Slide 1: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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Netimperative Sector Seminar: Engagement through Social Media
Sponsors of today’s event are:
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Netimperative Sector Seminar: Engagement through Social Media
With Social Networks becoming the day to day norm and a way to communicate to your networks both through work and personally. We talk today about how we can harness the power of the social networks to promote and advertise our businesses. How communicating with your customers day to day can achieve a higher return on investment, trust, generate great ideas and place you at the top of your game . 2:00pm – 2:30pm 2:30pm – 2:35pm 2:35pm – 2.55 pm 2.55pm – 3:15pm Registration Chair‟s Introduction & Overview Andrew Gerrard, Consultant, D-marketing How to advertise using Social Media Simon Podd, Head of Sales UK & Ireland, Bebo Case Study: Targeted Advertising Campaigns through Social Media Oisin Lunny, Country Manager, UK & Ireland, Sulake Corporation & Emily Knee, Senior Digital Account Manager, NSPCC Successfully tracked results for your Social Media Campaigns Paul Taylor, Managing Director and Matthew Brazil, CEO, 6 Consulting Your customers are your best sales channel: How to use social media to build reputation and advocacy Ivan Croxford, General Manager, BT Tradespace Coffee & Networking Reach is now irrelevant and engagement is key to brand value Katy Howell, CEO, immediate future Case Study: Yomego works with Eircom to create a new home for Irish Soccer Steve Richards, Business Director, Yomego Panel Debate: Do social media ads work or just wind users up? Andrew Gerrard, Consultant, D-marketing Simon Podd, Head of Sales UK & Ireland, Bebo Oisin Lunny, Country Manager, UK & Ireland, Sulake Corporation Emily Knee, Senior Digital Account Manager, NSPCC Paul Taylor, Managing Director, 6 Consulting Ivan Croxford, General Manager, BT Tradespace Katy Howell, CEO, immediate future Steve Richards, Business Director, Yomego Chairman‟s Closing Remarks Wine Reception & Networking
3:15pm – 3:35pm 3:35pm – 3:55pm
3.55pm – 4.15pm 4:15pm – 4:40pm 4.40pm – 5.00pm
5.00pm – 5:25pm
5:25pm- 5.30pm 5.30pm – 6.00pm
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Speaker Biographies Andrew Gerrard, Social and Digital Media Consultant Oisin Lunny, Country Manager, UK & Ireland, Sulake Corporation As UK Country Manager of Habbo UK, Oisin combines 19 years of experience in the media, music and technology industries to lead the growth of the UK site. In addition to the day-to-day running of Habbo UK Oisin oversees the deployment of strategic marketing and integrated advertising campaigns to encourage site visitors and user activity. Prior to Habbo Oisin was Global Product Manager, Online Distribution and Media Services for Interoute Communications Limited, owners and operators of Europe's most advanced voice and data network. Their products and services include bandwidth, virtual private networks, high speed internet access and transit, managed hosting, communications services and media streaming. Oisin is a successful musician in his own right, having worked as a professional DJ and producer, and continues to explore his passion for music in his spare time.
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Andrew Gerrard is a Social and Digital Media Consultant, helping clients understand how to take part in the conversations that their audiences are having, and converting them through social and digital channels into mutually profitable long-term customer relationships. With nearly 20 years of unparalleled experience in the digital, online and social media industries, Andrew provides his clients with a wealth of strategic and tactical knowledge that lead to effective and practical business activities that create opportunies and produce measurable results. With a strong background in technology and the internet, and a career that spans senior marketing roles with Microsoft, CompuServe/AOL and DoubleClick, Andrew was also responsible for launching LunarStorm, a major social network for young people, and has advised numerous clients on how to adopt and integrate social media into their day-to-day business and company culture. He is currently working on a project using social and digital media to drive and effect a measurable and sustainable real-world behaviour change within local communities.
Emily Knee, Senior Digital Account Manager, NSPCC - National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Simon Podd, Bebo, Head of Sales UK & Ireland Simon took up the role of Head of UK Sales. Simon joined Bebo at the launch of its commercial operations in January 2007 as a UK Sales Manager. In his position, Simon is responsible for working with clients and advertising agencies alike through sponsorship of Bebo's engagement marketing solutions and original commissions while managing the UK sales team and UK revenue. During his first year at Bebo Simon secured large scale 'media first' sponsorships with multinational brands including Disney, Cadbury and Toyota. Bebo‟s first, and the Internet‟s most successful serialized drama, KateModern was nominated for two BAFTA (the British Oscars) awards and generated over 70 million views. KateModern was followed by Sofia’s Diary, the first online show to cross over to TV in the UK, The Gap Year, the most successful reality show not on TV and The Secret World of Sam King, the first co-production between Universal Music and a social network. Podd previously worked at the London Evening Standard as Head of Agency Sales, in a challenging and demanding market. Simon was responsible for creating and managing excellent and ongoing client relationships while overseeing the entire agency sales process. More recently, Simon worked on the launch of News International‟s first ever newspaper launch in the UK with the London Paper and was part of the management team responsible for devising, planning and shaping the commercial launch proposition. Emily joined the Digital Communications team at the NSPCC in February 2007. A key part of her role is reaching and engaging with children and young people through digital channels in order to raise awareness of ChildLine and educate about issues of abuse. Prior to joining the NSPCC she was Programmes Manager at the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) where she ran their programme of industry working groups.
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Ivan Croxford, General Manager, BT Tradespace Ivan Croxford is the Head of BT Tradespace http://www.bttradespace.com, a place for small businesses to promote themselves using social media and business networking tools. Ivan has seen BT Tradespace grow from the spark of an idea to a flourishing community of over 350,000 members and rising. Prior to joining BT Ivan worked in the wireless and broadband services business in both the UK and France. A keen (though somewhat irregular) blogger [link http://www.fumoir.com] he can also be found on Twitter - http://twitter.com/croxy
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Katy Howell, Managing Director, immediate future With over 20 years‟ industry experience, Katy is renowned for her insight and knowledge of online PR and social media. Highlyrespected in her field, she manages the online PR diploma module for the Institute of Direct Marketing and the Institute for Sales Promotion. She is an active member of the social media council at the Internet Advertising Bureau and is invited to speak at many conferences including Marketing Week and CIPR. immediate future‟s client experience includes; Sony Europe, BT, Diageo, PSP, NSPCC, BBC, Cancer Research, Boxed up, Kinder Bueno, CW Jobs, Mirror Group, Hotel Chocolat, Sara Lee, bmibaby www.twitter.com/katyhowell www.linkedin.com/in/katyhowell Paul Taylor, Managing Director, 6 Consulting
Managing Director of 6Consulting, Paul Taylor has a process improvement management consultancy background. Paul has extensive experience working with a number of marketing, brand, digital and PR agencies as well as leading corporate organisations implementing applied social media monitoring campaigns
Steve Richards, MD, Yomego Steve Richards is managing director of social media agency Yomego; a position he took up in July 2008 to drive the growth of the company‟s work across virtual worlds, user generated content platforms and social networks. Steve began his career client-side with HSBC before moving on to sales promotion agency, IMC. In 1998, he co-founded award-winning London agency, Swordfish, working with clients including BBC, Channel 4, First Direct, Reckitt Benckiser, Sony and Warner Bros. Over 50% of Swordfish‟s output was across digital media. Since joining Yomego, he has overseen the development of groundbreaking community sites including Ruumz, Soccer Republic and the soon to be launched virtual world dPals.
Matthew Brazil, CEO, 6 Consulting
Matthew has over 18 year‟s commercial experience and is a respected consultant who has led a number of software as a service (SaaS) projects. Matthew regularly works with a number of major marketing agencies to shape the digital offering. His understanding of the processes and methodologies behind social media are frequently used by agencies across a range of clients from different sectors.
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Introduction
Welcome to Netimperative‟s Sector Report on Social Media 2009. With social networking and user generated content an established part of the digital landscape, rules for marketers have well and truly changed. In this report, you'll find an overview of the social media sector as it stands, supported by trends from recent months and some future predictions. Next, we have commentary from number of industry experts offering their views on the pitfalls and opportunities of social media. We have also included a comprehensive arsenal of data to help decipher some key trends from the early part of 2009, before concluding with some case studies from recent social media campaigns to get your creative juices flowing. We’d like to thank our co-sponsors, Yomego and BT Tradespace for their help in putting this report together.
