CHRISTINE YEE

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

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.