Corporate Social Media

When it comes to using social media in the world of non-profits, there are two things that immediately come to mind when asked what this new medium can help with: awareness and fundraising.  And then of course, people gravitate towards fundraising, because that’s a lot more exciting than awareness.  And you may think that it’s a great way to show ROI on social media.  Stories of people raising millions of dollars on a social media campaigns lure you into believing that it is easy.  But is it really?

The more we dig into the numbers, non-profits just are not raising as much as the hype claims.  In 2008, $300 billion was raised by non-profits, $15 billion of that money came from online sources, and in the last 3 years only $21 million came from Facebook (Giving USA and Blackbaud).  Many of the non-profits that we talk to who have already experimented in this area are coming to similar conclusions.  But that shouldn’t be a reason to abandon social media.

Non-profits need to start thinking about how social media can help them cultivate the relationship between themselves, their patrons and their patrons’ friends.  Be wary of circulating content that asks for money without a specific cause.  Instead spread awareness around what your organization is helping with functionally.  Talk about what you do, why you’re good at it, and what people should pay attention to.  Only after you have developed a deep relationship and created an interest around the conversation, should you start the conversation around fundraising.

I think the key message here is that social media builds relationships and awareness of what you as an organization do really well.  Focus on that part first, and the money will follow.

With the recent (and somewhat flat) IPO of QuinStreet, it got me thinking about how our clients can start to use the concepts of vertical marketing and social media in conjunction with each other.  It’s a way to strategically think about how organizations can increase social media exposure, and in turn justify the expenditure through a measurable ROI channel.

To take a quick step back, what do I mean by vertical marketing?  Vertical marketing, in the way that QuinStreet does it, essentially means setting up websites  that don’t necessarily have your brand on it, and then providing a lot of information around that vertical(mortgages, loans, online learning, etc.).  When you fill out a form that says that you want to hear more, QuinStreet essentially sends the lead over to a single or multiple companies who pay for those warm/hot leads.  And it’s not just companies like QuinStreet and ValueClick who are doing this.  Companies are doing this on their own, and it drives SEM as well as sales.

So how is this similar to social media?  For those of you who may not be familiar, there is a story from the book Groundswell (video below) that talks about how P&G created a website called BeingGirl.com to engage with young girls about their feminine problems.  It was an unbranded website that had a forum where these girls could ask  Iris, a psychologist hired by P&G questions that they might not feel comfortable asking their parents.  Each of Iris’ answers was followed by the simple line: “Good luck from BeingGirl.com.  Brought to you by Always Pads and Pantyliners and Tampax Tampons.”  According to P&G, this was 4 times more effective per dollar spent than traditional advertising. 

So with these two examples in mind, I think that there is a huge opportunity for organizations to use their engagment strategies to drive strong lead generation.

If you are not already running vertical sites to drive traffic, start monitoring social media channels to find out what your consumers are looking for.  A lot of the marketing execs who I talk to are trying to understand the topic areas that are already occurring across the overall conversation (related to their brand) in social media.  Figure this out, and then start building a site that is aligned with your company’s overall goals.  Obviously, easier said than done.

Once you have a site up, add social components to it so that your consumers can talk to each other as well as to your company.  This is not really something that either QuinStreet or ValueClick has done, but I think companies who build their own vertical sites can make this a priority.  Of course, be transparent in who you are while trying to provide a non-biased forum for consumers to get and share information.  And then provide unobtrusive links to drive traffic back to the sales funnel.  I think this type of strategy to lead generation can really help companies begin to justify the costs of social media and see revenue generating results.  Which is what we all really want in the end anyway.

I had a great conversation today with the Director of Marketing at a major US attraction, and I stumbled on an idea to determine ROI across social media.

Traditionally, fliers and brochures are handed out throughout major cities to entice tourists and families to get a small percentage off their ticket purchase when they mention the ad that they have just seen.  Oftentimes, these attractions may also include those coupon codes on their fliers which the attractions will use to track ROI.

Using similar coupon codes for social media is a great way to not only increase sales, but to effectively monitor how well social media contributes to the bottom line.  There are hundreds of blogs and web pages that talk about the “Top 10 things to do in City X”, “The attractions you must see while you’re in City X”, etc.  Given the fact that the place where most families to research a trip before they fly is online, it makes a lot of sense to get exposure on all of these channels.

A simple, “Coming to New York City?  Make sure you visit our attraction which is one of the other great things to see and spend time. Be sure to book your tickets online or mention the following coupon code SOCIAL15 for 15% off“, is a great way to get exposure and increase sales.  The conversation of where to go in New York City for example is already happening.  Join the conversation, and see the results come through.

How do you find these blogs, forums and message boards?  Use a social media monitoring tool and learn the most impactable and influential places where you should start your focus.  Once you have the top blogs, slowly move yourself into the “magic middle” (blogs with at least 20 to 1000 active incoming links), and you will be set.  Does it take some time?  Initially, yes.  But once you have identified where you have the most impact, you can really start driving traffic.  It’s cheap and simple, and everyone should be doing it.