Oh boy, if you thought days 1-3 of South by Southwest in Austin were full of knowledge, check out day 4’s takeaways below. Oracle was doing what Oracle does best, soaking up the data.
From “Brands, Bloggers & the Social Commerce Future
-Kickoff question: how can you keep your blog audience's trust when you start *shudder* making money?
-Keep it real. Don't deceive your readers about what you're going to offer them.
-Influencers write objectively about brands. Advocates take the brand's side every time.
-Blog Power! 5 years ago 64% bought based on blogger recommendation. Now it's 87%.
-81% of women trust info on a blog. 87% purchase based on it.
-The power of human connections. Commercial revenue from blogger recommendations outperformed CPM ads by 4-16%.
-Idea time: spiff worthwhile blog participants with little gifts. It will help keep your blog’s quality up.
-BULLETIN! Bloggers should know how to write!
-People who came to eCommerce sites from text links spent 12 minutes there. Those that came from a visual item spent 18 minutes.
-Do you stop in the middle of a blog to go shopping? Well neither do your blog's readers.
-The magic formula for getting revenue from blogs: quality product + trusted advocacy + frictionless sale.
-Brands are impression driven. This session recommended giving them a cost per exposure (engagement) as well as a CPM. Will they go for that?
-Content on blogs? You get what you pay for. You will soon be bidding to get the best writers.
From “Creating Brand Advocates via Employee Engagement”
-If your employees aren’t fans of your brand, your product's in sad shape.
-Yep, they really do have to be told. 68% of employees would share if they knew what to share.
-Even though they're scared to share, employees want recognition when they go to the effort of doing so.
-Employee sharing = short path to plenty of earned media. Are you leaving that on the table?
From “Why Social Ads Work. Ignore Facebook Naysayers
-Over 60% of media buyers will spend more on social this year, but still aren't sure how to measure it.
-Social is a means of getting customers to interact with your brand, not just notice it.
-Use analytics to see when customers are talking about what you do or offer, then surface ads accordingly.
-One voice does not fit all. Wendy's has 3 Pages with 3 distinct personalities.
-Promos & giveaways get you followers, but not necessarily consistent engagers.
-It's why your targeting platform is so critical. To drive an action, target people who want to hear about what you’re saying.
-Wendy's measures social advertising ROI with time on landing sites, check-ins, and coupon sales.
-Promoted posts work, but (surprise surprise) mostly if they're creative and you’re not making people jump through hoops.
-How many do YOU have? Wendy's & their agency have 10-11 working on content at any given time.
From “The Sweet Science of Virality: You Are Bad At It”
-Take a cue from the New York Post, headlines can make or break you.
-If anyone guarantees you something will go viral, run, don't walk, away from them.
-Better find writers who can do lots of content. There's a 95% engagement fail rate.
-You HAVE to tap an emotion to get a share. Anger & happiness result in the most sharing.
-Sharing comes from being conversational and from framing what you have to say properly.
-Your fans already like you. You're trying to win their friends over with your content.
-This is also the secret to talk radio's success…say what people are thinking but can't express on their own.
-Going viral is not a strategy. Crafting the kind of content that gets shared is.