Moderator: Jason Brautigam
Social Media Puzzle Confusing Overwhelming Transforming Evolving Diverse Dynamic Organic Innovative Interactive Engaging Relevant
Social Media Questions What is social media? Is it relevant to business? How does it relate to sport, horse racing and betting? How can we harness the potential of social media? Does it enhance brand loyalty? Can social media attract new customers and drive turnover? How do we measure success?
Social Media Landscape Skype Blogger
What is Social Media? Social Networking Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Qzone, My Space, Bebo, Tagged, Hi5, MyLife, Foursquare Social Publishing Blogger, Wordpress, Wikipedia, Technorati Content Sharing Pinterest, Delicious, Stumbleupon News Sharing Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, Twitter Photo Sharing Flikr, Instagram, Tumblr Video Sharing You Tube, Vimeo, Telly, Vine Music Sharing Soundcloud, Spotify, Last.FM, Vevo Creative Sharing Dribble, Deviant Art Community Building Google Plus, Ning, Share This, Foursquare
Facebook and Twitter Statistics Facebook has 1.15 billion active accounts, 665 million active daily. Growth is exponential; there were 600m active Facebook accounts in December 2010 and only 200m users back in April 2009. Twitter now has over 400 million accounts, with 200m+ active monthly users sending on average around 500m tweets per day. Twitter had 100m active users in September 2011, this doubled in just fifteen months, with 70% of activity now outside of USA. 50% of adults on the Internet have a Facebook account; 21% of the global internet population use Twitter actively on a monthly basis. UK now has over 15m Twitter users; a 50% increase since May 2012.
Why should we use social media? Opportunity to engage directly with consumers; a receptive audience that has actively expressed an interest in your brand. Highly targeted form of direct marketing; promoting your products, services and offers to a specific group of loyal customers. Followers or fans can become advocates for your brand, offering enthusiastic and positive word of mouth recommendation. Social media can be a powerful acquisition tool to attract and convert new customers to your business / events / products. It is free! Arguably the most cost effective form of media, majority of investment only in terms of time, resource and energy committed.
Why should we use social media? Customers are already talking about your brand whether you choose to interact or not; need to listen, monitor and respond. Actively influence views and opinions about your brand by being involved in dialogue and creating an on-line community. Take advantage of the interest in your brand by setting the agenda and directing the conversation around your products or services. Engage with customers to build trust and integrity in your brand; customer feedback is invaluable form of market research. Raise brand awareness and increase customer loyalty / retention. Enhance your reputation for providing excellent customer service.
Why should we use social media? Ideal way to get your message out in real time; especially relevant for live racing and betting where events / odds change constantly. Immediacy of social media makes it the most dynamic, current and relevant channel available for sales, marketing and PR activity. Works seamlessly alongside traditional forms of advertising and promotions; now an essential part of communications strategy. Additional on-line presence; helps to drive additional business to your website and improve search engine optimisation. Organisations who do not participate in social media run the risk of being seen as outdated and out of touch with customers.
How should we use social media? Social media can help to achieve your business goals. Essential part of customer retention and acquisition strategy, when integrated within overall marketing mix: Awareness Engagement Advocacy Action Understand customer interests, motivations and needs. Plan activity to engage with your customers at key times. Develop creative and rich content to promote products, services and offers through links to social media / website.
How should we use social media? Listen Involve Create Discuss Promote Create a discussion, ask questions, invite opinion; engage with customers and encourage interaction / participation. Tone should be conversational, friendly, informal, welcoming; can help to establish your brand positioning / reputation. Content must be interesting, informative and add value not just about promoting your products and services. Share additional and unique content; photos, videos and news articles that are relevant to your audience.
How should we use social media? Social media is about conversation and interaction, not broadcast. Opportunity to listen to, connect with, and then engage with customers, whether existing clients or potential new business. Overt self promotion should be avoided; balance sales messages with two-way dialogue and discussion around your brand / products. Social media often now used as a personalised news feed and valuable source of live information as events happen. Take advantage of real-time marketing by creating relevant and timely content for brand awareness and association.
