A SOCIAL MEDIA WORKBOOK FOR NICHE MEDIA BRANDS Dan McCarthy, CEO Network Communications, Inc.

Personal Proof of Concept: Dan McCarthy’s ViralHousingFix

•  Launched December 2008 •  Hosted on third-party

host. •  Built on WordPress •  Thesis theme •  All-in-One SEO plug-in •  Twitter integration •  Facebook Connect integration

The purpose of the blog is to provide an outlet for structured thinking and analysis about business issues that I facing in my professional life.

The blog doesn’t address confidential information, such as the company financials, or management and organizational issues. It is primarily a strategy and business information workspace.

VHF & Google Juice: A Sample

VHF’s Digital Footprint

Channel Participation Comment

VHF.com 3K – 5K UV/mo Approx 1 post per day

VHF FB page 580 fans Auto feed of VHF posts

DRM profile 650+ friends Redistribute most posts, share broader range of content

@danielrmccarthy 1230 followers 2,360 tweets; 7-10 per day

@viralhousingfix 65 followers Tweets of VHF articles, interesting content

Other platforms approx 1,000 FriendFeed, Posterous, Delicious, etc.

Definition of Social Media

Examples of social media tools

The reasons why social media tools matter

  Scale   Low-cost, high-impact way to connect

and interact   Flexible content distribution/creation

model

What do you already do on the social web?

  What are your personal activities?

What new things should you do on the social web?

  Connect your company with each other

  Connect your company with its market   Connect your brands with its users.

How to build out a Community of Interest

  The first step to experiencing the power of social media tools is identifying and connecting with your Community of Interest  Personal  Professional  Brand-centric

  The tools  Facebook  Linked-In  Twitter

The Community of Interest

How to invite your company onto the Social Web

  Project: Massive Network   Challenged company to create 1000

connections in 90 days.   Invited every one in the company to

connect with CEO   Offered web training through an

outside consultant  Very basic how-to get started on

Facebook, Linked-In & Twitter

  Issued progress updates every week   Result: 2400+ connections in 45 days

from 800 person organization

Some things to think about

  Top-down leadership by example key to this project

  Question: Why are we doing this?   Policy: The less rules the better

Define your business goals

  Internal goals  Communication  Collaboration  Efficiency

  External goals   Increase awareness & contact with

advertisers   Increase diversity of content   Increase contact with readers   Increase print audience   Increase online audience   Increase magazine ad sales   Increase online/supplemental sales

The Niche Media Brand Social Media Toolkit

  A blog for frequent publishing   Integrated into or supplemental to your

primary web site  Technology architecture issue

  A network of social media identities in order to drive your digital footprint  Facebook & Twitter are the primary

complementary distribution platforms

  A workflow that changes the content distribution process  Sharing vs. Creating

A Sharing model

The influence of networks in driving content usage

How the brand footprint works

Magazine circulation: 30,000

Web visits: 10,536

Facebook Fans:

4,410 E-mail subs:

7,500

Twitter followers: 460

Staff friends: 3,500

Total Network: 56,406

(47% digital)

At Home in Arkansas – January 2010

A brand tracking model

From Dan Blank of www.danblank.com

Frequent content sharing on the AHIA blog

Distribution & community on Facebook fan page

Distribution on Twitter

Monthly tracking shared with content team

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Dashboard December 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009

Site Usage

7,295 Total Visits 0:06:57 Avg Time on Site

16,855 Total Pageviews 70.08% % New Visits

2.31 Avg Pages/Visit

Visitors Overview Traffic Sources Overview

6,179 Total Visitors 16,855 Total Pageviews

Content ChannelsSTYLE & SHOPPING HOMES & GARDENS

1,360 Total Pageviews 3,846 Total Pageviews

790 Total Visits 1,602 Total Visits

1.7 Avg Pages/Visit 2.4 Avg Pages/Visit

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At Home in Arkansas Online Dashboard

Focus on key content areas

At Home in Arkansas - Page 2 December 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009

MY NEIGHBORHOOD BLOG

85 Total Pageviews 4,548 Total Pageviews

49 Total Visits 2,966 Total Visits

1.7 Avg Pages/Visit 1.5 Avg Pages/Visit

TRAVEL & ENTERTAINING FASHION & BEAUTY

694 Total Pageviews 594 Total Pageviews

491 Total Visits 362 Total Visits

1.4 Avg Pages/Visit 1.6 Avg Pages/Visit

Featured Video Plays

1,458 Total Pageviews

783 Total Visits 12 Featured Video Plays

1.9 Avg Pages/Visit

FIND A PROFESSIONAL / FIND SHOPS AND SHOWROOMS

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AHIA: Google Juice

AHIA: Multiple web traffic sources

Jan 2010 Jun 2009 % CH

Unique visitors 7,173 4,019 78%

Visits 10,536 4,419 138%

Page views 21,610 12,500 73%

Traffic sources

Other web sites 4,105 1,458 182%

Search 3813 2908 31%

Direct 2618 932 181%

Top sections

Home page 2675 1807 48%

Blog 4107 351 1170%

Homes & gardens 6038 3572 69%

Sample work plan

Week Social distribution

Network building

Link building

#1 Room of week 5 - 10 sharing elements Three magazine features Resource directory

