Outsource My Social Media Marketing

Email and messaging security analyst Mike Osterman of Osterman Research drops by Proofpoint’s offices and chats with email security blogger Keith Crosley about the most common technology inquiries he’s getting today, the top policy questions he’s being asked and we talk about how email use is changing. More info from blog.proofpoint.com

Session: Tools, Policies and Practices: Twitter Here, LinkedIn There, Facebook Everywhere! Social Media Policies for Organizations. Steve Boland, Nonprofit Assistance Fund; Barry LaGrave, MN House Public Information Services; Richard Fong, MN Department of Health. Moderated by Ann Treacy, Treacy Information Services. Conference: 2009 Blandin Broadband Conference

There are a whole host of strategies that go into managing a major presidential campaign, from using social media to spread a message to developing analytics.

(Coverage of SES Chicago continues at WebProNews Videos. Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)

Dan Siroker, former Deputy New Media Director, Obama Presidential Transition and Founder of CarrotSticks spoke about his work on the campaign.

Dan-Siroker
Siroker was the head of the Obama analytics team during the campaign. He shares some social media stats about the candidates.

Facebook friends: Obama 2.4 million, McCain 600,000

YouTube: Obama 90 million, McCain 20 million

Unique visitors: 50 million for Obama and 30 million for McCain

When it came to money McCain raised $201 million and Obama raised $656 million. Obama raised over $500 million online and $156 million offline.

Lesson 1: Define quantifiable success

Success can be broken down by looking at CPC, website sign up rate, email sign up, and money raised per recipient.

Lesson 2: Question assumptions

He tried different variations on buttons and media (sign up vs. join us now; media, family picture, change video, other images and videos). Siroker said they did various tests with Google Website Optimizer and utilized the data.

Lesson 3: Divide and conquer

He talks about the different donation buttons they experimented with such as Donate Now, Please Donate, Why Donate and Donate and Get a gift.

Lesson 4: Take advantage of circumstances

As an example Siroker shows a clip of Sarah Palin being critical of Obama’s community organizer position. The campaign used the clip in an email to supporters and raised $10 million.

Lesson 5: Turn customers into evangelists

Siroker says you can use all this as a business model. Supporters of the campaign were connected and easy to share. He calls it social affiliate marketing.

I probably don’t have to tell you that many businesses are still struggling with the concept of using social media. Many simply can’t find a good reason to use it at all, and many more find themselves using it but struggling to validate that use. They can’t find the ROI. They feel that too much time is being wasted. Basically, they’re just using social networks because they feel like they’re supposed to. They just want to keep up.

Many businesses are even banning social media from the workplace entirely. In fact, a great deal of our readers have expressed that they feel that social media doesn’t belong in the workplace because employees are there to “work,” not “goof off.”

Well, that may be the case, and perhaps social media doesn’t fit into your business at all, but considering your general business goals can help you decide whether or not there is a place for social media, and whether or not your employees can fit into that puzzle.

As social media enthusiast Chris Brogan told WebProNews in a recent interview, it’s time to get over the touristy part of social media and start getting down to business.

He says it’s not “Gee whiz, it’s cool” anymore. It’s “What are we gonna do with it?”

“Great you can type. Now what?” he says.