Speakers: Matt Sullivan - Director of Account Management, Bridgeline Digital Brian Harris - Director of Digital Services, iSG Bridgeline Digital It’s no secret that Social Media’s influence as a business channel is growing by the day. Nearly half of all online shoppers rely on Social Media when making a purchase decision. Marketers know this – in fact, 93% say they currently use Social Media for business. But being Social isn’t just robotically pushing out content – it’s about developing a strategy focused on engagement and achieving real ROI. Where do you start? What tools do you need? Glad you asked, join our webinar to find out! Finally, a clear recipe that marries the influence of Social Media with organizational goals. • Purpose & Goals: Examination of what Social Media can offer your business • Social Business: Measurement of true Social ROI • Execution & Strategy: Identify the tools and planning needed to drive social success

1. Webinar:
Get Them Talking
Social Strategies that
Bring Leads in from the Cold
with your host, JR Hopwood
Vice President of Digital Strategy
presented by:
@bridgeline
Bridgeline.com
Join the Conversation #BLSocialStrategy

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3. Quick Poll Question
What is your biggest
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marketing frustration?
Use #BLSocialStrategy Or in GotoWebinar Chat.
@bridgeline

4. Who Is Bridgeline Digital?
Digital Engagement Solutions provider
Developer of the iAPPS platform
§
Over 750 quality customers
§ Repeat business was 72% of FY12 revenues
§ iAPPS enjoys an impressive 94% retention rate
§
Achieved Record Results FY 2012
§ In 2012 - Deloitte recognizes Bridgeline Digital as one of
the Fastest 500 growing technology companies in
America
§ Record revenues and record iAPPS licenses
§
UPS Logistics selected iAPPS as their exclusive Web Content
Management and eCommerce solution
§
Over 230 passionate employees in 11 offices globally

5. How We Build Customer Success
We help our customers achieve their key
initiatives by leveraging web technologies

6. About the presenters
Visit us at: bridgeline.com
Follow us: @bridgeline
Matt Sullivan @sully
Director of Account Management
BS Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
MBA Southern New Hampshire University
msullivan@bridgelinedigital.com
Brian Harris @brianart
Director of Digital Services, iAPPS Success Group
BFA Computer Graphics, Syracuse University
bharris@bridgelinedigital.com
Join the Conversation @bridgeline #BLSocialStrategy

7. Introduction
Pick any industry and explore its leading
companies’ social media presence. It’s a
highly competitive space with brands vying
for their consumers’ attention.
Focus your approach around two areas:
• setting realistic expectations
• planning a social media strategy tailored
to your target audience.
@bridgeline
Matt Sullivan

8. Introduction: It’s simple to do, but a lot of work
“
Make sure you determine
your social media metrics
BEFORE you get started…
Understand how your
target audience uses
social media…
”
– Jay Baer, President, Convince & Convert

9. Introduction: How does Social Media measure up?
The advantages of Social Media Marketing
ü The average Facebook App user checks 13.8x a day.
–DailyMail.co.uk
§
§
Close to 50% of U.S. use smartphones, climbing fast!
79% reach for phone within 15 minutes of waking up.
–MediaBistro.com
ü Get noticed! 89% of Marketers say social media
generates more business exposure.
ü 64% saw lead generation increase by using social
media 6 hours or less per day.
ü 62% of marketers using social media for 2+ years
reported a rise in search engine rankings.
–SocialMediaToday.com
65%
Leveraging Social
Media to Gain
Intelligence
Customer insight and
listening programs
provide valuable
leverage tools for
marketers, the most
widely used being the
aggregation of insight on
preferences, opinions,
and reviews…
—Lithium.com

10. Introduction: “Low Cost,” High Yield
We won’t tell you it’s free!
§ The investment you make is not financial…it’s time.
§ Sales teams typically already invest far greater time
one-on-one while prospecting.
§ The difference is that this work is preserved: findable
by new prospects, and can improve your overall
search engine rank over time.
How much time
is enough?
The variables:
ü strategic goals
ü size of your company
ü competitors’ share of voice
ü competitors’ overall effort
ü overall brand health
$ 68% of SMBs spend
6-10 hours/wk
–VerticalResponse.com
Flip side:
$ 27% of US Internet
time spent on social
$ 15% of US Mobile
internet time on social
–SocialMediaToday.com

