This presentation serves as a resource for professionals inside organizations who are tasked with buying Social Media technology, services and advertising. It is a culmination of one on one interviews, radio talk shows and survey data gathered from organizations that have launched social media. A research project between Social Media Club and e-storm international. Findings were presented at Web 2.0 San Francisco.

1. Social Media Buyer’s Guide Short Description William Gaultier, CEO - e-Storm International Chris Heuer, Founder - Social Media Club Month Year PREPARED BY

2. Project Background

5. Geographical Location of Respondents n=45 of 46 org buyers total respondents 145 MOTIVATION CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS OVERVIEW

6. Primary Goals of SMBG Analysis

7. Our Preliminary Findings

8. It’s Real. Social Media is Here to Stay.

10. n=21of 46 org buyers total respondents 145 OVERVIEW CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS MOTIVATION Does your company have a defined Social Media Strategy?

11. Does your company have a defined Social Media Strategy? OVERVIEW CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS MOTIVATION “ Over the past eighteen to twenty-four months, there has been an explosion of 2.0 technologies, and consumer participation in the social graph…continues to increase - not just people watching it, but also joining it and promoting it. Marketers and organizations are waking up to the potential opportunity to market to these audiences as well as learn from them through a research perspective, while also tapping this new channel as a way to manage the customer.” Blake Cahill Visible Technologies

12. Does your company have a defined Social Media Strategy? OVERVIEW CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS MOTIVATION "My first social media plan failed. It wasn't so much that the community didn't respond, but the employees didn't stick with it. The company wanted to see instant results and as the months went by with only a few traceable conversions the employees quit putting in the time. Our new strategy (yet to be tested) is to make the social media plan a part of a specific department. Before I had a team of 5 people from every department. Now it will just be me and the content department.” Anonymous Participant

13. People in Your Organization Who "get" Social Media? n=21of 46 org buyers total respondents 145 OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS

14. Does Senior Management Support Social Media? n=21of 46 org buyers total respondents 145 OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS

15. What are the roadblocks? OVERVIEW MOTIVATION IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS “ Operationally, everybody needs to be ready because the responses that come back, again from the community, may cut across the lines outside of the charter of the social media project…” “ If you’re launching out something for a marketing purpose and suddenly you’re getting inundated with customer service or product issues, the objectives of “I’m prepared to message and communicate with you with an objective around sales, or perception shifting or something like that, or engagement, and suddenly, I’m having to respond to service and product issues; I need to get my customer service team engaged in this.” Peter Fasano Coca-Cola/MassLogic CHALLENGES Readiness : it’s not just being armed with the knowledge of social media, but also your team’s ability to scale…

16. What are the roadblocks? OVERVIEW MOTIVATION IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS CHALLENGES “ Know your internal audience, and, get to know your external community very well so you can provide them the best service.” Peter Fasano Coca-Cola/Mass Logic Readiness : …and also how to rally your community to help when needed.

17. What are the roadblocks? “ The people who are most involved with social media - interns or very junior level marketing people - may get social media better than others, in terms of [their involvement with] Facebook. But they don’t necessarily get brand management to the degree that a senior brand manager does. That’s a real issue.” David Berkowitz 360i OVERVIEW MOTIVATION IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS Experience : Many involved with Social Media have an elementary or non-existent understanding of marketing. CHALLENGES

18. What are the roadblocks? OVERVIEW MOTIVATION IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS Measuring ROI : Two different schools of thought on what matters most – from the pragmatic… CHALLENGES “ When it comes to Social Media, ROI is not Return on Investment. It's Return on Interaction, Return on Involvement, Return on Influence, Return on Idea-sharing. In a nutshell it's a return on being part of the community through conversation and relationship development. Really no different than face-to-face networks. The one difference is the use of technology to have the interaction.” “ Number of New Leads/Prospects/Partners, Customer Satisfaction Metrics, # of New Ideas/Feedback” Anonymous Participant Anonymous Participant … to the romantic.

19. What are the roadblocks? OVERVIEW MOTIVATION IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS Measuring ROI : Hard metrics go much further than brand sentiment, and most practitioners don’t realize how to measure. “ The questions we get on a daily basis often tie into ‘what is the ROI’ and ‘what is the best way to measure it.’ It often gets into some gray areas. It’s not like you’re going to necessarily sell more shampoo because you’ve got 5% more chatter on Facebook. There are a lot of ways to get closer to figuring out what the value [of ROI] is. Looking at the sentiment along with the volume of conversation or whatever it is you’re measuring, whether it’s conversations, video views, or friends or fans you have on Facebook. I don’t want to knock the field entirely, but we haven’t seen any that replace just going ahead and doing it manually.” David Berkowitz 360i CHALLENGES

