Social Media Final

Social Media; Business Models and Privacy ; trends, issues

Facebook Business Model

Display Ads 
User experience (Goundswell; Advertising, frequency, repetition) 
Not effective in Mobile space
Lack of purchasing intent; social media 
Targeting large end of the marketing funnel - Awareness
$1 Billion advertising revenues
1 Billion Users continue to divulge personal information?
Charging companies to access facebook fans; not the original agreement 
Re-targeting cookies (similar to search) Charge higher advertising fees 
Aggregate personnel data; Graph search 
Monetize WOM (Marketing/Sales Holy Grail)
Facebook phone? Erickson, RIM?


Google Business Model

Key word advertising; pay per click; Overture 
Core Product search and purchasing intent; no need to stoke demand; simply harvest it
Relevancy and popularity (page rank) via click through; objective search
User controls ad experience
400MM Google+ users
Google streamlines the matching process
Google pulls information out of Google+ for advertising purposes (scroogled) 
Street view and European concerns
Motorola acquisition

The conflict between the imperative to grow profits and the temptation to mine data in social media servers will inevitably collide with the Public and Government demands for privacy protection.

Privacy issues, Trends;

Privacy legislation and Regulatory Actions

Social Media Online Protection Act (2012 HR 5050) 
Password Protection Act (2012 S. 3074)
The Location Privacy Protection Act of 2012 (S.1233)

European Commission investigation into Google's Youtube search history policies. The Commission is pushing for 1) Users are informed of data sharing 2) Users have a simple option to opt out.

Facebook; Subject to 20 years of privacy audits; Sharing personal data; Nov/11 FTC

California, Illinois, Maryland and Michigan Social Media Privacy Laws 
Forcing candidates to disclose social media passwords is illegal. Except for Investigatory purposes.

National Labor Relations Board – Firing employees based on Facebook posts 
Kimberly Swan fired because she posted that her job was boring
Hispanic United of Buffalo VS Rivera; Firing employees engaged in “concerted activity” for “mutual aid” is illegal.
Arizona Daily Star reporter offensive posts

Privacy Litigation

Phonedog vs. Noah Kravitz

Who owns a business Twitter account? Phonedog_Noah. 17K followers, $340K or $2.50 per follower per month 

Fraley VS Facebook; Right of Publicity – Facebook Case (Commercial appropriation of Likeness); Facebooks Sponsored Stories feature violated California law by publicizing users' "likes" of certain advertisers without paying them or giving them a way to opt out.

Price VS Stossel; Altering videos on a blog; Defamation, Libel

Occupy New York protestor subpoenaed tweets legal

Reputation.com

Consolidation accelerate issues as privacy policies merge; Facebook/Instagram, Twitter/Tweetdeck, Google/Wildfire

Hackers; Burger King and McDonalds
Identity Theft; birth date, picture, location  

 

 

http://cdixon.org/2012/05/15/facebooks-business-model/
Groundswell: Wining in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (2008)
http://cdixon.org/2012/05/15/facebooks-business-model/
http://readwrite.com/2012/11/14/facebook-has-a-business-model-problem
http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-fbx-2012-9?goback=.gmp_51825.gde_51825_member_169796959
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-01-19/news/36432162_1_social-search-facebook-data-friends-search
http://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/california-social-media-privacy-laws-give-students-employees-online
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/technology/facebook-agrees-to-ftc-settlement-on-privacy.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/technology/lawsuit-may-determine-who-owns-a-twitter-account.html?_r=0
http://www.reputation.com/reputationwatch/articles/top-five-social-media-privacy-concerns
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-21/facebook-lawsuit-against-ads-given-go-ahead-by-u-s-judge.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/technology/employers-social-media-policies-come-under-regulatory-scrutiny.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/technology/twitter-hacks-force-companies-to-confront-security-on-social-media.html?pagewanted=all
http://variety.com/2011/biz/news/price-and-abc-settle-after-four-years-1118035786/
http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2013/04/04/google-versus-the-eu/

SMMC Final

 

Social Media Monitoring Project Final – Oreo

Oreo is a very successful domestic brand in the Consumer Packaged Goods – Biscuits and Cookies Segment. The Brand generated $1 Billion dollars in the US in 2012 and has been in operation for 101 years. The domestic market has stalled in the current economic downturn so the Brand and its parent company are looking to international markets for growth. The Global market is promising ( Social Bakers infographic).

Large Brands are utilizing Facebook to drive marketing.

