As many of you know, last week was Social Media Week in Atlanta. Unfortunately for me, it happened to coincide with a particularly hectic workweek—but I was able to attend one of the most anticipated panels: Social Media Innovations.

The Social Media Innovations panel consisted of an impressive group of folks:

Dorothea Bozicolona-Volpe – event coordinator and representing PlacePunch
Scott Lockhart, Co-Founder – Regator
Yvett Evans, Business Development – Vitrue
John Beisner, EVP, Client Services – Twitpay
David Rollo, SVP/Director of Digital Strategy – 22 Squared
Aaron Strout, CMO – Powered, Inc.

Each of the panelists discussed their company’s approaches to innovative social media practices. The event represented a great combination of brands and concepts, all of which had inspiring case studies, statistics, and success stories to share.

Scott Lockhart of Regator opened the session and explained how Regator, a small Atlanta start-up, functions. Essentially, Regator makes it possible for people to locate quality blog content. Regator addresses issues of information overload—in other words, how does one wade through all of the online blogs and publications and find truly relevant and useful information?

Regator uses editorial curators, who go out and find great blogs to feature on the Regator site. The blogs are presented on Regator in a very accessible, user-friendly way, and divided by topics of interest, ranging from beekeeping to social media to politics, technology, or even knitting. Regator offers additional tools for tracking and sharing content with friends, creating a truly social user experience.

Interestingly, Regator has an 85-90% rejection rate for submitted blogs, which serves to maintain the integrity of the content. Regator innovates through offering capabilities such as widgets and iphone apps to users.

Yvett Evans of Vitrue was next to take the floor. She opened by explaining that Vitrue is a SMMP—a Social Media Management Platform, and primarily a technology company that builds a platform of solutions for brands and companies to better leverage the power of Facebook and Twitter.
Featured products of the company include Vitrue tabs—a solution that allows you to leverage content management, and Vitrue publisher—a publishing tool that allows you to publish posts on Facebook more effectively. Vitrue Apps is another feature that they’re currently tapping into.
Yvett covered a few hard-hitting social media stats, including:

- Global time spent on social media increased 82% from 2008 to 2009
- 90% of respondents trust recommendations from their friends
- 60% of “Tell A Friend” widget shares come from social media sites, as opposed to 31% from email
- If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest in the world (currently 500 million + users)
- Average user- 130 friends; 50% of average users visit the site once a day, and spend an average of 55 minutes on the site
- Over 20 million people become fans of Facebook pages each day

She then delved into the subject of couponing, and referenced the recent BBDO study that asked participants what their primary recommendation would be to brands on Facebook. 83% of respondents suggested that brands offer exclusives or benefits. In a 2010 study, participants in were asked what their number one motivation was in “liking” a brand or company on Facebook. Similarly, 40% replied: coupons, benefits, or promotions.

While these statistics weren’t completely surprising to me, I was impressed by the high percentages of folks that simply want to be incentivized to follow a brand.

Yvett continued by presenting a solid case study with Buffalo Wild Wings, a project that Vitrue partnered on with 22 Squared. The agency approached Vitrue to leverage their Facebook couponing technology. Their main objective was to increase sales during an off-peak time period, test the rate of prints and redemptions within a digital medium, and to reward the Buffalo Wild Wings fan base.

Through leveraging paid, owned, and earned media, 22 Squared launched their campaign. It began with a series of wall posts in the form of a coupon, which resulted in a staggering 1900 shares and 67,000 printouts. Virtue’s technology features an easy-to-use interface that allows you to build apps quickly, a deals tab, serving as a landing tab for non-fans, and a coupon creator.

The results:

- 55% of total printouts for the campaign came from Facebook
- 38% were from wall posts
- 63% redemption rate of coupons were from Facebook

Yvette closed by presenting tips on ways to build your own strategy from Facebook, which included:
- define metrics up front
- ensure that you have the proper tools to measure the metrics
- make sure that offer is compelling
- encourage fans to share the promotion
- ensure process is in place for users to redeem

Twitpay’s John Beisner was next up to present, and he opened by describing Twitpay as the first and largest payment service built for Twitter utilization.

Twitpay is primarily focused on nonprofits, and their goal is to allow these nonprofit brands to monetize their investment in social media. It allows them to send out tweets with a call to action, i.e., “please retweet this to make a donation”. Twitpay is facilitating the exponential spread of a message through requests for donations.

