I’ve been busy carting my kids around to ball games, forensic meets, band concerts and scouting events.  It surprises me that I get to read anything anymore.  Just read a great story that the Girl Scouts of America utilized social media to assist in their cookie selling campaign this year.

My daughter has been involved in scouting for 8 years.  She gets very excited over the cookie sales. She pounds the phone the day after receiving the cookie sales sheet calling all the relatives and everyone on our Christmas Card list.  She even hit up her friends at school. (It’s yet to be seen if we will collect any money from them!)  The first weekend of the campaign she was out in the cold soliciting from the neighborhood.  I asked if she wanted me to drive her around.  She refused.  “People will buy more if they see me walking in the cold”, she informed me.  The kid already is a sales psychologist!

The Girl Scouts of the USA campaign included viral video on YouTube which linked to a microsite. The site asks visitors to enter a ZIP code to find a local troop.  According to a DMNews article the site also captured e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

Who says you can’t teach an old nonprofit a new trick!  They didn’t do a good job promoting the campaign down to the local troops.  I didn’t know about it until after the cookie sale was over.

I don’t know how well the campaign did…but I’m sure it helped spread the word, build the brand, and most importantly, sell more cookies!

Rob Trecek
Director of Business Development
rob.trecek@johnsondirect.com

We can all agree that when it comes to marketing, 2009 was the year of social media. A recent Marketing Profs article provided statistics showing a dramatic increase in the number of business utilizing social media to increase brand awareness and sell products last year. It seems a lot of companies decided to dive into social media because it’s the “in” thing, and forgot about their bottom line. Let’s face it, you can post, tag and tweet all you want, but if your efforts don’t produce results then you are out of luck when it comes time to justify your budget to the executives.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that communication is a two way street and social media is no different. Engaging your audience is perhaps the most important aspect to any social media campaign. People interested in your product or service don’t subscribe to your list, follow you or become your fan only because you ask them to. Just as we seek a return on investment for marketing dollars, our followers seek a return on their time invested.

Success in social media can easily be achieved by engaging your audience. Take a look at the 5 tips below and incorporate them into your social media strategy to produce measurable results.

1. Keep an eye on your public profiles- Read comments, messages and questions posted on your profile to see what your audience wants to tell you directly
2. Use social media monitoring tools- Utilize some of the many monitoring tools available to see what your audience is telling others about your brand
3. Respond to questions and comments- When someone asks you a question, respond… and do it quickly!  Depending on the network you are using, low retention rates are something to keep in mind. Social media adds a whole new meaning to “real-time” information and if a potential customer wants to know something they want it now.
4. Utilize surveys or polls- Customers want to know that their opinions matter. Spice things up a bit and change your tone by asking them what they think. Running a successful survey will improve participation and lead to a positive view of your brand.
5. Run promotions specific to your social network- What better way to add value than providing your audience with special discounts just for listening? Be sure to track sources if linking to a landing page so you can fulfill your promise.

Anthony Piwarun
eMarketing
anthony.piwarun@johnsondirect.com

Today’s BizTimes Milwaukee had an interesting story on a local non-profit leveraging social media networks to push it’s annual donation drive to younger donors.  The article, “Use Social Media to Build Your Tribe”, reports that the campaign was successful, bringing in $12,460 of new donations.  While the quantitative results of the campaign were positive, some organizations may look at the “small” number and think it’s not enough to cover the investment of time and resources.  Those companies are wrong…

Social media isn’t just about quantity.  It’s about starting the dialog with your audience.  My strong belief is that the true measure of ROI in social media isn’t quantitative in nature, its qualitative.  Engagement may very well be an overused, ill-defined buzzword, but the truth is that the number of followers you have, links you post or dollars you earn mean little unless you develop an ongoing relationship with those that show interest in your brand.  Conversing with your audience and providing useful, relevant information so it can be shared with others will benefit you more in the long run.

Fortunately, the United Way of Greater Milwaukee got it right.  The spokeswoman for the organization didn’t define success as the number of dollars raised, but said “the relationships we managed to build will be worth exponentially more in the future”.  Bravo!

Anthony Piwarun
eMarketing
anthony.piwarun@johnsondirect.com

Image courtesy of Twine

Over the course of the past few months, I’ve been getting asked about all the “weird” stuff I post to Facebook.  I know what you’re thinking, but no, I haven’t been using the web’s most popular social networking site to announce my quest to determine the speed of darkness.  Instead, I’ve been using URL shortening services like ow.ly and bit.ly to post content to Twitter and automatically update my other networks.  URL shorteners assign a shorter address to a website and redirect to another destination page, adding analytics along the way.

Like many other results-minded social media professionals, I use the shortening services to track clicks and mask Google analytics tags to gauge user engagement.  If you want to measure results of your marketing campaigns then these services are a necessity, but one may wonder if they are beneficial when the everyday social network user says “what the heck is that?!” every time you use them.

