April 26, 2011

Hispanic Market Social Media Programs

Hispanic social media programs lag social media programs for non-Hispanic audiences by a two to one margin but are poised for growth, according to the 2011 TeleNoticias-LatinoWire Hispanic Social Media Survey released today in conjunction with Hispanicize.

“I think we can expect that to change in the coming years.”

Results showed that while 92% of those surveyed have social media programs, less than half (45%) have programs specifically targeting the Hispanic market.

"The survey results are not surprising and are in line with our initial hypothesis" said David Henry, president and CEO of TeleNoticias. "Like other areas of Hispanic marketing, social media targeting Latinos is said to be important, but that importance doesn’t translate to actual work being conducted and dollars being spent."

The survey, conducted by Survey.com in conjunction with a coalition of partners that also included the Hispanic Public Relations Association and HispanicAd.com was executed between March 22, 2011 and April 3, 2011. A total of 202 survey responses were collected.

The most common response when asked about the planning process for social media programs was that there was "No annual plan … most components are defined as the year unfolds." This was the case for programs targeting both the mainstream and Hispanic markets.

"What can be derived from the survey is that social media is still very much in the formative state at most companies and hasn’t yet become a part of the strategic communications plan," said Tom Mulgrew, Vice President of LatinoWire, a service of Business Wire. "I think we can expect that to change in the coming years."

The survey also found that, overall, social media continues to be a growing sector and most participants anticipate an increase in the use of Social media for Hispanic markets in the next fiscal year. The majority survey indicated that they expect budgets for social media programs in the next fiscal year will increase.

Some of the key findings are:

Social media has emerged as a tool used by nearly all companies to interact with their customers/clients (92%).
Hispanic social media programs were viewed equally as important as mainstream social media programs (69% for each).
While most respondents felt their social media programs are effective, Hispanic social media programs were noted as slightly less effective than mainstream social media programs (56% vs. 64% effective respectively).
The same social media tools are used to target both the mainstream and Hispanic markets—though use in the Hispanic market is comparatively less in all areas except mobile, where use was higher in Hispanic programs.
For the mainstream market, respondents indicated their companies predominantly communicate with their customers/clients through Facebook (92%), Twitter (83%), Blogs (58%), and YouTube (56%). Companies use these same social media tools to communicate with their Hispanic market customers and clients; Facebook (84%), Twitter (62%), YouTube (42%), and Blogs (40%).
Use of social media tailored to the Hispanic market remains an area for improvement. While 67% of respondents indicated their company has an ongoing Hispanic Public Relations Program, less than half (45%) of companies surveyed use a Hispanic social media program tailored to the Hispanic market.
Most company’s social media programs are not formally defined at the beginning of the fiscal year; either for the mainstream market or Hispanic market.
Social media continues to be a growing sector with increases anticipated for the next fiscal year.
58% of respondents anticipate their company or business unit's budget for social media will increase for the mainstream market in the next fiscal year; 60% anticipate a budget increase for social media for the Hispanic market.
Most respondents anticipated increases in the next fiscal year in their company or business unit's use of Social media in several areas including:
Use of social media as a component of their marketing and communications program: 88%
Use of social media as a component in their Hispanic marketing and communications program: 81%
Outreach to Hispanic market bloggers: 68%
Outreach to mainstream/general market bloggers: 64%
Recruiting/hiring new talent to work as employees in social media: 56%

Research Methodology: Survey.com conducted an online survey to collect data for this study. An email invitation with an embedded survey link was sent to prospective participants. Data was collected from March 22, 2011, to April 3, 2011. A total of 202 survey responses have been collected to date.

Posted by Ahorre at 09:28 AM

May 07, 2010

Social Media Branding Strategy Business

Text Message Based Advertising - Social Branding: The Power of the Social Media Space. - There are currently over 450 social media platforms and the list is growing. With such a rapidly expanding market, brands must consider how they fit into the social media sphere. Most will discover that they would benefit from either active participation or a passive monitoring presence. Brands that choose to be in social media must develop a clear strategy that takes full advantage of the opportunities that the social space presents, while avoiding the pitfalls of a social media presence that is poorly executed. No matter how actively a company participates in this space, however, it is always important to secure names that could be used to protect or promote its brands. With this Perspectives, FairWinds examines the opportunities and challenges that brands face while setting up real estate in the social media space.

