Henry Cowling knows how to get a laugh.

The creative director of The Viral Factory led off his talk at the June 17 Social Media Marketing conference in London with this video of an old woman kicking a baby and then some funny photos.

He was demonstrating the first of four principles of creating viral content: Be relevant to your audience.

To this group of social media enthusiasts, the use of the video was appropriate and it demonstrated Cowling’s offbeat approach, his “badge of personality.”

“It’s very tribal,” he said. “You need to speak to a specific group.”

He mentioned that some tech enthusiasts produce and share “unboxing” videos. This one from March on the unboxing of a new iPad has had more than 700,000 viewers on YouTube.

(The Viral Factory had a little fun by producing this video on unboxing a Samsung Omnia phone – marching band included.)

“Going viral” usually begins with bloggers of that tribe and, if memorable, the sharing of it leads to mainstream coverage.

Henry Cowling describes the dos and don’ts of viral marketing at the June 17 London conference.

Cowling’s second principle to the marketers was the reminder that you are working in editorial space, not advertising. This isn’t purchased marketing.

“You need to entertain first,” Cowling said. “Absorb the culture of the audience you’re trying to reach.”

Companies need to act as brands in editorial space, and should invest in better production values.

“Your competition is Lady Gaga and World Cup goals, not competing brands,” he said.

And, like it or not, edgy material gets eyeballs, he said. Diesel, the fashion company, speaks to its particular audience with this potentially offensive – but funny, to some – party video. It has 13 million views.

Third, there is a difference between receivable vs. sendable, Cowling said.

Viral has its own rules and it’s hard to write the funniest content, he said.

“You need to appeal to specific communities,” he said. “It’s getting people to hit ‘send.’”

Would you send this video of Scary Maze reaction? It’s been seen almost 19 million times, so you can assume it’s being passed along.

Or this one about walking on water, or “Liquid Mountaineering“? Five million views.

Last, marketers need to stay “on message,” he said.

Brands can exist and thrive in the social environment.

“People don’t object to advertising,” Cowling said. “Viral is not about ‘unbranded’ content.”

Skype has a video called “Laughing Chain.” It has 6 million views on YouTube. (Check out the “gnaw” guy’s laugh midway through!)

Finally, Cowling said photos and interactive games can go viral but videos are typically best.

“The barrier to entry is low,” he said.

Before you get started marketing your product or service online, it’s crucial to assess what you’re selling and what you want to achieve. Social media is not “one size fits all.”

That was the message of Loic Moisand, CEO of Synthesio, a web marketing and research firm based in Paris.

“You need to know your brand’s social profile to know how to measure the results of your digital strategy,” Moisand told a crowd of 200 at the June 17 Social Media Marketing conference in London.

There are four types of brands and four ways to measure response, he said.

The measurements are:

1. Volume of buying
2. Sentiment (good and bad)
3. Social media presence
4. Number of comments

The first type of brand is the Boring Brand, like toilet paper or insurance.

As Moisand described, such a product may generate average buzz in buying, but have low levels of sentiment, social media and comments.

He recommends an approach that creates fun. This could involve a designing a price-comparison website or introducing a strong character to associate with the product through marketing.

The second type is the Functional Brand, like cell phones or hotel accommodations. Customers expect basic functions and want good customer service, he said.

Against the measurement matrix, such brands’ sales have a high correlation with effectiveness, consumer sentiments (good and bad) have high impact, and a high social media presence is crucial. Customer comments have less impact, as many people won’t share their opinions, he said.

For these firms, Moisand recommends focusing on online customer-service experiences.

“By responding in forums as the name of the company, the company can help customers and decrease the number of questions being asked,” Moisand said.

The third type is the Exciting Brand, the type that appeals to consumers’ desire for association and community. Brands like Apple, Nintendo and Nike come to mind.

The importance of sales volume is high, a social media presence is integral and comments are valuable. The sentiments of customers are of average importance.

These companies’ online challenge? “To nurture the community,” Moisand said.

He cited the efforts of Quick Restaurants, a chain in Belgium and France with knock-offs of McDonalds and Burger King hamburgers.

