A case study in what social media can’t do…

by James Duthie on November 5, 2009

The words “social media expert/guru/strategist” are practically insults these days. And you’d have to say with fairly good reason. The web is awash with “social media experts” making bold claims of how it will change  business  and marketing as we know it. And to a certain extent they’re right. It has made businesses more accountable for their actions. It has changed the way people make purchase decisions (ratings & reviews). And it has opened a new range of corporate communication channels. But… like any marketing channel it has its strengths and weaknesses. And it seems that amongst the hype, the weaknesses are often glossed over. This post aims address some of those shortcomings via a real life case study.

The inspiration for the post came to me as I read one of the most interesting articles I’d seen for a while. It was by Julian Cole and it analysed a social media campaign that didn’t meet the defined objectives. Imagine that! It’s exactly the type of post you never see from the self-proclaimed “social media experts”. They’re generally more busy talking in these terms (hilarious vid, but comes with a language warning):

So kudos must go to Julian for having the courage to publish his case study. And following in the spirit of honest and open analysis of social media campaigns, I’m bringing my own to the table which also fell short of fulfilling some of the campaign objectives.

The Case Study – Social Media Master Class

Back in September I was involved with Social Media Master Class with US author David Meerman Scott, which was organised by the wonderful Jennifer Frahm. Next Digital (my employer) were the major sponsors of the conference, and as a result I took on the role of marketing the event. My first task in developing the marketing plan was to identify the target audience for the event. Two distinct audiences were identified:

  1. Social media professionals and enthusiasts
  2. Senior marketing and business managers looking to understand social media

The core objectives of the marketing plan were pretty straightforward:

  1. Create awareness and interest in the event amongst the target audiences
  2. Convert that interest into ticket sales

Given the vastly different media consumption habits of the two audiences, a marketing plan was devised for each:

The Marketing Plan for Social Media Enthusiasts

It didn’t take Einstein to determine that the ideal place to reach the social media professionals and enthusiasts was within social media itself, particularly given the subject matter of the conference. A range of different channels were established to reach this audience:

  • An event blog was created to serve as the hub for all event information
  • A Twitter account was also created and used in a number of ways to (a) link to relevant content, (b) disperse event info and (c) host event related promotions (book & ticket giveaways)
  • An outreach campaign saw prominent industry bloggers sent a copy of David’s new book and invited to an ‘invitation only’ event to meet David
  • A 20 minute podcast with David was created by Trevor Young (who managed PR for the event)
  • A partnership with Sydney’s Social Media Club (SMCSYD) was established, which culminated in a speaking appearance for David at a SMCSYD event. A discount offer was also created for all SMCSYD members.
  • A Facebook page was created, although rarely used

The Marketing Plan for Senior Managers

While social media was ideal for reaching enthusiasts, it was quickly recognised that it would be ineffective in penetrating the senior manager market. Subsequently, a more traditional (yet still primarily digital) marketing plan was devised:

  • Display advertising space was co-ordinated throughout Marketing Mag’s web site (an event sponsor)
  • Promotional banners were purchased within the email newsletters of key industry publications including Marketing Mag, Mumbrella, Anthill and B&T
  • A search marketing campaign was implemented to target people searching for keywords related to social media
  • Display advertisements were placed within Google’s content network
  • Dedicated email campaigns were executed to a range of marketing and public relations industry bodies

The Results

If you had told me the numbers we would achieve at the start of the campaign, I would have expected the event to be a resounding success. At the height of the marketing activity, the blog was receiving between 100-150 unique visitors a day, which is considerable for a niche event. The Twitter account also gained traction quickly with over 600 followers generated in around 6 weeks. Indeed, by the end of the campaign, Twitter had sent more traffic to the event blog than any paid media source. Cool. So far, so good.

But… did that hive of activity help us achieve our objective…? Did it actually sell any tickets?

Yes. But not a whole lot. In fact, the Sydney event had to be cancelled due to a lack of demand. Of course, there were a range of external factors that influenced our ability to convert awareness into sales:

  • Awareness of David’s work isn’t as high in Australia as it is internationally
  • At around $900 a pop, the tickets weren’t exactly cheap and that pesky Global Financial Crisis didn’t help
  • A limited marketing budget restricted our paid marketing options

The fact that we were still able to host a full Melbourne event was evidence that we did something right (and the feedback from all attendees was resoundingly positive).  Indeed, a competing event hosted by Marketing Now with speakers of the calibre of Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse & David Armano seemed to succumb to similar pressures, eventually giving their tickets away for free. So the campaign certainly achieved an element of success in a difficult environment.

But the exercise made it abundantly clear to me that social media’s strength is not in direct response (a belief I’ve stated a number of times on this blog). Some companies such as Dell have made it work for their business, yet most organisations that approach social media with an advertising or promotional approach walk away disappointed. Social media is not an advertising tool. It is a communications tool. It is best suited to objectives related to customer awareness, customer engagement and customer retention, rather than pure acquisition/conversion.

The star performer of the marketing campaign was email. Yes… good old-fashioned email (although I should clarify that dedicated emails outperformed paid banners in third party newsletters by a significant margin). It was by far the most effective direct response channel. Despite the hype around sexy new mediums such as social media and augmented reality, it should never be forgotten that email consistently delivers a superior ROI than any other marketing channel. Time after time. Don’t forget it.