The fascination with the social media scene continues as businesses marvel at the interactive power of a medium that takes on many different forms including forums, weblogs, social blogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, rating, posting, chatting, messaging, and bookmarking.

Every month, Facebook has roughly 3 billion visitors, Twitter has 200 million and LinkedIn has 70 million. For brands, this exposure can equate to millions of views that could, with the right strategy, translate into advertising revenue, sales, brand loyalty and reputational benefits.

With these kinds of numbers, failing to at least secure usernames in social media sites simply is not an option—the question is, how does a company work to develop a clear social media strategy? For FairWinds, the connection between domain names and usernames is clear—they are both critical digital assets that protect and promote a company’s initiatives online. Domain names are easy to remember alphanumeric strings that allow Internet users to navigate the Internet to find the Web sites of their favorite brands. Usernames function in much the same way. Internet users navigate social spaces by searching for or directly entering the usernames of their favorite brands, names of individuals they are looking for, or keywords for conversations about topics that interest them. Just as domain names provide trustworthy addresses for relevant, desired content to customers, usernames provide the same in the social media space. Domain names and social media spaces require separate and distinct name ownership strategies. Both types of strategies should look to optimize online traffic by capitalizing on the way Internet users seek content:

* Promotion: Just as brands look to promote themselves through intuitive domain names that “direct navigators” are likely to type into their browser address bars, brands need to be visible in social media where social networkers are likely to look for them by controlling and using the most intuitive account usernames and handles. Similarly, consistent construction needs to be used for the different types of profile and program pages that brand owners deploy. For example, there should be consistency in the naming convention employed for corporate pages, customer service pages and marketing program pages.

* Protection: Just as brand owners look to protect their brands against cybersquatters looking to register infringing domain names that are likely to receive type-in traffic, brand owners should look to protect their brands against usersquatters looking to register infringing account usernames and handles that are likely to be visited by potential consumers either by accident or intuition.

If used properly, social media sites offer rewards. If social media sites are used poorly or ignored, companies risk being subjected to brand bashing and negative comments that can be broadcast far and wide to millions in every country in the world. To get a sense of how the biggest brands are currently trying to make good use of social media usernames, FairWinds examined the presence of the top five companies on Interbrand’s Best Global Brands list—Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, General Electric and Nokia.
Methodology

While there are a large number of possibilities for the usernames and handles that Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, General Electric and Nokia could and should register—including varieties with hyphens, brand name and product keyword combinations and acronyms—we limited our examination to the following core identities:

* The username “CocaCola” for Coca-Cola
* The username “IBM” for IBM
* The username “Microsoft” for Microsoft
* The username “GeneralElectric” for General Electric
* The username “Nokia” for Nokia

FairWinds used knowem.com to check the availability of these usernames in the social media space. This site searches the availability of usernames across 350 of the top social media networks. Rather than looking across all social sites offered by knowem.com, FairWinds focused its examination on community sites such as Facebook (knowem.com monitors 44 of these sites) and microblogging sites such as Twitter (knowem.com monitors 16 of these sites) in order to gain a better understanding of the social media space that surrounds these two areas. After searching knowem.com for each of the usernames listed above, FairWinds noted how many of the usernames were registered (either by the appropriate brand or by a third party) and which were still available for registration. In several cases, the username would prove to be too short or too long for registration in a particular community or microblogging site, so that was noted as well.

Finally, we analyzed the information that we gathered and drew upon our experience with clients to highlight some of the unique challenges that each brand faces in the social networking space.
Key Results

Life Cycle of a Domain Name

* Certain social media sites have a maximum or minimum character length for usernames.

Discussion

From a brand promotion perspective, companies use social media to expand the reach of their message; engage consumers to gain feedback about products and services; drive additional sales; and open up a dialogue that can both strengthen brand loyalty and attract the attention of new customers.

