1. Can't Wait to Wake Up at 5 AM to Write. It's your moment of zen. It's your time to express what you love, hate, makes you laugh, admire, respect, wish you could be, and continue striving to become. It's SACRED TIME.
2. Know You're Steering the Ship. Sitting behind a keyboard means complete control. The published words on your personal blog are yours (not somebody else's spin). No watered-down mess requiring corporate approval or a committee's sign-off.
3. Pick Yourself. You didn't seek the approval of Random House or another member of the New York City publishing dynasty. You write. You publish. You promote. The daily, weekly, and monthly results are there to measure and interpret. And, the immediate audience feedback (or lack thereof) is a constant lesson in humility.
4. Press "Publish" Even When You Fear Your Content Sucks.Blogging teaches you how to address and deal with personal fear. Notice, I didn't say overcome it. The "F" in Freedom Is Blogging In Your Underwear stands for "Fear."
Rejection looms close by when you're a blogger. But, so does opportunity.
You learn over time that subscribers and readers who believe in your art stick with you. These audience members who vote with their precious time know you won't hit a home run with every-at-bat.
But, they expect you to consistently publish. Your subscribers expect you to show up. That's part of the deal. That's part of the mutual bond.
It's why I can't wait to repeat Reason #1 for as long as I humanly can.
5. Want To Hug Your Blog Subscribers (But, Not Necessarily in My Underwear, Or Theirs). The Social Media ReInvention Blog Community and subscriber base continues growing. I want to hug you and thank you for teaching and reinforcing how trust is earned one-person-at-a-time.
You've sent me emails with praise (especially at times when I really needed it), tweeted my posts on Twitter, "liked" them on Facebook, shared them on LinkedIn, and linked my posts to your respective blogs. It means so much to me -- Thank You From the Bottom of My Heart!
6. Can Continuously Iterate and Experiment. 21st century self-publishing means everything is "a working draft." You can keep shaping, condensing, adding, or deleting. It's taken me three years to realize perfection is not the goal.
7. Trust Yourself to Write With Your Heart (Versus Type With Your Brain). Writing doesn't come naturally to me. I work at it every day (which I was I love it). I'm still learning when/how to write and structure my position in traditional, MBA-analysis mode (and when to just let'er rip and flow).
This is what the blogging community refers to as "finding your voice." I'm still searching. And, this self-discovery journey is empowering.
8. Realize There Are No Rules -- There Are Only Guidelines. Great blog posts can be less than 140 characters or as long as 4,000+ words. You can use text, audio, video, and images (or a combination of all four). What makes a blog post great is in the eye of the beholder. It's art. Coloring outside-the-lines is encouraged.
9. Love Something So Much You Do It for Free (Sort of). I receive zero financial compensation for blogging. But, I consider blogging a valuable and significant time investment
It's not about getting paid. It's the joy and challenge of telling a story. It's about sharing. It's about saying thank you. It's about reminding yourself why you love it so much even on the days when you're struggling personally and/or professionally. It's about Reasons #1 through Reasons #10.
10. See and Embrace The Like-Minded. Google the phrase "blogging is dead" (without the quotation marks). You'll receive close to 57 million search results.
When I see that number and the different search headlines, here's what I see:
* I see opportunity.
* I see people who give didn't give up on their blogging / writing in the first six or seven months of launch.
* I see people who voraciously read books, periodicals, blog posts, newsletters, and all content in-between to learn ideas and insights they can deliver to and share with their subscribers.
* I see people who acknowledge this is a difficult and long-term endeavor.
* I see people proudly displaying, reading, and investing in this book:
I loved reading the January 1, 2012 New York Times article by Claire Cain Miller: Google Bases a Campaign on Emotions, Not Terms. Her article explains Google's distinctive philosophical change towards marketing and advertising. For Google to acknowledge investing more time and resources to actively promote its products and services stands in stark contrast to the image of "cold engineers" hating anything related to marketing, advertising, or public relations as described in Ken Auletta's great book, Googled.
Why Google Reinvented Its Marketing
"A Remarkable Transformation." What's driving this "remarkable transformation for Google" as noted in the article by Peter Daboll, chief executive of Ace Metrix, a firm that evaluates TV and video ads?
