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08.11.06
SES: Marketing With Social Media
 By Lee Odden
This is actually the first session that I covered at the San Jose Search Engine Strategies conference, but I did not get a chance to clean up my notes and post until now. It was a good session about a topic that is very close to the consulting practice of our PR and marketing agency.
Part of the ClickZ track, this session was moderated by Rebecca Lieb and included Gary Stein of Ammo Marketing, Scott Meyer of About.com, Hans Peter Brondmo of Plum, a new social networking service and Brian Monahan from IPG.
First up is Gary Stein who introduces the notion of "clique-through", which means to use social media to spread your message deep but not wide. The "clique-through" approach is to get specific segments to adopt a particular message. It offers more long term value than the "lightning in a bottle" associated with buzz marketing.
Deep vs. Wide - You could try to get a message out wide, example: Jib Jab. It captured the moment, but now it's gone. It was wide but temporary.
Another example involved agency.com that made a video of itself pitching Subway. It was not targeted wide; it was focused on a slice. Not much use for the video outside a niche audience.
Now Gary offers some definitions. A clique-though: The degree to which an exclusive group hears and accepts your idea. Cliques are built upon norms and group culture. To be accepted means to be built into that culture. To be effective, focus on the clique, not the wide audience.
What does this mean to social media? A Pew Internet and American Life study showed that most blogs are created as a form of creative expression, to document personal experience and as a way to stay in touch with friends and family.
Younger demographics think of blogs in terms of chatting, communication and sharing. Ex: MySpace. Think of MySpace not as 75 million users, but millions of groups of 4 people or cliques. Information comes into a clique and becomes a part of it.
Five steps to marketing to cliques:
1. Tightly define your group. Gives example of tax attorney and M&A attorney as specific groups. It's not enough to define a group like "financial attorneys" as that is too broad.
2. Be not afraid of your features - When you're talking to a click, you need to focus on the features.
3. Look for an increase in influencer ratio - A clique is a gathering of people. They pass new information as currency and then go away and make recommendations. Tactic is to drop your message into the group and they will take it and pass it along.
4. Support the community - Cliques are hard to get into. Basically need to "buy" your way in.
5. Clone the tactic - Once you've done it right, apply to other similar situations.
Tool mix includes directories and networks. Where do you find networks?
Directories:
Technorati
Bloglines
Blogpulse
Networks:
Rollyo
del.icio.us
MySpace
Commentervising - Introduce your product to a group and honestly identify yourself and introduce your product.
About the Author:
Lee Odden is President and Founder of
TopRank Online Marketing, specializing in organic SEO, blog
marketing and online public relations. He's been cited as a search
marketing expert by publications including U.S. News & World Report and
The Economist and has implemented successful search marketing programs
with top BtoB companies of all sizes. Odden shares his marketing
expertise at Online Marketing Blog offering
daily news, interviews and best practices. |
