strategically leveraging social media

xxx Social Media Certificate Course | Team9

Strategically Leveraging Social MediaA project for ComfortFeetShop.com

by Instant eTraining Social Media Certificate Course Team9

Katja Reuter, Maria-Rosa Moroso, Cynthia Glimpse, Bridgette Storms

Saturday, May 5, 2012


ComfortFeetShop is a growing online shoe retailer but ...

...it cannot be considered a “social business” that leverages social media to

develop its brand and increase revenue.

The Opportunity



How can social media help?



Increase Visibility &

Discoverability

Increase Brand Awareness & Improve Reputation

$IncreaseRevenue

Improve Search Ranking (Search Engine Optimization) Improve Customer

Service

Manage Reputation

Drive more People to the Website and Convert them into Customers

Strengthen Brand

Decrease costs



Lets’ look at specific “pain points” and solutions...



? Sub-optimal Search Ranking: Potential customers are 20-30% more likely to find one of ComfortFeetShop’s main competitors. (Ref. Search Grader, HubSpot)

Missed Profit Opportunity: Competitors generate 58-4,000 times more $ monthly, up to 4 MM of non-paid search traffic. (Ref. Marketing Grader, HubSpot)

$

Limited Customer Base: 60+% of current customers are 44+ of age. 10% are between 25 and 35. (Ref. Quantcast)

“Pain Points”



Social media can help...



Priority 1: ~50% time Priority 2: 40% time

ComfortFeetShop.com

ContentSharing &Ranking

News Feed

User-Generated

Content

ComfortFeetShop Website ComfortFeetShop Social Media Channels

Creating a “Digital Ecosystem”: Website + Social Media Platforms

Breaking Down Efforts

Ning

Xanga

WordpressTumblr

Scribd

Bebo

DeliciousPosterous

StumbleUpon

Slideshare

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

Foursquare

YouTube

Google+

Forums

Flickr

Digg

Pinterest



Facebook

Share content“Like”Comment

LinkedIn

Updates of strategic importance shared on Twitter appear on individual LinkedIn pages of company leadership and inform their networks.(Automatic feed #in)

Twitter

Share contentFollowReply & MentionRe-Tweet

Focus on tips, customer service, offers, industry-related news, trends, contests.

Recommended Channels & Focus

Focus on tips, offers, industry-related news and trends, contests, photos of employees (e.g., with their favorite shoes, funny themes).

Phase 1 - What You Can Do Now

Phase 1, Low-Effort

Phase 1

Phase 2

YouTube

Share contentSubscribe to related channels

Videos with CEO about vision and mission, employees present their favorite shoes and brands, expert perspectives, customer video competitions.

Foursquare

Integrate social, mobile and local.

Phase 1



What could this look like?

Two examples...



Exemplary Twitter Page

Using Pseudonym TheIdealShoe



Exemplary Facebook Page

Using Pseudonym TheIdealShoe



Improve Search Ranking

1. Include social “share buttons” on Website - enabling social shares.

2. Increase number of links back to ComfortFeetShop Website (e.g., self-linking in social conversations, widgets).

3. Optimize content with high-ranking keywords and key-phrases (e.g., online, shoes, cheap, comfortable - Ref. Google Insights, Google AdWords).

4. Include more engagement objects (e.g., ranking, reviewing, dynamic content, images, and videos for phase 2) - increasing amount of time visitors spend on ComfortFeetShop Website.




Unmanaged Reputation & Potential Loss of Customers: 83% of online consumers change their purchase decision based on online reviews. (Ref. Cone)

“Pain Point”



Improve Customer Service using Twitter

1. Listen & identify concerns and questions immediately and resolve them at low cost.

2. Offer advice, address concerns, answer customer questions.

3. Empower ComfortFeetShop employees to contribute.

4. Categorize conversations, e.g., #ComfortFeetShop.

5. Integrate social media with the whole business (e.g., marketing, customer service, sales)

6. Call out and reward employees & customers as “customer service stars of the month”.




Increased Drop-Out Ratio: 11-41% fewer website visitors, and 8-33% fewer leads that become customers compared to competitors. (Ref. Marketing Grader, HubSpot)

“Pain Point”



Empower the Community & Build Your Brand

1. Listen & regularly post useful content - positioning ComfortFeetShop as an expert and useful resource.

2. Enable ranking & reviewing on Website - increasing engagement.

You Voted Most Comfortable

3. Leverage social media content for ComfortFeetShop Website ( e.g., highlight social brand mentions = transparent brand tracking, community page).

