In this follow-up discussion, the authors discuss why professional management is critical to a vibrant online community and how conversation managers utilize a unique set of marketing skills and tools to keep their client communities active and engaged.

Got any other ideas for a hilarious e-card?

Wait! I don’t mean it like THAT.

It’s just that when I started to do research for our new client KO Sailing, I kept coming across all these gorgeous photos of sleek boats streaking across the water with the sun at their backs. And well… my laptop, my desk, and my office all suddenly started to feel more than a little bit suffocating.

You see, KO Sailing is the largest small boat dealer on the Gulf Coast. They help equip performance racers with everything from boats and sails, to gear, apparel and more. And with a new owner and president at the helm, they’ve been looking to make a bold statement with a new brand.

But building a brand is about more than just making a splash. You have to tap into the passion that drives the company in the first place. And for owner Mark McNamara, that’s youth performance racing. He knows the sport. He’s lived the lifestyle. And now he’s ready to help a whole new generation discover the thrill of taking to the water.

The new look, tone, and feel are just the beginning of what we’ve got in store for KO Sailing. And everything we do will be infused with the life and energy that are readily apparent in any conversation you have with Mark. His company is charting a whole new course, and they’re already miles ahead of the competition.

Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go see if I can expense something like this for my office.

You know… for inspiration.

Watch as Senior Art Director Ivan talks through the KO Sailing transformation.

Experiential marketing was personal, intimate, REAL. And social media marketing was networked, collaborative and ephemeral. That’s why experiential marketers have used social media the way they used traditional media such as newsprint – to announce upcoming events and to report on activities. And that’s why social media marketers have typically only used events to create awareness and traffic to online sites.

But let’s back up for a minute. Aren’t events, trade shows and in-store promotions the ultimate “social” phenomena? These experiences don’t take place in a vacuum; the “icing on the cake” is really sharing the experience with friends and kindred spirits.  And aren’t social networks the ideal way to extend brand engagement and interaction? The definition of “place-based” marketing is undergoing transformation in some very interesting and effective ways.  At its very best, the convergence of social media and experiential marketing is maximizing our ability to use consumers as “remarketers.” Here are just a few examples…

Several years ago, Media Logic began working with SilverSneakers, a fitness program for older adults.  As we researched the brand, we discovered that social interaction at the fitness centers was an important benefit of participation for the members. As members became engaged, they were much more likely to renew their memberships when the time arrived.  How could we use this information to build retention and encourage usage?  We began a disciplined approach to social media for this unlikely group – tweeting and posting health tips, exercise advice and SSFP program information.

In a short time, our cadre of followers and “likers” had grown exponentially – sharing their own experiences and tips, encouraging one another and bringing friends and acquaintances into the social fold.  But it did much more than that. Because of the online encouragement and support, members began to actively use their SSFP memberships, meeting their online “friends” at their local gyms. One woman even spoke of using the SSFP friend page as her home page so that she would see it every day and be encouraged to head out for her exercise regimen. While it’s too early to judge the impact on member acquisition and retention, we believe that it’s axiomatic that this kind of engagement will lead to a dramatic increase in membership.

At the other end of the demographic spectrum, the nation’s largest store-based retailer of consumer entertainment products, FYE, has partnered with Media Logic to maximize the value of its entertainment-based content. The program uses social promotions that bolster in-store experiences, events and user-generated content. At the center of the multi-channel effort is the FYE Guy website, a dynamic content hub that allows customers to forge a social connection to FYE by expressing and sharing their personal entertainment interests and experiences through a variety of social media plug-ins and in-store enhancements. By leveraging the engagement power of social media, FYE Guy will give consumers the opportunity to play, share and be part of the brand in a very “sensory” way, while also rewarding loyal customers with coupons and perks via geo-location services such as Foursquare. While still in the “soft launch” phase, the program is already generating significant participation – both online and in-store.

The list goes on. Media Logic is working with Cornell Cooperative Extension to reinvigorate local chapters via a social media celebration of their centennial… we’re connecting people to local bank branches through social “sharing” programs… and we’re helping universities conduct localized alumni programming through innovative Google Maps mashup promotions.  As with most of the previously siloed forms and channels of marketing, the merger of social media and experiential marketing has redefined our notions of “social” and of “place,” creating new ways for marketers to attract, engage and motivate consumers.