Ms. Cain Miller's article cites two business drivers:
Finding New Revnue Sources Beyond Search Ads. Google needs new businesses like the Chrome browser and the Google Plus social network to succeed.
Focusing, Paring Down, and Integrating Google's Offerings. This is part of Larry Page's mission as CEO to pare down Google's product offering and make these products more attractive, intuitive, and integrated with one another.
Does This Sound Like The Voice of a Cold Engineer?
"As we got bigger, we had more competition, more products, more messages to consumers, so we needed to do a bit more to communicate what thse products are and how you can use them."
"If we don't make you cry, we fail. It's about emotion, which is bizarre for a tech company."
Sounds Like Marketing From the Heart. But, make no mistake Google still bases its decisions on rigorous, fact-based data analysis. And, the article further describes the significant data analyses and testing that went into planning its first Super Bowl commercial (e.g., dozens of tests) and a 140-tab spreadsheet used in location planning for Google Zeitgeist (the company's annual conference for it's biggest advertisers).
Don't Pitch. Tell a Story.
The Google Video Advertisements Cited in the New York Times Article. The article mentions the following successful advertising videos because Google uses storytelling versus product pitching. I've pulled them all together in this post.
It's Not About Features and Benefits. Notice how we can all relate to each of these stories. In particular, the two (2) Google Chrome videos mention nothing about Chrome as the world's fastest web browser.
These stories are moving, emotional, and entertaining. What's their emotional impact on you?
And, look how I responded. After reflecting, it makes me cringe!
Because here's what this reader saw. And, I've been completely blind to it for 2+ years:
I Study and Write About Social Media. And I Couldn't See This!
Why? Because My Crap = My Blind Spot. A humbling, eye-opener indeed. A real "Eureka" moment. Here was a reader who wanted to share my post on Facebook. And, I lost the opportunity.
So, Here's What I Did. I checked my TypePad Content Settings for Page Footer and Post Footer. Look how every item is selected:
Too Much Crap? Then, Get Rid of It.
Prioritize to Simplify. I prioritized only a few social sharing icons. And, I kept the FeedFlare social sharing hyperlinks active at the end of each post:
Less Is More. Why Couldn't I Clearly See That?
I Got Complacent By Buying Into My Own Crap. Look at the difference.
Less clutter
Less crap
More impact
Thanks for sticking with me (despite 2+ years of my crap).
The Deepest Human Need is the Need to be Appreciated
Insightful Advice from William James and Tom Peters. Watch this Tom Peters video about the power of Thank You Notes (specifically time stamp 1:20 to 2:34). In addition to the William James quote, Mr. Peters shares:
"Recognition and Appreciation. Nothing gets you further in your career. And, it also makes you a better human being."
Digital Thank You Notes. When someone links to your blog, tweets your post on Twitter, or shares your work on LinkedIn News, do you say thank you?
If someone cites your content in his/her blog, show appreciation and demonstrate listening by:
* Commenting in their Blog Post. Doesn't it feel good when someone leaves you a blog comment? When someone takes the time to find your post, read it, evaluate it, and share it in their work, they are giving you a generous gift.
* Tweeting This Person's Blog Post. Publicize this person's blog post to your Twitter followers. Help drive readers to this person's blog. Sharing builds community on The Web. Isn't building community the goal?
* Tweeting A Quick Thank You Note. Thank you notes are important on The Web. Why? You show you're listening. You show your appreciation. You show you're human.
Demonstrating humanity and humility in 140 characters (or less) is a good thing.
Mitch Joel's Golden Rule
Advice from Six Pixels of Separation. On pages 41 to 42 and 210 to 212, Mitch Joel reinforces the importance of (1) monitoring mentions of your product / service AND (2) expressing thanks to the people sharing your content:
If someone mentions you, it is now your duty -- at the very least -- to leave a comment back on their blog (or email them directly), letting them know you are reading, paying attention, and most importantly, appreciative of their mentioning you.
As much as you physically can, respond and be thankful to everyone who takes the time to mention you.
Make this your golden rule, and make a commitment that you will never break it.
Conclusion
Success Requires the Help of Others. Achieving successful outcomes is a team sport. Teachers, mentors, coaches, teammates, family members, colleagues, clients, or someone else helped us accomplish something really worthwhile.