John pointed out that when nonprofits feature a call to action on their site that simply requests that users make a donation, it’s just a one-to-one action—there’s nothing social about it. However, through Twitpay, you spread the message or announcement of donation to your donor’s followers. This forces a social interaction, and people like to share the fact that they’ve made a donation. The donation confirmation happens through DM (direct message), and the donor replies yes.

Twitpay focuses on the larger nonprofits, such as the Children’s Miracle Network, United Way, Care, and water.org. Their focus is to bring in the right kind of audience, access new audiences, and train them to make donations. Twitpay’s technology allows nonprofit brands to quickly create donation campaigns. Their process is designed to lower the barriers to donation.

John referenced a powerful case study featuring Malaria No More, who launched a donation campaign that generated 3,969 retweets (one of which was from Bill Gates). Malaria No More’s campaign was implemented for World Malaria Day, and the purpose was to raise money for mosquito nets.

The campaign rivaled the text-to-give activity by bringing in 40% of the funding, while text-to-give brought in 60% –very noteworthy considering that text technology has been around significantly longer.

Caleb Clark from Mobilization Labs, a software company out of Buckhead, described the Wildfire Platform—technology that originated 5 years ago in the political space. However, today they’re in the brand and nonprofit space. They’re focused on mobilizing groups of people behind a brand, and enabling the brand to better understand their behavior, which contributes to their overall ROI.

Wildfire’s technology measures and tracks everything that brands do, analyzes the behavior of their fans, and motivates them to do more. The Wildfire platform takes the list of fans and helps brands to “improve the ask”. One example of this methodology was with the Jonas Brothers brand, which called on Wildfire to solicit help from their fans to help promote the upcoming tour. The top 3 fans that helped promote the band were flown to New York to spend the day with the band.

Another great case study of Wildfire’s technology was with the Spicy Chicken Chick-Fil-A promotion that took place over the summer. Chick-Fil-A is known for their wildly successful giveaways and promotions; however, they were looking for more insight into their fan behavior, in order to pinpoint what and who exactly was driving fans into the door for the giveaway campaigns.

The Spicy Chicken sandwich giveaway was the largest product launch in Chick-Fil-A’s history, so the brand used the Wildfire platform to communicate the promotion to their 2 million + fans. They tied the platform into the reservation system—so fans would print their reservation and pick up their free sandwich. Ultimately, Wildfire was able to capture information on every fan and analyze where they came from, whether it was from Facebook, Twitter, etc., and uncover which fans notified the most people.

In one week’s time, Chick-Fil-A increased their email subscriber list by 50%, and gave away over 1 million sandwiches. Additionally, overall sales increased chain-wide by 50%–and this was with no radio, TV, or other forms of traditional advertising. More importantly, they were able to analyze and understand the behavior behind the fans that took advantage of the offer. By examining the behavioral analytics behind their fans, Chick-Fil-A was able to better understand them, which will undoubtedly aid them in future campaigns and promotions.

Caleb pointed out that while social conversation is important, it’s not as critical as fan actions.

Dorothea Bozicolona-Volpe stepped in to discuss PlacePunch, a location based marketing platform that enables businesses to drive more customers to their venues, build customer loyalty, and gain new insights with their customer base. Their tools and technology integrate with Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter and other location based social networks.

PlacePunch helps brands with customer engagement, and assists them in building customer loyalty programs.

Dorothea referenced a PlacePunch case study with IHG Hotel Group, who wanted to create a unique, engaging experience for customers when they checked into the hotel via Foursquare. IHG used Placepunch technology to begin a messaging program, in which Twitter replies were sent to customers when they checked into one of 3100 domestic IHG locations. The messages varied from good will to promotional, and customer response was strong.

Another strong case study was with Concentrics Restaurant, who engaged all customers who were checking into their locations via Foursquare, Facebook, Gowalla, etc., and rewarded them at the point of sale with a free appetizer or dessert.

Both brands understand the importance of contacting and rewarding customers at the point of engagement, which undoubtedly drives more customer loyalty.

David Rollo of 22 Squared was last to present—he described several important relationships and strategic partnerships that the agency has developed with companies like Vitrue, Blinq Media, and Looxii. By leveraging these outside resources, 22 Squared has been able to enhance their client offerings significantly.

