mudo whitepaper: series #1 zero to 40,000 fans.

How mudo helped fashion icon SUPR build the largest and most engaged facebook page in Australia.
Created by mudo|@michaelwatkins |@jonathandevery Edited by Stephen Collins |@trib

Build the largest and most engaged branded facebook page in Australia

What happened?
What we wanted to do

Build the largest and most engaged branded facebook page in Australia

share :)

Why we wanted to do it
We knew facebook pages were going to play a large part in the social media marketing mix in the future, especially for big brands. We also knew a systematic approach to building, then maintaining branded facebook pages would soon need to exist, we wanted to create that system.

How we went about doing it

Earlier this year we canvassed brands whos target market was primarily Gen Y focused and had a respected following within Australia. A shortlist was then created. After a lot of calls, explanations about what facebook pages actually are and some persistence, one of our existing clients, SUPR was keen to give it a go and the results/insights have been extremely interesting, which is why we want to share them with you. All of what you are about to read occured over the last 5 months.

SUPRs brand and products are being exposed to a near full capacity football stadium of consumers (40,000+) who love their brand, every day

Boxes similar to this one above appear througout the whitepaper. They are statements we have created to succinctly cover areas of the paper. Click the twitter button and youll be taken to twitter to share the statement.

mudo whitepaper: series #1 | www.mudomedia.com.au

02/09


Why?

Its a new direct marketing channel for the digital generation

What we said to SUPR

Mudo will build SUPR the largest and most engaged facebook page in Australia Create a long-term relationship between your consumers and the brand.
Mudo knows relationships take time, effort and nurturing if they are to develop into something worth while. With this in mind mudo wants to build you a marketing channel that will keep your consumers engaged over 3-4 years, rather than a short term marketing campaign that will bring the SUPR into prominence for only a short period of time. When a consumer becomes a fan of your page, they do it on their own terms because they want to be associated with SUPR and your products. The main reason for a consumer to un-fan a page would be that the page misrepresented itself and is now feeding fans irrelevant information or spam. If your page stays true to its original proposition, you will retain the majority of your fans over the long term. Pages = engaged consumers connected and receptive to your message for years to come

Facebook pages are a more effective and intimate direct marketing channel. You want to expose consumers to new products as they come to market in the fastest, most effective and efficient way possible. The avenues you are currently using include print ads in magazines, bus adverts, your website and your monthly newsletter. Each of these channels have a delayed timeframe before reaching your market, therefore informing your consumers in real-time, as products come to market must be proving impossible. mudos proposition is to build SUPR highly engaged community of brand advocates through a branded facebook page. We will then actively market to this community on a daily basis through facebook page updates. Your market will now be kept up to date with new clothing lines, competitions and announcements in real-time, as they happen. Its a new direct marketing channel for the digital generation

share :)

share :)

Brand Distribution
When a user engages with an update on facebook a ripple effect occurs, much like a stone dropped in the middle of a still pond. The ripple makes its way through that users friends newsfeeds and highlight sections, keeping them up to date with what their friend is doing. When a user engages a branded page update, the same thing occurs. Only it is the brand name and/ or its content that is rippling through that users friends, and thus exposing them to the brand and/or product. Engaged brand pages are an incredibly fast and effective organic brand distribution vehicle.

It is a real-time market research utility.

We propose that once a highly engaged community is built and is growing, we can use this consumer base as a market research tool. In asking the consumer base a question through the form of an update, you will receive hundreds of individual, independent answers within 2-3 hours of the question being asked. These questions can encompass everything, from clothing designs, prints and style preferences, through to what consumers want to experience in store. We will then collate and tally these answers and present the findings to you in the form of a daily report. Through that report you will receive an unbiased, true insight of what your consumers real thoughts are in relation to the question you asked. facebook pages = a real-time market research utility

share :)

share :)

mudo whitepaper: series #1 | www.mudomedia.com.au

03/09


How...

SUPR had to become one of the target market in order for it to be respected, accepted and listened to

Who are we talking to?

Prior to building the page mudo invested a lot of time into market research. We needed to have an in depth understanding of exactly who the target market was. This included everything from consumer psychology papers, to magazines, movies, music, books, even celebrities they idolized. All the above analysis allowed us to understand the core fundamentals of how this market thinks and acts. We needed this information to align page updates to suit the target market. SUPR had to become one of the target market in order for it to be respected, accepted and listened to

share :) share :)

users. We then filtered out what updates did and didnt engage users. This provided us with a solid base of compelling content which we used to construct further updates. Try everything once to identify what page status updates work

Long Term Mindset

Investing the time, effort and money into building a branded community needs to be viewed as a long term strategy and investment. We presented the strategy with this in mind. Such things as succession strategies had been discussed prior to the page being developed. We felt the client needed to have a solid understanding of where the page would be in 18 months time and how it would be managed in the future. Social media as a short term solution is suicidal both for the client and agency, relationships are a long term thing!

share :)

Getting the tone right.

