oxford brookes university lectures, with freestyle interactive: social media & business

© Freestyle Interactive – www.freestyleinteractive.co.uk

Social Media MarketingOxford Brookes

Lectures


• Brand sites are part of a much bigger landscape• Forums, blogs, media & review sites, social media• Anyone can publish content & have a voice• If it’s relevant to enough people…• It will gain momentum• AND affect Google results!

The Digital Landscape has changed…


Media Fragmentation

Brand Website

Forums &

Review sites

BlogsMedia sites

BannersEmail

PPC/ SEOAffiliates

Direct Mail Print & Press


Content tailored to different audiences

Twitter - 1.7m followers

Instagram - 160,000 followers YouTube - 7m views

Foursquare - 260,000 followers

Facebook - 25.5m Likes

App – More than 3 million customers paid through the

app


• Multi platform approach. Mobile, social, geo-location & photo. Early adopter experiments with new platforms like Instagram & Foursquare.

• Content specific to each platform & audience. Think about what the audience wants e.g. Twitter for customer service, Instagram for high quality photos & Foursquare for loyalty rewards.

• Engages & listens to the customer rather than broadcasting at them.

• Use offline stores to promote their social activity – free WiFi, rewards loyalty/check-ins.

Why does Starbucks Social Media work?


John Lewis

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY


John Lewis on Twitter

P2P conversation. Engaging with audience, listening to @mentions & RT’ing positive tweets

Broad content focus – e.g. using National Literacy week to promote childrens books & content

Open & transparent response to complaints. Fast response time.

Supports conversation with engaging content – user generated content in video, images, blogs.


• Content: John Lewis has a healthy balance of content creation and curation. Utilises a wealth of rich and engaging video and photo content – doesn’t sell with prices/deals but with content.

• Tone: The tone of the Twitter account is personable and friendly, avoids being too brand focussed and feels like an actual person (helps create better relationships with the customers)

• Timing: Regularly updated and responds to queries and complaints quickly, but at the same time doesn’t over-tweet and flood customers timelines.

John Lewis formula for success

@johnlewisretailTweets: 2264Following: 7,567Followers: 11,728Klout: 60

56% positive sentiment23% negative sentiment(Social Media Monitoring tool Brandwatch)


Illegal Jacks

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY


• 48% of small and medium enterprises (SME’s) use social networks to help establish future growth for their business

• Mexican restaurant in Edinburgh ‘Illegal Jacks’ that incorporates Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare to market their brand and speak directly to customers:

SME: Illegal Jacks restaurant

2,934 Likes

2,919 Followers

2,057 Check-ins


• BUT it isn’t about the numbers game, it’s the content they use to engage their community.

• LEFT: Great example of community engagement – suggest an idea, earn feedback and then act on that. This makes the community feel more affinity to the business.

• Don’t force content, don’t shout – converse. Create an engaging community and you’ll create an engaged customer/brand advocate.

Engage with your community


• Have conversations• Don’t talk about yourself –

listen to others – ask your customer what they want.

• Keep talking – don’t fall victim to a half-dead Twitter feed/Facebook page.

• Reward loyalty from customers who help raise your profile

• Be honest, friendly and helpful – treat social media as you would treat a customer in store.

Lessons to learn, be social!


NatWest

SOCIAL MEDIA CHAOS!


Social media chaosFail to secure brand – NatWest have failed to secure the @natwest account, which is owned by a 21 year old which leaves them open to a potential PR disaster. Account is increasingly mistaken for the bank:

Confusion – NatWest have fragmented their social presence into 14 different accounts based on region and past marketing campaigns, thereby confusing the user and this creates doubt about the validity/security of these accounts.

No cohesive strategy in place.

?


• No engagement - Content from regional accounts is broadcast, infrequent and only ever brand promotion.

• Failure to listen - NatWest doesn’t appear to employ active listening, as such complaints and queries are ignored.

• Negative response - According to Brandwatch, 63% of all mentions in relation to NatWest are negative.

Inactive, confusing & broadcastNatWest broadcasting

Brandjacked NatWest account

Angry customers left unanswered


Business context


Manage TNT’s online reputation during fulfillment of iPad & iPhone.

Provide a round the clock customer service through social channels and aprogramme of monitoring, customer outreach & engagement, crisis planningreputation and SERPs management


In crisis…Lufthansa


In Crisis…BP

} Branded PPC

}Social Properties

}News Sites

} Videos (non-brand)

} Brand .Com


Owning the search page!


Topman – T-Shirt Design

Case Study


Issue

Topman’s clothing rangeincluded t-shirts with ironic

slogans

General public felt the slogans were

offensive and criticised

Social media was where the criticism started


Response


• Topman issued an official statement – within 24hrs– Apologising– Taking responsibility– Taking action– Thanking

Reputation Management


Twitter Timeline

First tweet 13th 21.52

Women’s rights and pressure groups pick the story up.

22.40

14th 09.06. Story Tweeted by influential comedian. RT 200+ times

Guardian journalists tweet story

11,000+ followers

Design site created parodies of shirts. RT 271 times

14.31

13.20

266 Tweets referring to Topman and T-shirts


• Don’t underestimate the little guy– Started by one person with 435 followers– Pushed on by pressure groups and individual journalists

• Active community management & monitoring integral to make quick informed decisions in the face of PR mishaps– Topman are pro-active listeners in social media channels – Brand clearly deployed a crisis management plan

– Quick communication links between community managers and

key decision makers– Reacted quickly & effectively to mitigate

Lessons


Barriers to change?


Social Media & Big Business


• Unsure of what investment to make & how to measure ROI• Lack of experience• Lack of benchmarks• Lack of staff• Inability to specify infrastructure• Inability to train staff• No business process

Why big business has been slow to SMM


• Often Crisis!- Product or service issue that explodes online- Effects SERPs- Impacts on brand reputation

• Once you’ve seen the power of social to create & resolve crisis issues, it’s easier to understand the positive opportunities

Drivers for getting involved


ROI

• Understand that social is a relationship channel…

• sCRM– Brand affinity– Reduced marketing

spend– Increased rev over time

(lifetime value)


1. Know your business objectives2. Understand your audience3. People engage with themes, topics & issues, not brands (there are

exceptions!)4. Think about how you can add value to your audience

communities?5. If you don’t have interesting, useful, engaging content, you can’t

build relationships 6. Social media cuts across business function, your audience

consider your brand online as one entity7. Search is heavily influenced by social media activity 8. Understand your influencers & treat them with respect9. Remember you don’t own the channel, you’re a voice in a

community10.Dialogue & collaboration NOT broadcast

Top 10 key principles


Twitter: @1AndyWoodBlog: blog.freestyleinteractive.co.uk, andywoodsblog.comFacebook: facebook.com/freestyleinteractiveWebsite: freestyleinteractive.co.uk