Yomego is a social media agency working with brands to build, retain and monetise digital communities. It works closely with broadcasters, brand and media owners and their agencies to design and build social networks, UGC platforms, virtual worlds and other bespoke digital applications that engage audiences. Yomego‟s client list includes MTV, Eircom, Durex, Entertainment Rights, Five, GMTV, Ladbrokes and ITV. To find out more about Yomego visit www.yomego.com or contact Steve Richards on 0141 582 0600 or steve@yomego.com.
Social media and Web 2.0 is fast becoming crucial to every business's marketing strategy. And tools such as blogs, podcasts and videos play a critical part in building trust online and getting that all important sale. Understanding what Web 2.0 is and how you can make the most of the tools on offer to help promote and grow your business is essential. BT Tradespace is one of them: a thriving online community for SMEs to meet like-minded people - whether you're buying, selling or just networking. If you're looking for an opportunity to get your business noticed - this is it, www.bttradespace.com. To find out more contact team@bttradespace.com
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Social Media- A Sector Overview
YouTube video showing Domino‟s employees „tampering‟ with food). So with this in mind, just how are marketers supposed to target consumers in this new user-controlled environment that can be very hostile to ads? With this level of control, will consumers want any place for adverts in their own media world?
Since the likes of Flickr, YouTube and Facebook caught the public‟s imagination back in the midnoughties, social media has fast become a major part of the online landscape, bringing with it new challenges and opportunities for marketers. Spurred on by the young and the geeky, the medium now touches upon nearly all aspects of modern life, from politics and business, to celebrity culture and breaking news. At the time of writing, a Facebook app is mapping the swine-flu outbreak based on user comments, Ashton Kutcher has just become the first Twitterer to gain one million followers and Gordon Brown is in trouble for opting to break his MP expense reform plans on YouTube (he‟s just been forced to disable viewer comments due to abuse). The phrase „social media‟ means more than just online networks of friends and associates. The medium encompasses a range of platforms, including blogs, photo and video sharing sites, wikis and social bookmarking tools. All are linked by the concept of user participation helping to shape and distribute the content on display. The popularity of social media is at least one area of growth that looks recession-proof, even if only in terms of scale rather than sterling. According to Datamonitor, by 2012, 70% of online content will be user-generated. Technorati estimates that there are 171 million blogs worldwide. In fact (and perhaps most tellingly) Brits are now more likely to visit social networks than porn sites (Hitwise, October 2008). This surge in „people-power‟ has marked a fundamental shift in the industry. The traditional media model of „one-to-many‟, where controlled editorial content is posted on a specific timescale, has mutated to a landscape where publishing becomes a constantly evolving, „many-to-many‟ conversation. The rules have changed, and consumers now expect this level of control as standard, be it online, via mobile devices, and even via TV as interactive technology becomes more prevalent. For marketers, this elevation of social media in the public consciousness has so far presented a doubleedged sword. The medium offers unprecedented insight into consumer attitudes and behaviour, while at the same time leaving brands more vulnerable than ever to bad publicity (as exemplified in the recent
The social media landscape Social media is now the forth most popular activity online, following search, portals and PC software use, and ahead of email (Nielsen Online, March 2009). In fact, the same research found that Brits typically spend one of every six of their minutes online visiting a social media site. This growth trend is set to continue. eMarketer estimates by 2013, the social networking population in the UK will reach 21.9 million and represent 50% of Internet users. So what are the most popular forms of social media in the UK? The eMarketer poll, conducted in April 2009, found that 37% of UK adult Internet users had visited a social networking site in the previous month, while 29% had viewed or contributed to an online forum, and 26% had visited or posted a comment on a message board. Fewer than one in five had visited or added to a wiki (19%) or a blog (16%), or checked into a chat room (13%). One in ten (10%) said they had visited a business networking site. In terms of social networks, industry stalwart MySpace remains the most popular in global terms and goes toe-to-toe with Facebook in the US, buoyed by its highly successful music platform. However, Facebook currently leads the UK market in terms of users, along with much of Europe. Looking at stats on Facebook‟s market leading status in Blighty shows just how deeply entrenched social media has become in the UK online sector. According to Hitwise, Facebook is not only the most popular UK social network, it has also become the most searched for brand in the UK, ahead of YouTube, eBay, Bebo and the BBC, attracting 2.39% of all searches on Google (Hitwise, March 2009). Facebook also accounts for one third of all social networking in Europe (Comscore April 2009) representing 1.1% all online time in Europe, and a massive 4.1% of all time spent online in the UK. The site also commands a lead in nearly all European countries with the notable exceptions being Germany th th (4 ) and Russia (7 ). In the UK, nearly 23 million people visit Facebook a month, representing more than a third of the country‟s population, according to comScore.
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The rise of the Twitterati While Facebook remains top, Twiiter has undoubtedly been the social media success story of 2009 so far. The micro-blogging site has been bubbling under the mainstream since its inception in 2006, yet recent celebrity endorsements have boosted its popularity to over 5 million users worldwide (comScore, April 2009). If it‟s good enough for Stephen Fry, it seems, it‟s good enough for the rest of us. Crucially, the site has found its own niche within the social media sector, straddling both the personal space offered by Facebook and the professional space offered by business-based social networks such as LinkedIn, Xing and BT Tradespace. As such, the site arguably lends itself more towards marketers‟ goals, being more of a „lean forward‟ medium than the online hang-outs of Facebook and Bebo. Indeed, the rapid growth of Twitter is reflected in the attention paid to it in companies' marketing strategies. According to a recent eConsultancy poll of agencies, 49% said they were including the site in their social media marketing during 2009, compared with just 3% last year. This placed it as the second most popular social media platform behind Facebook for marketing campaigns. While the signs indicate that marketers should ignore Twitter at their own peril, new data from Nielsen Online shows that Twitter's audience retention rate is just 40%. This means just two in five users that „twittered‟ in March went on to make another microblog entry in April. Nielsen said Twitter‟s average retention rate for the year has been 30%, far below the likes of Facebook and MySpace. Time will tell if the site will meet its potential as a mainstream communication platform to rival texting, but for the time being at least, it remains a cost-effective way of reaching potential customers. The UGC video ad conundrum As user generated video becomes more prevalent, more pressure is being placed on video sharing sites such as YouTube to generate revenues to compensate for massive bandwidth requirements. But this has not been without its own problems for marketers. Can brands face the possibility of being associated with harmful or inappropriate content? For example, can a sports brand be seen advertising in a clip of a skateboarder wearing a rival brand‟s t-shirt? How are marketers using social media? A February 2009 study of UK marketers conducted by Sapient found that over half had run a campaign on a social networking site in the past 12 months. Most of
those ads (63%) were integrated as part of a wider campaign. The majority of those interviewed forecast their social media marketing budgets to grow and take between 20- 40% of their total online marketing budget in 2009. Outside of social networking ads, media sharing sites (such as YouTube and Flickr) were the most popular form of social media-based advertising (62%). This was very closely followed by micro-blogs (such as Twitter) with 60% of votes, and corporate and campaign blogs (59%). So what are the typical UK marketing budgets for social media? A recent eConsultancy report found that budgets for social media remain relatively small. 55% of company respondents are spending less than £5,000 per year, while just 4% were spending more than £50,000 in this area. The metric currency by which success of these new solutions is measured is also changing, with the role of a Technorati-style „buzz‟metric to gauge a brands status in the blogosphere is growing in popularity. Companies are also wising up to the power of negative mentions in community sites, countering with proactive online campaigns centred around the „word of mouse‟ power of social media. Emerging platforms- the next step? Emerging platforms can take advantage of social networking technologies in ways that the internet can‟t match. The advent of Smartphones such as Apple‟s iPhone mean mobile social networks and blogging communities are gaining momentum, especially among teenagers and early-adopters who are more likely to spend time on their mobiles than PCs. Meanwhile, as IPTV bridges the gap between the Internet and TV further, to what extent will social networks be integrated into this convergence? Are TV schedules going to make way for programme or genre-based streaming video channels, with social networks built-in for fans? And if so, where would advertising fit into this mix? Social networking has come a long way since the early days, and its potential, both culturally and commercially is now huge. Those that can successfully predict and harness the latest innovations and trends in social media are those most likely to emerge as winners, as the industry reaches its next critical phase.
