Extole’s CEO, Brad Klaus, was on the panel and was accompanied by Reggie Bradford, CEO of Vitrue, Marcy Cohen, VP Social & User Engagement at MasterCard Worldwide and Karen Robinovitz, Co-founder/Chief Creative Officer of Digital Brand Architects. Nichole Goodyear, the Executive Director of SMAC, moderated the panel. The panel addressed how top brands are managing their Influencer Relationships from both a paid and social media perspective across all social channels, including brands own websites.  Nichole kicked off the panel by describing what influencers are and today’s categories, explaining, “Influencers typically fall in press, paid (bloggers/paid influencers), super fans/advocates (where Extole plays) and likers/followers.” 

Super fans and advocates, as an influencer type, was one of the more popular topics as it tied into earlier Internet Week discussions around the power of the consumer. As part of the discussion, Brad stressed the importance of tapping into brand advocates to launch Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) social marketing programs that enable brands to grow their advocacy base, amplify awareness and maximize social marketing results. Consumers have more influence and power than ever before and brands haven taken note – looking for strategic partnerships to help them harness the power of their consumers.

Another hot topic was Facebook Open Graph, and what it means for marketers and the brands they represent. Brad also weighed in on this, stating, “Facebook Open Graph is a game changer and will lead to a huge shift in how marketers look at their websites.” With consumers at the forefront, and Open Graph allowing brands to gain valuable insight into their consumers, it is no wonder it will change the way we market.

All in all, it was a great Internet Week Breakfast and Extole was honored to be in the company of such amazing panelists. We look forward to the future of marketing and to helping brands tap into the power of their advocates to launch incredibly powerful and successful social media initiatives. 

• Marketers must “shift” their mindsets to keep up with the evolving social landscape, consumers are sharing online more and more
• Tapping into consumer sharing should be top of mind for marketers as part of their awareness and advertising initiatives
• Content is king – content created by consumers about a brand is far more powerful than the content created by the brand
• Consumer sharing + social media = word of mouth marketing at scale

Internet Week and IAB Innovation Days proved to be incredibly innovative, validating the Extole platform and our C2C approach to social media marketing. With brands becoming increasingly aware of the power of their consumers, it is imperative they launch C2C initiatives to help drive the reach, relationships and results they so desire. To learn more about Extole and successful C2C programs, check out our Customers page.

Here is what some ZoneAlarm advocates are saying,“Ranked the best in the industry… I believe this new product will make me happy,” exclaimed Herb.  Nancy also chimed in, stating, “Cameron loaded this ZoneAlarm on my computer, and it’s awesome.”  

No telling what people will talk about if given the right opportunity, and the referral program makes sharing so easy.  The pick up line?  ZoneAlarm is offering One Free Year of Internet Security Suite for five successful “friend” installations.  In addition, ZoneAlarm also has sweepstakes element that gives participants the chance to win a free iPad2.  ZoneAlarm’s marketing initiatives extend beyond its referral program, but Extole is a key tenant of the broader strategy. And yet, the power lies in that synergy.  Check Point’s high quality software, and Extole’s accessible sharing platform, gives people a lot to talk about.

To view the program, please click HERE.

To set the stage, the Bing announcement last week is the latest in a string of updates to search engines over the past year, which reflect the increasing importance of consumer-generated content. Here’s a quick summary of the changes:

• Last year, Google’s Panda update reduced rankings for low-quality sites and improved rankings for high-quality sites (sites with content and information driven by consumers). Bing followed suit with its Tiger updates, improving the accuracy and relevancy of SERP.
• Later in the year, Bing announcement people searching on Bing will be served results that include information or “Likes” their friends have shared on Facebook.
• This January, Google launched “Search Plus Your World” that finds both content that has been shared privately along with matches from the public web, giving consumers the option to search via their personal connections or the social web in a single search. The personal results are showcased at the top of the page and are based on consumers’ own behavior and their social connections, but only include content from Google+.
• Last week, Microsoft announced updates to Bing to make its search engine the most social way to search the web. Bing will now include a “social sidebar” that contains related social updates from Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live, LinkedIn and more. People can use the sidebar to ask friends about their searches. Bing will also suggest friends who might know something about the topic being searched.

