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Wharton Interactive Media Initiative

How to build a social media strategy

Steve Ennen
Managing Director,
Wharton Interactive Media Initiative
Lecturer in Marketing
ennen@wharton.upenn.edu

www.whartoninteractive.com
O VERVIEW - WIMI
WIMI is a global research center
working with leading companies and researchers

•  Brings a passionate data-driven perspective to media businesses


(content distribution and information acquisition) in a way that no other
business school in the world can match.

•  Distinguishes itself with a tight focus on the interaction between content


provider and user, capitalizing on the wealth of individual-level data that
is exploding at the crossroads of commerce, technology, and
entertainment.

•  Is dedicated to bringing world-class research rigor to better understand


these complex interactions in order to drive new business strategies and
tactics that will reshape the media landscape.

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WIMI GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Global network of research partners

Wharton Lab for


Publishing WIMI
Research,
Innovation Student Placement
Interns,
Partners

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HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

So, you want a social media campaign?

Do you know why?


HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

•  Today we’ll look at the questions you need to ask to build


a social media strategy

•  But first, let’s look at the correlation between buzz and


business
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
BUZZ AND BUSINESS

•  To earn a free burger, Facebook users download the Whopper


Sacrifice Facebook application and dump 10 friends unworthy of
their weight in beef. After completing the purge, users are
prompted to enter their addresses and the coupons are sent out
via snail mail.

•  In about 60 days, nearly 240,000 Facebookers had been de-


friended for the sake of a hamburger. That amounts to more than
7,000 coupons for free Whoppers.

•  Facebook stopped the campaign because of privacy concerns.


HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Buzz and business

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/fashion/29facebook.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
BUZZ AND BUSINESS
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
BUZZ AND BUSINESS

No evidence of increased sales


HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Nevertheless, there is no denying the reach and penetration


of social media

•  More than 100,000,000 blogs

•  90% of consumers trust peer recommendations


July 2009 Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey

•  More than 400,000,000 on social networks, worldwide

•  Most benefits/principals are the same for internal & external

•  Facilitated by ‘ubiquity’
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Iyengar, Van den Bulte, Valente

“Opinion Leadership and Social Contagion in New Product Diffusion”

vs

“Managerial Calculus”
Network Intervention – In each city, the physician with
the highest in-degree is targeted and is persuaded to
increase his/her prescription by 10 units Higher
Effec+veness

Detailing Intervention – Each physician is given an Influencers
work
“locally”!

additional detail.
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Step 1:
Understand the environment / Landscape analysis
Gain a greater understanding of social media

•  Blogs (internal/staff, external ecosystem)


•  Communities/Social Networks
•  Discussion forums
•  Ratings and reviews
•  Sharing
•  Video
•  Widgets
•  Wikis

•  Traditional media platforms


HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Master the ecosystem

EVENT
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Step 1:
Understand the environment / Landscape analysis

•  Other campaigns, partnerships, presence?

•  Regulated industry?

•  Rules (privacy)

•  Trends
-Are you too far ahead of the adoption curve?
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Step 1:

Understand the environment / Landscape analysis

•  Other campaigns, partnerships, presence?

•  Digital landscape audit – internal and external


HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

External
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Complementary efforts
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Step 2:
Develop a strategy/philosophy

•  What are you trying to accomplish?


HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Step 2:
Develop a strategy/philosophy

•  Have you clearly defined a desired outcome? Timelines?

•  Where do you want to lead the customers/clients?

•  What do you want them to do?

•  What is your role as a brand?

•  How do these relate to your business?


HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Step 2:
Develop a strategy/philosophy
Social media audit - Have your surveyed your company’s
current social media assets?

•  What are the tools at your disposal


-Enterprise tech landscape
-Vendor relationships, rankings ratings, print, analytics

•  Resources needed (staff and other)?


•  What is the time commitment (regular attention is vital)?
•  What is the time horizon (3 months, 6 months, year)?
•  What are the costs (soft and hard)?
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Step 2:
Develop a strategy/philosophy

•  Have you a clear plan for ownership (CMO, IT, Sales,


Communications, Legal)?

•  Who are the key stakeholders?

•  Must you convince the C-suite to take social media seriously?

•  What is the organizational process: who in your organization


needs to be involved?

•  How will you execute?


HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Step 2:
Develop a Strategy/philosophy
•  What is the company policy?
-Internal
-External

•  Have you clearly communicated your strategy/policy?


-What are the legal ramifications (internal and external)

•  Are there clear guidelines?


-What are the ramifications for violating guidelines?

•  Terms of service
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Step 3:
Analyze your audience
What is the “value” to them?
How will they respond to…

• Social Networks
- Broad-based community involvement
- Branded communities

•  Blogs

•  Rankings recommendations

•  User-generated content
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Tirunillai and Tellis
“Does Chatter Really Matter? Dynamics of User-Generated Content and Stock
Performance”

Stock Price (adjusted)


UGC Chatter

Consumer
 Nega2ve
 Nega2ve



Cha$er
Opinion
 
Cha$er Expressions
Short
 Cum Short
 Cum Short
 Cum Short
 Cum

Term 
Term 
Term 
Term
Stock
Returns
** 3.8 4.8 -2.1 -3.6 -2.9 -3.9 -3.7 -4.7

“You
can
take
UGC
to
the
Bank”

HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Step 4:
What is your listening strategy?
•  Do you have a plan for the conversation?
-Rankings ratings and reviews

•  Do you need vendor monitoring?


Radian6 Bazaarvoice
ListenLogic

•  Is internal monitoring possible?


-Community/ social media manager?

•  Reporting – what do you do with what you hear?

•  Do you have a clear Response Strategy?


HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Step 5:
What is you measurement strategy?
•  What are you measuring?

•  How will you measure success?


- Can you clearly define metrics for successes and failure?
-  Can you determine ROI, ROE?

•  What are the mechanisms for gathering the data?

•  How do you determine what’s important?


•  How will you analyze the data?
•  Who owns it?
•  How does the information move across the organization?
-Dashboards, reports, meetings, enterprise media
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Example: Blog measurements

•  Conversation activity

•  Number of conversation-relevant links

•  Conversation reach “number of unique visitors (monthly) across


sites in the conversation”

•  Site relevance

•  Author/site authority
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Example: Scorecard
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Five steps
Step 1:
Understand the environment / Landscape analysis

Step 2:
Develop a strategy/philosophy

Step 3:
Analyze your audience. What is the “value” to them?

Step 4:
What is your listening strategy?

Step 5:
What is you measurement strategy?
HOW TO BUILD A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Resources
•  IAB Social Media Metrics
http://www.iab.net/media/file/SocialMediaMetricsDefinitionsFinal.pdf

•  Branded Communities
thinkpassenger.com

•  Media info: MediaPost.com

•  Buzz monitoring
www.Technorati.com
www.blogpulse.com

•  Twitter
Tweetdeck
Klout
C ONTA C TS

Steve Ennen, Managing Director


ennen@wharton.upenn.edu

www.whartoninteractive.com
wimi-mail@wharton.upenn.edu
Twitter: @whartoninteract

W H A R T O N I N T E R A C T I V E M E D I A I N I T I AT I V E

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