The Digital World Is Different. Why? Everyone I previously mentioned is someone I know personally. In the digital space, there's a higher likelihood that you don't personally know the people who spread your content. That's a key difference. Folks from any part of the world may have linked to your blog post, liked your content on Facebook, or tweeted about your service on Twitter.
Whenever you can, recognize these people and express your appreciation.
A Final Thought. I've thoroughly enjoyed publishing this four-post blog series on Tom Peters' Personal Branding Lessons. Readers shared these posts on LinkedIn News, curated them on websites, and tweeted the posts to their followers.
I appreciate you taking time to read these posts. And, you're so generous to share them.
In addition, this post represents installment number three (3) of a blog series on real-time capabilities and its impact in online media. In case you're interested, the other related posts are:
The data analysis describes our digital news consumption habits particularly by time-of-day. Here are some key insights (particularly pertaining to mobile and tablets).
Mobile Internet and Tablet Consumption Dominated When News Coverage Spiked on Sunday, May 1st
Shifting Viewing Habits? The breakdown by digital device during the Sunday evening, May 1st news cycle peak (e.g., 10 PM ET) is as follows:
Mobile Internet and Tablet Traffic Continues Peaking During Our Morning Commutes
But Computer Consumption Won During Our May 2nd Workday. First, I hope none of these people were driving. Second, notice how the mobile internet activity peaks again from 7:00 AM - 9:00 AM. Third, look how computer news consumption accelerates around the same time (i.e., steepest slope of curve). Fourth, computer consumption primarily takes place from 10 AM to 4 PM.
Conclusion
If the Content is Important, We'll Find a Way to Access It. Mr. Lipsman's analysis provides consumer insights applicable to not only news consumption but also content consumption relevant to marketing and public relations activities:
* We're multiple device consumers. We may not necessarily be seeking a one-device-does-it-all-solution (at least not yet).
* Content loading speed / page loading speed will make or break you with mobile internet devices. Optimizing the content for fast loading and optimization on any type of screen is a competitive differentiator (e.g., hand-held, tablet, etc.). The lack of page loading speed in my plodding, iPhone 3G is already causing me cravings for the rumored iPhone 5.
* Business professionals are more accessible early morning or late evening. Reaching targeted consumers (i.e., business professionals) is optimal during the early AM or late evening (e.g., no work distractions). Unless, you can deliver something earth-shattering to divert their attention.
Members of the Social Media ReInvention Blog Community understand I'm an enthusiastic student and fan of David Meerman Scott. In numerous posts, I've referenced David and his latest book, Real Time Marketing & PR.
1. The New Competitive Advantage is Speed & Agility
Leverage and Respond to Real-Time News Events. Companies and individuals who leverage current news events to instantaneously communicate with customers (as these events unfold) hold a distinct competitive advantage over larger, bigger budget rivals. These larger rivals value size and scale (not speed). And, that distinction provides significant opportunity for competitive differentiation.
Real-Time Responsiveness Differentiates Important Service Capabilities. Applications of real-time competitive differentiation include:
Using direct and swift communications in customer service
Preparing for and moving quickly in crisis communications (aka disaster recovery situations)
Developing and testing new products / service offerings
Creating an organizational culture valuing speed and open communications
The Link to Important Business Objectives. All of the aforementioned capabilities achieve one or several of the following business objectives:
Acquiring new customers (e.g., enabiling additional lead generation)
Strengthening existing customer relationships
2. A Mindset of Real-Time Competitiveness
The Real-Time Mindset Means Thinking Differently. Here's my graphical interpretation of David's description of the real-time mindset (page 34):
Blink and You've Lost the Advantage. Gaining (or losing) the competitive advantage depends on WHENyou react/respond to breaking news events. Pages 29 thru 31 explain why ultra-fast, first movers win in real-time deployment:
The Real-Time Marketing & PR Power Law
The Real-Time Law of Law of Normal Distribution
3. Select Your Real-Time Platforms Carefully
Real-Time Differentiation and Capability Isn't Always Obvious - Just Ask Twitter Co-Founder Evan Williams. I conducted a back-of-the-envelope analysis of the real-time tools most often cited in Real-Time Marketing & PR. Hands-down, the real-time winner is Twitter.