Success and failure in social media is all about appearance and how your brand is perceived. As a brand SUPR needed to be perceived as a member of the target market in order for the brand to be trusted. The brand needed an identity and an attitude, so we gave it one. Attitude translates into tone. If updates are coming across in the wrong tone fans will treat your brand as deceptive and misleading, which will result in little to no engagement, and possibly some brand bashing. If updates are coming across with the right tone the fan base will listen and engage. Finding the right tone involved combining both market research and a little mudo zing (like the burger, only more delicious). Once we found a tone that worked, we stuck with it. Right tone = a page fan base that will trust, listen and engage

Keep it Real, Relevant and Relaxed

Finally, the tripe R concept was conceived by mudo early on in the development of our page architecture system. Real Come across as truthful, honest and sincere and you will receive the same sentiment back from your fan base. Relevant Feed relevant information to your fan base to receive maximum engagement back. Play to their interests, even if its not brand related. Relaxed Present information in a relaxed tone. Fans will be receiving this info through and extremely personal information resource, their news feed. mudo mantra - keep it real, relevant and relaxed.

share :)

Identifying engagement fundamentals

We needed to know what content fans would engage with the most, to increase brand distribution through their social graphs. We did this by running a two week update engagement initiative. Simply, we canvassed the entire spectrum of content that our research told us would receive engagement from

share :)

mudo whitepaper: series #1 | www.mudomedia.com.au

04/09

Dont push too much content too often, or your brand will be viewed as spam

Making it happen

A system had to be developed that would keep activity running to a pre determined schedule. When implemented, it allowed both SUPR and mudo to know what was going to be posted, on what day and at what time.

share :) share :)

Dont push too much content too often, or your brand will be viewed as spam

Defining Updates
In order to adequately structure an update system we needed to define what each update is designed to do and for what purpose it is meant to serve. For this client we settled on 4 major types of updates. Convo Designed to stimulate conversation with the fan base by asking a thought provoking question about a relevant topic that encouraged a short, succinct answer from fans. The topics focused mainly on pop culture, film, celebrities and musicians. Pic Focused on an uploaded image that the client wanted to expose consumers to. Often they are professionally taken images of models wearing the clients clothing. A caption encouraging engagement about the image will often accompany the update. Link Deep linked update that drives traffic away from facebook to the clients other online properties or other relevant information sources. Product Spotlights a new product that the client is releasing or will release. We often use this update to test new designs or ask for consumer feedback on possible new items. Defining updates made the facebook page easier to manage

Update System
With the updates now determined and the frequency at which the updates are to be sent out finalised, we began building a system. Firstly we mapped out what products needed to go out that week, this was done in conjunction with the client. We then implemented those updates into the system around the updates we knew were going to generate a lot of engagement. Once these were implemented into the system it was ready for approval from the client, this would be done toward the end of the week. Once SUPR approved, we began to focus on the following weeks updates and so the cycle continues. The update system acts as the backbone to the entire page strategy

Communication with Client

One of our primary goals with the system was to minimize the amount of time the client allocates to page activities. The system fulfills this by allowing them to alter the flow of updates with new content that comes to hand during the week. If this occurs it simply means we have to sacrifice one update. The update that is sacrificed is usually the one with the least amount of importance for that week and can recycled at a later date. Our goal is to keep client communication to a minimum

share :)

Determining update frequency

We worked through how much content we had to offer on a weekly basis, then decided how best to distribute that content each week without spamming fans. We decided on a comfortable frequency that was appropriate, so long as the content and updates were being kept fresh. A page, like a good sandwich, is best served fresh.

share :)

mudo whitepaper: series #1 | www.mudomedia.com.au

05/09

Daily reports allows the client to act on consumer insight extremely quickly

The Numbers

share :)

Engagement Rating
We use facebooks Post Quality rating to measure how successful our updates are at any one time. There is some discrepancies in our finding. We think the engagement rating is out of 10, however often the rating jumps to 14-15, the highest we have had is 18. We have asked facebook why this is but as yet have not received any clarification on the matter. At a very educated guess, the rating takes into account the amount of fans the page has, versus the amount of fans that have engaged during a one week period. if your facebook insights rating is over 10, youre doing something right
share :)

