Laurie Griffith Buczek, Intel‘s platform manager and social media strategist for digital marketing, acknowledges that the technology company and its 80,000 employees worldwide are more wired than the average person.

“Employees are probably connected more on social media today than through traditional ways,” she told the audience at the Sept. 23 Marketing Technology Summit in Phoenix.

Intel has embraced social media to engage customers, advance its brand, empower employees and recruit future workers.

Here are some of the ways:

• A YouTube channel
• A LinkedIn profile (with 47,000 employees listed)
• A Facebook page (which 163,263 people like)
• Twitter accounts.

On Facebook you can find pages for: Intel Core i7; Discover Intel Global; Intel Pakistan; Intel Retail Edge Program; Intel WiMAX, and many more.

Here are just a few of the Twitter feeds: @intel; @intelnews, @Intelinside; @IntelOpenPort; @IntelSoftware; @JobsatIntel; @Intel_Education; @IntelScoop; @IntelEvents; @IntelUK; @IntelXeon; and @Intelanz.

Buczek said that Intel has a program called Digital 500 that trains employees on how to become brand ambassadors for the company in social media.

She describes the corporation’s approach:

Intel is also known for its blogs.

They began external blogs in 2004, with most involving researchers or technologists, or being geo-based around a specific facility, she said.

Intel is now looking to do more to offer customer support through blogs, she said.

“It’s a large part of the reason people come to Intel.com,” Buczek said.

Attention is now being focused on constructing a website that understands visitors’ behavioral patterns.

“Then we can personalize that experience for our customers,” she said. “You build a base-level experience … then you are able to stack on the module experience (like Pandora, Amazon or Netflix).”

Intel is also continuing to build out its own intranet, with social-media features like YouTube for employees to use. Already there are 13,000 users groups formed around products, communities, or work and free-time interests.

“We asked, ‘How could social media make a difference in engaging employees and encouraging collaboration?’” she said.

Krause, vice president of marketing and communications for the Lisle, Il-based enterprise, discussed the change that has occurred since April 2009 at the Sept. 23 Arizona Marketing Technology Summit in Phoenix.

Molex is a global supplier of interconnect products. Its engineers design and develop electronic, electrical and fiber optic interconnects to switches and applications.

One could say it followed the “social media playbook”: introducing The Connector blog, an informal conversation separate from the Molex website; a YouTube channel; a Facebook page; and a Twitter account. It created a company profile on LinkedIn.

Here’s how he describes the approach:

Molex works with its partners and distributors to “broadcast” each other’s messages. They connect, re-Tweet and refer each other’s customers to the information.

“Together we are taking our messages out to the marketplace,” Krause said.

It’s working, he said. With all of the external links and some SEO, Molex has climbed up the search rankings from fourth or fifth to first or second, he said.

Krause emphasizes that doing business today is different than how he use to interact with customers.

The lesson? Identify ways to add value to your relationships with customers.

Didn’t think so.

But that’s changing. As explained by Brian Chapman, director of e-business for Honeywell Process Solutions, the engineering-focused company needs to embrace it to attract future employees.

Chapman, who spoke at the Sept. 23 Arizona Marketing Summit in Phoenix, said that a survey showed that Honeywell’s customers – “extreme industrial users,” he said – had little interest in making purchases online. That makes sense; the typical sales process runs 18 to 24 months.

The survey revealed some key insights about them, however. Honeywell was able to create four “personas” – audiences — to use in its marketing strategy. They then created a fifth composite to represent a future customer.

The five are: Charlie the Channel Partner, Sam the Supporter, Ivan the Installed-Based Buyer, Nick the New Buyer, and Fiona the Future Buyer.

Chapman discussed the process:

The survey also provided insights into their customers’ online behavior, he said.

First, the majority reported spending seven to 10 hours a week online, a figure lower than expected.

Most users reported they couldn’t find information fast enough on the Honeywell website so he’s investing more dollars in internal search.

“95 percent said they like to use email for communications,” he said. “92 percent surf the web to research an issue, and 90 percent start with Google.”

Another insight was that customers want to do training online, not travel to a 2- or 4-week class. This has an impact because the on-site classes are a revenue stream, he said.

You either ramp up online training or risk losing customers.

They also hate marketing “fluff,” he said.

The information helped his division establish online priorities:

• Pump up email frequency
• Focus on Google
• Improve onsite search
• Build online training capabilities
• Facilitate online purchase of spare parts (if you can get the purchase price right)
• Improve response times to online inquiries
• Review results against strategic intent using tools like Google Analytics
• Create micro-sites that could publish content faster than the primary website

The company started dabbling in Twitter in June.

“We have 70 followers,” Chapman said. “And 75 percent are Fionas.”

