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No bullSHIT guide
to social media
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THE DRUM MAR.05.10 www.thedrum.co.uk no bull guide03
The no bullshit guide to
successful social marketing
Welcome to The Drum’s No Bullshit this latest marketing alter. to your audience.
Guide to Social Media. The fact that it costs peanuts to In fact, as we also find through the
There is perhaps a need to publish establish a social media channel and pages of this supplement, more rules
such a guide due to the overwhelming enter this arena is, no doubt, one may even need added. Not only must
quantity of bullshit being pedalled reason for the rapid success of social a brand now be able to listen and
about Social Media currently. media. But while it might cost little to react to an audience, It must do it
Like all new trends, experts are add this weapon to the marketing quickly too. Brands must interact and,
clambering over one another to armoury, that is no reason to avoid above all, be social.
proclaim their gravitas in the field, real investment in this latest No longer can brands hide behind
setting up their stall before the bubble communications tool. slick advertising campaigns and
bursts. For brands looking to operate within canny PR messages. Social media
But this bubble looks far from this social media sphere, traditional can make or break a brand. And
bursting. And many of these experts rules should not be broken. To be without due care and investment, it is
are offering little more than common successful you must adhere to your certainly easier to break than make.
sense and social awareness. markets brand values while So, over the following pages find out
Yet brands are already evangelising maintaining true to your own. You what it is these social animals have
the power of social media, having must present a unified brand learnt through working day-to-day on
required very little preaching to message, be creative in your campaigns for clients in the social
convert their commercial prayers to communications and listen and react sphere. Without the added bullshit.
Please send all your news, views and opinions to gordon.laing@carnyx.com
®

MARCH 2010
No Bullshit Guide to Social Media
INSIDE
WHAT is social meDIA?
04
Code Computerlove
“Social media requires simple rules of engagement.
The difficult and complicated part is producing an
integrated digital experience that engages with
consumers where, when and in a way they want.”
can it work for everyone?
09
Viv-id
“Creative thinkers along with the geniusnous of techno
bods, need to be engaged to explore the realms of
possibilities, the ideas, thoughts and attitude has to
be driven from marketing and creative strategy.”

who can you trust? A disruptive influence

UK EDITION
05
Bloom Media 10
Five by five
publisher: GORDON YOUNG “If a social media campaign isn’t going to increase “Disruption of traditional marketing is just one way
Editor: RICHARD DRAYCOTT - richard.draycott@carnyx.com
DEPUTY Editor: GORDON LAING - gordon.laing@carnyx.com your bottom line, or your company’s reputation, it’s that social media disrupts conventional brand
News editor: STEPHEN LEPITAK - stephen@carnyx.com
reporter: CAMERON CLARKE - cameron.clarke@carnyx.com just fluff. And potentially expensive and detrimental communication and in so doing necessitates different
reporter: john glenday - john.glenday@carnyx.com
Reporter: thomas o’neill- thomas@carnyx.com fluff at that.” attitudes and actions for brands to stay relevant.”
deputy group sales manager: Jo Collins
senior sales executives:
james mcgowan, chris morton, Victoria Swan
Events manager: katy thomson
Design & Production Director: Nick Creed
Design/Production: Amanda Dewar, Jason Byers, debbie murdoch
Group sales Manager - carnyx: emma stewart Is blogging all just hot air don’t do social for
managing director: diane Young
Head Office: 4th Floor, Mercat Building, 26 Gallowgate,
06
Equator 12
sake of doing social
Glasgow G1 5AB Tel: 0141 552 5858 Fax: 0141 559 6050 Freestyle interactive
Manchester office: 5 oak street, northern quarter, “If you are not delivering anything tangible, be it
manchester, m4 5jd Tel: 0161 819 5651 “The viral effects of social channels are great when
Subscriptions: £150.00 per annum Tel: 0141 559 6060 information, news, social commentary or even just
Original Design: stand Printed by: Stephens & George Magazines things are going your way, but when your service falls
links to other sites, then you’ve got nothing worth
short of expectations, the same word of mouth can
THE DRUM is published by Rush Media Limited. The publishers, reading and nothing worth interacting with...”
authors and printers cannot accept liability for any errors or spread bad news very quickly indeed.”
omissions. Any transparencies or artwork will be accepted at
owner’s risk. All rights reserved. On no account may any part of
this publication be reproduced in any form without the written
permission of the copyright holder and publisher, application for
which should be made to the publisher.
© Rush Media Limited and carnyx group limited 2009
ISSN 1752-6671
Social media and retail Agency Biogs
®
08
Moolah 14
contributor Contact
”Once a business begins conversing with its customers “To compile the No Bullshit Guide to social media, of
To subscribe call 0141 559 6060 it can use the channel for whatever it likes: sales, course, we need some experts who know what they
news, promotions, customer services, insight.” are talking about...”
www.thedrum.co.uk
04no bull guide
what is social media? Social media is a medium
that brands are eager to employ. Cost effective
and seemingly simple, how could it go wrong? Code
Computerlove offers a best practice guide.
A
s a phenomenon not unfamiliar with hype,
acronyms and of course a bit of bullshit it’s
easy to see how social media got swept up
in the same way. So much fluff has been written on
the topic, so many articles blogged, tweeted and re-
tweeted by social media ‘experts’, most based on
the same misguided idea that social media is a bolt
on to other communication activity. It’s quite boring,
unhelpful and clogging  up my search results with
rehashed bullshit.
 Instead advice needs to be based on integrating
social media into agency culture and thinking.  Social
media isn’t the phenomenon - the shift in society,
behaviour and the way we advertise  because  of
social media is.
 