11. Introduction: Risks?
Digital Marketers everywhere lose
opportunities in the signal-to-noise
THE
PROVERBIAL
HAYSTACK
§ Will “Big Data” cause the message to be
lost in the mix?
§ “Piec-ing the data together and mak-ing it actionable can make for huge oppor-tu-ni-ties!”
– Adobe Blog
§ The solution is to embrace the new reality…
§ “The Future of the Enterprise Is ‘All-In’ on Big Data,
Mobile, Social and the Cloud”
– The Social Media Monthly
ADVANCED ANALYTICS,
APPLIED TO BIG DATA,
CAN HELP DETECT
OPPORTUNITIES AND
RISKS THAT MAY
OTHERWISE GO
UNDETECTED.
– Deloitte.WSJ.com

12. The components of
Social Media ROI
Awareness + Trust = Lead Generation
The ROI of social media comes from your
target audience building their confidence in
you as a solution as they engage in your
conversion process.
@bridgeline

13. Components: The Fundamentals of Inbound Marketing
WHO
86% OF MARKETERS
SAID SOCIAL MEDIA
WAS IMPORTANT TO
THEIR BUSINESS
86 97
PERCENT
PERCENT
97% OF MARKETERS
INDICATE THE ARE
PARTICIPATING IN SOCIAL
MEDIA MARKETING
– SocialMediaExaminer.com
§ Starbucks: over 34M fans across social presence
§
Fewer promotions, more engagements like
“Challenge the Barista”
§ SalesForce: 2,500% increase in social media traffic
§
§
6,500 newsletter sign-ups
10,000 eBook downloads
– Visual.ly
10,000
LEADS
NEARLY HALF OF BUSINESS LEADERS PLAN TO INCREASE
THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA BUDGETS IN 2014
– BusinessInsider.com

14. Components: The Fundamentals of Inbound Marketing
WHO
ISN’T
(AS MUCH)
86 97
Social is more difficult for regulated industries
§
Medical businesses, from small practices to hospitals:
it isn’t that they aren’t using it, but in many ways their hands
are tied and concerns about privacy prevail.
§
In many way, financial services businesses face similar
issues with SEO and social: specific language and concern
over privacy keep engagement at a surface level.
– Bridgeline Digital iSG Digital Services
§ Only 52% of top executives aligned with social strategy
§
§
§
Only 48% indicate social strategy includes detailed road
map for what it will—and won’t—do over the next 1+ years
Only 34% say there are clear metrics used across org that
associated social activities with business outcomes.
Only 27% indicate employees at all levels are aware and
trained on how to use/not use social media at work and
home in ways that positively impact business.
OPPORTUNITY
– AltimeterGroup.com

15. Components: The Fundamentals of Inbound Marketing
WHAT
LEAD GEN
77% OF B2C
MARKETERS GOT A
CUSTOMER VIA FB
– MarketingTechBlog.com
77 27
PERCENT
PERCENT
CUST RETENTION
27% OF BUSINESSES SAY
SOCIAL IS A CUSTOMER
RETENTION CHANNEL
– Brafton.com
TOP 7 SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS THAT’LL DOMINATE 2014
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Investing in Social Media will become a necessity, not a luxury
Google+ Google+ Google+ !!!
More visuals: [images-rich] content is king
Micro-Video: popularity & cost will make Vine videos a go to play
Foursquare !: use FB, Instagram & Twitter for location-based
MySpace ": mostly a music venue, but expect to hear more
TOP
7. LinkedIn for B2B: LI repositioning self as both a networking site
and the largest source of content creation and curation
– Forbes

