Social Media for Marketing: What We’ve Done at SplashCast So Far
05.16.07My new pal Baratunde asked on Twitter last week for info, examples or anecdotes about companies using new online social media for marketing. I thought I should type up some thoughts about what we've done at SplashCast so far because I think we've done a particularly good job of it. I thought I'd post it here in hopes that others would find it useful as well. It's rough around the edges but I thought not posting it would be a lost opportunity.
If you haven't checked out SplashCast yet, you can see just one example of its many capabilities in the podcast player on my sidebar here.
SplashCast's Use of Social Media for Marketing
SplashCast has hired two experienced social media producers, myself and Alex Williams [that's Alex on the right], founder of the Podcast Hotel series of podcasting industry conferences. One of our big responsibilities is what I call in-house content production to engage with existing social media communities.
I write blog posts that are accompanied by channels of mixed media content compiled using our company's product. Alex publishes interviews from events using SplashCast.
My primary media production activity at SplashCast is similar to what I've done when working for content companies (TechCrunch, AOL Social Software Weblog, NetSquared and others). I try to break news, publish mixed media content related to existing online discussions and otherwise add value to the media landscape for readers interested in the emerging online video market. The goals of this work are to drive traffic the SplashCast website, demonstrate the potential of our publishing tool and ultimately to encourage people to sign up as SplashCast publishers themselves. Plus it's a whole lot of fun for me.
The primary ways that we work to build readership for our blog are these:
*Daily blogging, not only about company news but interesting industry news as well. Some of our posts have been deemed interesting enough
to receive thousands of visitors from StumbleUpon, for example.
*Sending trackbacks to other blogs, where our posts that are related to theirs are linked for their readers to discover.
*Leaving thoughtful, value-ad-focused comments in response to posts on other blogs, where our names are linked to the SplashCast site added in the URL field of the comment form.
*Putting relevant bloggers at the center of our strategy for company and new product release PR. That strategy lead to more than 250 blog mentions within 48 hours of our launch, for example.
*Attending events and building relationships with other social media producers, who will think of us later when writing about related subject matter.
*We also use Twitter to stay abreast of what other people are doing and keep friends up to date on what we're doing at SplashCast.
*Engegement with and inclusion in relevant topical aggregators. This is a big part of what we do. For example, a Google search of Techmeme.com for SplashCastMedia brings back 1,400 results and we've now made 15 appearances on the front page of Digg. Both easier said than done, but both great sources of traffic and lead generation.
All of these steps could have been done well or poorly, but because we have two experienced social media producers in house we believe we can effectively communicate in such a way that our commercial message is more implied than it is overbearing. (For another perspective on appropriate marketing communication in new media, see this very smart post written by Jeremy Pepper.)
The high level themes of our work, I believe are the following:
*We find creative ways to participate in conversations of general interest. In particular, we let people publish aggregated collections of mixed media, so we watch the news and see what would be interesting to publish collections like this about. When the DoD banned social media sites from official networks, we published a channel of videos and photos tagged Iraq in YouTube and Photobucket, for example.
*Timeliness has been important - we work hard to cover news as early in the news cycle as possible. That's a whole other topic that requires its own strategy.
*Helping people do their own work better. This is becoming cliche in the web 2.0 world, but it bears repeating. Our posts on things you can do with mixed media RSS, ways you can tag videos and how you can build a successful website around aggregated media were all big hits.
*Finding the balance between marketing and conversation. It's no secret that the SplashCast blog is trying to convince people to use our product, so we don't hide that. We do however try to make our posts compelling enough to be interesting on their own merits, regarding general interest topics, whether you care to try SplashCast or not.
As a result of implementing this strategy before, during and after our initial launch, we had more than 1,000 publishers register for an account at launch, we doubled that in our first month to 2,000 and doubled it again in our second month to more than 4,000. SplashCast player loads are now aproaching 5.5 million.
