How to Build Business Through Social Media – Part 2

We will summarize David Perry & Associates seminar “Building Business Through Social Media” held last month in SF. In part 1, we covered the social side of social media. In part 2, we will go through some applications on social media and have David Perry’s panel share some social wisdom with us. His panel had government agencies present to share how they manage PR & marketing communications using social media.

Using Online Contests to Boost Social Media Results

Michael Brandvold, principle at Michael Brandvold Associates, discussed how promotional games can complement and add to your Social Media channel. Brandvold has a lot of experience running contests and games in the music industry prior to the social media revolution. He explained that to do a successful on-line contest you have to have the following elements: Goals, Strategy, Data Gathering plan, and Terms & Conditions.

Goals are defined as “what are the ultimate outcomes you are trying to achieve with the contest?” For example, grow e-mail listings

Strategy or plan is how to achieve the contest goals you want to achieve.

Data Gathering Plan is “what information you hope to gain from the contest?” If it is e-mail, is there are form they need to fill out or if it is twitter reach, how do they opt in for twitter?

One of the cautionary items that Brandvold mentioned for on-line contests were the contest rules or terms & conditions.  This can be very tricky. Games can be either a Sweepstakes-which is includes a prize and an element of luck or a Contest- which is promotional and involves a skill.  Rules must be specific so that it is clear how the game winner is decided or how the winner is selected otherwise it can open you up to some nasty litigation.

The US Post Office in the Age of Facebook

Bill Gossy from the US Postal Service talked about the US post office exists in the age of Social Media.  He proposed that Social Media augments direct mailing campaigns.  Gossy spent a good part of the presentation showing data and stats that show how Direct Mail is relevant and engages people.  The most interesting statistics show that 35-49 women really engage in direct mail.

One interesting case study Gossy presented was the Chick-fil-A direct mail campaign.

Store owners went from no customer database to a full qualified customer database for future marketing from their direct mail campaign. Upon logging on to their PURL, users were walked through Dukky’s technology, which boasted a customized microsite for the Chick-fil-A campaign. Users validated their information on the first screen, selected the offer they wanted to activate and answered a few questions from Chick-fil-A. Next, users were given the capability to share the offer on up to 265 social networks, email and SMS. All recipients who shared the offer with friends were automatically entered into a sweepstakes to win free Chick-fil-A for a year. After completing the process, users were able to print the offer (if they had not received the offer in the mail) and bring it into the store for redemption.

5,000 plastic postcards were sent out, and due to the integration of social sharing, the campaign gained a total response of 14,124, a 279.8% response on their direct-mail campaign. Chick-fil-A’s direct mail piece alone gained a 22% response, with 1,111 users logging on to their PURL to activate their mail piece.

“Building Business with Social Media” Panel Discussion

Moderator: Stuart McFaul, Founder/President, Spiralgroup

Panelists:

• Christopher Clark, Vice President, Integrated Marketing Services at San Francisco Travel
• Jon Cowperthwait, Awe.sm
• Kristen Holland, Public Relations Officer at SFMTA
• Joe Brown, Copy Editor at AllThingsDigital

How can a small business use Social Media to build a business?

CC: Social Media gives you real time feedback and that should be part of your Social Media strategy

JC: Used as a marketing tool to promote your business

JB: Even though Newspapers still exist.  Use it to send out great stories and interesting articles to draw people to you.

KH: Pick and choose which social media channels to utilize, figure out which add value and give your the opportunities

What are some of the strategies to manage Social Media?

CC: We look at an interactions model – How many mentions / where, what changed? We love Omniture for tracking our results.

JB: Develop a voice…leads to a story, return a study/ illicit a secondary response.

JB: Create a persona on Social Media

KH: Develop a strategy.

JC: Brand is it advertising

CC: Need a call to action, associate sales to SM somehow. We also listen to our best friends on SM and trust it highly.

KH: Develop a call to action to focus your goals.

What Tech niches that want people to share?

JC: Social Media can have unpredictability. Systematically approach how to deliver it, but there is no set formula.

CC: Keep an open mind to the new possibilities to learn ideas, things through Social Media and share them.

JB: People like novelty and amusement-find a way to interest and amuse using Social Media.

How do you manage crisis using Social Media at SFMTA?

KH: We provide information on an ongoing basis, the timing is important.

KH: We constantly monitor media channels including Social Media, we keep an eye on the “local” media channels.

How do you sell management on Social Media?

CC: Converting people to a metric.

JC: Link social behavior to AD spending for example. Develop Core KPIs that the organization is behind – Got to know what you metrics are.. e.g. Click per share is a way to measure.

KH: Champion communications.  Social Media has to support it. Agree…Develop Core KPIs like Clicks per share to measure Social Media.

Everyone finds ways of using the Social Media channel for their own business means and it is dependent on defining a clear goal, developing a strategy for that goal and measuring the results.  As discussed above, applications of Social Media can allow for substantial business results especially integrated with other media. I would like to thank again David Perry and all the presenters for a worth while conference.