16. Components: The Fundamentals of Inbound Marketing
WHEN
42% OF USERS
COMPLAINING IN SM
EXPECT 60 MINUTE
RESPONSE TIME
42 70
PERCENT
– Convince & Convert
PERCENT
IN 2013 70% OF MARKETERS
PLANNED TO SPEND MORE
TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA
– MediaBistro.com
“How should a SMM manage their SM time?”
§ 25% listening: follow trends, conversations
To be a good conversationalist, you must listen first.
§ 50% commenting, communicating: reply/engage
It’s not enough to see someone’s talking to you, you
have to respond and be engaging, not salesy.
§ 25% creating: blogging, making A/V, newsletters
Part of being interesting is having something to say
and saying it in an interesting way.
– Chris Brogan

17. Components: The Fundamentals of Inbound Marketing
WHERE
50% OF MARKETERS
SAID SOCIAL MEDIA
WAS IMPORTANT TO
THEIR BUSINESS
50 87
PERCENT
PERCENT
§ LINKEDIN
87% OF FORTUNE 100
COMPANIES HAVE STAKED
THEIR CLAIM IN SOCIAL
MEDIA VENUES
MediaBistro.com
Businesses can’t lose establishing a presence on LinkedIn
§ SME Discussions
§ Peer and Customer Networking
§ Company Pages
§ GOOGLE+
Expected to explode in 2014 and closely tied to local search
§ TWITTER
The go-to customer service venue
§ YOUTUBE
The longest life expectancy for content & the greatest variety of user actions
§ PINTEREST
If your business is image intensive, or meme-able
§ FACEBOOK
B2C companies will value this venue’s super-sized user base

18. Components: The Fundamentals of Inbound Marketing
HOW
41 89
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
APP USE EXPECTED TO
GROW AT A RATE OF
41% THRU 2016 PERCENT
PERCENT
89% OF IN-HOUSE
MARKETERS USE “FREE”
SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS TO
IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY
– SocialMediaToday.com
– IBM citing Forrester
“Which tools will increase efficiency?”
§ Listen: Google=free, SM2 =broad, Radian6(SF)=pricey
§ Listen for conversations in your industry
§ Reputation Management: listen on products and brand
§ Engage (one-to-many): HootSuite, SproutSocial
§ Manage multiple accounts more efficiently
§ Gain better overall sense of trends with a dashboard
§ Measure: Google=free, Social Report=cheap-butcomprehensive, SumAll=integrated
§ Establish ROI by keeping track of cumulative value
– SocialMediaExaminer

19. Components: The Fundamentals of Inbound Marketing
HOW
41 89
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
APP USE EXPECTED TO
GROW AT A RATE OF
41% THRU 2016 PERCENT
PERCENT
89% OF IN-HOUSE
MARKETERS USE “FREE”
SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS TO
IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY
– SocialMediaToday.com
– IBM citing Forrester
“Which tools will increase efficiency?”
iAPPS SOCIAL
PROVIDES
MISSION
CRITICAL
SOCIAL
FUNCTIONALITY
§ Listen: Google=free, SM2 =broad, Radian6(SF)=pricey
§ Listen for conversations in your industry
§ Reputation Management: listen on products and brand
§ Engage (one-to-many): HootSuite, SproutSocial
§ Manage multiple accounts more efficiently
§ Gain better overall sense of trends with a dashboard
§ Measure: Google=free, Social Report=cheap-butcomprehensive, SumAll=integrated
§ Establish ROI by keeping track of cumulative value
– SocialMediaExaminer

20. Components: The Fundamentals of Inbound Marketing
WHY
70% OF CONSUMERS
CHOSE ONLINE
REVIEWS AS THE 2ND
MOST TRUSTED
SOURCE
70
PERCENT
92
PERCENT
92% OF CONSUMERS
TRUST WORD-OF-MOUTH
ABOVE ALL OTHER FORMS
OF ADVERTISING
– SocialQuickStarter.com
Raise awareness
§ Audience reach
§ Engagement
§ Sentiment
Build trust
§ Building a brand community
§ Developing relationships
Lead generation
§ Engage at all points in the customer life cycle

