Social Media 101 with Lisa Myers – SES London 2010
We kick off the second session of the day with Lisa Myers, a 10-year veteran of SEO and PPC and CEO of Verve Search, talking about the fundamentals of Social Media and how to approach this as a first-timer, how to drive a compelling campaign and how to avoid the Facebook page graveyard!
(Not strictly adCenter-related, but we thought we’d host the post here as it draws attention to how important search is to the social media mix.)
And so the session began with the million-dollar question of the moment, what does social media actually mean? It can be defined as ‘an umbrella term that defines the various activities that facilitates communication and word of mouth. Though these days, it’s turning into WORLD of mouth! What Social Media definitely is not, is simply opening a Facebook or Twitter account and thinking, “my job here is done!”. Lisa likened this strategy to building a house whilst holding a hammer.indeed! It could be said that the key to Social Media is starting at the very foundations. There is a distinct need to listen to customers; Social Media is NOT a selling tool, “listen first, sell second”, so a wise woman once said.
We were then presented with a fantastic 5-minute reel – Social Media Revolution – that quickly answers the question, “is social media a fad?”. Well worth checking out.
According to Lisa, the most effective Social Media campaigns include a nice mix of the following elements: content marketing, link baiting, site seeding, ORM (online reputation management) & monitoring, blogging, viral, social media networks.
First things first, when thinking of setting up your campaign, you must, must, must consider your campaign objectives. This is certainly SM 101 but a step many marketers may neglect. Am I aiming simply to drive branding/awareness, traffic generation, link generation or hike up those conversions (although perhaps a social media campaign may not be the most relevant way to give you direct conversions, this is maybe more suited to niche campaigns)? And more importantly, will the campaign fulfil each of these objectives?
In no uncertain terms, audience is key. Who is my target audience, do I know the age/gender/locations I wish to target most? Another consideration is the different ways males and females perform searches, women reading through the complete list of results to find the most relevant, with men tending to click on the first one they see (not my words!).
Besides the usual suspects (Facebook & Twitter), blogging is perhaps the third wheel in this online threesome. Blogging came into the mainstream and became a serious marketing tool in 2006. The power of the blog is not to be underestimated or disregarded. Today, users can navigate through over 200 million blogs on the Web, with 54% of blog owners posting content or tweeting daily, 34% of them posting opinions on products and services.
So the opportunity to give your product/service a personal voice, develop a positive online reputation and reach a wider audience is immense. But not as easy as simply setting up a blog.
Before you start your blog, it’s a good idea to outline the main topics. Why do you want or even need a blog, what industry categories would it fall into and very importantly, WHO is going to be blogging?
Having the right person with the right voice really lends to the tone and mood of the blog and the type or articles presented. Blogs need personalities, a voice that is not afraid to be outgoing online (check out SEOchicks.com and stateofsearch.com).
Writing the way we speak is not the same as writing for a magazine, for example, in a way that appeals to readers. In larger companies, the position/role of the blogger is not so important; it’s all about the personality.
Does that person have passion for the subject matter? How do they speak/write/connect with users? For further insights into this area, check out: ‘How to be a Blogger in 30 Minutes‘ by Mel Carson.
Some of Lisa’s top tips, besides finding the right bloggers:
- Use wordpress [We use Community Server and there's obviously Windows Live Spaces too!
] - Use plug-ins, such as: tweetmeme, sexybookmarks
- Use an all-in-one SEO pack
- Use vodpod, which makes it easier to incorporate video
- Have a picture of the blogger on the post; readers need a face to connect with what’s written.
It’s important to remember that blogging is 50% writing and 50% managing. Now, in this sense, managing a blog is not simply approving comments, adding widgets and plug-ins but visiting other blogs, replying to comments promptly, and marketing your blog on other blogs and communities, even offline and print.
Drive awareness of your blog through as many means possible and build up that link and relationship with other blogs. Keep Social SEO in mind.when doing Social Media, ALWAYS think about SEO. If you don’t, this could be a lost opportunity.
Link Baiting is another great Social Media tool to be aware of. It’s a piece of digital content specifically created to boost link equity to a domain, thus contributing to increased ranking (though it has to be the domain you are wanting to increase link equity for).
We’ve all heard about campaigns ‘going viral’. In general, it may be the larger campaigns that ‘go viral’ but this doesn’t mean it has to cost a lot of money. Viral campaigns usually appeal to broader range of people, thus spreading quicker and to a wider audience.
One misconception of this type of marketing is that you can simply decide to create a viral campaign. Of course, you can create the idea and if it wants to go viral, it will 
Virals MUST include good quality creative and a solid execution in order for it to be a success.
As Lisa rightly concludes, all the Tweeting, digging, stumbling and buzz building in the world will not work if the basic idea is rubbish! One example was given (the brand shall remane nameless!), where the entire campaign was built in flash.
Fantastically snazzy stuff, except the campaign couldn’t go viral. Thus, the idea is crucial but execution is KEY! A good idea to do ‘interesting’ rather than ‘funny’, as humour is so subjective and differs from country to country, if you want it to go international.
With over 10 million users today, Twitter has taken over the world! But, it’s not just about broadcasting, it’s about listening, communication and maybe most of all, sharing. That’s what makes it so successful.
Lisa’s advice when it comes to Tweeting is don’t overthink it. Be personable; your tweeting should be an extension of you, so don’t be afraid to post the larger your audience gets. Share information & links, and listen to your audience.
Tools that are helpful with Twitter campaigns? Twitterlists are useful if you’re following hundreds and also help you to discover new people. Another one is Tweetdeck. It’s by no means rocket science, just simply organising your tweets. Scheduling Tweets is another fantastic tool that’s great when you want to tweet when speaking at an event, just as Lisa has done today!
Here’s one close to many of our hearts: the mighty Facebook. If this Internet heavyweight were a country, it would be the 4th largest country in the world! FB currently has 400million+ users, with 50% logging on every day, 35% updating their status every day, and over 3 billion photos uploaded each month. Quite unbelievable really! But is Facebook still worth using? Indeed. It’s a great tool when it comes to branding.
Lisa strongly favours having the fan page, with the brand/company name in the URL. Search engines like our very own Bing will pick up on those and make them even easier for your target audience to find.
The Pros – pages indexed by search engines, can add vanity URL for fan pages, integrated twitter and blog feeds, member statistics and demographics.
The Cons – can’t send messages to all members (so not great for communicating to all), lose message feature if group bigger than 5,000 members, can’t synch with blogs or twitter posts, no vanity URLs.
To summarise, there are so many stats out there that make Social Media look so easy and the best thing since sliced bread. To close on some wise words (Lisa’s), the Social Media tidal wave is here, just don’t get swept away by it. Think before you go and trust your instinct!
Great session Lisa!
Don’t forget to download our Social Media White Paper too!
Thanks
Sonia
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