"We didn't know what we were at first. I think it's pretty clear now that Twitter is a real-time information network (e.g., any previous confusion about Twitter being a social network or Facebook is now over)."
Throughout his book, David provides several examples describing how Twitter, TweetDeck and HootSuite are used for important real-time functions:
Monitoring conversations
Responding directly to current customers or new, potential customers
Directing Twitter audience members to long form channels (i.e., the company blog or YouTube) for more details
The New Media Life Cycle Helps in Evaluating the Right Real-Time Platforms (and Avoiding the Wrong Ones). Pages 131 to 135 highlight input and data from Andrew Davis, Chief Strategy Officer at Tippingpoint Labs. Davis explains the New Media Life Cycle as the adoption of any platform (blogging, microblogging, photo sharing, or live video streaming) or content distribution channel (YouTube.com, Slideshare.com, Flickr.com, or Twitter.com).
The New Media Life Cycle openly tracks and analyzes an online platform's current life cycle phase in seven (7) distinct phases:
Experiment
Adopt
Gestate
Escalate
Monetize
Consolidate
Maintain
Early Adopters / First Movers Win. Early adopters understand The New Media Life Cycle, and exploit it to their competitive advantage. They know participating early in an emerging social network matters. Page 134 expains the secret to becoming well known on a social media network is to participate in one that's growing quickly, but is still in the early stage. A perfect example is the fast-growing Empire Avenue - The Social Media Exchange.
Remember Second Life? They're not a Real-Time Player (but Twitter is). Tippingpoint Labs and Google Insights provide data driven examples showing why Second Life is already past its prime (page 134). But, Twitter continues growing and is an outstanding real-time platform (page 135).
4. Managing Crisis Communications Means Real-Time Speed
The Money Insights of Real-Time Marketing & PR. The insights shared on crisis communications and disaster recovery are worth the purchase price alone. Why? The situations described in the book can happen to all of us. No one is immune in a digital age.
In my opinion, these sections require careful study:
Chapter 7: Crisis Communications and the Media (pages 71-81)
Chapter 8: What are People Saying About You This Instant? (pages 92-94)
Build Your Media and Journalist Contacts NOW. David explains how too few organizations (particularly the larger ones) fail to build media and journalist relationships before they need them (i.e., contacts with analysts, editors, and reporters).
Credibility and Trust with Media Contacts Requires Time. A communications crisis requires speed and focus (so you have little to no time). In addition, you compound risk by introducing yourself to your media contacts for the first time.
Five Ways to Build Media and Journalist Relationships. Build your media and journalist relationships before you need them. David provides the following suggestions:
Follow the Publications and Its Journalists
Comment on Their Stories and Blog Posts
Introduce Yourself Via Email
Follow Journalists on Twitter and Engage Them in Conversation
Earn Their Respect by Providing Valuable Content and Information (e.g. No Spam)
When Disaster Strikes, Refer to the Real-Time Communications Checklist. David provides a 9-Point Crisis Communications Checklist. All of his suggestions should be implemented before the crisis hits:
Assigning a crisis communications team
Gathering and storing key contact information inside and outside your organization
Delegating who's the organization's lead communicator
Responding through multiple real-time, online channels (i.e., company blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
IMPORTANT: Respond in the same online medium spawning the crisis. If the event happened in YouTube, respond with your own YouTube video.
5. Real-Time Organizations Have Communication Guidelines
Developing Real-Time Communications Guidelines and Roles in Your Organization. Pages 171 -172 provide an 8-Step Checklist for creating and implementing guidelines. In addition on pages 175 - 176, David introduces his take on a new senior executive position: Chief Real Time Communications Officer. On page 176, he explains the job description in a 14-point bulleted list.
IBM, The U.S. Air Force, and Telstra Succeed as Real-Time Communicators. Pages 161 - 173 describe how each organization uses real-time communications, empowers their employees, and publicly shares their guidelines. IBM's guidelines are shared on pages 162 - 170.
