Outrider Search Marketing Blog

Plugging into a Niche Social Community is Like Putting on Your Best Fitting Jeans

While the growth of FaceBook and MySpace is still a phenomenon, there is a substantial fracturing of the social audience into niche communities. The buzz may send users to FaceBook and MySpace in droves, but do they stay? Do they plug in? Or is it simply overwhelming for most people to feel comfortable in networks of this size? 

Finding your way in a smaller niche community that aligns with your interest is like putting on your best fitting pair of blue jeans. It’s all about the comfort factor. It’s natural for people to want to hang out with people like themselves. It’s easier and more rewarding to participate if you have a deep interest in the topic. The shared interest is the sticky factor that brings people back to the site, helps them find online friends and keeps the posts and comments rolling.

Finding the Sweet Spot

Marketers are flocking to niche communities and many are finding the right notes with these target markets. CafeMom is a growing social community that recently received $5 million in VC funding. To appeal to this demographic, advertisers like SaraLee, HP, Kraft, and JCPenney are finding inventive ways to integrate into the community instead of just running banners. JCPenney has provided gift cards for a room makeover and then follows the mom as she transforms her house. Sara Lee has provided a widget that lets people take a quiz to identify which type of sandwich they are on their profile. In case you’re wondering, I’m a BLT – which tells the world that “I’m Easy Going and Make Friends Everywhere I Go.” 

To start finding your sweet spot, check out these lists of niche social networks at Fabric of Folly, and Wikipedia. 

Niche within a Niche

Even in a niche community, groups within the community allow even further fractionalization. Can you see a day when advertisers key their messages to groups within niche communities? Or would users chafe at that much targeting? There’s a migraine group on CafeMom. Would an ad from a pharmaceutical company be welcome here? The answer is going to be found in extensive testing and targeting. What works on CafeMom is not going to work on GamerVision. Marketers who listen to their audience and participate in communities are going to be able to hit that sweet spot more often.

Using Social Media to Compliment Your Search Campaign

Moderator:
Todd Steinman, COO m80
Panelists:
Elisabeth Osder, Senior VP, Audience Development, Buzznet.com
Bryan Taback, Senior Manager Ad Solutions, Flickr/Yahoo!
Kari Hooper, Online Video and Display, YouTube/Google
Rebecca Keen, Account Manager for Showtime, Outrider
Alex Norman, CEO, LiveWorld WPP

The panel represented both social destinations from the engines (Flickr and YouTube) and vendors who offer advertisers a social platform to build a brand experience. While there may have been some members of the audience unsure whether social marketing belongs in their marketing toolbox, the panelists of the Social Marketing session left no doubt that not only does it belong, but it's also the key to harnessing the most engaged segment of your audience.

m80's Todd Steinman tossed some thought provoking questions at the panel including where and how social marketing fits in the search marketing mix. Panelists shared stories about advertisers who are successfully leveraging social marketing, but most of the panelists agreed that the social space can require a different set of metrics.

Bryan Taback from Flickr said he believes the industry needs to come together on metrics. Kari Hooper from YouTube said that while Google is ROI driven, YouTube and FeedBurner are different animals. She said she believes YouTube is a brand accelerator and that the metrics are currently best aligned with upper funnel objectives like brand awareness. Meanwhile, Alex Norman from LiveWorld said that the metrics depend on the goals of the client. He pointed to a case study of ebay who wanted to save money on CRM and used LiveWorld to build QA forums for power sellers. An independent study from Harper Business Review was able to show a 54% increase in revenue from power sellers who used the QA forums.

Where Should Social Content Live?

Steinman asked the panel where is the best place for social content to live -- on yoursite.com or in the social space? To maximize traffic, Hooper said to place the content in both places -- on YouTube and embedded on your website. But she advised that you plan the next step you want them to take. Do you want them to continue to digest video content, participate on your branded YouTube channel or would you rather lead them back to your site so you can collect registration information.

