As digital marketing allows brands to converse with their customers in increasingly direct ways, it is time to change our language – because words matter. What you call something influences your behavior towards it. As brand marketers, we have always sought to create an emotional relationship between the brand and the consume. Digital tools allow us to create content that is more personalized than ever before, and it is time to change our language to words that reflect a relationship.

In our personal lives, we meet strangers, who then may become interesting acquaintances, and some of those acquaintances become friends. Some folks say that strangers are just friends that they haven’t yet met. We often meet new friends through introductions by current friends. Brand marketers seeking to create relationships between the brand and the consumer should use the same kinds of language, recognizing that there are real people at both ends of the marketing communications – not “targets”, but potential friends of the brand.

A blog post by Jon Holden put it well: “Getting to truly know the people you are marketing for, and finding unique ways to tell their stories and connect on a personal level will go a long way to establishing trust and loyalty”.

So, how does thinking about our customers as friends and potential friends change our marketing plans? Here are a few ways:

• Rather than defining messages the brand wants to send, we develop messages that our friends will want to receive: something that will be useful in their daily life, something that will make them smile or stimulate a new idea.
• Rather than creating content for strict demographic or behavioral targets for our messages, we create content for the people who have told us they already have a relationship with the brand by signing up for email, subscribing to an RSS feed, and/or becoming a friend on Facebook or following us on Twitter.
• Instead of creating a TV spot or video that is designed to be watched many times in one or two channels, we create a video that is designed to be talked about, passed along, changed, spoofed.
• Our brand messages to our friends are designed with the understanding that they have a very brief shelf life, and we need many more messages. A relationship isn’t built by sending one present to a friend on a special occasion; it is built by small interactions every day, over time (and still remembering the special occasion with something special.)

Instead of “targeting our consumers”, brands need to “talk to our friends” and “invite our acquaintances” – and by creating valuable content for both our friends and acquaintances, we earn the right to be introduced to others. This allows the brand message to spread organically – to more channels, in a more credible way, than would be possible for a brand operating in the “targeting” model.

Don’t be shy. Go ahead, say “hello”.

The good people at Awareness, Inc. have provided a handy infographic with 5 types of social measures to include in your analytics regimen.  These measures represent a framework for checking the impact of your social efforts and gathering actionable insights to improve your sales and marketing effectiveness.  The infographic features basic and advanced measurement formulas for sales, marketing and customer service, including: 

1.  Brand Awareness
2.  Marketing Program Effectiveness
3.  Lead Generation Effectiveness
4.  Increased Sales/Shorter Sales Cycle
5.  Customer Satisfaction/Reduced Churn

The infographic is a summary of some of the information contained in Awareness’ report: Actionable Social Analytics: From Social Media Metrics to Business Insights.

For more on social analytics, see these additional Socialrati posts: Social ROI: Measure What Matters, How to Sell More: Listen to Social Consumers and 3 Steps to SMMS Success.

Infographic

Image credit: Awareness, Inc. Actionable Social Analytics Report

Do you use these measures? What other metrics are important to your business?

Related Posts

Social ROI: Measure What Matters

How to Sell More: Listen to Social Consumers

3 Steps to SMMS Success

The online region of Dubai has been a desert landscape for a very long time. Even today the landscape is sparse, and many websites remain relics of the past; offering no function other than presence; erected in a time when it was a necessity to have a company website but nobody really knew why.

Times are changing. Today modern and user friendly websites regularly attract tangible business, but Dubai still lags behind the west when it comes to ecommerce. However, the public consciousness is awakening to the benefits and availability of online shopping, with payment and delivery providers following suit, albeit slowly. New online stores are sprouting up frequently, and the advent of discount buying websites such as Cobone and Groupon have created a paradigm shift in the perception of online retail. It is now seen as a safe and reliable means of obtaining products and services conveniently, at an affordable price. The statistics reflect this too. Online sales are expected to rise by 40% this year, although Souq.com’s sales tripled last quarter compared to the same period a year ago.

Rapid Expansion

Globally, online retail is growing at double the pace of offline retail; Q2 2011 ecommerce sales increased 17.2% from Q2 2010, whilst retail sales increased 8.4% during the same period. Add to that the fact that the UAE is the 8^th fastest country for ecommerce growth in the world, and you begin to appreciate the situation. These statistics are not going unnoticed by offline retailers. The pressure is on to diversify in an increasingly competitive marketplace, and ecommerce is the next logical step.