First, let me take you back some twenty months when I first ventured into my personal Twitter account, Facebook and LinkedIn pages. I readily entered this new world with just enough activity to stay visible and gain practical, user experience: posting to walls, liking, uploading, commenting, joining brand communities and dabbling in a FB apps (“What should your parents have named you?” or “Who were you in a past life?”). I certainly made my foray in a way that I would now characterize as flirting with social media platforms, kind of toying with an online social life.

In fact, I have a distinct recollection of a conversation with my same-generation friend, Sally, “Yes, I’m on Facebook and Twitter….have to be as a marketer…”  Sally is a committed blogger with strong opinions and impressive writing skills. She sees no difference between online versus offline life. She has a high level of connectivity, tweeting and re-tweeting, re-publishing, point/counterpointing, and is constantly engaged. I, on the other hand, approach social media and my online life as an academic exercise, a giant science experiment, somewhat detached and cerebral.

It took an insightful blog post from Alexandra Samuel to shift my perspective. And, in the process, help make me a better modern marketer.

In essence, Ms. Samuel divides the world into two camps – those whose reality seamlessly encompasses offline/online life and those who live a dual existence of In Real Life (IRL) versus online. She observes that a segment of the population feels moved to apologize for their online lives, a statement that prompted my “aha” moment. Ms Samuel writes:

….it’s our decision — individually and collectively — to separate the Internet from the context, norms and experience that guide human behavior. It’s our decision to engage in online interaction as if it were fundamentally different from offline conversation. It’s our decision to label the Internet as something — anything! — other than real life.

The author articulates a set of guidelines designed to encourage us to “start living in the 21^st century reality….to acknowledge online life as real, and [then] the Internet’s transformative potential opens up.” I find her advice, excerpted below, worth remembering in the pursuit of not only personal authenticity but also authentic marketing:

• When you focus on creating real meaning with your time online, your online footprint makes a deeper impression.
• When you treat your online attention as a real resource, you invest your attention in the sites that reflect your values, helping those sites grow.
• When you spend your online time on what really matters to you, you experience your time online as an authentic reflection of your values.
• When you embrace online conversations as real, you imbue them with the power to change how you and others think and feel.
• When you talk honestly about the real joys and frustrations of the Internet, you can stop apologizing for your life online.

To take Samuel’s guidelines and extend them to a modern marketing mindset may require a shift in thinking. However social media is, after all, no different than traditional marketing in one fundamental way: great advertising and direct response is created by those who have a pre-requisite beyond professional skills, that is, a personal and emotional connection — as a consumer not a creator.

At Media Logic, as early believers, we’ve had a head-start on moving past the intellectualization stage to view online/offline interaction and marketing seamlessly and agnostically. This perspective has allowed us to work with clients from diverse sectors – Financial Services, B2B, Retail, Healthcare – wherever they fall on the continuum and consistently extend the boundaries of what our clients think is possible.

I’ll leave you with a final thought from Alexandra Samuel “all it takes is the decision to treat your online existence seriously, honestly, and attentively and you will find the internet is RLT (Real Life Too).”  Great advice for people and marketers too!

While we cheer this growing acknowledgement of social media as a marketing tool, we wonder about the effectiveness of most hospitals’ efforts as they “dip their toes into the water.” Are they building engagement? Are they forming communities? Are they advancing their brand and differentiating?

Social media without a social media marketing strategy may help us develop Facebook “likers” or Twitter followers, but we’ll never get the kind of engagement that will build an engaged audience and meet our objectives.

So what do we do? Let’s look at what Media Logic is doing for one of its medical clients, a large multi-site radiology practice in New Jersey, Altantic Medical Imaging or AMI. Radiology is a highly competitive field with private specialty practices jousting for patients with large medical institutions and multi-specialty physician groups.

To position AMI as a technological forerunner and thought leader, Media Logic focused their social media efforts on building awareness of one of the hottest issues in radiology — potentially excessive exposure to radiation. Dr. David Dow, an AMI radiologist and an ardent spokesperson for low dose radiologic techniques, became a spokesperson for the practice through topical blog posts, supported by Twitter and Facebook submissions.  Through a carefully planned content marketing strategy, link-building and traffic generation, AMI now appears at the top of the list for local Google searches and has developed a growing community of loyal and engaged followers.

