Social Chemistry

Marketing strategies from the Social Networking Conference

Good social media marketing always blurs the lines a bit between the personal and the professional. But the lines seemed extra blurry at the Social Networking Conference we attended in Los Angeles which, it turns out, is also the iDate 2009 Internet Dating Conference.

Never mind the discomfort of submitting an expense report receipt that says “Internet Dating” on it. When my wife found out the iDate conference was there, she said, very drily, “Oh? And were you planning on stopping by to pick up some tips?”

No, not dating tips. But the Social Networking Conference part of the event had some pretty useful marketing tips  for businesses trying to augment their traditional advertising techniques through video, forums, and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Intel social media strategist Michael Brito, a former Yahoo, said that for any company to successfully build a social network, they have to be believable and trustworthy. That means being transparent in your communications, admitting mistakes when you make them, and listening to and acting upon customer feedback. And you have to give communities some time to grow. “Don’t make monetization your only priority,” he said. “It’ll happen naturally if done right.”

Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era, talked about using Facebook and Twitter in business. Clara had, until recently, worked for salesforce.com, the customer relationship-management (CRM) company. In her mind, “Facebook is CRM for individuals. It gives us one place to manage our relationships with all of our contacts.”  Social networking should make marketers look more closely  at a customer’s lifetime value, she said—while a customer may not have that much individual spending power, he may have an extensive network whose buying decisions he can influence.

Social media is about storytelling, said Angela LoSasso, U.S. social media and social networking manager at Hewlett-Packard, and “storytelling is an integral part of your daily life.” So she tries to get customers and employees telling stories about her company’s products. HP tries to make its 300,000 employees brand ambassadors by presences on blogs, Twitter, or forums. “Friends” in social networks are important, she said, because they are people we trust to help us make decisions. If someone is excited about your product, they’re going to tell their friends about it. You just have to make it easy for them to do so.

The social networking and Internet dating events did occasionally cross over. We ate lunch with the president of ScientificMatch.com, which matches people based on DNA tests. Our unique odors are hard-coded to our DNA, he said, and we tend to be attracted by smell to those who offer more genetic variety and immunity to disease, increasing the health of our children. “Stop using deodorant,” he said, “you’re ruining the chemistry!” And we wondered briefly if we had attended the wrong half of the conference.

—Jeff Sweat, Blog Editor