As more and more businesses jump into social media, case studies and success stories are becoming more prevalent. Yet despite the fact that small businesses are often just as entrenched as big business, the little guys are significantly underepresented when it comes to case studies. Today we’re going to fix that. I connected with Ann Nolan of Baby Sitters Directory earlier this year after compiling my list of Aussie businesses on Twitter (yes… it’s severely outdated now!). I was immediately fascinated with how a niche businesses such as hers was using social media. And I recently had the opportunity of talking to her about it, albeit after months of procrastination on my part. It gives a fascinating insight into why and how a small business uses social media.

Firstly, what is Baby Sitters Directory?

Baby Sitter Directory is Australia’s leading babysitter and nanny directory. While living in Queensland in 2006/07 for a year with two young children, far away from family and friends and my usual babysitters, I found no online services that allowed me to easily and cost effectively locate and contact babysitters directly. Hence Baby Sitter Directory was formed and launched in June 2008. It is the most effective way to find a babysitter, and the most social online babysitter and nanny community, connecting parents directly with babysitters and nannies.

Why did you decide social media was appropriate for your business?

Given that the vast majority of Babysitterdirectory’s members are women and given women’s use of social media, it becomes clear why  social media is something we see as  important! In June the “2009 Social Media Study” a US study from BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners found women are turning to social media for fun, entertainment and connection.

• Fifty- three per cent of the US female Internet population of 79 million actively participated in some type of social media at least weekly.
• Of the female social media participants, 75% took part in social networking and 55% used blogs.
• Twelve million posted to blogs and 8 million published them.

This is an impressive use of social media. Granted the findings are for the US market but it would not be presumptous to assume that Australian women’s use of social media is on par with their US counterparts.

How do you use social media for your business?

We view it as a medium to deepen our connection with the parenting industry, be it an individual parent, a nanny, a babysitter or a business seeking to connect with parents.

The social media platforms – Blog, Twitter and Facebook – we use tend to compliment each other. Ideally it would be great to engage equally in every social media platform that exists but reality and resources dictate that decisions have to be made about where to invest time and energy.

As Alex Bogusky, Chairman of CP&B said:

“You can’t buy attention anymore. Having a huge budget doesn’t mean anything in social media…. you’ve got to be
willing to play to play…”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

What considerations should small businesses make before jumping in head first?

There is the aspect of how companies manage the expectations of fans/followers and communicate with them. When people follow you on Twitter or become a fan of your Fanpage on Facebook, I think there is an expectation by many people that they can engage in some dialogue with the company or at the very least the employee of the company.

The danger  is when companies and even ‘celebrities’ create a profile, people follow and try to engage with the company or celebrity and there is a deafening silence. No re-follow, no response to messages.  It’s as if this ‘celebrity’ or company is saying to their follower “Nothing you say is or ever can be of interest to me”. The dilemma  for companies is that if they have a lot of followers replying to every single message, it ends up being time consuming and costly. It will be interesting to see how companies respond to this challenge of balancing followers and fan expectations with communication versus the cold hard fact of resources and allocation of time.

What other practical applications are there for small businesses?

Firstly, there is job search. LinkedIn, Facebook and Social Media are gradually taking over the role of traditional job boards like SEEK and recruitment agencies. Only three years ago if you were looking for work either as a freelancer or consultant or even as a paid employee you would check the main job boards, your contacts of course and recruitment consultants. Now if you are looking to pick up some work or extra projects you tweet your availability. Within minutes you can have followers retweeting your availability and suddenly your whole networked has expanded. Smart recruitment consultants are leveraging this.

Secondly, there is sourcing information and referrals. Twitter has become a de-facto search engine and with the recent announcement by Google that its results will now integrate Twitter data, the reach has rapidly increased. People using social media to put out good quality, relevant and informative messages have more likelihood of visibility in search results for relevant keywords. And for companies, and even independent bloggers looking to build or expand their brand, this can only be a good thing.

