I have attended BlogHer Business where I participated on the panel discussing effective Facebook and Twitter strategies. Below are my key takeaways from the event.
- 80% of women are decision-makers in their households
- Data from BlogHer research in partnership with Nielsen:
- out of 163.8 mill US adult online population, 87.1mill are women, 55.6 mill are truly active online
- Women read blogs to: #1 express themselves #2 fun #3 connect with others
- Influential info online: #1 – search, #2 – blogs, #3 – message boards, #4 – soc networks
- 85% of BlogHer audiences bought a product based on recommendation from blogs
- 22% of US users turn to blogs for product recs and new product info, 21% of US users rely on social networks
- If u r someone who spends time on social networks, u tend to trust it more as a source of info
- Twitter is not top 10 online destination for US women
- Gaming is the next big thing online and is expected to become more influential. 40% of time spent on Facebook is spent on playing games.
- Several years ago every 8th blog post online had a video embedded in it, now the number is probably even more impressive. You cannot ignore video in your marketing mix.
- Ask yourself: “Is what you do with SM brand-enhancing or brand-diluting?”
- No matter what tools you use, the relevance is in how you make people feel
- Viral is something that happens, not an objective
- Tips on building blogger relationships: no mass blasts, do your research, be authentic, offer quality content
- Case study: Lion Brand Yarn’s blog converts visitors to buyers 64% better than their average referring site. They also built a strong community around knitting.
- Case study. Estee Lauder’s SM campaign objective was: translate the overarching BCA 09 campaign World Pink, World w/o Breast Cancer into a social campaign that can forge greater awareness, participation and advocacy around breast cancer. They enlisted help from most influential blogger to spread the word (note: bloggers were not paid, however, they did invite them to EL HQ and threw a big party for them). It was huge success. Even offline their pink illuminations of the world’s most famous landmarks have garnered worldwide attention and broke world records. The World PINK Mosaic – the world’s largest photo mosaic of faces united in support of breast cancer. One Pink Movement, Thousands of Stories. You could upload your photo/story about someone who touched you in your survival story and it would go into mosaic. Bloggers were among the first to upload their stories. Bloggers became instrumental in participating and sharing the core social media campaign. Results: October 1st launch, within 2 weeks – hit more that 3/4 of the world’s nations in places where you wouldn’t think women had internet access. Breast cancer is 98% preventable, so education was very important.
- If you are going to listen and monitor social chatter you need to be able to know what do with the data or it is a waste of time.
- You still need a human element to decode sentiment, can’t always rely on tool automation, it isn’t always correct
- Brands should be ready to engage and respond when they open the doors with social media. Don’t let silence become the bigger story. And be prepared to take it all the way (don’t stop short, ensure you have all the resources available to address whatever comes your way: good or bad).
- When making the case for social media speak management’s language and explain how SM can help an organization reach their goals and objectives. Do not use SM slang and expect that your execs are not social network users!