American Academy of Advertising AWARD RECIPIENT Best practices for social media management By Keith Quesenberry and Michael Coolsen With strategic partner HOW TO INTEGRATE SOCIAL MEDIA INTO YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY FIVE STEPS FOR CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 ICM METHOD GREATER SOCIAL MEDIA RECOMMENDATIONS 7 - ICM METHOD 1: Social-Media Integration INTEGRATION: BEST Through Research 7 - ICM METHOD 2: Social-Media Integration PRACTICES FOR INTEGRATED Through Crowdsourcing 11 - ICM METHOD 3: Social-Media Integration COMMUNICATIONS Through Branded Content 13 - ICM METHOD 4: Social-Media Integration MANAGEMENT Through Customer Evangelism 17 - ICM METHOD 5: Social-Media Integration Through Customer Service 19 CONCLUSION 23 Practical methods for successfully By Keith A. Quesenberry and REFERENCES 24 listening to and engaging with the Michael K. Coolsen empowered consumer The increasing importance of social media and the rising power of the consumer voice have both affected the discipline and “CONVERSATIONS practice of marketing. Today, consumer-generated content can AMONG THE attract millions of impressions in mere days and coverage by major PowerPoint slides of charts news outlets. Until recently, only corporations or large citizens MEMBERS OF and infographics featured in groups could buy this kind of exposure. With the increasing adop- this report are available for buyers tion of web-enabled phones and tablets, social conversation will YOUR MARKET- to download. Go to AdAge.com/slides only spread faster. This is a problem for marketers and advertisers who still practice marketing from a traditional control model. PLACE HAPPEN Business author Seth Godin (2005) summed up this dilemma: This document and information contained therein are WHETHER YOU the copyrighted property of Crain Communications “Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen Inc. and Advertising Age (Copyright 2013) and are for your personal, noncommercial use only. You whether you like it or not.” The growth of social media has dramat- LIKE IT OR NOT” may not reproduce, display on a website, distribute, sell or republish this document, or the information ically shifted influence from mass media to personal communica- contained therein, without the prior written consent of Advertising Age. Copyright 2013 by Crain tion. Consequently, brand managers need to adjust their perspec- — Seth Godin Communications Inc. All rights reserved. tives from a strict, top-down strategy to a more participative and ADVERTISING AGE MAY 20, 2013 · 3 HOW TO INTEGRATE SOCIAL MEDIA INTO YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY interactive one (de Chernatony and Christodoulides, 2004). not caught up to social-media integration (“The CMO What follows is a summary of recent and relevant research and Challenge,” 2011). Despite feeling unprepared for digital integra- case studies involving integration of social media into business tion, marketers are increasing digital efforts. In the pie chart operations and a new framework from which a marketer can below (left), you can see the results of an Advertiser Perceptions approach integrated marketing campaigns. These are practical survey that found 59% of digital decision makers said they methods for successfully listening to and engaging with the would move forward with plans to increase social-media ad empowered consumer. From small businesses to large corpora- spending in 2012, compared with just 4% who said they would tions, these best practices can provide a firm foundation that decrease spending (Del Rey, 2012). Marketers know social organizations can use to survive and thrive in the intensely dynam- media is important and plan to increase spending, but they also ic new media environment. admit to knowing very little when it comes to successfully inte- grating social efforts into traditional marketing plans. KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE To succeed at social-media integration, managers must first Marketers know social-media integration is important to realize that they need to let go of an old model of marketing future success, but many are still experimenting with how to message control. Empowered consumers generating and shar- implement it into their current efforts. A recent online survey of ing their own brand content do not fit neatly into current mod- 265 U.S. marketing directors by Kelton Research found that 68% els of integrated marketing communications (Ewing, 2009). consider their companies behind the curve in digital and inter- How do we adjust? It begins with a shift in marketing practice. active media integration, and another 71% indicated they have We have seen such a dramatic shift before. A previous advance in marketing thinking was the rise of integrated marketing com- munications (IMC). IMC recognized