The Premise / Goal / Timing of This Weekly Feature
Premise. If you like the content in this blog, maybe you'll also like the content I regularly read, study, and curate from the Web.
Goal. On a weekly basis, I'm going to publish links to three (3) articles I find interesting. I'll include a brief explanation why I decided to curate them.
The article describes the trend to move manage, share, and secure more applications / conten within the cloud.
Five (5) Megatrends are driving this phenomenon:
Consumerization -- You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
Visualization -- Changing How the Game is Played
"App-ification" -- Changing from Appications to Apps
The Ever-Available Self-Service Cloud
The Mobility Shift -- Wherever and Whenever You Want
2. For Young Workers, the Future is Here Already (Fortune).Today's young workers, "the digital natives," are driving the aforementioned consumerization megatrend. This younger demographic communicates with multiple devices. They're entering the workforce in droves so enterprises must deal with this demographic's communication needs to maximize their productivity.
This development is driving the phenemomenon of "unified communications" (direct quote from the article):
"One area which enterprises have begun exploring in recent years is the concept of unified communications – the process of turning multiple channels of communication into a single, seamless conversation. Unified communications uses the concept of presence to help assess which way is best for one user to reach another. It then translates messages and directs them to whichever device the end user is most likely to be using at that time."
Here's a direct quote and Key Conclusion #5 from the 2012 State of Inbound Marketing Report:
Businesses are increasingly aware their blog is highly valuable. 81% of businesses rated their company blogs as “useful,” “important” or “critical.” An impressive 25% rated their company blog as “critical” to their business.
And, there are more fact-based conclusions in the 2012 State of Inbound Marketing Report. Here are seven (7) reasons from HubSpot's data supporting the continuing relevance of blogging.
1. Blogs Are and Remain the Most Important Marketing Channel
Look Who's The #1 Social Media Channel in Terms of Importance. It's Blogs! LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter all ranked in lesser importance. The hub-and-spoke social media strategy model works with a website or your blog as the center. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are short-from outposts guiding customers back to your website or blog (the long-form hub).
3. Blogs Have the Lowest Cost-Per-Lead of Any Marketing Channel
52% of Respondents Say blogs are "Below Average" in Cost Per Lead. Blogs are the most cost efficient lead generation channel (inbound or outbound). Not surprisingly, trade shows are considered the most expensive.
Here's a direct quote from the respondent survey:
"The worst thing we did in marketing last year was attend several trade shows and events with low yield and ROI."
4. Blogs are Second Only to LinkedIn In Acquiring Customers
57% of Respondents Say Their Company Blog Acquired Customers. LinkedIn ranked first in customer acquistion. 62% of respondents validated its effectiveness. Interesting how "the two least sexy social media channels" ranked first and second respectively.
And, Speaking of Social Media Sexy - Blogs and LinkedIn Outdistanced Facebook and Twitter in Customer Acquisition. Don't believe the hype that long form content is dead. Or, consumer attention spans last only 140 characters or less.
HubSpot's 2012 Data Shows a Direct Correlation Between Post Frequency and Customer Acquisition. At a minimum, post at least once-per-week. But, increasing post frequency from weekly to twice per month provides significant benefits:
50 posts a year goes to 100 posts (that's the equivalent of 100 indexed web pages in Google)
An extra 50 posts, means double the number of keywords increasing SEO relevance
50 more web pages mean 5o more opportunities to earn inbound links (and increase Google authority)
6. Blogs Are Consistently Effective for Either B2B or B2C Companies
At a Minimum, Your Social Media Strategy MUST Include a Blog. The data shows blogs rank second in customer acquisition for either B2B or B2C companies. Number 1 for customer acquisition depended on business-type:
B2B: LinkedIn
B2C: Facebook
A Killer Social Media Strategy Incorporates at Least Three Customer Acquisition Platforms. The companies succeeding in social media are the ones who view these channels as customer acquisition weapons. Based on this data, a three-channel approach geared to customer acquistion by business-type would look like the following:
B2B: LinkedIn, Company Blog, Facebook or Twitter
B2C: Facebook, Company Blog, Twitter
7. Blogs Level the Playing Field for Small Companies
Small Companies Allocate Almost 4x the Marketing Budget to Blogs Versus Large Companies. Social media or inbound marketing channels are where small companies invest their marketing budget (i.e., social, SEO or organic search, and blogs). Large companies prefer outbound channels (i.e., trade shows, PPC or paid search, or direct mail).
Today's eMarketer article, Executives Fail to Focus on Social Media Marketing Strategy, shows how far we still have to go in convincing the C-Suite about social media marketing's importance in the overall marketing mix and overall corporate strategy.
