Things I’ve Learned from Lately #10

August 25, 2012 by Taylor Wiegert in Things I've Learned From Lately

“Things I’ve Learned from Lately” is a regular compilation of articles that have made me a smarter social media marketer. Hopefully, they’ll help you, too.

What Problem Am I Trying to Solve? – Olivier Blanchard explains the one question that companies too often don’t ask themselves at the start of a project. This leads to wasted time, resources and the ability to have something with proven results.

Key Takeaway: Social media is not a silver bullet, but it can be effective in the right circumstances. However, determining whether or not it’s worth the investment comes with determining the problem you’re trying to solve. Social media may be the solution, it may be part of the solution or it may not have a place at all. Without an answer to “What problem am I trying to solve?” you’ll never know.

Social Media Winter is Coming… - Any Game of Thrones fans out there? Anti-Social Media explains the complicated relationship between Twitter and developers and the recent downturn we’ve seen. Yes, some developers are just fine, but it’s ridiculous to think that developers aren’t a little (or more) upset with Twitter’s recent changes to the API. This post explains whey developers might be feeling pretty upset with the recent changes.

Key Takeaway: We are in a period of change right now. Social media is maturing. Facebook’s IPO is raising questions around social media, developers are petitioning Twitter over API changes and App.net has gained attention as a potential alternative to the social networks that have become part of common culture. Things are shifting. Social media will remain as it fulfills an inherent human desire, but platforms are shifting. There’s angst in the air, and I think the end result, whatever it is, will be something better than what we have now.

The Search for Social Media Measurement…Continues – Nikhil Sethi writes in AdAge about the disconnect between marketers demanding consistency with metrics in the social space and metrics used in traditional marketing. He explains that people behave differently when using social media than they do with other media, which means we can’t use the same metrics as the environments and behavior are very different than with other forms of media.

Key Takeaway: Social media can be frustrating from a measurement perspective because it’s made up of thousands of different platforms each with their own metrics and KPIs that brands can use to evaluate effectiveness. That’s the world we live in, but marketers can start to overcome this challenge by making sure the social metrics tie back to overarching business objectives. Every advertising effort should tie to those objectives. That’s where things can be brought together on an even playing field.

The Challenge of Scaling Social Media – Mitch Joel outlines the challenge of scaling social media. The bigger a brand gets and the more fragmented its social presence, the more difficult it is to truly connect with consumers.

Key Takeaway: Without question, it’s almost impossible to maintain the custom, personal feel a brand is going for when starting out in social media. The solutions aren’t perfect, but the right tools and the right staff (attitude, skill and size) can make a big difference. Brands that do get big in social media should also look for opportunities to ‘feel small’ by reaching out personally to advocates and offering thank yous. At a certain point, this can’t be done for everyone, but it can be done consistently to show that your brand is indeed listening.

Finding the Story in Measurement

July 31, 2012 by Taylor Wiegert in Measurement

Metrics are nothing without perspective, and for the most part, marketers accept this. Still, we don’t always remember it when it comes to social media. Social media metrics are either a foreign language that we don’t even pretend to understand or we take them at face value--the higher the better, and things can always be higher.

Make the Metrics Tell a Story

Both perspectives do nothing for a marketer other than add more confusion to the mix and perpetuate the myth that social media can’t impact an overall business. Instead, our challenge should be to turn metrics into a story we can tell. The only way to do that is to view social media outside of a silo.

Look outside of Facebook and Twitter to identify where consumers come face-to-face with a purchase decision. Track referral traffic to your website to determine how social channels drove to a particular promotion. Provide exclusive content and information to your social followers and watch the effect it has on in-store behavior.

Likes, followers, retweets and comments are all KPIs, but they aren’t objectives. They let you know how you’re performing on a platform. You have to dig deeper to determine if there’s an effect on the business.

It all starts with having the end in mind--the objective you’re aiming to achieve. Objectives are more than followers or likes. Objectives are business results, and you don’t have to take the standard social media metrics at face value. When we dig deeper into the platform KPIs, we can turn them into insightful information that tie back directly to objectives and show tangible success.

Things I’ve Learned from Lately #1

June 09, 2012 by Taylor Wiegert in Things I've Learned From Lately

“Things I’ve Learned from Lately” is a regular compilation of articles that have made me a smarter social media marketer. Hopefully, they’ll help you, too.

Social Should Be Part of Company DNA – Giselle Abramovich gets the opinions of five digital influencers on the role social media can and should play within organizations. Spoiler alert… it’s much deeper than having a Facebook Page. Thought leaders discuss leveraging data, interlocking your marketing channels, using social proof and more.

Key Takeaway: Social media belongs in company DNA and should not be viewed as just another channel to push information out to consumers.

Social Media Under-Valued and Under-Invested – AdAge discusses Rex Briggs’ new book in which he finds that 40% of marketers’ budgets are wasted, and they aren’t spending enough on social media. Marketers are undervaluing the importance of advocacy and using social media as just another add-on for awareness campaigns.

Key Takeaway: Social media is not an awareness channel. Its role is to create and encourage advocacy, but that benefit is the result of time and investment. Social media should not be viewed as a “free” supplement to work already being done. It should be part of budget and planning considerations from the very beginning.

The Social Landscape Changes Constantly – This is more of a “wow… that’s crazy” kind of article from Jay Baer as he outlines 11 shocking social media stats, including 56% of Americans have a profile on a social networking site, and Facebook has a big influence on purchase decisions.

Key Takeaway: For every social media stat out there, you can usually find another that says the opposite, so I tend to take stats with a grain of salt unless they’re very reputable. The report the stats are pulled from come from Edison, so you can bet that it’s reputable. The biggest takeaway is that the landscape is changing constantly, so we can’t take facts for granted. What was true yesterday may not be true today. Always stay on top of how things are evolving.