____________________

Ann Nolan is founder of Baby Sitter Directory, an online community connecting parents directly with babysitters and nannies. Baby Sitter Directory hosts the Australian Nanny Network – a social networking community for nannies and babysitters.  She is also founder of a new concept website – Generous Party, due to be launched in January 2010. You can follow Ann on Twitter here.

The current Toyota social media “pitch off” has created debate far and wide across the Interwebs (background here). It has even attracted the attention of leading global industry analyst Jeremiah Owyang. In many ways, the topic  has become a philosophical debate on “proper” corporate social media implementation. In one corner we have the purists (with Laurel leading the charge), who advocate ongoing community engagement and participation. In the other corner we have pragmatic marketers, who need to turn client interest into agency revenue in a practical manner – aka campaigns. While more of a purist myself, I also need to approach the issue pragmatically as an agency employee. And at the end of the day, different approaches will suit different businesses. So you’d expect to see a split between both styles of social media engagement in the market. Except that we don’t. Within Australia at least, there seem to be a clear skew towards the campaign approach. Recent work by Warner, V Australia, Tooheys, Nissan & Levis is testament to that. And while many of these campaigns are neat executions, you have to wonder about the long-term value they deliver the client. Why aren’t we seeing more case studies based upon ongoing community engagement, like Holden? And more to the point… who is it that’s actually pushing the campaign agenda… the client or the agency…?

Before I enter the debate I should clarify that I do believe that the social media campaign has a place. The campaign is a viable approach in a range of different situations such as:

• When the brand is weak
• When a new product is being launched and needs to generate buzz
• When the product has a limited life cycle or a time dependency
• When the product is low involvement and natural engagement is unlikely

Interestingly, the Toyota case study meets none of these scenarios. In fact, it’s almost the polar opposite. So why was the campaign approach favoured? It’s hard to say. Especially when Toyota is already dedicated to the ongoing management of an impressive Facebook community (aka the purist approach).

In this particular case, Toyota was clearly pushing the agenda (no agency would volunteer a 5 way pitch). But agencies can be just as guilty of a campaign bias. Let’s take a look at the motivations both parties have for a campaign style implementation…

The Agency

Social media presents an interesting monetisation quandary for agencies. Indeed, I’ve been working through how to build a viable revenue model within our own agency. From an agency perspective, there is no question about which approach is easier to manage and monetise. The campaign approach. A campaign style implementation allows the agency to apply their established skill set in a conventional manner:

• Generate a creative/big idea in order to generate eyeballs
• Produce assets to support the campaign theme (micro site, Facebook app, display advertisements etc)
• Market that campaign in order to drive awareness and eyeballs (display advertising, search, mobile etc)
• Measure results (hopefully)
• Walk away

Conversely, the purist approach is far more difficult for an agency to monetise (although it’s still very much possible). It relies on a consultative approach rather than a technical one. Ironically, it is the simplicity of the purist approach that creates the difficulty. Rather than big ideas it relies simply on engaging with customers regularly and creating positive brand experiences. It entails monitoring of social environments, rather than the production of them. It entails speaking with customers rather than at them. And it requires an ongoing commitment of dedicated resourcing.

In short, it’s almost completely opposite to how agencies currently make money. So I guess you could say there’s a pretty clear bias in place…

The client

While the agency is motivated by cash and convenience, most clients are motivated simply by comfort. Social media is new. It’s different. It’s scary (iSnack 2.0 anyone…?). Few clients that I have met are willing to make the quantam leap from ground zero into a full-blown social media engagement. Indeed, conservatism is the dominant sentiment towards social media within many Australian businesses, aside from the not-for-profit sector.

Those businesses brave enough to enter the social web typically look for a way to test the waters, which is understandable. Thus, the campaign approach presents the perfect comfort zone for them. Indeed, many client briefs will instruct agencies to present a campaign style solution. The campaign becomes an experiment likely to determine future adoption of social media on a larger scale. Which tends to suit the agency just fine…

Chicken and egg scenario?