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The Monetisation of Social Media: Digital‟s Holy Grail
The vast majority of the highest ranking teams in the online game are now fully kitted out in Adidas wear. In the minds of players it creates an unconscious link between the brand and high performance, both within the game and in the real world. But beyond this, embrace a community and they will often make quick, reliable and cost-effective producttesters. Critical considerations such as which colours or designs are likely to be a hit can be assessed with online fans in a much more collaborative way and at a fraction of the offline cost. Win over this community and you‟ll recruit an impassioned army of wellconnected brand ambassadors. Eighteen months ago, major NFL American football team, the Indianapolis Colts, were one of the first sports brands to launch their own dedicated social network for fans (http://www.mycolts.net). Four weeks after the site‟s launch, it already had a loyal online audience in excess of 10,000. It has now become an ideal platform to sell merchandise, update fans on special events and most importantly to get instant and direct input from fans about the future of the franchise. In fact, the opportunity to develop a direct relationship with an online community united by a common interest is open to all brands through the creation of a unique social network. Some universal marketing principles apply –the space has to look good, the content needs to be compelling and refreshed regularly. When creating your own social network as opposed to joining others, the creative control over your site and the quality and uniqueness of content you can provide is a massive advantage. The site also needs to present a clear proposition or purpose that the audience can buy into. And online, expectations tend to be higher, so any brand entering this world needs to do so with complete conviction. Yomego has been working with Irish telecoms provider, eircom. As sponsors of the Republic of Ireland national football team it was looking for a way to recruit, engage, empower and enlighten a digital community of fans. In its first few weeks of going live, soccerRepublic.ie had attracted over 100,000 unique visits. Thousands of fans now use the site as a knowledge source, sounding board, swap-shop and destination to get behind-the-scenes access to the players and backroom staff. eircom promises to shape the future of the site directly in tune with what the fans want. But what does eircom get out of it commercially? In short, lots.
Marketers have spent fortunes trying to target “the right demographics”. But just when they were getting good at it, along comes social media. Steve Richards, Managing Director at Yomego, looks at the key challenges facing marketers in this new web 2.0 world. One billion consumers regularly use social networks. Here, people happily give personal – even intimate – details about themselves. But in these democratised environments, people don‟t want to be overtly sold to. In fact, they‟re actively against it. Often adopting radically different personas simultaneously on different networks, users are also extremely difficult to pigeon-hole. It‟s a beguiling challenge, then: how to tap into the commercial potential of such vast numbers of people expressing personal preferences, without them turning against you? Very few brands have worked it out and the majority of operators are yet to make their social networks pay (just ask the accountants at Facebook). But progress is being made and there are now examples of online brand building which are producing astonishing results over traditional advertising. The world of sport is leading the way. Sports fans form some of the most passionate groups of people and social media can easily re-create online what they do naturally offline – by providing a virtual gathering place that‟s open all day, every day. Adidas has created an application for Chinese website Xiaonei.com‟s hugely popular game „Basketball superstars‟, which already boasts 150,000 dedicated basketball fans. The game allows players to create their own virtual basketball team to play against other users. Adidas has added virtual branded gear including trainers and clothing to the game, which players can then purchase using virtual credits. The more Adidas equipment a team wears, the higher its stats go, in turn improving the team‟s chances of winning.
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For a start, on a specially catered site of this type, display advertising can work much more successfully than has so far proved to be the case on generic social media networks. Provided the selected brands fit the site‟s overall editorial profile and the advertising is not over-intrusive, users will tolerate it much more than they would on the likes of Facebook or Myspace, where attempts to target advertising according to a user‟s profile have been viewed as in invasion of privacy. Meanwhile, partnerships are proving to be a particularly productive way of raising brand awareness. The success or failure of these tailored sites hangs entirely on the added value of the content. By adding real value to the community – via an offer, competition prize, game or other relevant and engaging feature – the community‟s enthusiasm ` for the site continues to be reinforced. Ultimately, this is what will keep them coming back. Positive brand engagement, however, is the most obvious benefit – existing and potential customers are entering into meaningful dialogues and interactions in an environment built and facilitated by eircom. The value of such interaction for the brand and the reward for the consumer is huge. Whilst no one has yet developed a definitive metric to quantify the benefits of this new model of social marketing, widespread brand advocacy is every marketer‟s dream and fan-based networks can deliver short term boosts and long-term sustainable sales growth. Then there‟s one final factor – what would be the cost if you‟d sat back and watched your nearest competitors get socially networked instead? By Steve Richards Managing Director Yomego www.Yomego.com
Monetising Social Media- Join the Conversation
How can brands make money through social media? By Mark Redgrave, CEO of Amplify, argues that to engage customers, you must first understand the conversation before you join it. Social networks are here to stay, that much we know. Human beings are „social‟ creatures that want to share their ideas, plans, intentions and emotions. People want to connect and engage with other people and social networks create powerful environments for this to happen. But one of the biggest challenges facing brands today is how to effectively monetise these social properties. According to the latest figures from Hitwise (Feb 2009), Facebook is the second most popular website in the UK behind Google, with 17.6 million unique users in the UK. Access to the huge audience and rich user data that social networks offer makes them very appealing to brands, but how can firms unlock this potential? The key to monetising social networks lies in engagement. Not some sort of superficial „brand‟ engagement, but in deep, personal engagement through real dialogue with users. Brands need to be joining the conversation – but to do that, they first need to understand the conversation. They need to understand what is being discussed, where, when and how. Sophisticated understanding Easy to say, not so easy to do. Publishers have been looking at advertising as a means of monetising social networks for some time now, but high-profiled bungled attempts such as Facebook's Beacon highlight the challenges they face. A key barrier is the way users think about social networks - people see their online space as something quite private and this, coupled with a lot of media attention around online privacy, has led people to have an emotional reaction towards advertising on social media networks which is both immediate and negative. This is an understandable, and yet unreasonable reaction - social networks are ultimately providing a service that needs to be paid for. Just like TV. Just like radio.
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The trick lies in understanding the conversation that is raging and engaging the user with highly relevant, targeted advertising that actually enhances the user experience. Understanding the conversation is not about identifying keywords. It has to be much more sophisticated than that. If someone is talking enthusiastically about going skiing in France in March, they will react positively to skiing advertising and specific ski travel offers. If, however, they are talking about how they hate the cold weather and just don‟t understand why their friends spend money on skiing and winter holidays, those same skiing ads will have the opposite effect. This creates an experience that is bad for the user and bad for the advertiser. That‟s why the technology used to understand the conversation and to serve the ad must be sophisticated. Just latching onto the keyword „skiing‟ is not sufficient. And that‟s why current efforts are falling short. Fear of the unknown The sheer volume of largely unregulated content makes it very challenging for publishers to monetise social networks. Brands want to participate, but they simply can't afford to take the risk of exposure next to offensive or inappropriate user generated content. What‟s the solution? Once again, understand the conversation. If you can really understand what‟s being discussed – dynamically, as the content is actually being created and as the conversation is actually evolving – then you can make instantaneous decisions whether or not to serve an ad at all – and, if so, which ads, which creative and which promotion to serve. The opportunity presented by social networks is too large for brands to ignore. They want and need to participate. To make this happen, publishers must provide advertisers with insights into the meaning of all the content on their site. Only by having a true understanding of content can brands engage users with relevant and useful ads that enhance – not detract – from the user experience. Amplify is the only technology available today that can understand the meaning of content in real time, and provide ad servers with the information they need to ensure highly relevant, premium ads are served to users based on their own expressed interests, desires and intentions. Top tips for publishers The key to monetising social media from a publisher‟s perspective is to understand your content! Arm online advertisers with a full appreciation of the meaning of text – so go beyond existing tools that rely on categorising content according to keywords or
assessing brand safety based on samples of content. Move to Natural Language Processing and computational linguistic technologies that are available today and which can surface the significant topics, attitudes and pending decisions within any text to remove the guesswork from brand safety and targeting decisions and enable social networks to realise their financial potential. By Mark Redgrave CEO Amplify www.openamplify.com/
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The Power of Social Media
2009 has seen the power of social media reach an all-time high with many of us dedicating our precious time daily to blogs, chat forums and popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Rob Marcus, director at Chat Moderators believes that social media is a great and powerful marketing tool, but also believes that with great power comes great responsibility… As the popularity of social networking, blogging and web chat continues to rise, it is no secret that those brands who fail to embrace such concepts will find themselves lagging behind competitors and possibly losing out altogether on what is an extremely powerful method of customer engagement and communication. Although there are possible risks for any business involved with a social networking initiative, the rewards and positive impact on brand identity can be substantial. Social media allows businesses to connect with audiences in new ways and unlike some traditional marketing tactics, paves the way for an interactive two-way conversation. Marcus comments “Brands are beginning to understand the potential of social media in cementing ongoing relationships with their key target audiences. Interestingly, it is not just commercial brands that have been getting in on the act; from Barack Obama to the Labour government a wide spectrum of organisations have begun to harness and build on the effects that social media can have on their marketing campaigns.” Jumping on the bandwagon In particular, Barack Obama‟s presidential campaign now has presence on no fewer than 16 social media sites including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Not only is Obama able to reach the general public on these popular social networks, he is also connected with specific ethnic groups online such as, BlackPlanet for the African-American population. Obama has fully embraced social media throughout his campaign and has continued to do so since the election by updating his Twitter regularly and engaging in discussions on forums with the public on issues that are important to them.