Listen with Purpose – Scott Fiaschetti outlines some of the common misconceptions about social listening. It’s hip. It’s cool. Clients want to do it. Marketers, however, need to understand why they’re listening and what they want to get from it.

Key Takeaway: Social listening is one aspect of social media marketing. It’s a means to an end, and marketers need to understand what that desired end is before they start listening. There should be a desired objective. Otherwise, you’re listening just to do it. That’s a waste of time and money.

Manage Social Media Measurement Expectations - Social media isn’t lacking in data. Brands can prove the value of their social media efforts, but expectations need to be reset, according to Adam Kimiec of Campbell Soup.

Key Takeaway: Align early on a measurement framework and evaluate often (before, during and after). Social media isn’t designed to deliver short-term, immediate value when a brand is just getting started. A brand investing in social media is investing in the long-term value of a community.

Temper Enthusiasm, Embrace Possibilities

April 11, 2012 by Taylor Wiegert in Measurement

The idea of social media marketing usually triggers one of two reactions from marketers just getting into the space.

First, there are the evangelists who believe social media is the answer to the business’ prayers. “Engaging with consumers” and “establishing a dialogue” will take the business to the next level. The challenge here is that social media is weight down with unreasonable expectations.

Then there are the skeptics. They’ve heard the pundits, seen the case studies and have read the trades, but something,holds them back from believing social media is truly worth the investment. Instead, they’re acting because they feel they have to, which leads to a lack of real support needed for social media to succeed for the business.

Both mindsets are correct… and wrong. Social media can and should play a critical role in overall marketing efforts, but the benefits of social media marketing can be exaggerated. Expectations should be strategic, not hyperbolic.

Social Doesn’t Solve Everything

Social media isn’t the answer to each marketer’s challenge. There are some things social media will never be good at. For example, driving mass awareness may be an objective for an established social brand that has built up a community of advocates it can easily mobilize. However, brands just getting started in the space can’t expect to start a “social campaign” and expect high awareness. Other forms of media like television will be far more successful.

Brands need to first understand where they stand right now in terms of their social media efforts. Expectations should be set based on where the brand is, not where others who have been in the space for a significant amount of time are.

In the words of Mitch Joel, “Everything is ‘With’ Not ‘Instead Of.’” Social media doesn’t replace anything that’s already out there. Instead, it has the ability to make other marketing components better, and they have the ability to make social media work harder for the business.

Set Objectives and Execute for Success

Social media does things very well that no other form of media can accomplish at such scale. Social media allows brands to improve their online reputations, connect with customers on a more ongoing basis, optimize customer service, impact a brand’s online share of voice and so on. Social media can’t be beaten in its ability to drive the speed and velocity of online word of mouth.

Both the evangelists and the skeptics need to understand what social can and can’t do by giving a social media plan clear, achievable objectives that are best achieved through social media and measuring their efforts against the objectives. This allows each group to understand what social media will achieve and what it will not.

Skeptic or vocal evangelist, all parties should strike a balance by tempering enthusiasm while embracing the possibilities.

Where Is Your Social Media Plan Going?

June 28, 2011 by Taylor Wiegert in Strategic Planning

Source: Stock.XchngWe’ve all been on road trips before. Whether it was a summer vacation with family or a spring break trip with friends, there was always a destination of some sort. The destination may have been final or just a stop along the way. Either way, you had a pretty good idea of where you wanted to be and where you wanted to go.

Strategic marketing plans follow the same approach. Goals are set, benchmarks are aligned on and efforts are made to achieve both. So why do many marketers break the rules when it comes to social media? The reasons range from “we set it up as a toe dip in the social space” to “we don’t know what to measure” to even, “there was pressure internally to get started.”

Social media can and should be much more than an experiment for businesses. With time and money constantly strained, businesses should be able to articulate their social media goals and why they’re using it.

A trip without a plan or a destination in mind will result in a zigzag path, an empty gas tank and nothing to show for it. You won’t see what you wanted to see, you might get lost and, most importantly, you might not make it back home and get stuck along the way with an overheated van, no phone and a dead battery.

Planning Your Trip

You don’t know where you want to go unless you know where you’ve been. Whether an organization is just getting started using social media or has for some time without clear direction, it needs to evaluate its past efforts to see what its assets are and what can be leveraged for the future. From there, it’s time to determine where the organization will go.

The goals (destination) start at the root of the an organization. They start with the businesses objectives, short- and long-term. The short-term focus will allow you to prove success early on, but everything should be designed to build for long-term success. After all, social media has the ability to work with an overall marketing mix to achieve business objectives.

Generalities are not an option. The objectives need to be put in place with clear, tangible and measurable goals related to what the business can achieve. It’s essential that everyone in an organization understands what is trying to be achieved, not only so success can be proven but also so success isn’t determined by arbitrary factors down the road.

Objectives need to be aligned with indicators of success that will allow the organization to see if progress is being made toward the target. In the social space these might include the number of positive brand mentions online, the level of engagement with the organization’s content, how many people are following the organization in the social space and so on. These indicators need to ladder up to overall business objectives.

Planning Isn’t Glamorous, but It’s Worth It

Aligning goals with business objectives, setting realistic targets and knowing what metrics will help your organization measure success and which won’t offers a destination that organizations can plan around. When there’s something to plan around, the social media tactics that can contribute to achieving business objectives will have a cohesive thread, make sense and have a level of accountability that they wouldn’t have otherwise. In the end, this allows the organization to get to where it wants to go.

Safe travels.