g. LinkedIn, Plaxo) seeking clients and hires by seeking for past contacts etc. Simple videos, homemade or semi-professional.
Email campaign to old and new clients.

Medium Campaign: Retention/Loyalty Campaign
Integrating Social Network Page (e.g. Facebook) with weekly updated blog and Twitter account. Outreach to existing clients. Raise and improve profile. Premium offers/Loyalty programs.
Estimated development time 50 hours. Estimated maintenance 20-40 hours per week. May require team or dedicated staffer.
Likely outcomes: customer outreach, customer feedback, and double-digit growth for small to medium enterprises. Team-effort level. May require third party providers of games, loyalty programs and content
Medium Campaign enhancements – Business Network outreach (e.g. LinkedIn, Plaxo). Professional videos. Good content and editing.
Email campaign to old and new clients. Partnering, linksharing, affinity groups and affiliate marketing.

Advanced Campaign: High Growth
Requires a Big Idea – an exciting new product, outrageous video, a major celebrity, nation TV campaign etc.
Integrating Social Network Page (e.g. Facebook) with a Website with “Big Viewer Driver” from TV or “talked about content.” Gets attention online and on other media (Press, TV etc). High risk of controversy.
Estimated development time 100-400 hours. Estimated maintenance 100+ hours per week. Will require team or dedicated staffers. Generally requires agency or outside partners.
Likely outcomes: dramatic media and customer growth, high traffic, geometric growth for medium to large enterprises. Quantum leap for small sites. Team-effort level. Generally requires third party providers of games, content, ideas, tech support.
Campaign enhancements – General and specialized digital PR, Business Network outreach (e.g. LinkedIn, Plaxo). Professional videos. Good content and editing.
Email campaign to old and new clients. Partnering, linksharing, affinity groups and affiliate marketing.

BLOWBACK & REPUTATION MANAGEMENT – WHEN THE PUBLIC RESPONDS
Traditional organizations generally require some change of thinking in order to enter the world of Social Media because they must allow some level of “brand release.” If they place too much control over the conversation they will be shunned or worse. On the other hand, they may have trouble handling the controversy. Enterprises with already bad public relations may have difficulty just entering the field. Worse, search engines have a way of keeping bad news in the public eye long after they have been dispelled.

The industry should therefore pose guidelines as to the following (outside of legal remedies such as libel):
Fair comment vs. unfair comment
Fair response
Fair deletion of comment
Fair counter PR such as in responding to URLs that inherently attack certain enterprises.

PAYMENT OF INFLUENCERS – TRANSPARENCY vs. MORALITY
In general Bloggers and other providers of User Generated Content are expected to work gratis. The only universally accepted exception is the placement of AdSense ads. Clearly, the real issue is that UGM is attractive precisely because it is supposed to be the honest voices of the netizens and uninfluenced by outside forces – he blogosphere as a kind of online folk medium a vox populi. The reality is that onliners are always pushing something – their business, their views, their reputation or just their own excuse to grab your attention. Even the placement of AdSense has influence over the way some bloggers address issues known to attract the highest click rates.
Aside from the “moral” issues raised by tech purists – there are two issues:
1. Transparency – if bloggers etc. declare their sponsors or biases, is that OK?
2. What is fair – ads, sponsors or direct influence in the content itself?

SPONSORED BLOGGER/UGM GUIDELINES
Since AdSense is rarely lucrative for the long tail of content providers it is quite likely that more and more bloggers, vbloggers etc. with sizable followings will increasingly seek out more lucrative revenue sources – most of which will somehow influence their work.

TRANSPARENCY LEVELS
As long as transparency is the acceptable standard, then are basic levels of transparency –
1. Full Transparency: Declared sponsors with no edit control from sponsors. Free to be critical.
2. Partial Transparency: Sponsors declared with final edit control from sponsors.
3. Minimal Transparency: Sponsors Named. Content may be developed by sponsor.

OTHER GUIDELINES
Attendees noted other areas of concern that required a list of guidelines and best practices.
Approvals
Privacy ID
Protection of Copyrights and other Intellectual Property Rights
User Generated Media (See Transparency levels)
Ads and Sponsorship
Ownership of Contact and other Social Media Platform data.
Wiki Ethics

MEETINGS
The Council could establish public meetings in multiple cities.
It could also establish conferences and professional/best practice training programs for individuals as well enterprises.

MEMBERSHIPS
As the group grows, based on the recommendations of the committee members we should consider its charter as a membership group, with paid dues, a mission to represent the interests of the industry.

Why Newspapers Die - Our April iBreakfast: Google's Solution

OK here's a Big Timely One. Why are newspapers dying - and is there a way out?

Google thinks so and they are launching a new initiative to respond to this. Newspapers - stay tuned: we will be examining this in great detail at our April iBreakfast.

But in many ways the conversation is still about reconfiguring what's already out there - digital text with a few visual enhancements.

THE FUTURE IS IN VISUAL THINKING

For those who know, I have been exploring the world of Graphic Novels (OK, Comics for Smartypants). There is a method to this madness......