Here's the executive summary (no pun intended):
1. Executives Think a Social Business Strategy Is Important. 78% of executives thought a social business strategy was somewhat important or very important.
2. But, Social Business Strategy Is Neither a Top Priority Nor Even Necessary). 27% listed social business as a top strategic priority. Nearly half (47%) say it's necessary but not a a strategic priority. And, 19% say social business strategy was simply not necessary.
This Surprises Me
Small Business Executives Say Social Media Is Not a Strategic Priority. 58% of C-Level respondents say social is neither a strategic priority AND 21% say it's not necessary.
Why Does This Surprise Me? Social media and inbound marketing levels the marketing playing field for small businesses lacking the marketing budget to compete with larger competitors. The small company response is similar to the large company response (i.e., 47% for not a strategic priority and 18% for not necessary.
This Is Not a Surprise
Metrics and Measurement Continue To Mystify. Accountability and metrics along with social media strategy and tactics rank very low on the 2011 and 2012 executive priority list.
The Circular Feedback Loop Between Strategy and Measurement. The social media strategy has to be linked to the overall corporate strategy (i.e., what is the objective: increase revenues, decrease costs, increase customer retention, lower customer acquisition costs).
Without those necessary links, accountability and metrics along with social media strategy and tactics will continue languishing as priorities.
Conclusion
Social Media Can Power Customer Acquisition. According to Huspot's 2011 State of Inbound Marketing Report, social media marketing (especially a company blog) can address the top priorities of the C-Suite:
Lead Generation. 57% of companies using blogs reported that they acquired customers from leads generated directly from their blog.
Operational Profitability. Blogs, social media, and organic search maintained the top slots as least expensive lead generation channels.
B2B Firms Value LinkedIn and Blogging For Acquiring Customers. 61% of B2B firms say LinkedIn is their top acquisition channel. 55% of B2B firms say the company blog is the second leading acquisition channel.
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)!
Lisa Waananen wrote the article and created the infographic describing important trends, data, and priorities of modern media agencies and their clients.
My 8 Takeaways. What are Yours?
#1 Digital Media as a Priority. Media buyers still prefer TV over digital by a 2:1 ratio.
#2 Trivializing Social Media (Not Smart). Public Twitter snafus at Kenneth Cole and Chrysler highlight why all brands need social media guidelines.
#3 Mobile Marketing. Digital Agencies are betting bigger on mobile applications versus their clients (e.g., 75% digital agencies versus 62% of advertising clients).
#4 Measuring Buzz for Data. Measurement is important but the biggest challenge is turning all that data into meaningful action.
#5 The Static Newsletter. Static emails aren't enough. They require compelling content (i.e., video) with social sharing buttons to increase engagement and click-throughs.
#6 Using Social Media - Part 1. 65% of executives feel emerging technologies and Web 2.0 tools increase marketing effectiveness.
#7 Using Social Media - Part 2. 25% of Fortune Global 100 companies use ALL four (4) of the most popular social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs.
#8 Recession Cutbacks. 2011 advertising spending will increase (even in TV).
Conclusion
Infographics are becoming more important in the art of storytelling. I love them because they communicate a lot of data in a visually compelling format. To learn more about infographics, I suggest this post by Adam Singer: Data Visualization and Infographics to Tell Your Story.
I especially like Ms. Waananen's infographic because all the data sources for her research are cited at the bottom of the infographic.
What do you think of the infographic? What are some of the key takeaways you learned? Or, what do you think of using infographics as a storytelling tool?
I first learned about the incredible Ted Williams story on January 5th from this Mitch Joel post titled: The New Journalism. Doral Chenoweth III shot the viral video that has and continues to positively transform Mr. William's life. I've read news stories that this video has received views ranging from 4 million to as high as 11 million.
This is Real-Time Social Media and PR Brilliance at Work! Why? Kraft did everything right in acting on this real-time news opportunity:
They reacted quickly
They went with the story, recognized he PR opportunity, and published their response without getting bogged down in a lengthy, corporate approval process
They published their response in the same social media medium in which the real-time event occurred - YouTube.
In fact, the embedded video is the behind-the-scenes production for one of four (4) videos Kraft created with Mr. Williams. These videos are scheduled to air at different times during the year (including the 2011 Super Bowl).
Integration with Kraft's Existing Social Media Channels Promoting Mac & Cheese.Here's a link to the Kraft Mac & Cheese Facebook Fan Page. Notice the thank you replies by Mr. Williams on this Fan Page on Sunday, January 9th. When I typed my well wishes to Mr. Williams, this Fan Page listed 366,000+ Fans. I'm sure that number continues to increase.