What mistakes
are being made?
Social media channels and related tools need to be
used to execute an overall communications strategy.
They are not stand-alone nor should they be a set of
tick boxes.
Think of social media this way and you’ll end up with
a Facebook page that says nothing about your brand,
isn’t in keeping with the overriding brand strategy or
other media campaigns at that time, doesn’t have
remotely interesting content but is just promoting last
season’s products, doesn’t really give users a want or
need to join and therefore remains a lifeless exhibition
of how unpopular and un-innovative your brand is for
the world to search, view and comment on.  It would
probably be better if you hadn’t had bothered. 
 Likewise trying to exist in every social network out
there will have a similar result (never trust a company
that has a long list of social media badges displayed
on their site).
“Social media requires simple rules of engagement.
The difficult and complicated part is producing an
integrated digital experience that engages with
consumers where, when and in a way they want.”
Remember one of social media’s advantages is that
it offers direct engagement with smaller more defined
groups of people. Unless you’re targeting kids or
bands for example, there is no need to have a profile
on MySpace.
What should you consider?
Social media requires really simple rules of engagement.
The difficult and complicated part is producing an
integrated digital experience that engages with
consumers where, when and in a way they want.
 
The main fundamentals when
considering social media are:
Exchange Value of Content:  People in networks
exchange ‘stuff’  called social currency. This can be
knowledge, links, images, jokes, videos, widgets,
gossip; you name it, but  people need something to
share. It gives them a reason to commune and kudos
within their network. Make sure you have content your
social network wants to share and make it easy for
them to do so, ‘share this’ buttons are a basic solution
to this.
Integration:  Make sure that all digital activity
comes together as a flawless digital experience that
complements any offline activity. Integration among any
digital channels you use is also a good idea depending
www.thedrum.co.uk MAR.05.10 THE DRUM
on what you use; Facebook connect, live twitter streams
on blogs/sites (a good example of this is the New York
Times) or access via mobile.
The new guidelines to creativity: If you want messages
to work in social spaces they need to fit with the
behaviours acceptable online:   think honesty,  playful,
raw, experimental, unguarded, helpful, collaborative and
personal.  A good example of a brand’s social activity
employing these themes is Mini Coopers’, Mini Space.
  
Monitoring:  Just as you would conduct consumer
research offline, online insights should be constructed
from online research of what your consumers actually
do and say online. You could pay for access to
monitoring tools such as Radian 6 or BrandWatch, but
in our opinion you need to use more than one tool to get
the best out of them. 
 