At the end of the day, the question of who should shoulder the blame is probably a classic chicken and egg scenario. There are valid arguments for each side of the story. In reality, it’s likely that both sides are contributing to the outcome.

My hope is that the agencies are simply using campaigns as a gateway to lead clients into more expansive long-term projects. I know that’s been my strategy when pitching for campaign based projects. Because while a campaign might create temporary buzz, it’s unlikely to contribute to real long-term business benefits such as customer advocacy or customer retention (which the purist approach certainly can achieve).

What do you think? Are agencies in it just for the short-term buck? Or do they really have a longer-term plan in mind for the client…?

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.

SEO and social have been interrelated disciplines for years. Good social media execution drives positive SEO results. In fact, I read recently that 28% of search results are social sites. Yet they’re still two distinct arts. One aims to satisfy robots (SEO). The other aims to satisfy/engage humans (social). Many comtemporary SEOs have picked up social media like a duck to water. Yet some fumble around, unwilling or unable to adopt the techniques required for successful social media implementation. With the two fields increasingly merging, I ask the question in my new guest post at SEO Scoop – is social now a compulsory SEO skill

I recently had the pleasure of doing an interview with Tim Reid & Luke Moulton from Small Business Big Marketing. The boys were nice enough (or silly enough) to ask me to be a guest on their show, which was a lot of fun. Tim & Luke’s excellent podcast series focus on practical tips that small business owners can implement to improve the marketing of their business. Previous podcasts have included illustrious guests such as Iggy Pintado, Michael Klim & Martyn Thomas. And then there’s me… In the podcast we discuss the critical online channels every small business should be leveraging including search engines, email & social media.

Check out the podcast at Small Business Big Marketing, and if you like it, why not subscribe?

With the whole Vegemite/iSnack 2.0 saga now (hopefully) behind us , it’s time for Australia to move on and focus on things that really matter. Because despite the national outrage, let’s try to remember it was little more than a campaign to change a brand name. Kraft weren’t changing the world. But lots of people are on a daily basis. And like Karalee, I think it’s time the torch was shone on those people who are in fact changing the world – the charities and non profits. And not just because they’re worthy causes, but because they are executing some of the best and most innovative social media marketing initiatives seen in Australia…

Charities and non-profits are perhaps the perfect environment for social media projects to evolve for a number of different reasons:

• Charities and non-profits attract Gen X & Gen Y staff to their cause, who are more active in social media
• Charities are typically uninhibited by multiple layers of beaurocracy and are more nimble in executing new tactics
• Charities have limited budgets and need to find creative methods to continue to spread their message

The proof is in the adoption rate of social media as a marketing channel by charities, which is almost a staple for non-profits by now. Results are primarily what has driven the widespread adoption rate, with the spread of social causes becoming common place within social networks. To illustrate, let’s shine the spotlight on 10 worthy Australian charities that are strongly leveraging social media to spread their particular message (with differing levels of success):

1. Greenpeace – Send a Whale

The Greenpeace Send a Whale campaign is one of the most successful viral campaigns to resonate from Australia, with  over 130,000 participants taking part so far. The campaign saw each participant create a virtual origami whale as part of an online petition to protest Japanese whaling practices. The campaign was recognised globally with a coveted Webby award.

2. Action Aid – Project Toto

Project Toto is perhaps my favourite charity project as it delivers a true tangible outcome, as opposed to the traditional lobby/petition. In July, Project Toto saw prominent Australian blogger/journalist Stilgherrian travel to Tanzania to train locals on the use of social media. The lofty goal of the campaign was to give underprivledged communities a voice to fight against human rights issues via social media . Project Toto is an ongoing initiative with the selection process underway to choose the next Action Aid blogger.