The effect is noticeable; new ecommerce stores are launching every month, creating an ever increasing diversity of products and services. Last year the Internet Show Awards didn’t even have a category for online retail. This year they have 8 finalists (two of which were developed by Grow).

Over 80% of consumers feel comfortable buying online. 73% of people prefer to shop online to save time. That’s a lot of people who are eager for online services in Dubai. Respective companies are answering this demand, but as with any new industry, there are teething problems.

Shopping Cart Abandonment

There remain major hurdles that need to be overcome. In particular, payment providers need to offer affordable solutions which allow websites to accept credit cards directly. Right now the costs are too high for most SME’s, so many are reverting to using third party solutions like PayPal or Cash-U. These solutions are not without issues though. They both require the consumer to sign up for an an account which adds hassle to the checkout process.

44% of online shoppers abandon their shopping carts due to high shipping prices, so the availability of affordable delivery options is crucial to the success of any online store. Thankfully there are two major delivery companies in Dubai; Aramex and Empost. Both of which provide affordable and reliable delivery options both locally and internationally. Most notably, Aramex offers Cash on Delivery which essentially creates an additional payment option, whilst Empost offers international delivery options which are far more affordable than most alternatives. The prices and service of both companies rival those in the west, and this has helped fuel the viability of ecommerce in the region.

Ecommerce Practicality

As more retail stores go online, consumers begin to rely on the internet more and more. The fact that it’s more convenient and often cheaper gives ecommerce a distinct advantage over traditional stores. We see this fact in countries like the UK where offline retail giants like Virgin Megastores, Zavvi, Game and HMV have all entered administration arguably due to their failure to open retail online.

So the world of ecommerce has finally reached Dubai, and people are embracing it with open arms. The fast paced growth of this phenomenon has created teething problems, but as always, there are solutions and new alternatives are being rolled out all the time. The biggest hurdle remaining is the lack of commercially viable payment providers in the region. Local banks need to get on board to fill this gap as there is a lot of money to be made if they do. There is no doubt about the future of ecommerce, and it’s here in Dubai to stay.

Sources:

http://blog.yottaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Yottaa-Ecommerce-Infographic.png

http://www.invesp.com/blog/ecommerce/how-big-is-ecommerce-industry.html

http://www.thenational.ae/business/technology/souq-com-accelerates-the-amazon-way

Image credits:

http://confessionsofabeautyeditor.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/keyboard.jpg

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29244/The-Email-Strategy-That-Turns-Browsers-Into-Active-Online-Shoppers.aspx

Email Marketing remains an effective marketing tool and integrating social media efforts with email marketing efforts has it’s benefits. One of the biggest benefits of social media is its ability to leverage messaging and amplify content as people take that message and spread it throughout their social network.

In a recent StrongMail survey, ”More than two-thirds of business leaders (68%) say they plan to integrate social media with their email marketing efforts in 2012″ (as reported by MarketingProfs on December 12, 2011). Additionally, a survey conducted by GetResponse found a 30%+ improvement in click through rates when email and social media were integrated.

Here are some thoughts on how to integrate effectively.

• Include Social Icons in Emails – This may be obvious but you’d be amazed at the number of marketers that aren’t doing it. And, when you include them, don’t put them just anywhere. Make them front and center at the top of the email.
• Ask Subscribers to Share and Connect – Including the social icons sometimes isn’t enough. While subscribers will recognize the icons, they’re not always sure what you want them to do. Tell them. Ask them to share the newsletter or specific articles or ask them to friend/follow/circle/etc. you.
• Promote Email Sign-Up via Social - If you have a strong following on a particular social network, don’t hesitate to ask for new email subscribers via that channel. Ask your Twitter followers to opt into your email newsletter. Additionally, Facebook gives you the option to create an email sign-up page. The key here is cross-promotion —leverage each channel to promote the other.
• Promote Your Email Marketing on Your Blog - One often-overlooked method to integrating social and email is using your blog to mention, link to, and ask for new email subscribers.