Offline importance: Don’t forget online campaigns can
start offline. Worrying about content? Crowd source
videos from stunts or events, get them to capture
something meaningful, or get the users to do something
offline that will make them share online.
This advice can bode you well in social media, but the
real skill is coming up with a strategy for a client that uses
social media in the most unique and innovative way, and
which fits in with an overall digital experience.
THE DRUM MAR.05.10 www.thedrum.co.uk
who can you trust? Just like it was in the heady
days of the internet boom, many are clamouring to be
the first social media experts, the ones to make their
fortune and get out before the bubble bursts.
I
’ve worked in digital since 1999 and I’ve seen many
things change. The thrill of learning a new way to
reach customers, and the desire to produce tangible
ROI for clients, hasn’t changed since those first days.
This passion is what makes digital marketers want to
use new platforms such as social media. We are used to
applying those learning’s to the benefit of our clients.
According to Wikipedia (Malcolm Gladwell) it requires
10,000 hours of experience to be counted an expert
at anything; no one has had enough time to do this
in social media marketing, meaning there truly are no
experts. Anyone who claims to be such is misleading
themselves and their clients.
So who can I trust?
A good online marketing professional or agency can
use the skills and experience they already have to work
with you on a profitable and productive social media
campaign. As agencies we need to be up front with
our customers, we need to be open about this being
new, what our experience really is and that we need
‘brave’ clients who are prepared to learn with us.
It is possible to smell a social marketing bullshitter,
just look for the following 3 common lines;
1. Everybody’s doing it
As far as we’re concerned there are only two reasons
to “do” social media;
Money
Reputation
If a social media campaign isn’t going to increase your
bottom line, or your company’s reputation, it’s just fluff.
And potentially expensive and detrimental fluff at that.
2. It’s easy
A social media campaign requires your company to be
out there talking to your customers, whether that’s via
an agency or directly. Internal resource is nearly always
essential. Any agency that doesn’t make it clear that
you will need one or all of the following, is not telling
you the whole story;
• Change to job descriptions
• New HR policies
• New staff
• New customer service processes
• New cross departmental working practises
• New software to understand
• New jargon
• New KPI’s to report on
• New budget required
no bull guide05
• New traffic sources
• New marketing opportunities
• New PR opportunities
• New revenue opportunities
• New ways to increase your market share
3. It’s risk free
Hell no! There are plenty of high profile stories about
social media blunders the most recent of which is
the Vodafone twitter sensation. However most of us
are likely to face less exciting problems;
1.You might not like the conversation -
I recently visited a top 100 UK brand whom I won’t
name who have been encouraged to ‘do it’ by
their agency and have launched a Facebook page.
However they are finding that around 50% of the Bloom Media’s Alex Craven says: “There is
interactions are customer service issues. Instantly no such thing as a social media expert.”
this has soaked up around 2 weeks per month of their Below: Bloom won awards for its social
media work for Anglian Home Improvements
digital team’s time dealing with these complaints.
The lesson here is to look before you leap, get your
strategy and resource ready for what will come.
2.You don’t really have the time –
I think the biggest risk for most companies dipping
their toe in social media marketing is just this, they
only dipping their toe. Reaching a critical mass in
the campaign can take time and a lot of effort. A
lot of companies will be ‘too busy’ to see through
their aspirations. What engagement they achieve
in the early stages will wane as they are distracted
elsewhere and the campaign will peter out.
How can I avoid the bullshit?
Success in social media marketing needs you to be
upfront and honest, so you need your agency to exhibit
this also. Ask what experience do they really have? Make
them talk through the detail, speak to the clients they are
talking about, and get their side of the story too.
We have been running social media marketing
campaigns for our clients for almost 4 years now, but
really only in earnest for the last 18 months. Last year we
won an award for ‘best use of social media’ but I’m going
to tell you straight, we aren’t experts yet. We are probably
one of the most experienced Social Media marketing
agencies in the UK but this still feels very new.
Understanding the possibilities of the technology in
social media marketing is one thing but implementing an
actual campaign is totally different. Given how few clients
have really made headway in social media marketing,
there seems to be a disproportionate number of ‘experts’.
It is the client experience that counts.
06no bull guide
Is blogging all
just hot air ?
Blogs play a “big, fat part” in any social media strategy,
but build it and they will not always come... Is a loyal
human following always the key to a successful blog?
Equator’s Martin Jordan looks at the key behind a good
blog and how to make it work best for your brand.
What is its aim? And do you have a plan?
S
ocial Media has definitely become the
buzz phrase of the moment. A big, fat part
of that social media sphere is blogging.
And for those who’ve slept through the
last few years, it’s up there with Twitter,
Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, SecondLife and a whole
lot of other things too contrived to mention. So, if
you’re sitting pondering whether Social Media is for
you or for the dustbin, let’s take a hot air balloon ride
through blog country.
big numbers
Well, seeing as how we’re floating above reality for
a bit, we should start by looking down on the big
numbers that make blogging a buzzword of the
moment. There are 200 million blogs in existence in
the world.
Ok, that’s a lie.
Given that another commonly held stat tells us that
there’s 120,000 new blogs being created every day,
that number is fast becoming a piece of history.
Estimates reckon that there are 1.4 million blog
posts created every day and that too is a lot of new
content.
But there’s also the people that’ll tell you that a
huge proportion of these blogs lie dormant, twiddled
with by a curious user and then dropped like a stone.
Secondly, there’s also a whole lot of people out there
who valiantly start a blog and religiously add to it every
day and yet nobody comes visiting. Inevitably, they too
throw in the towel when they realise they’re presenting
to an empty theatre.
so who’s right?
It’s no surprise that many are cynical about many aspects
of internet trends. We all remember how Second Life was
