Earned advertising hardest

Most business owners interested in social media ultimately want to figure out how to market themselves effectively.

Marketing is the business objective that can be the most elusive online. Marketing through social media seems straightforward but in reality requires a very clear understanding of the unique ways to participate.

There are really three levels of social media marketing to pursue: owned; purchased and earned. Each level increases the opportunities for marketing success but also increases the level of difficulty.

Owned social media marketing represents any social media profiles that you create, such as your Facebook business page or your LinkedIn profile. You have the ability to make these profiles whatever you want.

With Facebook, you can brand the page, create personalized tabs and post whatever content you like. There’s no guarantee anyone will actually view your Facebook business page, but it’s free and you own it.

Similarly, your LinkedIn profile is free and is owned marketing. You create your own professional headline, outline your summary and specialties, highlight your past and current roles, and can even embed a PowerPoint presentation or a YouTube video. Again, there’s no guarantee anyone will visit your profile, but you can make it whatever you want.

Owned social media marketing seems to be the extent to which most businesses participate. Ask those business owners about their success and invariably they say they’ve achieved no results and have almost given up. Their strategy generally involved setting up a profile then sitting back and waiting for the magic to happen.

In reality, owned social media marketing isn’t likely to generate much in the way of results. You get what you pay for; it’s free.

Purchased social media marketing represents online advertising you participate in through social networking sites and requires an investment of cash. Facebook ads and LinkedIn ads both represent some of the most powerful forms of advertising available to business owners.

Through these platforms you can target an advertisement to the exact type of individual with whom you want to do business. You can indicate you want your ad to be seen only by 37-year-old females living in London who are married and interested in volleyball. Your ad will only be seen by individuals who meet these criteria. Assuming you select “pay per click”, you’ll only pay if people actually interact with your advertisement. Pretty powerful stuff.

Earned social media marketing is the most important level and the most difficult to achieve successfully. Facebook has an algorithm called EdgeRank that is designed to identify the most relevant content that should appear in a user’s newsfeed (the heart of the Facebook experience).

To have your company’s content appear in a user’s newsfeed is not something you can pay for nor is it something you can force. The only way to successfully have your messages appear in a user’s newsfeed is to earn their trust and interest in what you have to say. It all comes down to affinity.

Similarly in LinkedIn, although you may post links and blogs and discussions within a LinkedIn group there’s no guarantee anyone will read your content until you’ve demonstrated your credibility, integrity and genuine interest in the community.

Without question, earned social media marketing is the most difficult level to achieve successfully, but offers the highest dividends.

The founder of Social Media Coach, Geoff Evans of London trains and coaches businesses on the use of social media. www.socialmediacoach.ca

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Why brands like Facebook

In this article, Tim Barnes, head of marketing at Sony Ericsson outlines his organisation’s approach to social media in Australia and asks: Is there no end to Facebook’s usefulness? 

In 2010, Sony Ericsson made a strategic commitment to digital marketing; and the same dedication and approach has continued this year.  We know that, prior to making a purchase, consumers are more and more likely to ‘Google it’, meaning it’s imperative that we have a strong digital presence. We invest more than 50 per cent of our global marketing budget into digital. Digital media provides us with the ability to build the Sony Ericsson brand and promote our products through creative and interactive executions.

Our primary objective is to be recognised as the Communication Entertainment brand through Xperia.  This smartphone range combines the latest Android platform with the best of Sony.  As a marketing channel digital enables us to create interactions that are consistent with the experiences that our customers enjoy when using Xperia smartphones. We approach digital with an ‘Always On’ attitude; consumers not only want but also expect to be entertained 24/7.

Our digital strategy extends across paid, owned and earned media.  Facebook is our most important channel in social media, though we were one of the first mobile brands to globally launch our own YouTube channel.

Facebook is a key pillar of the local consumer engagement piece.  We have set up a cross agency team that works collaboratively to build the community and create engaging and rewarding experiences.

In some ways, it’s hard to imagine life as a marketer before Facebook.  Two-way dialogue with customers is no longer a pipedream; it’s an every-day reality. As a channel, Facebook enables us to do a great number of things that weren’t previously possible.  As an operating company within a global organisation, it gives us much more flexibility and responsiveness when compared with our corner of the global website.  It enables us to establish a local identity and voice for the brand.

I don’t think anyone can claim to have mastered Facebook marketing.  Online communities are living and breathing entities in which change is the only constant, which is what makes it so challenging and exciting.  We’re constantly learning from our customers and fans and we’re hopefully improving the relevance and quality of our content in line with our Communication Entertainment brand values.

One of our biggest Facebook campaigns this year was designed to bring to life our brand promise and encourage two-way communication in a social media setting. Together with our agency, Iris Sydney, we created a live online experiment, which we called Xperia Social Xperiments.

Comedian Tommy Little was locked in a room with his Xperia smartphone and a live video link.  His challenge was to get as many likes on Facebook as he could in eight hours.  Fans set more than 850 challenges in one day and tens of thousands of people tuned in to follow the action.  It simply wouldn’t have been possible to generate this level of engagement and interest without the Facebook channel.

Facebook also acts as a support and service channel for us.  Our community management team work with customer service to solve problems for fans and provide product support.

We work closely with the mobile operators and retailers in Australia, many of which are investing heavily in building out their own brand on Facebook.  Again, Facebook plays a role in co-marketing campaigns with these partners.  This approach has enabled us to cross-pollinate our communities and create awareness for new products and services in a mutually beneficial fashion.

Facebook has also become integral to our Owned media channels; the like button is integrated across the sonyericsson.com.au website.  It has even become a marketing proposition for Sony Ericsson in its own right in the form of ‘Facebook inside Xperia’, which weaves instant Facebook access into the most used areas of the phone allowing users to (for example) ‘like’ photos that friends have posted on Facebook direct from your phone’s photo gallery without needing to access Facebook.

The social layer within the marketing mix is emerging as a real battleground for brands.  It is of immense value, which is obvious by Google’s foray into social media with Google+. Facebook has become the water cooler of the current digital age. At Sony Ericsson, we will be watching and participating in the constant evolution of the social media space.

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