Background

YUDU Media was created in 2001 as a UK-based bureau service that publishes digital versions of printed publications. In April, 2008, it launched YUDU Freedom as a free self-publishing tool that allows content publishers of all sizes to upload their own files in order to create stunning digital publications, effectively bringing digital publishing to the masses. In September of 2008, YUDU launched an enhanced free self publishing community as well as an upgraded service that provides additional functionality over and above the free service, including additional multi-media options and a sales engine for promoting and selling publications.

Situation

As part of its launch, YUDU wanted to focus on building awareness online through blogging and social media. It has identified several industries to which the application would be appealing and needed help in generating both awareness among, and traffic from, these groups. It had dabbled in social media by opening accounts through various services, but was unable to generate much buzz through its efforts.

Objectives

• Build awareness among targeted groups
• Drive users to upload publications to YUDU.com
• Drive users to upgrade to YUDU Plus
• Increase mentions, or “buzz”, about YUDU online

Target Audience

• Small Business Owners
• Information Industries
• 30-40 Years Old
• Less than 10 Employees
• Thought Leaders
• Early Adopters
• “Citizen Experts”

Strategies

• Develop a digital marketing strategy that identifies target market, key messages, a positioning statement, and a central cause
• Utilize social media tools to become an ePublication that shares content around a cause
• Build the brand by generating buzz through the social web and making adoption costs as low as possible
• Provide something of value (blog coverage, information, links, answers, comments, trackbacks, tags, tools, etc.) in exchange for a reader’s time and attention
• Create transparent feedback mechanisms to provide ample opportunity for users to offer feedback
• Focus efforts around specific unique content in order to drive usage and familiarity with YUDU
• Create a community through online and offline events

Tactics

• Created a cause around “giving experts a voice” along with a positioning and a simple, repeatable message
• Led the redesign of the user interface on the website to take advantage of “ambient awareness” effects that build communities quickly
• Launched a monitoring effort that used a combination of free and paid tools to monitor online conversations about the brand
• Assumed control of the corporate blog and focused it on covering “citizen experts”, both those who had published on YUDU and those who hadn’t
• Worked with the internal staff to launch an eNewletter that highlighted staff picks, most popular publications, the latest blog posts, and other news
• Implemented a blogger relations program that built buzz based on conversation and mutual value between YUDU and the bloggers
• Assumed control of the corporate Facebook page promoted it to various networks both inside and outside of Facebook
• Assumed control of the Twitter account and quickly built a substantial base of followers
• Created accounts through social tagging services and tagged positive content about YUDU as well as its publishers
• Integrated all social media efforts through RSS feeds and automated tools
• Planned community events such as online and offline meet ups, seminar series, and user conferences
• Built a system of measurements to track success

Results

• Within the first month of launch, there were 250-300 publications uploaded per day
• Currently, there are over 20,000 publications on the site and it is expected to pass 1500 publications per day in the near future
• YUDU has been recognized by several organizations as one of the fastest growing communities on the web and as one one of the web’s “hottest new properties”
• YUDU.com reached the top 20,000 most visited websites worldwide and top 5,000 within the UK in only 4 months
• There are currently users from 130 countries on YUDU