加载中…程阳：社交媒体时代的彩票与博客
(2012-07-11 16:01:26)
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程阳：社交媒体时代的彩票与博客
在社交媒体时代，彩票发现了博客的巨大价值。
It’s hard to believe that just a few short years ago, the word “blog” didn’t exist. Today, there are hundreds of millions of blogs in cyberspace, most simply providing a voice for anyone who wants to talk. But the corporate world has embraced blogging as a valuable marketing tool, helping to establish respect and trust, humanize the organization and raise brand awareness.
就在短短几年前，“博客”这个词还不存在，而现在成千上万的博客已经充满着信息空间，这简直不可思议。这里面，很多博客只是个人的闲言碎语，可以再商务世界中博客已经成为重要的市场营销工具，很多公司以博客贴近民众、提升品牌，从而获得更大的信任与尊重。
“A blog should be the hub of any digital content strategy,” said Compendium President Frank Dale, a keynote speaker at NASPL 2011 last fall in Indianapolis. He emphasized that today’s consumers want to interact with real people, not institutions, and blogs are a great way to make that happen.
There have been various reports that blogging is falling out of favor among some companies. An annual survey conducted by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth found that the use of corporate blogs is actually declining among the Inc. 500 (the top 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.). Earlier surveys pegged blog usage at 39 percent of these companies in 2008, 45 percent in 2009 and 50 percent in 2010. The 2011 survey reported a drop to 37 percent, with other social media tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, picking up the slack. The report received widespread publicity with an article in USA Today earlier this year.
However, many communications professionals are quick to point out that some companies give up on their blogs because they require more time and effort than they expected, or that their results were disappointing because they were simply not providing the right kind of content to keep consumers engaged.
“Blogs are most successful when...used as part of a larger social media strategy,” wrote Rosaline Raj of Creative Chaos, a communications and design firm, in response to the USA Today article. “Yes, you do have to continuously whip out fresh and engaging content, but blogs are an essential storytelling platform. You can visually share stories and engage with your customers ... in a way that simply cannot be done on Facebook or Twitter.”
“I think it makes our industry stronger. It makes our industry that much more relevant to our customers, to our potential customers or even to people who don’t like us.”
She advised companies to evaluate their blog content and to be sure to include customer ideas and suggestions in that content. She added that blog articles should share both successes and failures/challenges. “If told right, [a story of a mistake or challenge] can be a refreshing perspective with some lessons learned for your readers.” Raj added that it is also easy to take a third party story and add your own perspective for a great new blog article.
Several lotteries have discovered the magic of blogging, and while there have been a variety of approaches, they all have the same goals of engaging players, building conversations and humanizing the lottery organization. As the experts suggest, they use blogs as just one element of a strong social media strategy.
“Our blog has become the centerpiece of our social media platform,” said John Wells, the Missouri Lottery’s Digital Media Producer. “Information that we want to talk about goes up on the blog, and then we can link back to the blog through our other social media accounts.”
“You do need to be out there on several different platforms so you can reach the widest audience possible,” said Mary Neubauer, Vice President of External Relations for the Iowa Lottery. “I think it makes our industry stronger. It makes our industry that much more relevant to our customers, to our potential customers or even to people who don’t like us.”
There’s no “right” way to blog – for some lotteries, blogging was a first venture into social media; for others, blogs followed Facebook and/or Twitter accounts in order to provide more in-depth information and quality feedback. And as you can see by the following rundown, there are numerous ways lotteries have tackled blogs:
Missouri was the first American lottery to jump into blogging when it launched in April 2007. It remains the only one to use a fictional persona as the “voice” of the lottery in its blog – Captain Lotto. Although Wells is generally responsible for the blog, the persona offers some flexibility to juggle schedules if necessary, and also offers the potential for promotional efforts using the character. “If you can use an actual person, that’s great,” said Wells. “But not everybody, especially at the administrative level, will have the time to delve into social media. We’ve stuck with Captain Lotto since 2007, and the whole point of social media is to build trust and a loyal following. We have a very solid, very well-defined personality in Captain Lotto and I think it’s become a trusted character.”
The Iowa Lottery was next, beginning its blog in September 2008. In contrast to Missouri, Iowa chose to identify its blog with a specific employee – Neubauer took ownership of the blog from the outset and her photo is displayed prominently on blog pages. “It allows me to communicate with an entirely different voice than what is normal for a news release,” she explained. “I can show more of my personality through blogging and write with more of a first-person style. It’s a lot of fun to tell the story that way.”
The DC Lottery launched its blog, branded DC’s Best Bet! in April 2010. Various members of the Lottery’s communication staff have provided content, but a social media specialist came on board in early June. A unique feature of the blog is its inclusion of articles about events around the city, not just about lottery winners, games and promotions. “As a city lottery, we thought that a great way for us to stay connected to the community would be to create a place where people could come to not only learn about the lottery, but also to talk a little bit about what is happening around the city,” said Athena Hernandez, the Lottery’s Chief of Communications. “And people in the city know they are getting content from a source they can trust.”