 

 

China

Oreo has global experience, The Oreo Brand was launched into China in 1996 and the initial performance was not good. Cindy Chen Marketing Director for Oreo explains why ( Oreo took China by Storm );

The Brand had a US centric mindset and approach
They imported a US product and formulation
They employed US inspired advertising

This was an approach doomed to failure. The brand analyzed their performance and came to the following conclusions;

Localization is the key to unlock growth.
The cookie was too sweet and the package was too big.
The product failed to take advantage of the Chinese culture of gift giving especially holidays like Chinese New Year.

Once they changed their approach and adopted a consumer centric approach they captured 30% of the country’s biscuit market. Unfortunately there is no social media research to present given the so-called great firewall of China.

                                            India

Oreo took the lessons learned from China and applied them to India with impressive results. Facebook is the primary social media engine for Oreo in India and the Oreo India Facebook page currently has approximately 2.2MM followers. The country has 61.5 MM Facebook users which places it at third in the world with a 5.25% of the population using the application. There is room for growth.

 

 

There are two peaks on the Google trends graph which correspond to two Oreo India Marketing events.

March 2011 marked the launch of Oreo in India ( Business Today Article). Before the launch the brand did its homework based on the lessons learned in China. The cookie was sweetened (India specific formulation) to satisfy the Indian palate in contrast to the Chinese. The company rented buses and traveled the countryside promoting the product and utilizing the concept of togetherness (Localization). Strategically the company targeted the 10MM households that constitute 70% of cream biscuit consumption.

 

 

 

 

The second peak in September 2011 corresponds to the annual Ganesh Chaturthi Festival date (link). Festivals are popular in India and provide an opportunity for marketers to connect with people and businesses. Oreo used the occasion to sponsor a recipe sharing event on their Facebook page. Users were encouraged to submit their best Modak recipe. Modaks are sweet dumplings filled with coconut and a favorite of Ganesh and Indians. Oreo The effort was a successful example of localizing an international product.

           Oreo India Facebook Page
September 2, 2011

It's time to reveal the surprise! This Ganesh Chaturthi, we bring to you the recipe of Special Oreo Modaks! Not one or two but four of ways to make the delicious Oreo Modaks! So go ahead & try the 1st recipe & don't forget to share the photos!

Oreo India

August 31, 2011
Oreo wishes everyone a very Happy Ganesh Chaturthi! May Lord Ganesha fill your lives with Happiness & Success!

Oreo India has numerous advertisements on Youtube. The majority is the Brands regular TV campaign and, no surprise, include cute children and smiling or befuddled parents. Oreo India’s Twitter following is weak with 55 followers and 237 tweets. There is a small Pinterest site with 9 boards.

                                                   Conclusion - Brasil

Oreo has not achieved the success in Brazil that it has achieved in the US, China and India. It is not listed in the top 100 facebook fan pages on Social Baker even though the brand was introduced in Brazil in the 1960’s under the name Negresco (Wikipedia link).  However, Oreo has advantages in the Brazilian market given the creation of Modelez by Kraft. The Brand has 4 successful brands currently in Brasil. My solution is to partner with the Mondelez family of brands already active on Social media and traditional advertising. There are numerous successful examples of Social Media campaigns for Oreos to emulate.

 

According to Social Bakers Brasil metrics 60% of Facebook users in Brazil are 18 -  34 years of age. They are young and active on Social Media. Brasil has 66MM facebook users recently passing India and placing the country second on the globe. 

 

 

Chiclets Brasil has 2.5 MM fans.

This brand ran a promotion (Emotigums article ) aiming to promote interactivity with teenagers. In typical "I want to collect and interact" the company launched new packaging with 170 characters called "Emotigums."  They follow the manga style and are divided into seven tribes: rebels, plugged, darks, stylish, hipsters, musicians and sportsmen. You can join the fun by using the boxes of Chiclets 2 units sold in bars and bakeries throughout Brazil. The boxes serve as a key to open the application "Angry Contents".  Just bring one from your webcam, select the image for the character to be recognized, and you have access to the video corresponds to the tribe to which he belongs. After enjoying the video you go to the next step where the character is "stuck" on his album.  Just like we did with our old albums figurine, only now in digital form.  A "gadget" stylish to awaken the desire to collect and play.  LOVED!! Besides the super funny joke, the Fan Page remains lively all the time with posts targeted to users, achieving a real engagement. 