They have embraced LinkedIn, with 800 engineers in a group.

Data Doctors founder Ken Colburn gave 200 small-businesspeople a lesson in Social Media 101 in an Aug. 28 talk for Greater Phoenix SCORE.

The key takeaways from Ken Colburn’s recent talk on social media: “Use Facebook” and “Social media is free.”

“Facebook is now the third largest country in the world, behind China and India,” he said. “It has more than 500 million people using it.”

If one considers that the average user has 131 “friends,” that’s a lot of people you can reach via word-of-mouth, he said.

Using “word of mouse” is also a great form of marketing because it’s free.

“Using social media costs time, not money,” Colburn said.

The founder of Data Doctors, a computer-repair and data-recovery firm with stores in 11 states, spoke to 200 small-businesspeople Aug. 28 for Greater Phoenix SCORE.

The topic was Social Media 101, an introduction and how-to on engaging customers.

Colburn advocates a Facebook-centric approach.

“Facebook is great for customer feedback,” he said. “Let’s face it, it’s probably more conducive to engaging your customer than your website is.”

In fact, instead of directing customers to its website, Data Doctors funnels them to its Facebook page.

“Promote your Facebook page on everything,” he said. “Tell folks to ask questions on Facebook. That’s where connection occurs.”

Technology allows businesses to use a “like” button to connect customers to Facebook. These are your “brand apostles,” he said.

The key is to “engage.”

“This is not a marketing exercise to promote yourself,” he said. “It’s a place for conversations and relationships.”

Colburn said it’s the same as your approach at a networking event.

“You don’t go up to people and start talking about yourself,” he said. “It’s meeting people and engaging in conversations of mutual interests.”

If you’re not going to listen to your customers, don’t use social media.

If Facebook is where to engage your customers, Twitter is where to reach future customers, Colburn said.

“Twitter is the place to get information and make new connections,” he said.

There is a world of Tweeters to search, follow and interact with. Ask questions. If your subject is dry, make it fun. But if you want to be an authority figure, don’t be goofy.

His company monitors use of the phrase “data recovery” on Twitter. Someone then answers the comment with a Direct Message with an offer to help.

“It costs time, but not money,” Colburn said.

Similarly, Linkedin is a spot for employee recruitment. It is also a wellspring of subject authorities.

“Linkedin skews older,” Colburn said. “It has a neat section with what customers are asking.”

If you have answers, your visibility rises, he said. People are asking for your help each day

And it’s fast. Colburn posted a question on insurance for his business twice on Linkedin. Within two days he had 40 responses.

“What required months of research before was cut to a fraction of that time,” he said.

Designate a 15-minute segment each day as Linkedin time, he suggested.

Businesses can also take advantage of “free” marketing through Foursquare.

The location-based social media invites its 3 million users to “check in” at establishments for badges or points. Businesses can market to these potentially loyal customers by offering specials.

Adjacent businesses can also get involved, as coupons show up for the stop’s neighbors.

“If you eat at Panda Express in Mesa, it shows a special on computer services at our nearby Data Doctors location,” he said.

Colburn said Foursquare was useful during a recent trip to Washington, D.C. He was looking for a place to eat. If you Google “D.C. restaurants,” the list is unwieldy.

So he clicked on Foursquare and looked at “tips” posted by users for the adjacent area. One for a nearby bistro read that the mac and cheese was the bomb.

“I went there and had the mac and cheese and it was the bomb,” he said. “And I don’t even like mac and cheese!”

If you are unsure of which social medium to use, take a look at Ping.fm.

In addition to engagement, small businesses need to have a plan to listen and measure.

Tools like Addictomatic, SocialMention, Google Alerts (for the entire Web), Google Realtime (for social), and Monitter allow companies to find mentions of the firm and industries.

“Monitter also allows you to get customers within a 50-mile radius,” he said.

In addition, he suggests looking at MuckRack, a site that follows what journalists are working on (“Listen to them and then offer help on stories they’re doing), and Listorious, which lists experts in specific fields.

“Check on your own company and your competitors,” he said.

For measuring, investigate Bit.ly (which shortens URLs in tweets for free but also shows how many people clicked on your link and from where); Facebook Insights (shows breakdown of fan base by gender and age); Google Analytics (to track visits to your website); HowSociable (a brand’s social report card).

Notably absent from Colburn’s talk – which one questioner noted – was discussion of YouTube.com.

He said he considers it “not entry level” for small businesses.

But he does encourage its use.

“Start generating video content,” he said. “Maybe you’ll be like the ‘United Breaks Guitar’ guy, whose video now has 9 million hits and he’s got a record contract.”

