How should marketers succeed in social media in 2015, in an era of shrinking organic reach on Facebook and a new Twitter algorithm?

1. A New Game: Social Media 2015
Jim Tobin, President, Ignite Social Media
@jtobin

2. Facebook Has Changed The Game
We were told to build a fan base, to be human on Facebook. We were even told to
invest $$ to build our fan base.
And then Facebook changed the rules. Dramatically.

3. Twitter May Be Next
Now Twitter is going to move from a pure feed to an algorithmic feed, meaning
they’ll have the ability to control brand reach as well.

4. Instagram Next?
While many of our clients are currently seeing explosive engagement on
Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg has announced plans to monetize Facebook assets.
That could include an algorithm for Instagram at some point in the future.

5. Lots Wrong Since 2007
But that’s just today. We started in 2007 with a lot of promise how social media
could reinvent marketing. I still agree with that, but we’ve had a lot of missteps
along the way. And by we I mean the platforms. Like Facebook, as well as the
marketers, like us. Let’s look at what’s gone wrong first.

6. We’ve Gotten It So Wrong
When I wrote Cocktail Party in 2007, advertising opportunities were limited, so we
spent time figuring out how to get anyone to care. As advertising options
proliferated, too much money has gone to too many bad ads. Advertising can be
effective, it’s not as effective per exposure as organic marketing we were doing.

7. We’ve Gotten It So Wrong
From a platform perspective, Facebook promised us that their algorithms would be
so smart that they’d be able to serve us ads we cared about. That was 2008. By
2013, even Facebook had given up on that. They never mention that any more. A
lot of people lost faith when that promise went unrealized.

8. We’ve Gotten It So Wrong
We all raced to grow our fan counts. Facebook and Twitter share some of the
blame here, as they sold that concept to us. But as marketers, too many of us
abused it by buying likes, either through like farms or, more often, through poorly
considered media buys. Brands killed their own organic reach and engagement.

9. We’ve Gotten It So Wrong
When Facebook got rid of the default landing tab about 2.5 years ago, a lot of us
stopped doing social promotions and too many brands think that social media
marketing and content marketing are the same thing. They are not. Content
marketing is a subset of social media marketing. Promotions can still drive results.

10. We’ve Gotten It So Wrong
And finally, Facebook and the other social platforms have hired countless reps.
Their job is to sell and I don’t begrudge them that. But for client after client they
couch their sales pitch as a “strategy session.” They try to sell the positives, but
often don’t know or don’t share negatives of using their platforms certain ways.

11. Why It Happened

12. Money
Of course, Facebook went public. Their priority now is their shareholders and by
that measure they’re doing great. The stock was at $78 recently. Revenue is up.
They bought Instagram as a hedge. They bought WhatsApp as a hedge. So I give
them a lot of credit as a business. Just not as social media marketing strategists.

13. It’s Also Hard
Their plan for social ads failed because it’s too complicated. They had to walk away
from that. Edgerank is gone and the new algorithm reportedly considers 100,000
variables. And it’s pretty terrible still. So what they’ve done is Atlas. Beautiful idea
for Facebook and ads, but not the real potential of social media marketing.

14. It’s Also Hard
The other thing that is hard is content. Producing interesting content day in and
day out is really hard. These are all client examples and internally we produce
hundreds of pieces of content every week. It’s hard. A lot of people got the idea
that “free to post” was the same as easy. Good content takes an investment.

15. It’s Also Hard
Source: Kelly Mooney
I’m not sure the funnel on the left was ever accurate, but today is more like “the
fish” on the right. It makes it very hard to track results. One of our clients does it
with a sophisticated media mix modeling and shows very strong ROI, but for most
people tracking all this is still too difficult. That’s different than “not working.”

16. It’s Also Hard
Social isn’t one thing, like email. It’s a tool box that can be assembled differently
for different purposes. Different platforms have different likelihood of being first
touch, last touch, etc. One of my client’s data gave search all the credit. But that
discounts activities that got people to search initially, including TV, social, etc.

17. So What Do We Do About It?
A lot of this can sound discouraging, but I’m more optimistic than I’ve been in a
couple years. In a lot of ways, this is a brand new industry. Advertising is over 100
years old. Social media marketing is somewhere under 10 years old and the
technology has changed so dramatically that turbulence shouldn’t be a surprise.

18. Be Realistic
Source: 140 Proof & Media Lab
The first thing to do is be realistic. Not every brand has great content to share on a
regular basis. Not every brand has the same sales funnel. Not every brand sells
through the same channels. So our approach has to vary based on not only the
industry that we’re in, but our own capabilities to participate in the space.

19. Marketing vs. Advertising
What do people trust when they buy: the kind of content that gets produced from
really good social media marketing. When you get people showing uses for your
product, that’s the trusted stuff. What’s the least trusted? Ad… ad… ad…. It’s not
that ads don’t work. They don’t work as well as great social media marketing.

20. Organic vs. Paid
76%
Lift
28%
Lift
Seeing organic content on Facebook leads to a 76% lift in likelihood to visit that
brand’s website than those who don’t. Paid exposure leads to a 28% lift.
Advertising works. Organic works better. Why? The psychology of “Discovery” and
the Momentum Effect.