 Halls Brasil has 3.7MM Facebook fans

The brand ran the following interesting promotion. Two fans the chance to tie the knot through its latest Facebook campaign. An odd twist on the traditional online dating model, the campaign invites each of Halls Brazil’s three million fans to post their photo on the page and then pick their ideal partner from the other uploaded pictures. Hopefully serendipity will step in and align the two hopeful romantics, which will then see the happy couple go head to head with other pairs to win a public vote and walk down the aisle together in a Las Vegas wedding ceremony.

The winning couple can also choose their bridal party (a no-doubt interesting exercise given the difficulties in choosing bridal party members from friends and family, never mind total strangers), to accompany them to the Little White Chapel in Vegas, before embarking on five days of married bliss, after which the marriage will end. Romance isn’t dead, huh?

The campaign is generating huge amounts of activity on the page, with thousands of likes and hundreds of comments beneath updates and photos. To be sure, many will be subscribing to the brand’s page just to see what the fuss is all about – a reality TV show in Facebook format, if you will. And as demonstrated in Friday’s Social Commerce column, ‘likes’ really do pay off, so this is a clever move by a brand that could otherwise struggle to find a foothold on the social landscape.

Here is the happy couple.

 

Trident of Brazil has 3.4 MM Facebook fans.

 

They are active in Social Media and traditional marketing. The brand recently ran a promotion where Sabrina Sato, famous Brazilian comedian, pretended to be a frog and licked packets of gum. This was accompanied by a virtual frog virtually licking packages on line. The quirky idea was that her kiss would transform the gum into lucky charms ( Trendhunter article )

Lacta Oficial has 5.5 MM facebook fans.

Mondelez International’s web site (  Mondelez International ) indicates that Lacta Oficial has been in operation for 100 years. The brand has 37% of the Brazilian chocolate market and $200MM in sales.  This brand may not have the cache of the others but it has deep roots and name recognition. It provides entre to markets that the other do not.

As Mark Miller wrote for the Brand Channel; "Time to hide the children and batten down the hatches. Kraft Foods is “ready to unleash a global snacking powerhouse,” chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld told investors and analysts in the company's presentation at the Barclays Back to School conference in Boston on Thursday. "( Brand Channel Article )

 

 

 

 

Social Media Product Development Innovation - Reading Response 3

In Groundswell: Wining in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (2008) Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff describe potential opportunities and challenges for companies embracing social media customer interaction for product development and operational transformation.

 

Opportunities include;

 

·         Decreased time to market generated by quick customer input.

·         Increased innovation and product/feature iterations based on rapid feedback

·         Access to innovative ideas outside of the company.

·         Continuous improvement provided by your customer base

·         Decreased political infighting; For instance customer feedback plays a moderating role between marketing and engineering

 

Challenges include;

 

·         How to handle and disseminate negative feedback

·         How to itemize and prioritize a blizzard of ideas

·         Unforeseen transformation of internal company dynamics and politics; The flip side of decreased political infighting is the need for organizational development to address the new dynamic

·         Consideration of your customer base that are not creators of internet content lacking a voice

 

Given the fact that customers are already rating, reviewing, complaining and praising your company it makes sense to join the conversation and embrace the best ideas. If a company strategically and tactically listens, talks to and energizes their customers they will discover an “open channel” which can yield unexpected ingenuity.

 

General Electric’s  Ecoimagination challenge is an example of utilizing customer interaction to transform the product development process. The challenge is a $200 MM experiment with GE and Venture Capital partners where “businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators and students share their best ideas on how to build the next-generation power grid.”  The challenge focuses on three technologies; Renewable energy, Grid efficiency and Eco-homes. Interested parties are encouraged to submit ideas and vote on promising projects with the goal of transforming the way energy is consumed. Selected applicants are offered the opportunity to develop a commercial relationship with GE including;

 

·         Investment: the $200 million capital pledge of GE and its partners will be invested globally into promising start-ups and ideas

·         Validation: evaluation of entrant’s business strategy through in-depth discussions with GE‘s technical and commercial teams

·         Distribution: exploration of partnership opportunities with GE to scale a business and create global reach

·         Development: leveraging of GE‘s technical infrastructure and GE Global Research Centers to accelerate technology and product development

·         Growth: exploration of opportunities for utilizing existing GE customer relationships for your go-to-market strategy



The effort has received praise from many reviewers. The Corporate Responsibility Blog asserted that the “project has shown that GE realized that occasionally the best ideas may come from outside a large corporation and may originate from smaller entities or even individuals who are equally invested in sustainability and innovation. The challenge has proven so successful that GE made the program a permanent part of its corporate structure (Transformation).”