]]> http://www.johnswolfe.com/socialmedia/facebook-centric-strategy-for-small-businesses//feed 0 http://www.johnswolfe.com/socialmedia/using-social-media-to-recruit-hire/ http://www.johnswolfe.com/socialmedia/using-social-media-to-recruit-hire/#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:02:22 +0000 admin http://www.johnswolfe.com/uncategorized/using-social-media-to-recruit-hire/

The Arizona Technology Council held a panel discussion titled “Recruiting and Branding with Social Media” on Aug. 25 at the Jobing.com office on North 22^nd Street. Participants were, from left, Claudia Reilly of Avnet, Andrew Vess of Cox Communications, and DeAnne Russell of St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Why pay to advertise – or pay too much – when social media and technology allow for easy interaction with customers and potential employees?

That question hit every business during the economic downturn; hiring was limited but every company needed to “stay in the game” despite slashed budgets.

This issue was at the center of the “Recruiting and Branding with Social Media” panel discussion on Aug. 25 at Jobing.com, organized by the Arizona Technology Council.

DeAnne Russell, senior recruiter for St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, said one organization with a magazine sought to charge $500 for a print ad and $75 for a Tweet to solicit for a medical position.

With no funds available, Russell admitted she went to the Twitter account, wrote down its followers, and engaged them directly. For free. And it worked.

Companies have also found employees by connecting with influential contacts – through LinkedIn, Twitter or blogs – and shared a need for a specific individual for an open position. Not only do they get results, the turnaround time can be as little as 24 hours.

This explains why the Arizona Republic careers section on Sunday is now only a few pages.

Claudia Reilly, recruiting manager for Avnet, said she turns to LinkedIn to identify candidates at the professional level.

“You can easily find people in your industry and the caliber of candidates is pretty good,” she said.

Both Russell (@StJosephsJobs) and Reilly use company Twitter accounts to announce openings.

Andrew Vess, talent acquisition manager for Cox Communications, said the company was admittedly slow to engaging in social media but says it plans to do more in 2011. He doesn’t Tweet.

“LinkedIn has been most successful for us,” he said. “Our approach is to show what we do and what it’s like to work here.”

Cox also shifted some of its advertising dollars from traditional media to Google and Facebook ads. He said the ads were effective and a fraction of the cost.

“The old way was ‘post and pray,’” he said. “Now, with cost per click, you only pay for what you use.”

He added that another option is to join LinkedIn groups to find candidates or connect with educators at university pages to help identify skilled individuals.

Russell also uses Twitter to promote the brand. Using TweetLater at SocialOomph, she can take a few hours at the end of the month and schedule all of her Tweets for the next month.

Then, if something newsworthy occurs, she can create a Tweet and send it out. This avoids the chore of setting aside time each day to participate in social media.

Reilly told the 20 business people in the audience to only engage in social media if you are ready to interact.

“In social media, they expect to have conversations,” she said.

Russell, because of the “push” nature of her job Tweets, said she doesn’t have many Twitter conversations.

Another advantage to social media is that information is shared instantaneously, Vess said. Company websites rarely change.

Vess added that it’s important to monitor what your competition is doing.

“If they’re there and you’re not, that’s a red flag,” he said.

Interestingly, Reilly noted that using paid-ad sites like Monster or Jobing.com can include costs that many companies would like to avoid. Russell admitted she likes @TweetMyJobs

Greta Suda, Jobing’s assistant general manager in Phoenix, said the company is aware of the environment and is also looking to innovate.

“We’re evolving, too,” she said. “Now we have a tech service team that can create the apps that companies and organizations can use for their own microsites or Facebook pages.

“We’re not just a job portal anymore,” she said.

This image of a “virtual” Times Square reinforces the idea that businesses today need to operate in the “real” world and the “cyber” world.

When I talk with clients about the importance of an online strategy, I still see some reluctance. It’s time-consuming, there’s a cost involved, it’s unclear if it’s effective, and our customers really aren’t online are some of the refrains.

But those opinions ignore reality; there is a cyber world out there and, like it or not, your business is in it already.

Consider it “space”: people are in there sharing information and recommendations, on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, blogs, consumer forums, and user-review websites. Don’t you think you should be there?

Companies large and small need to have a strategy for competing in the virtual world, just as they have a strategy for the real world. If they devote attention to how employees answer the phone, where to distribute ads or flyers, and what the office or storefront looks like, they also need to do that online.

There are four key online segments for any business. Some may be more important to you than others, but each is significant.

