WHY SOCIAL MARKETING WILL DELIVER A POSITIVE ROI FOR YOUR BRAND How to use social media marketing

to meet concrete business objectives

Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for our Brand

Contents
executive summary
............................................................................................................................

introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 the numbers and backstory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Where are your consumers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 H ow does social media influence users to recommend and buy?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Where your brand Wins With social media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3 Phases of Social Marketing for Brands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

GroW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 What do consumers expect when becoming a fan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A dopt these social media marketing tips and GROW a fan community around your brand with targeted advertising and offers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 GROW done right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

enGaGe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Earned media is the key to unlocking the power of social for your brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 A dopt these social media marketing tips and ENGAGE using an unprecedented understanding of users7 enGaGe for roi
..............................................................................................................................

monetiZe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Adopt these social media marketing tips and MONETIZE using the social sales dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 MONETIZE to Convert. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

exeCutive summary
While most marketing channels have standardized methods for calculating ROI or value, other channels, like social media, can be harder to quantify. We compiled this report to help you better understand how social media delivers on real business objectives, and how to get the most value, and highest ROI, from your social marketing efforts. According to a series of recent studies, earned media, which is the unpaid publicity created by users about your brand, is the unique benefit of social media marketing. It delivers incredibly high value to brands because it is based on a trusted recommendation between friends, and social marketing makes it possible for your brand to seed the creation of this media...at scale. In fact, a recent study conducted by Facebook and ComScore determined that exposure to earned media had significant positive impact on purchasing behavior: Starbucks fans and friends of fans demonstrated a 38% lift in purchase behavior within 4 weeks of exposure to earned media Target fans and friends of fans were 19% more likely to purchase in Target in the four weeks following exposure
Target: Exposure to Earned Media on Facebook Drives 21% Lift in Online and Oine Purchases
4.5% 4.0% 3.5% 3.0% 2.5% 2.0% 1.5% 1.0% 0.5% 0.0% 4.0% 3.3% 3.0% 3.8% 3.3% 3.9%

+19%

+27%

+21%

FANS

FRIENDS OF FRIENDS

COMBINED CONTROL TEST

earnedFans and Friends of Fans Spend like Facebook, thean incredible media, driven by social media networks More Than has effect on purchase behavior.

General Population
209

250 200 150 100 50 0 AMAZON 108

231 204 197 151 160 116

BEST BUY

TARGET FANS

WALMART FRIENDS OF FANS

Index of 100 = Segment spend as much, on average, as the general population

Comscore also found that fan communities (and friends of those fans, as reached by earned media) spend more money than non-fans.

The facts are simple: the more earned media your brand generates through engaging with fans and followers in social media, the higher your ROI will be. Within this paper, we discuss the threephase social media cycle for brands. Well focus on how to unlock the potential of earned media, extended reach, and higher conversions in social. Well also review the unique approaches six brands have taken to reaching a common outcome of positive ROI in social.
1

Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for our Brand

introduCtion

The most pressing question in the social media marketing industry revolves around ROI. What is the return on investment of my social media initiatives? What is the value of a social Facebook fan or Twitter follower? While the definition of ROI (revenue minus expenses / expenses) is fairly straightforward, understanding how to measure the value of social marketing roi is more nebulous. ROI can only be defined when you understand what results provide value to your brand. After all, the return of a new Like on Facebook is incalculable unless youve already assigned a value to Likes (fans, comments, or any other activity). ROI is a measure of value. What value does social bring to your brand? First, we will look at a variety of social media marketing studies in order to understand the bevy of ways social can lift your brand. Next, we will explore the social media marketing success cycle, a 3-phase model of growth, engagement, and monetization. Finally, no report on ROI would be complete without real-world examples. Within each success phase, we have included 2 case studies to understand how these brands structured their social marketing approaches to result in positive ROI.