Look familiar? This is a Giant Max (Big Mac-like) value meal in a Quick restaurant in Belgium.

The company created a Facebook page that invites fans to describe “My Best Quick.”

They can suggest the kinds of products they want, Moisand said. A recent hot topic was home delivery, and the company responded with a pilot project at one restaurant.

“The result was positive connections and lots of joiners,” Moisand said.

The fourth and final type of brand is the Vital Brand. Such a product affects an individual’s primary concerns: health, family, the future.

A mistake could lead to anxieties and doubts.

To the marketer, volume of sales is of great importance, as is the number of comments about the product. A social media presence is of high value. Sentiments are of only average importance.

Moisand recommends discovering insights about the products and reassuring customers.

“One client provides medical services for diabetes,” he said. “They changed their packaging to give more information.”

What’s an advantage of an in-store experience over one online?

The knowledge of a salesperson, a chance to quickly see a variety of products, conversations and serendipity.

T.M. Lewin, a major UK clothing chain, saw an opportunity to become a “thought leader” on men’s fashion in London through the Internet.

“We wanted to see ourselves as the authority on business dress and give insight to customers on products and fashion,” head of director marketing Naomi Paget told the audience at the June 17 Social Media Marketing conference in London. “We also wanted to educate them and excite them, and introduce them to our other products.”

Over six months the company created an online community for men’s business clothing, OfftheCuff.com. It also has a Facebook page for the feature.

The plan was to leverage its expertise through sharing information and producing informative videos. A popular one is “How to fold a shirt.”

“We wanted to replicate the level of service in the store to the customer in the living room and around the world,” she said.

One element was securing knowledgeable bloggers.

T.M. Lewin asked 16 individuals across several areas of men’s fashions – i.e. suits, ties, shoes – to become company bloggers for the website.

These experts would offer sartorial advice and invite questions from readers.

The responses were written by the expert, creating “conversations,” Paget said.

“We have four new blogs each week and one poll a week,” she said. “We try to keep it topical.”

The key was to have the content lined up well in advance, she added.

Can social media turn online “buzz” into offline sales?

That was the question on the mind of Matt Rhodes of FreshNetworks.com, a London social media agency, when the company was invited to create a campaign for Jimmy Choo training shoes in the UK.

Matt Rhodes of FreshNetworks explains the agency’s Foursquare campaign for Jimmy Choo.

It was the retailer’s first foray into social media and officials were a bit apprehensive.

The agency took about six months to build an online community for Jimmy Choo, and blogger engagement. (They also went on Mixi in Japan.)

“We figured we had 200,000 people in the UK engaging with us,” Rhodes said. “But we wanted to find a way to make people enter stores.”

They didn’t want a flash mob. They decided to give Foursquare a try. The geo-local application involves individuals “checking in” at local establishments, posting updates and earning theoretical badges or titles like mayor.

In April they launched “CatchAChoo” on Foursquare. They invited Jimmy Choo fans to participate in a “trainer hunt” by “following” trainers and visiting the stores they did. If they were able to decipher clues and then be the first one at a particular store to approach the trainer with “I’ve been following you!,” they would walk away in a pair of Jimmy Choos. (They also promoted the event through Facebook, Twitter and the website.)

At the store being used that day, shoppers were greeted with champagne.

By the third week of the contest, one out of every 17 people on Foursquare was following Jimmy Choo. (There are an estimated 10,000 Foursquare users in London.)

The agency noted 5,000 mentions on Twitter and, at a peak, a Jimmy Choo store had 35 people stop in.

But the big surge came through old media.

When the Evening Standard newspaper dedicated a half-page of content to the contest, shoe sales skyrocketed 33%, Rhodes said.

British Vogue, Yahoo News and Reuters then picked it up and the reach of “CatchAChoo” spread.

As for the promotion, Rhodes considers it a success.

“We got people to do stuff, go places and buy shoes,” he said.

His recommendation? Have a plan.

1. Identify who is saying what and where.
2. Work out how you will define success.
3. Experiment and work hard to get successful engagement.
4. Have a clear process for measurement.

When “CatchAChoo” concluded, the retailer held a cocktail party for participants. (A summary video of the campaign is on YouTube.)