Ohio’s blog began in June 2010, one of the Lottery’s first forays into social media. Its primary function is to promote products and share news, but one of the great aspects is the ability to include interesting things that aren’t necessarily mainstream news. Recent examples include a story about a man who had collected lottery tickets every day since it began in 1974, and an inside look at Scioto Downs, the state’s first racetrack VLT casino. “We don’t really follow any specific rules – we just want to put things out there that are fun for our players to look at,” said Communications Director Danielle Frizzi-Babb, who writes most of the blog content.
The Maryland Lottery took a somewhat different blog approach when it launched a new website in December 2010. The entire site is built on the WordPress blogging platform, and the blog, branded Sn@pshots Lottery News, is actually a hybrid news release/blog center for all the Lottery’s news and information resources. “I didn’t want to differentiate between news and blog,” said New Media Manager Jason Snapkoski. “I wanted a catch all location, a go-to place for everyone where they could read and interact with what we are doing. And we wanted to brand the content as Sn@pshots Lottery News rather than focus on a particular author.”
North Carolina began blogging in February 2011 with the idea that it would be an added benefit for its players’ club members, so for now most of the blog entries are found upon player login. Content includes everything from winner stories and new games to upcoming events and on-location activities. “We try to think of it as covering our own beat,” said Christopher Bushnell, the Lottery’s Social Media Specialist. “We’re looking to start conversations and create engagement opportunities.”
Although a relative newcomer to the social media space, the British Columbia Lottery Corp. has one of the most ambitious overall strategies, ultimately planning multiple blogs, each focused on specific topics. The first launched in July 2011, written by Director of Corporate Social Responsibility Paul Smith on the topic of responsible gaming. A second blog will launch this summer written by President and CEO Michael Graydon, who will address general business strategies and objectives. BCLC’s first player-oriented blog should launch this fall, targeted towards online poker players. “We wanted to go in knowing where we were headed and the audiences we were targeting,” said Susan Dolinski, Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs. “We may add more blogs as opportunities arise and there are conversations and topics we are passionate about.”
At this writing, Idaho is the most recent lottery to enter the blogging space, having just launched in May shortly after bringing in a new interactive marketing specialist. “Twitter is very much the ‘now’ space, and Facebook is good for quick thoughts and sharing,” said Public Information Officer David Workman. “But if you want more detail, to provide more information about a particular winner’s story, or about a promotion or other activity, then you end up creating a blog. We view any opportunity to communicate not only the message about our products, but also messages about our winners and the benefits that we provide to the state of Idaho, as a good opportunity.”
Blogging Tips
With several lotteries now having years of blogging experience, here are a few tips for lotteries considering taking the plunge, or for those who want to refine their current efforts:
“I wanted a catch all location, a go-to place for everyone where they could read and interact with what we are doing. And we wanted to brand the content as Sn@pshots Lottery News rather than focus on a particular author.”
“It’s all about keeping your platforms connected – if it’s on Facebook, you’ll also find it on Twitter and on our website; our blog is designed to be a critical component in all that”
• Don’t try to fool anyone. One of the worst things you can do is pretend the blog is being written by someone in senior management only to have it actually authored by others. “The one thing that people demand in the world of social media is authenticity, and this destroys your authenticity,” said Neubauer. “Once you’ve done that, you aren’t going to be able to get it back. I see some companies making very basic mistakes in that regard.”
• Be honest and open. As with the need for authenticity, it’s important for blogs to present information in a very frank and open way. “Blogs are less packaged, and allow us to keep our focus on transparency,” said Dolinski.
• Make it creative. Blog articles should be different from all of the other information going out. “I really work on making the blog a little more personal so that you really are having a conversation with people,” said Neubauer. “If you are just putting a news release on the blog, then it’s not something that people are going to want to read, because they can tell that you are not really having a conversation with them.”
• Go behind the scenes. People want to think they have inside information, so blog articles are a great way to take them into the inner workings of a lottery, to the extent possible.
• Be consistent and post regularly. Once you commit to a blog, you have to keep it up or your customers will quickly move on. Most lotteries post two or three times a week, depending on what is happening. It does take resources, and for that reason many lotteries have brought in social media or digital content specialists to handle all the new media channels.
• Keep people engaged with contests. Some of the blog posts that attract the most attention are those about various contests and promotions being conducted by a lottery. Without worrying about rules and regulations like you might find on Facebook or Twitter, lotteries are free to do whatever they want on their own blogs.
• Use plenty of visuals. Don’t just put words on your blog. The best blogs are accompanied by photos, graphics and videos. “We always try to use an image with our blog entry,” said Neubauer, “because human beings are visual – they don’t want to just see words, they want to see the stuff that goes along with it.”
• Keep it short. Neubauer has noticed that her own blog entries have gotten shorter over time, but not because she’s been spending too much time on them. “Peoples’ attention spans are getting shorter and shorter – so you don’t have to write a novel for every entry.”
• Make it visible. If you are going to the trouble of writing a blog, it should be visible everywhere – on your website, Facebook, Twitter, everything you do should link back to the blog and vice versa. It shouldn’t be hard to find, and it should definitely be visible on your home page. “It’s all about keeping your platforms connected – if it’s on Facebook, you’ll also find it on Twitter and on our website; our blog is designed to be a critical component in all that,” said Hernandez.
