This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Case Studies
You can easily integrate blogs and social networking sites because the various sites make it easy. However, social networks are not the only way to push people to read your blog. Your website also needs to integrate your different blogs and social networking sites. This isn’t only important, it’s vital.
Okay, so how do you go about it? Let’s look at a couple of examples from the real world and see what a small insurance company in northern California and Vancouver Film School are doing to stay connected online with their readership.
InsuranceMommy.com
Maureen Mulheren and Jenifer (Jen) Bazzani have been friends since sixth grade and have stayed in Ukiah, California, where they both grew up. So it’s probably no surprise that Maureen and Jen went into business together in 2010. Jen has more than 15 years of experience in the insurance industry (the last 12 years as an agent), and Maureen brought her marketing experience and became an insurance agent soon after she and Jen founded their insurance business. Two years later, InsuranceMommy.com is a small but fast-growing insurance agency that serves three counties in northwest California.
One goal of InsuranceMommy.com is to bring a more personal approach to the fairly dry subject of insurance. The name of the business appeals to women because, Maureen says, there is online research (see www.yoursmartmoneymoves.com/2010/07/08/who-pay-the-bills-men-or-women/) that says in Generation X households—those with members born between 1965 and 1979—more women than men pay the bills. And, says Maureen, “we notice that the majority of our clients are women.”
Therefore, Maureen and Jen strive to provide the personal touch not only because of their clientele but also because of their philosophy. “When you sell a service you are selling yourself,” Maureen explains, “and when it’s something like insurance that you have to buy, why wouldn’t you want to go to someone who you know?” Living in a small city of about 15,000 people also requires a more personal touch. “We see our clients at sporting events and at grocery stores,” Maureen says, “and they know as much about us as we know about them.”
So early in the life of their business, Maureen and Jen decided to communicate with their current and potential clients through Facebook and a weekly vlog on YouTube. Figure 3.24 shows the InsuranceMommy.com YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/insurancemommydotcom.
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Figure 3.24. The InsuranceMommy.com YouTube channel.
All the vlogs feature Maureen and Jen talking about insurance or whatever they feel like talking about that day. Some of the videos feature their outtakes...and that’s by design. “That’s what makes us unique,” Maureen says. “We aren’t stuffy or boring or perfect. We’re relatable and that’s what sells us.” Maureen adds that their clients notice their vlogs: “People say ‘you girls are too funny’ and if we don’t get the video done every week, they say ‘where’s this week’s video?’”
About 80 percent of business that comes to InsuranceMommy.com comes from the Facebook site. However, InsuranceMommy.com launched its new website in February 2012, as shown in Figure 3.25, and Maureen says she and Jen already receive 10 percent of their business from the site.
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Figure 3.25. The InsuranceMommy.com website with Maureen on the left and Jen on the right.
Maureen notes that InsuranceMommy.com still has a ways to go to get its online marketing where she and Jen want it. Although as of this writing the website has one recent vlog on the home page that people can view either on the site or on the YouTube channel, this vlog will be replaced with a welcome video and a link to the YouTube channel. More links between their Facebook page and YouTube channel are also planned so the website, Facebook, and YouTube assets are tightly connected.
The fast growth that InsuranceMommy.com is experiencing also makes Maureen excited about the future of their vlog. “We would love to have a regular ‘show’ on the local television station and have it filmed in their studio,” she says. At the rate Maureen and Jen’s online popularity is growing, it’s likely that dream will be fulfilled sooner rather than later.
Vancouver Film School (VFS)
The Vancouver Film School began blogging in 2006 at http://blog.vfs.com (see the VFS Blog in Figure 3.26) and has been using YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr to spread the word about its programs ever since.
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Figure 3.26. The Vancouver Film School blog.
Stephen Webster, Director of Marketing for VFS, says the school’s staff spent a lot of time deliberating what the blog was going to be because they knew there were many different processes that could be used in its development. Factors such as maintenance and consistency were key for VFS as well as the type of blog the school was going to create. The staff discussed a gossip blog, industry-focused blog, or a recruitment blog.
“We decided it was going to be a window into which somebody could look at VFS from any specific angle,” says Webster. “You could be from the industry, a prospective student, a parent of a student—you could be anybody that’s interested in exploring any facet of programming at VFS.”
For VFS, the blog is just one facet of the school’s overall marketing or “social” strategy. It combines the use of Twitter, a Facebook page, a Vimeo profile, and a YouTube channel. Webster states that the student portfolio channel on YouTube has grown into the largest of any academic institution in the world with close to 53,000 subscribers to date.
“We don’t put up sales or marketing pitches, or collateral,” Webster adds. “What we’re saying is if you’re considering another educational institution, and they say they’re as good as they are, our question is then ‘where are they and where are the results those programs are creating?’”
This “pull” strategy doesn’t push a sales pitch on the viewer. Webster says it’s his personal mission to debunk the myth that student work is amateurish and not of a high level of quality. The YouTube channel allows people to see for themselves what VFS students are capable of. “First and foremost we wanted to entertain people with our work. Then, create a sense of curiosity in them of ‘where did they do that, I’d like to do that, I’d like to go there.’”
Webster does admit that VFS did make mistakes early on. “I think it’s a classic trap for someone to fall into. We were treating all social media channels in the same way, just to push a message.” The staff then finely tuned the blog and social media plan with an understanding as to which tools are the best tools for specific opportunities. The interconnectivity of the blog and social networks since 2006 has led VFS to a 200 percent increase in prospective student inquiries, and the school noticed a 10 percent increase in market share. The key to the social strategy is being committed and focused on creating brand awareness, without a sales pitch. The staff upload a new video to YouTube every day of the week and post two to five blog posts each week while the school’s blogger nurtures the VFS conversation online.