Everyone knows that ComicCon is takng over the world.....or so it seems. Comics are the basis of most of Hollywood's blockbusters. Graphic Novels are the only growth area in publishing and they are all the rage in education (we even started a conference called Graphica in Education).

Why is this and what does it mean for Newspapers?
The short answer is that people - especially young people - are attuned to reading with both sides of the brain. Text favors only one side of the brain. Bringing pictures to the story acitvates the other. Adding deep archetypes (the comic superheroes) substantially enhances interest in the storylines. One reason why celbrity gossip with pics sells so well (substitue Madoff for Madonna and you bump up readership in the Wall Street Journal just as much).

What this means for Newpapers is that when you go digital you can't just do newspapers online and add a few pictures. People want to experience the news with more of "dual brained" balance. Stories have symbolic value and they have to be told via the language of symbols - or else your just beating a dying horse. What the net encourages is short, sweet, high impact and easy drill-down.

When movies began, they often filmed plays. Motion pictures oringinally showed skits and visual effects. When the narrative of drama was combined with filmed action we had a substantially new medium.

So that's why we started ViziPress, teamed up with sites like Empressr and a series of projects that will illustrate new ways to make digital media more readable.

In the meantime, stay tuned for our April iBreakfast and you will hear about the current issues and peek into the big ideas going forward..

Social Media Council Meeting

The Social Media Council met for the first time on Wed. in NY.

The report will be out shortly. Tell me if you want an early glimpse......

The bottom line is - it's all about marketing, measuring and managing expectations.

Then comes professional and personal usage - strategies and best practices.

This report will outline some really compelling ways that we, as a community can substantially affect the developments of all of the above.

Stay tuned.....!

Don't forget the next iBreakfast on Wed. March 25th is about the dramatic combination of Search and Social Media.

Report from the Business Side of Social Media iBreakfast

What we saw at the February iBreakfast was the sudden embrace by businesses and professionals of a group of technologies that have been kicking around for several years – with the aura of diversion and not business.

Due to crash and the dramatic loss of trust in the financial system, we are looking at them with different eyes. At the macro level, we may be entering a new kind of economy – one that that has gone from the Post-Industrial Economy (1964-1984), the Knowledge Economy (1984-2004 to the Social Relationship Economy. We have exported industrialization, western education and now, thanks to the Internet, we can access those educated people worldwide and outsource our knowledge economy about as efficiently as we did the industrial and postindustrial economies. Since shipping is relatively cheap and globalism has undercut most of our protected markets, and our knowledge-based industrial economy turns out to be flawed and so we seem to be left up the proverbial creek.

The only thing we own that cannot be undercut, is our trusted relationships.

Many of the errors of the market and arguably, the stimulus is they pay no attention to this shift and are throwing resources at a dead economic model. (Some of the comments from my opening presentation will be available in a separate report.)

So we’re on our own with this new paradigm. Fortunately, with Social Media tools, we now have the means to reach, manage and, as we are learning, extract value from these relationships.

For many people out of work – their relationships are probably what is going to deliver their next job or consulting opportunity.

For companies looking to survive and grow, it is these relationships that will help them understand what their clients thinks of them and how they can promote it in the hopes of setting off the magic grail of this universe: viral growth.

Jared Hendler of EdelmanDigital showed how his company had successfully used these techniques to enhance the brand relationships for Pepsi and Axe using approaches that PR people understand: motivate the influencers in a group and the others follow. With Social Media they are using this techniques directly with the consumer and in that way, replacing or at least supporting, traditional advertising.

Rich Ullman of Ripple6, a Social Relationship engine that was recently acquired by Gannet, offers a controllable white-label product for corporate America with varies tools to monitor the feedback loop. Having customers talk back in a public forum is challenging area for many companies and they will have to learn to rethink their relationship to consumers. But in reality, for those who get it, it is an opportunity. Ripple6’s tool makes it possible to follow,measure and target. With his platform it is easy for the client typically, the marketer ,to monitor the conversation and the general rule is anything that gets people fired up – like Mom’s or people suffering pain – will garner a highly involved conversation.

Matt Peters of the relatively new marketing company, Pandemic Labs, discussed the taste test campaign his company did for Dunkin Donuts which is considered part of the reason many coffee drinkers were willing to forgo a trip to Starbucks. Neverthless an audience member asked the key question “how many cups of coffee did it sell?” The answer was awareness, mentions, etc. On the other hand, try asking that question to an ad exec!

In the end, this series of events has shown a deep need for companies and now, individuals, to develop a genuine Social Media Strategy - to understand what works and what they need to work at to get results. Contrary to the few “viral lottery” stories, very little of this success happens just by itself but at the same time, it is no longer a time-wasting luxury - it is a tool for survival.
To that end we will be launching a Social Media Council and a series of low-cost, hands-on workshops to deal with the issue of Social Media Management Strategies and Promoting Your Digital Footprint.