4. Integrate social media activity with email marketing.

5. Provide widgets & badgets for users to collect and share on other sites (e.g., Shoe Size Converter, Explorer, Superstar)

Phase 2




Build a ComfortFeetShop Social Media Team

1. Identify a community manager for each channel (e.g., Twitter, Facebook).

2. Provide social media training for ComfortFeetShop team

3. ComfortFeetShop CEO tweets to set an example for employees.

4. Encourage employees to tweet with the goal to keep the company’s profile high and humanize the folks behind the shoe sales. Employees tweet about what they are doing at work and about interesting resources on and off the ComfortFeetShop site.

5. Provide ComfortFeetShop social policy & guidelines (e.g., how to respond to complaints).



What to talk about?

1. Use an Editorial Calendar to coordinate longer-term content ideas:

EventsHolidays Tips/Resources Best comfortable and cheap brandsNew productsQuestionsOffers, specialsContests/competitions

2. Use Listening Tools (e.g., Google Alerts) to identify current content ideas:

News & TrendsTipsConversations



Daily, 30-Minute Social Media Plan

5 min - Research: Enlist a social media monitoring platform (e.g., Hootsuite, SproutSocial) to listen to what consumers are saying about your brand and industry-related trends. Use free tools like Google Alerts to identify news, trends, and conversations in your industry.

10 min - Content Creation: Great content truly adds value to the audience and online conversation. Could be anything–blogs, articles, e-Books, videos, podcasts, photos, presentations, etc. Sites & tools: Wordpress, Blogger, Live Journal, YouTube, blip.tv, BlogTalkRadio, Flickr, Associated Content and Yelp.

5 min- Sharing: Share the best content you find & share the content you create. 80/20 rule: Spend 80 percent of your time on the social Web interacting and 20 percent of your time self-promoting.

10 min - Discussing/community building: Reach out to new connections, interact, answer questions, send Facebook friend or like requests. Put a poll on your website and ask people on Twitter to participate in it.



Maximizing ImpactIntegrating Social Media Activity with the Real World

Three examples...



1. Highlight activity & community engagement on Twitter in stores. Use “VisibleTweets”, a free tool. (http://visibletweets.com)

WIN FREEPair of Shoes

Retweet to enter

2. Create real-world campaigns (e.g., signage to incentivize engagement on social media channels).

3. Integrate social, mobile and local using Foursquare (social business application) - “Check in and get 20% off your purchase!” Each check-in awards the user points and sometimes "badges".


http://visibletweets.com/

http://visibletweets.com/


Measuring Your Success & Reporting Back?

Did you reduce costs?

Reduced number of inbound calls

Capitalized on low-cost social ads

Did you increase revenue?

Increased direct sales from referral traffic

Reduced amount of missed sales

How many people did talk about You in a positive way?

Increased number of content shares, mentions, and re-tweets, positive reviews

Sentiment: Reducednumber of negative reviews

Did you improve search ranking?

Increased amount of time spent on site

Increased search traffic and improved search ranking



Social media can help ComfortFeetShop to...

...increase reach, reduce costs, and increase revenue.

The Opportunity



Thanks to... Bob Tripathi, Founder & Chief Marketer at Instant E-Training

Lisa Buyer, President and CEO at The Buyer Group

Instant E-Training team


strategically leveraging social media

Self Improvement

social media

customer service

reduce costs

increase revenue

listen amp

google alerts

marketing

comfortfeetshop