Likeable Media is a social media and word of mouth marketing firm. Headquartered
in New York City, it was founded in 2007 under the name of K Buzz. Likeable
Media has worked with over 200 brands and is recognized as one of Facebook top
preferred developer consultants. (The Resumator, 2011) Likeable Media
mission is: “to leverage social media and word of mouth marketing to create
transparent, engaged, responsive, likeable companies, organizations and
governments. To build a more likeable world” (Likeable Media, 2012) . Likeable Media
achieves their mission by providing several services that can enhance the
marketing presence of their clients; services such as personalized social media
management, providing social media audits for their clients, develop social
media driven ads and finally providing corporate training for their clients to
take control of their social media presence. As a marketing firm that was
founded on the value of using social media as a driver for success, the firm
feels that it is important to use different forms of social media in order to drive
consumer engagement for their clients. One tool that Likeable Media uses in
order to achieve this engagement is Facebook. Throughout this case study I will
explore Likeable Media Facebook Strategies and how they use Facebook for both
their business purposes and for building marketing strategies for their
clientele.
As Brian Murray, Director of Talent at
Likeable Media, once told me in an interview, “our business is social media and
Facebook is just one of our tools” (Murray, 2012) . Likeable Media uses
Facebook in two ways. The first is to engage the general public and the second
is to integrate Facebook into their clientele marketing strategies. As a tool
for helping Likeable engage with the general public the firm has developed four
Facebook pages: Likeable Media (Likeable Media, 2012) , Likeable Russia (Likeable Russia, 2012) , Likeable Istanbul (Likeable Istanbul, 2012) and Likeable Local (Likeable Media Local, 2011) . These pages have
several objectives; the first is that they promote the brand image of Likeable
giving users the ability to learn about the firm from just the actual Facebook page
itself, the second is to give users and fans free knowledge tools about social
media; on how they can leverage the power of social media in their lives and in
their businesses. For example: just a few days ago, the brand posted a status
and link on their Likeable Media (USA) page about Who’s more valuable to your
brand – influencers or average users. Three out of the four pages of Likeable
are centered in the United States, Russia and Istanbul, Turkey. This was done
to replicate the global locations of the business as well. The last page
Likeable Local was designed specifically for a new service that Likeable Media
will be promoting in the next couple of months, “Likeable Local”. A service
designed for small businesses and vertical markets.
When used as a tool for
integration into Clientele marketing strategies. Facebook is considered as the primary tool
when developing their strategies. In a presentation for McGraw Hill, Likeable
Media CEO Dave Kerpen discusses the Facebook strategies they want to implement
for their clients; the typical strategy here is to: (Kerpen, 2012)
1. Bring awareness and education of a brand
2. Drive people to be engaged online with the
brand by providing offerings
3. Push them to act (ie. Purchases)
4. Repeat the process (offerings à
Engagement à Repeat)
An example of how this model works can be seen through one of Likeable
Client: Things Remembered. Things Remembered is the nation’s largest retailer
of personalized gifts. (Things Remembered, 2012) . According to Things
Remembered, “based on existing data, (they) found that early engagement was
essential in increasing the lifetime value of their customers.” The company at
that point wanted to target brides to be, citing that the aspect of wedding
planning is a significant experience for women and men, even to the point where
planning for a wedding begins through Facebook posts. So in order to reach out
to these couples, Things Remembered and Likeable developed an exclusive summer
event for engaged couples at a few local stores. “Attendees received a free
personalized gift, a private shopping experience, and expert advice by simply
showing their “engaged” Facebook status via their smartphones or a print-out.” (Likeable Media, 2012) . As a result of this
Things Remembered was able to determine that individuals who attended these
events became repeat customers, averaging out an additional $44.08 more in
additional sales per person and a determined 670% ROI.
Likeable Media
(Corporate) Facebook strategy is geared towards presenting the company as a
firm that has superior expert power in the field of social media, (defining
them as the expert in social media engagement). Every 8 out of 10 posts on Likeable’s
Social Media pages relate directly with providing tips for the best practices
in Social Media. When examining the strengths of their strategy, they are
several things that should be pointed out. First, Likeable Media Facebook Pages
offers an amazing amount of engaging content. From articles, videos/photos, a
place to leave recommendations and even links to job opportunities, if you want
to learn about Social Media their Facebook page offers some great resources.
Second, The page is well staffed to the point where the admins of their page
directly engage others; offering feedback, comments and even complements.
Finally, the content on the page develops a certain brand identity, for example
any facts provided by the company are always in orange and most content on
their page comes from their company’s blog.