21. Components: Awareness
Share of Voice
Consumers are turning to search engines,
friends and family in their social network, and
even strangers online for opinions, reviews,
and product demonstrations to satiate their
desire for rational information as well as
emotional reassurance, and are thus
discovering a number of brands they may not
have ever been aware of.
– DriveConversion.com
Prospect Familiarity
Social media can create brand familiarity and
drive visitors to content that further draws them
in, but it very rarely directly answers an
expressly-stated need.
– Rand Fishkin, MOZ.com
89%
OF BUSINESSES
REPORT INCREASED
MARKET EXPOSURE
A significant 89% of all
businesses that have a
dedicated social media
platform as part of their
marketing strategy
reported an increase in
their market exposure.
—Likeable.com

22. Components: Awareness
SOCIAL REACH, ENGAGEMENT & SENTIMENT
Dollar-value ROI metrics are losing favor with
social media marketers.
53% OF SOCIAL
MEDIA MARKETERS
DON’T MEASURE
THEIR SUCCESS
Awareness metrics to watch:
§
Audience Reach
Metrics that determine how many users have seen, and
ultimately will see, your content.
§
Engagement
Many venues, including Facebook, decide how many
people will see your future content by tracking the percent
of followers who engaged with previous content.
§
Sentiment
Sentiment is the Yin to Share of Voice’s Yang.
While maximum share of voice is desireable, percentage
of positive sentiment within that share is critical.
OF THOSE WHO DO…
96% MEASURE FOLLOWS
89% MEASURE TRAFFIC
84% MEASURE MENTIONS
55% TRACK SHARE of VOICE
51% TRACK SENTIMENT
–Hubspot citing
Awareness.com

23. Components: Trust
Grow your community with social media
tools and build trust as you engage
ONE-ON-ONE
SALES APPROACH
Building lasting, personal relationships is one of the biggest
challenges for any business, large or small. Your social media
channels can help you do that, and to reach many more
people than just the ones you see on a daily basis.
When a representative of
your company makes a
recommendation to one
prospect, they are often
working against a
heightened trust barrier.
– SalesForce.com
SOCIAL TRUST
Read Brian’s blog on
“trust marketing”
When one prospect sees
another prospect convert
based on the same
recommendation, the trust
barrier drops significantly.

24. Components: Lead Generation
Let’s take a moment and talk
about funnels…
§ Social media is considered a relatively
high point in the funnel. This means that
while it contributes leads, they’re typically still
in the early stages of conversion
§ The goal at the top of the funnel isn’t a oneshot-on-the-spot sale, it’s nurturing leads
deeper…to the next funnel stage
Alternatively you may consider social media
outside the funnel, applying to all stages of the
customer life cycle:
AWARE # CONSIDER # PREFERENCE # PURCHASE # LOYALTY
– Forrester Research

25. Components: Lead Generation
Does Social Media really Generate Leads?
§
Yes, but remember the funnel and consider the audience
conversion lifecycle
§
Your content needs to be tailored to newly arriving prospects and
post-conversion loyalists
BY THE NUMBERS
77%
34%
20%
77%
of B2C marketers say they have acquired a customer through Facebook
of marketers have generated leads via Twitter
of those have closed deals
of B2B marketers say they have acquired a customer through LinkedIn
195% social media produces almost double the marketing
leads of trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail, or PPC
13% social media lead conversion rates are 13% higher than
the average lead conversion rate.
– SocialMediaToday.com

26. How to Implement a Successful
Social Media Strategy
A social media strategy in a vacuum has little
prospect for success unto itself. To work, it
has to fit into an over all Content Strategy and
involve careful selection of platform and the
right mix of engagement versus promotion.
Once under way, a solid tagging plan will
yield better ROI measurement data.
@bridgeline
Brian Harris

