Category: Best use or integration of user-generated content
Advertiser: IBM
Product/Service: IBM
Agency: UBM DeusM
Editor-In-Chief: Nicole Ferraro (Internet Evolution)
Community Editor: Kim Davis (Internet Evolution)
Managing Editor: Mary Jander (Internet Evolution)
Editorial Director: Terry Sweeney (UBM DeusM)
Managing Director: Stephen Saunders (UBM DeusM)
Director Of Design: Ken Surabian (UBM DeusM)
Content Ombudsman: Kevin Cramer (UBM DeusM)
Director Of Marketing Services: Amy Averbook (UBM DeusM)
Vice President Of Technology: Chris Williams (UBM DeusM)
Director - Strategy & Services: Angela Duarte (UBM Techweb)
Media placement: N/A - N/A - N/A
Campaign Description
There are no restrictions or regulations relating to branded content, as it appears within online communities such as Internet Evolution.
Effectiveness
Created for IBM, which wanted to brand itself as a thought leader in the IT industry, Internet Evolution is the ‘macrosite’ for news, analysis, and opinion about the future of the Internet and its impact on IT organisations and their employees. Each month the site attracts more than 250,000 unique visitors, generating more than 850,000 page views. Key to this level of engagement is the prodigious volume of high quality, multimedia, user-generated content.
Including:
• The ‘ThinkerNet’ blogosphere
http://www.internetevolution.com/bloggers.asp
• Broadcast-quality ‘IETV’ video blogs
http://www.internetevolution.com/ietv.asp
• The IT industry’s most popular live Internet radio show, ‘IE Radio’ http://www.internetevolution.com/ie-radio.asp
• ‘7 Days of Executive Education’, a unique online learning environment supporting thousands of executive students
http://www.internetevolution.com/lecture-calendar.asp
• User-generated message boards
http://www.internetevolution.com/archives.asp?threads=yes
• Live chats (sample):
http://www.internetevolution.com/messages.asp?piddl_msgthreadid=244746
Internet Evolution’s ThinkerNet provides insight from more than 400 prominent Internet experts. Over the past year, contributors have posted more than 1,675 blogs. In response, Internet Evolution readers post an average of 16,500 messages per month.
IETV contributes significantly to the mix of content on the site. IETV is a conglomeration of well-known Internet personalities, ThinkerNet contributors, the site’s editors, and video spotlighting IBM industry experts. Over the past year, Internet Evolution has produced 350 video blogs.
Internet Evolution’s Radio Shows, 7 Days of Executive Education, and live chats are 3 additional resources that utilise a new technological advancement – a mashup of streaming audio with an instant-messaging application, which allows Internet Evolution to deliver unprecedented levels of engagement among users.
Internet Evolution also employs social networking to drive engagement to its site. Internet Evolution’s 3 editors post content and participate in conversations on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn daily. The editors have created a list of best practices to stimulate engagement on its social networking sites – which have proved invaluable for community growth.
Implementation
80% of first time visitors to Internet Evolution arrive there from a blog referral by a colleague or friend. Over the past year Internet Evolution produced 1,675 blogs generating 2,313,252 views and 350 video blogs generating 555,118 video downloads. The content on Internet Evolution has been extremely well received, with the site’s readers posting 16,500 messages monthly.
Internet Evolution’s radio shows, educational programmes, and live chats have generated an additional 35,000 chat messages, and resulted in 5,000 new members joining the community. Internet Evolution’s social networking sites have a loyal global following totalling 13,103 on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Outcome
User-generated content and engagement on Internet Evolution continues to increase year after year. From April 2011 to March 2012 alone, Internet Evolution produced 1,675 blogs generating 2,313,252 views and 350 video blogs generating 555,118 video downloads. As reflected in its message board posts, Internet Evolution’s blogs have been extremely well received, with the site’s readers posting 16,500 messages monthly.
In the past year Internet Evolution’s radio shows, educational universities, and live chats have generated 35,000 chat messages and registered more than 5,000 new members.
Internet Evolution’s social networking sites have a loyal global following of participatory members that consists of 6,315 Twitter followers and 5,954 mentions over the past year; 6,168 Facebook ‘likes’ with 24,640 people talking about us; and 620 LinkedIn Members.
The engagement and content on Internet Evolution is second to none. From March 2011 to April 2012 more than 350 VPs, CTOs, and CIOs from organizations such as Bank of America, Citigroup, and the US Army reached out directly to IBM executives in the form of message posts on video blogs, live chats, and radio shows. IBM continues to remain impressed with Internet Evolution’s monumental creation of content and its highly qualified community of users.