3. Mission Australia – Anti-poverty petition

Mission Australia are an organisation committed to supporting disadvantaged members of the community. Their current campaign is targeted towards poverty, and aims to get everyday Australians to speak out on behalf of those sufferring from poverty. The core element of the campaign is a video based petition, which asks contributors to create a video on how they would tackle the problem. The winner gets the chance to meet government officials during a trip to Canberra. However, with a little over 100 views on the campaign video, it seems as if the concept is struggling to gain traction.

4. Movember

With November just around the corner, it would be negligent of me not to mention every blokes favourite charity. That is every bloke except me, because I still can’t grow one at 31. Anyway… the folks at Movember have integrated social networking features into their web site, and called it Mo Space. Each participant is granted a profile after registration, which they can use to upload photos of their sexy mo’. The profile allow participants to connect with friends via email, Facebook & Twitter to raise cash. Friends can leave messages of support and rate their friends mo’. Nice!

5. Twestival

While not a charity in its’ own right, Twestival is perhaps the most recognised social media fundraising project on the planet. Twestival is essentially a global tweet-up with over 200 chapters spread throughout the world. Each tweet-up serves as a fundraiser to the larger cause, with US$250,000 being raised for the chosen cause – charity:water. Within Australia, Twestival has chapters in Sydney and Brisbane.

6. Red Cross – Make a Statement

The Make a Statement campaign, supported by Red Cross, invites Australians to “support humanity”. Support can be shown in a number of ways, including the contribution of a photo to the campaign micro site. An online collage of supporters has been created, with a little under 2,000 people contributing a photo to the collage. The campaign is also supported by other popular social networks including Twitter, Facebook & MySpace.

7. World Vision – Youth Decide

The Youth Decide campaign is another initiative aiming to empower and unite Australia’s youth behind a social issue. World Vision’s campaign focused on climate change and carbon emission targets in particular. A recently concluded poll run via the site attracted an impressive 37,000+ votes on the issue. The campaign was supported by a blog, Facebook presence and Twitter account. The Facebook page in particular resonated with the audience, attracting over 15,000 fans.

8. Salvation Army – 32,000 to go

32,000 to go is a campaign by the Salvation Army to raise awareness of youth homelessness. The hub of the campaign is a blog that hosts campaign updates and success stories from reformed homeless people such as Ashley. The campaign utilises Facebook & Twitter in particular to facilitate the spread of its’ message with all the obligatory elements (fan pages, status updates, avatar takeovers etc). The campaign has achieved a fair degree of success with almost 4,000 instances of sharing via the various sharing mechanisms.

9. Amnesty International – Justice Campaign

The Amnesty International campaign concuded recently, but is worth mentioning with over 18,000 participants contributing to the cause. The campaign aimed to raise awareness of the plight of women condemned to sexual slavery during the World War era. In order to commemorate the victims, participants were asked to create a virtual symbol of hope – a butterfly. The butterflys could then be used as avatars within social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

10. National Breast Cancer Foundation – Choose Pink

In conjunction with the NBCF, Mount Franklin launched the Choose Pink campaign to generate awareness and discussion of breast cancer. The campaign utilises Twitter as the core communications medium through which to spread the “Choose Pink” message. Participants are asked to share a Tweet with the designated hash tag (#CHOOSEPINK) or alternatively change the background of their Twitter avatar to a shade of pink. To this point the campaign seems to have had limited success however, with less than 100 Tweets sent.

Who’d I miss?

If you know of any other Australian charities using social media in an innovative manner, feel free to shout out via comments!

As some of you would already know, I’ve been actively involved in the upcoming Social Media Master Class event with US author & marketing strategist David Meerman Scott. It’s now less than two weeks until the event and I for one am looking forward to it immensely. David sits comfortably amongst the best marketing minds on the planet, regularly speaking with fellow luminaries Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki & Chris Brogan. In a world of self-professed gurus and wannabe’s, David stands as a pioneer in developing techniques to leverage social tools & technologies (in a human manner).