Where are your consumers (both current and potential) spending their time? The most current numbers depicting active populations of users on social networks are staggering. Facebook is the largest network with 901MM users. When Facebooks user base grows to one billion users which it will do shortly the active user population will be representative of one-half of the worlds internet users! If one in every two people in the World that has an internet connection is also a Facebook user, how can you afford to deny the value of social media to your marketing strategy? Furthermore, social profiles are beginning to outpace branded websites as the go-to locations for user interaction with a brand. In fact, according to ComScore, the Skittles brand website (www. skittles.com) attracted 23,000 U.S. unique visitors in March 2012 while the Skittles brand page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ skittles) attracted 320,000 visitors. Thats 14 times as many visits to Skittles on Facebook as to Skittles.com. Many brands are seeing this same trend. How does social media influence users to recommend and buy?

the numbers and baCkstory

To understand the unique opportunities for business success offered by social media, we need to have an understanding of the social marketing landscape. Where are users spending their time, what are they doing, and how are these activities impacting their interactions with brands and businesses? Where are your consumers?
[Figure 1.1: marketForce study analyzing influence of social media on user actions.]

How are users affected by social media? Does having a massive population of consumers congregating and interacting with a social network influence their actions in any way? Great news: it does, and very significantly. According to a study of 12,000 consumers conducted in 2012 by Marketforce: 80% of users claim that because of social media, I am more likely to try new things based on friends suggestions. In addition to trying new things, 72% are also more prone to switching sides and making recommendations to encourage their own friends to try new products. You may still wonder: but, a Like is not a purchase, or that fans are different from customers. Further analysis by Marketforce analyzes the impact of social media on purchasing decisions, specifically: 81% of respondents indicate that posts by friends directly influence their purchase decision. 78% of respondents indicate that posts by companies directly influence their purchase decision.

[Figure 1.0: active users across social networks.]

Users are listening, and they pay attention and react to the things they hear via social media. If this remarkably active and engaged community of users doesnt convince you to take action with social media marketing, then these statistics will: 42% of users claim that because of social media, they are more likely to share any negative experiences with brands or products. 32% say they are more likely to not buy certain products because [they] learned of a negative customer experience through social channels. The power of social media is indisputable. If your business hasnt been convinced of the value yet, the figures above demonstrate that being a marketing laggard can hurt your brand consumers have declared (and quite publicly) that they are comfortable with having interactions about brands using social media. If your brand isnt a part of these conversations, users are content to have them without you, leaving you with little control over the tone taken by the community or the messages being spread about your brand.

Grow

In the growth phase, your success metric is very simple fan count. When the goals you set sound like the following, youre in growth mode: 5,000 new fans by the conclusion of this promotion 15% increase in the fan base by Q3 Double the fan base by the end of the year In order to grow your fan base and recognize some of the business benefits outlined above, it is necessary to understand what users are thinking when they commit their affinity to your brand on a social network. What do consumers expect when becoming a fan? Social network users can be pretty explicit about what their expectations are of brands in exchange for committing to Like or follow. In a recent study conducted by Lithium, in conjunction with the Chief Marketing Council, when consumers were asked what they expect when becoming a fan or follower of a brand, the top 3 expectations are: 1. To be eligible for exclusive offers and content (67%) 2. To interact with other customers and share my experience (60%) 3. To find games, promotions, and other unique experiences (57%) Understanding users expectations is an important factor in shaping your social marketing strategy. If you can meet or exceed those expectations (bearing gifts of exclusive content, offers, promotions, and interesting interactions) you can stimulate the growth of an active and engaged community. Once the fan base is activated and trusts the brand, you can unleash monetization initiatives. This tri-phase approach to social marketing is consistent for all brands once you understand the three distinct phases of social media marketing, you can cater every planned initiative to align with the goals and success metrics relevant to it. Adopt these social media marketing tips and GROW a fan community around your brand with targeted advertising and offers The adoption of social media marketing into your organization creates many business benefits. Here are three tips for how to use social media marketing to achieve growth of your brand through social channels.

42% of users claim that because of social media, they are more likely to share any negative experiences with brands or products.

The remainder of the paper will focus on understanding the expectations of these users and how your brand can approach those expectations from the framework of the 3 phases of social marketing. By walking through the variety of business benefits social media marketing offers your brand, we will lay a solid foundation for understanding where you can draw positive ROI from social marketing, both immediately and in the long term. 3 Phases of Social Marketing for Brands Over the past 250,000+ social media marketing campaigns that Wildfire has powered for over 15,000 customers, we have seen that social media marketing initiatives can be separated into 3 phases. These 3 phases are cyclical, and it is important to recognize which phase your immediate marketing goals address to know how to score yourself at the conclusion of your campaigns and to measure ROI.

where your brand wins with soCial media

[Figure 2.0: social media marketing initiatives typically align within these 3 cyclical phases.]

Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for our Brand

1. Use a paid content strategy to drive new traffic to your brand in addition to word of mouth. The major social networks, including Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter, have robust advertising platforms built into the marketing experience. Social media marketing is moving the industry with a constantly evolving advertising format wherein the content is the ad. Each social network enables brands to create advertising out of user generated content, enabling the endorsement of earned media. This considerably increases reach, creating a scalable way to promote digital word of mouth.

the company on the network by utilizing content created for a womens leadership group sponsored by Citi. Finally, the YouTube advertisements that show up when a user searches for makeup are two videos about makeup, created as real content for popular brands MAC and Clinique. 2. Run exclusive promotions and special offers, catered to new fans and friends of fans, encouraging viral spread. Users have declared what they want from your brand when they join you as a follower (see page 3) access to special promotions, exclusive offers, special content, and the like. Social media enables your brand to grow communities around this specially developed content, and in most cases, gate that content exclusively for users that selectively enter through the gate by becoming a fan. Chevys Fresh Mex demonstrates one strategy for addressing this opportunity: running a promotion on its Facebook page that awards prizes to winners daily. This presents the user with a reason to return to the fan page often, even after becoming a fan (which he had to do in order to enter at all) if he didnt win today, he may try tomorrow, as his odds are not diminished.

[Figure 3.1: Chevys Fresh mex hosts a daily promotion, encouraging users to commit to becoming a fan in order to participate, and return often to keep trying to win.]

3. Systematize growth by launching the same campaigns across all social networks, maximizing coverage and integrating your social marketing efforts.
[Figure 3.0: social media marketing provides a new venue and framework for paid media, where the content is the ad.]

In the three examples pictured, each social network uses content created or submitted by users as part of the advertising endorsement. Nestle promotes a post that was published to its fan page wall, alongside an explicit endorsement of the brand by friends of this papers author. Starbucks promotes a tweet originally created by user bradnelson. LinkedIn allows Citi the capability of advertising a social connection to

Keeping a consistent marketing message, theme, tone, and purpose across every marketing channel is a difficult but rewarding task that, when executed properly, resonates incredibly well with users. How can you tell? Companies that manage their integrated marketing strategy successfully tend to have their message stick. For example, according to BusinessWeek, most people, when polled, are able to instantly recall the brand associated with the famous slogan Just do it. Same for Think different, and Youre in good hands. How did you do? Integration of your brands marketing message should span across all the social profiles your brand maintains. Social

marketing software will enable brands to launch and replicate branding efforts quickly and efficiently, across all relevant networks, that are consistent to the integrated marketing plan. So Delicious, a dairy-free dessert and milk alternative brand, executed a well integrated marketing plan over 100 days in 2011. The theme was 100 days of change, promoting healthful lifestyles and nutritional choices, with celebrity fitness guru Jillian Michaels as the spokesperson for the campaign. So Delicious deployed the integrated campaign in a consistent manner across traditional, digital, and social marketing, including the print, local event, product design, and Facebook campaigns depicted here. The results of the social media component of the So Delicious 100 Days of Change initiative are included as a case study in the next section of this paper.

GROW done right Study, theory, and analysis is one thing, but real world application is the cherry on the sundae. The following two examples demonstrate companies successfully creating positive ROI with social initiatives in the Growth phase. CanvasPop

WHO: CanvasPop is a canvas photo printing service. A customer can upload a photo or any type of image, and CanvasPop renders it on canvas, creating artwork that can be hung. WHAT: CanvasPop wanted to run a group promotion on its Facebook page to build brand engagement by encouraging fan conversation and promoting content sharing. The company also sought to monetize its Facebook fan base with its group deal by offering discounts on CanvasPop products, exclusive to its fan base. Using Wildfire, CanvasPop ran a three-day Summer Group Deal. Similar to a Groupon, this application offered up an exclusive-to-Facebook rate of 55% off a canvas print job, but only if the group deal threshold was reached. CanvasPop aimed to sell 20 commitments over the three days. RESULT: The results of the promotion went way over this threshold CanvasPop ended up selling 513 deals in just three days. The buzz around the deal led to CanvasPops Facebook page seeing nearly 3,000 visits, which also drove a significant amount of traffic to its website. An interesting side note is that over the three day promotion, CanvasPop won 700 new fans. This is particularly intriguing because it was not mandatory to

[Figure 3.2: so delicious ran a 100-day long integrated marketing campaign around 100 days of Change. the campaigns print ad and product design, shown above, demonstrates the integrated message, creative, and tone across channels.]

Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for our Brand

become a fan in order to take part in the special deal what likely happened instead is that users, excited by the great value, committed their Like to CanvasPop, subscribing themselves to the insiders club of Facebook fans in order to be on the list of folks to find out via news feed updates the next time a deal like this was offered up.

So Delicious

RESULT: Fueled in part by So Delicious concurrent integrated advertising campaign, the 100 Days of Change giveaway was an incredible success. Over the three-month promotion period, So Delicious saw a significant return on its investment: it experienced two of its most successful sales days ever, and ultimately increased its category share by 60% and sales units by 74%. so delicious also enjoyed a sizable growth in its Facebook fan base which grew by more than 1,000%. In total, 100 Days of Change received 322,664 entries, averaging 3,226 entries per day.

enGaGe

Engagement is an entirely different animal than growth. We often find that our clients devote a lot of time to planning out intricate campaign plans for growing their fan base, but neglect to plan appropriately for the engagement phase. Lack of engagement initiatives means fans hear less from you and have little reason to return to your page. Less engaged fans translate to less reach. The more fans you lose to disinterest, the less fans that ultimately see your messaging, due to the fact that Facebooks content sorting algorithm (called EdgeRank; read more about how it works here) allocates reach largely in line with how engaging your brand is. Successful engagement initiatives result in significant business benefits including: Increased word-of-mouth Increased earned media benefits WHO: Turtle Mountain LLC, a privately held natural foods company headquartered in Oregon, is the creator of the So Delicious Dairy Free brand. The So Delicious brand includes dairy free, soy, and coconut-based products such as milk, yogurt, and ice cream. WHAT: So Delicious collaborated with Sterling-Rice Group to design its 100 Days of Change Wildfire giveaway. So Delicious wanted to encourage users to embrace and celebrate positive personal change, create new brand advocates, and expand its fan base. To attract and interact with a wide audience, So Delicious paired its 100 Days of Change social promotion with a comprehensive integrated print and point-of-sale advertising campaign. So Delicious ran a series of daily sweepstakes encouraging users to embrace positive personal change and follow the lead of So Delicious brand spokesperson and health and wellness expert, Jillian Michaels. Each day, the sweepstakes offered prizes prompting the winner to change his or her life for the better, like yoga mats, water filters, iPads, and treadmills. One lucky winner received a grand prize trip to Koh Samui, Thailand. Brand lift and increased awareness Brand advocacy and loyalty The most valuable business benefit that emerges from social media marketing is earned media. To understand why, its important to understand that there are three types of marketing content: Paid, Owned, and Earned. successful brands own social profile pages bursting with compelling content and active community conversations. They drive traffic and attention to these owned properties with a carefully planned paid media strategy, crafting advertisements to emphasize and influence a variety of end-user actions. And hopefully brands are getting earned media as well: this is the coverage you cant buy, and includes mentions, recommendations and shares generated by users who are so engaged by your branded content that theyre compelled to share it with the world (or, their respective social network world). And when 90 percent of internet users say that they find a recommendation from a friend trustworthy (Nielsen), brands want all the earned media they can get. The most valuable business benefit that emerges from social media marketing is earned media.

Theres a catch though: you cant buy or create earned media directly. Your brands Facebook page will only spawn earned media (likes, shares and comments) if you run marketing campaigns that are optimized for engagement and sharing activity. Earned media is the key to unlocking the power of social for your brand A recent study conducted by Facebook and ComScore provided some of the most compelling statistics weve seen regarding the value of earned media. Recognizing that many marketers today do not feel well-equipped to effectively measure social marketing ROI, ComScore devised a scientific research experiment that would measure lift from earned media exposure. The experiment was performed for two brands, to measure two different user behaviors: Starbucks: to measure the effect of earned media exposure on in-store purchasing Target: to measure the effect of earned media exposure on in-store and online purchasing For both experiments, the effects of exposure to earned media had statistically significant positive impacts on purchasing behaviors. In fact, Starbucks fans and friends of fans demonstrated a 38% lift in purchase behavior within 4 weeks of exposure to earned media (compared to the control group). The Target fans and friends of fans were 19% more likely to purchase in Target in the four weeks following exposure. To capitalize on the incredible effects that earned media can have on your brand though, you have to start somewhere with a fan base. Earned media can come from any user that chooses to tell a story about your brand to their friends. They do this by Liking a status update or a photo, commenting on your page, interacting with your applications, or just tagging your brand in a post. The most common source of this activity comes from your fans. So, how can you get more earned media? By looking at success strategies for brands in the engagement phase of social media marketing, of course!