27. Successful Social Strategies: Content Strategy
Your Web Potential
Businesses identify their audience
§ This audience has interests, needs, attention limits, media predilections, and appetite
§ Before you go any deeper, are you targeting the right audience?
audience disposition
what your audience
cares about
is looking for
will read, bookmark, share
will engage with
will convert over
your
content
Content strategy
refers to “the planning,
development, and
management of content
—written or in other
media.”
– Wikipedia.org

28. Successful Social Strategies: Content Strategy
Evaluation
Content issues typically fall into three content scenarios
no overlap
too narrow
ALIGN
too broad/amorphous
Content strategy drives toward harmonic union
Your content can’t address every
need of every member of your entire
audience all the time.
The audience sphere will always be
larger than your content.
You have to figure out what
kind of conversation you’re
going to spark that will make
people pay attention to you
because in social media
attention is very hard to get (or
retain for that matter).
First Things First :
Content Strategy Before Social Strategy
– ContentMarketingInstitute.com

29. Successful Social Strategies: Content Strategy
Process
These recommendations are derived
for each of these content scenarios
Align
§ Keyword Universe
§ Topic Review
§ Editorial Calendar
Expand
§ Keyword Universe
§ Content Types Review
§ Editorial Calendar
Reduce
§ Keyword Universe
§ Eliminate Redundancy and Irrelevancy
1. analyze & observe
2. build your online
community
3. develop strategy &
calendar
4. create the value
5. get the word out
6. monitor & engage
7. measure & analyze
8. rinse & repeat
Define & Align:
A Manageable Content Strategy &
Social Media Marketing Process
– Moz.com
§ Note: it’s ok to talk about the same thing twice, but have unique points
§ Editorial Calendar

30. Successful Social Strategies: Platforming
PICKING THE RIGHT PLATFORM(S) FOR YOUR BUSINESS
“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
– motivational quote frequently attributed to Abraham Lincoln
It’s better to do one thing well,
than many second rate
§ There is nothing wrong with centering
your social program around a single or
several platforms, and even to post very
similar content to more than one.
§ The critical point is to have a purpose for
being there. Not just “this venue has the
most users” …they have to be the right
users or you’re wasting your time.
When it comes to
choosing which social
media platforms you'll
utilize, select those that
offer the best potential
for reaching your ideal
audience and broadcast
the type of media you've
decided is best suited for
your company.
– Entrepreneur.com

31. Successful Social Strategies: Platforming
“Enough fluff! Where should I be?”
C LINKEDIN
Great for B2Bs, SMEs, and Consultants
C GOOGLE+
Local Businesses, great parallel for Facebook content
C TWITTER
Customer Service-centered businesses, frequent content posters
C YOUTUBE
Thought leaders, software companies, entertainment, content-centric
C PINTEREST, INSTAGRAM, VINE
Most popular platform for
business: 1.5B users. ~30% 25-34,
healthy 45-54 base. M/F ~50/50,
most with at least some college
550M+ users are in 18-29 demo
Biggest demo 45-54, 80% F
Retail, travel, visually-centered, meme-centered
C FACEBOOK
B2C, companies that have “behind the scenes” content
C MYSPACE (…believe it or not)
Entertainment/music-based businesses
Designed for business users,
35-44 & 45-54 biggest age tiers. M/
F ~50/50, most with at least some
college
– DigitalSherpa.com

32. Successful Social Strategies: Tagging
In order to know what’s working, and more
importantly how to improve your results
you have to be able to measure performance
§ To get standardized social interaction data for platforms like
Facebook and Twitter, integrate Analytics with each network button.
Recorded interactions can range from Likes to Tweets.
§ Event tracking can also monitor general content interactions.
Analytics tagging provides a consistent basis for recording
interactions. It adds your Analytics data with a consistent set of
results to compare social interactions across multiple networks.
– Google

33. Successful Social Strategies: Mixology
Remember the Customer Life Cycle
AWARE # CONSIDER # PREFERENCE # PURCHASE # LOYALTY
Your social media funnel contains audience
members in all stages of conversion, from
“just heard of you” to “loyal repeat customer.”
§ The bigger the average net conversion value, the
more the audience evaluates your content for
comfort: from customer service acumen to
projected stability and brand personality.
F It’s important your content mix is right:
what’s the correct formula for
engagement content to
promotion content?