Of course, they engaged attendees with a questionnaire – and created an email list for future promotions.

A lot of people are Tweeting. And a lot of it is less than interesting, and thus less effective.

Sue Keogh of Sookio Ltd. offered a primer on Twitter at the June 17 Social Media Marketing conference in London.

Sue Keogh of Sookio identifies the good and bad in Tweets.

Her 7 tips for “Tweets that travel”:

1. In Twitter, tell the reader what the Tweet is about but tease it. Make followers want to click on the link or respond.
2. Make sure the headline is good! It’s best to include a call to action or to phrase the Tweet as a question.

   The most popular content?

   1. Lists
   2. “Insider” knowledge
   3. Advice (but it has to work!)
   4. Topical/seasonal issues
   5. Shared experience
   6. Picking a “tribe” to belong to (i.e. “What kind of pirate are you?”)
   7. Dos and don’ts

One trick is this type of Tweet: A number + an adjective + the item + the “sticky” message.

“Like ’83 Beautiful WordPress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen,’” Keogh said.

1. Use the five W’s – who, what, where, when, and why – as signposts for the reader. Example: “What Apple didn’t announce at the computer show, and why.”
2. Know the search engines/aggregators and the content they provide.

   Facebook and Twitter deal with data; YouTube is what you see; Digg is about how-tos; and Reddit is more shocking, not-safe-for-work content.

   “The most popular Tweets tend to involve learning, positive content and suggestive references,” she said. “The bad is negative content, geek-y stuff and ‘-ing’ stuff.”

   She recommends being positive, focusing on the user (use the word “you” and offer help), updating social media posts, and using nouns.

3. Understand good English and use it!
4. Use “lots” of punctuation
5. Do “Twitter” math: Keep Tweets to 115 characters to allow followers to Re-Tweet with a short comment.

In conclusion, Keogh — who said she basically follows journalists and writers — noted that proper use of grammar is an asset.

“If you can write in good, clear English then you’ll have a head start on most of the people tweeting out there,” she said.

In her research for the presentation, she was reminded anew that it’s not all like that out there.

“I came across this Justin Bieber stuff and it was crazy!” she said.

Stefan Hull didn’t mince words.

Every website needs to be managed, every keyword or tag needs to be promoted. The name of the game is search engine optimization.

“You should already be having that done, like hygiene,” the business director of Propellernet told the June 17 Social Media Marketing conference in London.

Now it’s about outreach and engagement.

“Links are the currency,” he said. “Brands are either networked or invisible.”

Marketing today is search, social media, online public relations and offline collateral.

“Google listens to conversations,” Hull said. “Links differentiate you.”

Stefan Hull discusses SEO at the Social Media Marketing event in London.

Hull presented two case studies.

The first involved Westfield Village, an upscale shopping center in London.

The customer sought to “own” the search phrase “London shopping.”

Westfield was planning a big event, “The Greatest Fashion Show on Earth.”

Propellernet proposed a strategy to work with “key influencers.”

They created a “blogger relations” team, Googled the keywords and identified the names and websites that came up most frequently.

Then they phoned them.

They shared information about the event, offered them backstage passes to the show, and provided exclusive content to them.

“The key was doing it in person,” Hull said.

He emphasized that Westfield sought to act ethically and to create genuine relationships.

All the company asked was, in covering the event for the blog, to include a link to Westfield Village and to use the words “London shopping” in the write-up.

Search engines would then quantify the links and the presence of the “London shopping” words — “anchor text” in SEO parlance — within the blogs and, voila, Westfield Village would move up the list.

“We wanted the inbound links to Westfield Village,” Hull said.

With more visitors coming to the site, Westfield was ready. It had created a video that through “hotspotting” would allow users to click on any particular item to stop the video and get more information.

“We called it ‘the Virus,’” he said.

Westfield is now third or fourth on the “London shopping” search.

“And I predict it will be No. 1 by the end of the year,” Hull said. “We know the number of links needed to move up!”

Hull’s second case study involved sportsshoes.com.

Another client was sportsshoes.com. It was looking for ways to boost sales of running shoes.