going to be the next big thing and we were all running
around in our virtual world looking like a virtual Adonis
buying virtual sneakers from a virtual Nike store with real
money. Everyone from IBM to Accenture wanted to have
a presence there to join the 2 million plus users. Now,
there’s typically only 50,000 people on there. Is blogging
going to turn into another vast virtual landscape to sink
your real money into, only to find there’s no-one there?
Well, thankfully not. Not quite anyway...
www.thedrum.co.uk MAR.05.10 THE DRUM
simple websites made well
There are a number of key aspects to blogs that
give them longevity and strength. At their most basic
level, they offer the user a really fast and simple way
to get a web presence. A quick visit to Wordpress or
Blogger and you can have your own basic website
up and running in 5 minutes. No need for hosting,
domain repointing or FTPing - just a simple interface
that allows anyone to get a web presence. They are
easy to build, easy to administrate and easy to dress
up. Wordpress has dozens of different ‘themes’ to
give the blog a nice look and, if you choose to host
the blog on your own server with the free Wordpress
software, then you can customise it down to the finest
detail. And when you consider that some of the FREE
themes out there could pass for megabucks websites,
the low-cost, high-speed attraction of blogs suddenly
becomes fiscally tangible.
search engines
like a good blog
Secondly, the structured way in which blogs are
technically designed makes them fine fodder for the
search engines. Everything about a blog is generally
SEO friendly... they are content-rich, they are structured
into hierarchical themes, information is tagged and
collated and, at a technical level, the HTML that
they’re built from is well-ordered and Google friendly.
So, getting a blog (or blogs) out there guarantees you
a presence somewhere on the search engines pretty
quickly. At Equator, we regularly use blogs as a core
part of our SEO strategy, both on and off the client’s
THE DRUM MAR.05.10 www.thedrum.co.uk
The Curious Fellow: One of the Equator blogs compiled by creative boss James Jefferson
“if you are not delivering anything tangible, be it information, news, social
commentary or even just links to other sites,then you’ve got nothing worth
reading and nothing worth interacting with...”
site. This approach ensures we can develop quality
links to the site and it also extends the client’s site.
Ok, so we don’t set out to expect humans to read
every post every day but benefit the search engines
and users is great. A number of our bloggers are
becoming personalities in their own right as the blogs
get followed by readers with a genuine interest in what
we’re blogging about!
blogs can genuinely
extend your site
For all people who want to rank in Google, everyone
knows content is king. And this can sometimes
be hard to achieve with a typical commerce site.
Realistically, you want to present the customer with the
information they need to buy the product in a sales-
focused fashion and piledrive them into the buying
engine. It often doesn’t give you a lot of space to add
the content you need to get ranked. Staple a blog to
the side of your site and all of a sudden you have a
place to add rich content that can be linked back and
forth to the main content of your site. As well as this,
the blog can take a conversational and informal tone
that would be inappropriate to your main site and help
give your brand the personality it needs.
so where can you go wrong?
With all this opportunity and ease with blogging, why is it that
there remains so many blogs that are left abandoned and
so many corporate and consumer blogs gathering dust in
a dark corner of the web? It comes down to their strongest
point being their weakest. Their innate ease of setup and
ease of use means they can become throwaway. People
get a blog, build it and start to dump content on it without
thinking what the ultimate purpose of it. If you’re just going
to get on there and tell everyone what you had for breakfast,
what got on your nerves or how great your company is, it’s
not going to get traction. Equally, if your blog has no obvious
or consistent topic, it’s never going to rank for anything.
To genuinely make blogging work for you, you need to
give it AND yourself a solid objective. What purpose does
the blog serve? Who (or what) is your audience? What is
the point you are trying to make? If it’s intended for humans,
what benefit do you expect to give them?
If you can’t answer these questions don’t bother starting.
The only thing worse than not having a blog is having a
bad / empty one. Talking about your day does not court
controversy and social interaction unless your life does that
on its own. Roaming on and off topic makes it hard to read
and hard to follow – it doesn’t give a reader any reason to
follow you and you wont build up a circle of followers and
no bull guide07
like-minded thinkers. And if you are not delivering anything
tangible, be it information, news, social commentary or
even just links to other sites, then you’ve got nothing worth
reading and nothing worth interacting with – the crux of the
whole social media thing.
Now, if you’re also pondering Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
or anything else in the social media world, you might want to
consider those questions all over again. What is often wrong
with blogs are often what is wrong with everything in Social
Media. Someone tells you that you NEED a facebook page,
you NEED a blog and why everyone else is doing it. But
does anyone stop to tell you WHY you need it and WHY
the world needs you to give it to them! Get Social but PLAN
it first!
Martin Jordan is the marketing
director for Equator
08no bull guide
Social mediaand retail The potential power to
be harnessed by retailers when operating in the social
media sphere can only be felt when the conversation
begins. But used well, this medium can be a real multi-
use tool for retail marketers, claims John Rivers, social
media director at moolah.
L
ast week I tried not once, but twice, to buy a
DVD from WH Smiths. Given the hammering that
the High Street has taken in the last 18 months
you would have thought they wanted to sell it to me.
Apparently not.
Twice I took the DVD from the shelf to the counter
where one of the staff would then have to run back
upstairs only to return five minutes later to tell me that
they were “sorry, but we don’t have that DVD”. I tried
my best to remain calm though questions like “If you
don’t have it, why on earth is it on the shelf?” and “Not
only that, but it’s number 1 in your DVD chart, so what
gives?” kept forming in my mind.
Aware of the huge queue behind me, I left the store
and instead of complaining there decided that I’d ask
Smiths’s Twitter instead.
I posted this and began following them. To their credit,
Smiths responded to me within 90 minutes.
“once a business begins conversing with its
