How Tweet It Is Using Social Marketing to Drive Consumers to Your Brand. Lynn (Clement) Belken BECC Conference November 15 18, 2009

Transcription

1 How Tweet It Is Using Social Marketing to Drive Consumers to Your Brand Lynn (Clement) Belken BECC Conference November 15 18, 2009

2 Overview What is Focus on Energy? Why social marketing? Who is using social media? Program examples and results Lessons learned

3 What is Focus on Energy Wisconsin s statewide resource for energy efficiency and renewable energy Legislature created the program in 1999, expanded in 2005 Aimed at increasing Wisconsin s energy independence by helping residents and businesses implement efficiency and renewable energy projects that would not occur otherwise

4 Why Focus on Energy By 2009, Wisconsin s residents, farms and businesses were saving more than $239 million annually thanks to Focus programs. Together, we re lowering our cost of living, improving the comfort of our homes and preserving Wisconsin s natural resources for the next generation.

5 Focus on Energy Technical assistance Unbiased advice from experts Industry specific experience Incentives & financial assistance Rebates that mitigate first cost of choosing efficiency or renewables Up to 30% of project costs in some cases

6 Focus on Energy Serves Residential customers Single and multifamily buildings Homeowners as well as renters Businesses From family farms to large industry (paper, metal casting, food processing, etc.) Schools and government to business facilities (health care, hospitality, grocery stores, etc.) Communities Cities and community groups that want to be more sustainable

7 Why Social Marketing? Social marketing is the blending of people, communication and the internet Integrating social marketing reaches more customers & enhances brand perception Create experiences, conversations, and connections People want relationships, to be part of a community, and to interact with: Other people, organizations, brands, etc Internet Communication Social Media People

8 Why Social Marketing? 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news, the news finds us. (Source: Yahoo Finance ) Social Media has overtaken adult sites as the #1 activity on the Web (Source: Huffington Post) 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media (Source: McKinsey Study also posted by David Dalka)

9 Why Social Marketing? Economical marketing tactic (but not free) No cost for buying space Does take time = labor costs Opportunity to develop conversations with customers Customers promote your brand good or bad Adds to the marketing portfolio Traditional approaches remain key drivers for the promotion of EE programs

10 Who is using social media? Your customers! Residents and business owners in the demo are heavy online users (and engaged) Facebook 300 million+ users worldwide nearly 45.3 million active US users 45% are 26 years old or older 56.2% are women

11 Who is using social media? Twitter and year olds most likely to use 12 million twitter users 80% of Twitter usage is outside of Twitter people update anywhere, anytime imagine what that means for bad customer experiences? YouTube #2 largest search engine in the world

12 Twitter Social networking and micro-blogging service Thoughts Which IType To Every Reader Tweets 140 character messages Followers people that receive your tweets

13 Twitter At first = energy efficiency or renewable energy tip Tweet every day. Now = energy-related news, promoting events/trainings, program activities, press releases. 3+ tweets everyday (tip, event, RT) Increase interest and keep people talking! Networking media energy-related organizations and groups government energy programs local utilities other state energy programs

14 Twitter Focus on Energy has 636 followers (11/12) Goals: Another vehicle in the marketing mix. Maximize awareness and accessibility going where the people are. Means of building the brand by allowing customers/followers/friends to interact with Focus. Similar to word-of-mouth Broadening our audience/reach. Twits are slightly more racially and ethnically diverse than the full U.S. population

15 Twitter

16 Twitter The power of building relationships. WKOW 27: cooling tips story WSAW TV: ARRA rebates Re-tweeting

17 Facebook Social networking Web site Add friends Send message Join networks or become fans Wall space where messages can be written or shared

18 Facebook Focus has 371 fans (11/12) Goals: Another vehicle in the marketing mix. Maximize awareness and accessibility going where the people are. Means of building the brand by allowing customers/followers/friends to interact with Focus. Similar to word-of-mouth Broadening our audience/reach.

19 Facebook

20 Askfocusnenergy.com Launched April 22, 2009 Another tactic in the social media toolbelt controlled social marketing Puts Wisconsin residents and business owners in touch with real-life energy experts Visitors can: search for answers to their questions submit questions of their own New questions answered each week

21 Askfocusonenergy.com Goals: Position Focus as an expert in the State of WI for energy efficiency and renewable energy info Put a face behind the organization s name Give people a way to interact with Focus make more sense of the information we are giving them Leverage experts the face of Focus Radio & TV interviews, etc.

22 Askfocusonenergy.com

23 Askfocusonenergy.com Metrics (April 6 to November 11): Number of questions asked = 534 Number of visits = 9,750 Number of unique visits = 7,459 Average duration of visits = 3:28 Top 10 Referral URLs = focusonenergy.com, we-energies.com, redflagdeals.com, stumbleupon.com, wifocusonenergy.com, weenergies.com, fox6now.com, jsonline.com, ecec.com, twitter.com % of people that visit site & submit question = 552 visitors (7.4% of unique visitors)

24 Lessons learned Know your target. Know who you are trying to reach on the social media sites. Is your audience there? Which sites? Have a plan. Without a clear goal, people may wonder why you re out there. Don t just do this to do it. Start small. There are thousands of sites out there. You don t need to be on all of them. Do 1 or 2 well first and add slowly. Content is king. New information and interactions help maintain response rates. Keep it fresh, but don t overdo it.

25 Lessons learned Branding. Remember: these efforts are an extension of your brand. Follow branding standards on these sites as much as possible backgrounds, username (URL), logo, messaging, etc. Engage. With audience most interaction occurs at the impression level. Provide enough to hook them right away. Other groups social aspect. Re-tweeting, links to stories, #FF mentions. Results. It s not the same as traditional. Typically can t directly relate to sales. It s not free. It does take staff time and investments to keep up to date, relevant, etc.

26 Contact Information Lynn (Clement) Belken Community Marketing Manager ext Twitter