• Broadcast your blog entries via email by sending out newsletters that are nothing but excerpts of your blog.
• Use the sidebar on your email marketing newsletter to promote your company’s social networking profiles
• Use a “transaction complete” or “confirmation” email to link to your social media sites, help forums, etc.
• Provide an option for customers to join your social media networks on your email newsletter registration page.

Why Integration Matters

Including and promoting social sharing in an email is important for a few reasons:

• They extend the reach of your emails – The more people share your email, the more people will see your emails. This results in greater potential for increased opens, clicks and conversions, and list growth.
• They provide an additional platform to connect with your audience – Each platform (Twitter, Facebook, blog, etc.) offers a different way to communication and interact with people.
• They give email subscribers more options - It’s possible that your email subscribers prefer to engage with your company or brand differently. While email is great, it’s not the only option.
• They allow you to expand the reach of your message - Why limit your communication with prospects, customers and/or fans to one network? Take advantage of the other platforms out there.

What are your thoughts on integrating social media into email marketing? Are you doing it? If so, how? What methods are you using?

Every day, social consumers share – for free! – the kinds of data that companies pay market researchers a lot of money to help them gather.

By monitoring and analyzing the information visitors and customers share via social media, brands can learn how to improve their products, sell more of them and create better customer experiences.

Bazaarvoice has recently done a macro-level analysis of customer input by listening in on 11+ million consumer conversations worldwide. Their new report yields some interesting trend information and gives solid recommendations for retailers looking to leverage social insights. Report excerpts plus an accompanying infographic are provided below.    

What Can You Learn from 11 Million Data Points?

Insights from Bazaarvoice‘s Conversation Index, Volume 3 report analyzes data from 11+ million pieces of content generated by users on its clients’ sites during the past six months. 5 key insights and related recommendations include:

1 | Sharing is Caring

• 12% of consumer product reviews include suggestions.
• Nearly 80% of the suggestions focus on product attributes like color, size or style + product experience improvements.
• Only 14.5% of suggestions point out real flaws

Recommendations

• Escalate product issues for rapid response.
• Develop scalable systems to notify contributors when their feedback has been implemented.
• Mine onsite search terms shoppers use to prioritize site architecture and navigation improvements.
• Identify pivot language – words or phrases that marks a transition in tone or sentiment – in feature or product discussions that tell you a suggestion is coming. The most common pivot words in the Bazaarvoice study were: “however,” “wish,” and “although.”

2 | In-store Shoppers Are Less Happy

• In-store shoppers of all ages are less satisfied with their purchases than online shoppers. (see infographic below)
• Half of consumers who give online feedback bought the product in a store versus online. Yet, only 45% of the in-store buyers received an email asking them to review their purchases, versus 80% of online shoppers.

Recommendations

• Assume that in-store shoppers want to engage with other shoppers and your brand about the things they buy.
• Bring the best of online shopping (easy research, consumer opinions, and product comparisons) into the store. Simply offering free WiFi can help.
• Go further by allowing shoppers to see an augmented reality display when holding their smart phones up to products on your shelves, including related social content or the highest-rated products in each aisle.

3 | Mobile Shoppers are Night Owls

• Half of all mobile browsing and buying takes place after normal business hours. (see infographic below)

Recommendations

• Optimize for iPad and mobile to engage and convert nighttime shoppers
• Be there when your customers want to interact with your brand. Just like physical stores require a staff of knowledgeable people to help customers, online presences must also be staffed 24/7.

4 | Social Shoppers Spend More

• Visits to a brand’s site directly from Facebook make up less than 1% of its total site traffic.
• Visitors from social sites are up to 60% less likely to buy, which may mean they are at earlier stages in the decision process.
• But visitors from social networks who make a purchase, spend more money than shoppers who come via Google.
• Shoppers from Twitter have the highest average order value – $121.33 – of all shoppers who visit directly from Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
• Twitter users spend 18% more than Facebook users, on average.

Recommendations

• Know your platform: Facebook visitors choose engagement over shopping, so don’t focus all your energy on making your Facebook page purely transactional.
• Design social features into your site that make it easy for visitors to log in to site features with their social credentials and post and share content without leaving the site.

