Live@CMW: And You Thought You Knew Social Networking...

March 10, 2010
Live@CMW: And You Thought You Knew Social Networking…

Social Media – Opportunities to Increase Revenue and Brand Loyalty by Engaging in Online Communities

Panelists:

On the issue of awareness among buyers…

Mayugba: vocabulary on ‘social media’ typically includes Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., but often ends there. But how about other networks?
Galucci: Think overall picture, don’t only try to sell through Twitter, etc. “There are plenty of ways to do direct sells, Twitter is not it,” also, MySpace is still a huge network for music, and a huge, huge site.
And, skip the bleeding edge. “What you need to know is where is everyone is right now,” which means YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

On building a community…

Katz: Important to ‘build your own community’ and make it sticky, engaging.
Galucci: contests work, especially when spread across the important channels like YouTube. Cites a case study of a client using $100,000, and asking participants to create a winning clip that mentioned the company. That gave much higher exposure than more traditional advertising vehicles.

Authenticity…

Gulerson, ‘important not to have some robot’ answering questions. Answers must come from real people, and be right. ‘People will see right through’ attempts to fabricate.

Big brands?

Gulerson: Still very hesitant, ‘we end up falling back on things like paid search,’ they are ‘quite behind’.

How can referrals and followers be harvested?

Katz: Great concepts win. Important not to consider social networks ‘as a silo,’ better integrated into larger campaigns. ‘It’s really important to invent something that people really want to participate in,’ ‘then once people are actually using it, you get data.’
Maas: keep people on their natural platforms. ‘When people are on Facebook they like to stay on Facebook,’ instead of trying to steer them into a different platform.
Gullerson: It’s about communicating with people where they are (similar point).
Galucci: over-focus is on getting emails, but that makes little sense for younger audiences. “Under 26, they do not use email,” then “get out there and get these tools and get your hands dirty.” (also, Galucci authored the ‘Social Media Manifest’…”this is what I use to execute campaigns”.)

On targeting…

Galucci: Facebook ‘an amazing tool’ for targeting users, and ‘the things that don’t work, you stop doing’
Maas: Word of mouth still the most powerful, though ‘conversations are held in places like Facebook.’ It’s ‘how people make decisions,’ what friends tell you, recommendations, etc.