customers it can use the channel for whatever it
likes: sales, news, promotions, customer services,
insight. Providing it handles all of those aspects
correctly, fairly and in a transparent manner the
permanency of the internet guarantees that PR
collateral for years to come.”
I was impressed. Through acknowledging my
complaint, I’d be validated as a customer. Further to
that they wanted to know what the problem was and
how they could help. More tweets were exchanged and
Smiths said they would look in to the issue for me. Simply
by engaging me in conversation, Smiths had restored
my faith in them as a company and a retailer I would use
again. Because of this conversation I also didn’t mind
when this message appeared in my Twitter stream:
Smiths were running a competition through Twitter, not
only that, it was directly linked to their half price Authors
of the Decade on-site promotion. Simply put, I was being
marketed to through a channel I’d been using for customer
services.
This wouldn’t work with a phone call, nor through an
email exchange, but because of social media’s openness
and relatively passive nature, Smiths were able to deal with
an upset customer while running a promotional marketing
item.
Smiths understand the trade-off of marketing through
social media, being that if someone asks you a question,
you respond. By getting involved and conversing you
www.thedrum.co.uk MAR.05.10 THE DRUM
understand the medium. It’s not enough to use social
media as a ‘push only’ channel because that only does
the same job as a press advert or a billboard site. Having
the conversation adds an extra dimension to your
communications. What is that extra dimension? It’s PR.
The polite tone, the competency in dealing with
complaints, the ability to talk on a level platform with the
customer - all of these things are doing a PR job. By
clicking on to WH Smiths’s page anyone can instantly
see that Smiths presents itself as a friendly, professional
organisation that values customers. No story was needed
to create this impression, no pictures of charity events or
details of a new biodegradable plastic bag, simply the day-
to-day engagement of a business with its customer base.
And that’s the true value of social media for retail, to
understand that once a business begins conversing with
its customers it can use the channel for whatever it likes:
sales, news, promotions, customer services, insight.
Providing it handles all of those aspects correctly, fairly and
in a transparent manner the permanency of the internet
guarantees that PR collateral for years to come. 
A few tweets may not seem like much, but given time
they’ll all add up to form an online profile of your business
that stands alongside your website, your press releases
and all your other marketing. Don’t get left behind, the
opportunity is there to chat to your customers right now
and open up a whole new marketing channel too.
John Rivers,
Social Media Director, moolah
www.twitter.com/johnrivers
THE DRUM MAR.05.10 www.thedrum.co.uk
Can it work for everyone? Don’t just jump on
the bandwagon, remember the bigger picture before
embarking on a social media rampage. It’s no longer
about because we can, but about finding the right
solutions to what was once an ‘impossible dream,’
says Vivid’s Rachel Emson.
V
anity versus Sanity – the social media
phenomenon – quick spread the
word.
So what if social sites have over
taken porn as the number one use
of the internet? Why do we care?
When porn was number one did we
all want to create a porn site to flog
our products and services?
Everyone asks how can we get into
social media, no one is asking why should we
use social media. As my mum used to say, would
you jump off a bridge because someone else did?
Arguments dominate the domains with who
should ‘control social media’ – PR’s, strategists,
in house, dedicated social media companies,
digital agencies…What’s happened to marketing,
integration, return on investment, measurability,
accountability and creativity?
In a rush to jump on the social media bandwagon,
in a frenzy of tweets, fans and virals, ideas are being
shoehorned into fit 60” and 140 words, ads are
being thrown up on YouTube and VSS’s (Very Short
Sentences) tweeted every five mins.
Social media is not social marketing and it is not a
replacement for advertising or design and should not
be used as such. The very purpose of social media
is to be social, so whilst hard sales pitches are a
no-no, what you do get is an opportunity to share
more, build knowledge and nurture relationships in a
relaxed environment.
But equally social media is not about ‘having a
twitter profile’ and telling the world what your CEO
had for breakfast or having a page that is never
updated or holds content that bores. It’s about
adding value.
Boundaries
Can social media work for everyone?
Creatively yes – there is a solution to all problems.
Technology does allow boundaries to be broken
and spread to be wider than ever before. Perhaps
an application that makes it easier to offset carbon
footprint, be aware of how much you are drinking.
Personalised support if you’re giving up smoking, or
to be warned in the event of a flood. Social media
pages can become a hub for latest fashion trends,
entertainment or business news; they can save time,
energy and improve knowledge & awareness in one
easy hashtag or @ and create
credible brands.
But the real question is, is
social media the best way to
reach your objective?
Social media is not free,
setting up pages perhaps, but
time, messaging, applications,
moderating, responding is all
time if not money and engaging
with video or application content
needs to be both considered, executed well and
measured . Ask yourself why are you doing this?
What is the over-arching objective? Is it the best way
to communicate with your defined audience?
Gaining insights into customers, creating ideas
that work for them and gaining victories measured by
engagement and end results of actions – purchasing,
persuading to choose a product/service or creating
behavioural change. It’s not simply about click
throughs, views, friends or followers who couldn’t
care less and don’t interact – for that is vanity and
not sanity, and a bit like having a turnover of several
million but a profit of zero.
Does 1million YouTube hits from people who
couldn’t care less about your brand work for you
more than 100 who are actually potential customers/
listeners or advocates? Would you ignore creative
strategy for a press advert, yet happily go tweeting
with no plan of what you are saying to whom and
where? Technology is another tool, in the same way
print, out of home and broadcast are.
Yes it is vast, yes it is global, but if your message
isn’t then a) why should you care b) why should
they care. Social media needs to deliver more a
‘ha ha that was good/funny/shocking’ it must have
purpose.
Yes social media can be an incredible asset,
no bull guide09
used correctly it can build,
enter into dialogue, engage
and empower brands, create