While most other marketing professionals hadn’t even heard of social media in 2006-2007, David was busy writing one of the first “bibles” on the topic. That book – “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” went on to become a Business Week bestseller and has since been translated into 22 different languages. His latest work – “World Wide Rave” looks in more depth at viral marketing and has already become an Amazon #1 bestseller.

Master Class presents a unique opportunity to pick the brains of one of the world’s most progressive marketing thinkers in an intimate environment. And as an added bonus, I’ll be participating in an industry panel at the end of the day for some open Q&A along with other local industry punters. So if you’re heading along, make sure you say g’day.

A few weeks ago Wrigley’s gum launched an ambitious social media marketing campaign for its new brand of chewing gum – 5 gum. I love it when I see established Aussie brands experimenting in social media, because there’s not a whole lot of precedent, yet there’s an army of critics ready to pounce on perceived “failures”. So it takes some courage to push a high profile campaign. The 5 gum campaign targeted urban influencers (designers, artists, musicians etc), challenging them to ‘remix’ content and add their own unique flavour. The formula had been successful for other brands. However, Wrigley’s campaign seemed to be missing one key ingredient… a trigger point. A reason to participate. While most branded social media campaigns provide users with an incentive (aka prize) to participate, Wrigley’s took the brave decision of encouraging organic (and unmotivated) participation. It’s a decision that seems to have backfired. A month later and the campaign site has less than 10 remixes submitted. The organic path hasn’t created momentum. Which beggars the question… is bribery necessary for social media success?

Before attempting to answer the question, it’s worth looking at some of the highest profile (but not necessarily successful) Australian campaigns of the last few months, and their approach to facilitating consumer participation in social channels. Just how high is the bribe factor in each? Let’s take a look:

V Australia

V Australia’s 4320LA campaign gave 3 Aussies the chance to win a round the world trip courtesy of the airline. The catch was that they first had to spend 3 days in LA and Tweet every single minute they were there. I’m guessing the aim was to get people talking about the ‘crazy’ feats of the lads, but with just a couple of hundred Twitter followers, I’d doubt it achieved that.

Bribery factor: Strong. It’s a round the world trip for goodness sakes.

iSpy Levis

iSpy Levi’s is a crafty little campaign devised by Levi’s’. It’s a Twitter based campaign that sees a Levi’s agent roaming the street with free pairs of Levi’s to give away. The agent gives clues as to their current location, and the first person to ask them gets a free pair of jeans. With over 1,500 followers the campaign has attracted a niche following.

Bribery factor: Moderate. With the cost of designer jeans these days, a free pair of Levi’s is not to be sneezed at.

Tooheys 6 Beers of Separation

Toohey’s 6 beers campaign is essentially a reality TV program, but has clearly been designed for online consumption via MySpace & YouTube. The program aims to validate the ’6 degrees’ theory that no more than 6 connections separate every person in the world. Four Australians were chosen to meet a celebrity via no more than 6 connections.

Bribery factor: Strong. International travel and celebrity hook ups are strong motivators.

Panasonic

Through the month of July, Panasonic ran a promotional campaign across Twitter & Facebook giving followers a chance to win a Wii every day for performing a variety of wacky challenges. With almost a thousand Facebook fans and over a thousand Twitter followers they’ve achieved some success.

Bribery factor: Moderate. Who doesn’t want a Wii?

The Best Job in the World

The mother of all Aussie viral/online PR campaigns. I doubt I need to re-tell the story here to anyone.

Bribery factor: Super duper strong! Dream job. Fifteen minutes of fame. A $150,000 salary. ‘Nuff said.

Looking beyond our shores, the trend of consumer bribery is also evident. Ford’s Fiesta Movement is one of the highest profile social media campaigns ever seen, handing 100 agents a new Fiesta for 6 months in exchange for regular discussion around the product. Moonfruit’s Twitter campaign is another high profile example, in which consumers were given the chance to win a MacBook’s for including the hashtag #Moonfruit in their Tweets. Again, bribery is the core tactic to get consumer’s talking about the brand.