Adopt these social media marketing tips and ENGAGE using an unprecedented understanding of users 1. With traditional marketing, you choose media placement based on predicted demographic profiles, historical populations, and projected figures. A traditional digital marketing network provides historical statistics about populations of users with certain interests. But what else do you know about the fitness, diet, health, and wellness advocates that youre promised to reach by using this marketing channel? If the fitness oriented user is actually also a car enthusiast, or unemployed, or currently a student, would the digital marketing network parse this information for your use? Wouldnt it be productive to your strategy to know more about a users social profile? Social media networks know a lot about their users. When a brand develops custom applications for these networks, or runs advertising within them, the brand can potentially have access to a much richer cache of information about the user (with their permission, of course.) Using this information when crafting a content strategy can be beneficial, as different types of users will likely engage with different content initiatives. Social media provides more insight into consumers than has ever been available before.

Starbucks fans and friends of fans demonstrated a 38% lift in purchase behavior within 4 weeks of exposure to earned media

[Figure 3.3: the digital network can offer historical populations of users reached, but how much deeper can the user profile go?]

2. For the first time, your audience is telling you exactly who it is. Social media allows users to tell the world who they are. Users are filling out their own profiles, and declaring to the network (and its advertisers and brands) what region they live in, what

Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for our Brand

their interests are, who their friends are, and limitless other information they choose to share. On LinkedIn, theyre sharing their educational and professional pursuits. On Pinterest, theyre sharing their style and aspirations, and on Twitter theyre sharing content that interests them. Savvy brands are on the lookout for technology that compiles these social profiles together and enables brands to provide a truly customized experience for each user. Given the incredible speed of development in this industry, going from communicating to the faceless to putting faces on our social consumers is not a long way away.

ENGAGE for ROI The two case studies of companies that successfully drew positive ROI results from their Engage phase of social initiatives are from different parts of the world. That didnt affect the results of each campaign, proving that engagement breeds trust, earned media, and advocacy despite different languages, regions, and users. iek Sepeti

[Figure 3.4: similar to traditional lead generation techniques, users can fill out all of their own information to get access to social networks and the custom applications within them, like this custom whitepaper download application on the wildfire fan page.]

3. Profiling of user interests, friend lists, employment, education, industry, geography, groups, affiliations, style, (and more) enables a rich understanding of your consumer. Each social network has a unique set of information about the users engaged within it. LinkedIn knows users employment histories, industry, seniority, region, education level, and more. Facebook knows the users friends and what theyre interested in, what places the user has previously checked in to, and brands the user thinks are cool. Pinterest has a running list of every item on the internet that the user took time enough to pin to demonstrate their interests and style. How much more powerful would your marketing strategy be if you could access a more unified social profile of your consumers, aggregating information about your customers across social networks? Combining this social data with data about users interactions with your brand (have they purchased in the last 3 months? Have they claimed but not redeemed a coupon in the last year?) can potentially create the level of targeting that will nurture your communities of advocates into action. How much more powerful would your marketing strategy be if you could access a more unified social profile of your consumers, aggregating information about your customers across social networks?

