Bill Ayers

CASE STUDY: Operation Ajax Interactive Graphic Novel CUSTOMER: Cognito Comics OBJECTIVE: Design, build, document and hand off a social media plan and ongoing system to grow a community around Cognito Comic’s newest product -Operation Ajax. 1 INTRODUCTION o Social Media is only a tool, just as print advertising is a tool. But used properly it can be immensely powerful and profitable. o The core focus of what I do for clients is create, document and manage systems to build community, and manage online reputation, two of today’s biggest business assets. o Using social media properly can be exponentially cost effective and profitable especially when compared to traditional mass media. 2 BACKGROUND OF PROJECT o Initially Cognito was looking for someone to manage their Facebook page. After a consultation they realized the high value of a social media management system that can function and grow purposefully over time. They also learned that social media is not simply setting up accounts with channels such as Facebook or Twitter, but really a system based on goals and strategies to obtain specific desired results. 3 CHALLENGE o Cognito faced several challenges. First of all they were a brand new startup and completely unknown. Therefore the product was completely unknown also. On top of that Operation Ajax* is an obscure topic ignored or even denied by most Americans. o Another challenge was their lack of clear goals. Like many companies they knew they wanted to have a larger presence and sell their product, but had not fully quantified and articulated these goals in way that could be communicated or measured. 4 APPROACH -- Considering all of these factors we moved forward in the following manner. o We started with an all day discovery session to delve out goals, strategies and initial tactics and milestones. After setting growth and sales goals for the first twelve months we determined three strategies to follow: Identify and connect with product evangelists. o People who already love the product and are telling everyone about it. Identify and connect with topic experts. o Bloggers, celebrities, writers, etc. Identity and connect with people currently discussing the topic. o People on social media channels. o Next we mapped out the tools needed and how they would work together. o o Once the basic map was agreed upon we started building the pieces of the system, testing and tweaking as we went. When all the pieces were set and working we began tracking visitors, conversations, evangelists, experts and conversions. While tracking these pieces we observed the language used to discuss the topic and used these words and phrases to set our SEO in order to improve it more and more overtime. The main tools we used for this elaborate tracking process included:  Socialmention.com  Facebook Insights  Hootesuite.com  Su.pr  Google Analytics o o o Observing how things were now functioning we systematized all possible steps  We used the following tools to automate as much as possible: Socialmention.com Su.pr Google Alerts  We also set up ongoing task lists, split up into daily, weekly and monthly categories. Next we documented all of the systems using Google docs. This allows full access for all necessary parties at Cognito. The final step was simply handing off the management of the system during a meeting with the new community manager. 5 RESULTS o Cognito now has a robust social media platform that finds, connects with and communicates with all interested parties. o Cognito now has an online community that acts as a 3-way communication tool: Consumer to Business Business to Consumer Consumer to Consumer o We ended on time, on budget, and met all milestones. o Cognito can now communicate with, engage with, and quickly learn from their market allowing them to be agile and responsive, thus lowering their marketing costs and raising their ROI. LND, inc. William-All rights reserved - LND, inc. 2011 *Operation Ajax was the official CIA code name for the US - Britain joint operation that caused the 1951 governmental coup in Iran.