 

The Harvard Business Review Harvard Business Review indicated that this innovative project has met with great success. Challenge winners have ranged from fairly developed cleantech companies to very small startups. HBR stated three reasons for the success of the challenge;

 

·        Investment from a large company can help a startup across the “Valley of 
         Death”—the enormous difference between the seed funding required to start a
         business and the capital-intensive investment required to see infrastructure-scale
         businesses through to established success.
 

·        Rethinking our energy infrastructure benefits from entrepreneurial, outside
         thinking.
 

·        In creating a community of excited entrepreneurs GE fosters innovation beyond 
         just finding and funding it. Innovators find each other, share ideas, and
         improve the concepts (the essence of embracing social media idea generation).

 

GE is tapping the power of Social Media to generate innovative ideas from outside the organization by encouraging like-minded individuals and organizations to connect, share and continuously improve product development.

 

 

The ability to harness social media generated customer idea generation is not limited to multi-national conglomerates like GE. Non-profit agencies are also able to tap into the groundswell innovation multiplier.  Hopelab's   Ruckus Nation is a successful example. Hopelab’s mission is to “combine rigorous research with innovative solutions to improve the health and quality of life of young people with chronic illness.” Ruckus Nation is an effort aimed at childhood obesity. According to the Ruckus Nation web site;

 

·         Sedentary behavior is harming the health and quality of life of young people

·         Regardless of weight, physical activity improves health

·         Physical activity improves mental and physical well being

·         Physical activity levels often decrease significantly in the tween years ¹

The Ruckus Nation team sought ideas from the global web community for products to get children moving. They received 400 entries from 37 countries including 41 US states with 6 ideas resulting in patent applications. They conducted in depth interviews with tweens to understand drivers and barriers to physical activity. They conducted game testing with research participation to inform product development. One of the ideas was the seed for a web site and activity tracker called Zamree. The site was created by programming and psychology experts with input from children the ultimate end users. The web site lets kids cheer on their friends and see minute by minute activity. Kids can earn Pointz which can be used to buy actual products or donate to charities, a popular choice.

Zamree has generated real world successes. (Washington Post Article) A study of 448 middle-school-aged children using the Zamzee monitors was reported this past September. It found that kids with access to the Web site (and those Pointz) got an average of 45 minutes more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week than kids in the control group. And that change was sustained over a six-month. Additionally, Ruckus research determined that obese children who visited the site improved physical activity by 59%.

Hopelab’s success led to a partnership with Cygna healthcare and has been supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The company has received $9 MM in venture capital funding. It was featured in an article in Fast Company and in CNET in a review of video games.

Hopelab is also embracing the idea generation power of social media to tap creativity outside of the organization.

 

Oreo Separator machine

The Oreo Separator Machine - Original blog post 3

Oreo kicked off their “Cookies and Crème” marketing campaign during the Super Bowl with the “Whisper Fight” commercial and an Instagram promotion ( oreo to fans;cookie or creme ). Oreo asked fans to submit artwork using the hashtags #cookiethis or #cremethis. The artwork was used to create sculptures which were photographed and loaded onto Instagram. The promotion received 32,000+ submissions. Susan Burris, Brand Manager for Oreo, was quoted as saying that Oreo was “launching an engagement experience”. She also said that before the Super Bowl Oreo had 2,200 Instagram followers and 15 seconds after they had 22,000 Instagram followers.

The latest installment in the advertising campaign, titled the Oreo Separator Machine, was released on 3/4/13. The mini-mockumentary created by Weiden and Kennedy stars David Neevel, a "physicist" and copy writer, with his Oreo Separator machine. The deadpan Neevel is funny in this long commercial format with absurd themes reminiscent of the Blendtec viral video. The video has had 2.6 million views on Youtube. It has also been picked up by the mainstream media with 3600 citations in Google news. The media echoed the punchines in the video; it took .04 years (2 weeks) to create the machine, Neevel’s dislike of crème etc… In contrast to the Instagram campaign cited above, the Oreo Separator Machine is similar to a traditional broadcast commercial albeit in a narrowcast medium.

The Oreo Separator Machine commercial had decent sentiment numbers but weak strength, passion and reach ratings.

The Instagram engagement experience had good strength, reach and sentiment ratings though weak passion.