So what does this mean for larger, more diverse institutions? Most importantly, this is your opportunity to shine – but you’ll likely never find the spotlight with an all encompassing hospital effort. It will be too broad and, frankly, too “institutional.” Focus on one of your “centers of excellence” as a beginning. Then, while it may be politically difficult, you’re going to need to have a “voice” or “voices” — real, live people to spearhead the conversation and create engagement. Finally, you’re going to need to develop an ongoing source of fresh and relevant content. For AMI, Media Logic’s Zeitgeist & Coffee^SM process has helped scour the landscape for up-to-the minute topics, trends and commentary. On the backend, precise tracking and analysis will help you determine which topics and discussion items are doing the “heavy lifting.”

It’s taken medical marketers 10 years to realize the promise of the Web. The smart ones won’t wait so long this time around.

Media Logic recently tweeted about this blog post How Social Marketing Lifts Organic Conversions. The post describes the impact social media may have on search engine optimization and vice versa, stating that marketers who engage in SEO and social media may have 58.8% higher conversion rates in organic traffic because their social media work has increased trust in their brands and products.  The breakdown of data provided in the post shows that SEO is more effective at attracting attention and ultimately converting people, while social media is more likely to increase positive thinking around a product and brand. Clearly, a social marketing strategy that includes both SEO and social media would be the best and most effective approach.

But more often than not, we see companies significantly concentrating on either SEO or social marketing… So how can they effectively integrate both in a strategic approach without expending twice the time and resources?  To help provide some direction, I decided to reach out to Media Logic colleague, Danny Dover, an influential SEO expert at SEOmoz, to determine a few key factors in developing an approach that effectively integrates search engine optimization and social media on a small scale.

After putting our heads together, we’ve come up with 4 critical success factors for an integrated approach to search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing:

#1: Listen and learn before jumping in

The biggest mistake we see companies that are new to integrating SEO and social media is starting before they know what they are doing.  There is a LOT of misinformation about SEO and social media online, and it is easy to hurt your potential rankings without even knowing it.  Our recommendation is to spend a considerable amount of time listening and reading before formulating your strategy.  A great place to start is the beginners guide to SEO and blogs like Search Engine Land, Logical Juice and some of the published social media whitepapers at mlinc.com.

#2: Test, test and test some more

Google says they update their algorithm roughly 400 times a year (this means more than once a day).  So companies need to be continually testing – including title tags, meta descriptions, content and linking strategies. Your best bet is to write good content and measure the results.

#3: Create useful, relevant content

Content is the key to earning links online.  People link to what they find useful or interesting.  This is important because link-related factors make up 70% of search engine ranking factors.  For us, SEO and social media always eventually comes back to people.  Content works because content is what people are online to consume.

#4: Be authentic

The importance of authenticity cannot be overstated. People are very good at detecting “marketing speak.” The surest way to get ahead online is to be real with people and do everything you can to deliver value.  Forget what you learned in your Business classes.  This is the Internet; people want to talk to people not faceless corporations. Look to Yelp, Zappos, JetBlue and Google as examples of companies that have done well with this.

Even small SEO and social media efforts in some niches can make a huge difference to the bottom line.  Businesses are made up of people who need information.  Search engines like Google, and social media platforms like Twitter are the best tools out there for finding information, so it is only natural that business relationships can happen online.  Other than improved rankings, traffic and conversions, the biggest benefit for any business owner is establishing new relationships with like-minded business owners and employees.  The Internet is the world’s biggest meeting place… All it takes to succeed is the ability to be found by other people.

In addition to FOX, the contest is being promoted and sponsored by AppNation, the first global conference for application developers. It’s no coincidence that the subtitle for the conference is “Show Me the Money”, as independent app developers have long-struggled to truly cash in on the smartphone and i-app craze. This promo sponsorship provides the contest with the credibility it may need to overcome the building backlash against CGA; some feel CGA is just brands taking advantage of free efforts by others, with little investment or responsibility. Will this leap into the application development pool be different, at least for the first few brands that take advantage of its novelty.