21. Organic vs. Paid
55%
Lift
No
Lift
Similarly, seeing organic content on Facebook leads to a 55% lift in likelihood to
search for branded search terms than those who don’t. Paid exposure leads to no
statistically significant lift.

22. Marketing vs. Advertising
Source: Vision Critical: From Social to Sale http://www.visioncritical.com/sites/default/files/pdf/whitepaper-social-to-sale.pdf
Over 30% of
Facebook, Twitter,
and Pinterest
purchasers noted
social was how
they discovered
the product.
Over 25% of these
received more
information on the
product within
social
The more data that we have on social related to purchase decisions, the more
proof we have that people discover products this way and buy as a result. Is social
the only piece of the new fish-funnel thing? Of course not, but it is without a
doubt the most credible piece and, increasingly, a piece that contributes to sales.

23. Marketing vs. Advertising
People connected with brands on social, have the highest likelihood to buy again
Source: Facebook 2012 Survey
We also know that our fans and followers on social channels are better customers.
Chicken or the egg? Who cares…The people who have opted to engage with us on
social are more likely to recommend and more likely to buy again. Regardless of
how or why they got there, they are your best customers. Talk to them.

24. Move Beyond the Embassy
We all have to think about content first. What do we have to say? Who cares?
Where are those people gathering? Does the content fit with the platform? Can
we produce it regularly? That’s the strategic discussion. It may end with on how to
use Facebook versus Twitter, but we can’t start with an embassy mentality.

25. Content Facilitation
Organish™ Media: A two-pronged approach to targeting audiences that combines the power of
natural, social media connectivity, and efficient paid efforts with each one leveraging the other
to provide a unique, branded experience that influences purchase behavior.
Yes, we need a paid media budget for social today. But the best way to do is
“Organish.” Creating content that is designed to perform well organically and then
boosting the best content drives fantastic results for our clients. Dramatically lower
costs and big increases in reach.
Organish™ is a trademark of Ignite Social Media

26. Content Facilitation
Source: Zuberance, 2013
Influencers Matter
• Blogs were found to be the third-most influential digital
resource when making overall purchasing decisions, only
behind retail sites and brand sites. (Technorati, 2013)
• Advocates tell 2X as many people about their purchases
than non-advocates. (Comscore)
• Word of mouth recommendations are the primary factor
behind 20-50% of purchasing decisions
(McKinsey)
• 74% of marketers report they will deploy “influence
marketing strategies as part of their marketing mix in the
next 12 months. (SenseiMarketing)
Since content is hard, we need to think more about content facilitation. What
content can our fans create? Customers? Influencers? Internal folks? Various
agencies? Influencers also bring tremendous credibility with their content. They’re
another form of native advertising.

27. Content Creation
A lot of people work with influencers to get content created on their channels.
There are all sorts of influencer networks out there. The surprising part of working
with the right folks, however, can be the quality of the content that you get. This is
something we did for Apothic White.

28. Content Syndication and Aggregation
But too many influencer programs leave the content sitting there. Our program
involves content aggregation, syndication, secondary syndication and content
repurposing. Locking content on a single influencers blog is leaving half the meat
on the bone.

29. Content Everywhere™
Search volume has flattened as people discover content on social. A leaked New York Times internal
report showed that the home page has lost ½ of its traffic, although total site traffic is flat.

30. Content Everywhere™
Content is now discovered. And Discovery leads to the Momentum Effect. Here are
two programs we did. Tens of millions of impressions, but we’ve also got Content
Everywhere. So whether on the influencer site, social channels, brand channels or
more, we dramatically increase the likelihood of this content being discovered.

31. It’s Up to Us

32. We Can Make Ads
Again, ads can work. Jon Loomer had a great piece on what Copyblogger should
have done instead of shutting down their FB page. And FB ads were a big part of it.
Sometimes a bad Click Thru Rate is enough to generate Positive ROI. Just don’t call
it social media marketing. It’s basic retargeting.

33. Or We Can Reinvigorate Marketing
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6991-native-advertising-tips.html http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/08/17/consumers-trust-branded-content-much-they-trust-editorial
Our corporate vision is “to reinvent marketing through social media.” Advertising is
broken. We have banner blindness. We measure impressions for ads that surround
good content. But if marketing IS the good content, people trust it more. We can
do better as marketers, and get better results.

34. Involving New Models
We have to do two things: 1) we have to leave room for trusting our gut, as not
everything that matters can be measured; but 2) we also have to work together to
create new models for measuring the real impact of social. It won’t be easy, but if
social really touches on all the stages of the McKinsey Loop, we need to show that.

35. Involving New Models
Source: Gigaom
At Ignite Social Media, we’re also working to build a new model that quantifies the
attention paid to various marketing efforts. Because marketers don’t want to buy
CPMs, or buy likes or shares. They want people to pay attention to their brand. For
2015, we’re working hard to be able to quantify that.

36. The Path Winds
When people say “social isn’t working,” my question is, “Compared to what?” Our
programs drive results, and have steadily. But the programs we did 3 years ago, we
wouldn’t necessarily do today. The path winds and that can be exhausting, but it’s
also exhilarating. The journey is worth the trouble.