According to a social media study issued by EngagementDB, a database that measures online engagement for top brands, “the number of channels a brand engages with exponentially increases the effectiveness of its singular activities. From a dollars and sense standpoint, this implies that brands that invest more resources in social media get more bang for their buck.”1 By owning the right usernames, brands can develop another user-friendly platform from which to project their image and interact with their relevant audiences. These reputational benefits and added impressions can translate not only to intangible benefits such as good will and trust amongst the Internet community, but also to increased top and bottom line growth. Social media, after all, may be one of the most cost-effective audience growth mediums in the digital world. Social media platforms that foster trust and create positive experiences for Internet users will encourage interaction with the brand. These platforms can also contribute to increased sales by immediately directing consumers to desired content or contribute to consumer happiness and brand loyalty by offering customer service and instant help.

A company that secures the usernames containing its exact brand names, as well as the most intuitive and common permutations and acronyms, controls the most logical real estate on which to post its messaging and interact with its community. Company ownership of these usernames also prevents adversaries, unauthorized spokesmen, fans or disgruntled employees from owning or having access to intuitive names that they could use to post potentially harmful content. Oftentimes that content is deemed a “fair use” under the terms of use and trademark policies that are still very much unpredictable and in their “infancy” across social networking sites.

“Unlike the UDRP for domain names, there is no unified or independent forum for recovering infringed usernames,” said Steve Levy, Esq. “Brand owners who are rebuffed under the varying trademark policies employed by social media sites are left to seek redress through the very expensive and time-consuming avenue of the court system. It is expected that this area will evolve once social media sites realize the cost of routinely dealing with subpoenas and litigation exposure.”

The extent to which a brand should register usernames and handles on social media sites depends on the brand’s target audience and how much of an impact the brand hopes to have on Internet users.

If a brand’s target audience is likely to look for it or “discuss” it on social networking sites, it would be a mistake for that company to miss out on reaching those individuals by neglecting to register or acquire intuitive, branded usernames and handles on community sites and blogging sites. The fact is, most brands are being talked about on Twitter and other sites everyday – often throughout the day. According to Mark Langsfeld, CEO of the social media monitoring firm ListenLogic, "large consumer brands like Coke, Microsoft and IBM each have tens of thousands of online mentions every day."

Registration Status of Top 5 Global Brands in Both Categories

In order to see who is registering usernames containing brands on social media sites, FairWinds examined the registered usernames in the data set outlined in the methodology section of this paper. Of the registered usernames in our data set, 90 percent are owned by a third party and being used as a fan site or for the registrant’s individual use. Only 10 percent of registered usernames in our data set were owned by the corresponding brand.

Brands do not want to put their customers in the position of having to hunt for the brand, uncertain of the username that will guide them to official brand content and information. Furthermore, any username or handle that is valuable for a brand is equally valuable to a usersquatter who may be looking to promote his or her agenda or hope to diminish the prestige of the brand. As a result, it is critical to secure available usernames and acquire taken usernames in a prioritized fashion. Many usersquatters secure a username and do nothing with it. Others begin to immediately post content that augments the fair use argument. The clock is ticking once a username is secured and it may be that once content is posted and “followers” begin to line up, it is too late to exercise trademark rights to recover a taken name.

One cannot say what the “right” username generally looks like because each company has unique challenges, opportunities and goals. As such, there is no simple formula for putting together the right username that would hold true across companies or across industries. However, there are key issues that brand owners must consider as they embark on a social media strategy.

Platform Relevance

One of the most important aspects of a strong social media program is to know your customer and select social media sites that will be the best means of both targeting that customer and placing the brand where the discussion about the brand is already occurring. The Nokia brand, for example, has had its corresponding usernames registered extensively. This is most likely because its target audience is comprised of younger, more tech-savvy individuals. General Electric, on the other hand, does not have as active a presence in social media beyond providing a network for its employees; rightfully so, given that its target consumers are unlikely to use social media to seek out the company’s products under the parent company’s name. Those companies that actively foster a close relationship with their customers in other ways are the ones that put the most effort into social media strategies. Coca-Cola is one example of a company that has honed its social media tactics and developed a significant presence. Coca-Cola has more than 5,000,000 fans on Facebook (fans in Facebook are representative of the number of users that follow Coca-Cola).