CGA began it’s surge around 2007 with the now-famous Dorito’s Super Bowl contest, still going strong and with probably the best level of execution – it’s 2010 consumer-generated Super Bowl ads were ranked #1 by two Twitter surveys, in number of Tweets, TiVo replays and Hulu post-game views.  But it’s not a success story for everyone – Chevy Tahoe’s first and last foray into CGA ended up with a slew of negative videos that went viral, all positioning the vehicle as environmentally criminal. Others simply suffer from terrible execution, a la the Folger’s “Best Part of Waking Up” 2010 jingle contest, being held up as proof that CGA has truly jumped the shark. In 2007, AdAge pronounced consumers the “Agency of the Year”. Yet a recent AdAge article about CGA opened quite brutally with these words” “Dear consumer, your 15 minutes are over. You suck.”

FOX, never one to shy away from innovation or risk-taking, has high hopes for Pimp My App, and so far has enjoyed a backlash-free launch. Any search for “Pimp My App” brings up top app dev bloggers and other influencers touting the contest and driving traffic to both the FOX site and AppNation’s. We’ll soon see if app developer contests become a new vein in the crowd-sourcing movement, or if they, like FOX’s ill-fated Tweet-peats, come to a crashing halt amid cries of “foul”. In the meantime, let the pimping begin.

So, it’s no surprise that we were recently told, “We want some of that Old Spice Guy stuff,” no less than four times, in a recent meeting with a company looking for a b2b social media strategy to capture some OSG-type magic.

It’s no wonder that companies want to capture the stuff of Old Spice. This week, Adweek published results that Old Spice sales have been on a steady double-digit uptake since introduction of its bravado-steeped manly man TV campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa; and in the last month, its social campaign pushed the sales increase into the three-digit zone.

Watching this campaign unfold and peeking behind the (shower) curtain at how it was pulled-off, we’d say that the success of the OSG campaign involved four key criteria:

• The breakthrough social campaign embraced, didn’t seek to reinvent, the heritage of the brand
• It pushed the envelope, taking a familiar persona to the next level, ever expanding opportunities to converse
• It delivered its audience and  its audience’s main influencer something to talk about
• It delivers on the promise of the brand

Old Spice Guy knows how to get on his horse and sell it. No difference there between consumer and b2b marketing. It all goes back to marketing basics — know what’s important to your customers, find out where they are talking about it, give them something relevant to talk about, and be able to communicate how your strengths map to what they want – in the time and places where they are talking.

Want some OSG magic? Find your horse and get on it … just be sure that you know how to ride it. And if you’re not sure where to find your horse or how to ride, maybe it’s time you speak with us.

How can this be? How can the most visited site on the Internet also be among the most despised?

The complaints against Facebook are familiar. There’s the well-founded privacy concerns, the confusing and repeated changes to the interface, the intrusive advertising and silly games. But these foibles amount to the quirky yet sometimes annoying traits of a creature we otherwise love. Facebook is like a beloved puppy that decides to munch on your new sandals for lunch, if you will. Facebook is the husband with a tendency to leave his sweaty gym socks on the bathroom floor. While these are not among our favorite traits, they aren’t enough to make us abandon puppy, hubby or social network for good.

Facebook has become an indispensible “social utility” to many people (approximately 500 million). A great achievement for Facebook but it’s hard to unconditionally love an entity that large and powerful. This is why the recent backlash is predictable, just as backlash is predictable against any “utility” of Facebook’s size. Perhaps the results of the ACSI survey only reinforce that fact that Facebook has become a permanent and essential part of life, just like cable TV and airline travel.

And while a “social utility” like Facebook clearly isn’t as important as say, the fresh water supply, it is a practical, efficient way to track down and connect with family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues and the like. Something this universally useful is not going to go away quickly, if ever, despite complaints about unsympathetic changes to privacy and user interface. Note the recent failure of Quit Facebook Day.

One could argue that Facebook has transcended “social media” and is now simply a regular, everyday part of life for people young and old, man and woman. It is for this reason that Facebook finds itself in the same boat as airlines, cable companies and the IRS, and why the (albeit sometimes tumultuous) relationship between Facebook and its users will continue to endure.