CHRISTINE YEE

Content Marketing. Writing. Social Media. SEO. Digital PR

The influence and power of mom bloggers cannot be denied. They write content from their own experience on a variety of different topics from food recipes, DIYs, household tips and tricks parenting advice, product recommendations and their own personal musings.

Legions of other women often find this type of content to be helpful for their own lives. Thus passionate and dedicated mom bloggers are able to attract huge followings. When it comes to product and brand reviews, popular moms are not only able to share their message across a huge reach, their audience members trust and often follow their recommendations. 

According to one article by PTPA (Parent Tested Parent Approved) media, 66% of moms attribute word-of-mouth as their most trusted source of information. 81% of U.S. consumers trust advice and information presented in blogs.

In 2012, BlogHer conducted a questionnaire study on 37 million readers and found that 61% of U.S. online consumers make purchase decisions based on information and opionions found on blogs. 

A marketing site called Punch Bowl shares other interesting insights about the power of mom bloggers.

• In 2013, the number of mom bloggers was estimated to be about 4.2 million. 
• On average, these bloggers mention brands as often as 73 times a week
• 60% of mom bloggers state that they regularly write about brands their either love or hate
• Established mom bloggers are able to achieve 20,000 or more views per month 

User, Scorpio posted this "Valid ONLY At The Following Save-A-Lot Locations

Charlotte (Freedom Dr.), Lexington, Shelby, Kannapolis, Fayetteville, NC And North Charleston, SC

Title of post: "New Save-A-Lot Stores Mark Opening"

This was written by Jen Aronoff who writes for the Charlotte Observer

The field of cosmetic procedures is extremely competitive. High bids are placed for keywords associated with anti aging treatments like Fraxel laser and Botox. 

At Fabric, a smaller project that I managed was to create, update, optimize and test Google Adword ads for three Los Angeles physicians who specialized in cosmetic skin procedures.

Mary Lee Amerian MD

Mary Lee Amerian is a leading dermatologist in Los Angeles who provides custom skin treatments for her patients. She has been voted as one of the "Best Doctors in America" since 1996. Additionally, she has also been featured on the show Ten Years Younger.

www.maryleeamerian.com

Michael Persky MD

Dr. Persky is an expert in Fraxel laser. He also specializes in rhinoplasty and regards his practice as both an art and a science.

Dr. Persky has made regular appearances in the media, including a role as a life change expert on the television show, Extra. www.drpersky.com

David Rahimi MD

Dr. Rahimi specializes in a wide range of leading cosmetic procedures to help his patients look younger. Many of these treatments help to regenerate collagen beneath the skin surface. In addition he also developed a mini face lift procedure called the Tuliplift which gives more natural looking results. www.foreveryoung.net

Client Challenges

Our doctors want to utilize online marketing to reach new patients.

Although their sites are SEO optimized, their keywords are used by all their competitors. Other strategies were needed to supplement SEO. However the budget to develop their online presence on an organic level was limited to content development.

In this particular context, traffic and conversions are separate challenges. Volumes of unique site visitors per month does not necessarily translate into new patients.

With these constraints, a more PR based approach was developed to reach new groups of potential patients. Online marketing through regular PPC tactics ran in parallel to this primary strategy.

Content and PR Recommendations

The content on all three of the doctors' sites were characterized by being very technical. Content recommendations were made in the following areas. The ideal objective was to emulate the look and feel of mainstream women's magazines and provide a more engaging experience for site visitors

• Diet and nutrition for the skin
• Recommended makeup tips
• Celebrities who share a common age or ethnic group as the target audience members
• Fashion
• Hair
• Beauty philosophy
• Self Esteem

Gathering and developing this information required structured collaboration with the doctors which proved to be a very time efficient way of addressing the need for quality content.

Additionally, the use of photography on a more frequent scale was also recommended to improve the overall aesthetic of the sites. Although content is commonly thought of as written posts, visuals also contribute to the overall site experience for the end user.

Google Adwords

High traffic keywords associated with cosmetic procedures is instrumental in reaching large numbers of internet users who are performing searches based on them.

However, when clients are paying per click, these keywords can cost them a lot of money if users are not serious about opting for these procedures.

