USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO SPEAK TO YOUR AUDIENCE & GET THE CONVERSION

Transcription

1 February 26, 2015 AMERICANEAGLE.COM FORUM USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO SPEAK TO YOUR AUDIENCE & GET THE CONVERSION

2 AGENDA INTRODUCTION TRACKING CONVERSIONS DEFINING YOUR GOALS BEING PREPARED SETTING PROPER EXPECTATIONS UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

3 1 INTRODUCTION

4 INTRODUCTION About Me Started my first online business TheFerretStore.com in 1994, prior to Amazon.com Sold TheFerretStore.com along with 5 other pet focused websites to Dr. Fosters and Smith (Now Petco) in In 2000, Started SolidCactus.com, a web development company primarily focused on Yahoo Small Business Stores. Sold SolidCactus to the Web.com group in 2009 (Network Solutions, Register.com) Was Web.com s VP of ecommerce from Spent 3 years as Chief Marketing Officer at 3dcart from Joined Americaneagle.com in /26/2015 4

5 2 DEFINING YOUR GOALS

6 DEFINING YOUR GOALS What is the definition a conversion in our organization? Is it a sale? A lead? A newsletter subscription? 2/26/2015 6

7 DEFINING YOUR GOALS What is our budget for this initiative? Is it a fixed amount? Is it a per conversion amount? Will we increase our budget if we believe we are seeing results? 2/26/2015 7

8 DEFINING YOUR GOALS What is our Call to Action? Do we have a microsite for this campaign? Is our goal to increase brand awareness? Where are we leading the end user (funnel)? 2/26/2015 8

9 DEFINING YOUR GOALS Social Media s Purpose (For a Marketer) is to Engage brand awareness and create an interaction with your brand Create emotion amongst groups of people with your brand Give your product or brand a human connection and create an emotional association to your product or brand Personification. This can be dangerous, so this is a very important role in your company. 2/26/2015 9

10 3 SETTING PROPER EXPECTATIONS

11 SETTING PROPER EXPECTATIONS How Will We Define Success or Failure of Our Social Media Initiative? Have we set goals? Do we have buy in from management? Are we as a team willing to accept that our idea may need to be modified, changed or aborted completely? 2/26/

12 SETTING PROPER EXPECTATIONS Now For the Most Important Part Each social media platform is different, and each platform has a significantly different user profile. It is most important to focus on one or two social media platforms, it is not important to be everywhere. Social Media management often ends up being more work than most people expect it to be. Be prepared to manage the campaign(s). Don t make Social Media management be an extra project for someone. It will most likely make your organization appear unprofessional or confused. 2/26/

13 4 UNDERSTANDING THE PLATFORMS

14 UNDERSTANDING THE PLATFORMS Each Social Media platform has a different user People gravitate to the Social Media platform that best suits their individual personalities. Social Media is a great supplement to radio, television, billboard and print ads. Social Media builds brand awareness. Is absolutely a MUST for a company that advertises through traditional media. 2/26/

15 UNDERSTANDING THE PLATFORMS Facebook Designed to allow a person to be in constant contact with friends and family. Users will rarely accept friends that they do not already know on a personal level. Users follow companies and pages of people and businesses that they feel a personal connection to. On a personal level, virtually all posts are seen by your friends if Facebook s internal algorithms think your friends will be interested in your post but on a business level, only about 3% of your followers will see your posts unless you pay. 71% of online adults in America use Facebook The good news the costs are much less than most other forms of online advertising 2/26/

16 UNDERSTANDING THE PLATFORMS Twitter Primarily designed to follow companies, news organizations and influential people. The use of the #hashtag allows other people to follow your event, idea, etc. in a simple manner. While the #hashtag exists in most all Social Media platforms, it is most widely used, and most easily searched in Twitter. 23% of online adults use Twitter 2/26/

17 UNDERSTANDING THE PLATFORMS Pinterest Primarily used by creative people as a way to share photography, recipes, crafts, clothing styles, and more. Excellent for manufacturers of products which are female oriented. The majority of users are female 28% of all online adults use Pinterest. 2/26/

18 UNDERSTANDING THE PLATFORMS Google+ and YouTube Both Google+ and YouTube are owned by Google. YouTube is for viewing videos, it is considered the 2 nd largest search engine after Google and has a Social Media component. People will follow your YouTube Channel if they find your content interesting. YouTube and Google+ are very different, but tied together through your Google login. Since they are both owned by Google, using these products interchangeably is easy. 22% of online adults use Google+, but this number is often disputed. The audience is overwhelmingly male and works in the technical field. 2/26/

19 UNDERSTANDING THE PLATFORMS Linked In B2B only. A way for people to keep in touch with business contacts. Often used as a recruiting tool. Allows paid promotion, but generally worthless unless you are selling a product that is B2B, or recruiting new employees. 2/26/

20 5 TRACKING CONVERSIONS

21 TRACKING CONVERSIONS How does a company track conversions across such a variety of platforms? Generally, you won t be able to directly track conversions of your general Social Media Initiatives, but you can track conversions on specific campaigns. Always use Hashtags where applicable, Phone Numbers, and in addition to your general Social Media activity, do custom campaigns like giveaways. 2/26/

22 TRACKING CONVERSIONS How does a company track conversions across such a variety of platforms? ALWAYS watch for a lift in overall conversion rate, especially on your Paid Online Advertising such as Google AdWords. Most companies will see conversions increase on their brand name or company name. Use Social Analytics tracking in your analytics software. Most analytics packages, including Google Analytics have this capability, but be sure to not underestimate the results of your campaign as a lot of Social Media activities amongst end users are not able to be tracked due to privacy settings, sharing and sharing via text. 2/26/

23 TRACKING CONVERSIONS How does a company track conversions across such a variety of platforms? Ask for help. Get opinions. Don t forget that AE offers strategy. 2/26/

24 6 BEING PREPARED

25 BEING PREPARED If your campaign gets traction, people will talk Are you prepared for backlash? Could the campaign fail? Or is there missed opportunity? Examples 2/26/

26 BEING PREPARED McDonalds People are NOT Lovin it McDonalds went to twitter and asked people to tell them what people liked about McDonalds using the hashtag #McDStories. McDonald s was not prepared for the HATE. A campaign that was created to run for 24 hours was cancelled after 2. Dude, I used to work at McDonald s. The #McDStories I could tell would raise your hair. (via Twitter) One time I walked into McDonalds and I could smell Type 2 diabetes floating in the air and I threw up. #McDStories (via Twitter) These #McDStories never get old, kinda like a box of McDonald s 10 piece Chicken McNuggets left in the sun for a week (via the LA Times) The promoted TT of #McDStories isn t going the direction I wanted it to go. Lots of weed stories and heart attack jokes. (via Paid Content) Ate a McFish and vomited 1 hour later.the last time I got McDonalds was seriously 18 years ago in college.. #McDstories (via Twitter) #McDStories I lost 50lbs in 6 months after I quit working and eating at McDonald s (via The Daily Mail) 2/26/

27 BEING PREPARED 2012 Obama s Re-Election A Kitchen Aid employee thought he was tweeting to HIS friends Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! She died 3 days b4 he became president. #nbcpolitics Instead, it went out to KitchenAid s 24,000 followers. 2/26/

28 THANK YOU! QUESTIONS? Let s Talk: STRATEGYINFO@AMERICANEAGLE.COM

29 Using Social Media To Speak To Your Audience & Get The Conversion