Here are hyperlinks and titles of the communications guidelines for these organizations:
Fortune 500 Executives Please Read This Book. Real-Time Marketing & PR is essential and required reading for C-Level executives, communications, marketing, and public relations professionals. As stated earlier, the disaster recovery and crisis communications advice shared makes it a worthwhile investment (especially if you hold that responsibility for a Fortune 500 organization).
Leaders of Small or Medium-Sized Can Outflank the Fortune 500. David describes how small and medium-sized businesses are practicing real-time communications and ringing their respective cash registers. Their commitment to real-time marketing and PR is how they're outflanking their larger Fortune 500 competitors.
Have You Read This Important Book? If you haven't, you're at a key disadvantage relative to competitors. If you have, I'd love to read your comments. Please let me know what you learned (especially the points I failed to capture in this review -- there are so many)!
Making a Difference by Leveraging the Internet's Power. Doesn't this video make you feel good about truly making a difference in other people's lives? Isn't the audience's standing ovation and Bill Gates' appearance at the end of the video uplifting?
Salman Khan's passion and vision to reinvent and reimagine education (e.g., "create something of social value") inspires tremendous possibilities. What he's currently achieved took courage, passion, and blind faith because he initially financed the entire operation himself.
All That's Good About The Internet. The TED / Salman Khan video highlights all that's good about The Internet. Khan's actions represent the values Mitch Joel discusses about online media in his Six Pixels of Separation book:
Being Helpful and Being Sincere (pages 168 - 169; a repeated theme throughout the book)
You Can't Fake Sincerity / Passion (pages 130 - 131; another important repeated theme)
Online Digital Channels are All About Transparency and Trust (a quote snippet from page 126)
What's Got Me Worked Up: This Spammer's Veiled Sincerity
Flushing Away Your Credibility (in 23 Words or Less). The article generated and attracted a number of comments. And then, this comment appears ...
When I read this, I thought "doesn't the commenter realize the Salman Khan he's referring to is not the person in the TED video?" I clicked on this commenter's name (the hyperlink was enabled at that time), and up pops a spammy website for some shady, loan business.
Spam Ready for Table 5! Apparently, the spammer did a Google search on "Salman Khan." But, he quickly and mistakenly decided the first two results are the person in the TED video.
Apparently, he didn't have time to click on the search results and read the extra details. I guess that happens when you're too busy cooking spam and serving it while it's still hot!
Conclusion
Justice is Served. I checked Mitch's article a few days later and he disabled the hyperlink to this person's website -- VINDICATION! And, I'm glad Mitch published the spammer's comment to expose his real name and uninformed comment so others can witness and promote this person's credibility loss FOREVER. If you go to Mitch's article, you'll see this commenter's inbound link is the only one disabled.
Attention Does Not Equal Trust. Mitch explains this concept on page 167 of Six Pixels of Separation. This spammer did catch my attention (and for all the wrong reasons). And, I know better now not to trust him in the future.
More, importantly, I hope others will spread the word about this person's lack of credibility.
Am I Overreacting? Maybe, I'm taking this too seriously. Please tell me what you think. I'd like to know.
Social Media ReInvention Community Members know I'm a student and fan of Adam Singer, author of The Future Buzz. Study Adam's About Page and you'll quickly see he's a globally-recognized and peer-nominated thought leader in media, marketing and public relations (pr).
The following organizations recognize The Future Buzz among the finest resources in online marketing and pr:
Seeing my name cited in The Future Buzz is HUGE! According to Adam's About Page, The Future Buzz receives 30,000 to 200,000 unique vistors per month. I smiled for days because I'd just won the lottery.
Here's my thank you to Adam in the comments section:
Conclusion
Lesson 1: Be Generous. Adam's gesture to recognize contributions in his posts exemplifies "sharing the wealth." Plus, he took the time to promote the online reputations and individual credibilities of others.
Here are the Twitter profiles he included in his post:
Lesson 2: Be Differentiating. Good things happen when you contribute valuable content. Adam's feedback -- Provide additional data to the conversation. Now, I know how to continuously improve and differentiate my comments.
Giving readers actionable feedback on what makes a comment differentiating is a gift. This not a common standard practices of A-List Bloggers.
But it is to Adam.
