SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING DAY ITALIA MILAN

22^nd June, 2016

Marta Del Testa

This was the 4th edition of a one day conference already at the 4th edition where the key topic was the role of the social media in marketing strategy nowadays for both for companies and people.

Organized and presented  by Andrea Albanese, the conference was made up of 16 speakers from multiple fields talking about the key areas of social media and about being online using real situations and cases. I have summarized here some of the talks.

Andrea Albanese: Social media marketing and digital communication trends 2016.

14 main aspects are characterizing 2016:

1. Visits to websites are getting lower – most of the websites can be correctly seen just from a pc and not by mobile so companies must update them with a mobile version (vertical view).
2. Companies have to understand that now people surf mainly from mobile and for entertainment (also because people are bored) so companies are experiencing brand journalism: talk about all the aspects of the everyday life in an informative way, not for selling.
3. Customer experience centric strategy: companies must understand and know their customers by customer analysis
4. People are no longer downloading anymore apps – companies have to use social media as a support
5. Google has a big problem now – we search things directly in our apps especially concerning travelling or shopping
6. From the 13th of June LinkedIn belongs to Microsoft – so Microsoft is now in the social media world and this could be revolutionary. But what about Twitter? It’s neutral for now because it doesn’t belong to anyone.
7. Facebook is now the biggest virtual warehouse – we are our own promoters.
8. Snapchat great success but it will always be for youngsters. There’s no possibilities for companies as it’s an interrupted stream of contents that don’t last.
9. Great success for advertising with video. With 1 cent of euro you can share a video for how long you want and to a specific target- cheap and easy – a professional agency would ask you lot of more money with less success
10. Chat everywhere – from Whatapp to Messager. Create a conversation with a consumers both private and public.
11. Facebook is reducing organic views for adverts
12. Digital communication at the center – companies must be digital oriented in every field and every employee have to talk with customers via social media.
13. Severe lack of expertise on social media
14. The marketing role is changing from being a business man to a social media showman

Renato Vichi from NetComm: Social media and e-commerce.

He started by talking about customers – they want to be oriented and supported and the customer journey must be an experience now. Customers connect the product to the company and the relationship is now customer-product not customer-company. Social media gives the customer the chance to speak with other people that tried a specific product. Customers now have trust for people they don’t know, but it’s a real trust. Social media gives value to a product and they speak for it. Analytics has a central role in this. So in a world where the customer is online, products have to be found online too. E- commerce is growing fast because as the customer is digital, the company has to be digital.

Ewelina Jelenkowska-Luca representing the EU commission: The role of social media for institutions.

The main point is to shorten the gap between citizens and institutions but always keeping an eye on the target of people they are talking to. In other words language and style of content change according to the social network. They chose to be on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Every week Bruxelles sends a content calendar for social media and then they choose what has to be published or not. In case of a crisis or a problem they follow three main rules: be fast, be prepared and be honest!

ANSA: Social media for journalism.

ANSA is the 3rd best information agency in the world and in Italy 95% of people have subscribed to it. All the new stories come from Ansa and then the media push them throughout the various channels. The news that comes from Ansa is always neutral – they never choose a side. The problem with the internet and social media is that everyone can be a journalist and that information can be shared by anyone. So competitors are many but the biggest problem is reliability. They publish only if they have proof. In order to do a good job they need the right support. We don’t have to be scared by social media and the internet- we have to take advantage of them and look at the positive aspects.

Renato Vichi from Unicredit: Social media and press release.

Renato Vichi explained that being on social media is an everyday challenge.  On social media we don’t have the same role we aren’t all the same and being on social media and talking about something doesn’t necessary mean that we are going to be listened. They follow a basic  but relevant strategy concerning press releases. They start from the 5 Ws (what, where, when, why, who) of the press release and they transform those 5 Ws on social media into the 3 Us: Understand (get the meaning), Unveil (reveal the point of view) and Unify (put together all the voices). Online the content is the result of something that comes from many actors – it’s sharing; if you don’t share you are just 1 of the 21.000 voices. When they have data to be published then the social staff need to adapt that content to every single social network and decide how to channel it. Unicredit is on Twitter, Google + and Instagram and they do have an editorial plan that sometimes needs on going  changes.

Sergio De Luca from Confcommercio: Social media for lobbies and representations.

