Category Archives: Audience Engagement

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The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 5 – How and What To Measure

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Scale 

This blog series covers insights shared by Chris Brogan, Charlene Li, David Meerman Scott, and Martin Giles (moderator) on The Business Value Behind Social Media (part of The Premier Business Leadership Series presented by SAS).  Part 4 covers the panel's discussion and suggestions on how to get started in social media (particularly for organizations late to the game). 

Part 5 highlights the panel's insights on measuring social media's business impact by:

* Defining what metrics are valuable (and which are not)

* Understanding how your company performs in search engine results (i.e., SERPs)

* Showing how social media activity "bridges or links" to an organization's bottom line

* Acknowledging the real reasons driving an organization's desire for measuring social media initiatives

This post highlights the panel's discussion from 36:57 to 43:18 of the embedded video.


 

Track and Measure Meaningful Metrics

Number of Followers, Fans, or Page Views Is Not a Valuable Performance Metric (37:07 – 39:18).  According to Chris, reliance on metrics quantifying potential reach or number of people "who possibly saw" your message is a mistake.  The traditional pubic relations imprint methodology for quantifying success is not what you want. Why then do people cite these figures?  Because people want to bring large performance numbers to the C-Suite executives supporting the social media initiatives. 

Customer conversion numbersare the more refined and accurate number marketers should cite (i.e., "how many people clicked on the link you wanted them to click on").  Chris elaborates that earning 1.5 million You Tube views isn't enough.  If none of these viewers takes action on the link that leads to your cash register (e.g., convert to paying customers or take a specific action), then you're missing business opportunities.

Track Metrics Articulating a Specific Business Outcome(s) (38:10 – 38:32).  Chris encourages his clients to track the following metrics when evaluating social media initiatives:

  • Revenue Increases
  • Lead Acquisition (particularly decreases in cost of lead acquisition)
  • Number of Subscribers to Company Newsletters
  • Impact on Open Rates to Existing Company Media
  • Percentage of Conversation / Percentage of Mind – Sentiment Metrics

Percentage of Conversation / Percentage of Mind ( 38:33 – 39:17).  Chris believes sentiment metrics are valuable because they provide an understanding of what and how often customers are talking about your company's products or services (especially relative to your competitors).  He suggests companies locate the most active online forums where their products / services are being discussed and track this metric:

  • How much percentage of mind is positive (+)
  • How much percentage of mind is negative (-)

The key is to remember how your choice of tracking metrics will always depend on the business goal sought.  Therefore, always tie your social media tracking metrics to specific business outcomes.

Understand and Improve Your Search Engine Results

The Importance of Search Engine Results Pages – SERPs (39:19 – 39:47).  David explains it's important to know two (2) things about search engine results:

(1) What are the important keywords and phrases relevant to your industry

(2) Where do your firm's products / services appear in the search results for these keywords and phrases.  Take careful note of how your results fare relative to your competitors in these searches.

Search engine results matter because a buyer's intent starts with online search.  If a company's products / services are currently landing on the fifth (5th) page of Google searches, social media can improve those results so the company earns first page placement.  

Side Note:  I wrote a blog post on the value of page one Google results in organic search.  According to the research documented in that post, ~95% of consumers stop looking at their search results beyond the second page (regardless of the search engine used).  This is why search engine rankings matter. 

Bridge / Link Social Media Activity to Specific Business Outcomes

Duration of Sales Cycle Close and Linking Other Business Activities to Social Media (40:18 – 41:08).  Chris notes how tracking the time to close sales is important.  If you can accelerate / shorten the sales cycle duration, you are demonstrating how social media contributes to revenue generation.  Other valuable metrics:

(1) Number of Customer Interactions / Touches:  Research says you need to touch / interact with the customer approximately nine (9) times before making a sale.  With social media, an organization can increase the number of customer interactions and beyond industry benchmarks.

(2) Competitive Intelligence Data:  LinkedIn Company Profiles allows you to see which companies are researching your firm on LinkedIn.  Also, you can find additional information about competitors on the Company Profiles Pages.

(3) Link to Existing Sales Funnel Metrics – Car Dealerships and Test Drives:  Chris points out that number of page views on specific car model's home page is good, but that doesn't tell you a lot about overall impact on sales.  Therefore, car dealerships are linking and tracking social media activity's influence on number of test drives. By linking social media activity to number of test drives, the car dealership links to an existing and trusted sales funnel metric. 

To Chris, the type of linking described in the car dealership example is "the gold of social media."  Why?  The car dealership example shows how social media can improve customer conversion.

What's Really Driving the Social Media Measurement Obsession?

Is It Fear?  (41:25 – 42:47)  When David hears senior executives questioning the financial validity of social media, he thinks it's really a veiled response for "I don't want to be bothered with social media."  Therefore he addresses that objection by posing the following question:

"As soon as you can tell me the ROI of giving each salesperson a Blackberry, I'll tell you the ROI of participating in social media."

We Do Certain Things in Business Because It's the Right Thing to Do.  Here are additional examples of existing corporate activities that David cites as having no quantifiable ROI, but we do them because these are the right things to do:

  • Painting the walls
  • Maintaining a nice-looking corporate campus
  • Providing salespeople with Blackberry smartphones for client management (and as a company expense)

It's Not Always About Putting in $X and Always Getting $X Back .  David concluded his point-of-view with an important point.  Yes, measuring social media is important, BUT make sure you're divorcing your indvidual fears/ignorance/bias before justifying the need to measure something.

We Tend to Overvalue the Things We Can Measure and Undervalue the Things We Cannot (42:49 – 43:48).  Charlene cited this quote from John Hayes, Chief Marketing Officer of American Express, when describing the social media measurement obsession. 

She elaborates it's not a matter of "is social media worth it" because we already know there's value in it.  In the big picture perspective, she points out:

  • Is it really possible to value a relationship?
  • If so, how much value do you place on that relationship? 

Conclusion

How Much Do We Value Relationships?  This should be the governing question for all organizations when evaluating and measuring social media business impact.  Why? The resounding theme expressed by Brogan, Li, and Meerman Scott throughout the video always comes back to:

It's All About Relationships

Companies who've founded their reputations on this moral value are the ones genuinely investing the time, resources, and money to become relevant social media citizens.  Companies like Starbucks, IBM, Best Buy, Intel, H&R Block, Boeing, HubSpot, Amazon, Dell, fall into this mix. 