Likeable Media Facebook
also has some weaknesses. The first is that don’t provide engaging content on
their pages that relate to clients. The most that you see on their main
Facebook pages about their clients are under the “Likes” portion of the page. Likeable Media likes their client’s pages but
doesn’t post anything about their success stories. In this case, many people
may not even know what Likeable is actually doing. The other two weaknesses
relate to Likeable Local and the marketing of that service, I especially wanted
to point out this because it appears that Likeable is trying to corner the
small business market with this new service. The problem however is that their
Likeable Local Page is a virtual ghost town, there is no content on the Page.
The final thing is that there is no discussion on the other active Facebook
pages on what Likeable Local will be moving forward, there is no real buzz.
As for Likeable Media Clientele
Facebook Strategy, it would be difficult to go into every single strategy they
have implemented over the years. Therefore I will examine their overall
strategic approach. When we examine their strengths, the firm has done a great
job in applying engagement tools for their clients and has apply tools that are
directly related to their client’s mission and goals. In the example of Things
Remembered the company applied this method with engaged couples and it worked
well. When it comes to weaknesses it’s hard to determine that fairly without a
full analysis of a good portion of their clients. My recommendation, however,
will not discuss enhancing this part of their Facebook strategy but will rather
discuss how these two Facebook strategies can be linked together into one
overall strategy.
As mentioned before, it
appears that Likeable has defined two separate strategic ways in which Facebook
is used within their company. In my opinion, however, the goal should be to
link both strategies together. Linking their strategies together would mean
that engagement tools that were successful with their clientele could carry
over in promoting the brand and the services of Likeable Local. I believe this
can be done through applying some changes to the current Facebook pages, these
changes are centered around “marketing Likeable on other pages” and “defining
what is Likeable Local”. The following are my recommendations:
1. Define “Likeable Local” – the definition provided on the Likeable Local page is that it is a “Facebook
marketing solution for small businesses and vertical markets”. The Facebook
page shouldn’t remain blank. Even if the company hasn’t fully figured out the
entire process. The page should have content that could define some of the
things the new service will provide toward small businesses.
2. Market Likeable Local on the Likeable Media (USA) page – once content has been generated, promote
the service on the Likeable Media USA Page. This could generate a buzz in the
service.
3. Feature your Client’s Success Stories – promote as status updates: clients
success. Give users the ability to understand the value of social media through
hearing the success of other companies.
4. Develop cross marketing relationships with your clients – at the present moment Likeable is
strategically focused on separating brands and gearing their strategies to
their client’s needs. But perhaps it would be beneficial for Likeable if many
of their clients generate content that
promotes Likeable. Such as posting a status about Likeable on their Facebook
pages.
Likeable Facebook
Strategies are geared towards two distinct groups, the individual and the
organized company. Therefore their strategies are vastly different since they
target different groups. In the future however I think Likeable needs to focus
more on the small business. It is therefore important that they develop a
strategy that plays on the strengths with their current clients and within
their personal Facebook community. By developing a strategy that is centered in
driving fans from other corporate sites to the Likeable media Facebook pages,
we hoping that this reverse flow of engagement can help enhance Likeable Media
business.
Works
Cited
Digital Buzz Blog. (2011, January 18). Facebook
Statistics, Stats & Facts 2011 | Digital Buzz Blog. Retrieved November
10, 2012, from Digital Buzz Blog Web site:
http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/facebook-statistics-stats-facts-2011/
Kerpen, D. (2012, October). Why It Pays to Be Likeable
(McGraw-Hill, Oct. 2012). Retrieved November 1, 2012, from SlideShare:
http://www.slideshare.net/davekerpen/why-it-pays-to-be-likeable-mcgrawhill-oct-2012
Likeable Istanbul. (2012). Likeable Istanbul.
Retrieved November 12, 2012, from Likeable Istanbul Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/likeableistanbul?ref=ts&fref=ts
Likeable Media. (2012). Likeable Media. Retrieved
November 12, 2012, from Likeable Media Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/LikeableMedia?ref=ts&fref=ts
Likeable Media. (2012, November). Our Story | Likeable
Media. Retrieved November 13, 2012, from Likeable Media Web site:
http://www.likeable.com/about-us/our-story/
Likeable Media. (2012). Things Remembered Likeable.
Retrieved November 10, 2012, from Likeable Media:
http://www.likeable.com/case_study/things-remembered/
Likeable Media Local. (2012, May 10). Likeable Media
Local. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from
https://www.facebook.com/likeablelocal?fref=ts
Likeable Russia. (2012). Likeable Russia. Retrieved
November 12, 2012, from Likeable Russia:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Likeable-Russia/416019358446250?fref=ts
Murray, B. (2012, April 1). Internship Interview for
Likeable Media. (K. James, Interviewer)
The Resumator. (2011). The Resumator. Retrieved
November 10, 2012, from The Resumator Web site:
http://www.theresumator.com/case-studies/cs_likeable.pdf
Things Remembered. (2012, November). About Things
Remembered. Retrieved November 10, 2012, from
http://www.thingsremembered.com/custserv/custserv.jsp?pageName=About