If you are interested in the Council and the workshops please send a note to Somc@ibreakfast.com

To download the Presentations go to:

Edelman Digital (Jared Hendler)
Ripple6 (Rich Ullman)
Pandemic Labs (Matt Peters)


Other blogs from this event:
Bloggers School

The Glitter in Twitter - iBreakfast Report

For all those fencesitters who wondered, "Why Twitter?" this iBreakfast gave them a reason to take the tweet. There is plenty of tweasure in Twitter (sowwy!) as long as you use it right and forget the early hype.

The early adopters made Twitter seem like a new way for the underemployed to twitter away time. But with StockTwits, investor and entrepreneur Howard Lindzon (ho founded and sold WallStrip) not only made a case for using this as a platform, but also offered a clue as to the career possibilities for thousands of free-range experts. He new ronin. The Wallstreeters that Madoff & Co. let loose.....

Stockpickers and analysts and can develop a following on StockStwits and build up a client base. The beauty of Twitter - and this is the key - is that it favors any business tha needs immediate, up-to-the second information. Stock trading is one really good example.

But there are plenty of others. David Pogue in the Times recently talked about how they use it to check the originality of an idea for the MacArthur grant committee meeting.

If you want to know whether the wine you are about to buy at a restaurant or the wineshop is the right year - then go to WineTwits. According to Steve Gilbert, founder and long time online wine-selling pioneer (Happyhours.com and winestillsoldout.com) he has generated over $15,000 in wine sales from his small but growing wine-lover following.

A great example of the virality of Twitter is the Shorty Awards developed almost as a lark (note the bird reference here!) by entrepreneur Greg Galant of Sawhorse Media. In a very short time they received ten's of thousands of submissions from all over the world and now they have a long list of people hoping to attend the award ceremonies.

Finally, if your company needs to put together a comprehensive short messaging plan then mCommoms offers a way to tie it all together. According to co-founder, Chris Muscarella, only 5% of Twitter traffic originates from cell phones (although the iPhone thwarts these numbers because it is seeen as a computer and not a phone) and so the management is complex and more web-oriented. In any case, as people understand the usefulness of mobile mass instant messaging the need will increase.

For additional reports read these blogs about the Twitter iBreakfast.

Flirting with Twitter - "Glitter in Twitter" iBreakfast « Press ...
The best advice of the the ibreakfast "Glitter in Twitter" session on 1/22/09 was that this is the last thing you want to "tweet."

Kevin Rose: 10 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers

Dec. iBreakfast Report - Wealth in Widgets

Michael Chin, KickApps Chris Damsen, Netvibes Chris Kobran, Clearspring "Snaggable" is the big word in Widgets according to Chris Kobran of Clearspring which is a Widget distribution network. By creating a useful mini-site, people will upload them to their own sites or portals and h client stays alive in the eyes of its consumers. The classic widgets are weatherbugs, clocks alerts, traffic cams or anything that someone finds useful on a regular basis. Contests, updates and so on are another useful application. KickApps Michael Chin talked about widgets displacing banner ads as the principal ad format of the internet. Is company builds wedgets as sponsored ad units for clients. Chris Damsen from Netvibes showed the widget-driven portal for users - with the online world of social media and blogs, the focus is on providing useful ad-driven products that users will hopefully festoon on their home pages. Bloggers School Report from the Widget iBreakfast Video from the Widget iBreakfast

Interactive TV Reinvents Itself - Nov. 20 iBreakfast

Welcome to the world of the SuperDVR - getting the show you want when you want it. It is really the convergence of IPTV, what speaker Shelly Palmer elaborates in his book TV Disrupted (version 2 is coming out shortly) in what he calls the migration from Network TV to Networked TV.

Mark Risis, TiVo; Alan Body iBreakfast; Shelly Palmer, Advanced Media; Gary Lauder, Lauder Partners

In its simplest form it just means that any video anywhere – whether Network TV, Cable, Pay-per-View or any YouTube or Internet Video can be retrieved and called up on your TV. This is where the giant screen TVs and those increasingly elaborate set-top boxes will really earn their keep.

Moreover, as you see this evolve, the convergence with mobile both as a kind of smart clicker (that’s where Bluetooth really kicks in) and as a remote viewing device for what you have overcaptured. There is also an emerging video conversation that young people are already engaged in over the internet, is as we can see from TiVo, moving on to interactive TV.
This is where TiVo is getting interesting.

For all the early hype, there is really only one company that has brought us a successful form of iTV and that is TiVo – wich is really just a vision of making a TV work like a VCR thanks to some cool software and a big hard drive. So their next steps into the future are compelling – now they are offering a convergence with broadband so you can start doing what kids everywhere are doing, looking at YouTube videos, but on your giant TV instead of a laptop. To pay for it, and all the commercial zapping that takes place with commercial TV, they are getting advertisers to offer special TiVo friendly versions of their ads that send out a banner message as they are being skimmed.

This in turn is another new frontier of the TV experience, enabling viewers to get a video shorthand of all the material they are now amassing……and this, along iwht the mobile component will be the topics we revisit when we do iTV Reinvented Part II.