Cold, Hard Fact: Social Media is Reinventing the Power of Customer Influence.  The power of one individual (or a collective group) to influence a company's online reputation is significant — and that power is here to stay.  In fact, that word-of-mouth power (WOM) is escalating.   

This brings me to a simple question:

Is Social Media ROI really just Corporate Code for CYA? 

I would argue Yes.  Please understand, I strongly believe in measuring social media's business impact and linking its activities to targeted, business outcomes.  Doing so allows an evaluation and understanding of the social media activities making a positive business impact (and even more importantly, those that are not).  Making that determination is critical because successful social media initiatives require the significant investments mentioned earlier.  As a result, measurement drives informed decisions on resource prioritization.  

Therefore, let's not go down the paralysis analysis road to financially justify every aspect of social media participation.  Let's keep an eye on the ball and the big picture.  While you kindly invested time to read this post, someone is online.  And he/she is positively or negatively influencing your company's financial success RIGHT NOW. 

In closing, if our customer and client relationships are strictly based on the bottom-line (e.g., transactional), then we're making a momentous mistake.  Here's a direct quote from MG Siegler's December 17th Tech Crunch article describing Yahoo's current financial and strategic challenges:

"Yahoo is all about the shareholders now.  It's all about the bottom-line.  That's all that matters.  It's not about the users.  It's not about building or maintataining great products.  It's about finding the ones that make the money and slicing the rest." 

Remember, at the end of the day, it's not about you or me.  It's about clients, customers, and helping them make informed decisions about the business challenges they confront.  It's about something bigger than ourselves. 

It's All About Relationships.

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention.  Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.   


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Thank you for spending your valuable time in reading this installment of The Business Value Behind Social Media.  Please tune in for Part 6 – Social Media and Crisis Recovery.

I'm targeting January 15, 2011 for publishing Part 6.  I want to get it right, and I'll also be catching up in my "regular job" after returning from vacation over the holidays. 

Many Thanks and Have a Safe and Happy New Year's Day! 


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Social Media ReInvention Blog’s Most Popular Posts in 2010

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Top 10 List 
2010 is already coming to a close and it has been quite a learning experience.  I want to thank each of you for becoming a member of the Social Media ReInvention Blog community.  Your comments and emails about how the content published in this blog helps you means so much to me.

Thank You!


Your Ten Favorite Posts in 2010

10. A Great Example of Online Listening & Brand Monitoring: The Ritz-Carlton

 9. MySpace's Reinvention Strategy: Focus On Its Core Buyer Persona

 8. Charlie Rose's Conversation with Ken Auletta: Innovation, Efficiency, and Future Challenges at Google

 7. Avinash Kaushik's Rules for Insightful & Actionable Web Analytics

 6. 5 Insights from HubSpot's The State of Inbound Marketing 2010 Webinar

 5. Successful Social Media Marketing is Neither Free Nor Easy  

 4. Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah Levels the Marketing Playing Field

 3. 3 Social Media Tips for Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love

 2. Fortune 500 Companies Achieve ROI with LinkedIn

 1. 3 Reasons Why I Rejected Your LinkedIn Invitation

Plans for Social Media ReInvention Blog in 2010

Please let me know which posts were your personal favorites or if your favorite 2010 post didn't make the list, please leave me a comment and let me know. 

Even more importantly, please let me know what type of content, topics, or subjects you'd like for me to address in 2011.  I want the content in Social Media ReInvention Blog to be of value to you.  If there were posts that missed the mark (and based on going through this Top 10 exercise, there absolutely were some turkeys), I'd appreciate you telling me.

I'm Going to Experiment and Try Some New Things in 2011.  I hope you'll have the patience and trust to stick with me as I try out some new stuff like:

* Video Book Reviews.  If authors are willing to stake their individual reputations on social media and digital marketing with their books, then I should have the courage to provide a video portion to accompany the written review.  No security blanket of hiding behind the keyboard and an Internet connection — time for me to put some skin in the game on the online scrutiny front.

* Social Media and Inbound Marketing in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industry.  First, I want to assure you I'm not going to focus this blog solely on one industry regarding the use and applications of social media and inbound marketing.  Personally, I find that kind of focus too confining.  Secondly, I think it's important to understand how social media and inbound marketing are leveraged in multiple industries because so many lessons can be learned by observing other organizations.  As I continue studying the books Real -Time Marketing & PR and Open Leadership, those multi-industry lessons are highly evident.

I've worked in the pharma / biotech industry for almost fourteen (14) years, and this industry's current use (or more importantly its existing fear) of how to use social media for customer engagement fascinates me.  This is a highly regulated industry confronting significant challenges not only on the business side but also the public relations side as well.  I hope you won't mind if I add my personal two cents about what I observe and recommend (either rightly or wrongly).

* eBook Publications Stirring in My Head.  I have some ideas for eBooks that I'd like to publish in 2011.  These books will be completely free for download, and I when I say free, I mean absolutely no strings attached (e.g., providing contact information or personal information).  I've got the ideas scoped out, and have already started writing about two of these topics in this blog.  Now, it's just a matter of doing it and making it happen.

Conclusion

Many Thanks for investing your valuable time in reading and subscribing to my blog.  It means so much to me that you think I have something noteworthy to share. 

I promise to hold up my end of the deal by commiting myself to learning as much as I can about social media and inbound marketing in 2011.  And hopefully, I will publish a variety of thoughtful and engaging content that supports my point-of-view and makes you think.

May You and Your Families Have a Safe and Happy New Year!


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The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 3 – How Walmart Learned From Initial Social Media Failures

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Milk Spill 

This blog post series covers insights shared by Chris Brogan, Charlene Li, David Meerman Scott, and Martin Giles (moderator) on The Business Value Behind Social Media (part of The Premier Business Leadership Series presented by SAS).  Part 2 provided the panel's insights on successfully implementing social media guidelines, processes, and goals focused on customer engagement.

Part 3 covers the panel's discussion on Walmart's initial social media strategy mistakes. 