Daily Reports
When the page was in its infancy we would send SUPR a detailed weekly report outlining the amount of engagement each post attracted as well as how many fans and total engagements the page received during that week. However, as the page grew larger, it became apparent that we needed to move to a daily reporting structure, which broke down the previous days post engagement to something of a forensic level. Daily reports contain a tallied breakdown of the consumer comments and reactions to market research questions, which allows the client to quickly identify issues or trends that were prevalent within their target market. This information allows SUPR to act on consumer sentiment/ insight in near real-time. Daily facebook page reports allows the client to act on consumer insight extremely quickly

Brand Distribution
Mudo has developed its own system for measuring how much a brand spreads through the facebook social graph following a single engagement with an update. I can hear the cynics cryingfoul now, but we needed a somewhat accurate representation of brand distribution, to show clients how effective each post was in spreading their brand. So we knew that each time a fan engages with a post, a notification is sent out through the social graph to that fans friends, thus exposing the fans friends to the clients brand. We came up with a way to present brand distribution statistics to the client in a way that was measurable and easily understood. We created a Brand Distribution equation. Basically (without sacrificing too much IP) the equation works around how many engagements a post has received, the total number of friends the average facebook user has and how many people we believe a message sent through the social graph reaches. 640 branded facebook page engagements = 25,586 brand exposures through the social graph
share :)

Weekly Reports
Weekly reports collate all the data captured by the daily reports and presents it in a condensed fashion for SUPR at the close of the week.

Demographic Analysis
The demographic data captured by facebook insights allowed us to target advertising to cities and countries that were not being represented as highly as SUPR thought.

Growth Rate
We measure the growth rate through two sources, insidefacebook.com and allfacebook.com. Both sites have technology that allows you to view both the daily and weekly growth rate of your facebook page. By simply adding the two figures together then dividing them by two we can get an average growth rate. using allfacebook.com & insidefacebook.com will give you an accurate page growth rate
share :)

mudo whitepaper: series #1 | www.mudomedia.com.au

06/09


Fans Likes Comments Wall Posts Page Views Country Australia

If your facebook insights rating is over 10, youre doing something right

More numbers...

Total 40,132 1,053 42,854 20,933 21,921 1,305 114,090 17,856 92,888 1,714,067
share :)

The below figures have been derived straight from the insights data collection through the facebook analytics suite and our daily/weekly reports. Engagement Type Post Quality Interactions per post Mean average per day 299 (new) 8.23 334 163 171 9.6 838 131 683 13,453

Unique Page Views Photo Views Brand Exposures The page generates an average of 299 new fans, 171 comments, 163 likes and 838 page views, daily

share :)

The page generates an average of 683 photo views, 13,360 brand exposures and 334 interactions per post, daily

Fan and Engagement Insights

These figures directly relate to the page and what exactly is occurring on a day to day basis.

Growth Statistics
These statistics are derived straight from pages statistics section from the source allfacebook.com. The statistics are under the category Fashion and in the fan range of 10,000 100,000. There are currently 497 pages listed in this category. Page SUPR Rank 104 Current Weekly Growth Rate 3.78%

Country Insights
Number of Fans 31675 5253 3236

New Zealand Other

The page has an average Post Quality rating of 8.23/10

share :)

mudo whitepaper: series #1 | www.mudomedia.com.au

07/09


Problem Solution Strategy

As a page the fans discontent was only going to get louder if SUPR didnt address it

Whats the problem? Case Study

Addressing an issue, solving the problem

share :)

We began noticing that a vocal set of fans were taking issue with the size of models SUPR was using in their campaigns. The general argument was that the models were too skinny and didnt represent true aussie girls in Australia. The more model pictures we posted, the louder the discontent amongst fans grew. We had to address the situation before it became a much larger issue. As a page, the fans discontent was only going to get louder if the brand didnt address it

After 10 days SUPR chose the winner. We announced the campaign winner in another post to fans. The winner will be included in SUPRs upcoming catalogue and will also feature in the clients online/offline collateral. Create, setup and implement the page strategy, then let the client drive and direct it

share :)

Response
325 images posted to the page within 3hours 603 images posted over the 14 day application period 1,413 comments were made on all uploaded fan photos 620 likes were made on all uploaded fan photos 527 comments were made on the model search finalists album 302 likes were made on the model search finalists album

We drafted an informal Press Release to fans which can be found below: At SUPR we look to use average Australian sized girls in all of our campaigns. Would you believe we sometimes struggle to find size 10 Australian models for some of our campaigns? At the moment we are on the look out for fuller sized girls to model our clothing. If you are interested post a pic of yourself to my page with the caption SUPR real sized model search and we will check them out!