5 | Users Can Help You Help Other Users

• If one person has a question about a product, others probably do too. (see infographic below)
• Visitors misspell brand and product names and terms, sometimes finding what they’re looking for within the (also misspelled) contributions of other users.

Recommendations

• Update product descriptions to answer recurring questions.
• Add videos and step-by-step instructions to fill in gaps early in the shopping process, turning shoppers into buyers.
• Resist the urge to correct spelling and other errors in user generated content. The lack of perfection will ring truer to other consumers.

Social Data Is Great For Building Loyalty

Consumers are telling you – right now – what to change. Listen to and act on their feedback to create customers for life.  As Bazaarvoice reminds us, “It’s hard to imagine a better way to earn loyalty than to bake [customer] suggestions into the products you create and sell.”  And, don’t forget to measure your social media efforts so you really understand how social consumers are driving sales and other business objectives.

How does your brand use social data to create happy customers?

Infographic

Related Posts

Social Will Drive Better Marketing in 2012

Social ROI: Measure What Matters

A Social Media Policy: Brand Insurance

Social & Mobile Trends: Changing Marketing, With or Without You

A lot of companies have made half-baked attempts at using social marketing and have ended up with failed campaigns. Despite the number of merits this concept has at its core level, it would not be able to get you closer to your consumers if you do not use it correctly. Here are some basic things you should know before you apply this strategy to your marketing plan.

Social media marketing is being referred to as a new and innovative way of bridging the gap between companies and their direct users. It is easier to reach a desirable result because the right promotional schemes can give you a chance to know what your consumers are thinking, what they need from you as a service provider and how you can make them patronise your goods. It can even help you build a more loyal fan base. This result is very useful if you are searching for a tool that would give you long-term effects.

This marketing strategy is more known for being focused online since it mostly uses communication tools connected on the Internet. Aside from popular networking websites, it also utilises blogs, podcasts, social bookmarking sites as well as micro-blogs. Developments have also made it possible for marketers to feasibly use instant messengers, file sharing websites and even virtual gaming clients. The possibilities are quite vast and you can shift your strategies between cross-platforms or focus on one channel if you choose to do so.

Unlike industrial media used in traditional promotions, social media platforms are easier to access. Even small companies would have an easy time in initialising their own marketing campaign since the Internet is public domain. This is good news especially if you do not have a hefty budget set aside. There is also no need to hire a number of highly trained technical specialists or purchase expensive equipment. A lot of social media tools available today are either cheap or free.

One of the most common mistakes marketers make when it comes to social media is the assumption that their target markets think alike. Careful research would have to be done even before you start initialising your plans. Though mistakes are easy to correct in this medium, they can also become public relations nightmares. In this case, you may not get the results you want and it may even throw your whole plan off course. Luckily there are social marketing experts that can help you prevent any crisis. As an added bonus, the best ones can even help you predict business trends.

So is this social hotspot for Mid-Western crafters just a fad or does the image-focused site have real potential for business?  The answer: Pinterest is open for business. 

What are Businesses Doing on Pinterest?

Small and large businesses alike are finding value in cultivating a community of followers on the site.  As the “Power of Pinterest” Infographic from Internet Marketing shows, companies such as magazine publisher Better Homes & Gardens and grocer Whole Foods have already acquired over 25,000 and 19,000 followers respectively via Pinterest.  They effectively use the visually oriented site to share recipes, entertainment, decorating, and lifestyle information that help them promote their brands and products.

In his recent post on Pinterest, blogger Jason Falls reports that the retail deal site ideeli.com uses the site to better understand its members and the retail landscape.  Ideeli has seen “a 446% increase in web traffic from Pinterest [in the last six months]and sales resulting from those visits have increased five-fold.”

4 Steps to Making Pinterest Work for Your Business

1  Strategize

If you’re in a B2B company, you may be wondering if Pinterest can be appropriate and effective for your business. It certainly can, although a presence on Pinterest may require taking a different approach than the company uses on other social media platforms.  As recommended previously on Socialrati, it’s always a good idea to set a strategy before going public on a new social site to ensure you are investing efforts which will drive business results.  In a recent Ad Age article, Chas Edwards also recommends developing an image strategy. He suggests trying to answer these three questions:

1. How can images increase engagement among my existing audience?
2. How can I convert that engagement into sharing?
3. How does the strategy help me make more money?