Likewise the Labour party recently unveiled its social networking site Labourspace.com, which along with the existing LabourList.org, invites individuals to bring issues to the attention of Labour politicians. Members can upload their own campaign ideas and communicate with the Labour Party on why they think these ideas should be implemented. This helps the Government to understand exactly what the general public really want from them and what issues they feel most strongly about. However, the power that social media invites means it has to be handled responsibly. Marcus comments “Government campaigns in particular can generate some heated opinions, as such they must be careful to strike the perfect balance between allowing their audience to express their opinions and make suggestions while ensuring that they are taking a responsible attitude to moderation. Taking responsibility for what information appears is the only way to create a safe place for users to interact and a place that they will want to visit again.” Back in November 2008 a Spanish website generated some media attention as it was found to be displaying some racist comments directed at Lewis Hamilton after he won the Brazilian Grand Prix. At the time, this website was not being moderated and the inappropriate comments had gone undetected. Such situations can be avoided if a stringent moderation process is put in place, whether that is in-house or via third party moderation. Marcus explains “Despite this starting off as a seemingly innocent website around motor sport, it quickly escalated into a community for racist abuse. Allowing comments like this to go undetected can severely damage the brand of the business in question and in some cases the damage can be beyond repair.” The dark side of social media Cyber bullying is another example of the dark side of social media. Google has recently been taken to court by a Canadian model claiming that an anonymous blogger has been trying to defame her. The model wants Google to identify the blogger and have the website shut down. “Being associated with this type of negative publicity it is damaging for Google‟s reputation even though the comments were made by a third party. Brands need to realise that being associated with any negative story is enough to ruin a reputation, regardless of whether they were actually involved in making the comments,” remarks Marcus. “I have seen various examples of social networks which are bringing positive benefits such as one by the health sector which is encouraging people to stop smoking and one by a charity which is giving the
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public access to free advice and information. A survey highlighted in eMarketer found that 85 per cent of marketing executives have cited customer engagement as the main benefit of using social media. As well as this, 51 per cent found the low cost of social media initiatives appealing and 48 per cent found it useful for building their brand awareness,” said Marcus. Into the spotlight…
be as a result of a number of factors. Marcus concludes “As long as a responsible attitude is taken along with regular, targeted moderation, social media can bring great power to any organisation. It can also mean the difference of reaching a global audience, motivating user interaction and establishing a lasting dialogue with customers. Whether it‟s a product, brand or campaign, done well, it is possible to positively steer your brand into the spotlight”. www.chatmoderators.com
Observing the results that social media has already achieved for organisations can really help a brand decide what route they would like to take themselves. However, with every success story there are a number which have gone horribly wrong and this can
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Top Five Twitter Tips for Brands
1. Get on there! Get involved! There‟s no better place to start than with yourself. Sign up for an account, follow some people - you can start with me: www.twitter.com/tomgriffola, I talk about digital marketing, rugby and music - and get tweeting a little. Find some people or brands in your sector and watch what they‟re doing. You can gain a lot from interacting and watching before you reveal a brand presence. 2. See what people are saying about your brand using http://search.twitter.com - grab the feed and watch it for a while. Is the conversation positive or negative? This will help you define what your presence on Twitter needs to be. It may also help you quickly find brand ambassadors who can amplify your presence. Don't forget the detractors - connecting with them on Twitter and helping them may create a rapid turnaround in their opinion. 3. Work out what you‟re going to say, and who‟s going to manage it. In some cases an agency can help get you off the ground and hand over the running once you‟re familiar with the process. You can stick to a content theme, or a reason as to why you‟re on Twitter, but don‟t use it as a broadcast channel. All tweeting and no listening will lose you credibility - very quickly! 4. Get your brand onto Twitter. Grab a name ideally www.twitter.com/yourbrandname, set up your logo and a template design and start twittering. If you can reference your brand on your own corporate page that will help establish credibility for the brand on Twitter. At this time there are no regulations or checks - it‟s up to you to manage your brand on Twitter. Connect it to your other channels - you can feed your Twitter stream into a Facebook Fan Page or your own website. 5. Start talking - follow people you find interesting, have a conversation. If you‟re sending links to your site, think about adding tracking tags. URL etiquette in Twitter‟s 140 character dialogue is to use a shortened URL via tinyurl or similar, so add your tracking in before converting the url. This can help you understand what value this channel is delivering for you, over and above interaction, enabling you to track traffic from conversation through to conversion. By Tom Griffiths Business Development Manager, CheezeDMG www.twitter.com/tomgriffola www.twitter.com/CheezeDMG
How can brands get the most out of Twitter? Tom Griffiths, Business Development Manager at CheezeDMG, offers some tips to generate conversions through conversations. Twitter‟s here. You can't visit a website or turn a page, digital or otherwise, without reading about it. Whether it‟s Jonathan Ross‟ banter or breaking news stories Sky has a Twitter correspondent and CNN has one of the largest followings of any user ; yet it‟s the user who‟s breaking news before the news agencies - the plane dumping in the Hudson River being the most high profile example. Twitter‟s being used as a news channel, an information hub, but the user has more power than ever. Of course brands are keen to follow this trend and harness it to their own benefit. So how can brands make their voices heard in a world where the user, your potential customer, doesn‟t have to listen? It‟s a level playing field, so your brand has to operate at the consumer‟s level; don‟t simply broadcast offers and „news‟ - become part of the conversation. Some brands have been active for a while - smaller ones like eSpares are doing a great job of harnessing the channel, larger brands like Canterbury of New Zealand are just starting; and then you‟ve got huge global brands like Dell that have already seen over $1m of revenue from the channel. Charities are at it too - Dogstrust are doing a fantastic job engaging with their „followers‟, and PDSA are starting to get involved off the back of their Facebook success. All these brands are seeing success through engagement – involve yourself, provide advice, respond to questions, „react‟ to your customers, and the proactive nature of marketing becomes flipped. However, the effectiveness of building brand advocates, raising awareness and ultimately promoting your products and services by „stealth‟ is huge – subtle branding, who would have thought it? Set to grow even further, Twitter may also spin out with the associated growth of similar 'tools' like www.Identi.ca, www.plurk.com and www.jaiku.com owned by Google. Having a presence on Twitter now will help you understand the medium and benefit your brand and the consumer. So, if you‟re looking to harness Twitter, where to start? Here are five tips to get you going:
Slide 14: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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How to Manage your Reputation Online
Monitor forums and review sites Google Alerts are an excellent way of monitoring what is being written about on the web. These will flag up any instances of specified keywords (such as your company name), ensuring that anything negative can be counteracted and positive stories or postings can be optimised. By making sure that any positive pages are well optimised, these will appear higher up in the search engine rankings, therefore pushing anything that is negative further down the listings. Embrace social media Aside from social networking sites, there are a number of other social media that can be used to help boost your web profile. Social bookmarking is a way to store and share web pages, so links to these sites are saved on the public Internet, meaning web crawlers can find them easily. Use sites like del.ici.ous, StumbleUpon and Digg.com. Write a blog and keep it updated Blogging provides a channel for reaching a wider audience. Blogs that are regularly updated with interesting and relevant content will be placed higher in the rankings. Search engine spiders place more importance on blogs with fresh content, which helps to manage online reputation by ensuring that a blog is ranked highly over any other potentially negative content. Blogging also provides the opportunity to increase incoming links and build relationships with other key bloggers. By Darren Jamieson Senior Creative Developer, Just Search www.justsearch.co.uk
Brands that ignore social media do so at their own peril. Darren Jamieson, Senior Creative Developer at Just Search, looks at the growing importance of managing your brand‟s reputation online. With the huge rise in user-generated content and freedom of the web, Internet users have much more control and power than ever before. This means that all the hard work that goes into search engine optimisation, PR and marketing activities can be undone with a single negative forum thread or blog post. With online reputation management, there are several easy ways that marketers and businesses can ensure Google and the other search engines display positive content. Make the most of social networking Many companies will not see the value in using social networking in the business environment, however these sites can be a useful marketing tool. Creating a profile on sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook can help reach a wider audience and increase visibility. Niche social networking sites are often overlooked. Find sites that are relevant to your industry or community as this will help build up relevant relationships and increase the number of links coming into the site. Boost positive pages through SEO By optimising positive reviews, posting media coverage on a website and having a well-optimised blog you can help ensure that Google displays the content that you want people to see. These practices should be adhered to regularly, not just as a reactive measure to negative online content.