Conclusion
This case study points out the importance of listening to your fan base, then addressing the issue that has been raised. It also illustrates that through listening and then acting, a medium such as a facebook page, can actively turn a topical issue into a positive outcome for both the brand and its consumers. Another fascinating development to emerge from this strategy was the amount of support and positivity expressed by fans to each other. It was common for fans to compliment other fans photos, and 95% of the time neither fan knew each other which was a unique, unexpected and postive result. 3,790 interactions with the brand through the page, over a 21 day period

Once the application period of 14 days closed, SUPR went through the images and selected 10 finalists based on look, personality and interactions the images generated amongst fans through likes and comments. The 10 finalist images were collated into a folder named SUPR model search finalists. An update was then sent out to fans announcing the top 10, the SUPR model search finalists album was attached to the update.

share :)

mudo whitepaper: series #1 | www.mudomedia.com.au

08/09

SUPRs brand and products are being exposed to a near full capacity football stadium of consumers (40,000+) who love their brand, every day

Key Findings

facebook pages has saved SUPR real $$ through realtime market research

Old school market research is dead

share :)

Using targeted market research initiatives carried out through the page, SUPR was able make extremely quick decisions on which items they would mass produce and which items they would produce minimal amounts of, as indicated by the fans response. Through this research, SUPR is now able to give the market what they want, not what they (the brand) thought they (the market) want. This effectively reduces excess stock levels and as a result saves them money.

They are your consumers, they love your brand, they will be willing to help you make your brand better. Ask them questions, get real answers back, in volume, instantly. Act on these insights, make and save more money. It costs nothing each time you do it. Social media just saved and made your business money.

Engagement = Organic Brand Distribution

facebook pages has made SUPR real $$ through reatime market research
share :)

Similar to the above, SUPR was able to sell more product due to the market research gained through the page. They would simply make more products that are well received by the fan base. More product is then sold, which means more revenue for SUPR.

When a user engages with an update on facebook a ripple effect occurs, much like a stone dropped in the middle of a still pond (Yes, youve read this bit before, because it is the best way to describe this unique effect). The ripple makes its way through that users friends newsfeeds and highlight sections, keeping them up to date with what their friend is doing. When a user engages a branded page update, the same thing occurs. Only it is the brand name and/or its content that is rippling through that users friends and thus exposing them to the brand and/or product.

A brand can influence social change facebook pages has made SUPR real $$ through product and brand exposure

share :)

Product updates offer product exposure, in its simplest form. Product Exposure = Product Familiarity = Easier Purchase Decision If a consumer is exposed to a product, the product is then registered in the brain of that consumer. Do they go on to purchase that product due to the exposure? The Advertising industry over the past 100 years would suggest that many consumers do.

When SUPR addressed the issue of what the right size is for the target market, it triggered an avalanche of comments, both positive and negative which opened up a debate for weeks to come. At the very least, it allowed the market to talk as a collective, in an open forum about a very topical issue that affected many, if not all of them. The power of opening up such a debate cannot be measured. However 30,000 fans actively took part or were witness to the topic raised and the views expressed by others. If only a handful of fans actually changed their view on the issue due to the debate, then the intervention was a success. SUPR was the catalyst for that change.

mudo whitepaper: series #1 | www.mudomedia.com.au

09/09

Big thanks!
mudo wouldnt even be in the position of being able to write this whitepaper if it wasnt for the awesome people listed below.
Catherine Van Der Muelen, Global Brand Manager at SUPR Since a cold call in late Dec last year Cathy has been 100% behind mudo and our views on how social media can help extend the SUPR brand, even when others assured her it couldnt. Thanks Cath for sticking to your guns. Rebecca Four, Graphic Designer, becreative design. Bec has been a true champion in helping us get this whitepaper , our branding and ourwebsite from an initial design to what you see now. Thanks Bec for always making last minute changes with a smile instead of a deathstare. becreative@rebeccafour.com.au 0411 236 210 Leila Khiev, Web Developer, leilakhiev.com. Leila built our website, dealt with the backend booking system for our workshops and oversaw the implementation of the whitepaper to the site. Leila is a joy to work with, always happy. Happy people are awesome. leiwa_k@hotmail.com leilakhiev.com Stephen Collins, Editorial, Acidlabs. Stephen was excited about the first (soft) release of this whitepaper, then proceeded to systematically rip it apart from a grammatical standpoint. Thanks Trib for first offering, then providing us with a more cohesive version of the paper! trib@acidlabs.org @trib 0410 680 722 Scott Watkins, Graphic Designer, weretwoboys. Scott is my younger brother. He has designed every logo and user interface I have ever used in business over the past 5 years. Mudos new logo and website were no exception. Thanks bro for being awesome with an idea, some paper and a pencil. weretwoboys@gmail.com 0406 638 990

mudo whitepaper: series #1 | www.mudomedia.com.au

01/09