I've supplemented the panel's discussion with examples described in pages 229 to 230 of Open Leadership, Charlene Li's latest book.  In these examples, Charlene writes how Walmart learned and recovered from these initial mistakes by continuing to experiment with different social media initiatives and refocus on its core audience.

The panel's discussion on Walmart's takes place from 19:00 to 20:50 of the embedded video.


 

Wal-Mart's Initial Struggles in Social Media

Many Retailers Made the Same Mistakes in Social Media (19:00 – 20:02).  Chris makes the point how many retailers (not just Walmart) and manufacturers made the mistake of initially viewing social media as just another "push channel" or "another way to push stuff down a different pipe."   

Walmart's Initially Looked Like It May Never Understand Social Media (20:03 – 20:50).  Charlene noted several missteps by the retailer that seemed to proceed one disaster after another.  I've added additional details from Open Leadership to provide additional context:

* 2006 – The Hub Social Network Lasts Only Ten (10) Weeks.  The Hub was Walmart's attempt to compete with then-leader MySpace.  Actors and models populated content and pushed visitors to buy Walmart's products.

* September 2006 – Media Coverage Reveals a Fake Blog.  A blog portraying a couple's cross-country travels in an RV and staying in Walmart parking lots was revealed as a Walmart supported venture.  Broken customer trust followed due to the significant negative news coverage this story received.

* Fall 2007 – A Facebook Group Misaligned with the Intended Target Audience.  A Facebook group focused on back-to-school shopping for college audiences was well-executed, but the group focused on fashion.  The problem is the intended target audience associated Walmart with low price — a complete disconnect.  Further compounding problems were Facebook members who started protesting Walmart's labor practices via comments and turned this site against the company.  


Walmart Learned From Each Social Media Failure 

A Return to the Corporate Mission: Helping Families Save Money.  In pages 229 to to 230 of Open Leadership, Charlene explains how Walmart's determination and persistence sustained the company through some early struggles.  Eventually, the company achieved online victories by focusing on social media initiatives focused on helping families save money. 

* CheckOutBlog.com.  A site which shares the perspective of Walmart's employee buyers' and how they go about selecting merchandise for their stores.

* Bazaarvoice.  A service that provides user ratings and reviews on Walmart's sites.

* Elevenmoms.com Blog.  A collection of mommy bloggers who share tips on how to save money.

The Resolve to Succeed and Courage to Experiment.  Despite all the previous setbacks and struggles, Walmart was determined "to figure social media out," and it tested different ideas along the way.

The Results – A Legion of Facebook Fans and Customer Engagement on Twitter.  These additional anecdotes from Open Leadership are inspiring.  Walmart achieved these online results because it didn't give up:

* Facebook Membership of 500,000+

* Dozens of Employees Engaging on Twitter with Customers

Conclusion

The Walmart example shows how maintaining your resolve to succeed in social media marketing is a big part of the game.  Even though it failed on a very public stage, Walmart kept at it and learned from these initial mistakes.  Now, they're succeeding in directly communicating with their core audience through selected social media channels.

This case study highlights the importance of "failing well."  If you're going to particpate in online conversations (like writing a blog), you're going to fail and commit mistakes.  I know I have.  Hopefully, I will continue learning from those mistakes (just like Walmart). 

Most importantly, participation in social media channels means there's always a chance, you'll fail publicly (in a small or large scale depending on your online visibility). 

But, if you're persistent and resilient, you will:

(1) Prevail in the long run and

(2) Learn a ton about what works or doesn't work for you as an online publisher

That opportunity to continuously learn and experiment is what I love about participating in social media. 

Just ask these self-made entrepreneurs profiled in this recent Business Week – Bloomberg article: Ivy League and Privilege Not Required to Make Billions.  In each case, these individuals cited the value of learning from their mistakes and how those lessons helped them become wealthy in the process.

 


Since next Saturday is Christmas Day, the plan is to publish the next installment of this series on Sunday, December 26th.  I hope you'll tune in to The Business Value Behind Social Media Part 4 – How to Get Started in Social Media.

 

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention.  Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.   

 

Photo Credit: by russelljsmith Via Flickr 

 

 

 

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Intel’s Social Media Strategist Says Social Media Is Not Free

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Money 1 

Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst, recently spoke with Kathleen Malone, Senior Manager and Social Media Strategist of Intel.  During the interview, Ms. Malone shared key insights about investments Intel is making in social media marketing.  The interview included Intel's social media budgeting process, how the Social Media Center of Excellence operates, and the challenge allocating staff resources.


The Challenge of Managing Stakeholder Expectations: Social Media is not Free

Social Media Initiatives Requires Budgetary Funding.  Here are some direct quotes supporting the fact that social media requires financial investment (even in a large organization like Intel).

* "We like to remind management and stakeholders that social media is not free."

* "Intel has been an early adopter in social media, but we haven't funded it as well as many of us would like."

* "We anticipate funding in three areas: expanding tools, infrastructure and analytics, because we need to expand our ability to measure and drive insight; social network site development; and campaign activation."

* "We'd like to scale social media [globally] in 2011.  We're hoping that we secure budget to move funding into this area."

When Williamson asked Malone about budgets expanding at Intel to support social media marketing, she replied: "Yes, it would be an expansion and a more defined social media budget to support scaling, more interesting and dynamic social content and our enablement goals.

Processes, Infrastructure, and Marketing Integration Supporting Social Media

Intel's Social Media Center of Excellence Manages Social Media Guidelines, Training / Education. Intel established The Social Media Center of Excellence as part of the marketing strategy and campaigns team.  This team reports to sales and marketing and ultimately to Intel's Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).  The Social Media Center of Excellence manages social media guidelines and governance which is important because this team's role is to drive strategy, enablement, use of social media, and social media training and education within Intel. 

Centralized Social Media Training and Guidelines.  At Intel, the Social Media Center of Excellence makes sure that Intel's employees using social media (corporate marketing group and other business units) understand and know the latest guidelines. These guidelines include employees disclosing they are Intel employees in their Twitter "names or handles" and blogs.

Social Media Integration with Overall Marketing Requires Infrastructure.  Social media started off at Intel organically, unstructured, and was led by early adopters.  According to Malone, 2009 and 2010 have been about operationalizing social media and putting in an infrastructure.  The goal in 2011 is to scale up social media use but ensure Intel does so strategically. 