So… is bribery in fact necessary for social media success?

Not quite.

As far as I can see there are two exceptions to the bribery approach:

• Not-for-profits
• The anti-campaign

Not-for-profits

Some of the best social/viral campaigns to have come from our shores have eminated from the not-for-profit sector. Greenpeace’s send-a-whale campaign is a perfect example, which has attracted the involvement of over 125,000 people lobbying against Japanese whaling practices. Amnesty International have followed a similar path in generating over 10,000 butterflies to raise awareness of victims of sex slavery during the World War era. Earth Hour has had success in building huge follower communities in networks such as Facebook & Twitter. The viral success of not-for-profits is certainly not motivated by bribery of a monetary nature…

However, I still suspect bribery to be an underlying factor in consumer participation… emotional bribery. Contributing to what is essentially an online petition is perhaps the easiest possible way to ease one’s social/humanitarian conscience. It allows people who are otherwise inactive in supporting such causes to feel as if they’re contributing to a better world. In speaking with people working within not-for-profits, it seems as if there is little transferral from basic online behaviours through to actions that really add value to the organisation (eg. donations, volunteeting, activism).

So the online viral campaign serves as an emotional bribe. A convenient and low-committment method to appease the average person’s social conscience.

The anti-campaign

By now, the social media purists may well be tearing their hair out in frustration at this post. The mere mention of the words ‘social media’ and ‘campaign’ is an oxymoron to them. To the purist, social networks are all about people, and marketing initiatives should be focused on a long-term commitment to developing relationships and customer retention. Which is exactly the opposite of a campaign approach, built upon bribery to gain attention/interest. Stephen Collins & Jonathon Crossfield have both written excellent posts from a purist perspective. And I must admit, I am probably 90% purist myself. But I also need to be practical to do my job…

The longer-term strategic approach is completely unreliant on bribery. Rather than ‘buying’ consumer word-of-mouth, the aim is to earn it through regular positive interactions. Marketing at its’ most basic level. Satisfy a customer and earn referrals as a reward. Ingenious!

Telstra provides a good example of an Australian organisation implementing the long-term approach. Their Twitter based customer support service is very much focused on longer-term marketing goals such as customer satisfaction & retention. And with over 1,500 followers it’s clear that they’re doing something right. So bribery certainly isn’t linked to their success. Likewise, many local telecommunications companies are active within the Whirlpool forums with similar intentions – generating positive word-of-mouth by connecting with customers one-to-one and resolving their problems.

But… the fact is that relatively few senior marketing decision makers are ready to make a total leap of faith into social media (and the resourcing required to sustain it). And it’s probably unfair to expect them to. Baby steps are necessary. Few organisations can go from social ignorance to a full-blooded commitment. It’s a massive quantam leap. So the social campaign (and the related bribery based tactics) provides a ‘comfort zone’ for marketers wanting to test the waters. Campaigns are what they know. Thus, the social media campaign becomes their entry point into the social web.

And for the anti-campaign-ers out there, Panasonic provides a nice little case study on corporate progression in social networks. After dabbling with bribery related tactics (as described earlier), they have recently announced the launch of an online customer support strategy within social networks.