2  Get The Picture

Pinterest may not be for everyone but it’s worth testing since it has proven to be an effective referral channel.  If you have physical products, you can start building an image inventory simply by taking and gathering photos of your products from employees and customers. B2B companies, because they often work in services, may shy away from Pinterest thinking their products or services are not sufficiently visual.  A little creativity, however, can solve this problem.

You probably already have a collection of untapped visuals at your disposal.  For example, you may have many of these items which Hubspot recommends can be made into suitable Pinterest images:

• Product images
• Ebook covers
• Data charts
• Photos of your employees
• Pictures of customers (at events, using your products or services)
• Event images
• Infographics

Locate or create these images and start pinning.  Make sure to include a description and the url for a landing page for each image so you can also capture traffic to your site.  Soon you will have followers liking, commenting or repinning your images.  If the content is interesting enough, it could go viral.  Check out the Socialrati Pinterest Infographics pinboard for examples.

Don’t forget to promote your Pinterst content through other channels.  Add a Pin It button to your website so visitors can pin images from your blog or other parts of your site to their boards. Connect your company Twitter account to Pinterest to tweet your new pins.

3  Get Pinning & Repinning

Like all social platforms, Pinterest isn’t designed for broadcasting information.  It is designed to foster discussion and interaction.  Research to date suggests that ‘pushing’ products is not effective but creating excitement and brand attachment through strong and interesting visuals pays dividends beyond the Pinterest site. Show your intent to build community by following other Pinterest members and/or their pinboards, liking and repinning the content of others.  Look for others sharing the same topics and then follow and promote their content.  They will ultimately return the favor and help you reach a wider audience.  You can also humanize your business or your brand by including topics that are important to you and not all about the business.  Maybe you’re a foodie or have a favorite cause or travel destination.

4  Track & Learn

With a presence established, monitor the images that generate the most interest and traffic.  By doing this, you’ll learn how to generate interest and create pull for your business through Pinterest.

What creative ways have you seen Pinterest driving business results?

Related Posts

How to Master Pinterest for B2B Marketing

How Pinterest Is Becoming the Next Big Thing in Social Media for Business

In Age of Pinterest, Instagram, Marketers Need An Image Strategy

Set A Strategy Before Going Social

Pinterest Infographics Collection

OERs, for their obvious monetary and innovational advantages, are now high on the educational agenda of administrations across the world.  They have evolved from being peripheral supports to becoming integral parts of educational policies (Washington OER Bill, Utah Open Textbook Project, California digital textbook project et al.). But the digital education sector has become increasingly competitive where OERs aren’t just competing (for the lack of a better word) against each other but, more imposingly, they are battling the Goliaths of the publishing world.
For an OER to succeed (reach out to more people) in such a competitive landscape, it has to, apart from giving prospective users an enriching and flexible learning experience, adopt a market-oriented and brand-like approach because users naturally follow a consumerist approach to digital content choice, open or paid. OERs following this brand-approach can have better cognitive, affective and conative outcomes.
But as OERs are primarily non-commercial, they can’t go down the path of overt commercial advertising because of the expenses involved and because of the fear of being viewed with skepticism. So, what is the right way to promote an OER? The answer is simple, it’s Social.

Why is Social Marketing  right for OERs?
Because Open Educational Resources (OERs) are essentially based on the idea of social inclusion, aimed at actively involving stakeholders in the educational sphere. And because people today spend more time than ever on social media sites, it’s the best place to meet and connect with them. OERs thrive on people, participation and populism, and social media provides eager and active audiences and lots of brand conversations.  Plus there are other well documented benefits of Social marketing like Massive Traffic Generation potential,  Positive Demand/Intent, Strong Branding potential, Measurability, which we won’t dive too deeply into right now.  What we’ll attempt to draw here is a strategy to optimize Social marketing for OERs.

Social Marketing strategy for OERs
Like any marketing channel, it’s important to establish clear goals and measurable business objectives for Social Media upfront, be it brand awareness, website traffic building or consumption (downloads). In that respect OERs are objectively similar to any commercial brand but in terms of strategy they are quite different because OERs can’t offer monetarily-driven offers, gifts or promotions- their propositions primarily based on the premise of quality and convenience.