As a social media service company, it also makes sense for us to do a lot of in house content production so that we know the application, its possibilities and performance issues, as best as possible. That said, I believe that any company can benefit greatly by adding social media participation and content production to the center of their marketing strategy. The use of social media has proven enormously helpful to SplashCast.
The roll of social media in a market sector in a relatively commoditized sector is something else that could use some further consideration.
I hope you'll stop by SplashCastMedia.com, see this work in action for yourself and create an account to publish your collections of mixed media. If you would like my help in coming up with a strategy like this for your company, drop me a line. I can be reached at marshall@marshallk.com
May 16th, 2007 at
Brilliant post, helpful and makes me appreciate your service even more!
May 16th, 2007 at
[…] Marshall Kirkpatrick is blogging about how to use social media for marketing purposes. His company SplashCast is doing a great job engaging with its community. “As a result of implementing this strategy before, during and after our initial launch, we had more than 1,000 publishers register for an account at launch, we doubled that in our first month to 2,000 and doubled it again in our second month to more than 4,000. SplashCast player loads are now aproaching 5.5 million.” Really, a great case study. […]
May 17th, 2007 at
I never realized how exciting the work you’re doing at SC is until I read this post. Congratulations on a job well done!
However, I’m curious, is the 5.5 mil load giving you adequate returns short-term or more of an investment for the future?
May 17th, 2007 at
[…] Marshall Kirkpatrick reveals SplashCast’s social media marketing tactics. Great insights from an A level group. […]
May 17th, 2007 at
[…] Marshall Kirkpatrick (former TechCrunch writer) posted a fantastic post titled “social media for marketing what weve done at splashcast so far” on his personal blog yesterday. I spend quite a bit of time thinking about Social Media Marketing for Zillow and I think all of his advice is right on the money. We are following a very similar model with Zillow Blog as Marshall is with the Splashcast Blog. This quote really hits the nail on the head as crucial to growing a successful corporate blog – Finding the balance between marketing and conversation. It’s no secret that the SplashCast blog is trying to convince people to use our product, so we don’t hide that. We do however try to make our posts compelling enough to be interesting on their own merits, regarding general interest topics, whether you care to try SplashCast or not. […]
May 18th, 2007 at
[…] Marshall Kirkpatrick » Social Media for Marketing: What We’ve Done at SplashCast So Far Marshall is one of the gods of attentions. if you want to know how to build the hotness he is a great guy to ask. (tags: Marshallk) […]
May 19th, 2007 at
[…] Marshall Kirkpatrick: Social Media for Marketing: What We’ve Done at SplashCast So Far - “As a result of implementing this strategy before, during and after our initial launch, we had more than 1,000 publishers register for an account at launch, we doubled that in our first month to 2,000 and doubled it again in our second month to more than 4,000. SplashCast player loads are now aproaching 5.5 million.“ […]
May 27th, 2007 at
[…] When there is a strong social network strategy in play, members of the community feel tied to the organizations efforts, and if they believe in the organization, are often willing to help promote it. The Splashcast team’s intelligent dialogue with the blogging community before the company’s launch is a great example of engaging a community before an initiative is launched. […]
May 29th, 2007 at
Why PR Doesn’t Work and How to Fix It
Rather than highlight what’s wrong with PR or why it doesn’t work, let’s talk about how to fix it.
