DCI and Social Networking

[dckid80]

There are 2 large groups on Linkedin as well as several corps.

[2CoolVK]

I work in social media, specializing in online communities and leveraging existing channels (like facebook and twitter) for major brands and i'm always a little disappointed at how slow dci has been to pick this up. i sometimes wish i had the bandwidth to take them on as a pro bono client, but honestly, even if i had the time i wouldn't, i've worked with people in the past who weren't invested in the projects success and it tends to be a failure. still, if anyone knows of a drum corps that wants to improve their social media footprint i'd be willing to at least shoot them a couple of ideas.

The DCI facebook fan page has over 19,000 fans. That's slow to pick up on social networking? There is a link to facebook on every page of the dci.org site.

[lilbugleboy]

I work in social media, specializing in online communities and leveraging existing channels (like facebook and twitter) for major brands and i'm always a little disappointed at how slow dci has been to pick this up. i sometimes wish i had the bandwidth to take them on as a pro bono client, but honestly, even if i had the time i wouldn't, i've worked with people in the past who weren't invested in the projects success and it tends to be a failure. still, if anyone knows of a drum corps that wants to improve their social media footprint i'd be willing to at least shoot them a couple of ideas.

What exactly do you mean by improving social media footprint? I assume there's something more than just having a myspace page involved, could you explain a little more?

[mad_scotty]

The DCI facebook fan page has over 19,000 fans. That's slow to pick up on social networking? There is a link to facebook on every page of the dci.org site.

What exactly do you mean by improving social media footprint? I assume there's something more than just having a myspace page involved, could you explain a little more?

well, to use a good drum corps metaphor, think of having a very succesful facebook page as having a really, really good contra line. it's a good thing, but it's one piece among many, and all of them need to work well together to make a great season. to really leverage social media you need to have a good plan, a central focus to your social media efforts, a web of links to social media through multiple channels interconnected to your central property. you basically have three layers, your central property (a flagship community attached to your site), a network of associated sites you control (your branded facebook and myspace home pages and groups, your twitter feed, etc.), and a group of outside sites under others control that you are an active presence on (dcp).

to follow all of this it helps to have a good social media analytics and reporting tool like techrigy so you can track all the conversations being carried on about your product and identify active sites and networks you can link to and leading voices you can develop relationships with. properly used this gives you the ability to not only track and report but to plan and execute based on the business intelligence and evolving goals you develop for communicating with the consumer network you have built. this means regular planning sessions, and a really proficient social media manager who can execute plans, report data, and maintain communication in and out of your network on both the outward facing side (the network of individuals you are linked to) but the internal side, the network of internal decision makers who are the stakeholders in your campaign.

all of this gets expensive. i know our company has small scale consulting packages that start for under $10k, but if you throw in an SEO campaign for your central site, or an outsourced community/social media manager some of our big clients order bundled services plans that get well over $100k. anyways, on a smaller level, the point is that this takes some skill, some knowledge of social media channels and how you can manipulate them to build a more effective network, and a lot of legwork. and the point of all of this is for your brand to be sort of like a corps director, managing many disparate groups doing very different tasks and bringing them all together into a cohesive whole, many units performing a single plan in sync, and constantly evaluating, adjusting and improving on the fly. come to think of it, i don't know why i haven't tried to hire some drum corps vets as trainees yet, they would really get the relationship between small picture work and polish and the big picture show thing.

[dckid80]

Some good points ther Scotty but since $$$ are an issue maybe DCI has decided to let it's community, which is usually on the leading edge of technology, do the building for them.

The thing that is missing is some type management of the process but social networking defies that to a degree anyway.

I'm not sure what opportunity is lost.

[Newseditor44]

well, to use a good drum corps metaphor, think of having a very succesful facebook page as having a really, really good contra line. it's a good thing, but it's one piece among many, and all of them need to work well together to make a great season. to really leverage social media you need to have a good plan, a central focus to your social media efforts, a web of links to social media through multiple channels interconnected to your central property. you basically have three layers, your central property (a flagship community attached to your site), a network of associated sites you control (your branded facebook and myspace home pages and groups, your twitter feed, etc.), and a group of outside sites under others control that you are an active presence on (dcp).

to follow all of this it helps to have a good social media analytics and reporting tool like techrigy so you can track all the conversations being carried on about your product and identify active sites and networks you can link to and leading voices you can develop relationships with. properly used this gives you the ability to not only track and report but to plan and execute based on the business intelligence and evolving goals you develop for communicating with the consumer network you have built. this means regular planning sessions, and a really proficient social media manager who can execute plans, report data, and maintain communication in and out of your network on both the outward facing side (the network of individuals you are linked to) but the internal side, the network of internal decision makers who are the stakeholders in your campaign.

all of this gets expensive. i know our company has small scale consulting packages that start for under $10k, but if you throw in an SEO campaign for your central site, or an outsourced community/social media manager some of our big clients order bundled services plans that get well over $100k. anyways, on a smaller level, the point is that this takes some skill, some knowledge of social media channels and how you can manipulate them to build a more effective network, and a lot of legwork. and the point of all of this is for your brand to be sort of like a corps director, managing many disparate groups doing very different tasks and bringing them all together into a cohesive whole, many units performing a single plan in sync, and constantly evaluating, adjusting and improving on the fly. come to think of it, i don't know why i haven't tried to hire some drum corps vets as trainees yet, they would really get the relationship between small picture work and polish and the big picture show thing.