loyalty, interaction and up
sell messages, products and
services, ensuring that it is
your brand firmly established in
your audiences front of mind, in
a relaxed and social setting. But
never forget great messages can
spread very quickly as can bad.
If you want to have a social page to
let people know about social events, share your
successes and updates, if you have time and energy
to invest then why the hell not. But if you want to
use social media to your advantage then please look
at the bigger picture before embarking on a social
media rampage.
Deliver
Any strategy is about looking at media and how it
works, dwell time, messaging.
How can we creatively deliver our brand to our
audiences in a surrounding that they feel comfortable
with. Social media is no different, if it fits with the plan
then creative thinkers along with the geniusnous of
techno bods, need to be engaged to explore the
realms of possibilities, the ideas, thoughts and
attitude has to be driven from marketing and creative
strategy. Creativity is about insights, informing,
driving actions, thinking of the new with purpose,
solving problems.
And remember social media is not solus, it’s about
synergy and falls as part of an integrated mix. It’s no
longer because we can, it’s about finding solutions
to what previously has been an impossible dream.
Vivid’s MD Rachel Emson says
that social media still relies on
creativity to be successful
10no bull guide
disruptive influence
The changing media environment means that our
brand toolkit has had to be restocked. Tools like
‘listening’ and ‘engaging’ are now more crucial to
the effective marketer than ever before. However,
argues Graham Freeman at Five By Five, social media
is not just about marketing, but about the way we
communicate across every part of our business.
T
he 60s and 70s were about products and
services marketed to ‘captive’ audiences
in front of TVs watching set programmes
at set times. In the 80s and 90s, audiences
became segmented and brands gained
balance sheet value. Then it all went digital with
access to information and on-line shopping. Now,
almost without us noticing, brands have gone social.
The trade-off for the exponential opportunity this
represents is loss of ability to control communication,
audiences and content. This is the new world we call
social branding.
Brands are still a central part of marketing
communications, so ‘sub-social’ brand investment
was worthwhile. But with everyone now contributing
to brand reputation, good or bad, brand management
has become more complex, harder and uncertain.
We have entered uncharted territory – so what’s in
our brand tool kit has to change too.
Differentiating, compelling and true propositions,
consistently delivered in often unknown touch-
points in this social world, are constantly under
the ‘authenticity’ microscope. This uncontrollable
audience focus drives our need for careful strategic
navigation rather than tactical reaction, otherwise our
brands risk disappearing into a dark hole of oblivion.
Social brands are about conversations; listening,
engaging and managing reputation. Communications
have leaped from one way traditional campaigns to
infinite relationships. The iconic enabling symbol of
our age is the iPhone; not just a cool looking device,
it’s about connectivity. And ownership tells everyone
you inhabit the connected world. A world where our
brands need to live.
Connectivity has unleashed the powerful new
concept of social branding and its impact has only
just begun! To survive, brands, now more than
“disruption of traditional marketing is just one way
that social media disrupts conventional brand
communication and in so doing necessitates different
attitudes and actions for brands to stay relevant. ”
Graham Freeman, Brand Planner, Five by Five
ever, need to be relevant and be trusted, whenever
and wherever, passive or active, always reliable in
delivering and exceeding expectations, but never
ever inaccessible,
People are now only one click away from perfect
jobs, ideal products and damning reviews. ‘Brand
utility’, where the brand creates something useful
to you, has created new dimensions of connecting
people with friends and others who work, study
and live around them (e.g. www.facebook.com),
aggregating product offerings and simplifying
complexity (e.g. www.comparethemarket.com) or
providing personal choice (e.g. www.spotify.com’s
access to instant, simple and free music access).
This disruption of traditional marketing is just one
way that social media disrupts conventional brand
communication models and in so doing necessitates
different behaviours, attitudes and actions for brands
to stay relevant.
www.thedrum.co.uk MAR.05.10 THE DRUM
In this environment social brands need to clearly
differentiate through enduring compelling and
true propositions; augmented by demonstrating
openness, transparency and authenticity. Brand
currency is enhanced through detachable and user
generated content and uncontrollable user advocacy.
Brand advocacy ‘people-powers’ social brands with
audiences, as if watching X-Factor, deciding whether
propositions are really relevant – if not they bomb,
there’s nowhere to hide in this environment.
So let me ask again, what’s in your brand tool kit
now? If it’s anything like ours, along with traditional
marcomms it will include some new goodies; strategies
for managing online reputation and engagement
with influencer networks, brand outposts to put the
brand where audiences are and social currency to
make our brand valuable in a new world. It includes
‘listen and engage’ measurement tools with real-
time dashboard modelling to make sense of this new
rich vein of engagement, guiding informed decision
making on our brand’s journey. Importantly, we will
include an engagement programme for internal as
well as external audiences because social branding
is not just about ‘marketing’ it is about the way we
communicate across every part of our business.
Like it or not, we’re all on this social brand journey
and our success will rely on making informed choices
enabling us to build social currency and become
trusted sources of engagement. Scary or exciting?
You choose. It’s your social brand’s future.
THE DRUM MAR.05.10 www.thedrum.co.uk no bull guide11
12no bull guide
don’t do social for
sake of doing social
We’ve seen a lot and heard even more about how social
media channels can help solve problems you didn’t even
know you had. After 12 months of living with one of the
hottest topics to hit the world of marketing since the
invention of the printing press, Freestyle Interactive
shares a few of the key reoccurring themes that have
come their way during the last 12 months while working
with clients on social media campaigns.  
Know your objective
Social media is like any other marketing activity, it needs
a clear business objective! You need to be considering
the part of the brief that asks: Why are we doing this?
What do we hope to achieve from this campaign?