May 30th, 2007 at
[…] Embrace online video and watch how creative, genuine, and cool content becomes incredibly viral. Words can carry the message so far, but video is also an opportunity to showcase the product while entertaining viewers. […]
May 30th, 2007 at
[…] Embrace online video and watch how creative, genuine, and cool content becomes incredibly viral. Words can carry the message so far, but video is also an opportunity to showcase the product while entertaining viewers. […]
May 31st, 2007 at
[…] Last week I posted on my personal blog about SplashCast’s use of social media for marketing but today I saw a remarkable example by another company that I wanted to share with readers here. Common Craft is a veteran social media consultancy based in Seattle, Washington that’s recently started recording some incredible tutorial videos that are driving loads of traffic to their site. […]
June 1st, 2007 at
[…] Last week I posted on my personal blog about SplashCast’s use of social media for marketing but today I saw a remarkable example by another company that I wanted to share with readers here. Common Craft is a veteran social media consultancy based in Seattle, Washington that’s recently started recording some incredible tutorial videos that are driving loads of traffic to their site. [See below to view the videos.] […]
July 3rd, 2007 at
[…] What did they do right? You should read the post Social Media for Marketing: What We’ve Done at SplashCast So Far to see the details, but in summary, they’ve put the community first, added value, and stayed consistent. In their own words, they demonstrated success by: *We find creative ways to participate in conversations of general interest. In particular, we let people publish aggregated collections of mixed media, so we watch the news and see what would be interesting to publish collections like this about. When the DoD banned social media sites from official networks, we published a channel of videos and photos tagged Iraq in YouTube and Photobucket, for example. […]
July 8th, 2007 at
Cant believe that
Bye
July 11th, 2007 at
[…] SplashCast (Via Jeremiah Oywang) Splashcast hired to Social Media folks to active conduct community outreach via: blogging, sending trackbacks, commenting on other blogs, using Twitter, reaching out to bloggers for product launch and other methods. “As a result of implementing this strategy before, during and after our initial launch, we had more than 1,000 publishers register for an account at launch, we doubled that in our first month to 2,000 and doubled it again in our second month to more than 4,000. SplashCast player loads are now aproaching 5.5 million.” […]
August 6th, 2007 at
[…] One of the consulting services I offer companies is in launch strategy planning for social media promotion. Over at SplashCast we’ve done two major product launches in the last week and I thought I’d offer some observations here based on those experiences. If you’re interested in reading about SplashCast’s use of social media for marketing in general, check out this post. […]
August 14th, 2007 at
[…] I’ve been getting so many inquiries lately from companies looking to hire bloggers, and so many responses to messages I send out about them over twitter, that I’m losing track. I really like helping bring these two groups together. Sometimes I fantasize about starting a blogger training and placement service, but for now let’s just try to get organized! I’m a big believer in paying bloggers - see this post for example on social media marketing at SplashCast, that’s good stuff. Want a sophisticated discussion on the value of social media content creation? I can’t stop recommending this podcast and transcript by Dana Gardner on the topic. […]
September 13th, 2007 at
[…] In my time at SplashCast I featured loads of really interesting use cases and I’ll miss doing that. I am particularly proud of the company blog’s 17 appearances on the front page of Digg and the more than 2,00 search results via Google in Techmeme. (I was really happy that my last Digg hit there was highlighting some of my favorite works of investigative journalism.) SplashCast’s engagement in social media deserves big accolades. I’ve written about how the company has worked with social media at length in this post. […]
September 16th, 2007 at
[…] Splashcast’s Social Media for Marketing: (May 16, 2007): Splashcast used social media for marketing purposes, and succeeded by directly engaging the community, Marshall Kirkpatrick […]
September 20th, 2007 at
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October 17th, 2007 at
[…] I’d like to write a how-to overview of those possibilities in the sustainable industries context. It would be based on the experiences I described in this article: http://marshallk.com/social-media-for-marketing-what-weve-done-at-splashcast-so-far […]
May 6th, 2008 at
Receiving a million dollars tax free will make you feel better than
being flat broke and having a stomach ache.
– Dolph Sharp, “I’m O.K., You’re Not So Hot”
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http://ebloggy.com/joshuareevesld
May 14th, 2008 at
[…] One of my consulting clients is a company called Iterasi, providers of a browser plug-in that lets users “notarize” a perfect replica of any web page’s current state. That includes forms and AJAX states. It’s a pretty potent tool and one that I’m really excited to use for my own research…once there’s a Mac version available! (Coming soon, they say.) The company is doing a great job of using social media, including a prolific blog that I designed for them and now a series of short videos produced by my former co-worker at SplashCast, Alex Williams. You can read about our very successful use of social media for marketing at our previous place of work in this post. […]