The biggest lesson of the campaign

In hindsight, the marketing plan had an overreliance on web marketing tactics. While effective in reaching the social media enthusiasts, it failed in delivering the message to our second audience of senior managers. Online activity alone (let alone just social activity) simply wasn’t enough to fulfill the marketing objectives. Proclaiming the death of rival media sources is a favourite hobby of many “social media gurus”. Yet all that proves is that the “guru” has never actually executed a serious marketing campaign.

Social media should now be a valid part of the marketing mix for many companies, but it compliments rather than replaces other elements (and it’s not necessary for everyone). A good social media approach aligns activity with objectives from a broader marketing strategy. Indeed, the social media strategy itself is simply a subsidiary of the marketing strategy. It will rarely succeed in isolation or without support from other media channels.

So in summary… there’s no question social media is emerging as an important marketing channel. But let’s not all get lost in the hype.

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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

David Meerman Scott November 5, 2009 at 12:13 pm

Hi James

Great analysis here. I’ve also learned from the marketing of this and other events. I think that marketing via social media works for those social media enthusiasts.

However, to reach the managers at companies who are interested in learning more about social media, other marketing and promotional efforts are required (like your email campaign).

We found the same thing to be true in other cities. A few weeks ago I did a session in Amsterdam and we ended up with 65 people for the full day event. Good, but we wanted more.

I also think that your observation is correct about lots of self-proclaimed “social media experts.” There is a lot of noise. I see local events nearly every being held and most are free or very low cost. Hard to compete with a $900 event if you don’t know the backgrounds of the various “experts”.

Anyway, thanks for all of your hard work. We pulled it off. Maybe in a better economy we would have had a lot more interest. And as you say, we did better than “the other guys” who had to give away tickets.

All the best

David

Nathan Bush November 6, 2009 at 2:30 am

Nice one mate, thanks for sharing. Like I said on Jules post, we learn more from failures and being honest with ourselves because we are there’s a big sting in not getting it right. More often than not, we will give less time to successful campaigns because they are out of the way.

James Duthie November 6, 2009 at 2:49 am

@David – Interesting to hear that problem extends globally, although it’s no real surprise given that it is a glocal economic crisis. It is hard to compete with the free/low cost events, but the feedback I got from the local free event you did here was that there was a distinct difference in quality on the night you participated (in a good way). Like anything in life, you get what you pay for… I guess the key really is in effectively reach the senior business decision makers, as they’ll seek and value real credentials.

@Nathan – Agree completely. The best lessons in life always come through failure. But in business, very few people are comfortable talking openly about a failed project. So cheers to Jules for starting this thing rolling.

Julian Cole November 7, 2009 at 1:26 am

Hey James,

Great to hear other examples of where expectations were not met with social media. I think the really great point you made is that, it needs to be part of an overall marketing strategy and does not to fulfill any marketing objective on its own. I have found the same results with direct response as you have on a number of campaigns.

Thanks again for sharing
Jules

Mo November 9, 2009 at 12:32 am

Hi James

Great post, thanks for sharing.

Let me preface this by saying I am not a social media expert.

One thing that we may impact use of social as a direct response media context & target audience.

In this instance, the senior mgt segment may not have been active social participants. However, when marketing to 18-29yr old music fans, we have found social networks to be effective.

For example, we use facebook for DR every now and again, communicating with people who have identified themselves as band or summer festivals fans with exclusive offers – this to date has delivered a good response for us…

Agree in principle that social media is a marathon not a sprint, however there are times when audiences who have expressed their passion for specific lifestyle pillars can be leveraged to solicit interest – in the short term.

Thanks again for sharing, always enjoy your posts.

Mo

James Duthie November 9, 2009 at 2:38 am

@Julian – Thanks for dropping by and the inspiration for the post. I only wish there were more industry people with a similar attitude. As a collective we’ll learn muchmore than as individuals.

@Mo – You know, you are 100% correct. Audience and message will always dictate the success of a direct response campaign. And I’d imagine the music industry would be one with real potential to generate a direct response given the passion people have for the favourite musicians.

I guess my point is that most organisations don’t solicit that type of passion from their consumers, and therefore need to temper their expectations on what can be achieved.

Tim November 9, 2009 at 9:27 am

Nice post James – refreshingly candid, and therefore of greater value to the rest of us.

Robynne Berg November 19, 2009 at 2:43 am

Great post, although I don’t think this is a so much a lesson on strengths/weaknesses of social media, as a lesson that the elementary principle of marketing ‘know our market’ cannot be forgotten. As with the early days of company websites, new media is not a marketing solution within itself but should be considered one of the channels as part of an integrated marketing campaign.

David Wall November 20, 2009 at 4:28 am

Hi James,

Great post – I didn’t notice any social media activity around the time of the event – I work as an online marketing manager in Sydney for Photolibrary, we follow DM Scott on Twitter and I personally read his blog a lot, also frequent various social media channels regularly – but it all past by fairly quietly… I guess email is still the dominant form of interpersonal work communication, so until this shifts to social media, it’s still one of the best ways to get through to your target market.

I’ve often wondered what is the actual value of a follower? Social media followers range from those who obsessively check all updates and those who never do. We could say that an email can attract click-throughs of anyway between 5-60 per cent on a large list depending on the quality of the email – what might be the comparison of a social media followers?

David Meerman Scott appears to have a quality list of Twitter followers for example – he made a tweet about one of our recent campaigns that resulted in about 300 visits – not bad for a line less than 140 characters!

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