You might not know how to get the results you want,
or even what’s possible, but that’s why you employ
an agency - to help you work these things out. Make
sure the objectives are clearly understood and agreed
before you kick off. Your objectives in the social media
space should be no different to any other bottom line
business objective, and more often than not, you’ll find
that they augment everything else you’re doing. Just
getting involved for the sake of getting involved will
lead to disappointment, and I guarantee not everyone
involved at the client and agency will have the same
expectations.
When it comes to objectives, think about the familiar
faces: raising brand awareness, influencing brand
perception, driving traffic to your website. They’re all
still relevant! Remember, doing social for the sake of
doing social, is not a sound business objective!
Choose the right
tool for the job
Matching the channel to the job has always been a part
of your skill as a marketer. Social media is not a global
“The viral effects of social channels are great when
things are going your way, but when the brand
chucks out a poor product, or your service falls
short of expectations,the same word of mouth can
spread bad news very quickly indeed.”
panacea, it’s a new and potentially very useful, tool in your
toolbox, but a tool amongst many nonetheless. Social
sites are a great way to build brand quickly, using ‘word
of mouth’, and it’s even possible to pick up sales leads
if you’re targeting the right environments. They’re also
one of the best places to listen & learn about customer
satisfaction & pick up genuine customer service issues,
and of course to influence brand reputation, particularly
if you have a stake in wider issues like the environment
or sustainability.
But, remember social’s only part of the mix and
should be planned, together with your agency,
alongside more traditional channels like email, search
engine optimisation strategy and placed ads. Think
about how your target audience uses social media as
part of their wider journey, a journey that incorporates
brand websites, search engines and traditional media
as well as social media websites. Understand and
www.thedrum.co.uk MAR.05.10 THE DRUM
plan integrated campaigns that understand how these
channels fit together for the consumer.
If you do nothing else with
social media in 2010, make sure
you implement a social media
monitoring service
It’s your job as a marketer to understand what’s
interesting and important to your target audiences.
Chances are your consumers are already talking
somewhere online, and it’s your job to understand how
this relates to your brand.
Understanding what’s going on across the social
landscape is also the first step towards formulating a
plan for getting more actively involved. It’s basic stuff:
first understand what the audience is doing, then
formulate a strategy to engage with this audience.
There’s a lot of software out there designed to measure
 THE DRUM MAR.05.10 www.thedrum.co.uk
Freestyle Interactive’s Andy Wood has learnt valuable lessons in social media having worked across a number of client campaigns in the last 12 months
social media activity, targeting keywords relevant and
important to your brand.
Like any analytics software, in the right hands, it can
revolutionise your understanding. But remember, data
is not the same as intelligence. It’s crucial that what’s
measured empirically is backed up with desk research
and is brought together with your business objectives
by those people who know your brand and customers
best. Though tools and automation can help resource
your social media efforts, human input into this process
is key.
Create the debate
Social media channels provide a great opportunity to
kick start the debates that are important to your brand.
But remember, you don’t always need to own the
environment where the debate takes place. Corporate
systems are like Milton Keynes, efficient on the face of
it with lots of well thought out signposting, but pretty
boring and uninspiring when you get right down to it.
Companies don’t do social media, people do. Even
when your CEO is talking as the face of your company,
it’s the man we’re all listening to and that’s fundamentally
different to all the other marketing channels your
business uses.
It’s important to remember that people want to interact
with people, not marketers, and they want to use the
environments that are most relevant and comfortable
for them, which probably doesn’t mean the corporate
website. But that’s ok, you need to worry more about
creating the right content, then finding the right social
environments to put this content so that it reaches the
right people.
Don’t worry if you don’t have a branded blog
environment, chances are it’s not what your audience
want from you anyway. Remember, the really exciting
opportunity here is getting to hear all those quiet
consumer voices that up until now have been largely
unheard, you just need to know where to look and how
to listen.
Develop a crisis
management plan
All brands are afraid of negative social commentary,
and with good reason. As a global extension of the
traditional peer group word of mouth that could make
or break a brand, social media channels have the power
to severely damage your reputation over night.
The viral effects of social channels are great when
things are going your way, but when the brand chucks
out a poor product, or your service falls short of
expectations, the same word of mouth can spread bad
news very quickly indeed, ask anyone Googling Toyota
over the past two weeks! In these situations having
no bull guide13
a crisis management plan in place to deal with these
issues can significantly limit the damage done.
Policy, procedures, content, a plan for where to post
this content, as well as a good understanding of who
should be doing what can save you days of negative
publicity. Also, remember it’s pretty hard to hide from
a genuine mistake when the weight of consumer voice
is against you. I have to say in the majority of cases
where social communities are listening to negative
commentary about a brand, and a good number are
joining in, there’s usually substance to the criticism. In
these situations honesty is often the best policy, admit
your mistakes and most importantly deal with them and
most of your customers will understand.
Ultimately you must remember, you really have no
choice but to engage, because with or without you
these online conversations will continue to go on.
Andy Wood is a Director at Freestyle Interactive.
He’s worked in the digital industry since 1997, in-
house and agency side. His core responsibility is
the development of digital strategy for clients and
the continued development of the agency offering.
His special focus is centered on helping clients find
the most effective way to integrate digital marketing,
including the complexities of social media, into their
wider marketing communications plans.
14no bull guide www.thedrum.co.uk MAR.05.10 THE DRUM