Registration Availability

Once the appropriate platform has been selected (and there will certainly be multiple chosen), companies must decide which usernames or handles to register. It may seem obvious to register the name of the parent company, but companies should also take the time to consider which brands or product names they should register in addition to the parent’s moniker. Oftentimes, consumers seek out specific products more actively than the company that produces them and therefore may be more inclined to engage with the product via social media than the company as a whole. Also, companies need to devise a strategy for how to proceed if the names they wish to register are no longer available (for example, if they have already been registered by a third party). In that situation, one option is to affix a descriptive term to the brand or company name when registering the handle. For example, if Mars’ Dove chocolate brand found that Unilever’s Dove soap had already registered the name “Dove” on a given platform, perhaps an easy solution would be to register the name “DoveChocolate.”

Registration Restrictions

Certain social media platforms may have restrictions about which types of characters can appear in usernames and also who can register and own usernames. For example, Facebook requires brands that register usernames to list their page as a corporate page—pages set up using branded usernames and registered as “personal” will be flagged and shut down by Facebook as a violation of policy. In some cases, hyphenated brands like Coca-Cola may have to consider registering names that do not include the hyphen. Accent marks or non-alphanumeric characters (ex. Nestlé) could also be problematic, so companies must take care to devise usernames that fit the platform’s regulations without diluting the brand image. Another concern is the length of the names. General Electric, for example, is much more commonly referred to as “GE,” but that name is too short for most platforms (3 character minimums are common). Again, an easy solution may be the addition of a descriptive term.

Company Policy and Internal Communication

Many companies experience trepidation when considering launching social media strategies because of the lack of regulation inherent in most platforms. It is vital for companies to implement a corporate policy on the use of social media usernames. For example, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the independent regulator for all securities firms, has issued a regulatory notice on “compliance and regulatory considerations when using social networking sites to communicate firm business.” Without a strong policy, problems will undoubtedly arise when employees control one or more addresses or names. The policy must evaluate how to accommodate for the registration of multiple social media usernames to avoid potential problems and be clearly communicated to all employees.

If a company discovers that the username or handle it wishes to register has already been taken and it does not want to register an alternate handle, it should familiarize itself with the reclaim process. Reclaim policies vary across platforms, so it is important for companies to be aware of the different rules before attempting to recover a name registered by a third party. For example, Facebook allows users to submit a form requesting a transfer, whereas Twitter has a less formalized reclaim mechanism. In some cases, such as reclaim is not possible at all.
Conclusion

Being on the Internet is all about ‘location, location, location.’ Anticipating where digital investments make sense is about adapting to known data on customer preferences rather than relying on ‘gut feel.’ Social media is about having conversations that are largely uncontrollable. If mishandled, these elements and behaviors can lead to brand dilution and financial losses. If they are managed wisely, however, they can open new doors and reveal different methods for reaching and engaging customers, thereby improving productivity and value.

The importance of owning intuitive domain names and the right social media usernames so that new and existing customers can “find you” will continue to grow and is the backbone of all digital initiatives. By controlling the usernames that customers will assume to be official, a company will possess the most logical addresses to use and can prevent adversaries from owning or having access to intuitive names to post potentially harmful, confusing, or misleading content.

There is not a one-size-fits-all solution for every company, brand, or social platform. However, it is generally advisable to protect your brand in the places where Internet users are most likely to look for it and ensure they view whatever they find there to be authoritative. Unlike the domain name world, where rationing resources is critical, there are no incremental or ongoing costs associated with holding social media account/user names. Although there was no clear predictor that cybersquatting would ultimately develop into a billion dollar problem for large enterprises, we now know that the squatting of social media site usernames is following a similar path. We are already seeing usersquatting occur and the practice continues to grow. Therefore, we believe there is an incentive to secure these names and preserve the option to use them later if it makes sense to do so. More importantly, this approach blocks those not associated with the brand from usurping the brand’s message in the most official-looking spaces in social media.