Conclusion
Everybody Wins. That's what makes this such a compelling public relations and social media story:
* Kraft executes a major PR coup that may be the marketing-feel-good-story of 2011.
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.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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!
Part 4 discusses how companies late to social media marketing can get started. Key starting points suggested by the panel include:
* The Importance of Linking Social Media Strategy to Corporate Strategy
* Before You Create Content, Listen and Participate
* Figure Out Where Relevant Customer Conversations are Taking Place
* Define the Business Goals or Results to Achieve with Social Media
This post focuses on the panel's key take-aways and discussion from 29:00 - 36:56 of the embedded video.
Link the Social Media Strategy to the Overall Corporate Strategy
Apply and Coordinate Individual Social Media Channels to Strategic Execution (32:57 - 33:18). Charlene explains that corporate strategy isn't just about what the company does operationally. It's about how the company coordinates the overall strategy with all the different functional strategies.
Link the Social media Strategy to the Overall Corporate Strategy (33:19 - 33:49). Having a Facebook strategy or social media channel strategy in itself is missing the point. The key is having a corporate strategy that the organization applies Facebook participation or social media channel tactics to.
Before You Create Content, Listen and Participate
We Can Learn a Lot by Listening (33:51 - 34:12). David Meerman Scott mentions two (2) things companies can do as they begin their social media participation:
* Watch what's already going on online and and understand who's doing what
* Learn who's talking about your brand, your company, your products, and your industry
Take Baby Steps and Use Other People's Real Estate (34:13 - 34:18). Deploy your social media initiatives gradually. There's nothing wrong with commenting on people's blogs and participating in forums first before creating your own channel-specific content.
A Common Mistake - Undefined Purpose (34:19 - 34:39). A common mistake David observes among companies -- jumping into social media and establishing a Twitter account, or a YouTube Channel, or a couple of blogs without defining each social media channel's purpose. This just ends up being an uncoordinated mess. That's why it's important to take your time to understand what your customers are doing online before undertaking larger the online initiatives (i.e., writing and managing a blog).
Where Are Your Customer Conversations Taking Place
Go Where Your Customers Are (28:23 - 29:29). Understanding where your customers converse in social media channels is key. Why? Charlene says this knowledge can help define a specific channel's overall purpose.
As an example, many B2B companies say they don't use Facebook in social media strategy because Facebook is a B2C medium. But, what if the company decided to use Facebook specifically for hiring.
Determine the Social Media Echo Chambers by Country (29:30 - 30:42). The panel notes that each geographic region has its own predominant social media channels:
United States: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube
Japan: Mixi.jp
Netherlands: Hyves.nl
David references the phenomenon that when it comes to a specific social media platform there's usually one dominant player. Therefore, invest your time building a presence on the dominant platforms:
Video = YouTube
Microblogging = Twitter
Social Networking (especially B2C) = Facebook
Define the Business Goal(s) You Want to Achieve With Social Media
Start with Specific Goals Targeted to Your Current Customers / Fans (34:54 - 35:20). Chris suggests defining goals focusing on either customer retention or new customer acquisition. As an example, Chris noted how the choice and purpose of using Facebook as a social media channel completely depends on the stated goal. If your objective is customer retention of current customers, maybe your purpose on this channel is massaging people. That tone of interaction is far different than the mood you'd be setting if the objective was new customer retention.
This is why it's so important to understand where your existing customers or new customers are conversing online. It makes no sense to invest time and resources in building a new channel / community if the target audience is already talking to each other in an established place.
Particpate in the Online Conversation Because the Phone's Ringing (35:20 - 35:39). The analogy Chris makes with social media is to think of each individual channel or community as a "ringing telephone." If you're still sitting on the sidelines by not participating in social media, you're essentially leaving the phone unanswered (and your its your existing customers or new potential customers who are on the other end of the phone line).
Sustainable, Long Term Success Requires a B-H-A-G
B-H-A-G Means Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goal (35:40 - 36:49). Charlene says this is the long term planning or vision part of your social media strategy. Without an understanding of the vision, your team may be setting up its social media initiatives incorrectly.
* Think thoughtfully about what this all could really be?
* What / How could social media transform my organization?
* What will our customer relationships look like?
* What's the overall impact on our business?
In other words, your company's individual B-H-A-G could be what inspires or provides the strategic foundation for the desired outcome.
If Corporate Fear Sets In, Always Envision What Could Happen If You Succeed.Charlene points to how the Best Buy TwelpForce initiative is transformational game changer. Many organizations would say an initiative like that is incredibly scary. BUT, the outcome is delivering an outstanding customer service experience that other retail competitors are not providing. This success did not occur overnight. It took Best Buy four (4) years to get where they are now.