the need to integrate mes- sages for consistency across traditional media channels—a MOST DIGITAL DECISION MAKERS PLANNED TO change in the way managers thought about marketing. This practice arose in part as a way to combat the proliferation of INCREASE SOCIAL-MEDIA AD SPENDING IN 2012 media clutter and to build awareness in the face of decreasing mass-media channels (Graca, 2010). Individual communica- Marketers know social media is important and planned to tions touch points were now managed together in this new prac- spend more but admit to not knowing how to integrate efforts tice for consistency and greater impact. But social media is not just another organization-controlled consumer touch point. PLAN TO The consumers are now creating the communications. Today, DECREASE integration of social media changes the practice of IMC, because SPENDING traditional IMC practices cannot account adequately for the 4% new rise in consumer-generated media. The original idea behind IMC was to make messages consistent across areas that an organization could control. In the current social-media landscape, marketers must now do more than create consistent marketing messages pushed out to consumers. The new reality requires integration of both com- 37% 59% pany-generated messages and consumer-generated communi- cations through shared listening and engagement to create one cohesive marketing strategy. Social media creates conversations with consumers rather than one-sided brand messages (Hennig- Thurau et al., 2010). This requires interaction and integration of all information between company and consumer. It also goes beyond communications to impact many other areas of busi- PLAN TO PLAN TO ness operations such as product development, customer serv- MAINTAIN INCREASE ice and human resources. SPENDING SPENDING HOW DID WE GET HERE? Source: “Digital Landscape Report.” Advertiser Perceptions, 2012. Retrieved Dec. 21, Over the past two decades, the advertising and marketing 2012, from http://www.advertiserperceptions.com/site-map/digital-landscape-report/ industry has seen dramatic changes within two major paradigm shifts. First was the shift to integration that spawned the prac- 4 · MAY 20, 2013 ADVERTISING AGE HOW TO INTEGRATE SOCIAL MEDIA INTO YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY CONSUMERS TRUST OPINIONS POSTED ONLINE OVER ADVERTISING Consumers’ reliance on word-of-mouth in the decision-making process has increased significantly in the last few years Recommendations from people known 90% Consumer opinions posted online 70% Brand websites 70% Editorial content 69% Brand sponsorships 64% TV 62% Newspaper 61% Magazines 59% Billboards/outdoor advertising 55% Radio 55% Emails signed up for 54% Ads before movies 52% Search-engine result ads 41% Online video ads 37% Source: “Global Advertising: Consumers Trust Real Friends and Virtual Online banner ads 33% Strangers the Most.” Nielsenwire, July 2009. Retrieved March 3, 2012, from http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/global-advertising-consumers- trust-real-friends-and-virtual-strangers-the-most/ Mobile-phone text ads 24% 0 100 tice of integrated marketing communications. One sign of the Numerous signs indicate that we are moving beyond inte- adoption of IMC came in a 2009 Advertising Age article that gration toward engagement. The IMC trend was seen in the announced the age of the ad was over. “Cannes Swept by PR, job market as early as 2005 when The Wall Street Journal Integrated, Internet Winners” explained how the famous adver- reported that integrated marketing was the focus of most job tising prize went to an ad made not for TV but for the internet. searches for advertising agency executives (“Ad Agencies' Signaling the importance of earned-media integration, a Most Wanted,” 2008). However six years later, the demand tourism campaign won a PR Grand Prix and top prizes in the shifted. In 2011, ClickZ reported that the two boom job areas direct and cyber categories. David Lubars, president of Cannes’ were social media and web analytics. Both saw massive film and press juries, gave a glimpse into the second paradigm growth and salary increases. However, now it is the compa- shift by saying, "The way the world is heading is voluntary nies themselves, and not their advertising agencies, that are engagement” (Wentz, 2009). driving demand (Langwith, 2012). ADVERTISING AGE MAY 20, 2013 · 5 HOW TO INTEGRATE SOCIAL MEDIA INTO YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY WHY SUCH A FOCUS ON SOCIAL MEDIA? why business operations are an essential part of social-media The consumer has never had such a powerful voice. In integration. Negative customer experiences translate into nega- 2009, Nielsen revealed that 90% of online consumers trust rec- tive social influence, and positive customer experiences ommendations from people they know and 70%