1. Listening: It is very easy for individuals to express opinions today and publish them for wider distribution than just the table at the coffee shop. To protect your brand, you need to know what’s being said, who is saying it and what traction it may be gaining. This can be done by an employee using search or, for larger firms, a provider like Radian6 or Synthesio. While critical comments can be demoralizing, they create an opportunity to win back fans by solving problems. Interacting with them is more beneficial than ignoring them.
2. SEO: Ted Turner once explained his secret to success this way – “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.” In 2010, advertising can be often be equated to how your business shows up in user searches. If you Google your brand and you’re not on the first page, you need an optimization effort. This involves website design, titles, keywords and a host of other factors. Don’t overlook this fundamental necessity: You probably rely on Google or Yahoo or Bing; so do your customers.
3. Engagement: There has been some discussion that corporations today don’t even own their brand. Customers do, and they can make it or break it through their comments. Imagine if your company could harness the allegiance, emotions, suggestions and megaphones of your customers. Would that make a difference in a positive way? The virtual world affords easier ways to get immediate feedback, identify and hone new products or services, and build brand loyalty. Rather than expect individuals to visit your website, companies need to go where they are – like Facebook or Youtube – and interact with them. And use tools like email and Twitter to solicit feedback and – most importantly – engage customers in a positive way.
4. Thought Leadership: In a world drowning in information, people thirst for knowledge. Every company – from the cell-phone provider to the extermination service – has the opportunity to educate customers on trends, innovations, regulations and challenges. Done in a timely and succinct manner, a company can extend its brand, become a trusted resource – and increase sales. If you’re not doing it, someone else is.

Of course, one size does not fit all. Most companies may find only a few of these “channels” to use, based on their market, their product or service and their capabilities.

Before your company jumps in, it’s vital to identify your objective, know your target audience and its preferences, and select the “tools” (social media, email, SEO etc.) that will be most impactful.

To sum up: Don’t forget about the “real” world. Just don’t ignore the “cyber” one.

So July 31 has had special meaning for me: That’s Major League Baseball’s trade deadline, the last chance for teams to freely swap players.

For the Diamondbacks, it’s a chance to trade whatever value you might have in a disastrous season for young prospects – and hope for a better future.

This year the team had plenty to shed and rumors about 10 of the 25 players began circulating July 1.

So as the July 31 deadline neared, I and probably hundreds of thousands of other baseball fans were looking to see how their favorite team’s makeup would change.

In the past – way past — that meant reading a newspaper or magazine. In the recent past that meant checking a sports website like ESPN or Fox Sports, sometimes on the hour.

But 2010 was different. The best information, the most timely information, came from that little 140-character newsletter: Twitter.

Throughout July 29, July 30 and July 31, baseball writers and sportscasters provided tidbits on what they were hearing from baseball executives and agents. This went on at all hours of the day and night.

I got my information from KTAR’s Dave Burns (@Burns620), Paul Calvisi (@PaulCalvisi) and John Gambadoro (@Gambo620), the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro (@nickpiecoro), Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) and Jon Paul Morosi (@jonmorosi), Diamondbacks’ team writer Steve Gilbert (@dbackswriter and @dbackswire), MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors), USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale), Fox Sports Arizona’s Todd Walsh (@walshtodd) and Jack Magruder (@JackMagruder), Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman (@SI_JonHeyman) and Baseball America’s Jim Callis (@jimcallisBA).

Sometimes the Tweeters would include a link to a story they had done for the company’s website. Many times it was just a brief item, with no corresponding link (and a tidbit that wouldn’t make it onto the website, except in the Twitter feed). Often these scribes would re-tweet an item from one of the others. Sometimes they would respond to fans’ comments.

My guess is that each individual Tweeted between six and 20 times each day.

I found myself following tweets, not visiting websites. My Google Alert emails for the Diamondbacks were dated material.

Significantly, I was not too connected to ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports. Their baseball writers are behind a pay wall – ESPN Insider – that puts off fans like me. I don’t see the added value or unique insights that it would cost me per month. I could see some of their Tweets on the homepage but I was frustrated when the link took me to a subscription pitch.

More significantly – for all of us in social media – my following these baseball Tweeters involved no advertising. None. Zip. Nada.

There were no ads on my Twitter app on BlackBerry. The tweets contained information, not marketing information.

So … what to do?

Could the Tweeters include some sort of sales pitch in every fifth Tweet? Mentioning perhaps a sponsor from the next telecast or publication?

Would followers be irked if Ken Rosenthal, for example, included an Old Spice Move of the Day? Probably not.

Could Tweeters use TwitPic to promote an advertiser?

Could a brand like the Diamondbacks aggregate all #dbacks tweets on a special page, with a frame with ticket and promotional information?

Would any of this work?

Well, compared with nothing, it’s probably worth a try. Especially if folks are not going to the website.

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.

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.

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.