The Compete-At Blog: Social Media

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Know Your Audience’s “Social Technographic Profile”

Jun 1, 2009 by Compete-At Articles , Articles event planning , Social Media , Social network

The term “demographics” is thrown around a lot these days. From a marketing perspective, it refers to the specific characteristics of the audience you’re trying to target in a campaign. Demographics can include age, gender, race, education level, income level, and location, as well as factors such as marital status, home ownership, parenthood and so on. Of course, the only demographics we care about, as marketers, are those that affect a person’s likelihood of buying our product or service.

One of the chief concerns of any good marketing campaign is whether or not it hits the audience we want to reach. We wouldn’t try to promote a skateboarding event in a magazine read mainly by retirees. Why? It doesn’t reach our target demographic.

As marketing expands into the cyber realm and social media become ever more central to our marketing campaigns, simply knowing our audience’s demographic profile may no longer be enough. We may need a new set of criteria. Social Technographic Profile is a term coined by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff in their book Groundswell (a book I highly recommend). It’s based on a concept of Technographic Segmentation introduced by Dr. Edward Forrest in 1985. In short, a person’s social technographic profile defines his or her personality and characteristics when it comes to social media.

What does the person do online? What are his/her web habits? What kinds of sites does s/he visit? How does s/he relate to those sites - actively or passively?

One of the keys to a successful social media strategy is to identity the consumer you’re after and his/her technographic profile. This will define which types of social media will be most effective in reaching your audience. In a broad sense you can divide people into one (or more) of the following profiles:

Creators are people who generate content. This can range from writing blog posts and wiki entries to creating and uploading videos on YouTube. Creators are the true value adders of the web. They make the stuff everyone else comments on.
Critics are users who rank and review products, web posts, pictures, videos or anything else. They play a key role in influencing what products people buy, what videos people watch, and what competitive events they will enter.
Joiners are those who join and maintain profiles on social network sites like Facebook and MySpace. They like to connect with others who share their interests.
Spectators are users who do not actively participate but watch and read from the wings. They silently read others’ posts, view others’ content without making their presence known. They are by far the most numerous participants on any forum site.
Inactives are those who are still living in feudal times and have no web activity. They don’t really need to be considered in a social media campaign (though, possibly, they can still be reached by pony express).

Let’s look at a few real-world examples. What social technographic profiles might you expect to encounter when trying to reach the following groups?

Lifelong recreational sports competitors. These are folks who sail, curl, bowl, golf or play pool at a non-professional level. Although there are some very competitive folks amongst this crowd, most do not participate primarily to win. They do so because they love the sport, the social activities, the atmosphere, etc. This group would probably contain a large number of Spectators and Critics who simply crave information about the sport.

To reach this group, you might focus on getting news about your event posted on relevant blogs and forums. You might consider using a management system that automates this process, such as Compete-At’s Event Manager.

X-Sports spectators. These are the people who watch skateboarding, motocross and surfing events. Because you are casting the net wider here and trying to reach not just competitors but audience members, you might look toward Social Network Sites (SNS) and more general forums because the people on those sites will be mainly Joiners and Spectators.

Canasta players. If you want to reach this group online, you might be SOL (and if you do not know what this abbreviation means, you might be part of this group). That’s because this group would be mostly Inactives. The only “social media” they participate in takes place in a bingo hall. No disrespect intended.

When you’re marketing your event via social media (and who isn’t these days?), traditional demographics may be less important than “social technographics.” After all, you’ve first got to reach your audience if you’re going to communicate with them. Knowing where they “hang out” online and what they do when they get there can be critical information.

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Creating a Social Media Strategy

Apr 30, 2009 by Compete-At Articles , Facebook , LinkedIn , Social Media , Twitter

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Social media are a vital resource for promoting your events in the 21st Century. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Wikipedia provide endless opportunities to connect, one-to-one, with thousands - even millions - of raving fans of your sport. As you think about how to leverage this mind-boggling new resource, though, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. So when you’re creating your social media strategy, follow a simple step-by-step plan.