WHO: iek Sepeti is Turkeys leading online flower store and gift-giving company. WHAT: While its e-commerce website already had significant traction (it receives more than 15,000 visitors and approximately 2,000 orders daily), iek Sepeti wanted to grow its fan base and increase fan engagement on Facebook. The company had also recently introduced several new products, and sought to publicize them using social media. iek Sepeti used Wildfire tools to run more than a dozen campaigns, including quizzes, trivia, coupons, contests, and sweepstakes, designed to kick-start fan growth and promote continued engagement. For one particularly successful campaign, iek Sepeti used a quiz application to pose light-hearted questions to its male audience about their romantic behaviors. For instance, one question stated, Your spouses birthday occurs the same day as a championship sports game--what will you do? RESULT: The company credited one of its quizzes with a click-through rate 20 times greater than standard Facebook ads. On the day the quiz launched, iek Sepeti doubled its People Talking About This count, a key engagement metric. The promotion ran for four weeks, during which time the online retailer recognized a 20% increase in its monthly revenue, and more than 38,000 visits to its Facebook page. By the time it ended, the quiz had received more than 17,000 entries and yielded over 450 Likes.

Blowfish Shoes

monetiZe

As a fan builds trust and engagement with a brand through its social channels, they will move towards monetization and advocacy. A successful approach to monetizing your social channel presence leads to measurable business benefits such as collection of high-quality leads lead conversion to sales purchasing behaviors account retention Is monetizing your social channel as easy as launching an electronic shopping cart? If only! Weve outlined some important tips to consider when your brand is contemplating its approach to the Monetize phase of social media marketing. Adopt these social media marketing tips and MONETIZE using the social sales dimension

WHO: Blowfish shoes is a shoe designer and retailer headquartered in Santa Monica, California. WHAT: Blowfish wanted to expand its email database and grow and engage its fan base. It also sought to attract new fans who aligned with the brand creative, original and youthful. Blowfish created a digital sweepstakes to give away a pair of shoes to a new customer every day for a year. Since building its email database was a critical objective, Blowfish made sure to develop an entry form that prompted entrants to provide their email addresses. Blowfish also supported its sweepstakes by running targeted Facebook ads and a YouTube promotion announcing the weekly winners. The company put a lot of social media savvy behind its promotion, creating fun and quirky weekly videos animating a pair of shoes walking into a box and being shipped to that weeks winner. These personality-infused efforts resonated highly with Blowfish fans and followers, influencing high engagement and return rates to the promotion. RESULT: During the 12-month promotional duration, Blowfish increased its email database by 865%, and grew its Facebook fan base by a remarkable 2,488%. the analytics further showed that 64% of contestants voluntarily continued to browse Blowfishs shoe collection after entering the sweepstakes, and that nearly half of all sales transactions during the promotion period involved contestants. The promotion went so well by all accounts that Blowfish ended up running it a second time, calling it their Second Annual Shoe-a-Day Giveaway!

1. Users expect specific activities when theyre interacting with social networks your typical e-commerce shopping cart solutions are not intriguing in this medium. In December 2010 JC Penney launched its first ecommerce store on Facebook, making waves in the press for breaking ground. Within a year, however, that version of the storefront was removed from the Facebook page. Now, an evolved shopping app is live on the fan page, driving traffic to the site using different social features like Make it your own, which uses profile information to display offers that (now rebranded) jcp considers relevant to the user, personally. Social e-commerce adds a new dimension to shopping activities, and brands that embrace this dimension will find success in the new industry.

[Figure 3.5: JCPenneys original approach to F-Commerce.]

Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for our Brand

[Figure 3.7: oscar de la renta showcases a monthly F-commerce application that allows users to purchase an item through the fan page that is not available anywhere else in the world.]

3. Use advanced demographic and psychographic profiling with segmentation strategies to offer users personalized and meaningful experiences.
[Figure 3.6: jcps new approach to social commerce, adding in a customized make it your own feature that mixes up the shopping experience per user.]

2. Social selling involves activity with friends, gamification of sales, or special offers exclusive to the fan community. An ideal social selling experience should offer a user elements of the same expectations they set for brands when becoming a fan. We know users want exclusive content, custom offers, and special promotions. How can your brand integrate these user desires into selling initiatives? One great example comes from Oscar De La Rentas Facebook fan page. The fan page has a custom application called Shop Exclusives that enables users once per month to buy one item through the Facebook interface that is completely unavailable anywhere else in the world. During the month that this paper was written, the exclusive shopping experience featured a stylish notebook called the Bauble Book, a $39 purchase available to Facebook fans only.

With access to more information than ever before about users, successful monetization tactics should strive to incorporate profiling and segmentation techniques. A unified social profile will enable your brand to know which of its fans also Like your competitors, or which of those fans have been dormant in the past quarter. Create monetization efforts based on this information, to speed the path to conversion or repeat purchase.