This quick, limited comparison demonstrates the power of engaging customers compared to traditional advertising in Social Media. However, it is likely that Oreo has a multi-faceted approach including traditional advertising and new modes of social media engagement. The Oreo Separator Machine ad was targeted at the large end of the Marketing Funnel, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, Groundswell; Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. The goal was to create awareness and generate additional eyeballs for the brand. It was complemented by a public relations campaign. It was targeted at spectators and joiners on Li and Bernoff's Technographic ladder. The Instagram contest was targeted at the middle of the Marketing Funnel. The objective was to influence consideration, preference, action and loyalty. It was targeted at the creator rung of the ladder and gave "regular people" the chance to engage with the brand and each other. By utilizing complementary strategies Oreo was able to influence the whole Funnel.

Icerocket found 66 blog posts in the 48 hours after the Oreo Separator Machine ad was released and the ad was averaging 26.2 tweets per hour. The effort generated internet conversation. 

The Tweetgrid below underlines another key challenge for the Ad  in comparison to the Instagram contest. The Instagram promotion was launced during the Super Bowl with its 108 million viewers.

 While the ad has not been as successful as other Oreo marketing efforts, I suspect that the brand will settle for the brand awareness that was generated.

SMMC Project

Oreo Social Media Monitoring Project

Denis Dynan

Social Media & Marketing Communications

February 2013

The Oreo cookie brand has a long established and profitable history. Here are some facts from the Oreo Fact Sheet .

The Oreo brand was introduced to the American public March, 6, 1912.

Oreos are the best selling cookie of the 20th century.

Oreo generated ~ $1.5 Billion revenue in 2012.

Oreos can be found in 100 countries.

Oreo has a street named after it in New York City called Oreo Way where the first cookie was made.

Twist, Lick, Dunk ritual; 50% of all oreo eaters pull apart their cookies. (This is a reocurring advertising theme).

Memorable advertising slogans through the years include;

1950 - Oh! Oh! Oreo

1986 - Who's the kid with the Oreo?

1990 - Oreo the original twister cookie?

2004 - Oreo Milks favorite cookie

Kraft recently split the company into 2 separate organizations as described in a Morningstar article . Oreo has been assigned to the new Mondelez (Spanish for delicious) (~ $34 Billion) organization. According to the article the focus of this new entity is Global sales and the companies business strategy was chacterized as low margin, high growth.

A presentation given by Beth Reilly, Linkedin Profile, Global Digital Strategy lead for Mondelez International, lays out Oreos social media strategy. The presentation was given 8/11/2010 so it is somewhat dated though still insightful. Her presentation, one of many, on the topic How Big Brands use Social Media was given at the McDonalds Hamburger University. It was sponsored by Gaspedal and the Social Media Business Council . The title was How Oreo learned to fish where the fish are.

Here are some of the key points from her demonstration and from answers she provided to industry representatives from Fidelity, Allstate, Dell etc;

1) Facebook is now the key focus for all of Oreos marketing communications. All print, on line advertising, TV commercials etc are directed to Oreos Facebook page.

2) Oreos Facebook page is rapidly replacing Oreos URL as the brand destination.

3) "Moms are our target" population. I'd add that Oreo is targeting Moms through their children. For instance the Oreo Counting Book is targeted to children 2 and up.

4) Oreo is a social cookie with passionate customers. Its is third in Social Media mention behind Starbucks and Coke. She cited numbers from Famecount .

5) Oreo views their Facebook page as a way to entertain, inform and engage customers.

6) Oreo does not directly measure ROI based on Social media metrics. Rather they view Social Media as a long term brand advocacy strategy.

7) Oreo does not see the need to engage with every customer that asks a question. In fact with 28 million facebook fans there are too many comments. They are happy to see the community answer most questions.

8) Oreo does not engage in deep learning from customer engagement. She said Oreo has the world's largest focus group that they are not utilizing.


I searched Social Mention for aggregated internet user generated content regarding Oreo cookies. My first search was simply for Oreo.

The search shows that the brand has an extensive reach and great sentiment but is currently weak with little passion.

Oreo Social Mention search

Oreo Fan of the Week Social Mention search

One of Oreos intersting Facebook promotions is the Oreo Fan of the week. This effort encourages engagement and has been well received. However, it shows trends similiar to the search above. Extended reach with more neutral comments and weak results.

Oreo Whisper Fight Social Mention search

The Oreo Whisper Fight super Bowl commercial displays strong sentiment but, again weak ratings, little passion and less reach.

The Google Trends graph below demonstrates product strength every December. Oreos are searched for extensively during the Holiday season. The only other peak strength event ocurred in 3/2012 when Oreo kicked off the brands 100th "birthday" celebration.

