Eric Rehl, Robert W Baird Presentation - BDI 4/14/11 Financial Services Social Communications Leadership Forum
1. Social Content Marketing
Eric Rehl, Interactive, Robert W. Baird
Financial Services Social Communications Forum
Business Development Institute
April 14, 2011 – New York
2. Agenda
• A little about Baird
• Baird’s social presence, and why we did it
• What is social content marketing?
• Formalizing social content marketing
• 5 rules to live by
• What’s next?
3. A Little About Baird
• Headquarters in Milwaukee, WI
• Founded in 1919
• Approximately 2,600 Associates worldwide
• Offices in USA, Europe and Asia
• $82 Billion in AUM
• Complimentary business lines:
Wealth management
Capital markets
Equity research
Asset Management
Private equity
• Employee owned – “fiercely independent”
5. Why Did We Do It?
• Reputation
management
BUT HOW DO YOU DO IT?
• Brand awareness
• Products?
• Market our
capabilities • Pricing?
• Recruiting • People?
• DIFFERENTIATE • Performance?
SOCIAL CONTENT MARKETING
Demonstrate Expertise, Prove Capabilities = Differentiate
6. What Is Social Content Marketing?
Content marketing is not a new concept, but
SOCIAL MEDIA has changed it.
OLD SOCIAL
Creation and distribution of content Offering relevant content to the
to attract or retain customers. right audience where they are.
• Website • Facebook
• Email • LinkedIn
• Direct mail • Twitter
• Hand-to-hand • YouTube
• Press releases • Slideshare
• Digg
• Reddit
• Share
Unexplored marketing • Blogs
opportunities • Communities
• RSS
Untapped content • Mobile
potential • And so on…
7. Formalizing Social Content Marketing
Good News – You are probably doing some of this
already.
• Establish social media strategy and presence
• Find and generate content
Look internally – probably already being produced…and approved
Research and analysis
Newsletters
Videos, speeches, presentations
Create new social initiatives
• Establish editorial management – must be someone’s job
• Tagging and metadata (SEO)
• Minimize PDFs…to an extent that’s realistic
• Partner with Compliance
Help them understand the nature of social distribution
8. Social Content Marketing – 5 Rules to Live By
Rule 1: Tell…don’t sell.
• People don’t want to be sold to
via social media…they are
seeking content that adds
value for them.
• Regardless of your content
strategy (thought leadership,
recruiting, etc.), your audience
will see right through selling
via social media…and will turn
away.
• Let the story your content tells
do the selling.
9. Social Content Marketing – 5 Rules to Live By
Rule 2: Just because
you have a social
presence…does not
mean you are present.
• It’s not enough to just be out
there.
• Audience needs to know you are
active to continue visiting, stay
engaged.
• Consistently publishing and
sharing.
10. Social Content Marketing – 5 Rules to Live By
Rule 3: Be consistent.
Be relevant.
• Consistency is key.
• Establishing a publishing
schedule and stick to it.
• At Baird…
Twitter: 2 tweets/day
Facebook: 4-5 postings/week
YouTube/LinkedIn: Ad hoc,
as content is available
• Content must be relevant to
audience to be of value.
• Publish selectively – what’s
relevant for Twitter may not be
relevant for Facebook.
11. Social Content Marketing – 5 Rules to Live By
Rule 4: Compliance
corners…don’t cut
them.
• Compliance corners are
square…not round.
• Engage Compliance as a
partner is social content
marketing – make them part
of publishing schedule.
• Best way to torpedo social
content publishing is to
introduce unnecessary
Compliance risk.
12. Social Content Marketing – 5 Rules to Live By
Rule 5: Activate, activate,
activate…repeat.
• Critical element that is often
overlooked.
• This is not “Field of Dreams”…audience
will not come just because you build
it.
• Activate your social presence:
Integrate into other online channels
– websites, email signatures, online
advertising, cross promote social.
Integrate into traditional
communications channels.
Leverage employee networks.
Drive traffic to social channels first.
SEO
13. What’s Next for Social Content Marketing?
IT’S ALL ABOUT MOBILE
• You’ve seen the stats…
By end of 2011, 50% of mobile
devices in use will be smart
phones
Smart phones expected to out-
sell computers and laptops
during 2011 holiday season
• I AM NOT talking about the social
platforms going mobile. They are
already there.
• I AM talking about your content
being ready for mobile. Is it
consummable via mobile devices?
HTML as much as possible
Optimize for mobile interfaces –
mobile sites and apps
14. Thank You. Questions?
Eric Rehl
Robert W. Baird & Company
Vice President, Interactive
414-298-7465
erehl@rwbaird.com
@ericrehl