Slide 15: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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How to Drive Traffic on the Cheap with Social Media
without even reading the content, as long as the headline is engaging. 2. Keep the content concise and to the point. In a nutshell, the attention span of social media surfers is very short. In fact it would barely fill a nutshell. Quickly fulfil the promises made in the headline in a timely and concise manner. Lists work really well. Most people when landing on a web page, don‟t read it, they scan it for relevant information. Give them what they want quickly, then they‟ll give you what you want quickly - a vote! 3. Choose your topic wisely. Different network sites are disposed to different types of subjects. For example, articles about technology or left wing politics tend to score well on Digg. Take your time to research what types of articles feature well on your chosen site. Articles that comment on topical events often score well. If you can respond quickly to an event that everyone is familiar with people will read and vote for it. 4. Get your article submitted by a powerful digger/stumbler. Social network sites are communities. As in all communities, some members hold more sway than others. Individuals who have strong track records in making submissions, which have bought in numerous votes, will be highlighted on most sites as high profile submitters, so it will figure more prominently. If you don‟t know such a high power digger there are companies with high profile accounts who will submit your site for a fee – just don‟t get caught! 5. Make your article as easy to share as possible. In order for an article to score well, obviously it needs votes, and many of them. Therefore make it as painless as possible for someone to vote for your content. Place submission options directly below the article. Also give readers the facility to email your article to a friend. The code required is very simple and will go a long way. And that is basically it: A bit of creativity, patience, study and smarts can go a long way in this burgeoning universe. What‟s great about these sites is that their algorithms are set up to enhance the community. If you can create something that adds value to the community then you can certainly prosper without digging (excuse the pun) deep into your pockets. By William Peebles SEO Executive, Top Click Media www.topclickmedia.co.uk
How can brands unlock the potential of social media sites? William Peebles, SEO Executive at Top Click Media, offers five tips to get the most out of social media campaigns. Companies and SEMs who can harness the various social media platforms, such as Digg or Stumble, can drive vast quantities of traffic to their sites, dramatically extending their company brands and even improving their search engine rankings. On such sites content is dictated by users rather than editors. If users submit a story, and if other site members like it, they vote for it. The more votes a piece gets, the more prominently the site will feature it. Stories with enough votes can end up on the front page. Because these sites are so popular, the sites containing these stories can receive server-busting levels of traffic (50,000 visitors in a day is not unusual). The attraction then for businesses to garner such levels of traffic is clear. What‟s even more appealing, however, is that it can cost very little to do so. Whereas SEO is becoming increasingly expensive, with large corporations splashing vast amounts of cash to cement page one positions, social media is, for the most part, about content. If the content submitted, in the form of articles, videos, etc., is suitably engaging and tailored to the preferences of a particular social networking site, then a company can prosper without busting the bank. For the social media spendthrift, article submissions are certainly the way to go. They require very little but some creativity and the following killers tips: 1. Use a tasty headline. Headlines are certainly a major factor in scoring big in the social media sites. People will click on your article based on the headline, so it must be as appealing as possible. Keep it brief, as time is of the essence. The social media surfer has a serious case of ADD. They want to be engaged 3 seconds ago. Describe in as few words as possible what your article is offering and how the next five minutes of reading will improve their lives, or at least entertain them. „How to‟ headlines and articles are great. For some reason, as long as the subject matter is sufficiently interesting and people can find out how to achieve something important, they will generally read on. Sometimes diggers or reddites will vote for your site
Slide 16: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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How to Find and Engage with the Influencers Online
individual profile, but the number of followers they interact with and how often their messages are passed on are also key. On Twitter the ratio of followers vs following can also indicate influence, with the more people following, the more influential that person us. There are also tools like www.twinfluence.com which aim to deliver a picture of reach and authority on Twitter. You can get a more managed and detailed picture of influence by using a range of services and tools that help to organise and rank social media users using combinations of many of the above processes. These include paid-for services such as Brandwatch, Buzzmetrics and Onalytica, who will analyse data and produce results for you, identifying a picture of who is influencing conversation. Services like Radian 6 and Sysomos provide a more DIY approach, enabling you to analyse conversation yourself. With all these measures it's important to consider the difference between popularity and influence. Simply defined, popularity delivers basic impressions on a campaign, but influence un-locks the far greater potential of engagement in peer networks, and this is a direct catalyst for word-of-mouth activity. Engagement effort also varies per channel. In forums and message boards registration on the board and then a private message to the moderator is most likely to illicit a response. In blogs a simple email to the blog owner is often the only option, although a considered comment can also create dialogue and an opportunity to engage. As Twitter is inherently "opt-in", personal outreach is limited to those users "following" you back. The key here is to create a channel that is regularly updated, relevant to your product or service and its customers, and ideally reflects your personality or creates one for the business. After you‟ve indentified the influencer, all engagement needs to be carefully targeted, considered and personalised to any channel. Relevance is critical. The increasing adoption and use of social channels by mainstream consumers means that all brands should know what is being said about them in social media, even if it's just from a monitoring and PR perspective. By Simon Quance Head of Digital PR and Engagement HyperlaunchDMG www.hyperlaunch.com
Simon Quance at HyperlaunchDMG looks at the difference between popularity and influence in social media circles... As consumers continue to flock to social platforms like Twitter to communicate with friends, meet people, gather news, research products and services and generally fulfil their information needs, they leave a 'digital trail' of who they are across the web - what they like, what they don't, what's important to them, what's not; and it invariably highlights their preferred (or not so preferred) brands and services. This digital trail creates opportunities for businesses to engage with consumers - from simply answering questions at a point of need, to building sophisticated advocacy programmes - brands and companies can talk to people about what they really want to talk about. So, how can marketers identify and engage with the influencers of social media platforms? What constitutes „influence‟ and how is it measured? In the "us spaces" - groups, forums and message boards - the community moderators and administrators are often the most influential. They‟re seen as the guardians of the community and are often the most knowledgeable on a topic too, but can be a challenging group to create an engagement with. Be mindful that you're trying to participate in someone else's conversation. Don‟t butt in. In the "me spaces" - social network profiles and blogs etc, the likes of specialist search engine Technorati produce a measure of authority for all the blogs it searches, using the inbound links to an individual blog to generate a measure of its influence. For social networks, simple measures like the number of friends an individual has on their profile can help to define influence, but this can also be a measure of an individual's popularity, which is not the same as influence. There are also emerging tools like www.facebookgrader.com that try to calculate an individual's authority and influence using some of the application metrics available on Facebook. Finally in the "muse spaces" (conversational channels combining parts of the 'me' and 'us' spaces) - virtual worlds and micro-blogs like Twitter - influence can again be measured in terms of basic followers of an
Slide 17: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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Using Social Media for Product Development
make purchases over the Internet – the largest percentage of online shoppers and sharers in the world, according to a Pew survey last year. Nip it in the bud - Engaging influential social media commentators in product focus groups offers a way of involving vocal taste makers early on in product inception. Since these are the people who will be talking about you online, it only makes sense to engage them from the beginning.