The graph below depicts worldwide search activity for Oreo in 2012. The 1st spike occurs in 3/2012 when Oreo turned 100. The second spike occurs when Oreo kicked off their highly successful Daily Twist campaign which featured a new Oreo cookie per day and is detailed in  New York Times - Daily Twist article .

 

Representative Tweets

Oreo Cookie‏Verified account@Oreo

We're the cookie that all your friends talk about and Milk wants to dunk with. We're serving up tweets guaranteed to make you want to Twist, Lick, and Dunk.

Alfredo Flores‏@AlfredoFlores

So many Oreos and soooo many Freddo bars. I can't even eat anymore. Thank you! #LOVE

Andrea Avendaño‏@heeyitsandrea_

I like you so much, I'd share my Oreos with you

Honest Toddler‏@HonestToddler

You think flour says "I want to be a scone when I grow up?" No. They dream of greatness. Churros. Frozen waffles. Oreo cookies.

Retweeted 865 times 

          

Given the long term success of the Oreo brand and passionate social media following it is challenging to critique their strategy. However, every business has challenges and opportunities.  Some of my observations are;

1) The company tends to employ Facebook similiar to advertising as a broadcast medium. They focus on entertainment and information rather than engagement.

2) There are exceptions such as the Fan of the week campaign, 100th anniversary celebrations, Daily Twist campaign and Super Bowl Dunk in the Dark Tweet.

3) The Whisper Fight commercial strikes me as contrived by Oreo to create tension or comedy.  A top down approach which has generated little passion.

4) With 28 Million fans and successful social media campaigns Oreo has difficult record to live up to. The company will only turn 100 once and Super Bowl blackouts are rare. The brand needs to continually reinvent itself to be relevant.

5) There are opportunities beyond Facebook such as Pinterest, Youtube, Flickr and Instagram. There are also opportunities to engage with the middle of the marketing funnel.

The Marketing Funnel updated (Reading Response 2)

In chapter 6 of Groundswell, Charlotte Li and Josh Bernoff describe how the social media age is transforming the so called Marketing Funnel, a long established marketing metaphor, used to describe how consumers "march down the path from awareness.... to loyalty".

 

 

According to Li and Bernoff, traditional methods of influencing customers, Advertising and Public Relations,  are aimed at the large end of the funnel. They characterize advertising as shouting which thrives on repetition and frequency. While Public Relations attempts to influence traditional media to write stories which are then picked up by other outlets.  These forms of marketing are still widely used. The authors cite a Pricewaterhouse Coopers analysis that estimates $400 Billion was spent on advertising in 2009.   However, these forms of  marketing have little influence on the middle stages of the funnel. The authors assert that social media provides companies rich opportunities and challenges to affect other stages of the funnel such as consideration, preference, action and loyalty. They offer an updated version of the marketing funnel which is driven from the bottom up rather than top down similar to the graphic below.

 

 

 

 

 

 In the middle of the funnel top down communications such as traditional advertising  and public relations  are counter productive. The company/customer relationship is redefined. Customers have more trust in friends and fellow customers than in company representatives. There is a word of mouth dynamic which increases the influence of "regular" people. Social Media Customers in the middle of the funnel seek information from blogs, forums, ratings and connections not broadcast media. The United Breaks Guitars video below is a good example of the peril a company runs by ignoring active "regular" people in the Groundswell. It also underlines the marketing maxim that your brand is what your customers say it is. The video is approaching 13 million views.

While the Blendtec Will it Blend video is an example of a company using the medium to engage and entertain. With it's hokey acting, cheesy set and 70's style music the company invites viewers to play along. Blendtec is entertaining and marketing in an interactive way.

The authors suggest methods to engage the redefined funnel and the necessary analysis which should take place before embarking on a campaign. Companies need to ask; What are my customers doing in the middle of the funnel? What is the most effective way to engage, interact, listen and talk to customers? They recommend;

• Use the Technographics profile to verify your customers are in social networks.

• Move forward if people love your brand.

• See what's out there.

• Create a presence that encourages interaction.

Once the analysis is complete companies can engage in a focused campaign. For instance;

Blendtec determined they had a awareness challenge which they addressed with a video that, fortunately for Blendtec, went viral.

HP had a complexity challenge they addressed with targeted blogs produced by internal experts.

Ernst and Young had an accessibility challenge hiring graduates which they addressed with an interactive web site.

Adidas analysed social media responses and determined they had a segmented clientele with different goals leading the company to separate their customers thereby extending their brand within each group.

The authors leave us with the following advice; "If you learn to talk, listen and respond you will master the middle of the funnel.