There is hope.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll know I’m prone to the occasional rant. And one of my more frequent musings is the conservatism of Australian businesses towards social media. But rather than cracking that old chestnut open again, today I’m going to tell a happy tale of social media excellence. Because we can’t always be grumpy can we? It’s a story of an Australian organisation applying social media to their industry in a killer manner. And would you believe it… it’s a footy club! Yes. A footy club. While the industry is often portrayed as neanderthal like, the Essendon Football Club is putting most Aussie businesses to shame in their application of social technologies. No wonder I love them so much…

It’s clear that the Essendon Football Club has a strong committment to the web as a marketing channel. Indeed, they are the only club in the AFL to maintain a stand alone site beyond the AFL’s official hub, thereby sacrificing financial compensation from the AFL. But by maintaining complete control over their web presence, they have been able to innovate at a higher level than any other club. And as it turns out, they’re innovating at a superior level to most Australian businesses. Let’s take a look at how they’re applying social technologies to their industry:

Twitter

The Essendon Football club’s use of Twitter is impressive. While other businesses fumble for practical uses, Essendon obviously recognise the strengths of Twitter and tailor their usage accordingly. And with almost 3,000 followers, the punters seem to agree. Three particular uses of Twitter have impressed me:

• Breaking News: Rather than utilising Twitter as a broadcast channel to distribute news, Essendon FC uses the immediate nature of Twitter to break it. Indeed, the club’s Twitter feed was used to break one of the biggest stories of the year – the shock recruitment of their new CEO from rival club Hawthorn. Mainstream media later reported the news, citing the Twitter feed as the news source. The club also used Twitter to break the news that star player Jobe Watson would make his comeback from injury.



• Live event coverage: Twitter and sports are a match made in heaven, particularly when a game isn’t covered on free-to-air television. Live Tweeting provides an alternative form of coverage for fans who are unable to attend/watch the game. The Essendon Twitter account is used on gameday to give blow by blow descriptions of how the game is unfolding.



• Player profiles: The club also seems to be strongly involved in establishing a player presence on Twitter, which is a brilliant move. AFL players are idolised across the country, and Twitter allows fans to ‘connect’ with their heroes, opening a small window of insight into their everyday life. Sports hero gazing holds just as much appeal as celebrity gazing, as illustrated by the popular accounts held by Lance Armstrong & Shaquille O’Neal. Jobe Watson and Angus Monfries are the two Essendon players currently on Twitter, with the club actively promoting a rivalry between the two over who can attract the most followers.

Live player chat

Aside from Twitter, Essendon also utilises a custom built live chat service on its’ own web site dedicated to live match coverage. The most recent match coverage can be viewed here with around 300 entries from supporters. The master stroke of the internal live chat service is that each week a different player participates in the chat session with fans during the match, providing their thoughts and commentary on the game.

It’s worth noting that the players participating are not fringe players or outcasts. In most cases the players are regular first team players who are injured or suspended including Andrew Welsh, Adam McPhee and Angus Monfries. I believe captain Matthew Lloyd has also hosted a session. Much like Twitter, the initiative is clearly aimed at bringing fans closer to their heroes. And while the player’s participation and interaction with fans is very much limited, it is the perception that fans can connect with players that creates value. Given players match day committments (even injured players), it’s unlikely a higher level of engagement during the game can be realistically achieved.

Blogs and open commenting

A club blog has been established as part of Essendon’s web infrastructure, although as an internally built tool, it lacks the functionality of WordPress blog. Most contributions come from the coaching staff and players themselves, albeit at a rate of about 1-3 posts a month. The posts provide some level of insight into the inner-sanctum of the club, discussing issues such as finals prospects, the challenge of interstate travel and dealing with long-term injuries.

While the blog component of the site is perhaps underutilised, it is the blog-like commenting function on all news items that adds a real level of audience engagement to the site. It is not uncommon for match reports to attract 100+ comments from passionate fans (including myself). The open and unfiltered fan commentary has built a vibrant community that reflects the true pulse of the punters. Fans aggregate each week to rejoice in victories over arch rivals, and to bemoan dismal losses against lowly ranked opponents. Admirably, the club is brave enough to allow the most ardent of trolls to post incessant drivel week after week in the knowledge that others will jump in to defend the club/players/coach.

