Blogs, online communities, social media and then social networks: they have permanently changed online marketing. In this new landscape brands are in a constant dialogue with customers who increasingly play critical roles in advocacy and recommendation. The brand is only one guest among millions and the challenge for marketers is that while the rewards may be great, the risks are greater. The Ten Golden Rules were extracted from analysing the successes and failures of hundreds of social media marketing campaigns, looking for DNA that was shared between the successful and absent in those that failed. The clarity of patterns that emerged removes much of the mystery of social media and helps marketing teams quickly identify the specific risks and potential of the opportunities unfolding around them.
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The US elections were a defining moment for the use of social media in politics. The Obama campaign generated a massive stream of motivating, engaging content that they successfully distributed across email, social media platforms and their own websites. This formed a turning point in how governments communicate with their citizens.
Getting social media right is challenging. Many blogs go unread, many forums remain silent and many brand managers waste their time and budget by focusing energy in the wrong direction. Harnessing consumer involvement in product reviews demands understanding the nature of participation and having the right approach to content. Expert reviews should be at the heart of content strategies that rely on translating consumer comments into something meaningful for others to review. These social media strategy notes provide a simple template for getting the right framework in place for expert reviews. Around the expert reviews, simpler participation such as ratings, tag clouds, reviewer ratings and secondary consumer comments can easily be incorporated.
For the third year running, Danny Meadows-Klue keynoted at the Technology for Marketing congress and this video from one of the attendees captures some of the ideas and atmosphere. Danny invited YouTube, Facebook, Reuters and the BBC to join him to debate what best-practice means in social media marketing and took questions from participants online during the previous two weeks through the Social Media Marketing Academy pages on the supporting website.
Bookmark this page and look out for the downloads coming soon. We’re editing together Danny’s slides from the recent lecture about social media.
Social media and online social networks allow granular insights into how consumers behave and how they form and change their connections. Analysis of social networks reveals the complex web of connections and can help untangle how information flows through communities. Here is an example of a social network map from Facebook where the connections from one individual have been plotted. Although today’s online social networks only reflect part of the connection people have, these snapshots provide a rich insight into both the individual person and their communities.