Successful Audience Engagement Requires A Social Media Team 

2011's Biggest Challenges for Successful Social Media Engagement.  Williamson asked Malone what will be the biggest challenges she faces in making social media engagement successful in 2011 and beyond.  Malone makes two key statements:

"The resource issue is a big obstacle, because social media can be time-consuming.  To be successful you need to fully engage in a two-way dialogue."

"And so I think the challenges are around having enough resources to get social media to scale."

You Need an In-House Social Media Staff Participating in Conversations.  Malone points out how successful social media engagement must come from within the organization.  In her view, the organizations successfully leveraging social media are participating and engaging with their own teams or as she says: "We believe it's important to stay engaged firsthand."

You Can't Outsource Genuine Social Media Engagement.  Furthermore, Malone implies that "handing off social media execution to an agency" is a mistake.  I agree with this point.  I think her direct quote says it all:

"It's not the same a putting a media plan together, where you are briefing an agency to complete the plan.  You can do some of that in social media, but I don't think the companies that are most successful in social media are handing off a whole lot." 

Conclusion

The Intel case study demonstrates how successful social media marketing is neither free nor easy.  Even for a technology-savvy organization like Intel, successful social media strategy execution requires time, financial investment, people, guidelines, processes, and infrastructure.

Most importantly, Ms. Malone's viewpoint that genuine social media engagement requires significant resources in time and people (e.g., a dedicated team) bears repeating.  The guidelines, the processes, and the team members required to enable Intel in "scaling up" its social media strategy will require major investments in time and people.

Social Media Engagement Requires Time + Commitment.  This is "the commitment investment" that many organizations fail to honor.  Social media engagement isn't about the technological tools (i.e., Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, Facebook, etc.).  Social media engagement is about interacting with another human being who enjoys participating in the online conversation by sending out tweets and updating their personal status.

And it takes a lot of time, hard work, and commitment to genuinely and consistently engage those folks if you want to earn their trust over the long haul …

 
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The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 2 – Open Leadership, Guidelines, Process Discipline, and Goals

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Open Sign 

This post represents Part 2 of a series covering the insights shared by Chris Brogan, Charlene Li, David Meerman Scott, and Martin Giles (moderator) on The Business Value Behind Social Media (part of The Premier Business Leadership Series presented by SAS).  Part 1 provided an Executive Summary of the hour-long panel discussion.

The panel discusses the characteristics of model organizations currently succeeding in social media implementation and management.  Common success factors describing these companies included:

* Social Media Guidelines and Employee Rules of Engagement

* Process Discipline

* Open Leadership (the rules for playing in the social media sandbox as explained by Charlene Li)

* Goals (e.g., defining the business outcome the individual organization wants to achieve with social media)

The summary of key takeaways pertains to 3:33 to 15:38 of the embedded video.


 

Companies Succeeding in Social Media Established Employee Guidelines and Processes for Customer Engagement

The US Air Force and Guidelines (3:33 – 5:08).  All 30,000 members are allowed to participate in social media.  The establishment of guidelines and a structure for interaction were key success factors.  David references a favorite quote from from a high ranking officer about giving Air Force Team Members the opportunity to engage in social media: "If we trust them with a $300 million airplane, why can't we trust them on Facebook?

CitiBank and Defining a Process First (5:11 – 6:45). Charlene describes how the key learning from here is the importance of establishing and putting a process in place first.  This process should define the employee interaction with customers via social media.  Defining the process provides senior management (especially the legal department) with a level of reassurance.  Establishing this process is especially important if the company is engaging in social media for the first time. 

Dell Corporation's Uses Twitter as a $6 Million Revenue Generator (6:46 – 7:30).  Chris liked how Dell started using the Web initially as a means of deploying customer service.  This initiative eventually morphed into IdeaStorm which is their collaboration forum to share ideas on new products and services that customers would like Dell to develop.  He also noted how Dell generated $6 million in revenues for bargain hardware via Twitter.

The Confidence to Let Employees Engage Customers

Open Leadership – The Sandbox Covenant (7:57 – 8:45).  Charlene says "open leadership" is your company's definition of how "open you will be."  It's important for companies to define what are the filters for communication because no company can be completely open – that's unrealistic.  But, the companies using social media effectively have defined their social media strategy and set up the rules of customer engagement within that strategy.  If you don't provide the discipline and structure, you're leaving open the possibility of anything happening online.

The Use of 1st-Person Singular in Online Communications (8:48 – 9:37).  Something David has seen work effectively is implementing a guideline asking employees to express their views in the manner of "I believe" or "I think" to show the employee isn't speaking directly on behalf of the company.  The fear of companies is they now have 1000 company spokespeople.  Far from it.  What they now have is 1000 employees directly communicating with customers.

Preventing Chaos – Deploy Social Media Gradually and Define Goals

Starbucks and Its Gradual Release of Social Media (10:02 – 10:57).  Charlene says Starbucks is one of her favorite examples because its small team successfully and gradually deployed the company's social media strategy.  According to her book, Open Leadership, the Starbucks' social media team consists of six (6) people: two (2) community managers who directly interact with people and four (4) programmers and support people. 

The book also describes how Starbucks chose a more centralized approach at the corporate level for selected channels (i.e., Facebook, Twitter).  According to Alexandra Wheeler, Starbucks' Director of Digital Strategy, the goal is to eventually give their thousands of baristas freedom to operate in social media "but not until the right structures and training are in place to ensure a consistent customer experience." 

IBM and Goal Definition (10:58 – 11:54).  Chris spoke about how IBM started out as "1000 flowers blooming," but it eventually found a way to purposefully harness their social media activity.  They did it by asking what's the goal: 

* Enhance customer service?
* Generate more revenue?
* Be more promotional?
* Build more awareness to our sales funnel via lead generation?
* Is our purpose related to B2C or B2B? 


The Zappos Model Isn't Right for Everyone

Determine the Appropriate Level of Openness for Your Individual Company (12:18 – 12:58).  Chris points out that the Zappos Way isn't for everybody because that model exposes an organization to be in "situations filled with opinions."  And for a lot of companies, these are situation they don't feel comfortable operating in.