Lesson 3: Build Community Via Engagement and Inclusion. Here's what I learn from Adam:
Provide detailed feedback and examples on what makes a comment differentiating
Include your community by doing more than responding to their comments
Promote the reputations and credibility of others
** Building Community by Engaging, Including, and Sharing **
* Isn't Building an Online Community The Ultimate Goal?
Not burning up valuable time to measure ROI ad nauseum to cover-your-corporate-butt.
Or, creating some complicated multiple regression model to justify how social media activity and investment creates more shareholder value.
Not screaming hey look at me! Go follow me on Twitter and Facebook so I can build a high Klout score (another topic of discussion coming soon).
* It's Not That Complicated. But, we make it complex. We get in our own way. We should simplify instead.
The embedded video previews the longer Carillo-King interview televised by HBO in late January 2011. I enjoyed this interview because it provides relevant lessons on:
Personal Reinvention Via Social Media Technologies
The Significance of Trust and Reputation (Professional & Online)
The Power of a Relentless Work Ethic
Lesson 1: Reinvent and Adapt to Change
A Traditional Print Journalist Who "Gets" Online Media. King started Monday Morning QB (MMQB) with SI.com 13 years ago. He told Carillo he's better as a new media journalist because he understands:
1. Real-Time Marketing & PR: The importance of immediacy because speed wins
2. Content Quality: Volume is great but it's worthless without quality
3. Content Volume: The Internet rewards high volume (but always remember #2)
He Understands Social Media's Hub-Outpost Model. King's Monday Morning QB functions as his online home base while Twitter and Facebook serve as outposts. Both Twitter and Facebook point his readers back to Monday Morning QB. Here are links to his social media channels
If You Want People to Trust You, Directly Engage Them. King inspires a loyal, tribal-like audience.As I write this post, here are the latest online stats on Peter King and Monday Morning QB (and counting):
503,193 Twitter Followers
5,902 Facebook Fans
3 million weekly page views (according to the Real Sports longer interview)
Look how he answers selected readers' email questions with their names. The selected readers seeing their names and questions published in King's column must feel great!
In the embedded video, King shows Carillo how he alerts his 500K+ Twitter Followers via TweetDeck when the latest edition of his column goes live. It's Social Media Engagement and Content Promotion Strategy 101!
Relationships Founded on Trust and Respect. Former Super Bowl-winning NFL coach and NFL executive, Bill Parcells, described to Mary Carillo why NFL coaches, players, and executives want to work and engage with King. They Trust Him.
In the longer interview, Parcells explained how he respected and admired King's work ethic and integrity. He witnessed how King would do anything to get a story but not at the expense of compromising himself personally.
King has invested 26+ years in building his professional network and reputation. That vast network and stellar reputation provides access to A-List NFL coaches, executives, owners, and players. This makes King's Twitter Feed the place for breaking, real-time news events in NFL Football.
Lesson 3: Unrelenting Commitment
Be Relentless. Peter King covered the NFL for New York Newsday from 1985 to 1989. To succeed, he had to build professional trust with Bill Parcells (then the New York Giants head coach). This was no easy task considering Parcell's sometimes antagonistic relationship with the New York sportswriters.
But, King persevered and won Parcells over. How? Parcells told King he'd be willing to help him if he'd come to the Giants practice facility before 6:30 AM. After that time, Parcell's focused solely on Sunday preparation.
King's solution? Arrive at the Giants facility before Parcells. Parcells remarked how King would greet him at 6 AM (sometimes earlier) at the facility gates. King consistently demonstrated this work ethic and desire to Parcells.
And, he eventually won and earned Parcells' respect and trust. That's why Parcells nicknamed King, "Relentless."
Be Commited. The embedded video doesn't give full justice to King's required weekly, workman-like commitment in publishing MMQB during the NFL season:
1. Completes Sunday evening work on NBC Football Night in America around 10:30 PM
2. Works on MMQB's initial drafts from 11 PM to 5:30 AM
3. Boards the 6 AM Amtrak train to Boston
4. Refines / Posts final draft before 8 AM SI.com deadline
Wow! And, that doesn't include all his other professional and personal responsibilities ...