Are social media surveys the new market research panels? Graham Lee, joint Managing Director at onlinefire looks at ways online communities can be used to shape product development. Social media has made real steps of late to becoming more integrated into marketing activity. But there is still one area where we have not even begun to realise the potential presented by consumergenerated media: product development. For years, product development groups have been conducted behind closed doors or with carefully selected focus groups - but as other disciplines of marketing have advanced, product development seems remarkably stagnant. There are a few reasons for this: Awareness - Even though most agencies have some degree of digital capability, there is still a general lack of understanding of all the different ways social media can be used to a marketer‟s advantage. Control - Many companies still exhibit an unwillingness to let go of even the smallest amount of control. The idea of opening up product development to online influencers falsely implies that all power is lost. Trust – For the uninitiated, there is a lack of trust that comes with working online – together with the general understanding that information spreads quickly online. For companies interested in keeping product information tight-lipped, this can be a nerve-wracking thought. But like most misconceptions of social media, the points above are nothing to worry about. In fact, the benefits of incorporating social media into product development far outweigh any negatives. A new perspective – So much of today‟s information is shared online – to shut off involvement with the online community when developing your product is tantamount to crossing the road wearing a blindfold. If you‟re not engaging online, you could be excluding as much as 96 per cent of online UK population who
Future Advocates - There is also the dual benefit of relationships being built that continue on when the product is released. If an influential blogger has been personally involved in the product conception stage, they are far more likely to view it positively and report online accordingly. The social media commentators themselves become loyal advocates for the product or service Forward Planning - Incorporating social media movers and shakers can help develop future marketing campaigns. At onlinefire, we recently completed a campaign for Panasonic called the Next Generation Talent competition, which asked UK students to design the next ad for the Panasonic Viera Home Hub television. The student-submitted entries were judged by a social media panel of tech, advertising and marketing bloggers, with the winning ad shown on Channel 4. This resulted in over 10 pieces of coverage, including a 6-page spread that would have never been seen without prior involvement in the planning stages of the competition. Social media-based focus groups will never and should never replace 100 percent traditional controlled focus groups, but marketers need to realise that to fully understand their audiences, they have to know how those audiences interact online. Working with bloggers and social media gurus helps give an insight into the early-adopting public who quite often make or break products in theses fast-moving times. To ignore them not only cuts off invaluable insight, but hinders the inevitable benefits of positive word-ofmouth and buzz you should be receiving. By Graham Lee Joint Managing Director, Onlinefire www.onlinefire.co.uk
Slide 18: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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Top Tips on Moderating Social Media Initiatives In-House
others, especially if they are directed at individual employees. An in-house moderation team must quickly identify undesirable comments, without becoming a censor, whilst understanding that justifiable criticism of their brand must be allowed. Otherwise the integrity of the whole initiative can be compromised. A sophisticated set of rules for in-house moderators is needed before social media is introduced It is essential that before a social media initiative is set up a stringent set of rules are agreed by the organisation and the moderators. Even though the moderators may be existing employees, it is not a given that they will understand exactly what the brand finds acceptable when it comes to content on their website. This will allow the moderators to make judgements which are fair and consistent and most importantly in line with the brands message. The moderation policy should be a written document, signed by all parties, illustrating the rules with examples of acceptable and unacceptable comments. Taking no interest post-launch is a dangerous game After all of the hard work which has gone in to planning and executing the new social media initiative you must stay close to it. The early days of any new venture are important and the same goes with social media. It is important that cliques of troublesome users are not allowed to develop and keeping on top of submissions from the beginning can help. It is easy to get distracted after the initial launch but it is in the organisations interest to keep the momentum going in order to reap the real benefits of social media and avoid associated problems. Once an in-house team has been decided they must keep their mind on the job It is very easy to look at moderating in-house as an easier and cheaper alternative to bringing in a specialist moderation company. To ensure a successful in-house moderation process a permanent team must be put in place. Moderation must be their priority, not simply their part time job to look over submissions if and when they get the chance. Moderation must be consistent and therefore have a team on board who are dedicated to moderating the submissions.
Social media continues to be a growing trend for businesses that are keen to maximise brand exposure within existing customer communities as well as entice new prospects. Done well, social media initiatives can open up many new opportunities for businesses but done badly, it can leave them wide open to brand damage beyond their control. Such possibilities shouldn‟t discourage businesses from instigating new social media initiatives as they can be very lucrative. What is important is that businesses approach such initiatives cautiously, carefully and with serious thought. The most effective way to minimise the possibility of brand damage is to take some initial steps to control and moderate your social media initiative. This can be done on a basic level in-house if the resource is available or by bringing in an outside expert moderation company. In the current climate businesses are likely to be worried about the additional cost implications of outsourcing a moderation company to monitor a relatively cheap new scheme. However, this is not a good enough reason to leave submissions unchecked. This is why in-house moderating can be a good option for many businesses who are either embarking on social media for the first time or do not have the budget to outsource moderation at this stage. As your social media initiative grows in success so does your requirement for expert moderation to maintain it. Outlined below are few basic tips that businesses should consider when embarking on in-house moderation: Be aware that any skeletons in your brand cupboard won‟t stay undiscovered for long Even when your brand is doing everything right there will always be the odd person wanting to poke fun at it. This can quickly turn from a few light hearted comments to abusive and brand damaging comments. This can encourage brands to shy away from introducing social media as it can be deemed too risky. Although engaging in social media does not mean having to publish the unrestrained rants of
Slide 19: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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How are Brits using the Internet?
eMarketer estimates that 39% of UK Internet users, more than 15.4 million people, will use social networks at least once per month in 2009. The research, conducted in April 2009, broke-down UK internet use as follows:
The April 2009 report, UK Social Media: Joining the Conversation was commissioned by eMarketer and conducted by TNS. The report is available at www.eMarketer.com
Slide 20: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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Facebook dominates European social networking market
Facebook has catapulted to the number 6 ranked Web property worldwide with 275 million visitors in February, a 175% increase versus year ago, according to April 2009 research from Comscore. One of the global regions that best illustrates Facebook‟s growth is Europe, where the site has seen a 314-percent increase to nearly 100 million visitors. Not only does Facebook have a growing audience, it is also a highly engaged audience with the average user spending three hours per month on the site. One year ago, Facebook usage accounted for 1.1% of all minutes spent online in Europe, but by February 2009 that number had increased to 4.1% of all minutes. Facebook also accounts for a full 30.4% of minutes spent in the social networking category, up from 12.3% a year earlier. The site‟s audience is largest in the U.K. with 22.7 million visitors (up 75 percent versus year ago), followed by France with 13.7 million visitors (up 518 percent) and Turkey with 12.4 million visitors (year ago data not available). Most recently, Facebook captured the top spot in the Spanish market in February with 5.7 million visitors, representing a dramatic tenfold increase versus year ago. It has also soared in Italy, growing more than 2,700 percent to 10.8 million visitors. The only countries in which Facebook does not hold the #1 or #2 position in the social networking category are Germany, where it ranks fourth, Russia (#7) and Portugal (#3). Facebook Growth in Europe, February 2009 vs. February 2008 Total Europe, Age 15+ - Home and Work Locations Source: comScore World Metrix Unique Visitors (000) Facebook.com Percent Change 314% 75% 518% N/A 2721% 999% 405% 607% 90% 279% 499% 81% 142% 337% 491% 153% 309% 169% Rank in Social Networking Category in Feb-09 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 7 3
Feb-08
Feb-09
Europe United Kingdom France Turkey* Italy Spain Germany Belgium Sweden Denmark Switzerland Norway Finland Netherlands Austria Ireland Russia Portugal
24,118 12,957 2,217 N/A 382 515 680 327 1,211 533 282 819 555 236 112 203 117 72
99,776 22,656 13,698 12,377 10,764 5,662 3,433 2,308 2,298 2,022 1,690 1,479 1,341 1,031 663 512 478 193
*Turkey is a newly reported individual country in comScore World Metrix; year ago data not available
www.comscore.com
Source:
Slide 21: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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How are marketers using social media?
Almost half of UK marketers (41%) have stated “lack of understanding” as the top reason preventing them from investing in social networks for their marketing campaigns, according to February 2009 research from Sapient Interactive. The survey quizzed the views of UK marketers and directors. Sapient Interactive argues that such barriers need to be overcome because one in every 11 minutes spent online is now on social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn (Neilsen Online, 2009). The survey revealed that the other barriers to investment in social networking behind “lack of understanding” were “no clear measurement/ROI” (19%), the fact that social networking is still in an experimentation phase so is “not proven yet” (17%) and markerters “don‟t know where to start (there‟s too much out there)” (14%).
