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1. Profiling/Foot-printing/Mapping

• Identify social network channels, e.g; social media neighborhoods, third party influencers, etc

• Identify activists target habits – online by segment

• Identify Opinion leaders in the group – This is done by targeting activists who frequently offer or are elicited for category-related advice

• Identify the best “Social media marketing” practices against each group and their habits

• Listen and monitor the tone of the communications online, so any social material we create is in the “tone and speak” of the online communities.

2. When in Rome!

No social media campaign should be undertaken without due diligence. The community not organizations owns the social channel. Due diligence in social media is to “listen”. Providing a clear insight into “What’s on our minds”; “What’s our emotive triggers”; “How are we speaking – tone and language” ; “Where are we hanging out online – What is the online social neighborhood?”.

This research and preparation grounds any strategy and recommendations, it is also a process of ongoing analysis to keep up with our society and their thoughts to best serve the right message, the right engagement, at the right time, for maximum viral input.

3. Monitor

* So you can use blogs for ongoing research and, following the conversation threads to track influencers and engage with them as advocates
* Posting feedback, helping your client through training to conduct an ongoing, resource light post back strategy and implementation
* Providing snap-shot tracking reports
* Monitor the activity with access to your own analytics to see where the uptake and successes are to prove:
* Measure the volume of traffic
* Breakout the volume of uptake generated by the social media marketing activity as opposed to the normal traffic
* Measure the impact of the social media marketing activity

4. Engage Meaningfully

We will engage with specific elements of the blog community to create new highly emotive conversations and useful content pieces to the online wider audience than the traditional activist base you already has. We will create debate to the broadest reach of audience who may not even be aware of the issues. We will put the issues front of mind through powerful emotive commentary that they can connect with. We will understand the emotive arc through the initial research phase of the activity, because we will ask them.

5. Enable the Discussion by:

* Listening to online conversations
* Identifying opinion leaders
* Developing content based on what is learned
* Participating, commenting and generating interest
* Becoming a resource
* Supporting your client to build your online personality through the training program
* Syndicating RSS content
* Using your social media user generated content, cut up and repurposed for Online Consumer Relations.

6. Optimize By:

* Increasing your linkability
* Making tagging and bookmarking easy
* Rewarding inbound links
* Helping your content travel
* Encouraging the mash-up
* Implementing “Keyword” strategy incorporation
* Developing contextual links within the body of the content
* Citation strategy

7. Report KPI’s

1. Pre-activity word of mouth benchmark report will be supplied at the start of the research,
2. Ongoing snap-shot reports to measure results. The reports will measure social media marketing & advocacy success
3. Ensuring Check’s and Benchmarks are enabled by: 1.Using ‘control areas’ where the word of mouth campaign is run in order to measure the effect of the campaign, 2. Measuring changes in word of mouth pre-and post-actions and track online word of mouth to measure changes of the ratio of word of mouth, 3. Tracking recommendation rates and how they change over time, 4. Including an online element that allows use of web statistics and online feedback to measure reach and participation levels, 5.* Reporting on the brand behavior within the environment and the impact on the brand as a result of the new social contact methods
4. Final Report: In Summary What Should be the Outcomes of the Social Media Marketing?
   * Speaking the voice of the individual
   * Targeting influentials
   * Encouraging engagement with the community
   * Being sensitive to “social speak”
   * Creating critical authenticity
   * Becoming highly interconnected
   * Make news travel fast
   * Enabling feedback and interaction as a fundamental core of your activities