Ask Who and How Should Employees be Engaging (13:00 – 13:56).  David says companies engaging in social media shouldn't assume that every employee wants to participate.  Employees shouldn't feel forced or obligated to communicate this way.  In his opinion, he talked about how there's probably a specific personality profile for people who enjoy engaging in social media.  Therefore, if you have these folks in your organization, encourage them to be part of the online conversation. 

How Best Buy's Twelpforce Personally Engaged Charlene Li (13:57 – 15:11).  Twelpforce enables around 2,400 Best Buy employees to share their electronics expertise directly with customers.  These employees use Twitter to converse directly with customers by answering questions usually asked everyday on the store floor. 

Charlene personally tried out this service to better understand what's the best phone with parental controls that she could purchase for her 11-year old son.  A Twelpforce team member replied back with an Android phone recommendation and asked her to stop by the store that Saturday so they could evaluate phones together.  Essentially, someone on the store floor reached out to her and said: "I'd like to build a customer relationship with you."  This type of innovative initiative gives Best Buy a competitive advantage especially over Wal-Mart, Target, or any of the phone carriers.

Conclusion

The biggest fear of large organizations when it comes to social media is their loss of control.  Their customers now have low-cost tools (e.g. social media channels) that can influence the outcome and perception of the most elaborate and sophisticated advertising campaign. 

However, the organizations described by Charlene, Chris, and David are prime examples of companies who have successfully implemented guidelines, procedures, processes, and goals so their employees can directly engage these customers.  And, it's that customer engagement that enables their employees to positively influence customers who not only purchase their company's products and services but are also Blogging, Tweeting, Liking, Sharing, and Digging about these offerings as well.

Please stay tuned for next Saturday's Edition of The Business Behind Social Media, Part 3: Lessons From Wal-Mart and The Importance of Failing Well.

Bonus Section: Additional Links 

The US Airforce and Guidelines from Web Ink Now

* The US Air Force Armed With Social Media
* The US Air Force and Social Media: A Discussion With Colonel Michael Caldwell
* Launching Ideas at The US Air Force
* Free Social Media eBook and Video: New Media & The Air Force

IBM's Participation in Social Media Covered in Web Ink Now

* IBM Blogging Guidelines and the Company's 3,000 Bloggers
* Ben Edwards on the IBM Transition from Outbound Marketing to Inbound Marketing

Altimeter Group and Wet Paint Report on Starbucks and Other Social Media Case Studies

* July 2009 Report: The World's Most Valuable Brands: Who's Most Engaged

 

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention.  Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.   


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The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 1 – Social Media Strategy from A to Z

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ABC alphabet 

David Meerman Scott shared an informative YouTube video in his November 16th blog post, The Business Value Behind Social Media.  The video took place during The SAS Premier Business Leadership Series and included a panel discussion on The Business Value of Social Media with the following participants:

* Martin Giles, The Economist, US Technology Correspondent.  Martin moderated the October 2010 panel discussion.  In David 's aforementioned blog post, he notes how Martin Giles is the best moderator he has ever worked with.  After viewing and studying this video, I understand why. 

* Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, popular blogger and co-author of Trust Agents and author of Social Media 101.

* Charlene Li, Founder and CEO of Altimeter Group, popular blogger, and co-author of two (2) books, Groundswell and Open Leadership.

* David Meerman Scott, popular blogger and best-selling author of the two (2) books The New Rules of Marketing & PR and Real-Time Marketing & PR. 

 


 

The discussion topics covered the following issues relevant to social media strategy, emerging trends, and several case study examples of its successful execution (or in some cases, unsuccessful):

* How should organizations build a social media presence?

* Who within the organization should own the social media function?

* How can organizations measure and analyze the value of social media?

* Who are the model organizations of modern social media management and strategy execution? 

Part 1 represents the first piece of a multiple-post blog series describing the insights shared in this video.  My goal is to publish the posts from every Saturday morning until completion (but please bear with me if I slip on a date).  Part 1 will be the A to Z Executive Summary provided by Martin Giles at the end of the panel discussion.  In the future posts, I will publish the deep dives generated from the panel's discussion.  And trust me, there's a lot of substance in this panel discussion because I recorded 20+ pages of notes.

Martin's A to Z Executive Summary starts at 1:01:57 of the video.  His Executive Summary recapped Chris', Charlene's, and David's insights from different parts of their hour-long conversation.  Where appropriate, I sprinkled in my point-of-view (I hope you don't mind).

Executive Summary: Social Media Strategy from A to Z

* A = Analytics.  Understanding the value and ROI your social media initiatives produces requires analyzing the data with analytics tools. 

* B = Brogan and Boeing.   Chris did a great job as a contributing member.  Boeing showed it was listening to the conference's live Twitter Feed by acknowledging David Meerman Scott's positive comments citing Boeing as a model organization in social media strategy and execution.  Here' the tweet, Boeing sent to David: @dmscott thanks for citing us during #pbls10. Here's the air show effort DMS mentioned. http://bit.ly/dkQEqC 

* C = Control.  Control in social media means you have to give it up.  Learn to lose control.

* D = Disaster Recovery.  Mistakes will happen in your business. Have a disaster recovery plan in place to address these mistakes through the right social media channels.  For example, if an irate customer makes a highly publicized complaint via their blog, respond quickly by commenting on that customer's blog.  Responding via a press release is a mistake. 

* E = Earpiece and Earning Credibility.  Martin made light of having to constantly readjust his earpiece during the panel discussion.  He also pointed out how much of the discussion focused on "earning credibility" through your social media efforts versus the traditional advertising mentality of "buying credibility."

* F = Facebook and The Future of The Web (two highly debated topics among the panel members). 

* G = Grab Audience Attention. On the World Wide Web, you have to creatively think of ways to grab audience attention.  Martin also said G stands for Go Giants because he lives in San Francisco.

* H = Human.  Be human and don't be afraid to put real human beings on The Web to support and implement your social media efforts. 

* I = Innovate and Influencers.  Identify the online influencers in your impacting your organization's online reputation and think of innovative ways to reach them.

* J = Journalists.  Martin noted The Internet's impact on traditional publishing and how he may be searching for a job soon (so please hire him).  Also, David suggests organizations bring journalists into their social media operations because of their storytelling abilities and gift for creating share-worthy content. 