Solution

Instead of targeting high volume keywords, effort was spent in researching key word phrases that users would type in to find solutions to specific skin issues. This provides a direct bridges between what targeted users need and what our clients offer.

Results

Previously, the average click through rate (across campaigns) was less than one percent. For example, in July, the average click through rate was 0.71%

The keyword phrase strategy, described above, produced a much higher average CTR (2.0%) for the month of November 2009

Reaching Specific Ethnic Markets

Dr. Rahimi specializes in cosmetic procedures for different ethnic groups.

• Asians
• Hispanics
• African Americans

Most people are not aware of the different skin needs that ethnic women have. They are more prone to scarring and discoloration from conventional cosmetic procedures and require an anti aging specialist who can design custom treatments for their skin types.

Communicating with each ethnic group required the following areas to be addressed through the site content.

• skin characteristics and structure
• aging patterns
• recommended care regimens
• makeup color tips
• celebrities of the same ethnicity

Reaching women in these groups required PR outreach with niche magazines such as Audrey, Latina, and Ebony.

PR Outreach: Time Broadcasting

Many lucrative opportunities to reach new patients exist outside the internet realm. For example, modeling agencies have their online sites. However networking efforts rely more heavily on personal contacts and attending events at local venues, as opposed to social media strategies.

Physicians realize the importance of networking with models and professionals in the entertainment industry. However these opportunities (in the form of functions and events) are offered to them at a high cost, with very little return.

Time Broadcasting

An independent television network called Time Broadcasting targets the Iranian community in Los Angeles.

They expressed interest in a reality show concept featuring our clients, Dr. Persky and Dr. Mary Lee Amerian.

A basic proposal, depicting a simple show concept was drafted and approved by the CEO. The premise of the show would be to discover effective, minimally invasive procedures that yield real results. It would also interest audience members to learn how modern science offers ways to manipulate skin structure to reverse aging signs. Most people are only familiar with household terms like Botox and facelifts.

Benefits

The Iranian community is an affluent market segment. Beauty is an important aspect of their culture. Science is also highly valued as well. Parents often encourage their children to pursue degrees in science and careers in medicine. Because of this, the partnership with Time Broadcasting served as an ideal solution for Dr. Persky and Dr. Mary Lee Amerian.

Fabric Interactive was selected as one of the vendors to assist with the marketing for IKEA's Easy to Assemble web series. 

Our developers and designers worked on creating a page for the official website of the show and building a voting box feature.

Within the storyline, the characters, Illeana Douglas and Justine Bateman engage in a competition with one another, vying for the coveted title, Coworker of the Year. And with the voting box feature, fans would be able to vote for either Illeana or Justine and thus influence how the rest of the story unfolds.

Additionally, a small division of Fabric's internal team focused on using PPC strategies to drive traffic to the official website for the show.

My role was to balance these efforts by developing initiatives by encouraging organic traffic to the site. We were given a rather limited time frame. Therefore, it made the most sense to leverage other sites with a large base of active users to cultivate organic interest in the webisode.

Strategies Employed

(1) Identified and contacted pockets of IKEA fans/ groups, requesting the site's voting box page to be shared with fellow members. Also encouraged these individuals to write blog posts, expressing their opinion of the show, the characters etc. 

(2) Assigned the task of writing unique, highly personalized blog posts (using Blogger.com to Fabric's interns (e.g. what they liked about the show, favorite IKEA styles and products, opinions about the characters, Illeana Douglas and Justine Bateman, favorite scenes and lines and why these were chosen as favorites.) This content was shared with IKEA fans/groups to help encourage the process of writing their own blog posts. The blog post written by the interns were also posted on social sharing news sites. 

(3) Posted video links, website pages and uniquely written blog posts to popular social sharing sites. These included: Yahoo Buzz, Propeller, Stumble Upon, Reddit and Digg

I initiated and developed Fabric's first internship program to help provide the necessary support for a growing set of  objectives needed for our marketingn projects. I relied on sites like Craigslist as well as referrals from our own internal team to establish a team of six interns. Additionally, I developed a work flow process which not only required the interns to perform required tasks, but also to record their daily activities and progress. I worked to design an overall experience that would allow the interns to gain valuable reall world experiene in online marketing for the purpose of helping take their resumes to the next level.