Let’s take the example of a non-profit K12 open-content provider, say A-12 that provides content through its a-Book platform.  How can A12 generate greater brand recognition and increase the consumption of its a-Book?  What Social Marketing strategy should it follow to achieve these two mutually exclusive objectives?

Let’s try to draw the A12 marketing strategies on the leading social media sites, starting with
Strategy of Marketing on Twitter
From a marketing perspective, Twitter is perhaps the best vehicle for promoting an OER. But, because we have two different objectives we need to create two different strategies starting by:
Creating two twitter handles- @A12 and @aBooks.

@A12- should primarily aim at increasing brand awareness and projecting thought leadership through conversations about the need and the impact of open-content on #K12 education by tweeting links to the latest news, trends and opinions that can be liberally retweeted. We should also create and promote K12-related hash-tags in @A12’s conversations.  We should have weekly twitter chats to discuss the latest in the #K12 #open-content or related areas.
For @A12, we should try to follow and be followed by influencers (policymakers, educators, administrators) whose legitimacy as experts and popularity accentuates credibility and outreach if they retweet or spread @A12’s mission and message.

@aBooks- messaging should focus on the quality of @aBooks, including the teaching and the #curriculum content. This handle will primarily promote links to @aBooks, chapters, updates and other content to direct traffic to the @A12 site. For @aBooks, we should attempt to follow and be followed by students, teachers, parents and obviously other influential traffic. We should promote hash-tags for user-wise and subject-wise editions of @aBooks. We can also have twitter chats inviting people to share their views on @aBooks, how to make them better, how to optimize their use etc.

In both handles, we should ensure adding keywords and phrases to each account’s Twitter bio and use them in its tweets.  This helps in optimizing the twitter account by adding context to the tweets, helping Google in recognizing and registering the relevance of each handle’s tweets and retweets, and thus increasing the influence of the tweets

Strategy for Facebook
Facebook
 A12’s Facebook Page has to be the hub for all marketing for aBooks, because any links of news, updates and content posted on Facebook Pages get displayed through fan newsfeeds, leading to higher click through rates and continual traffic.
In addition to Facebook Page engagement, Facebook offers multiple opportunities for A12 to capitalize on, like:
A12 can set up Facebook Events like say “Open Books for Open Minds” or the “Which is your favorite aBook” where users can share their experiences with aBook.
We can have Facebook competitions like “Find the answer in physics aBook”, where the users who answer the question become A12 Champions of the day.
We can also have contests like “Share for Cover” where pictures of the fans with most shares of aBooks get featured on the Cover of A12.
We should attempt to get more students, parents and teachers as fans by targeting our messaging to increase chances of direct traffic and downloads on one side and  better the chances of brand recognition on the other.

We can have a similar strategy and same or similar promotions running on Google+, concurrently.

Key Common Strategy points across Social Media:

• All marketing messages should primarily focus on the quality of content
• Product(aBook) or brand’s(A12) entry into the messages should be  planned and unobtrusive to connect with and influence an audience, like potential users.
• OERs (A12) should have frequent and focused conversations around the brand and should attempt to follow and be followed by influencers to potentially generate greater brand recognition.
• As OER’s brand activity and exposure duration increases, consumers will become more liable to explore the OER’s (A12) product (aBook) more.
• Increasing brand/product information by promoting product (aBook) links
• increases chances of consumption.
• As the followers/fans typically have strong educational motivation, it is important to engage them in the quality of your content and technology.

Conclusion:
OERs need to follow a focused yet flexible social marketing strategy, clearly defining what goals need to be targeted when and through which channel. It’s important to be patient and flexible with your Social strategy. Because Social is definitely the way to go for OERs. And as brand prominence increases overtime, OERs can get better traffic and also be able to better differentiate themselves from other OER stimuli.

Eyes & Ears campaign. Encouraging corporate responsibility and reporting incidents and events. Video, Events, Regional TV & Press.

I love what I do and from every angle want to be an effective communicator blending intelligence and ideas with video and social media to get the job done. It’s become akin to live theatre: you can measure success or failings with bums on seats, their applause or otherwise, comments, feedback and participation.

If they’re with you they’ll even do the job for you, spreading the good word and generating compelling content.

