From the category archives:

Social Capital

Twilight word of mouth marketing and buzz marketing

December 4, 2008

in Buzz Marketing, Community Marketing, Social Capital, Social Graph, Social Media, Word of Mouth Marketing

Twilight is a Vampire movie based on the bestseller novel of the same name and series by Stephenie Meyer.  The film makers ‘Summit Entertainment’ expected at the most for Twilight to be a cult movie, but based on the film’s opening night in London’s Leicester Square last night, which saw scores of fans camping out overnight just to see the cast, this movie it set to become a blockbuster.

What we have witnessed here is a great example of word of mouth marketing.  This film has experienced what Malcolm Gladwell would call ‘The Tipping Point’ whereby the consumers have created buzz far beyond any pre-designed marketing hype. 

The buzz surrounding the film has been helped through online user generated content such as YouTube videos, photos, etc… as well as the gap in the market left by Harry Potter. 
When a community such as the Twilight example, takes control and creates folklore around the brand it is magical and what social media buzz marketing is all about.

However, what Summit Entertainment need to do is engage more with this community immediately as to ignore this buzz would be a sin and one hell of a wasted opportunity.  
 

Engage with the community and continue the buzz marketing
Summit Entertainment should look to get involved with the community and its devoted fans, they need to engage in conversation with them, listen to what tools they want and play in the sandpit alongside their consumers, not only to support the momentum of the buzz but also to build trust and ultimately brand loyalty.

The film company could offer to include some of the best user generated videos and content to be included on the DVD release – how cool would that be!  Why not create a virtual world where consumers can create their own characters within the Vampire world and interact with one another including the brand.  Within this virtual world the film company could set up an online shop selling merchandise such as T-shirts that have been designed by members and chosen by the community via rankings, ratings or polls - think the Threadless model.

Looking to the future, Summit Entertainment is already planning a sequel so they will have an already engaged social graph yearning for more and there is great potential for the film company to generate social capital.  The community surrounding the brand should be invited by the film company to preview the sequel online and online mini films should be created to continue community engagement leading up to the new release.

There are hundreds of opportunities to support engagement and continue the buzz through social media with the ultimate payoff being brand loyalty.

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Social capital and building a quality social graph

November 30, 2008

in Individual as Medium, Social Capital, Social Capital Value Add, Social Graph, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter

I have just finished reading: ‘Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom‘ by Matthew Fraser and Soumitra Dutta.  This book provides a fascinating chronicle of social media to date that is heavily influenced by history and social anthropology.

One chapter in particular fired my rockets which was all about social capital.

Social capital
From a marketer’s perspective social capital by definition is no different from economic capital that is invested in order to deliver a return.  This means that when brands use social media, they are essentially investing social time and effort with the overall aim of achieving a return on that investment.  The same applies to consumers use of social media too.

Brands increasing social capital via their social graph
When putting together a social media strategy, brands are looking to increase their social capital through increasing the number of friend/fans/followers on social network platforms.  

Brands also use blogging outreach programmes targeting key professional bloggers who have great influence over a brand’s target audience in hope of improving the quality of their social graph.

At the same time brands are also building social relationships with advocates and consumers via campaigns, communities, outreach programmes, widgets, wikis, social games, building in engagement marketing in hope of achieving trust and loyalty, again increasing the quality of the social graph.  

This social graph can then be leveraged by the brand through promotions, offers, market research, crowd sourcing and collaboration to hopefully deliver a return on the original social investment that adds value to a brand’s bottom line.

Individuals increasing social capital through building a quality social graph
For individuals looking to increase their social capital through social media, marketer Jim Connolly recently put together a fantastic post ‘How I attracted 8000 followers in 14 weeks! illustrating how to increase your own social capital through selectively following Twitter consumers who add value to your social graph.  Jim’s strategy in his post can also be applied to brands as well as other social media tools and platforms.

As with all strategies, campaigns and activities the more time and effort you put into something, the greater return on that investment you will achieve, but you must have a goal in mind: prestige, recognition, loyalty, value, information, influence etc… Savvy brands know that through engagement marketing and one-to-one communications they can increase their social capital but they must invest time, money and effort with long term goals in order to experience a significant return - it’s all out there!

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