34. Successful Social Strategies: Mixology
INTRODUCING THE 80/20 RULE
Engage 80% of the time
F Find/participate in conversations
F Polls/questions
F Audience-specific content
80
F Topical and contemporary
80
20
Promote 20% of the time
F Coupons, discounts
F Special offers, incentives
F Contests
20
PROMOTE
ENGAGE
Awareness metrics to watch
Audience Reach
Engagement
Sentiment

35. Examples
Here are some examples that demonstrate
some of the concepts we’ve discussed...
@bridgeline

36. Example
80/20 Rule: Omaha Steaks
! Step 1: Listen, understand
" Step 2: Engage
" Step 3: Engage some more
" Step 4: Keep engaging
" Step 5: Don’t stop engaging…
# Step 6: Promote
$ Step 7: Rake in the cash
“ Think – and act –
like your consumer”
§
Omaha Steaks monitored various public
conversations among their target audience
(men ages 35-55). They quickly saw a pattern:
golf, football, old movies, and 60s music.
§
They visited various social venues and engaged
in relevant conversations… “how do you like the
new quarterback?” etc..
§
They set up a “Table Talk” feature which moved
the conversation into their digital presence.
§
They began asking “what are you putting on the
grill for tonight’s game?”
– SiliconCloud.com

37. Example
SOV/Sentiment: Starbucks & Dunkin’ Donuts
§
Looking at the table below, Starbucks dominates from
a share of voice standpoint.
§
Dunkin’ Donuts on the other hand has far better
engagement and sentiment on a per-post basis. This
drives far greater reach as a percentage of total Likers,
giving each post far more marketing potential for brand
awareness and affinity.
– MakeSociable.com

38. Example
Content Strategy: DocuSign
§
§
§
§
2B
B
As a result the DocuSign
community increased
from ~550 to 800+ people
§
The overall aim was to generate new leads then
build a pipeline through to the final conversion.
§
DocuSign decided to use LinkedIn as a way of
creating a community of people that would turn
to the business for content and information.
§
Step 1: Identify Audience
Step 2: Develop Content
Step 3: Engage (x4)
Step 4: Promote
Sponsored InMails targeted users with job title
of VP or director of sales and field operations at
US companies with 500 or more employees,
which included about 7,000 people.
§
InMail featured CTA: visit a landing page for
featuring a video of the message sender plus
other documents, such as a case study.
Recipients could then register for a webinar
involving each of the speakers.
– MarketingSherpa.com

39. Takeaways
REMEMBER THE FUNDAMENTALS
§ Determine realistic ROI metrics and expectations first
§ Awareness, Engagement, Sentiment, SOV…
§ Research audience, develop content strategy
§ Allocate enough time, and be disciplined about activities
§ Ensure content serves the entire customer life cycle
§ Have a content calendar and a plan
§ Only expand to new platforms when you’re ready
§ Tag social links
§ Engage, Engage, Engage, Engage, Promote
BONUS: FINAL THOUGHT
§ Put language in your terms of service and privacy policy about
how you manage content and what you do with it
§ Have a moderator’s guide
§ Include escalation plan: e.g. when to delete a post

40. Q&A
Bridgeline Digital:
@Bridgeline
Matt Sullivan
Brian Harris
Director of Account
Management
Bridgeline Digital
Director of Digital
Services
Bridgeline Digital
Join the Conversation @bridgeline #BLSocialStrategy

41. Thank You!
We hope you’ve received actionable ideas
from this presentation and encourage your
thoughts, questions and feedback.
Please feel free to submit topic suggestions!
@bridgeline

42. Thank You for joining the Webinar!
Continue the Conversation @bridgeline #BLSocialStrategy
Engage with & Follow us on Twitter: @bridgeline
Visit us at: www.bridgeline.com