My response to this? Don’t get in their way! Can this be intellectualised?

Yes.

Not only can everything be taught, but cause and effect should be analysed and written up so that through reflection and sharing with colleges you learn to improve and adapt the narrative of your actions.

As well as an OU MBA module ‘Creativity, Innovation & Change’, I’ve just signed up to an online social media course with MMC Learning.

I have one more module to gain an MA in Open & Distance Learning too; why this? Because learning is an effect, it demonstrates an ability to pass on and develop skills, ideas and knowledge.

Because we can’t help ourselves, it’s how we humans progress.

The day job, studying and 8-12 hours online: how do I do it? It makes me tick. A decade ago I shared a thought in my blog, suggesting that I kept a diary, journal, log, blog, photo journal, scrap book, garage full of junk in order to prove that I am alive (that I was here).

If I can be harnessed to a good cause and earn a living from it too, all the better.

Do you remember when you were a kid and you wanted a pet? You were focused on how fun it would be to have a new dog or cat, lizard or rodent. Your parents were focused on explaining that a pet requires care and feeding, that it’s an ongoing responsibility, and that you were ready to take on this new relationship. As, it turns out, pet ownership is good training for and a lot like having a social media presence. There is the fun of having a new thing to learn about and engage with but also the responsibility of an ongoing relationship.

Just as when getting a pet, some expectation setting and advance planning for social media account ownership will make the adventure less stressful and a lot more rewarding. Use the checklist below to make sure you are ready for a successful social media experience. 

5-Point Readiness Checklist for Social Media

1 – Aligned to a business objective?

Are you clear about why you are participating in social media or how this particular social account is connected to a core business objective?  “We need a social media presence” is not a business objective.  A business objective is something like “expand awareness, engagement, and use of our widget among luxury brand marketers”. Without a clear connection to your business purpose, you may be building a presence on the wrong site(s), your social sharing will be less targeted and your messages will not resonate. Set your strategy first, then pick your social networks, your tone, and your content (see post on this topic).

2 – Prepared to measure, before launch?

Armed with a solid business objective, you can determine the metrics for successful social media engagement. Are you trying to enhance your brand, drive revenues, innovate products?  Make sure you are measuring actions and results that are relevant to your goals (see post on this topic). This will help you know if you’re being successful, and if you’re not, what to try to improve.

3 – Prepared for the long haul?

Social media engagement is not a one-time or short-lived endeavor.  Unlike a campaign or a burst of outreach activities, social media requires an ongoing and intensive effort to deliver results.  When you create an account, you are making a promise to participate in a relationship with a community. A social presence is not something you can participate in for a month and then walk away from, at least not if you want to avoid damaging your brand and failing to achieve the business results you anticipated.  Set your expectations, and those of your colleagues, that building a presence will be a process and an ongoing effort.

4 – Resourced adequately?

An active social media account requires proper staffing, content and resources to be successful. Content is the lifeblood of social media so a steady stream of new and relevant content will be needed.  Like exercise and food for your pet, you will need a plan for creating, curating, posting and sharing a steady stream of compelling and fresh content (an editorial calendar is key) for each social media account. Content will need to be refreshed at least weekly, and possibly daily, depending on the type of business you’re in and your business goals.  Further, those creating and posting content as well as those responding to comments, must be ready to engage. Missing or extending content deadlines, allowing comments to languish for weeks, or responding negatively will kill your chances for success. Make sure you have a person or team lined up for each account that is trained and available to engage in timely and positive online dialog.

5 – Ready for the unexpected?

Social engagement differs from the push marketing of the past.  Social is not a broadcast medium.  It is a two-way medium that inherently delivers surprises. When you get a puppy you are thinking about how fun it will be to play with that furry ball of energy, not how many hours you will spend cleaning up accidents and replacing shoes and furniture. Similarly, you may think your social media efforts will be days filled with posting daily specials and having people tell you how great they are.  But in reality, when you open a social media account, you also open a door to anyone who wants to communicate with you on that social network.

Customers are now accustomed to accessing companies via social media and they aren’t concerned with your agenda there.  They see you as a representative of the company and if they have a complaint or a question about your products or services, they will communicate it via social media and expect a quick response. Have a plan for what to do with customer inquiries and comments that are unrelated to your specific business objective.  Also be mentally and professionally prepared to address negative comments. Have an action plan for who will draft and review responses on short notice. Being able to respond quickly and professionally will prevent a social media PR disaster.

