Using Social Media for Competitive Advantage

The conversation will happen,

with or without you

@shiraabel

Who Am I?

Shira Abel Business Development & Marketing Abel Communications@shiraabel

What is Social Media?

• Participatory online media where comments, conversation, news, photos, videos and podcasts are made public

• An effective guidepost• Connect post-purchase experiences with potential

customers• Social media is an activity that is based on the notion

of influence• Integrated marketing

@shiraabel

Competitive Advantage

• Competing on cost is bad

• Conversation is happening regardless

• Information is power

• Building loyalty with customer

@shiraabel

GAP@shiraabel

Ford is Building a Community@shiraabel

From Seth Godin’s Blog

It's marketing when my friend and I are talking about how the thing we bought from you changed us.

@shiraabel

Low Interaction@shiraabel

No One Cares@shiraabel

Hot For Words@shiraabel

People Care & She Responds

Spam on Page

Where’s the Conversation?@shiraabel

The One Interactive Tool is Too Complicated

@shiraabel

Brands are Reaching Out@shiraabel

And People are Responding@shiraabel

Social Dell – Niche to Masses@shiraabel

Finding People Where They Play

@shiraabel

Welcoming them In@shiraabel

Giving a Platform to Complain@shiraabel

Another Example (different niche)

@shiraabel

Not Just for Niche Players@shiraabel

Better Than Campaign Sites?

• Coke is using social media sites from now forward – no more one-off campaign sites

• Building presence on Facebook and YouTube instead

• Coca-Cola stated that their social media and SEO presence is a better homepage than Coke.com

@shiraabel

YouTube is 2nd Largest Search@shiraabel

Be Where Your Fans Are@shiraabel

It’s Not About The Numbers

It’s about getting the right people followingyou, not about gettingeveryone to follow.

@shiraabel

Give Traditional Media Campaigns Longer Life

@shiraabel

Ping.Fm – Blasting Info@shiraabel

Social Media Mixed With Traditional Media

@shiraabel

H & R Block App on Facebook@shiraabel

Honesty Box – Popular App@shiraabel

H&R Block

“The social-media strategy includes a Twitter account, widgets, blogs, a YouTube channel and a Facebook fan page and apps -- a recent one in the form of a quiz asks, "How deductible are you?“… The core of the social-media plan is a 1,000-member tax-professional team, chosen from 100,000 H&R employees across the country, who have been "social-media-qualified." “

@shiraabel

Social Media Works@shiraabel

Where is Your Brand?@shiraabel

Dilemma

• Email isn’t as effective as it once was

• Social Networks are gaining web traffic

• People are on social networks to interact with people, not brands

• Push marketing is not as effective (especially in social media)

• Google personalized search has injured SEO

@shiraabel

Who Has More Mind Share?@shiraabel

The Future@shiraabel

Fast Accurate Information

• Immediate feedback from your target market• Allows for instant adjustment to business model /

marketing • Deepened social relationships • Engage audiences energy in success • Create more "touchpoints" to affect customer's

brand experience (without annoying them) • Engage customer / market in co-creating value • Help create competitive advantage

@shiraabel

Twitter Moms – The Midol Debacle

Wearing your baby seems to be in fashion. I mean, in theory it’s a great idea. There’s the front baby carrier, sling, schwing, wrap, pouch. And who knows what else they’ve come up with. Wear your baby on your side, your front, go hands free. Supposedly, it’s a real bonding experience. They say that babies carried close to the body tend to cry less than others. But what about me? Do moms that wear their babies cry more than those who don’t. I sure do! These things put a ton of strain on your back, your neck, your shoulders. Did I mention your back? I mean, I’ll put up with the pain because it’s a good kind of pain; it’s for my kid. Plus, it totally makes me look like an official mom. And so if I look tired and crazy, people will understand why.

– THE OFFENDING AD ON YOUTUBE

@shiraabel

Immediate Response

• Mothers were insulted

• Let their voices be heard

• Blogs were written

• Twitter was “on fire”

• Midol took down ads and sent a very public apology

@shiraabel

USES

@shiraabel

Co-creative IP Development

• Bearingpoint uses a wiki to engage its customer base (over 16,000 users worldwide)

• Evolve open source data architecture model • Open collective work to public leads to greater

standardization • Increases credibility and market awareness • Building competitive advantage on their deep

understanding of the intricacies of the evolving standard

• Customers collaborate with them in building this technical resource for the entire industry to use

• Enriches customer relationships.

@shiraabel

Product Development

• "Idea Sites" used by Starbucks and Dell to solicit and prioritize customer input

• Companies can structure deep dialogs with their large customer bases and invite them into the product development process

• Truly crowdsourced companies like Threadless, however, go even farther and outsource pieces of the development and design process to customers who participate free of charge or for non fee-based reward

@shiraabel

Customer Support & Engagement

• National Instruments' "Nerd Network" engages over 110,000 users to answer 46% of their customer support questions while also engaging them in new product discussions and student mentoring programs.

@shiraabel

Partner Collaboration

• IBM uses social technologies, inviting its 100,000 partner network to collaborate with its employees and with each other to help grow their collective business success. 

@shiraabel

Employee Engagement

• Intranets are transforming into socially empowered centers of value creation, morale building and brand reinforcement.

• Example: Best Buy's BlueShirtNation. Employee programs are being transformed by the social participation of the employees

• Yammer – Twitter for the office

@shiraabel

Basics

• Identify and clearly state business objectives before deciding on specific elements of a social media program

• Behaviors of your target audience are key in setting the strategy and identifying the metrics

• Measure conversational content:– Who is talking about you – What are they saying

• Metrics collected near and within your purchase process link the conversations to the actual impact on conversions

@shiraabel

Thank you

Shira Abel-Shvo

Abel Communications

http://www.abel-communications.com

@shiraabel

@shiraabel

References• Coke Abandons Plans for Campaign Websites to Invest in Social Media

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5487/Coke-Abandons-Plans-for-Campaign-Websites-to-Invest-in-Social-Media.aspx?source=Blog_Email_[Coke+Abandons+Plans+]

• http://www.tgdaily.com/trendwatch-features/39777-youtube-surpasses-yahoo-as-world’s-2-search-engine

• Article: A CMO's Guide to Social Media http://magusconsulting.com/Capabilities/SocialMediaStrategies/CMOsGuidetoSocialMedia/tabid/73/Default.aspx

• Dell Says It Has Earned $3 Million From Twitter http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/dell-has-earned-3-million-from-twitter/

• Army of Tweeting Tax Pros Leads H&R Block Social Push http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=141236

• Part I: Chapter 03 "What is Social Media“ http://www.readthis.com/part-i-chapter-3-what-is-social-media.html

• Pearl Jam Gives A Song Away For A Tweet http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/04/free-pearl-jam-song/?utm_source=MartinOrton&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+Techcrunch+(TechCrunch)&utm_content=Twitter

• Life on the list – Amil Dash http://dashes.com/anil/2009/12/life-on-the-list.html • Social Media Moves Product http://www.thedigitalroyalty.com/2009/social-media-monetization/ • Moms and Motrin http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/moms-and-motrin/ • BearingPoint Enterprise Wiki has over 16000 users

http://www.customware.net/repository/display/CustomWare/2008/11/20/BearingPoint+Enterprise+Wiki+has+over+16000+users

• http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/01/in-between-frames.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+typepad/sethsmainblog+(Seth's+Blog)

@shiraabel