Social Search Strategies

Delving into social strategies, Rebecca Keen from Outrider related her experience successfully combining paid search with social on a campaign for Showtime. Keen reported that their campaign goal to generate viewings of video previews for the Tudors was engineered by showing teaser videos on YouTube, distributing content via RSS and using a paid search campaign which went “outside the box” by targeting keywords related to English architecture, the monarchy, the lead actor and the royal family.

Closing Points and Advice

• Taback: Graphical ads on Flickr are new. Few advertisers are taking advantage. Advice: Plan ahead for a viral campaign (at least 2 months) so you'll have time to plug in any technology needed to support it.
• Hooper: They are working with Google to improve YouTube search functionality and get more "Googley." Advice: Advertisers can help visibility through optimization of titles, description as well as promotion to increase participation (views and ratings). Biggest mistake is believing that all you have to do is post something on YouTube to make it viral.
• Osder: Create rich, authentic experiences. Take full advantage of the passion of the community and power of the platform. Advice: Create free, compelling, shareable content and promote the hell out of it. It's work!
• Norman: Content in multiple destinations is important to drive traffic. To create a premium brand experience you want to drive people back home. User generated content (UGC) requires moderating, compliance and standards policing.

Q&A:

Can brands mitigate risk?

An audience member asked how a "polarizing" brand can enter the social space with little risk. Steinman replied that it's important for clients to understand that when working in social space you lose all control. What’s not apparent to them he said is that “control has already been lost.”

Norman responded that for brands with controversy there's already a conversation online, it's just outside your turf. He asked why wouldn't a brand want to join the conversation -- to invite the influencers both pro and con onto their turf, "... or do you let the conversation go into the wild, wild West?"

What social opportunities are there for B2B?

• Steinman: B2B is no different. Make sure that the content you are creating has great pass-along value to the target audience and that you use relevant tools to promote the spread.
• Hooper: Private channels can be created on YouTube for something like training videos. It can be an effective way to train a remote sales force.
• Taback: B2B companies can set up private group on Flickr too. Companies can use tools like Delicious for community bookmarking to share internally or with clients and distributors.

- Lisa

Dive Into Universal Search

Moderator:
Sara Holoubek
Panelists:
Jack Menzel, Product Manager, Google
Kirsten Matetich, Search Media Specialist, MSN Digital Adv. Solutions

DM News columnist Sara Holoubek opened by explaining that in just a few  months, "Universal Search" has become a Kleenex-type term used generically to talk about a radical change to search engine results. This concept brings content that was previously locked up in vertical pillars (video, images, news and audio) all together on the search result page.

Jack Menzel from Google explained that while Universal Search is conceptually very easy, from an infrastructure perspective, it's been a challenge. Menzel indicated that Universal Search is a logical evolution of Google's results. Universal is an attempt to provide hooks into other content when search queries are unclear. He stated that Google is always optimizing the results and that Universal is an extension of that.

From Microsoft, Kirsten Matetich was hush-hush about some improvements to Live Search that are not yet live, but indicated that Microsoft is still very new to this and playing catch up. She confirmed that their vision is to move toward a Universal approach. "The challenge is huge," she said citing that you have to develop the algorithm so that "the results are relevant or it's useless." She joked that the last thing Microsoft needed to do was turn off users and lose more market share. Matetich said that they are testing the waters with their instant answers service. This service offers predefined answers to common questions or queries like sports scores or stock quotes where they can be sure of the user's intent.

Holobek asked Matetich if they planned to use their customer data to help them personalize results. Matetich replied that yes they have invested in technology like what you see at AdCenter Labs to understand user intent. She indicated they have a research team in China analyzing search funnels, huge database of users and demographic data. "It will take a couple of years to put it all together," Matetich said.

Holobek asked whether Google was studying the effects of Universal Search results on searcher behavior. Menzel replied that they were indeed using heat map studies. He said that he did not expect Google to release those results. He did suggest however that these types of studies are pretty easy to replicate using digital cameras and off-the-shelf software.

An audience member asked how companies can prepare for Universal Search and how quickly they should move. Menzel replied, "We're being very cautious. you don't have to worry about tomorrow things going wild. There is no edge of the cliff." When asked whether Google might discover that users do not care for Universal and reverse course, Menzel replied, "Universal search is the direction we're headed. It won't go away." said Menzel.