As if to answer this question and solve the problem once and for all, Facebook and Google announced last week the limited release of fb.me and goo.gl, respectively.  Not to be outdone, YouTube announced yesterday the development of YouTu.be, a URL service specific to videos uploaded to the world’s most popular video sharing site.  Each of the three services now pose a significant threat to bit.ly, arguably the most popular external shortening service, because of their strong user community and household brand recognition. The promotion of a service by a popular icon creates an awareness that cannot be matched by even the largest marketing campaign.  Remember Ashton Kutcher challenging CNN on getting to 1 million followers on Twitter?  You can ask around, but I doubt you will find anyone that disagrees with the notion that Ashton Kutcher played a role in Twitter’s 2009 popularity boom.

Mainstream use of URL shorteners will help online marketers by providing credibility to their online identities and positively impact the results of their campaigns.  If these services see mainstream use and users know what they are, then they will begin trusting links and make our content, products and services easier to market.  Widespread use of social networks focusing on short form communication is bringing forth innovative new ways to increase leads, sales and customer engagement in an era where fewer people are clicking on display ads.  Embracing these trends will not only help you stay afloat in a down economy, but also help you stay on top of the competition.

When all is said and done, will the popularity of Facebook, Google and YouTube make URL shorteners mainstream in 2010?  Only time will tell, but my guess is absolute.ly!

Anthony Piwarun
eMarketing
anthony.piwarun@johnsondirect.com

Integrate Social Media to Grow Your Online Presence

It seems that everywhere you go today companies are implementing social media campaigns to reach out to customers and increase name recognition.  Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube have all become household names, and even the Oxford dictionary added “unfriend”, a popular term for removing someone from your social network contact list, as the 2009 word of the year.  With all the hype and emergence of social media “gurus”, it is important to take a step back and stick with what matters the most: achieving measurable results.

Social media success can come in many forms. Whether it’s achieving greater brand awareness, improving marks on your customer relations scorecard or even increasing sales, social media provides a cost effective way to broaden your online presence.  While most social media networks are free to use, creating a winning strategy takes time, personnel and resources that you might otherwise allocate to another area of operations.  To justify the shift to social media, Johnson Direct works with clients to define and implement strategy using the below model to achieve a return on investment and ensure future success.

Identify Target Audience

The first step to creating your social media campaign is to define your target audience.  Who are you trying to reach?  Going through this process allows us to match target demographics to their most commonly used network.  For example, you might have a son or daughter that spends most of their time on Facebook leading you to believe that only teens use the site.  A July 2009 study by iStrategyLabs showed a 190% growth rate in the age bracket of 35-54 and a 513% increase in 55+ compared to a nominal 4.8% growth rate for users between 18 and 24 since the beginning of the year.  What does this mean for your brand?  Facebook isn’t just for kids anymore.

Define “Success”

In new media, success can mean positive feedback on goods and services, a higher amount of online sales or even a higher volume of “buzz” on your brand.  Social media services like Twitter and Facebook can be used to engage your customer and support them for the duration of the relationship.  An increasing number of companies are employing social networks as a method of client relationship management for sales or technical support.  A case in point is back in September I was looking for a car at a local dealership and felt uncomfortable with the amount of pressure I was receiving from the sales force.  I turned to my social network of choice, Twitter, and warned anyone that would listen of my experience.  Within three hours, I received a direct message from the car dealership apologizing for their actions and requesting a sit down to smooth things over.  At the time I vowed never again to go to that place, but after their unique (at the time) use of social media, I gave them another shot.

Launch, Integrate and Adapt

Planning is the key to success not only in social media but in your interactive strategy as a whole.  All of your research and analysis has led to the launch of your campaign- how will you announce it to your audience?  Johnson Direct recommends a “two way” relationship between your social media and traditional interactive campaigns.  Use your current interactive channels (web site, newsletter, email list, etc.) to launch the social campaign and use the social campaign to support your interactive efforts.    Integrating the various online channels is key to the success of both – social media cannot be used as a replacement to a traditional online presence.  We hear way too often about the company that cuts their interactive budget and opts to go the “free” social media route and ends up losing a big part of their customer base.

When your campaign is officially off the ground, it’s time to take a look at how you are performing week to week.  One thing to keep in mind is that seeing success, however you define it, takes time and patience.  With that being said, monitoring your campaign and adapting to current trends can make or break its success.  If you notice, for example, that the vast majority of your fans, followers or friends are in the 35-54 demographic, consider tailoring your content to the younger generation and testing the results.

Analysis

A campaign cannot be deemed a failure or success if there is no logical form of reasoning behind your analysis.  Traditional interactive channels have a large selection of analytical resources to measure your results, including Google Analytics for websites and ExactTarget for email distribution lists.  Since social media is still a relatively new phenomenon, and there is no current “industry standard” of measurement.  At Johnson Direct, we suggest not relying on just one analytics suite to measure, but utilizing a vast array of network specific features relevant to the medium most used by your target audience.  Blog platforms like WordPress and Blogger have “plug-ins” you can use that link to Google Analytics, and micro blogging platforms like Twitter have both third party enterprise software and link services.