Invitation to new e-mail subscribers 1 hour of Twitter following 1 hour of FB friend prospecting

2 reciprocal link offers 1 blog feature

#2 Room of the week 5 - 10 sharing elements 2 features

1 hour of Twitter following 1 hour FB friend prospecting

Blog prospecting Link offers

#3 Room of the week 5 - 10 sharing elements E-mail link to social network

Invitation to new e-mail subscribers

1 Blog feature

#4 Room of the week 5 – 10 sharing elements

Twitter following FB prospecting

Review new links & traffic Blog prospecting

Sample tracking & measuring

Social distribution

Network building

Link building

Weekly Total referrals in week Most active sharing elements

FB friends Twitter followers E-mail subscribers

# of blogs linked Blog referral traffic Most active blogs

Monthly Unique visits Page views Popular pages/sections Traffic sources

Totals Friends Total followers Total e-mail subscribers

Blog referral traffic as a % of UV’s Google PageRank

Using social media tools to build & maintain Audience

  Share content regularly  Create multiple social identities to share

content into   Supplement with regular subscription

newsletters   Create brand blog   Use polls, discussions to engage

audience   Promote print features in advance

using Sharing Model  Web is not only for news

  Feature print features multiple times across digital footprint

Using social media to amplify and improve marketing

  Have sales team connect with marketplace using social identities  Facebook a strong tool

  Give sales team access to Brand fan page

  Create marketing content on brand blog

  Promote relationships, events in your marketplace

  Photos, photos, photos   As team gains expertise, organize

social media webinars, learning sessions

Strategies for increasing Web traffic and sales

  Implement sharing model   Build Digital Footprint   Build volume of shared content and

links   Create content relationships with other

leading bloggers in your market   Outcome is more inventory and more

business activity for your advertisers   Design web presence to drive one or

two key actions  Search professional directory  Access contextually relevant advertising

Strategies for building interactive Community

  Share   Invite perspective and interaction   Profile Community submissions on blog

and in printed product

Strategies for creating new Revenue sources

  Basic directory listings   Basic web sponsorships & display

advertsing   Online promotion packages that take

advantage of digital footprint  Facebook & Twitter promotion  Blog promotion  Time-sensitive announcements

Understanding skill and resource requirements to implement social media tools

  New technology resources   Open-source content management system

  Wordpress   Drupal

  Hosting environment   Cloud resources allow for minimal capital

investment   Amazon

  HTML/PHP programming experience   Social media experience

  New processes & skills   Social-media enabled organization   Content & marketing teams trained on

using web publishing & content sharing tools

  Openness   Willingness to experiment   New inteactive product packaging

Thinking about Cost & Approach

  Low-cost, rapid development   Focus on getting the content tools into the

market as quickly as possible   Reduce focus on design, functionality   Characteristics of social media tools allow for

quick changes of design & functionality  Adapt and change as you gain experience

in the market   Time-Neutral Method

  Sharing process should not create more work

 Determine how much time to create an edit page

  Identify content sourced through Sharing Process & incorporate it into print feature   Use the content-sharing process to create print-

ready content

Communicating organizational & personal benefits

  Connection with the market   Broaden personal portfolio of skills   Personal brand

Summary & Recommended Sources

  Social media can increase the connectedness and relevance of your organization and brand.

  Social media will drive your brand’s digital footprint.

  Social media will expand your digital revenue opportunities.

  Your existing business processes and technology investments can be adapted to leverage social media tools at little additional expense.

Some Sources:

Dan McCarthy’s ViralHousingFix (www.viralhousingfix.com) DigitalSherpa (www.digital-sherpa.com) Dan Blank (www.danblank.com) Greg Satell (www.digitaltonto,.com) Eric Brown (www.apartmentveteran.com) Olivier Blanchard (www.thebrandbuilder.com) Mack Collier (www.mackcollier.com) eMedia Vitals (www.emediavitals.com) Folio (www.foliomag.com)

A SOCIAL MEDIA WORKBOOK FOR NICHE MEDIA BRANDS Dan McCarthy, CEO Network Communications, Inc.