In search marketing, this could be tricky. “Running shoes” may be used by hardcore runners, regular exercisers, “Race for the Cure”-type enthusiasts or simple “mud” runners.

Hull’s company asked, “Where do hardcore runners ‘live’ online?”

In running clubs.

The firm targeted the top 30 running clubs they could find and asked runners – “real people,” he said – to write reviews of their products.

While some companies might be fearful of inviting criticism in such a forum, sportshoes.com looked at it differently.

“Even bad ones helped the company, in identifying problems or asking for new features,” he said.

“The Running Blog” offered a kit for runners, a badge, and a link to the sportshoes.com company page.

“In 2008 we were not in the top 100 in search,” Hull said. “Today we are No. 1.”

This is crucial because studies have shown that searchers rarely venture “below the fold” on the search screen. About 66% click on the first three listings, he said.

The lesson: “Social networks and searches reflect people’s motivations,” Hull concluded.

Social media – particularly applications like Twitter and Foursquare – are so new that there are not a lot of examples of campaigns and effectiveness.

So individuals and agencies are blazing trails, trying new things and seeing what works and what doesn’t.

Andrew Walker of Thin Martian (@killdozer on Twitter) and Steve Parker of Cohnwolfe had such an experience.

Steve Parker discusses marketing “The Anvil” DVD on Twitter.

In January 2009 the pair was challenged with marketing DVD sales of the 2008 movie Anvil, an English spin on the “Spinal Tap”-style rockumentary.

Often such campaigns are like the movie release: a buildup of several weeks to a launch date. Then market attention switches to the next DVD release.

“We wanted a campaign with a longer shelf life,” Walker told the attendees at the June 17 Social Media Marketing conference in London.

The idea: Create a petition to get the unknown band to play at Glastonbury, the annual summer concert in Glastonbury, England.

Next, the pair developed a triangle around that central idea. The three sides would incorporate social media, the mainstream media and real-world experiences.

The objectives:

1. Compare the value of broadcast marketing and “conversations.”
2. Establish relevant metrics.
3. Define best practices for Twitter marketing

They chose Twitter (and the handle @anvilmovie) because:

1. It allowed them to brand it with a message attached
2. It could create traction because of the two-way nature of communication
3. The more interaction, the more traction
4. Interaction would drive more unique people to see their message
5. The “self-selecting” social media model (only viable customers are engaged and participate) suggested that Twitter’s reach could be equivalent to premium ad slots in other media.

They created a “TOTS” standard: Twitter Opportunity To See. They would take the number of followers, multiply it by potential re-tweets, and then multiple it by the total individuals who might see the re-tweets.

It allowed for an estimate of “potential reach,” Walker said.

With the objectives set, the PR team was ready to promote the band, with the dreamed –of concert appearance six months away.

They tweeted announcements, trivia and “spottings.” They also followed their followers. They identified hashtags being used that referred to the movie. They direct-messaged the users of the hashtags.

“You want to identify and follow the key influencers in your sector,” Parker said. “If they re-tweet you, you’re golden!”

As the campaign to get the band to Glastonbury heated up on Twitter, the agency reached out to the mainstream media, pitching story ideas related to the group’s “tragic story” and the fan support online.

The campaign culminated with the agency delivering a real experience to the fans, in the form of concerts leading up to Glastonbury.

“In the end, DVD sales exceeded expectations,” Parker said. The band also signed major recording contracts.

Their Twitter dos and don’ts:

Do:

• Be honest. They would tell followers “I’m with the PR team” and not try to pass themselves as the band.
• Actively use hashtags, follow others and engage in conversations.
• Don’t overinvest in strategy. “Twitter is tactical, organic and short-term,” Parker said.
• Remember, you are creating a media “channel,” which is a long-term vehicle whose objective will evolve over time.
• If you get it right , expect 50% participation.

Don’ts:

• Twitter campaigns don’t always extend to Facebook and YouTube.
• Promotions involving prizes are less effective.
• You still may not get the mainstream media’s attention.
• You may not get the re-tweeting you expect.

The effort was an ultimate success, Parker said.

“We believe this got more traction than traditional advertising in terms of scale, reach and awareness,” he said.

Fans of the inventor of through-the-wall radar.