The potential business outcome could be a powerful and inspirational rallying point which aligns all team members around what you want to achieve with social media.
Conclusion
Goal-setting and objectives are a common emphasized theme throughout The Business Value Behind Social Media series. Defining the business outcomes and results your company wants to achieve with social media should be determined and then prioritized.
Once you know what you want to achieve as a business outcome, it becomes clearer how to:
* Link the social media strategy to the overall corporate strategy
* Understand what you should be listening for in online customer conversations
* And once you know what to listen for in customer conversations, it can help you figure out where the online conversations are taking place.
For example, if you're a B2C company, you're probably being talked about in Facebook. If you're a B2b company, there's an increased likelihood conversations are taking place in LinkedIn Forums or LinkedIn Discussion Groups.
You may experience and achieve online visibility initially by just "jumping into social media. "But, if you want to be a relevant, long-term, online player, you better start figuring out your company's B-H-A-G to inspire the troops.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you will stop by next Saturday for Part 5: How to Measure Social Media's Impact on Your Business.
The Challenge of Managing Stakeholder Expectations: Social Media is not Free
Social Media Initiatives Requires Budgetary Funding. Here are some direct quotes supporting the fact that social media requires financial investment (even in a large organization like Intel).
* "We like to remind management and stakeholders that social media is not free."
* "Intel has been an early adopter in social media, but we haven't funded it as well as many of us would like."
* "We anticipate funding in three areas: expanding tools, infrastructure and analytics, because we need to expand our ability to measure and drive insight; social network site development; and campaign activation."
* "We'd like to scale social media [globally] in 2011. We're hoping that we secure budget to move funding into this area."
When Williamson asked Malone about budgets expanding at Intel to support social media marketing, she replied: "Yes, it would be an expansion and a more defined social media budget to support scaling, more interesting and dynamic social content and our enablement goals.
Processes, Infrastructure, and Marketing Integration Supporting Social Media
Intel's Social Media Center of Excellence Manages Social Media Guidelines, Training / Education. Intel established The Social Media Center of Excellence as part of the marketing strategy and campaigns team. This team reports to sales and marketing and ultimately to Intel's Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). The Social Media Center of Excellence manages social media guidelines and governance which is important because this team's role is to drive strategy, enablement, use of social media, and social media training and education within Intel.
Centralized Social Media Training and Guidelines. At Intel, the Social Media Center of Excellence makes sure that Intel's employees using social media (corporate marketing group and other business units) understand and know the latest guidelines. These guidelines include employees disclosing they are Intel employees in their Twitter "names or handles" and blogs.
Social Media Integration with Overall Marketing Requires Infrastructure. Social media started off at Intel organically, unstructured, and was led by early adopters. According to Malone, 2009 and 2010 have been about operationalizing social media and putting in an infrastructure. The goal in 2011 is to scale up social media use but ensure Intel does so strategically.
Successful Audience Engagement Requires A Social Media Team
2011's Biggest Challenges for Successful Social Media Engagement. Williamson asked Malone what will be the biggest challenges she faces in making social media engagement successful in 2011 and beyond. Malone makes two key statements:
"The resource issue is a big obstacle, because social media can be time-consuming. To be successful you need to fully engage in a two-way dialogue."
"And so I think the challenges are around having enough resources to get social media to scale."
You Need an In-House Social Media Staff Participating in Conversations. Malone points out how successful social media engagement must come from within the organization. In her view, the organizations successfully leveraging social media are participating and engaging with their own teams or as she says: "We believe it's important to stay engaged firsthand."
You Can't Outsource Genuine Social Media Engagement. Furthermore, Malone implies that "handing off social media execution to an agency" is a mistake. I agree with this point. I think her direct quote says it all:
"It's not the same a putting a media plan together, where you are briefing an agency to complete the plan. You can do some of that in social media, but I don't think the companies that are most successful in social media are handing off a whole lot."
Most importantly, Ms. Malone's viewpoint that genuine social media engagement requires significant resources in time and people (e.g., a dedicated team) bears repeating. The guidelines, the processes, and the team members required to enable Intel in "scaling up" its social media strategy will require major investments in time and people.
Social Media Engagement Requires Time + Commitment.This is "the commitment investment" that many organizations fail to honor. Social media engagement isn't about the technological tools (i.e., Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, Facebook, etc.). Social media engagement is about interacting with another human being who enjoys participating in the online conversation by sending out tweets and updating their personal status.
And it takes a lot of time, hard work, and commitment to genuinely and consistently engage those folks if you want to earn their trust over the long haul ...
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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