All brands, regardless of how deeply involved they will be in social media, must be prepared to do some ongoing monitoring because of the ever-changing nature of the space. Brands have to make sure to have ears close to the ground in order to detect and adapt to shifts in consumer sentiment as it relates to their online and offline activities. FairWinds does not monitor or track consumer sentiment or what is being said about brands; FairWinds is plugged into where Internet users are most likely to look for brands and can provide sound advice to companies regarding the right social media real estate to own and use to grow the reach of companies’ online efforts.

[1] Ingram, Josh. "Cutting Through the Clutter: Measuring Social Media." Interbrand.com. Web.

Posted by Ahorre at 07:52 AM

May 04, 2010

US Hispanic Market PT Social Media Info

About the Hispanic Public Relations Association - HPRA was founded in 1984 as a non-profit organization to establish a network of Hispanics employed in the public relations profession. HPRA has more than 250 members representing public relations, marketing and advertising professionals from agencies, government, non-profit and corporate companies. HPRA is dedicated to the advancement of Hispanic professionals and provides educational seminars and workshops throughout the year. The organization has awarded more than $220,000 in scholarships to Latino students pursuing a career in communications during the last 25 years. HPRA strives to be a resource for communications professionals and for those seeking insights into the Hispanic market.

About the Hispanic PR Blog - Founded by multicultural public relations veterans Manny Ruiz, former CEO of Hispanic PR Wire, and Angela Sustaita-Ruiz of Hispanic Media Trainers, LLC, the Hispanic PR Blog is the Hispanic market industry’s top source for news and views focused on Hispanic public relations and social media marketing. The blog and its accompanying daily newsletter, Hispanicize, feature columns, stories, white papers, job postings, calendar events and more. Hispanic Media Trainers, LLC, is the parent company of the Hispanic Public Relations & Social Media Conference.

Contact:
Hispanic Public Relations Association

Lourdes Rodriguez

tel: 626-403-3200, ext. 211 Email: lourdes@vpepr.com

Hispanic PR Blog

Angela Sustaita-Ruiz

tel: 305.321.5002
 info@hispanicprblog.com

Posted by Ahorre at 09:59 AM

U.S. Hispanic Market Social Media Guide

Social Media Strategies for Small Business - La U.S. Hispanic Social Media Guide (Guía de Medios Sociales Hispanos de los EE.UU.) oficial 2010 será publicada y distribuida gratuitamente a fines de mayo por el Hispanic PR Blog en asociación con la Hispanic Public Relations Association (Asociación Hispana de Relaciones Públicas; HPRA, según su sigla en inglés) y la Word of Mouth Marketing Association (Asociación de Marketing Boca a Boca; WOMMA, según su sigla en inglés). La guía estará disponible un par de semanas después de la conclusión de la Hispanic PR & Social Media Marketing Conference (Conferencia de Marketing de Relaciones Públicas y Medios Sociales Hispanos), que se celebrará del 10 al 12 de mayo.

"Esta guía integral presentará los puntos principales de la conferencia, así como también otros artículos y datos pertinentes que no están disponibles actualmente en ningún otro lado", dice Manny Ruiz, editor de la U.S. Hispanic Social Media Guide y el Hispanic PR Blog. "La guía, como la conferencia, será una de las muchas herramientas que el Hispanic PR Blog y los socios de nuestra organización industrial usan para ayudar a los comercializadores a aprovechar al máximo las posibilidades de los medios sociales hispanos. Estamos felices de subir el listón una vez más en los medios sociales hispanos".


La guía será enviada automáticamente por correo electrónico a todos los asistentes a la Hispanic PR & Social Media Marketing Conference junto con el audio exclusivo de dos de las principales sesiones de medios sociales de la conferencia. También estará disponible gratuitamente para cualquiera que se suscriba al periódico electrónico diario gratuito Hispanicize, que pronto lanzará el Hispanic PR Blog. Para ser incluido en la lista de destinatarios de la guía gratuita, complete el formulario sencillo en http://www.hispanicprblog.com/hispanicize/.