How are sports using social media? Breaking news first via Twitter and Facebook Sharing unique content not available elsewhere Building a community with fans and followers Q&A sessions with players and key participants Creating conversation use of specific hashtags Fan participation in stadium, on-line and at home Adding value to fans via competitions, prize draws Integration within advertising and marketing activity Cross promotion from other channels, on and off line
Social Media and Sport When big events happen in the real world, they happen on Twitter, and nowhere is that truer than within sport. The platform gives athletes a voice, connecting them directly to fans, sponsors, journalists and broadcasters. Twitter also allows fans to share their experiences. We see fans at games reporting back to those who couldn t attend, interacting with other fans live in-venue, as well as fans at home interacting with other fans all over the world as they watch the action. It s an incredibly valuable way of connecting fans and audiences to the sports they are passionate about. Lewis Wiltshire, Director of Media (formerly Head of Sport), Twitter
Facebook saw over 116 million posts and comments relating to the London 2012 Olympic games and athletes, with 12.2 million likes. UsainBolt was the most liked athlete, with more than one million people liking his page, bringing the total to 8.1 million overall.
Social Media and Sport Sport drives conversation on Twitter this year s Champions League Final saw a peak of 117,000 Tweets per minute. During the London Olympics in 2012 there were more than 150 million mentions of the Games on Twitter. Barcelona is the biggest football club on Twitter, with over 10 million followers of their English account, plus 9m more on Spanish / Catalan. Arsenal and Chelsea lead the way on Twitter in UK, with both clubs attracting over 2.8 million followers; 15m & 18.8m likes on Facebook. Manchester United last Premier League club to join Twitter, now have over 1m followers in just three months; over 35m likes on Facebook.
Manchester United used social media to break the news of Sir Alex Ferguson s retirement; this was retweeted25,000 times producing 1.4m mentions in an hour, with the hashtag used over 400,000 times. Over 208,000 likes on Facebook announcement, shared over 190,000 times; over 1.5m likes added to MUFC Facebook updates in total.
Social Media and UK Racing All 58 racecourses in the UK are active on social media, with a total of over 365,000 followers to date on Twitter. Top 10 UK racecourses alone have over 150,000 followers on Twitter and 175,000 likes on Facebook pages; growth of 50% so far this year. Over 250,000 users follow racing media; Racing Post (91k), Channel 4 (55k), At The Races (51k) & Racing UK (30k); increase of 100k in 2013. Over one million followers in total for top 10 bookmakers on Twitter; this has doubled since the start of the year. Paddy Power (205k), Skybet(201k), Coral (146k) & Ladbrokes (109k), have generated most followers for their main Twitter account.
Case Study Paddy Power Ten official Twitter accounts, over 300,000 followers in total; 205,000 on main @paddypower account, 85% growth since start of 2013. Six different Facebook pages, over one million likes on main page, increased by 65% since the start of the year. Different accounts / pages for racing, studio, shops, offers, blog, casino, poker, bingo, showbiz, politics. On-line persona reinforces core values of the brand; fun, irreverent, cheeky, informal and friendly. Money back specials and price boost offers ( pricegasm ) regularly promoted on Twitter (@PPOffers).
Case Study Paddy Power Viral campaigns promoted on-line; often deliberately controversial! Marketing campaigns built around social media: We Hear You ; asking for feedback from customers on Facebook / Twitter. Funny, irreverent branded photos / videos regularly posted; created to prompt retweets/ likes, an effective form of viral marketing. Regular competitions daily giving away free bets, with use of hashtag to support promotion: #PaddyPPileup. Launch of Paddy Power In Play in July 2013, the first real money sports betting App on Facebook. Designed to add social engagement to online betting, allowing fans to interact with other users as well as bet.
Racing and Betting Social Media Speakers Julien Codorniou Director, Platform Partnerships EMEA, Facebook Olivier Gonzalez Chief Operating Officer, Twitter France Benjamin Ampen Manager, New Markets, Twitter Europe Paul Bittar Chief Executive, British Horseracing Authority Florence Amalou Marketing and Strategy Director, Equidia Tania Seif Head of Social Marketing, Coral Racing John Hartig Chief Executive Officer, Daily Racing Form Drew Sheinman Senior Vice President of Marketing, Breeders Cup Michael Wilson Co-Founder and Director, Bodugi Harald Dorum Chief Executive, Rikstoto Walter Hessert Founder, DerbyJackpot.com