David went on to describe some client social media success stories that were achieved with the help of these partnerships. For instance, they increased Baskin Robbins Facebook fanbase from 458,000 to 1.2 million in just a short amount of time.

Through Vitrue’s technology, 22 Squared is able to better monitor fan conversation and activity through one management platform that offers optimal visibility into fan bases for their clients. It’s crucial to be moderating and monitoring these conversations, especially as spam becomes more of an issue.

Blinq Media is another strong partnership for 22 Squared—Blinq assists them with increasing visibility and fan bases on Facebook, and supports them with building out apps, such as Baskin Robbins Group Scoop app, which offers free scoops of ice cream. Blinq is also able to stretch Facebook advertising budgets much farther than if you were to go directly through Facebook. Blinq also determines CPF, or Cost Per Fan, which helps to pinpoint run rates and ROI, and runs multivariate testing.

Last, David introduced Looxii, a social media monitoring engine that he stated was ”simple, useful and affordable.” He compared them to Radian6, but pointed out that Looxii is well suited for clients on tighter budgets. The platform is comprehensive, customizable, and cross-platform. It measures trends, conversations, and human sentiment. You’re also able to create a customized, branded dashboard for clients for listening.

It was a rare treat to be able to be among some of the greatest Atlanta minds in social media technology and innovation, and I left the session feeling inspired and full of ideas for putting some of the concepts I learned into practice. I think my biggest takeaway was inspired by the thought of pursuing more strategic partnerships with some of the talented companies I was introduced to. I feel that social media is best served as a collaborative effort—certainly, such efforts achieve the best results for clients, which is what we’re all ultimately striving for.

Were you able to make it to the Social Innovations Panel? If so, what stood out for you?

How does one capture the essence of Social Fresh in a single blog post? I’m not sure it’s possible, so in order to avoid a potential case of writers block, I’ll keep it simple and restrict my subject material to the ‘aha’ moments that resonated with me the most.

Passion/ Inspiration

Speaker: Spike Jones from Brains on Fire: Word of Mouth Marketing

The theme of Spike’s presentation centered on his belief that people tend to get too caught up in the tools and tactics surrounding social media. He pointed out that 90% of WOM happens offline, so we, in turn, need to begin our efforts offline. Our focus should begin with people. Spike spoke of the power of a movement, as opposed to a campaign. Consider the power of harnessing the passion of a group of people, rather than merely focusing on pushing out campaign after campaign. Movements are centered around belief systems, kindred spirits, and even love, while campaigns fixate on target markets and penetration. As Spike phrased it, movements, by definition, have powerful identities because intrinsically, ‘everyone wants to be part of something bigger than themselves.’

Spike backed up his words with some hard-hitting case studies, and focused particularly on ‘the Fiskateers’, a movement generated by Brains on Fire for the crafts division of Fiskars Brands, Inc. Fiskars called upon the agency to help them overcome customer brand loyalty issues, and Brains on Fire responded by designating four women to represent Fiskars as brand ambassadors. After a thorough training session at Fiskars headquarters, the newly appointed Fiskateers returned home and proceeded to spread the brand’s message, visit storeowners, and build communities.

The results were nothing short of astonishing: the Fiskateers movement caused a 39% increase in online visits, a 600% increase in online mentions, and an overall 500% return on value. Further, the group generates 13 new product ideas a month and creates their own marketing and PR initiatives. To date, there are over 5,400 active Fiskateers.

The most striking element of the Brains on Fire case studies was the way in which these communities developed a life of their own. Granted, the agency planted the seeds by creating and implementing the concepts; but the communities grew organically through good old-fashioned word of mouth and passionate brand advocacy.

I think it’s safe to say that Spike had us all at ‘Everything you’ve heard today is complete and total crap…unless you have a strategy behind it.” And marketing strategies begin and end with people, not tools.

Execution/Implementation

Speaker: Maggie Fox: The Art and Science of Scaling Social Media

Maggie Fox, founder and CEO of Social Media Group out of Canada, coached the crowd on the scientific nature of social media. SMG has developed strategies for major brands including Ford Motor Company and SAP Global Marketing, so Maggie had our full attention. She opened by pointing out that experimentation is a scientific process, and she shared the formula for scaling social media: earned media, amplified by paid media, syndicated through owned channels= scalability. In other words, create remarkable experiences with products or services for digital content production, and scale them through paid media and social platforms.