The majority of today’s “traditional” marketers use outbound marketing to reach their audiences. For
message distribution, they use print media, radio and TV. For lead generation, they use direct mail, cold calls and email blasts. These methods may have worked in the past; however, by using tools like
TIVO/DVR, email spam‐blockers and caller ID, consumers block messages they don’t want. People now
control how they consume media and what messages they care to hear.
But all is not lost! Consumers still want to learn about the best products and services for their needs.
The key is they want to find this information on their own, most often by using the Internet. For
example, someone might peruse the blogosphere to read first‐hand experiences with a particular
product. Maybe that person will also search for reviews online or engage with others in social media to
learn other views and opinions.
Instead of continuing to push marketing messages out, effective marketers adapt to this consumer
behavior by creating marketing campaigns that pull people into their business. This strategy is called
inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers. In other words, instead of taking the time and resources to go out and find customers, you set yourself up in such a way that the right kinds of qualified leads find you. Inbound marketing, focused on areas like search engine optimization, content and social media, is cheaper and better targeted than traditional outbound marketing like advertising, cold calling, direct mail and email blasts. Inbound marketers offer the public useful information, tools and resources to
attract people to their site, while also interacting and developing relationships with consumers on the
web. Inbound marketing tools include blogging, content publishing, search engine optimization, social
media and social networks.
As 2010 approaches “being found” should be on the top of this list of any effective marketing plan.

One of the number one complaints about social media is that it takes too much time.

Companies considering the leap into the land of blogs and tweets often run screaming into the night after they glimpse the reality of what it takes to launch and maintain a worthwhile social media presence.

I don’t blame them. The onslaught of digital information is overwhelming, but there is hope. The key is in being selective.

We all know that it’s the kiss of branding death to try and be all things to all people.

The same goes for social media engagement. Unless you have a dedicated staff ready to spend all day, every day monitoring every inch of the Web and churning out top-notch content, you need to be choosy about how and where you spend your time.

This isn’t rocket science, you say? You’re right. But it’s amazing how many people - even professionals - fall into the trap of trying to be everywhere, all the time. In this highly competitive market, it’s easy to start making judgments based on the fear of missing out on something.

The 24/7, real-time nature of social media sets businesses running faster and faster on the proverbial hamster wheel. You start by monitoring here and there, then you launch a company blog, set up a facebook fan page, start tweeting, create a professional group on LinkedIn, develop a collaborative community for crowd-sourcing industry-specific solutions, and so on and on and on. Before you know it, running your social media efforts takes nearly as much time as running your core business.

Instead of jumping on every shiny, new wagon recommended by the so-called gurus, take control of your social media journey. Here are six steps for making sure things don’t get out of hand:

1. Strategy first:  You want to make sure the plan is custom-fit to your needs and capabilities as well as the needs of your target audience.

2. Have contingencies: Even the best strategy sometimes goes awry. Your project is going to be a huge success, but - just in case - make sure you are prepared for anything.

3. Roll-out in phases: Get your toes wet before you attempt a backwards triple somersault with a half pike and a twist. Start small and grow your presence in as organic a manner as possible. Listen well, and your audience will tell you what your next step should be.

4. Enable : In the best case scenario, social media becomes part of your company culture, not a specialty that’s handled by a few select members of your marketing department. Deputize people across your business to monitor and engage, but be sure to keep an overall eye on the conversation, watching for consistency and balance.

5. Target,Target,Target: Finally, narrow your focus. Be brutal. Though it’s highly unlikely that your company can stand out everywhere, if you concentrate on a few key areas, there’s a better chance for greater impact. Even if you wind up with a smaller audience, you’ll be able to have a deeper dialog, and it’s the deeper dialog that leads to actual relationships, a perception of leadership, and business deals.

Are you already engaged in social media? How did you get started? What worked for you, and what was an utter failure? What advice would YOU give to a business getting ready to take the plunge?

Audience>Objectives>Strategies>Tactics>Measurement

Audience: Who are you trying to reach?, Where do they congregate?, What motivates them? Clearly define demographics, psychographics and life-stream profiles.

Objectives: What your are trying to achieve?. Is it increase awareness?, drive traffic?, gain trial? Defining your desired goals upfront determines everything else. Social media is NOT a “build it and they will come” tool.

Strategies: This step is your action plan for accomplishing your social media objectives(Content creation, community functionality on site, network outreach, etc.)

Tactics: These are the actual initiatives and implementation programs developed from you strategies (UGC efforts, contests, Apps, etc.).