As a result of the unbiased commentary, the Essendon FC match report is now one of my first stops after a game. I come back to the site regularly with the specific intent of reading fan commentary. I’m keenly interested in seeing how others have perceived the team’s performance, as well as contributing my own thoughts. By simply allowing open fan discussion, they have made me a far more engaged and loyal user of their web site.

Video

Bomber TV is Essendon’s subscription based online video service, to which Bomber fans can subscribe for a cost of $10 per year. All the standard content is there that you’d expect from a footy club including game highlights and press conferences. However, the club produces a raft of unique video based content to ensure fans get value for their money (all $10 of it). The wide range of video content includes:

• Panel Shows: Two panel shows are produced each week with the involvement of Essendon’s assistant coaches. One show analyses the performance of the team in their most recent match, and the other previews the game for the upcoming weekend.



• Interviews: Player interviews are a staple of Bomber TV with club legends and current players giving insights into their careers and lives.



• Behind the scenes footage: Fans are given a taste of the inner workings of the club with footage from club functions, training sessions, interstate trips, sponsors events & more.

User comments are also open for video content, although far less utilised than the comments function for the general news.

Social network

The fifth bow to Essendon’s social media armory is a niche social network for Bombers supporters called ‘The Hangar’. It operates in the manner of a very simplified version of Facebook. Fans can create their own profile page and connect with other Bomber fans. In theory the concept is solid. Football fans have a common interest and offline social clubs thrive. Indeed, I’d appreciate being able to meet more Essendon fans as sometimes my regular group of friends can’t make it to the game. However, the execution of the social network is poor (but I’ll give them a break… they can’t get everything right).

The greatest problem for The Hangar is that it is extremely difficult to actually connect with other fans. The only way to search for people is by surname (which is a very cumbersome listing process rather than a keyword search). But what if I don’t know who I’m searching for? Isn’t the point of social networks to connect with new people? So how do I know who to connect with? I’d much rather run a search based on interests or geography (perhaps we could hitch a ride to the game together). It seems other people encounter the same problem, because I have only ever received 2 friendship requests from fellow fans. Even when I do connect with others, there is little scope for real interaction. We can leave comments on each other’s walls, but that’s about it. No email or alternative form of communication exist.

Despite its limitations, The Hangar has seems to have thousands of members (as demonstrated when searching by surname). So the concept has some potential. However, until it is more functional, it is unlikely to be utilised to its full potential.

Mobile

While not strictly a social initiative, Essendon’s mobile site is further evidence that the club is committed to innovating in emerging channels. The mobile site allows me to access key pieces of club information including game results and reviews, club news, the ladder, a fixture & more. The mobile interface is greatly simplified to allow convenient browsing from my iPhone.

Australian businesses – watch & learn!

There’s no question that sporting clubs have a head start over most businesses when it comes to applying social tools & technologies. The sheer passion of the average sports fan means that they are for more likely to be drawn to social technologies the club creates. Most businesses simply can’t replicate that level of passion or interest.

However, it is still up to the club to devise smart tactics for each channel to engage fans. And it is here that Essendon excels. While many businesses approach social tools with a traditional marketing mindset, Essendon has identified the strengths of each channel (social network adise) and delivered an experience that creates true value for fans.

Now… there’s no question that my judgment in the matter may be biased based on my affinity with Essendon Football Club, but I can’t think of an Australian organisation doing a better job of implementing social technologies. If you can, feel free to drop their name in the comments…

My latest monthly post for SEO Scoop has just been published. The post addresses the sometimes tricky topic of social media measurement. While online marketing has always thrived on accountability, social media takes marketers beyond the comfort zone of direct response and into a world of more fuzzy objectives related to attitudinal shifts and customer retention. But this does not mean marketing initiatives cannot be measured. And in the post I show how I constructed tangible metrics around some fuzzy marketing objectives, with the help of a few specific tools.

Check out ‘Getting a measure on social media metrics‘ now. And for an even more comprehensive review of specialist social media measurement tools, check out this presentation (hat tip Gavin Heaton).