By always telling the truth you create your credibility over the time. There is no time for planning – it’s live. Social media are the new news-stand. Youngsters no longer read the papers – they inform themselves through social media so you must be on social media to be seen. There are three issues to be solved though: teach your staff, do promo initiatives and don’t be scared about the internet. Then they considered the pros and cons of social media:

Pros:

– Social media is the best existing news-stand

– web listening- feelings from the community

– direct and participated democracy

– social media give news live with images

– they are a marketing tool

– good business card

– tell your story and personality

Cons:

– quality of the news

– source is difficult to find

– Click baiting

– 140 words changed the way people talk and their language.

Elisa Finocchiaro from change.org: Social media to give a voice to those who don’t have one.

Elisa spoke about her activism website. A website that with petition helped many cases all over the world and saved many people from wrong and unfair sentences by just sharing their stories and let people know what happens in the world.

Andrea Albanese: Social Media: CRM, customer service and chat.

Many companies, especially those that sell services, are adopting a new strategy to strengthen their relationship with their customers: chat customer service. CRM system is too long and impossible to handle in a long term. So once companies have understood their target both potential and real clients then they can adopt the best possible strategy. Recently both apps and companies are taking advantage of the live chat tool on Facebook, Messanger private chat and comments on walls. This way the consumer can decide which way they want to talk to the company: write a private message to keep the conversation private, write on the wall so that everyone can use the info they will receive or use the live chat. On the other hand this way companies can decide if they want to reply private or public too. We are experiencing a world where chat is increasing and there are many apps in chat: Whatapp, Messenger, Twitter, Wechat, Telegram, Snapchat and Instagram are the most famous. Companies have to just decide which one fits them best.

Federico Smanio: The Italian FootBall Lega B case.

A good case study that shows how social media can help companies is the Italian FootBall Lega B case. Federico Smanio, ex football player that now works for the Lega B, explained a project they did this year to connect fans with clubs. They have to vehicle 7 values:

1. Emotions
2. Empathies
3. Authenticity
4. Passion
5. Engagement
6. Inspiration
7. Persuasion

Those 7 values led to some main problems to deal with:

1. Brand awarness
2. Estrangement
3. Importance
4. Relationship
5. Community
6. Monetizing

So they invented the social media official supporter role. Real fans with real values that create content for the Lega B social networks. They help communicating from the inside and from the outside of the stadium like an ambassador of a club throughout 3 stages:

1. They received instructions from the Lega B and the aim they have to achieve
2. They have to submit a questionnaire for the Lega B to see if they are eligible
3. Lega B created a secret Facebook page where this official supporters create content and Lega B reads them and republishes on the offical Lega B page with references to the real author.

Clubs see them as ambassadors. They main goal for next year is to strengthen the relationship with these supporters to help both the clubs and the Lega B.

Giulio Ravizza from Twitter Italia: Using Twitter for customer service.

They give companies two tools to use Twitter for customer service:

– public tweet

– private message

Twitter gives the consumer the chance to give a grade for the experience they received with the possibility to add a comment.

They have seen an increase of about 2 and a half times in 2 years of the realtionship between users and companies. 82% of people said that their opinion of a company increases if that company answers a message. 86% of people say they are happy with the interaction with companies using this tool.

An experience is positive if the problem is solved  easily and quickly with personal answers and a friendly attitude. People with good experiences always talk about the brand in a positive way.

There are 7 steps to customer service on Twitter:

Then Giulio Ravizza gave advice for good customer service:

– answer as quickly as possible

– don’t leave the conversation open – companies must say the last word

– use real names and sign the message

– show empathy

Two companies that are using Twitter for customer service with excellent results are KLM and Domino’s Pizza.

Giovanni Savarese on the case: Moby Tirrenia.

Moby Tirrenia and Torremar belongs to the Onorato family and are the main Italian ferries companies. They organise all the connections between the mainland and the islands such as Isola D’Elba, Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily. They started with an inactive strategy on social media, using them just for promotions or advertising, but then they realized that it could be a real communication system. People could ask questions and receive answers more quickly than with emails or customer care. They didn’t obviously quit using customer care and emails, but by adding the social media customer service their reactivity has been impressive. They have to deal with 4 main issues by investing both in time and people:

1. Timetable – as their ferries work 24/7, their social media presence has to be 24/7
2. Dangerous messages – hoax messages that there is a problem on a ferry
3. Messages with prices – as prices change constantly
4. Delays – of ferries that aren’t always true

They are on Twitter and Facebook. They recently opened an Instagram account, but they use it for experiential marketing.

Social media has a lot of potential:

– an alternative commecial channel but not exclusive

– promotional material using adverts

– informative (e.g. about new connections)

– to collaborate with consumers

– to share news