* K = KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).  Carefully think about and select your KPIs and how they can inform your decision-making.

* L = Charlene Li and Listening. Charlene Li contributes great insights to the panel and cites many different examples particularly in the Fortune 500.  Martin thanks the live in-person and online audiences for listening.  Most of all, he cites how organizations need leverage social media in listening to their respective online audiences.

* M = David Meerman Scott, Modeling (a humorous reference to David's former career as a male model in Japan), and Measurement.  An ongoing and important future trend in social media is understanding how to best measure its impact.

* N = Need to Respond Quickly.  Martin notes how he and his fellow journalists are online 24/7.  Learn to respond in real-time because if you're not, there's a problem. 

* O = Open Leadership and Ownership.  This is the title of Charlene's recently released book (I purchased my copy this past week).  Her book describes the required organizational and leadership attributes required to effectively compete and successfully engage audiences in today's World Wide Web.  In addition, her new book discusses how to determine, manage, and execute the right open leadership strategy for your organization.  Ownership is for who's going to own and execute your social media strategy (and what's the best way to do that).

* P = People and Paris Hilton.  As Martin says, I'll stop right there …

* Q = Questions.  Pose better questions to your audience because we've discussed numerous examples of how really smart companies benefit from seeking audience feedback.

* R = ROI and Real-Time.  The panel shared examples where companies have achieved ROI and how they measure it.  Furthermore, companies who learn or take the initiative to respond and act in real-time will have future competitive advantages in areas ranging from product development, interacting with the media, and capitalizing on real-time events impacting your industry.

* S = Sharing.  Social media is about sharing great content so be willing and generous in sharing it.

* T = Twitter and Trusted Advisor.  The panel provided a number of examples of using Twitter to generate revenues, enhance customer service, and promote content.  Consistency, commitment, responsiveness, and a genuine attitude to help customers make better, informed decisions described organizations developing Trusted Advisor reputations online. 

* U = Understand Customer Insights.  A lot of these insights come from "L" Listening and "A" Analytics.

* V = Virality.  Whatever you're publishing on the World Wide Web, learn to accept that your content will flash across at the speed of light.

* W = Word-of-Mouth.  That's the real goal here.  If you get existing customers and potential customers to talk about you to one another, you've created a fabulous success story.

* X = X  Marks the Spot.  Martin joked this is what he figured what the audience was wondering for what he would write for "X."

* Y = You.  Martin also joked "you" (as in the audience) must be wondering "when I'm going to shut up."

* Z = Zero.  Zero because Martin had zero time left.  

Conclusion

Watching and studying this video was a labor of love.  How many times do you get the opportunity to learn from thought leaders like Brogan, Li, and Meerman Scott interacting on the same stage.  I personally want to thank SAS for publishing and sharing the videos from The Premier Business Leadership Series.  By allowing thought leaders like David Meerman Scott to share this content, everyone in the social media community benefits.

Thank you for reading and if you watched the video, please let me know in the comments.  What did you enjoy and learn?   I would love to hear from you.

Please stay tuned for next Saturday's installment – The Business Value Behind Social Media: Part 2 – Open Leadership, Guidelines, Process Discipline, and Goals. 
   

Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist.  He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention.  Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.   


Photo Credit: By Kyle Van Horn Via Flickr

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Audience Engagement: Responding to Blog Comments in Real-Time

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Audience Engagement 

David Meerman Scott recently published a new book, Real-Time Marketing & PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now.  I'm looking forward to reading David's latest book because his content and insights are outstanding.  He's also published a series of blog posts and a new eBook to introduce his concepts driving real-time marketing and PR. 

I commented on one of the posts titled: Make Your Web Site a Real-Time Machine: A Manifesto.  Here are some screen shots of our dialogue:

DMS Real Time Blog Comments 

 DMS Real Time Blog Comments 2

 

David Responded to My Respective Comments in Real-Time

Speed wins in the Internet Age.  David responded to my first comment in less than 30 minutes! His response to my second comment arrived in less than 2 hours.  To say I'm impressed by his actions is an understatement.

   

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

David's responsiveness is impressive because his book talks about achieving competitive advantages by connecting with customers in real-time.  Even though he was in a different part of the world for a speaking gig, he took the time to genuinely acknowledge my blog comments.  His actions and real-time speed demonstrate his consistency and credibility in thoughtfully engaging and conversing with his audience.

 

Conclusion

Credible audience engagement occurs when you consistently practice what you preach.  In the blogsphere, achieving credibility for one's individual online and professional reputations is critical.  When I read David's responses, I can see these aren't cursory acknowledgments.  And that means a lot to me, because I took the time to read and understand his published insights from both the posts and the eBook.  This is why I often link to his blog posts and cite his content.  It's also evidence of how he consistently works to engage and maintain the trust of an audience he's worked hard to cultivate.

 

Bonus: Links to David's Real-Time Posts and a Recent Video

When you have a chance check out David's posts because they describe the competitive advantages real-time marketing and PR can have in:

* Capitalizing on Real-World Events as These Events Unfold in Real-Time
* Developing New Products and Services
* Testing Marketing Messaging and Positioning With Target Audiences (before final product launch)
* Understanding the Current and Future Implications for Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Here are the links and a video he's published describing a great case study in competitive advantage when leveraging real-time marketing and PR:

* Make Your Web Site a Real-Time Machine: A Manifesto (the new eBook is also here)
* Developing Products Based on Instant Gratification
* How B2B Companies Use Real-Time Blog Posts to Get Trade Media Exposure
* How Real-Time Communications Drives Measurable ROI at Fortune 100 Companies

 

Real-Time Marketing & PR from David Meerman Scott on Vimeo.

Photo Credit: By Martin Thomas Via Flickr

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3 Findings on Real-Time Trust and Influence in Online Communities

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TrustI recently wrote a blog post titled: 3 Social Media Tips for Oogy — The Dog Only a Family Could Love. I wrote this post because I wanted other people to discover this moving and inspiring book about a very special dog and the people who rescued him.  The post was my small contribution to promote the book and hopefully increase its public awareness via social media.  I have no personal or business relationship with the book's author and its publishers.  I just love this book and its beautiful story.