A social bunch The No Bullshit Guide to Social

Media was brought to you by the following companies,
who can be counted as some of the few experts in this
rapidly developing field of communication. For more
information and news on the digital industry, see The
Drum’s website www.thedrum.co.uk.
BLOOM MEDIA
We are a search and social media led digital agency. We have two core principals, be really nice people
and be really, really good at our jobs! We have been doing digital since 1999 and have picked up awards
and commendations for technical innovation, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Social Media
Marketing.
Bloom Media
Some of our clients include:
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• ebuyer.com
Leeds LS8 4BU
• Brita
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T: 0113 2350229
• Pickfords
W: www.bloommedia.co.uk
Twitter: @bloommedia

EQUATOR
Established in 1999, Equator is one of the UK’s leading full service digital marketing agencies. Its
award-winning creativity, blue chip marketing experience and technical expertise provides its
clients with a comprehensive skill set ranging from concept through to delivery. As a full service
digital agency Equator has the capabilities to offer its clients a completely integrated service. The
services that it offers span across many disciplines and are supported by a team that has the
Equator
expertise, depth of experience and proven track record to deliver results. With over 50 Employees
144 Elliot Street,
and a client base of both national and internationally recognised brands Equator’s reputation as a
Glasgow G3 8EX
leading digital agency is no surprise

T: +44(0)141 229 1800

W: www.eqtr.com
Twitter: @equatoragency

CODE Computerlove
Manchester based Code Computerlove is one of the UK’s top independent digital marketing
agencies.
Code’s social media services are an integral part of its brand communication strategies and
creative solutions for clients including Matalan, Durex, Original Source, Berghaus and First Group.
Its social media experts collaborate with planning, SEO, creative, user experience and delivery
teams to ensure its integrated campaigns travel through the social space for free and maximise Code Computerlove Ltd
the opportunities this interactive digital channel presents. Jutland House, 15 Jutland Street
The agency is also at the forefront of digital technologies, developing social networking Manchester M1 2BE
applications to enhance brands’ social presence.
T: +44 (0)161 276 2080
For more information visit www.codecomputerlove.com W: www.codecomputerlove.com
THE DRUM MAR.05.10 www.thedrum.co.uk no bull guide15

VIVID
Vivid is a boutique full-service creative agency delivering the big idea that works cross media;
through
• Planning and insights,
• Creative strategy, design & digital
• Campaigns that communicate above, below, on and through-the-line Vivid
We listen, question, understand, encourage & listen again. We create solutions. We change 5 Century Street, Deansgate Locks
perceptions. We drive actions to promote & position, products, places & policies Manchester M3 4QL

Our biggest asset is our clients! The clients that we love to work with and have been sharing happy T: 0161 819 5140
and successful campaigns with recently are; Northwest Regional Development Agency, Environment W: www.viv-id.co.uk
Agency, Science in Sport, The Library Theatre Company, Smokefree North West, Our Life and Visit Email: Rachel@viv-id.co.uk
Chester and Cheshire ( just to name a few!) Twitter: @vividmanchester

Moolah
moolah is a results focussed social media agency from the Lucre PR Group. With experience
ranging across retail, travel, entertainment, financial services and telecoms, moolah is dedicated
to helping maximise the opportunities and ROI from social media channels. We work in a friendly,
easy-to-understand way that helps you clarify the best social media approach for your business.
With teams based in both London and Leeds we have clients across the UK.
moolah
To help you make more moolah why not give John a call on 07584 148169
or email him on john@moolah.co.uk.
T: 0113 243 6086
T: 07584 148169
E: moremoolah@moolah.co.uk
Twitter: @johnrivers

five by five
Five By Five create content that engages people, because bold ideas make profitable brands.

Graham Freeman, brand planner at Five By Five’s role is to provide insight and strategic brand
positioning to guide our creative output. In his career Graham has worked on both sides of the Five by Five
Atlantic for national and international B2B and B2C clients including telecoms, financial services, 4&5 Grosvenor Square
retail and automotive. Graham’s agency history included Brand Union and Fitch both WPP Group Southampton SO15 2BE
companies where he worked on accounts for Motorola, Vodafone, Rolls Royce, Reuters, Corus,
Prudential, Vodafone and GNER. T: +44 (0)23 8082 8525
E: team@fivebyfivedigital.com
W: fivebyfivedigital.com
Twitter: @FbFdigital

freestyle interactive
Freestyle Interactive is one of the largest full service digital agencies in the UK, and the largest
in the Midlands. We bring together digital strategy and straight forward business logic to deliver
tangible results for businesses and brands. We provide strategic planning, creative design and
technical build across a full range of digital services. Freestyle Interactive
Harwoods House, Ashorne,
Warwickshire CV35 0AA

T: +44 (0)1926 652832

E: alan.cooper@freestyleinteractive.co.uk
www.freestyleinteractive.co.uk
Twitter: @freestyleint
 ®

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