Menzel's tips for optimization: Make sure to produce useful content for users. Use the Webmaster Tools to ensure Google is crawling all of your assets.

- Lisa

Relevant Segmentation of Consumer Search

Moderator:

Chris Copeland – Sr. Partner, Managing Director, Outrider

Panelists:

Jean Pundiak – eHealthcare Consultant, former Senior Marketing Director for Nexium, AstraZeneca

Matt Ma – Search Marketing Product Director, 24/7 Real Media

Rich Wichmann – Sr. Client Service Lead, Outrider

As a relevant follow-up to Wired Magazine Editor in Chief Chris Anderson’s Keynote Address on his book The Long Tail, Relevant Segmentation of Consumer Search built on the notion of selling less of more – to an evolving, highly segmented marketplace.

Outrider’s Chris Copeland started things off by explaining how we can use the purchase funnel model to feed the right message to the right consumer – at the right time. Showing off a series of rapid-fire slides on the intricacies and statistics of how consumers behave at the various funnel levels – Top (Awareness), Middle (Research/Consideration), Bottom (Decision/Purchase) – Copeland explained how we can tailor our keywords and creative to consumer sets at each level to drive additional searches and ultimately, greater conversion.

With data gathered from an Outrider internal consumer segmentation study, Copeland offered some telling numbers on how consumers utilize search at the various funnel stages:

- Top of Funnel: Research/engagement – 57% use search for research and information

gathering.

- Consideration/Comparison - 40% use search as they begin to consider and compare

specific products.

- Purchase - 21% use search to help them make final purchase decisions – both on and

offline.

In terms of search spend and clicks received along the funnel:

Top – 11% of spend, 11% of clicks

Middle – 46% of spend, 42% of clicks

Bottom – 43% of spend, 47% of clicks

The study also found that, with a segmentation strategy employed, searchers at the top of the funnel, showed greater interest in moving down the funnel. 46% came back for a second search, providing a 2X lift.

The tactic, as Copeland explained to the 150+ Outrider Summit attendees, is that as we feed the right terms at the top, middle and bottom of the funnel, we can help to alter consumer behavior, and lead them down the funnel to take more action, make more searchers, gather additional info. – and ultimately make a conversion.

Panelist Jean Pundiak of AstraZeneca spoke of the challenges faced when launching www.purplepill.com for the acid reflux medicine Nexium in July, 2001. Pundiak noted that the budget for online was a small percentage of the total plan, but after capturing more than one million visitors to www.purplepill.com in the first month, she had little trouble growing her budget, and that search played a major role.

Outrider’s Rich Wichmann mentioned regarding the initial takeover of Nexium’s paid search campaign, “With Nexium, we found disconnects in the campaign. Consumers were being driven to the wrong landing pages. We chucked the old campaign entirely and started utilizing the three levels of the funnel to drive consumers with more relevant keywords, creative and landing pages. After seventeen weeks, we improved conversions by 17.5% and dropped the CPA from $45 to $26 dollars. We were driving 150 more conversions per week.”

For further evidence of campaign success with relevant consumer segmentation, 24/7 Real Media’s Matthew Ma pointed to a new message re-targeting tool that serves a new version of creative after consumers have seen an ad a specific number of times. “We’re seeing 3-5x the performance of traditionally targeted campaigns using this technology,” said Ma.

Chris Anderson opened the Summit with the idea that everything that used to be “Mass” has evolved to the “Niche.” And therefore, we need to micro-target to micro audiences. Anderson said that at the peak of the Water Cooler era, it was a safe bet that on Monday, everyone gathered around the water cooler was doing the exact same thing the night before: watching I Love Lucy and Walter Cronkite. The idea of the masses behaving en masse. Today, however, consumers, like the micro-brewed products they consume – see: vegetarian shoes and gluten-free beer – are as different as the stars. Likewise with their varied consuming styles and behaviors.

And this is what Consumer Segmentation is all about – getting the right messages to the right consumers at the right time… and gently prodding them (or perhaps shoving) down the funnel to conversion.

- Chris T.