 

After publishing this post on November 1st (late evening), I sent out this message via Twitter on November 3rd (mid-day):

  

Trust - Tweet 

 

I couldn't predict what happened next.  In my opinion, I think the following events and findings are an example of the real-time power of trust and influence in online communities.

 

Thursday, November 4th (approximately 10:30 AM Central Time)
My wife calls me at work and says my blog post is posted on Oogy's Facebook Page!  Unbelievable!  I was busy at work so I couldn't go to Facebook until later in the afternoon.

 

Thursday, November 4th (a little after 4 PM Central Time)
I checked Oogy's Facebook Page and look what I find — I was thrilled and honored!  People even commented on the link posted by Mr. Levin (the author of the book and Oogy's owner).  I left my own Facebook comment thanking Mr. Levin and Oogy for their kindness and generosity in linking to my blog, and I commented on how Oogy's book genuinely inspired and moved me.

 

Trust - Oogy Facebook 
 
 

That evening and over the next few days, I asked myself the following questions:

* What could be the potential impact on my blog post traffic due to Oogy's inbound link and personal referral to his growing legion of Facebook Fans (9,550+ and growing)? 

* What type of real-time influence do Oogy and Mr. Levin have with their Facebook Fans online behaviors (i.e., positive / negative)? 

* Is there a way to quickly measure the impact of this real-time influence?

 

Here's my analysis in addressing these questions using some of the basic features of Google Analytics.

 

Finding #1: Oogy's Facebook Fans Trusted His Referral to My Post

Why? Mr. Levin inserted the link to my blog post on his own.  In my tweet, I made no solicitation or request for an inbound link.  The purpose of my tweet was to bring the attention of Mr. Levin's book and my blog post to my Twitter Followers (and it's a modest 400+ following).  Mr. Levin and Oogy's inbound link was confirmation that I wasn't some spammy website.

 

 

Google Analytics - Oogy FB Referrals 
 

And maybe, they thought I had some worthwhile content to share …

As a bonus, here are some of my favorite articles covering trust and online word-of-mouth (WOM):

* The State of Online Word of Mouth Marketing [STATS] from Mashable
* What Advertising Do Consumers Trust from eMarketer
* Trust Word-of-Mouth from eMarketer
* Does Anyone Trust the Media from eMarketer 

 

Finding #2: If Readers Trust the Source, Positive Word Travels at Real-Time Speed

Here's some back-of-the envelope analysis with Google Analytics on how quickly Oogy's Facebook Fans clicked on Mr. Levin's inbound link to access my blog post.  These fans were clearly positively influenced by Mr. Levin and Oogy's referral because they didn't take long in accessing my blog:

* Date/Time Inbound Link was Posted on Oogy's Facebook Page – November 4th, 8:31 AM Eastern Time (assumption because Mr. Levin lives in the Philadelphia, PA area)

* Date/Time of 1st Facebook Visitor's Click to My Blog Post – November 4th, 9:00 AM Eastern Time (my Google Analytics Time Settings are in Central Time so I did the conversion here)

* Real-Time Elapsed Between Inbound Link Post and 1st Visitor Visits – Less than 30 minutes.  This 1st visit could have come even faster but I can only measure visitor traffic in Google Analytics on an hourly basis.  I examined data from another web analytics tool, and that tool tells me the post was accessed six (6) times within the first 5 minutes of the Facebook inbound link's placement.

 

Google Analytics - Oogy FB Visits 

 

The swift reaction by Oogy's Facebook Fans to access my blog post emphasizes the real-time speed of the World Wide Web.  David Meerman Scott has published a recent series of blog posts and a new eBook on the World Wide Web's power in real-time marketing and communications for individuals and organizations.  You can access the links here:

* Make Your Website A Real-Time Machine: A Manifesto
* How B2B Companies Use Real-Time Blog Posts to Get Trade Media Exposure
* How Real-Time Communications Drives ROI At Fortune 100 Companies
* (eBook) Real-Time: How Marketing & PR At Speed Drives Measurable Success

 

Finding #3: Oogy's Fans Actually Read The Blog Post — How Cool!

This made me feel really good.  It looks like these new visitors took time to read the article, and I believe the referral from Mr. Levin and Oogy had a lot to do with that.

 

Google Analytics - Oogy FB Referrals 

Conclusion

Oogy's Facebook Fans came to my blog and read my post because they trusted the referral from Oogy and Mr. Levin.  These fans didn't come to my blog because they knew me, or because I'm a widely known blogger.  I'm just starting out in blogging, and I'm trying to build a loyal following and positive reputation one blog post at a time.

It's telling how Oogy's Fans literally arrived at my site in 30 minutes or less after Mr. Levin posted his inbound link to my blog.  The real-time power and influence of trust is truly a driving and powerful force in online communities.

Photo Credit: Terry Johnston via Flickr

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PM360 Online Social Media Think Tank Article: What’s Hot, What’s Next in Social Media

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PM360 Logo In the April 2010 Issue of PM360, I'm featured as a contributing author to PM360's Social Media Think Tank Article: What's Hot, What's Next in Social Media.  I was both thrilled and humbled when they asked me to participate in providing some observations on the use of social media in the pharmceutical industry. 

In the article, I described Johnson & Johnson's extensive participation in social media channels and opinions from their communications leaders on what's driving their success.  Also, I provided my personal opinions on potential audience engagement metrics to help an organization in prioritizing time invested in social media.

This is the first time I've been asked to provide opinions on social media to an industry publication so I cannot begin to express my gratitude for this opportunity.

If you have a few moments, please check out the PM60 article.  Eight (8) additional contributing authors are featured (and trust me they're all a lot smarther than I am).  I wrote the second article listed on the website. 

I hope you don't mind me sharing this quick post.  Really, a short post from Tony Faustino – Yeah, Right …

 

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MySpace’s Reinvention Strategy: Focus On Its Core Buyer Persona

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In Social Media ReInvention Blog, I try to describe how individuals, companies, or entire industries can use social media and/or inbound marketing strategy to reinvent themselves.  This post has a slight twist because it talks about a current social media company reinventing itself — MySpace.  

Remember MySpace?  It wasn't long ago that it was battling for social media supremacy with Facebook.  In the past few years, MySpace has encountered different challenges.  It's new co-Presidents, Jason Hischborn and Mike Jones, have recently described their plans to change the company's direction and focus.  