Cornering your market online has changed in the last couple of years.  Simply throwing together a low budget website and expecting customers to find you is no longer common practice.  A multi-channel strategy is needed for the long term success of your brand or organization and Johnson Directs method of campaign creation and analysis will take you to the next level.  To read more about how Johnson Direct can help you deliver measurable results, visit johnsondirect.com today.

	twitter.com/apiwarun
	linkedin.com/in/apiwarun
	anthony.piwarun@johnsondirect.com

Recently both Twitter and Facebook suffered Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, shutting down both very popular sites. I use both sites periodically and them not being accessible didn’t really bother me, but the issue made me contemplate social media and its role in both marketing communications and as a communication channel as a whole.

Here’s what PC World wrote after the DoS attacks: “Twitter will need to try and find the root cause of the denial-of-service attack, or more importantly build a more robust infrastructure with controls in place to withstand future DoS attacks. Companies will have to both determine how to manage social networking for end-users, and how to effectively leverage social networking for business purposes. Users need to figure out what to do with themselves when Twitter is down. A cursory glance suggests that many users rediscovered Facebook to fill their Twitter withdrawal.”

Here are some interesting statistics courtesy of Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics:

• Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
• Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé…In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen
• 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news, the news finds us.
• More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook…daily.
• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations
• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year-old females

Mr. Qualman also asserts that people would rather give up e-mail than their social network. Note: Twitter does not seem to be mentioned.

These stats are in line with a recent Morgan Stanley report on social media usage that was penned by a 15-year old intern there. That report also says that teenagers do not use Twitter. Log on to Twitter and this will be confirmed.

With social media here to stay, I put on my measurable marketing hat and began to think about segments and sub-segments and how they apply and are used in social media circles these days. I had a hard time finding segments within the sites so I did a little web research and here’s some of what I found:

Daniel Lyons in Forbes wrote this about Facebook: “It’s as if two very different tribes were trying to inhabit the same space. I sometimes get the creepy feeling that we oldsters are barging into some college party where we don’t belong and trying a little too hard to look like we’re having fun, like the sad middle-age guys in the movie Old School who attempt, pathetically, to recapture their college days.”

Blogger Gadi Shamia said this: Connecting all the dots I finally got it. It is all about segmentation, or lack of it… Facebook was created by college students for other college students, and only on September 2006 did it become open to all Internet users: kids, students, young adults and adults. This was a major move for the site but it did not change the way the site was designed, the type of services it offered and the metaphors it used (we adults don’t super poke each other…)

And for Twitter:

Blogger Tony Thomas came up with these Twitter groups:
1. The Replacements

Those twitterers who have replaced a more traditional form of communication called talking with 140 characters or less of every thought, comment or announcement that enters their mind. These twitterers tend to skew towards the @reply functionality.

2. The Giver’s

Those that are so fast to tweet a link to the latest piece of industry information published, that they can practically claim it as their own. Lots of tinyurl’s are seen in their tweets. Those that just miss being first to announce often use the RT function.

3. The Takers

Those that selfishly take more than they give from Twitter. These people (me included in this group!) like to follow the random thoughts of random people and send minimal & uninteresting tweets (usually after a few drinks!)

4. The Profilers

Twitter has become both a replacement and a nightmare for publicists amongst those that have a public profile. And we all now feel closer to the ones we look up to and know more about what’s going on in their heads. And if their tweets are missed online, you can usually catch them in the glossies or Sunday gossip sections.

5. The robots

The segment we all hate, but in the end they don’t care because they are machines! I also put the fakes in this segment as they tend to be disliked as well

6. The WTF’s

This segment skews to those who have no followers and only 1 update. They are not sure what the hell twitter is and why people think it’s great. And they are proud to publicly announce it.

If you have someone you are following who has Tweeted a lot, Twitter Analyzer tools can provide data centric insight into which segment of the Twitter audience their messaging most likely resonates.”

It seems like both Facebook and Twitter are turning into the new Mass Media, with Twitter doing a better job of segmenting.

Today, content must be relevant in order to be successful. Relevancy is achieved through great segmentation. Social media needs to do a better job of helping define segments. That’s a key reason why most social media marketing is so hard to quantify from an ROMI vantage point: It’s too broad and lacks focus.

Great segmentation leads to better marketing and that leads to a business model that makes a profit and therefore sustainable.

How many friends or followers one has is more about ego than about the real number of people who are interested in you, what you have to say or what you’re doing. LinkedIn, granted more of a true social media business application, does a much better job at segmenting.

Oh, remember MySpace? Yes, it’s still around. It was created for artistic types and, like Facebook is doing, grew out of its roots and lost relevancy.

The whole exercise really makes me wonder, overall, how effective social media is — and how big it will become. Yes, it’s growing, but…you fill in the rest.

Grant A. Johnson