All the current talk is about social media: how Twitter is taking over e-mail, how Facebook has more users than most countries have citizens and how engineered virality can replace a marketing budget. With all the chatter, one might think that social media should be a substitute for advertising - a reason to eliminate a company's marketing staff, and even cure the common cold.
All too often, abstract concepts in social media marketing and communication are not concretely defined or measured. The result is the perception of a far-fetched land of geeks getting together and somehow magically altering business operations, marketing strategies and branding.
On June 27, 2009, at the NAA Education Conference & Exposition in Las Vegas, the "Thought Leaders in Social Media" panel aims to provide some experiences and relevant insight into how to use the social web. Here are the panelists:
Panelist #1 – Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com
Tony Hsieh (pronounced "Shay") has grown Zappos.com from $1.6 million in 2000 to $840 million in 2007, a measly 525,000 percent increase.
How was Hsieh able to change a company from a little over $1 million in revenue to almost $1 billion in revenue?
For Hsieh, growing the business has not just been about answering phone calls, but about building a brand around the principles of engagement, creativity and a laser focus on fulfilling customer needs. These initiatives have resulted in 7.4 million total customers, 75 percent of purchases coming from returning customers and repeat customers ordering more than 2.5 times every 12 months. Talk about retention.
Panelist #2 – Jeremiah Owyang, Sr. Analyst at Forrester Research
Jeremiah Owyang is a senior analyst at Forrest Research and a leading expert on social computing, social media and interactive marketing. Owyang's blog was ranked 19th by Advertising Age; he has consulted for large brands such as Hitachi Data Systems; and he is a speaker and educator at many conferences such as Web 2.0 Expo, SXSW and CES.
Panelist #3 – Pete Flint, Founder of Trulia.com
Flint founded Trulia.com in 2005 and it now is one of largest and fastest growing real estate Web sites in the United States. Trulia.com has over 5 million unique visitors a month and has raised more than $33 million in funding.
Moderator – Eric Wu, Co-Founder of RentWiki.com
I'm a 26-year-old entrepreneur and co-founder of RentWiki.com, a socially-driven rental search that connects renters with peer advice. I've spoken at conferences such as NMHC Technology, AIM Conference and the Harvard Business School Entrepreneurship Conference. In 2006, I was named one of BusinessWeek's Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25.
Conclusion
Having a Twitter account, a Facebook fan page and a viral YouTube video will not cure the common cold, but they can and will affect your bottom line. The underlying message is not about usage or presence. It is about having a consistent strategy to engage consumers, listen to customers and focus on their needs. As Owyang puts it, "Fish where the fish are."
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Eric Wu is Co-Founder of Rentwiki.com. He can be reached at eric@rentwiki.com or 415/640-4970. The "Thought Leaders on Social Media" session will be presented 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 27 in the Mandalay Bay's Lagoon Ballroom as part of the 2009 NAA Education Conference & Exposition. Visit www.naahq.org/educonf for more information.
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