10

MONETIZE to Convert The two case studies featured below demonstrate brands that created offers of high value for users, and an even higher value for these businesses. Eye City

HauteLook

WHO: Founded in 1996, Eye City Vision is a Lasik eye surgery clinic located in Texas. Eye City provides patients with complete eye care, eye wear, cataract care, and Lasik in one location. WHAT: Since Lasik purchases had been down due to the recession, Eye City Vision had already experimented with print advertising, online advertising, and its website to generate awareness of its offerings. Looking to grow its business, Eye City Vision wanted to leverage the power of social media and drive traffic to Eye City Vision. Eye City Vision used Wildfire to launch a 6-month long coupon campaign. The coupon provided individuals who visited and claimed the voucher on the Eye City Vision fan page a $1,000 off discount on Lasik. RESULT: During the promotion cycle, Eye City Vision had its two highest sales months since the company was founded in 1996, with sales up more than 40% from prior year. Though Eye City Vision had been successful in running coupons through print advertising as well, the company cited that having coupons accessible via Facebook was a significant and powerful force for their business. The coupon was claimed by 373 users, impressive since the offer for the clinic is only relevant for a two locations that serve central Texas.

WHO: HauteLook is an online private sale site that features limited-time sale events. Every day, HauteLook partners with premium fashion and lifestyle brands to create private, upscale sale events. WHAT: HauteLook wanted to attract new users to their fan page as well as influence fans to visit the website by using an incentive to make a purchase. HauteLook used Wildfire to run an Instant Win campaign which ran for just seven days on their Facebook Fan Page, mimicking the urgency that HauteLooks limited-time sales incite in members. Facebook users needed to become a fan in order to redeem the coupon, which revealed what they won.

11

Whitepaper | Why Social Marketing Will Deliver a Positive ROI for our Brand

From the users perspective, this application seemed like a scratch-off lottery card after filling out the entry form with the users personal details, she would be served her lottery card with her winnings. Every card had a value, from 10% off an HauteLook purchase, to the more coveted Buy one get one free item voucher, to the biggest prize of all: one $10,000 giveaway. RESULT: Over the seven days of the coupon campaign, the HauteLook Fan Pages fan base increased by 4,200 new fans who claimed nearly 3,800 coupons. To date, 21% of the coupons were redeemed by first-time HauteLook buyers. In addition, 19% of the coupons that were claimed were done so by dormant buyers, or members of the HauteLook site that had been inactive for a certain number of months. As a result of this social selling campaign, HauteLook generated $30,000 in revenue and a 250% ROI net of all campaign and marketing costs.

ConClusion

You understand that successful social media initiatives start with an alignment to the social media marketing phase the brand is in. Youve mastered an understanding of the powerful ways in which you can use social media to grow your brand and drive real business results. Youve thought through engagement strategies. And youve even ushered in buying activity from your fans who are part of your trustworthy community. This three-phase framework is cyclical. Continued engagement with users enables actions, stories, and messages to spread through fans networks and attract friends of fans to the brand page (generating earned media), helping to lead into growth initiatives again. Follow this framework and key stakeholders within your business will recognize the value and ROI delivered throughout each step of this virtuous cycle.

12

Wildfire is a powerful, easy-to-use social marketing platform to grow, engage and monetize your audience across social networks.
Learn how we can help you today!

888.274.0929 ext 2
www.wildfireapp.com

Redwood City sales@wildfireapp.com 888.274.0929 x2 Chicago sales.chi@wildfireapp.com 312.496.7971 London sales.eu@wildfireapp.com +44 (0)20 7189 8375 Los Angeles sales.la@wildfireapp.com 888.274.0929 x2

Munich sales.de@wildfireapp.com +49 (0)174 8080 070 New York City sales.ny@wildfireapp.com 646.503.2166 Paris sales.fr@wildfireapp.com +33 (0)6 23 04 54 75 Singapore sales.sg@wildfireapp.com +65 9323 1690

1600 Seaport Blvd., Suite 500, Redwood City, CA 94063 | 888.274.0929 | www.wildfireapp.com | facebook.com/wildfireinteractive | info@wildfire.com

06/12