Conclusion
Inspiring Success Stories Like Peter King Don't Happen Overnight. Members of this community know Successful Social Media Marketing Is Neither Free Nor Easy. There's nothing free in social media. There's nothing free about achieving success.
Peter King achieved his stature over the course of a 26-year career. He's invested significant time in:
Adapting to change (i.e., building new skills to compete in online media)
Building professional and online trust (i.e. integrity and authenticity)
King continues developing new technology skills married with hard-won journalistic instincts. Every MMQB post represents how he sees and seizes online media opportunity.
He epitomizes earning audience attention in a digital age. He masters blogging, tweeting, and facebooking as both journalistic mediums and competitive differentiators.
What are you doing to competively differentiate yourself or your organization? How are you earning audience attention?
Part 5 highlights the panel's insights on measuring social media's business impact by:
* Defining what metrics are valuable (and which are not)
* Understanding how your company performs in search engine results (i.e., SERPs)
* Showing how social media activity "bridges or links" to an organization's bottom line
* Acknowledging the real reasons driving an organization's desire for measuring social media initiatives
This post highlights the panel's discussion from 36:57 to 43:18 of the embedded video.
Track and Measure Meaningful Metrics
Number of Followers, Fans, or Page Views Is Not a Valuable Performance Metric (37:07 - 39:18). According to Chris, reliance on metrics quantifying potential reach or number of people "who possibly saw" your message is a mistake. The traditional pubic relations imprint methodology for quantifying success is not what you want. Why then do people cite these figures? Because people want to bring large performance numbers to the C-Suite executives supporting the social media initiatives.
Customer conversion numbersare the more refined and accurate number marketers should cite (i.e., "how many people clicked on the link you wanted them to click on"). Chris elaborates that earning 1.5 million You Tube views isn't enough. If none of these viewers takes action on the link that leads to your cash register (e.g., convert to paying customers or take a specific action), then you're missing business opportunities.
Track Metrics Articulating a Specific Business Outcome(s) (38:10 - 38:32). Chris encourages his clients to track the following metrics when evaluating social media initiatives:
Revenue Increases
Lead Acquisition (particularly decreases in cost of lead acquisition)
Number of Subscribers to Company Newsletters
Impact on Open Rates to Existing Company Media
Percentage of Conversation / Percentage of Mind -- Sentiment Metrics
Percentage of Conversation / Percentage of Mind (38:33 - 39:17). Chris believes sentiment metrics are valuable because they provide an understanding of what and how often customers are talking about your company's products or services (especially relative to your competitors). He suggests companies locate the most active online forums where their products / services are being discussed and track this metric:
How much percentage of mind is positive (+)
How much percentage of mind is negative (-)
The key is to remember how your choice of tracking metrics will always depend on the business goal sought. Therefore, always tie your social media tracking metrics to specific business outcomes.
Understand and Improve Your Search Engine Results
The Importance of Search Engine Results Pages - SERPs (39:19 - 39:47). David explains it's important to know two (2) things about search engine results:
(1) What are the important keywords and phrases relevant to your industry
(2) Where do your firm's products / services appear in the search results for these keywords and phrases. Take careful note of how your results fare relative to your competitors in these searches.
Search engine results matter because a buyer's intent starts with online search. If a company's products / services are currently landing on the fifth (5th) page of Google searches, social media can improve those results so the company earns first page placement.
Side Note: I wrote a blog post on the value of page one Google results in organic search. According to the research documented in that post, ~95% of consumers stop looking at their search results beyond the second page (regardless of the search engine used). This is why search engine rankings matter.
Bridge / Link Social Media Activity to Specific Business Outcomes
Duration of Sales Cycle Close and Linking Other Business Activities to Social Media (40:18 - 41:08). Chris notes how tracking the time to close sales is important. If you can accelerate / shorten the sales cycle duration, you are demonstrating how social media contributes to revenue generation. Other valuable metrics:
(1) Number of Customer Interactions / Touches: Research says you need to touch / interact with the customer approximately nine (9) times before making a sale. With social media, an organization can increase the number of customer interactions and beyond industry benchmarks.
(2) Competitive Intelligence Data:LinkedIn Company Profiles allows you to see which companies are researching your firm on LinkedIn. Also, you can find additional information about competitors on the Company Profiles Pages.