So what do all of these search engine changes mean to marketers? 

1. Social has forever changes the way people search for, consume and share information
2. Social and consumer-generated content will continue to have an increasing impact on search
3. It’s all about content and consumers have the control
4. Brands looking to stay top of mind (and top of search) with their consumers must implement social marketing initiatives that foster consumer-generated content

To learn more about Consumer-to-Consumer social marketing programs and how they can help marketers cultivate consumer stories and content about their brands, check out Extole’s 101 Guide to Social Referrals Programs.

• Homepage
• My Account page
• Post-purchase emails
• Weekly/Monthly newsletters
• Dedicated email drops
• Confirmation/Receipt page
• Customer Login/Logout pages
• In-product placements
• Facebook and Twitter posts
• Offline promotions

In order to drive the highest participation rate in C2C programs, brands should leverage their owned assets, including corporate websites, email lists, as well as social networks—Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.—to promote the program to their customers.

There are a number of ways in which advocates can share C2C social marketing programs with their friends, including email, personal URL (PURL), Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. Making sharing easy, and testing and optimizing messaging according to sharing channel are important components and directly related to the success of your C2C social marketing program.

Here is an overview of popular sharing channels:

•    Email
Email is the most popular sharing channel in a C2C marketing program because it’s a personal share between an advocate and his or her friend. Email shares are one-to-one, so they don’t see the same amplification as one-to-many social shares. Since the email shares come as personal recommendations from a trusted source, the conversion rates are the highest of all sharing channels. If you are creating a default message for your customer advocates to share with their friends via email, the message should read like a story with a personal touch, which tells the friend about the offer they will receive and what the advocate gets if the friend converts.

•    PURL
PURLs are personalized links which brands can provide to advocates to share content with their friends across channels and platforms – emails, blogs, instant messages and social networks. Because PURLs are a simple, flexible sharing option that can be one-to-one (email) or one-to-many (Facebook posts), they see the second highest sharing rate in C2C programs. PURLs see higher amplification than email, but lower clicks per share than social shares. PURL shares see a higher conversion rate than social shares.

•    Facebook/Google+
Sharing via Facebook and Google+ is one-to-many sharing with an advocate’s friends and social communities. Shares to Facebook and Google+ see larger amplification than one-to-one shares, but see a higher conversion rate than Twitter because the share is with friends. If you are creating a default message for your customer advocates to share with their friends via Facebook or Google+, the message should sound like your advocates are speaking directly to their friends and include the advocate’s rationale for why they are sharing the offer with their close network of friends.

•    Twitter
Sharing via Twitter is a one-to-many, broadcast share. Twitter shares see the highest amplification, or click per share rate because they can be seen by anyone. However, Twitter shares see the lowest conversion rate. If you are creating a default message for your customer advocates to share with their friends via Twitter, the message should be a more condensed message to the world at large.

Making sharing easy for your customer advocates and enabling a cross-channel approach to sharing in a C2C social marketing program drives the highest possible volume of shares, amplification and conversions. To learn more about sharing channels and C2C social referral programs, download our latest white paper HERE.

Photos represent a huge opportunity for rich C2C sharing and story telling for brands. At the same time, brands can collect further data and insight on consumers that can be used for behavioral targeting:

•    Many people use Instagram to share photos of their favorite products and/or services. These are ready-made advocates that are already sharing rich C2C stories about a brand with their friends and social communities. 

•    These passionate advocates can be fostered to create meaningful, compelling and lasting brand stories through their pictures.

•    By integrating Instagram, Facebook will be able to collect more consumer attributes, improving insight and targeting.  For example, if I always post pictures of shoes it can be inferred that I like shoes and therefore would be more receptive to an ad about shoes.

Facebook is placing increased emphasis on C2C sharing and story telling, letting consumers tell the stories on behalf of brands, with advocacy at the forefront. By acquiring Instagram, Facebook will enable brands to grow audiences, foster rich C2C stories and gain critical insights into consumer behaviors. At the same time, Facebook will be able to expand its mobile footprint. Marketers will be able to tap into C2C sharing, target consumers more effectively and deliver ads based on preferences and engagement types (mobile vs. web). It will be interesting to watch how marketers will utilize Facebook and Instagram, both immediately and long term.