Para más información sobre la Hispanic PR & Social Media Marketing Conference, visite www.hispanicprconference.com o comuníquese con el director del evento, Ray Bianchi, en info@hispanicprblog.com o en el 305-321-5002. También puede suscribirse a "Tweets" relacionados con la conferencia; la etiqueta (hash-tag) de Twitter para la conferencia es #HPRConf. Síganos en Facebook a través de Hispanic PR/Social Media.

Acerca de la Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA)
La HPRA (Asociación Hispana de Relaciones Públicas) fue fundada en 1984 como organización sin fines de lucro con el objetivo de establecer una red de hispanos que trabajan en la profesión de las relaciones públicas. La HPRA cuenta con más de 250 miembros que representan a profesionales de las relaciones públicas, el marketing y la publicidad, de agencias, entidades gubernamentales, organizaciones sin fines de lucro y empresas. La HPRA se dedica a promover el progreso de los profesionales hispanos, y ofrece seminarios y talleres educativos durante todo el año. Durante los últimos 25 años la organización ha otorgado más de US$220,000 en becas a estudiantes latinos que aspiran a una carrera en comunicaciones. La HPRA se esfuerza por ser un recurso para los profesionales de las comunicaciones y para aquellos que buscan comprender mejor el mercado hispano.

Acerca de la Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) - La WOMMA, http://WOMMA.org, es la principal asociación comercial de las industrias del marketing y la publicidad centradas en el word of mouth (boca a boca), plataformas de medios sociales generadas por los consumidores y técnicas de marketing que incluyen buzz, viral, comunitario y marketing influenciador, así como también blogs de marcas (brand blogging). La organización está comprometida con el desarrollo y el mantenimiento de normas éticas adecuadas para los comercializadores, la identificación de estándares de medición significativos y la definición de "mejores prácticas" para la industria.

Acerca del Hispanic PR Blog - El Hispanic PR Blog, fundado por los veteranos de las relaciones públicas multiculturales Manny Ruiz, ex CEO de Hispanic PR Wire, y Angela Sustaita-Ruiz, de Hispanic Media Trainers, LLC, es la principal fuente de noticias y puntos de vista centrados en las relaciones públicas hispanas y el marketing de medios sociales de la industria del mercado hispano. El blog y su publicación diaria acompañante, Hispanicize, presentan columnas, artículos, documentos informativos, avisos de empleo, eventos de calendario y más. Hispanic Media Trainers, LLC es la compañía matriz de la Hispanic Public Relations & Social Marketing Conference.

FUENTE Hispanic Public Relations Association

Posted by Ahorre at 09:09 AM

January 20, 2010

New Roles of CMOs Chief Marketing Officers Social Media

How A Chief Marketing Officer Drives Sales With Social Media

by Antonio Altamirano on January 11, 2010

Chief Marketing Officers in the era of brand advocates and social media. A conversation with Ted Rubin, e.l.f.’s CMO and the architect of its successful social media campaign.

“The next important growth feature for social networks will be ubiquity. Social networks must be woven into everything we encounter and social media/marketing should be integrated into the fabric of all marketing channels, strategically managed from 360 perspective. Social Media is a platform… Social Marketing is how it is leveraged by a brand.” -Ted Rubin

Times are changing fast. Companies need to learn how to interact and respond in an efficient and positive manner to their audience via social media and to understand how to pool positive word-of-mouth and energize their brand advocates online. Through our conversation, there was a strong and recurring emphasis on a theme that ties e.l.f.’s marketing strategy together: social media and the power of the advocate.

Companies need to learn how to move away from passively listening and instead spring into action when the needs of their customers are not met. It is not enough to be an active listener; your brand needs to be an active and engaged participant. This is not the same as participation by broadcast. Participation by broadcast is when a brand is visibly active but establishes a one-way broadcast communication style with their audience.

The role of the Chief Marketing Officer is shifting

According to the best empirical evidence to date—from oft-cited research by the global recruiting firm Spencer Stuart—the average CMO tenure is a mere 23 months, less than half the average tenure of chief executive officers in the same firms. This data takes on ominous tones when enhanced by anecdotal narratives, such as Starbucks’ record of five heads of marketing in seven years, or Coca-Cola refilling its CMO position four times in six years.

