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?