Step 1: Set your goals.
Clearly state your goals and constantly check them against your marketing intentions and your concrete results. Write goals down and be specific. Don’t have too many goals but focus on what is important and keep an eye toward diversity. It is always better to have a few goals and meet them than to go after pie in the sky. Your goals might include, for example, reconnecting with a certain percentage of your previous event competitors, increasing your network size and generating a certain amount of new content every day/week/month. Whatever your specific goals, remember that your plan is going to take time and don’t have unrealistic expectations. Rome wasn’t built in a blah, blah...

Step 2: Know your market.
Try to understand the online habits and preferences of your event competitors, spectators and sponsors. Get to know their “social technographic profiles.” Do the research. Talk to people, surf the net. A Social Technographic Profile worksheet will be available in a follow-up post. Identify the demographics of your target group(s) and then identify the social media they’re most likely using and how they’re using them.

Step 3: Pick your weapons.
Choose the online tools that best match your goals and targets. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket but, rather, have a mix of technologies and sites. The idea is to diversify, not duplicate. You’ll probably want to use a strategic mix of Social Network Sites (SNS), Forums and Blogs. Pick a general SNS like Facebook and then a couple of sport-/event-specific forums and blogs. This strategy gives you a mix of coverage to optimize results.

When using the SNS, accept invitations and build up your friends lists. Use the Status Updates to your full advantage. Post often, but not to the point of annoyance. Create fan pages. Join Groups and contribute to discussions, but also start your own Groups.

On the forums, become active. Post often and, more importantly, supply answers and insightful comments. Keep these insights positive and helpful, not negative or self-serving. Consider making a donation to the site (usually less than $50). This shows your support of the community and instantly raises your standing. Lastly, consider advertising on the site. This can be a very cost-effective platform.

As for blogs, know that starting your own blog is a major commitment and growth can be slow. In most cases you are better off finding blogs that your target audience is already following and see if you can get involved. Consider contacting the blogger. Most bloggers are always looking for content and ideas, so help them out. Give them exclusives. Let them know what you are doing that is unique. Feed them press releases, news items. Make them feel special.

Step 4: Build or borrow?
After working the first three steps, you’ll come to a point where you really need to decide whether you want to build your own (forum, SNS, blog…) or leverage an existing site. In most cases it will be more efficient to find a blog, SNS or forum that already covers your target audience and use it to meet your goals. If there’s really nothing out there for you, or if you see a great opportunity to be a pioneer, then you might want to build your own. But remember, growth can be a slow process.

Step 5: Think long-term.
As with any marketing or branding effort, this is a long-term strategy. Give it time to develop. Social media is like a bank in which you make deposits one penny at a time. So to buy that shiny new bicycle (or other reward) you’ll have to stick with your strategy over the long haul. The good news is that as your “principal” grows, it generates interest, increasing the total value over time.

Step 6: Look for ways to leverage technology.
Because you want to cover several different social media, look for tools that will help you reduce your effort. Work smarter, not harder. There are innumerable tools and solutions available to help you streamline your workload. For example, Ping.fm allows you to simultaneously post to Facebook, Plaxo, Twitter and other accounts. Tweetlater allows you to queue up “tweets” (Twitter posts) and automatically post them on a staggered schedule. Those are just a couple of examples. Remember, too, that you don’t have to create all of your content. You can “borrow” content from other sites, as long as you give them credit and post links to the source. And finally:

Step 7: Remember the 4 Cs.
Whatever web tools you choose, create your posts, uploads and site improvements with the following criteria in mind:
1.Content – Does this post (content, upload, feature, etc.) add value to the target community?
2.Context – How does this post relate to the “world” of the target community?
3.Connection – How does this post build connections between you and the target community?
4.Community – How does this post help to build a sense of connection among members of the target community?

A seven-step plan and worksheet to help you navigate the vast, but rewarding ocean of social media will be available as a follow-up post.

By David Ross
CEO Compete-At.com

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