But these barriers are surprising considering that 50% of the respondents feel that 2009 will be the year of social networking for marketers. It is encouraging that in the past six months, 54% of respondents to Sapient Interactive‟s survey had run a social networking campaign. However, of these campaigns, 63% were as part of a wider marketing campaign rather than a standalone campaign, which highlights the cautious approach that UK marketers are taking to social networking. Outside of social networking campaigns, the most leveraged social media by marketers is media sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr (62%), followed closely by micro-blogs such as Twitter (59.8%) and corporate/campaign blogs (59%). Source: www.sapient.com
Social media driving traffic to retailers as search rates decline
Brits are spending less of their online time shopping, but are clicking-through to online retailers from social networks at an increasing rate, according to April 2009 Hitwise research. The research also indicates that paid search rates have declined for online retailers and UK websites in general. UK Internet users are spending less of their online time shopping and more time browsing online media. During March 2009, 8.6% of all UK Internet visits went to online retail websites and 9.8% to social networking websites, according to Hitwise. A year ago, in March 2008, the figures were reversed: online retailers accounted for 9.7% of all UK Internet visits, and social networks 8.2%. Over the same time period, the share of UK Internet visits attributed to Entertainment websites (11.4% in March 2008, 11.6% in March 2009) and News and Media websites (5.0% in March 2008, 5.6% in March 2009) has also increased. Electronics retailers and department stores have experienced the most significant declines in traffic since Christmas. The amount of traffic that online retailers receive from paid search has fallen over the last 12 months. During March 2009, 8.9% of all UK Internet visits to online retailers came from a paid search listing, down from 10.1% in March 2008.
The proportion of traffic that online retailers receive from social networking websites - such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube - increased from 5.2% in March 2008 to 7.1% in March 2009. A year ago online retailers received a similar amount of traffic from both social networks and webmail services (such as Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and GoogleMail), but social networks now account for 58.3% more traffic than webmail providers. The retail categories that received most traffic from social networks during March 2009 were Auctions, Fashion and Department Stores. Together they accounted for over half of all downstream visits from social networks to an online retailer. Top 10 online retail websites receiving traffic from social networks (March 2009) 1. eBay UK 2. Amazon UK 3. Play.com 4. ASOS 5. eBay 6. Argos 7. Gumtree.com 8. Amazon.com 9. TopShop.com 10. HotUKDeals Source: www.hitwise.com (1.94%) (0.40%) (0.19%) (0.13%) (0.10%) (0.09%) (0.09%) (0.08%) (0.08%) (0.08%)
Slide 22: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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Twitter traffic boosted by older users
Worldwide visitors to Twitter approached 10 million in February, up a massive 700% compared with a year ago, according to new data. The research, from comScore, follows a blog post from Reuters reporter Alexei Oreskovic that indicates that it is the 25-54 year old crowd that is actually driving this trend, rather than younger users that are traditionally associated with social media audiences. February and March 2009 alone have seen worldwide visitors climb more than 5 million visitors, according to comScore. US traffic growth has been just as dramatic, with Twitter reaching 4 million visitors in February, up more than 1,000% from a year ago.
What Reuters reporter Alexei Oreskovic discovered was that 18-24 year olds, the traditional social media early adopters, are actually 12 percent less likely than average to visit Twitter.
It is the 25-54 year old crowd that is actually driving this trend. More specifically, 45-54 year olds are 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter, making them the highest indexing age group, followed by 25-34 year olds, who are 30 percent more likely.comScore attributes this skew towards older visitors to the fact that so many businesses using Twitter, along with the first generations of Internet users “growing up” and comfortable with technology. Source: www.comscore.com
Slide 23: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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Facebook now „most searched for brand in the UK‟
10 most searched for brands by UK Internet users Facebook is now the most searched-for brand by UK Internet users, according to April 2009 research from Hitwise. The social network is already Britain's favourite social network and the second most visited website in the UK after Google.According to new Hitwise data, during the 12 weeks ending 3 January 2009, 1 in every 42 Internet searches in the UK included the term 'facebook'. Facebook received 52% more searches than the second most popular brand, YouTube. The third most searched-for brand was the auction site eBay, while British social networking site Bebo ranked fourth. The BBC rounded out the top 5, and was also the most searched for 'offline' brand during the 12 weeks ending 3 January 2009. Facebook's UK Internet traffic has more than doubled over the last year and it is now the second most visited website in the UK after google.co.uk. The social network accounted for 1 in every 24 UK Internet visits during the month of February and traffic to the site has already increased by 18.6% during 2009. (Ranked by market share of UK Internet searches, 12 weeks ending 3 January 2009): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Facebook YouTube eBay Bebo BBC Amazon Argos Sky Tesco Yahoo! (2.39%) (1.57%) (1.25%) (0.96%) (0.86%) (0.47%) (0.44%) (0.27%) (0.26%) (0.26%)
Robin Goad, Research Director for Hitwise in the UK. Said: "Social networks now account for 1 in every 10 UK Internet visits and 1 in every 5 page views. Only search engines receive more UK Internet visits than social networks. During February 2009, social networks received 13.1% more UK Internet visits than online retail websites, and 27.9% more than Adult websites, which they overtook in September 2008". Source: www.hitwise.com
Social networking and blogs „more popular than email‟
Two thirds (67%) of Brits are now using „member communities‟ (such as social networks and blogs, boosted by growing mobile internet users, according to March 2009 research from Nielsen Online. „Member Communities‟ now make up the fourth most popular category online – ahead of personal email. The top three online categories are search, portals, and PC software, according to Nielsen. According to the Nielsen report, Facebook - the world‟s most popular social network - is visited monthly by three in every 10 people online across the nine markets in which Nielsen tracks social networking use. Facebook has its greatest reach in the UK market (47 percent). Orkut in Brazil has the largest domestic online reach (70 percent) of any social network in these markets. Other key findings include: One in every 11 minutes online globally is accounted for by social network and blogging sites. In the UK, these sites now account for
one in every six minutes. The social network and blogging audience is becoming more diverse in terms of age: the biggest increase in visitors during 2008 to “Member Community” Web sites globally came from the 35-49 year old age group (+11.3 million). Mobile is playing an increasingly important role in social networking. Nielsen found UK mobile Web users have the greatest propensity to visit a social network through their handset, with 23 percent (2 million people) doing so, compared to 19 percent in the US (10.6 million people). These numbers are a big increase over last year – 249 percent in the UK and 156 percent in the US. Among the markets Nielsen measured, penetration of visits to social networks and blogs was highest in Brazil, where 80 percent of the online audience visits such sites. The share of overall Internet time for which social networks and blogs account is also highest in Brazil, where nearly one in four (23 percent) of minutes spent online is spent on these sites. Following Brazil was the UK, where over one in six minutes (17 percent) is spent on these sites.
Source: www.nielsen-online.com
Slide 24: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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Case Study: eircom and Yomego
A niche social network and fan site sponsored by Ireland‟s leading Telecoms company, eircom. Soccer Republic brings Irish soccer supporters closer to their national team, its players, and each other. The challenge As lead sponsors of the Irish national soccer team, eircom wanted to create a place where fans of the Republic of Ireland football squad could get together and support the team on its 2010 World Cup campaign. eircom understood from day one that fans will only accept branded social media if it‟s on their terms - a far cry from „make my logo bigger‟ corporate sponsorship. Yomego‟s response The challenge was to position the client as the „facilitator‟, and present a raft of exclusive benefits for eircom customers. The hook was eircom‟s exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the team‟s players, management and backroom staff (Two seats on the Irish team to the away game in Italy, anyone?). The front-end content of the site features news that fans can‟t readily access from other sources – it is the inside story from within the squad. The site is also careful to provide a fans‟ perspective on the main stories – even down to analysis of items in the foreign media. Then, in the „Fanzone‟, bespoke social networking functionality is provided for fans so they can meet, upload and share content, comment, rate content, chat and join groups. To drive traffic, Soccer Republic is featured on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, bebo, YouTube and various blogs. An online ad campaign was also created by Yomego, as well as a viral game involving video clips and an intriguing „What Happens Next‟ mechanic. Results In just under two weeks, the site saw 1m page impressions and almost 100,000 unique visitors. The Twitter feed is proving a great hit and YouTube generated over 5,000 views of the tour video in the same time period. And, on the run up to and following the Italy match, visits to the fanzone increased by 310%. It‟s still early days for Soccer Republic and as with any social media project and any good relationship for that matter, you‟ve got to keep working at it – and that‟s exactly what we‟re doing. We‟ll keep you posted. Michael Kennedy, Marketing Director at eircom, said “Soccer Republic has all the bells and whistles of a contemporary social network. It gives fans the opportunity to be part of a vibrant and engaging digital community, with a host of exclusive benefits.” It‟s important that the momentum is kept going, as Michael Kennedy, marketing director at Eircom explains: “We‟re actively encouraging users to give us open and honest feedback on what they like and dislike about the site. Future development of the site will be democratised, and we‟re determined to stay true to the original plan; to develop a site for the fans, by the fans.” Steve Richards, MD at Yomego: “In sponsoring this kind of destination; by creating a place dedicated to a „passion‟; by inviting fans to take control of the site and become stakeholders in its future development, eircom has firmly understood the principles of social media and between us, we‟ve started something big.”