Given the relatively short tenure of a CMO and the new marketing landscape, it is of utmost importance that the approach to the CMO role changes. Evolution needs to start with the C-suite and refocus the role of the CMO not as the mythical figure behind the strategy, but as the guiding rod and public face in the market where the CMO can exert influence. Part of the CMO role evolves into a chief relationship manager of sorts.

This is a transcendental evolution, where the customer is at the center of brand value creation and the CMOs strategize across new and classic marketing channels by making the brand part of a fluid conversation.
The shift from old to new marketing is hard work but pays off

Ted has managed to make this shift for himself and for EyesLipsFace as well. This has taken a lot of work, but it has paid off handsomely for the company and for his personal brand as well. EyesLipsFace, under Ted’s leadership, has been at the forefront of social marketing and innovation by using social media to turn advocates into sales and quantifiable ROI.

According to a study by Zuberance, the advocate channel outperforms more traditional online marketing channels like search engine marketing and display by a factor of five on average. EyesLipsFace has been able to tap into that advocate channel by energizing their passionate customers and turning them into a large virtual sales force that is driving quantifiable sales.

Obstacles that CMOs face

There are two main obstacles that CMOs need to sort through before they can take advantage of social media. They need to decide when to get involved and how. The challenge today is that CMOs are either waiting too long or going in too quickly. There are two things that could happen in either scenario.

Waiting too long means the competition will take that first mover advantage that can effectively give your competition full ownership of your

However, if a brand gets involved too quickly they might get end up in a broadcast-only mode that might prove more costly than no presence at all.
So what is a CMO to do?
Research the medium and become knowledgeable.

There’s nothing better than first hand experience. According to Ted, he spent some valuable time researching and learning the field before he applied it to e.l.f. cosmetics
Build a following for your personal brand.

If you are able to build a sizeable audience for your personal brand then you will have a better understanding of what it takes to develop a social marketing strategy for you company. Ted started way ahead of his peers by building and engaging a sizable audience that he can now mobilize
Build a strategy with measurable goals.

But don’t get stuck in the areas that cannot be measured right away as these are potentially very valuable to the company’s bottom line down the road. Set your CEO’s expectations properly and don’t over promise.
Get your hands dirty.

Interact with your audience and provide that personal touch that your brand needs
What are the results that Ted has been able to get for e.l.f. cosmetics this year?

Growing exponentially from early numbers of 300,000 to now over 2,000,000 subscribers with less than a 0.5 percent unsubscribe rate. 30K group members in Facebook in less than 12 months. 40K followers on Twitter since launch. 5400 followers on YouTube with over 50K views to e.l.f. videos which is only the tip of the iceberg since there are many more user generated videos. Askelf.com as a feedback channel where 99% of the feedback has been positive. The campaign “The New Face of e.l.f., Beauty at All Ages” and the “Wish for This” app generated over. 14,500 wishes, 2,000 retweets, 200,000 impressions in the first 3 weeks
CMOs looking at 2010 and 2011

Ted mentioned a couple of things that will mark the evolution of the role of the CMO. First of all, 2009 was the year when companies and CMOs learned and applied the basics of social marketing to their program by entering social networks and building audiences. However, the strategy was either not clear or not existent in many cases.
In 2010 CMOs will see the following developments and challenges:

A valuable tool that allows brands to measure not only mentions of the brand but how to tie that back to ROI will emerge thus making it easier for the CMO to build a stronger case for an overarching social marketing strategy. CEOs will step back and will let CMOs implement and experiment with newer ways to engage brand advocates thus allowing social marketing to grow as a fabric that ties sales and marketing together instead of just one more program in the mix. CMOs will be forced by customers to engage online and move beyond a broadcast-only relationship

Conclusion

CMOs face steep challenges and obstacles in the new marketing era. It is not enough to be well versed in the strategy and execution of a top-to-bottom marketing campaign that follows the classic structure of a marketing program. We are beyond that.

New marketing forces CMOs off of their comfort zone and into the playing field where they have to put the needs and wants of the customer at the forefront of the strategy, effectively turning the classic notion of marketing on its head.