Measurement: The all important ROI metric. Social media brings a wealth of new metrics that correlate to you social media initiatives. Things like topic velocity, continuity, virality and engagement.

Social media is about sharing. Coupons are about shopping. Shopping is an extremely social experience. That is why a major social media topic in may discussions revolve around tips, advice, and sharing purchase information.

Mobile marketing requires that the participant opt in to your offers. Because of this, mobile coupons can deliver the Holy Grail for marketers, targeted prospects and customers that want your information, and revenue generation.

On-demand mobile marketing platforms provide you with low out of pocket costs and speed to market. With little risk, marketers can get their mobile coupon promotions lined up and running. Once you’ve got your strategy and integration into your traditional marketing mapped out, it takes just minutes to setup and run a mobile coupon campaign. With the open rates at 97%, it’s a no brainer to start using mobile coupons for prospecting and retention campaigns.

Major points to consider:

1. Coupon sharing is a major social media activity

2. The SMS marketing message space is relatively spam free and uncluttered resulting in a 97% open rate (83% within the first hour) for messages.

3. Mobile coupons work best when incorporated into your other social marketing programs, include your short code whenever and wherever possible. Also, give your program time to build, and get viral, your first few offers will serve to build your database.

4. Once you’ve got your communities created, consumers or groups react positively to exclusive coupon promotions. For instance, the clothing designer Armani held an exclusive in-store preview for their mobile clientele that had lines out the door and near record receipts.

5. Now is the time to start thinking about how you can incorporate mobile coupons into your marketing objectives. Your competitors are thinking about it or doing it, so don’t be left on the sidelines.

Social Networks offer marketers a new channel to reach targets. As with any marketing effort, social media should be thought of strategically first before tactics are even considered. When thinking social media consider the following:

1. Meets a business objective: First and foremost, any social marketing campaign or activity should match with a business objective, regardless of the tools being used.

2. Encourage Member Interaction: The most successful social networking campaigns and efforts involve the audience.

3. Quickly scale: Social networks are designed for information to quickly move from member to member, so campaigns that lean on these capabilities perform the best. These attributes known as Velocity, Viralness, and Spread are key.

4. Foster self-expression or communication: Members of social networks like to communicate with each other, or self-express. As a result, campaigns should satisfy these needs with the appropriate tools

5. Offer an satisfying User Experience: This encompasses the overall experience of the campaign, the content and navigation items should be where expected, the language familiar to the audience, and overall look and feel of the site appeasing.

6. Provide longer term utility: Successful campaigns have a longer term value, rather than a short term ‘disposble campaign”. These campaigns add value by being a useful application to the members, rather than just quick dose of entertainment.

7. Enhance Value as Community participants: As more people contribute or interact with the campaign, the value is increased. This can be in the form of content that is created by the community, contests, voting, or games.

8. Supports Community Goals: Every community is different, and each has unique goals (from supporting products, to each other, or to just be entertained) the campaign focus should therefore meet the needs of the community, before the needs of the marketer.

Social media is having a profound effect on advertising and marketing and this video says it all!

“Well-designed social applications are effective. Social programs leverage the voice of the customer to get messages carried further than ad impressions. If your message resonates with consumers, their word-of-mouth is a more effective medium than any of the traditional media.” - Forrester

It is becoming increasingly evident that social media is having a  profound effect on brands and must be a primary marketing consideration. We believe that it is essential for CPG brands to embrace social media because:

Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (advertising & promotion) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based discussions, forums, reviews, social networking) are quickly proving how well they work.

Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.

Brands that manage to deal directly with their end users have a competitive asset for the future.

Consumers, customers, prospects and peers are discussing your brand, right now in social media; with or without you. Unfortunately, choosing not to listen doesn’t make those conversations go away. ConsumerSphere’s mission is to equip CPG brands to effectively leverage social media to protect and manage their reputations, meaningfully converse with consumers to drive brand loyalty, uncover emerging opportunities, stay competitive and avoid crisis.

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