If there were ever a niche community for the 21^st century, aficionados of the technology would have to represent it.

Luke Brynley-Jones, co-founder and director of Influence People, used the group – and there is one, on LinkedIn – to demonstrate that in today’s connected but fragmented world, a marketer needs to identify (and sometimes create) audiences.

Brynley-Jones, who organized Social Media Marketing UK in London on June 17, told the audience that marketers need to be proactive.

“If you can’t find a niche community, create it,” he said.

Luke Brynley-Jones at the June 17 Social Media Marketing event in London.

He offered an example of several lawyers introducing a LinkedIn group for attendees of a huge conference. Participants wanted to join and – whoosh – there’s a niche audience. Are there businesses that would pay to reach that audience? Of course.

Once you have an audience, then the trick is to create compelling content for them.

“Amazingness is relative,” he said. “To some people – I’m imagining ex-SAS members – the radar guy is interesting.”

There are all sorts of niche audiences.

Suma Technologies’ video of a squeezable mouse has had 8,827 views on YouTube, he said.

Once you’ve created a niche community, publicize it through social media and traditional media.

He also recommends a spin on vanity marketing.

“Talk about people,” he said. “They’ll come to you.”

If a company is going to succeed in social media, it needs to identify an evangelist among its ranks, not outsource the responsibility. And it needs to look beyond the PR and marketing departments and involve actual participants in the company’s business, he said. And don’t give the responsibility to the intern because she knows what Twitter is!

“Middle managers are the best people for the job,” he said.

He noted how one consulting company lives its approach, with virtually every member of the team blogging, posting videos to YouTube, using Twitter hashtags aggressively, and going to events and connecting.

Brynley-Jones said the linear approach to marketing has been replaced by a spiral, with customers touching the business at various times – and coming back if they find the content valuable.

“For inbound marketing, you need to create great content, optimize it for the search engines, and then market the hell out of it through social media,” he said.

Continuing the theoretical discussion of the ultimate effectiveness of social media, speakers Brian Solis and Mat Morrison emphasized that the amount of “noise” is rising, so marketers need to know how to more strongly get their messages across.

Solis, a principal of FutureWorks, a digital and social media agency, focused his talk on “nicheworks.”

From his perspective, each individual today through social media is creating his own audience. Because the audience involves friends and acquaintances, it is actually quite influential, he said.

Brian Solis, the San Francisco-based thought leader and author of Engage!, speaks to the conference via Skype from Copenhagen.

“The challenge is that we are competing for mind share,” he said. “So what content is worth sharing with that person?”

In this way, marketers are not so much product pushers but audience builders.

“We need to connect with people on themes and interests,” Solis said.

One person’s influence now has even more reach, as networks are expanded to include people who may never meet in person.

“Nicheworks” attempts to cut through the noise by analyzing the decision-making processes of individuals, to determine the best way to reach them.

More often these days, that involves identifying key influencers on a topic, or “people with a large reach.”

Starbucks used this approach by identifying coffee bloggers, sending them coupons and inviting them to share comments on the company’s product initiatives.

Solis’s firm can rank experts, find influencers on a topic and use them to tell stories to others, all the while creating social databases on users.

“The idea is to introduce value into the stream,” he said.

The approach is also designed to build more engagement with customers, through interesting and relevant content.

“You can measure things like re-tweeting but is it engaging?” Solis asked. “Our goal is to make it live longer.”

Mat Morrison, “media czar” at the Magic Beans Laboratory, said there is a difference between volume and effectiveness.

Morrison – who said the Magic Beans moniker allows for a failure rate, which “so far this year is 100 percent,” he quipped – provided an example.

Mat Morrison describes how friends, not media editors, are becoming prominent filters of information.

Last year organizers looked to publicize the London Twitter Festival – “Twestival” – and publicized close to the event’s conclusion a fictitious clash at the scene between Twitterers and Facebookers. (This writeup describes it.)

“While it was amplified by the people who Tweeted it, it didn’t go viral,” Morrison said. “Most people didn’t pass it on beyond the first generation.”

In his opinion, the users hadn’t been groomed how to pass along the story.