Slide 25: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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Case Study: The Blue Cross and Chat Moderators
The Blue Cross is a registered UK animal charity which aims to ensure the welfare of animals by providing practical care and promoting a sense of respect and responsibility towards animals in the community. The Challenge As part of a mission to increase brand awareness and extend its charitable work and educational advice further to a much wider audience, The Blue Cross launched a social networking initiative; All About Pets. The initiative is operated as a separate website community but with links through to The Blue Cross website. It encourages users to post and share information and advice with other pet owners with the main objective being to promote responsible pet care. Zak Akhimien, website editor of All About Pets explains: “We wanted make people aware of the positive work that The Blue Cross does as a charity, but also to offer something additional to the animal loving community. We felt the best way to do this was to create a social network where we can engage with users over a longer period, offering a range of useful facilities and a safe place for them to meet other pet lovers.” Chat Moderator‟s Response Prior to the launch of the site, The Blue Cross realised that if it was to create a stable and supportive environment for all users to interact, the forum needed close moderation. As a result, Chat Moderators was appointed when the site launched in March 2008. The Chat Moderators team plays a key role in ensuring that the All About Pets forum operates smoothly and within the policy rules. They moderate the site to ensure that anything of concern is immediately highlighted to The Blue Cross in order for them to act on it swiftly. This could involve a user posting advice that could be potentially dangerous to an animal in which case The Blue Cross would approach its network of vets to seek the best advice. Chat Moderators also ensures that any inappropriate language is taken down as quickly as possible in accordance to the rules of the site. Results Chat Moderators moderate the forum every day of the year and up to several hours per day. As an additional service, it also undertakes „community management‟ services, which involves answering queries and even pro-actively helping people on behalf of The Blue Cross. This can be anything from ensuring that a user‟s post is on the correct part of the site where others are able to view it, to directing users to online leaflets from the charity if their problem is quite sophisticated. Zak explains: “While we are keen to encourage independent debate on All About Pets, we have a responsibility to our members to make sure all communication is clean and safe, particularly when some of them are children. The service we receive from the Chat Moderators team has helped us achieve this and as well as policing the forum, they offer us constructive guidance on how we can improve the site based on patterns and trends they have been noticing.” The site has been running for ten months to date and in that time it has over 10,000 members, as well as many more guests who visit the site on a daily basis to access the forums and read the advice shared between members. All About Pets continues to grow and develop more features and in the process it is attracting a far wider audience to The Blue Cross, including a pet owner on a remote farm in South Africa who used the forum for emergency advice after his dog had been bitten by a snake. Although The Blue Cross is a UK based charity, it is now able to help pet owners all over the world. Zak concludes, “We are delighted with the success of All About Pets and look forward to continuing our partnership with Chat Moderators as the site continues to grow and improve. We have been so impressed with the moderation team - they are professional, prompt and efficient; without them we simply wouldn‟t have the time or resource to make All About Pets the huge success it is today.”
Slide 26: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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Case Study: Times Online and eModeration
The Times has relaunched its website with a „news plus views‟ editorial strategy in 2007, opening up parts of the site to user comments and including features such as a web TV show on London neighbourhoods and a blog for working mums.
The Challenge Soon after the creation of Times Online, the volume of comments being posted began to outstrip our client‟s ability to handle them in-house, so outside moderators were appointed. eModeration‟s response Since the launch of their new website in February 2007, the number of reader responses has soared: on average the moderators are now processing around 3,000 comments a day, and in the last twelve months we have dealt with just over one million comments. Our job is to reject for publication anything which is libellous, defamatory, racist, abusive, obscene or couched in intemperate language. A good feedback loop with Times Online helps us hone our instincts and ensures we are attuned to what should and should not be allowed through. The team (closely managed by a UK-based team leader)
works 24/7/365, reacting to peaks in demand by putting extra resources onto the project at very short notice. Results Staffed by an international group of highly-skilled professional moderators located in Europe, North and South America and Australia, we cover all time-zones and bring an educated, multi-cultural focus to the work. When controversy breaks out, we make sure our moderators understand the context so that they are in a position to judge the comments. A spokesperson for Times Online said: “Ultimately, eModeration gives us confidence and removes the burden and worry associated with moderation. The company fully understands our needs and has dealt with them in a very efficient and professional manner.”
Slide 27: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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Case Study: Northcliffe Media and E3
Northcliffe Media is one of the UK‟s largest newspaper publishers, publishing 113 regional and local newspapers. E3 were approached by Northcliffe‟s South West division to look at creating a re-usable platform for presenting regional entertainment content online. The Challenge: Historically entertainment content was published as a weekly supplement to the newspaper. However this provided a number of challenges and opportunities. Content was only published and distributed once a week The audience was limited to existing local newspaper readers Little opportunity was available for consumer feedback and opinions Advertising opportunities were limited within the supplement E3‟s response: Through a series of collaborative workshops the concept for a new entertainment portal was developed to be the definitive entertainment guide for the region. Key to the site would be a mix of the rich editorial content produced by journalists and the vast amount of archive content available, matched with user generated content to give consumer views and provide additional content. A new brand was developed by E3 for the portal and newspaper supplement with the retro name „Crackerjack‟, based on the name of the long running Friday evening TV show. This matched the concept for the site which was hoped to be the destination for consumers on a Friday night as they planned their weekends and a name which would be nostalgic for the key audiences. The portal provides a wealth of new advertising and promotional opportunities for businesses and not-forprofit organisations. These range from user-generated event listings through to „paid for‟ profiles for bars, clubs and restaurants and standard banner ad inventory. Results: Core to the site is the rich content and functionality available to users which includes: Editorial content produced by the newspaper journalists covering news, interviews, reviews across: restaurants, pubs & bars, clubbing, gigs, comedy, film, theatre, days out, community events and arts User generated ratings, reviews and comments A myriad of search and browsing options including dynamic „tag cloud‟ navigation based on live user searches and dynamic listings based on user ratings Google maps mash-up allowing users to view and search for everything from local bars to events based on their location Offers engine allowing retailers to upload their offers at any time for users to download To make the site easily updateable, the open-source community platform Drupal was used to deliver the core site and content management functionality. Significant additional development was then required to provide integration with the newspaper publishing platform, provide e-commerce facilities and integrate ad servers. Since the launch of the Bristol portal, Northcliffe Media has added Gloucestershire and there is the ability to roll out into further regions.
Slide 28: Netimperative Sector Report: Social Media 2009
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Case Study: Alison Yule Textiles and BT Tradespace
Alison Daykin, a 53-year-old textiles designer, has boosted her business and increased sales through BT Tradespace, the online networking site for small businesses and individual sellers. The challenge Alison, from Willington, Derbyshire, has been weaving since she was eight years old. Having completed an HNC qualification in a Hand Woven Textiles course in Bradford five years ago, she set up Alison Yule Textiles. In 2005, she developed her own website, realising the potential for publicity through promoting her business online. However, she felt she needed some assistance to promote her company – and last year, she received an email about BT Tradespace. Working with BT Tradespace “I thought BT Tradespace was a really good idea, and a great marketing opportunity for a company like mine,” said Alison. “It was really easy to set up my Tradespace page – much easier than developing my other site.” Alison has since found several other benefits of BT Tradespace: “I now use the BT Tradespace blog to stimulate more interest in my products – something I‟ve never done before. I‟ve also used the site to link to complementary businesses, so it‟s also helping me build up a company network.” Alison concluded: “I have set up a page on Facebook, and it‟s great for keeping in touch with my friends – but I‟m not convinced it‟s as relevant to businesses as BT Tradespace!” Results Last October, Alison‟s book Creative Spinning was published. She now plans to use BT Tradespace to promote the book in addition to her business. BT Tradespace is a unique platform that brings businesses who want to focus on business promotion and individuals who are looking for products and sevices together; making it easy for them do business online. BT Tradespace members can use social media tools such as blogs, photos, videos and podcasts to promote their business, products and services.
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