What’s on your checklist for social media readiness?

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Social media is like founding Rome; you can steadily drip, drip content and news like Romulus or you can build high and make an impact like Remus. Both approaches have their merits, on the one hand having and maintaining a presence while on the other doing something ‘big’.

You may know the story of Romulus & Remus, brought up by a she-wolf on the hills above the River Tiber, they were the founders of Rome, though only one would give the city their name.

One day, looking down at the Tiber the brother’s decided to found a great city. They agreed to build a wall encircling a piece of promising land and to do so separately, starting opposite each other, at a distance and meeting in the middle.

Romulus builds his wall low and makes quick progress laying out a great arc that heads towards his brother Remus. Remus builds as high as a man, his wall is tall, but progress away from the River is slow.

Eventually the two Walls meet. Remus cannot contain his mirth at his brother’s low wall and mockingly starts to jump over it back and forth. Unable to contain his anger Romulus picks up a shovel and knocks his brother across the head as he makes another leap.

If only one person is faced with the task of ‘building Rome’ what should they do? Already I see the need for two people and two roles, the first, the ‘low wall’ is the website that is a consistent presence, not simply static web pages, but blog-like where visitors contribute content and share what is there. The ‘high wall’ are the events, or highlights, from commissioned videos or iTunes, to live forums and Webinars. Neither should be seen as exclusive to the Internet, like the wall that surrounds Rome, web presence should be seen as part of the real world integrated with open days and events, mail outs by post or email, PR and traditional advertising too.

• A lack of agreement or understanding about how social media supports business goals
• Uncertainty around the best metrics to use
• A growing number of social media accounts
• Monitoring and measurement tools that don’t fully meet user needs

Later posts will address the issues of measuring proliferating accounts and the tools to measure them, but this post will focus on determining what to measure. 

Let Business Objectives Guide Your Social Media Use & Measurement

First, your social efforts should be based on a clear strategy to achieve certain business objectives.   Why are you using these marketing channels and tactics?  An Altimeter Group report found that 70% of businesses believed social media could meet business objectives, but only 43% had a formalized strategy for how social would meet their specific business goals.  Don’t be part of the 43%.  Be clear about what you are trying to achieve and be ready to show the ROI on your programs.

The Social Media Measurement Compass (see below) from Altimeter Group provides some of the most common business uses for social media, including:

• Brand Health
• Marketing Optimization
• Revenue Generation
• Operational Efficiency
• Customer Experience
• Product or Service Innovation

Measure What Matters for Your Business Objectives

Your business goals will impact not only what social media you engage in, but also how you measure your social media programs.  Some examples are provided in the table below.

You’ll notice that there are both non-financial and financial metrics listed in the table above. Return on Investment (ROI) is just one metric businesses should use to evaluate their social media programs.

But Be Prepared to Measure ROI

Nonetheless, at some point, in order to articulate the strategic business value of social media to the company, you will probably need to show a positive ROI.

As an eMarketer article points out, only 25% of marketers are measuring sales associated with social media.  “In 2012, marketers will need to focus more sharply on hard metrics to gauge digital and social marketing ROI. They will be pushed in this direction by economic and competitive forces, and by rising expectations from internal stakeholders.…”

In other words, you will need to show that the programs either:

1. Increase Revenue or
2. Reduce Costs or (preferably) Both

The pyramid below shows how social media programs and metrics can demonstrate ROI and support a company’s business objectives.  It shows how, by resolving customer service calls via a social channel, a company may be able to reduce call center volume and its costs of handling service requests, thereby reducing its operating costs and improving its financial performance.

Whichever metrics you choose, focus on results-oriented rather than just action-oriented measures.  As the Altimeter Group says, “Every metric should pass the “So what?” test in the context of your business goals. If you can’t answer “So what?” to your metric, question the value of measuring it in the first place.”

You’ll find a more complete listing of metrics by business objective in the Altimeter Group Report, A Framework for Social Analytics.

How is your company focusing and measuring its social media efforts?

special image thanks to Get My ROI

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