Social networks are essentially creating filters among friends, he said. Instead of a Guardian editor telling you what’s interesting, now a friend will be sharing a story or a video clip.

How do you bypass filters? “Good storytelling,” Morrison said.

Morrison encourages businesses to use a third-party source that will collect social network data of customers, enrich that data by removing overlaps, and then break out the data into segments for more effective targeting. Then the company should identify the influencers in each segment in its network.

But stay alert. Influencers and contexts can change, he said.

The crowd was enthusiastic, the insights valuable and the accents a bit different but the 2010 Social Media Marketing event in London on June 17 offered unique insights into how UK professionals perceive digital media.

The day-long affair in Oxford Circus was organized by Luke Brynley-Jones, co-founder and director of Influence People, and featured a rapid-fire cascade of 15 topics and speakers.

The topics ranged from the emergence of “nicheworks” and understanding individual influences to case studies involving social media promotions, to concrete tips to be more effective on websites, Twitter, and YouTube.

A crowd of 200 at the Cavendish Conference Centre in London.

One of the first speakers was Richard Sedley, director of customer engagement for cScape, which engages customers through surveys.

He focused his remarks on the psychology of persuasion, not to manipulate people in an unethical manner but to better understand behaviors and influences.

The ideas could inspire a customer to comply with a request and then repeat the behavior.

The approach features three segments:

1. Objects
2. Kairos (timing)
3. Design

“Objects are the things you pass on to someone, why people connect,” he said. These can be physical objects or information or entertainment or a courtesy.

One of his perceptions is that people will only pass on an object if it makes them look good, he said.

The biggest social object now is the World Cup. “We’re interested in what others think,” he said.

The best object is storytelling. “There’s no defense for an opinion,” he said.

Anyone can tell a story. Show a photo from a band’s last concert and talk about it. Share an opinion on a first, a last, a best or a rarest. Describe a sequence of cause-and-effect, A leads to B. People tend to listen.

Marketing is storytelling. And the good elements to a story are a passion (why should your customers care), a hero, an antagonist who challenges the hero, awareness (when the hero learns how to overcome obstacles) and transformation, when the hero accomplishes his goal.

“The trick is to use other people’s stories for realism,” Sedley said.

Richard Sedley discusses the psychology of persuasion.

Kairos (timing) is everything.

He offered a couple of examples.

In one, the object is a bag of chips. If a person buys it from a street vendor and starts to nibble on the chips, it’s not a social object.

“But buy it in a pub, and open it outwards to the people around you, it becomes a social object, something to be shared,” he said.

He then showed a photo of an alley near a nursery. Passers-by were using it as a dump.

The nursery’s first sign asked people “please do not dump your rubbish here.” It didn’t work.

The second sign warned that litterers would be prosecuted. That didn’t work.

The third sign threatened emotional blackmail: “Please don’t dump your rubbish. Children play here.” It didn’t work either.

Finally, the nursery put up a sign with a map to the town’s dump. It worked.

“Social psychology reveals that there’s a key moment to influence behaviors,” he said. “Timing is everything.”

Persuasion works on individuals when they are in a good mood and when they can take action, he emphasized.

Last, Sedley urged marketers to design a process that encourages the behaviors you want.

“Facebook does this with its ‘Like’ and ‘Keep in touch’ buttons,” he said. Of course, the social network can use this information to help the user – and better define his or her profile to advertisers.

Sedley is not sold on Foursquare just yet; the location-based network uses “badges” to reward participants. In his opinion, these badges do not qualify as social objects.

How this all relates to social media is that individuals use networks like Facebook and Twitter for “mental shortcuts.”

“It’s social proof,” he said. “If you are given evidence that something is a good thing, it’s easy to pass on.”

For marketers, it is important to understand the idea of reciprocity: If you give something, you are likely to get something back.

But watch the context.

Sedley posed two scenarios: Fill something out and you get this white paper. Or, give the white paper and then ask for the individual’s contact information to provide future white papers.

“You are more likely to get someone to fill out the information through the latter,” he said.

The key thing is to design behaviors you wish to encourage.

“Effective communication is the exchange of a social object at a particular moment that can be predicted through behaviors,” Sedley concluded.