This is a good analysis, but it's like putting the cart before the horse. The wild card is knowing if DCI has actually included a social marketing campaign into their goals, and what advantage, if any, it would have in helping them increase their audience. If we are talking about growing an audience, it probably wouldn't help all that much. Sure it would be a good idea to have these tools, but to invest large amounts of money into analytics, SEO and strategy would probably be a mistake, at least at this point.

That's not to say that if I'm DCI I'm not interested in moving these things forward, but I think the money is better spent on consumer facing assets such as Fan Network.

And let's also be honest about analytics and social media. We can analyze the data al we want, but those of us in the social media field still don't know how to honestly quantify the findings to come up with an honest ROI. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc, are all easy to do and easy to maintain. I see no reason at this point for DCI to go much further. They have a great website which is well run during the season and does many of the same functions we're talking about. On top of it, pointing people to their website keeps the consumer focused on their site, which is what you want. Why do I want to point consumers to my Facebook page when it means a few more clicks to get back to my site where they can buy stuff?

Remember, as with any other business, the goal is for DCI to get you to use your credit card!

Now, if there is one organization that is missing the boat it's DCP. So many opportunities. I keep waiting for someone to jump all over it... and waiting.... and waiting....

Edited May 4, 2009 by Newseditor44

[Newseditor44]

Some good points ther Scotty but since $$$ are an issue maybe DCI has decided to let it's community, which is usually on the leading edge of technology, do the building for them.

The thing that is missing is some type management of the process but social networking defies that to a degree anyway.

I'm not sure what opportunity is lost.

I'm betting that DCI is very well educated on social media. Knowing who they have running the mareting and the websites, it is almost impossible for me to believe that this hasn't been debated and a strategy created. But why would DCI want to invest the money create a social network when the marketplace has already done it for them? Don't you think that using that money to enhance your own website and use it to feature video and audio is a much better business decision?

Like I said before, Facebook and Twitter can be done by anyone in the office, even an intern.

[Newseditor44]

thats a question that a lot of people debate in social media: what's more important, passion and knowledge of the brand and it's niche, or expertise in using the tools. i come down on the expertise trumps passion side---honestly, dci is populated with passionate fans and fmm's who don't know much about efective marketing techniques already, hiring another to fill a slot they need a ral expert in isn't going to create any real change.

OK, let's say we are the management at DCI, and someone has thrown out the idea of a social media marketing campaign. Before taking any action, I think there are some big questions that would need to be answered, such as:

Why is it so important for DCI to involve itself in social media?

What would the goal(s) be?

What is the target audience? (You can't begin to plan a campaign without knowing EVERYTHING about your target audience. This tells you which of the social media tools you will use and how you will use them)

What would a social media campaign do that the DCI website cannot?

What can DCI do that has not already been done for them by the online community?

What are the legal roadblocks? (Don't pass over this question, you will be suprised what your attorney's will say. This is the one that gives most companies and organizations problems)

What assets would we share? What assets don't we want to share?

Not saying these questions don't have answers, but you have to know the answers before you can justify starting any sort of marketing venture. Its easy to say "I think DCI should get on Facebook and Friendfeed and MySpace", but doing these things irresponsibly can cause more harm then good.

DCI has some very intelligent and very tech savvy folks working behind the scenes. They know about social media, and I know most of them use it daily (I have the proof on my Facebook page). If they haven't jumped head first into it yet, then there is a good reason.

Edited May 4, 2009 by Newseditor44

[mad_scotty]

Some good points ther Scotty but since $$$ are an issue maybe DCI has decided to let it's community, which is usually on the leading edge of technology, do the building for them.

The thing that is missing is some type management of the process but social networking defies that to a degree anyway.

I'm not sure what opportunity is lost.

fan based communities are a good thing, but to get real marketing traction you need to design a campaign and have either ownership or at least an active voice on all of the channels your brand is active in. otherwise its sort of like tossing seeds on the side of the road and hoping they will grow and thinking you're a farmer.

[mad_scotty]

I'm betting that DCI is very well educated on social media. Knowing who they have running the mareting and the websites, it is almost impossible for me to believe that this hasn't been debated and a strategy created. But why would DCI want to invest the money create a social network when the marketplace has already done it for them? Don't you think that using that money to enhance your own website and use it to feature video and audio is a much better business decision?

Like I said before, Facebook and Twitter can be done by anyone in the office, even an intern.

i wouldn't bet that at all. i work in social media, i own one of the top consulting firms in the space, i'm widely respected by my peers and i have a client book thatincludes fortune 100 clients. i run into social media pros who work full time in the space all the time who are astonishingly ignorant of even the most fundamental facts, techniques, tools, and operations. as far as interns go, sure, anyone can use a facebook page or twitter feed, but anyone can hold a horn and march, that doesn't mean they are going to make a top 6 corps straight out of middle school band. it takes planning and real skill to use these tools for professional branding.