The growth of Fabric's marketing projects required additional support. Dogasaur's community of registered members was growing rapidly, largely due to our very successful Facebook ad. Dog lovers were very receptive to participating in a community of like minded pet lovers. However,  once registered, it was important for the brand to take a proactive approach in engaging new members, making them feel at home, introducing them to the site's offerings, encouraging them to make friends and even create their own content. These types of activities were essential for optimizing page views and the performance of the site's existing content.

One of our interns wrote a post about Ellen Degeneres and her dog food brand, HALO. This content was picked up by Ellen's company who linked to the blog from their site, citing Dogasaur as one of their media sources. 

The interns were also able to gain hands on experience in community enagement and management, learning about the human to human dynamics of online communities which extend far beyond the point  of signing up and registering.

Additionally, Fabric had signed on to contribute to the marketing and awareness for the new webisode series, Easy to Assemble, starring Ileanna Douglas and Justine Bateman. Our agency was in charge of building a voting box, allowing fans to vote for Ileanna's character or Justine's character, ultimately deciding on how the storyline would develop. Furthermore, we also assisted with the show's pay per click ad campaign to increase viewership and also to enhance the organic reach, awareness, enthusiasm and engagement for the show. The interns contributed to these initiatives by creating original blog posts and submitting them to social sharing sites such as: Stumble Upon, Digg, Reddit, Propeller and Yahoo Buzz. 

After reaching the 3000 membership mark, one of Dogasaur's main objectives was to optimize page views in order to create a lucrative, active and thriving environment for advertisers to showcase their brands on the site. 

Therefore,  engagement was very important for encouraging members to spend more time on the site and view as much content as possible when logged in. We wanted to encourage actions such as:

• sharing media
• cultivating friendships
• active participation in the discussions section (Ask Dogasaur)
• making comments and rating the available content

Thus instead of relying on social media postings, new page views resulting from Facebook ads and other standard methods, we were able to further augment content viewership by leveraging the growing community of registered Dogasaur members. 

One of my personal passions is the idea of making the world a better place by helping people and animals in need.

As an animal lover myself, I was inspired to create a digital PR charity campaign to bring even greater awareness to the Dogasaur brand. However, due to internal  issues with the direction of the company agency I was working at, this created the inability to develop this initiative further.

Nonetheless, I would love the opportunity to work with new brands to strategize and develop charity based campaigns along similar lines. 

Basic Concept  of the Paw It Forward Campaign

I intiated a brainstorming process between Fabric and the Dogasaur team. The site's owner came up with the name, Paw It Forward. 

I worked with our graphic designer to develop a promotional page for potential corporate sponsors.

The campaign concept I developed was inspired by Pet Postcard Project. Instead of cards, participants would submit photos or videos depicting small acts of kindness for dogs in need. For each submission received, a dog food company will donate a specified amount of dog food to charity.

Gorilla Nation ( the online advertising company working with Dogasaur) really liked the Paw it Forward concept and started discussions with following corporations for sponsoring the food donations:

Rather than simply connecting with dog lovers in general, I felt it was essential for Dogasaur to go a further step beyond and connect with influential individuals within this niche group. 

Theoretical Reasoning

According to network theory, hubs serve the function of connecting the entire network. 

in social networks, hubs are equivalent to influential individuals. Connecting to influencers therefore helps expand a brand's offerings to additional groups of niche followers. 

With the Dogasaur brand, influencers included:

• innovative canine businesses
• authors
• media figures

Creating thoughtful, quality content was an important & cost effective part of Dogasaur's development. The biggest rewards were new opportunities that resulted from the brand perception that we had developed.

Halo Foods, posted a link to our site after one of the intern (from the internship program I developed at Fabric) wrote a post about Ellen Degeneres as the co-owner of the company. The marketing department featured this piece of content on their site as one of their media sources.