In this post, I've cited and summarized different sources explaining MySpace's reinvention plans.  The firm's approach looks like it centers on:

* A renewed understanding of its core buyer persona
* Focusing on, winning back, and growing this buyer persona
* Objectives and metrics the company plans to use in measuring its progress

MySpace's Buyer Persona: Under-35-Year-Old Music and Game Lovers
David Meerman Scott defines the buyer persona as "a distinct group of potential customers, an archetypal person whom you want your marketing to reach."  MySpace's core buyer persona can be described as:1

* Self-expressive and creative under-35-year-olds
* Individuals who love music, games, and movies
* 50%+ of its 100 million estimated users are 25 and younger (according to ComScore)
* Deeply engaged users: 13-to-34 year olds who spend 84% of their user time on the site

Giving The Buyer Persona What It Wants.  MySpace's current and future business strategy is to secure exclusive entertainment content.  For example, MySpace users focus their interests in video games (28%) and celebrity and entertainment content (23%).2  High profile celebrity pages will now include updates so the pages have more information and are easier for users to navigate.3  Co-President Jason Hirschorn describes the site as pop culture centric: "You could share your thoughts about the elections in Iraq but it might not be the place that you do that — but you'll certainly talk about what went on in The Hurt Locker and what dress Sandra Bullock wore during the Academy Awards."4

Removing What The Buyer Persona Doesn't Want.  In 2005, Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp. acquired MySpace for $580 million.  This event also marked the decision by co-founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson to position MySpace as a large social portal to make itself more attractive to online advertisers.5  Why? According to DeWolfe in the August 2008 Fast Company article, "some 90% of online-advertising spending goes to big portals."  

New co-Presidents Mike Jones and Mike Hirschborn acknowledge that adding portal-like features features having nothing to do with entertainment was a mistake.  In the last nine months, they've removed sections devoted to weather reports, horoscopes, job boards, and classified advertising.6

Identifying and Attracting Influential Music Fans: Artist Dashboard
The music community (e.g., bands and fans) drove the original growth of MySpace.  13 million+ bands, from Pearl Jam to garage bands use MySpace to promote themselves.  The site is especially important for new bands distributing their own music without a major record label's support.  Paraphrasing Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora, "When it comes to music, MySpace has a monster audience."1

The Artist Dashboard.  I find this new feature interesting and similar to the objective of LinkedIn Answers – identifying and recognizing experts.  The Artist Dashboard is designed to target music afficianados (and attract new ones).  It's a variation of the visual dshboard found in the MySpace Music hub and will become available to all MySpace users.  The dashboard will show a user's activity:4

* Who is reacting to what the user publishes (and where they are)
* A series of achievements and badges describing the user's network influence (i.e., most shared playlists or an early trend spotter)

Here's a picture of the dashboard from the Mashable article by Barb Dybwad:

MySpace Artist Dashboard

 

Driving New Growth With Games: Consumers and Developers
At the March 2010 Game Developers Conference, co-President Mike Jones launched a new MySpace Games strategy to showcase online games on the site and attract more developers.  Jones said during the conference: "Just as MySpace made a real commitment to music, to have the best content, we're now making the same type of commitment with games."7

Consumers. Helping users easily discover and share games virally is a key strategy.  Game activity will be shared via users' notifications and streams.  Personalized game recommendations, popular game charts, and the ability to rate games will all be key features.7

Developers. New features and improvements to attract game developers include:7

* Better application engagement and analytics tools to better understand player demographics, how games are discovered, and how they're shared
* App-specific analytics
* Ability to build 3D games
* A new iPhone app, called MySpace Neon, to provide mobile game playing via the iPhone

Tracking and Measuring Progress: Depends on Whether You're an Analyst or a MySpace Executive
Based on my review of the different news sources, the publicized metrics to track MySpace's reinvention progress varies between internet strategy analysts and MySpace's co-presidents:

Internet Strategy Analysts' Metrics.  The internet strategy analysts discussed tracking metrics centering around revenue, numbers of members, numbers of visitors, and time on site.  In each case, the analysts used Facebook as a comparator.

* Revenues.  For 2010, eMarketer estimates $605 million in revenues for Facebook versus $385 million for MySpace (21% decrease).1

* Number of Members.  Facebook has 400 million members versus MySpace with 100 million members.1

* Number of Monthly Visitors.  Facebook had 111.8 million US visitors (95% increase); MySpace had 66.7 million visitors (5% decrease).6 

* Time On Site.  Facebook averaged 267 minutes per month; MySpace averaged 130 minutes per month.6 

MySpace's Metrics.  Jason Hirschborn and Mike Jones have publicly stated the following objectives they will be tracking:

* Revenues. Jones is quoted in the USA Today interview that "MySpace has been good at monetization, others notice that."  He did not disclose revenue targets during the interview.1

* Growth in Numbers of Users: Hirschborn wants numbers of users to grow to 200 million or 300 million (from the current 100 million).  He declined to provide a timeframe for achieving this objective.3

* Percentage of MySpace Members Playing Games. Jones says approximately one-third of MySpace members play games.  Both he and Hirschborn have targeted 50% participation (perhaps as early as the end of this year).3,4

* Number of Monthly Minutes Spent Playing Games.  MySpace members spend 1 billion minutes per month.  The company wants to increase this monthly usage to 2 billion minutes.7 

 

Photo Credit: From Flickr by jim6800

Sources
1 Once-fading MySpace focuses on youthful reincarnation by Jon Swartz.  USA Today, March 10, 2010.
2 What social media users want [STATS] by Jennifer Van Grove.  Mashable, March 18, 2010.
3 MySpace revamps for revival by Sarah Jacobsson.  PCWorld, March 10, 2010.
4 MySpace co-presidents reveal company's plan for the future [INTERVIEW] by Barb Dybwad.  Mashable, March 9, 2010.
5 MySpace, the sequel by Ellen McGirt.  FastCompany.com, August 7, 2008.
6 MySpace looks to the past for its future by Dawn C. Chmielewski. Los Angeles Times, March 10, 2010.
7 MySpace turns to games to regain prominence by Benny Evangelista.  SFGate.com, March 11, 2010.