Social Media Spotlight: Fadra Nally, Chief Blogging Officer at Social Dialect

I fell into the world of marketing back in 1999 during the dot com boom. I worked for a start-up company that developed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for major North American retailers. As a start-up, I was given the ability to move into a new field where I found my niche. With the company's acquisition by a Fortune 500 company the next year, I moved into corporate marketing where I played a role in Strategy & Planning.

 

After a successful run, I went back to a small company where I built a marketing department from the ground up with self-taught skills in advertising, design, and web development. I then moved to another start-up software company where I focused on Product Marketing and Project Management.

 

When I found myself unemployed after the economy shifted, I turned to the world of blogging and social media as a way to better network and build my marketing and writing portfolio. I found a community that shared so many of the same values and ideas and I knew I wouldn't find my way back to an office job anytime soon.

 

As I grew my audience in the blogging world and started working more regularly with brands, I found a big disconnect between the professionalism of bloggers and the expectations of brands. I developed the Social Dialect brand as a way to educate, connect, and consult with bloggers and brands and help level the playing field.

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• Any success story or powerful campaign you recently witnessed or participated in - as a blogger - to share?

Success is such a subjective term in the blogging world. From a blogging standpoint, a giveaway can garner thousands of hits but does it create an engaged reader? From a brand standpoint, a campaign can earn brand recognition but does it create consumer loyalty?

 

The best campaigns are those that are results-oriented with a clearly defined strategy. I recently worked with Fleishman-Hillard with Sani-Brand to create word-of-mouth about their products, educate the public about the health benefits of using their products, and rewarding bloggers, readers, and potential consumers with a contest.

 

Sani-Brand provided bloggers with a large wellness package including a large assortment of their products, as well as complementary products like vitamins and echinacea tea. Bloggers were invited to participate in a video chat with the President of Sani-Brand as well as Dr. Joanna Dolgoff to answer any questions about the product and the appropriate precautions for the cold and flu season.

 

Each blogger then hosted a contest with a large product giveaway and complete housecleaning for the holidays to one of their readers. Entry requirement was a photo or video showing a germy (i.e., a Sani-Brand moment).

 

Why was this campaign a success in my book? Bloggers were approached and pitched in a professional manner. Bloggers were given a great deal of information about the products and the ability to learn more. Bloggers were provided an incentive to get their readers to enter and Sani-Brand got its word of mouth along with plethora of "free" and real marketing images to use in their future campaigns (with the appropriate releases, of course).

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• Do you think Ragu really hates dads or are bloggers simply creating their next "social media disaster" case?

Gender stereotypes exist in marketing. As do racial stereotypes, age stereotypes, and geographic stereotypes. But stereotypes exist for a reason. There is usually a large percentage of consumers that fit into that stereotype. It's a marketing strategy and it's one that often works. Sometimes it backfires. More often than not, the surrounding controversy for a campaign starts as an opinion and then snowballs into a social media bandwagon. Even if the brand issues an "apology" if they deem it necessary, the amount of press coverage (positive and negative) is usually well worth the drama.

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• 50% of social media pros are scared about justifying "ROI and creating meaningful dialog" (Source: Shoutlet). How do you overcome those legitimate concerns in your consulting work and in general?

Social media pros should  be scared about justifying ROI. Many pros pass themselves off as experts and really simply focus on the social media implementation, as opposed to the overarching social media strategy. Without a social media strategy in place, justifying anything becomes a challenge. The business goals are going to vary so widely from small to medium to large businesses. For some brands, name recognition or product awareness might be the goal. That's the foundation for increased sales but the initial ROI may be found in fans or followers. For larger brands, the bottom line is usually dollars.

 

I start every consultation with an assessment of how mature the company's social media policy is and then develop specific goals based on where they are. The strategy is simply a means of accomplishing those goals. It's up to social media pros to educate clients on some of the new ways to define success in marketing, especially in the social media space.

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• Do you find G+ useful or useless?

I know I signed up for a G+ account but honestly, I think I've already filed this away with Google Wave and Google Buzz.

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• Give us your top 3 mistakes to avoid for brands working with bloggers on WOM campaigns

1. Mistake #1: Using the old review and giveaway model. I still see a large number of bloggers writing a simple review based largely on marketing copy and launching a giveaway that draws large numbers from online sweeps sites. The traffic is great but the engagement is minimal. They may see success in terms of numbers but it's questionable as to whether or not that translates into new consumers.
2. Mistake #2: I see brands not being selective enough when they choose the bloggers for their campaigns. There is still a lot of old school thinking in terms of traffic vs. engagement and which is more important. Of course, it absolutely depends on the campaign goals but strong writers with tight knit communities can have a more powerful voice that can carry their brand message much further and for much longer period.
3. Mistake #3: Brands often go wide instead of deep. It seems that many take the shotgun approach and flood the blogging market with product reviews, all at the same time. I'd like to see brands start to build more advocacy-type relationships with bloggers who can carry their message throughout a given period of time and become more of a marketing channel for the brand.

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• Would you recommend 4-5 people to follow on Twitter or G+?

@thebrandbuilder (for marketing brilliance), @mackcollier (for his #blogchat community), @scarymommy (as an example of creative mommy blogging and brand relationship)

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• Bonus: Share something you like (Quote, image, fact etc).

One of my favorite blogging images by @gapingvoid (Hugh MacLeod) because successful blogging requires brains and only a tiny bit of humility.

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