Advertisers and ad networks are working with Dogasaur on revenue generating opportunities. This decision was not only based on traffic statistics. Dogasaur's image as an innovative and engaging brand played a significant role as well. Gorilla Nation is collaborating with us to promote our charity campaign to major corporate sponsors 

White at Fabric Interactive, my main project involved growing and engaging a community of dog lovers through a start up brand called Dogasaur. When I first started, the social network commuity site had just been launched after an extensive development and design phase. Here is a more in depth overview of what I achieved for the brand while I worked on this project (March 2009- December 2009)

Challenges and Objectives

• Lack of continuous dynamic content. This type of material is necessary for continuous engagement with target audience members. Originally the site was intended to be a business directory with a social network component. The content was intended to have the same affect as woot.com by mimicking its humor and appeal. The only existing content was limited to descriptions of quirky, unique dog products. 

• Initially, there was no strategy in place for helping Dogasaur to reach their monthly targeted traffic volume, aside from SEO.

• Overall, there was a strong need for Dogasaur to define their brand personality to appeal to include a stronger lifestyle element. to better engage their niche of dog lovers. 

• The client's business model depended heavily on page views, registrations and the overall growth of their community. 

Solution #2 - Growing Conversations and Community on Twitter

The CEO of Fabric recommended maintaining a daily schedule of 10 tweets. Although this might seem to be a high number, it was quite effective for growing our followers and building a lively level of engagement with other dog lovers on Twitter. 

Initially, the brand had a very minimal number of followers (i.e. about 10-15 at the beginning). To build this base number, I identified prime users to manually follow (i.e. individuals who regularly tweeted about dogs with a small to moderate number of followers) and was able to achieve the reciprocation that I wanted. 

In order to fulfill the objectie of ten daily tweets, I carefully researched and selectively included of curated content pieces ( in addition to original content on the site) to engage the interests of general dog lovers. This included:

• articles on training, feeding
• sentimental articles about dogs in need and heroic dog stories
• celebrity dog stories
• DIY dog food recipes

Solution #3 - Facebook Ads and Leveraging Social Experience To Grow Community Members

I made the recommendation to the client to make use of Facebook ads. Prior to this, the initial strategy for growing the community was to seed links on dog sites. But this was a slow approach. And there were many limitations imposed by these sites which prohibited this type of activity. 

Due to the aggressive traffic goals that the clients wanted to achieve, I proposed that using Facebook ads was a more efficient approach. The client conceded and set aside a conservative budget. 

I wrote several options for ad copy. And I worked with the lead project manager to A/B test the performance of the different ads. One performed outstandingly well, "dog lovers wanted." It implied socialization, as opposed to promoting purchases. And this proved to be a highly effective approach to take. 

Between March 2009- October 2009, the number of registered users had grown to over 3000 members on Dogasaur.com. 

Additional Results Metrics

Applying ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) Theory 

The metrics above support the use theories like Applied Behavior Analysis to create more reliable strategic decisions. Each KPI mentioned inherently represents a specific human behavior:

(1) follows - dog lovers on Twitter can choose to hit the follow button on Dogasaur's profile

(2) site visits - people can decide to click through the Dogasaur link to see what the site is about

(3) page views - individuals who either have a dog, or simply like dogs (future owners) can be motivated to browse through the articles and pages on the site. 

(4)  registrations - dog enthusiasts can take the time to sign up and become a member of the site. 

The Applied Behavior Analysis framework is made of three parts:

(1) Antecedent

(2) Behavior

(3) Reinforcement

With each campaign that I work on, I create thoughtful strategies that continuously incorporate the element of positive reinforcement to motivate desired forms of behavior. 

The main challenge of ABA is to identify specific and relevant rewards that appeal to the unique sentiments and preferences for a particular individual or group. Additionally, it is important to offer rewarding experiences on an ongoing basis and to introduce more potent forms of reinforcement at strategic times. 

In this particular case, inspiring articles, images, videos and news that help dog lovers feel a greater sense of fulfillment and community for their lifestyle was essential for bringing about these results. 

The numbers achieved as well as the relationship we developed with the Animal Planet brand (through our affiliation with the 2008 Groomer of the Year, Artist Knox) all contributed to Dogasaur's ability to sell their first adverstising spot on the site within just a few short months.