20. What are the roadblocks? OVERVIEW MOTIVATION IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS Negative WOM : There really is a direct relationship to ROI. “ When considering ROI, companies should not ignore the Elephant in the room – Negative Word of Mouth. A study by London School of Economics showed that companies can generate 3x more ROI by just decreasing negative word of mouth – that’s a compelling story for anyone looking for Social Media ROI.” William Gaultier e-Storm CHALLENGES

21. Does Senior Leadership Listen to Social Media Feedback? n=21of 46 org buyers total respondents 145 OVERVIEW MOTIVATION IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS CHALLENGES

23. So how do brands get started on social media plans?

24. Do Corporate Buyers have an annual Social Media budget? n=21of 46 org buyers total respondents 145 OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS IMPLEMENTATION

25. Percentage of total budget allocated to Social Media in 2009 N=19 of 46 org buyers total respondents 145 OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS IMPLEMENTATION

26. When to invest in social media OVERVIEW MOTIVATION MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS “ Start to get a sense of is there stuff going on already? Is there some pressing need or is it just a low- level of chatter about that kind of brand and industry over the course of conversation? That could also help adjust marketers’ timing or overall thinking around it before they even start investing the money” “ One of the early stages of your readiness as an organization that it says, “I need to activate social media services” … “ Operationally, you need to be prepared in a number of ways to deal with the response you’re going to get, positively or negatively” David Berkowitz 360i Peter Fasano Mass Logic CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION

28. Top Social Media Objectives OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS IMPLEMENTATION

29. So what are your top questions to ask?

30. What are the top 3 Questions you should ask social media vendors or experts? n=21of 46 org buyers total respondents 145 OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS IMPLEMENTATION

32. What are the top 3 Questions you should ask social media vendors or experts? OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES MEASUREMENT ANALYSIS IMPLEMENTATION “ What is your commitment to our brand to make sure it works?” Paula Drum H&R Block “ Do you understand the business I am in well enough to be a strategic partner in my communications efforts? How will you help me achieve my business objectives? How will you measure the results you have promised?” Joel Postman Intridea “ What needs does your tool/service specifically meet? What training will my users require to be able to use this effectively? Where would your tool work best, and in which situations would not be the best choice?” Jeff Moriarty Intel

33. So how do you measure?

34. Do you currently produce reports? N=16 of 46 org buyers total respondents 145 OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS MEASUREMENT

35. What type of metrics do you use to measure Social Media? n=27 OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS MEASUREMENT

41. So which approach is best suited for Social Media with your strategy? Why?

42. Short Term Revenue Driving OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS Isabelle Christensen RECsolar “ For 2009, the marketing objective for the company really is more short term than long term. It’s mostly for lead generation; therefore, based on those criteria, the social media advertising really doesn’t support our objective. I would use social media advertising when my marketing objective is for long term demand generation and branding” MEASUREMENT

43. Long Term Brand Preference OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS Christopher Barger General Motors “ How do you impact the consideration of your products? Are there people who, prior to their interaction with you, weren’t even going to be willing to consider an American vehicle or a GM vehicle, who are now looking differently at it. Have you shifted the tonality of their conversations on their sites? Have you shifted the tonality of the conversations in whatever platform you’re engaging? Are you increasing the consideration? Are you increasing the brand affinity? Are you increasing the number people who are just willing to say, “I’ll give you a chance, where I wouldn’t have before the engagement”?” MEASUREMENT

44. Long Term Brand Preference OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS “ One of my big measurements is how do I increase consideration in my brand. You might have to look at different ways to get to a bigger brand building measure, such as changing consideration. Definitely, the micro measurements of ‘did I increase search rankings, how many people, and what activity has happened’ is one of them. PR mentions would be another one, but then you might have to put something in or alter your brand tracking studies or your product tracking studies to be able to get to something that might be a higher level metric.” Paula Drum H&R Block MEASUREMENT

45. What is the Most Important Advice for Other’s Buying Social Media Technologies and Advertising?

48. Further Advice From Your Peers

51. What are some of the questions to ask of vendors (e.g. technology)? OVERVIEW MOTIVATION CHALLENGES IMPLEMENTATION MEASUREMENT Blake Cahill Visible Technologies “ Can you collect the data?” “ Can you sentiment it?” “ Can you help me find influencers?” “ How can I appoint the conversations to subject matter experts inside my organization?” AND “Once I’ve listened, and I start to interact, how can I integrate that and manage that across my organization?” ANALYSIS Analyzing and applying the data

54. There is so much more to discuss... Social Media Buyer’s Guide #2 with IDC, Gartner – coming soon!

55. So join the conversation at http://socialmediabuyersguide.com/ William Gaultier [email_address] twitter: @wgaultier Chris Heuer [email_address]