(3) Link to Existing Sales Funnel Metrics - Car Dealerships and Test Drives: Chris points out that number of page views on specific car model's home page is good, but that doesn't tell you a lot about overall impact on sales. Therefore, car dealerships are linking and tracking social media activity's influence on number of test drives. By linking social media activity to number of test drives, the car dealership links to an existing and trusted sales funnel metric.
To Chris, the type of linking described in the car dealership example is "the gold of social media." Why? The car dealership example shows how social media can improve customer conversion.
What's Really Driving the Social Media Measurement Obsession?
Is It Fear? (41:25 - 42:47) When David hears senior executives questioning the financial validity of social media, he thinks it's really a veiled response for "I don't want to be bothered with social media." Therefore he addresses that objection by posing the following question:
"As soon as you can tell me the ROI of giving each salesperson a Blackberry, I'll tell you the ROI of participating in social media."
We Do Certain Things in Business Because It's the Right Thing to Do. Here are additional examples of existing corporate activities that David cites as having no quantifiable ROI, but we do them because these are the right things to do:
Painting the walls
Maintaining a nice-looking corporate campus
Providing salespeople with Blackberry smartphones for client management (and as a company expense)
It's Not Always About Putting in $X and Always Getting $X Back . David concluded his point-of-view with an important point. Yes, measuring social media is important, BUT make sure you're divorcing your indvidual fears/ignorance/bias before justifying the need to measure something.
We Tend to Overvalue the Things We Can Measure and Undervalue the Things We Cannot (42:49 - 43:48). Charlene cited this quote from John Hayes, Chief Marketing Officer of American Express, when describing the social media measurement obsession.
She elaborates it's not a matter of "is social media worth it" because we already know there's value in it. In the big picture perspective, she points out:
Is it really possible to value a relationship?
If so, how much value do you place on that relationship?
Conclusion
How Much Do We Value Relationships? This should be the governing question for all organizations when evaluating and measuring social media business impact. Why? The resounding theme expressed by Brogan, Li, and Meerman Scott throughout the video always comes back to:
It's All About Relationships
Companies who've founded their reputations on this moral value are the ones genuinely investing the time, resources, and money to become relevant social media citizens. Companies like Starbucks, IBM, Best Buy, Intel, H&R Block, Boeing, HubSpot, Amazon, Dell, fall into this mix.
Cold, Hard Fact: Social Media is Reinventing the Power of Customer Influence. The power of one individual (or a collective group) to influence a company's online reputation is significant -- and that power is here to stay. In fact, that word-of-mouth power (WOM) is escalating.
This brings me to a simple question:
Is Social Media ROI really just Corporate Code for CYA?
I would argue Yes. Please understand, I strongly believe in measuring social media's business impact and linking its activities to targeted, business outcomes. Doing so allows an evaluation and understanding of the social media activities making a positive business impact (and even more importantly, those that are not). Making that determination is critical because successful social media initiatives require the significant investments mentioned earlier. As a result, measurement drives informed decisions on resource prioritization.
Therefore, let's not go down the paralysis analysis road to financially justify every aspect of social media participation.Let's keep an eye on the ball and the big picture. While you kindly invested time to read this post, someone is online. And he/she is positively or negatively influencing your company's financial success RIGHT NOW.
"Yahoo is all about the shareholders now. It's all about the bottom-line. That's all that matters. It's not about the users. It's not about building or maintataining great products. It's about finding the ones that make the money and slicing the rest."
Remember, at the end of the day, it's not about you or me. It's about clients, customers, and helping them make informed decisions about the business challenges they confront. It's about something bigger than ourselves.
It's All About Relationships.
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Thank you for spending your valuable time in reading this installment of The Business Value Behind Social Media. Please tune in for Part 6 - Social Media and Crisis Recovery.
I'm targeting January 15, 2011 for publishing Part 6. I want to get it right, and I'll also be catching up in my "regular job" after returning from vacation over the holidays.
Many Thanks and Have a Safe and Happy New Year's Day!
The opinions blogged herein represent only those of Tony Faustino and do not reflect those of his employer, persons or companies mentioned herein, or anyone else. The posts on this blog are provided "as is" with no warranties and confer no rights.
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