You start at the “bottom” and build on top of tangible goals. You start with the customers and engage them fully. The challenges and marketing channels are different, but the fundamentals behind the marketing strategy remain the same.

It is time to rethink where the value resides. While it is true that classic media marketing still holds the lion share of marketing budgets, that does not imply it is engaging your audience or reaching them at all.

People expect brands to engage, to listen and to act. Your advocates are waiting, now it is your turn to move the engagement dial and reach out to them. You will be pleased with the results.

Posted by Ahorre at 08:50 AM

January 08, 2010

How To Build A Hispanic Market Community Online Social Media Platforms

By Jose Villa Whenever I speak with a client or colleague about developing a social media initiative, I always warn them to "build a community before you need it." This concept is at the heart of successfully using social media as a marketing medium, particularly when focusing on the Hispanic market.

There has been a lot of talk about how social media is changing advertising and how Hispanics over-index in use of social media. For the purposes of this article, I will forgo the laundry list of statistics supporting the assertion that Hispanics are heavy users of social media. I think the jury is in, and the data show that Hispanic social media usage is for real and growing.

Shift Your Approach - Building a Hispanic online community involves shifting how most marketers think about their trade. First, you do not "launch" a social media campaign - you begin a social media effort. The difference sounds subtle, but it's not.

Traditionally, Hispanic marketers buy time or space on fixed media in a controlled context. They know where their ads or messages will appear, what they will look like, how many people will see them (roughly), when they will stop running, and, perhaps most important, in what context they will be seen. With social media, this type of control is not possible or desirable. Instead, marketers need to focus on building a community of Hispanic consumers they will engage in a dialogue.

Where to begin - To build an online Hispanic community, you need to start by doing your research. As with any marketing program, you need to know who you are targeting (demographics), where they are (geography) and what they are thinking (psychographics). Armed with this information, marketers can evaluate social media platforms (my agency has categorized 16 different viable social media platforms as of September 2009, ranging from social networking to widgets).

If you are already involved in social media, audit your current efforts (how big is your community, what conversations have occurred, what were the results in terms of business goals, are you reaching Latinos?). Lastly, make sure to take a look at what your competitors are doing and consider industry best practices.

Build a roadmap - Armed with research, you need to develop a Hispanic social media strategy. The most important step in developing a strategy is prioritizing - your research will provide insight into which platforms are most viable / lucrative for your target. While social media is typically free of the "hard costs" of media placement, it is very resource intensive, particularly when it comes to content. This prioritization is best summarized in a social media roadmap, a temporal plan that details a phased approach of how you will enter social media to strategically engage Hispanics.
Approach and your "story" - With a roadmap in place, it's time to think about how you will build a community and start a dialogue. The first step is determining a framework to guide your overall social media efforts. A framework establishes how you or your client will interact with Hispanic consumers in social media. For example, will you employ a passive model of "listening" to gather intelligence or a more aggressive "hub and spoke" model where you use multiple platforms to disseminate your messages?

Depending on the framework you select, arguably the most important step is establishing a programmatic theme or the "story" you want to tell. As with traditional advertising, there needs to be a creative brief in place that succinctly states your overall message, the tone you will use and visual and branding direction. Just like a good 30-second TV spot, every 140-character Twitter post or YouTube video should be part of a narrative, in the right tone, to engage Hispanics.

Build a "base" - With a sound strategy, framework and creative approach in place, it's time to begin building a community. Start by making sure you have well-thought-out content and / or an editorial plan. If you don't have a community of Hispanics actively discussing your brand, you will need to "seed" initial discussions, and that means content. Where will this content come from, how often, what language? All questions you must address. This initial community will be your foundation.
Start a dialogue with key influencers - Finally, try to identify key "influencers" in the Hispanic community who have some connection to your brand and / or story. If you're in health care, identify prominent Latino health care thought leaders who are active in social media. Personally connect with them and invite them to be involved in your program. Your goal is building a community and facilitating conversations.

You need to be patient, but if you follow this approach, you will start to build a community, reach key influencers and ultimately prepare yourself to win in Hispanic social media.

Posted by Ahorre at 07:44 AM