Throughout the presentation, Maggie reiterated the importance of constantly testing and refining your content. Many people make the mistake of throwing a bunch of content out into the universe and hoping that it sticks. She also communicated the benefits of leveraging user-generated content through social ads or repurposing through various social media channels. This point really hit home with me: why not take full advantage of valuable, credible content about your brand generated by third parties? (To quote Maggie: “You’re a media company–now act like one.”) In doing so, you can reignite/repurpose conversations and maintain a diversified mix of content. For greater impact, you can direct your audience to user-generated material through social and PPC ads. This practice also addresses cost issues in that you’re not constantly starting over.

Maggie urged us to stop wasting time and energy on short-lived campaigns and microsites, and to build our own channels. (As I listened, the adage ‘work smart, not hard’ kept entering my mind.) Conduct audits: where are we? And where is the conversation about us taking place? Find out, pump information about you into your social media ecosystem, and ensure that your audience finds the most credible and holistic picture of your brand/organization.

Last, Maggie touched on the challenge of qualitative measurement in social media–something that machines simply can’t handle. Subsequently, we must appoint people to manage and monitor tonality, semantics, and the natural language of content surrounding our brands. Too often, content is the last thing to be considered, when in fact, the majority of our emphasis should be placed upon it.

Examining ROI

Panel: ROI of Community Building– DJ Waldow (Blue Sky Factory), Amber Naslund (Radian 6), Rich Ullman (Ripple6), & John Andrews (Collective Bias)

This was a session I was eagerly anticipating, and it didn’t disappoint. The ROI of social media is always a hot topic, and we couldn’t have asked for a better panel to tackle it. Here’s a breakdown of the talking points:

- ROI in and of itself is a poor efficiency vehicle. We must distinguish between engagement level vs. hard metrics/leads. Engagement and sales can live together, and as Amber said: engagement begets leads.

- Great point: For years we’ve been cultivating relationships offline– we take clients to dinner; we go on golf outings, etc. We instinctively understand the return on these relationship building practices. Forging online relationships is no different.

- ‘A rising tide lifts all boats.’ It’s in our best interest to support our community/industry as a whole. Case in point: when DJ Waldow recommended one of his competitors to a client, the client was so impressed by the gesture he proceeded to refer business to DJ and spread the word about his generosity.

- Question for the panel: ‘How do you recommend getting others involved (internally) with your company’s social media efforts?’
There are almost always employees within an organization who enjoy participating and contributing above and beyond the call of duty. Take notice of the people within your organization who are writing about your company/industry and be a cheerleader for them. Build your own communities internally.

- Amber Naslund on measurement: some organizations have issues measuring social media because they struggle with measurement in general. Companies need to stop and ask the question: ‘What is the ‘I’ in our ROI?’ Is it dollars? Time? Expertise? Amber’s quote: ‘Give me the ‘I’ and I’ll give you the ‘R’. ROI is only one metric that equates to dollars. (Cue cheering…)

- Don’t start measuring after year 1–get a starting point (ideally at ground zero), define your objectives, then establish a measurement matrix for your social media/community building efforts.

- Align your listening practices with your sales database. For example, one case study reflected a situation in which 60% of the company’s online community was missing from their database.

- On overcoming fear of bad social media commentary (i.e. ‘What if they say something bad about us?’):
If people have something negative to say about your company or brand, they’re going to say it somewhere online, regardless of whether you have a social media presence or not. Further, complaints and negative commentary can be a major driver of ROI because they present a huge opportunity for conversion.

Also worth mentioning: Brian Dresher, Marketing Manager at USA Today, made a great point in reference to ROI during the ‘Branding Social Media’ Panel: the ‘I’ in ROI stands for Investment, Interaction, and Influence, and should be measured accordingly.

I have so much appreciation for speakers and panelists within the social media community who slice through the clutter and address the tough questions. Sofresh delivered on its promise to focus on case studies, instigate quality conversations, and provide inspiration.

To hear more about this conference, make sure to take a look at the video interviews that Jason Peck conducted from SoFresh.

And if you attended Social Fresh Tampa, I’d love to hear your feedback on the sessions and/or speakers. What stood out for you?