• Screen comments but allow most of them to post. Don’t be afraid of negative comments from your blog entries, as long as they aren’t vulgar. “The last thing we want to do is ignore or delete a comment – that just frustrates the player even further,” said Snapkoski. And if there is a rude or crude comment, just be polite to the author and explain why you are editing it or asking for a rew0rite.
• Learn from the feedback. Social media isn’t just about sending information out, it’s about building conversations with your customers. “If we aren’t learning from what’s coming back to us, then that’s a missed opportunity,” said Bushnell. “The feedback about the games, perceptions about things we do, all of that can guide our traditional efforts.”
• Don’t do it if you just don’t have the resources. Be realistic
• if you truly don’t have the resources to make a regular presence on all social media channels, and particularly with blogs, then just hold off until you do. “I believe that your company will end up looking worse if you do a bad job than if you do no job at all,” said Neubauer. “People will move past you if they see you are not really putting an effort in it.”
Regarding the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series last year...
“That was a big event on social media. You have to be somewhat flexible to take advantage of situations as they happen.”
Take Advantage of Every
Opportunity
One of the challenges every lottery faces is that a lot of the content is similar – stories of winners, for example – so creative approaches are needed. “It’s all about starting conversations,” said Bushnell. “If we can come up with angles, or get that conversation going in different ways, it helps keep the conversation from getting stale.”
And there are
the occasional occurrences where blogs have proven their worth
beyond a shadow of a doubt. Such was the case last winter when the
Iowa Lottery had the strange situation of a Hot Lotto jackpot
winner claiming the prize, then forfeiting it. “That certainly was
one of the most unusual situations that any lottery in the world
had ever seen,” said Neubauer. “We used our blog as one of the
breaking news places, where we were putting the information first,
because it was one of the quickest ways for us to get the
information out there.”
She added that the traffic on the blog soared during that time, and is happy to report that readership is still high months later. Leading up to January, the Lottery’s blog would receive anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 views a month, decent numbers, she thought, for a state like Iowa. But readership jumped to 18,000 in January and has remained in the 15,000 to 18,000 range every month since. “Those are really big numbers for us. They are telling me that people are reading what we are putting out there, and that’s fabulous to know. It means we are presenting the information in a way that people want to see it.”
Lotteries should also keep an eye out for unique opportunities that may present themselves from time to time, even if it means paying attention to after-hours developments. Wells noted that the St. Louis Cardinals were in the World Series last year, which they eventually won. It was an opportunity for the Missouri Lottery to be part of the conversations taking place when activity was at its peak. “That was a big event on social media. You have to be somewhat flexible to take advantage of situations as they happen.”
Measuring Success
Clearly the lotteries engaged in blogging find it valuable. But how do they measure their success, and just how important is a blog compared to other channels such as Facebook?
While blog traffic is one absolute measure of relative success, there are other, more intangible results that lotteries are looking for. As noted earlier, blogs allow a much greater level of detail than is available on most social media sites. They can tell stories that previously had no outlet – human interest stories, in side information stories and the like.
“Blogs are just one aspect of our broader social and digital media strategy. We judge success not by the number of likes and number of retweets, but we judge it by the quality of conversations that we are able to have with our stakeholders.”
“For us it’s about the quality of the conversation, not about the quantity,” said BCLC’s Dolinski. “Blogs are just one aspect of our broader social and digital media strategy. We judge success not by the number of likes and number of retweets, but we judge it by the quality of conversations that we are able to have with our stakeholders.”
With the ability to include reader comments, blogs serve that purpose of encouraging two-way conversations. While comments, or lack thereof, are not definitive indicators of whether a lottery’s blog is successful, they do provide some idea of how things are going. Most blogs allow anonymous comments, unlike Facebook, and as a result there might be a little more honest feedback.
For the Maryland Lottery, the Sn@pshots blog has proven to be the best of its social media efforts in terms of learning about players and what they want, said Snapkoski. “I think they see the anonymity that they can have and they express themselves a little more freely and with a little bit more passion. Don’t get me wrong, we still hear very passionate comments on Facebook, but there’s a little bit more interaction among players here on the website and they are little bit more open with comments and suggestions.”
Longtime blogger Wells made one interesting observation about the impact the blog has had in Missouri. “It may be anecdotal, but one of the ways we know that we’ve been successful in this is that I think we’ve seen a decrease in the amount of negative feedback that we get from players.” By putting so much information out there in a blog, players can find answers to their questions. “I think the lack of comments is maybe a sign that we are doing it right – that we are giving them enough information to reduce the amount of frustration and negative feedback that comes with not winning the lottery.”
And what about the answer everyone wants to know – does any of this help a lottery’s bottom line? Neubauer thinks the answer is yes, based on information gathered about Iowa Lottery players trying new games, cool promotions and the like because they heard about them on the blog or through other social media channels. “I think it has made a difference and I think you can draw a correlation between a successful blogging and social media program and successful sales overall. We’ve had some of our best sales years in the last few years, and I think that it’s in part because we are doing a better job of building a relationship with people than we did before.”
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