Measuring Social Media ROI is a top-of-the mind subject for most business owners. Today I want to talk to you about the basics of measuring your social networking followers.
There are two important things that you have to have in place before we can calculate the strength of your social networking followers. First, you must have some kind of call to action on your website that entices people to become a lead/customer for your product or service. This can be any form (preferably on your website) where people can submit information for you to contact them directly. Or, if you sell a product, purchase your product directly.
Secondly, it is important that you have some kind of tracking system in place that allows you to see how many visitors came to your website, how many of them answered your call to action, and where these people came from. Without this, you have to rely on communication and word of mouth to get a rough idea on how many people found you on social networking websites. I use Google's free Analytics service, which does all of that for me. Once you have those two things in place, you'll be able to do basic calculations on how many active followers you have.
How to measure a follower's value
o Look at the total number of clicks to your website from each social media platform in a month, and divide that by the number of posts you made. This gives you an average visit per post.
o Look at page views per visit, time spent on site and visitor paths to identify what percentage of social media visitors become leads or customers.
o Using these metrics, you can find out how many of your social networking followers actually show interest in your company, or, actually purchased from your company.
Now, this is a very basic way of calculating the monetary ROI (return on investment) of your followers, but also gives you a better idea on how many of your followers are interested in furthering their relationships with you, and your business. While you're doing these calculations, it's also not a bad idea to see how many people commented on or interacted with your social networking page. These people should not be forgotten when calculating the traffic generated on your website, the reason being is that most social networking websites publish a link to your profile on that person's profile when they comment on your business page. This can spark viral marketing, and possibly gain you more customers.
ROI measurements are another subject that goes very deep with social networking, and is too much to cover in this small report. Another important avenue to look into is the importance of customer retention for your company. You need to measure the effect that customer retention has on your company (what will losing a customer cost your company). Since social networking is a perfect way to build and establish relationships (and help people with their problems) you can use these new online measures as a form of customer service. Finally, you want to measure how many people are now actively talking about your community online, or interacting with you online. To get the highest ROI of social media marketing, you will have to measure each of these three avenues, based on your company's numbers.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5971655
Showing posts with label Quantifying the Invisible Audience in Social Networks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quantifying the Invisible Audience in Social Networks. Show all posts
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Wednesday, 31 July 2013
DO's & DON'Ts for bloggers
We got the lowdown on all things blogging from some of the top industry experts in the blogosphere. If you’re wondering what you should and shouldn’t be doing when you’re blogging – check out our expert panel’s top tips.
Here’s what you SHOULD be doing:
"DO be tenacious - don't give up, regular and disciplined posting pays off eventually." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
"DO think about brands and how you can work with them." Vicki Fogwill – Social Media Manager for Next.
"DO make real world connections as well as online ones - the contacts you can make at events and seminars will be invaluable." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
"DO value your work and your own worth." Kat Williams – Rocknrollbride.com.
"DO become friends with other bloggers. Rival blogs in London have become my best friends – it becomes a family. You should see bloggers as friends rather than enemies. Networking is huge!" Emily Johnston – Fashionfoiegras.com.
"DO look for stories and be proactive." Pat McNulty – Wed Editor at Cosmopolitan.co.uk.
"DO collaborate. Invite other bloggers onto your blog or channel then do the same with them. Post or publish together, linking to each other’s posts - your traffic should benefit." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
Now take a read on what you SHOULDN’T be doing:
"DON’T blog/vlog thinking it’s a fast track to riches or even freebies. The audience and potential clients can tell and will run a mile. The pure passion and enthusiasm of your blog is what will make it successful." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
"DON’T just email asking for free stuff and invites to events." Vicki Fogwill – Social Media Manager for Next.
"DON’T write things and assume everyone is interested. You may not have an audience." Andreas Pouros – Greenlight Digital.
"DON’T be controversial for the sake of it." Kat Williams – Rocknrollbride.com.
"DON’T get frustrated. Stick with it – it’s not always a quick fix." Emily Johnston – Fashionfoiegras.com.
"DON’T make enemies of other bloggers or brands. If you have a non-constructive, negative opinion of someone or something, keep it to yourself or tell your Mum, just don't tweet or post about it." Dominic Smales - Gleam Digital.
"DON’T give away your rights or content. Your audience is valuable - so don't be afraid to constantly question, 'What's in it for me?'" Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
Read more: http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/blogs/cosmo-blog-awards-2013/Do's-and-don'ts-for-bloggers#ixzz2acJQTJRo
Here’s what you SHOULD be doing:
"DO be tenacious - don't give up, regular and disciplined posting pays off eventually." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
"DO think about brands and how you can work with them." Vicki Fogwill – Social Media Manager for Next.
"DO make real world connections as well as online ones - the contacts you can make at events and seminars will be invaluable." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
"DO value your work and your own worth." Kat Williams – Rocknrollbride.com.
"DO become friends with other bloggers. Rival blogs in London have become my best friends – it becomes a family. You should see bloggers as friends rather than enemies. Networking is huge!" Emily Johnston – Fashionfoiegras.com.
"DO look for stories and be proactive." Pat McNulty – Wed Editor at Cosmopolitan.co.uk.
"DO collaborate. Invite other bloggers onto your blog or channel then do the same with them. Post or publish together, linking to each other’s posts - your traffic should benefit." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
Now take a read on what you SHOULDN’T be doing:
"DON’T blog/vlog thinking it’s a fast track to riches or even freebies. The audience and potential clients can tell and will run a mile. The pure passion and enthusiasm of your blog is what will make it successful." Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
"DON’T just email asking for free stuff and invites to events." Vicki Fogwill – Social Media Manager for Next.
"DON’T write things and assume everyone is interested. You may not have an audience." Andreas Pouros – Greenlight Digital.
"DON’T be controversial for the sake of it." Kat Williams – Rocknrollbride.com.
"DON’T get frustrated. Stick with it – it’s not always a quick fix." Emily Johnston – Fashionfoiegras.com.
"DON’T make enemies of other bloggers or brands. If you have a non-constructive, negative opinion of someone or something, keep it to yourself or tell your Mum, just don't tweet or post about it." Dominic Smales - Gleam Digital.
"DON’T give away your rights or content. Your audience is valuable - so don't be afraid to constantly question, 'What's in it for me?'" Dominic Smales – Gleam Digital.
Read more: http://www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/blogs/cosmo-blog-awards-2013/Do's-and-don'ts-for-bloggers#ixzz2acJQTJRo
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Google Plus Etiquette – The Do’s and Don’ts
A lot has been written about Google Plus and how people should use it, but in truth it is still a platform many people are still trying to get to grips with. It’s yet to really, fully establish itself (although it does have somewhere in the region of 20 million + users) but Google is tying it in more and more to many of its existing platforms. I personally love it and think it offers some key advantages over platforms such as Facebook andTwitter. Having become quite a big user of the platform i have learnt quite a lot and today i wanted to provide a round up of mine and others view of how to use Google Plus.
Guidelines on Posting Messages
As with any social space the key thing is to be yourself while being mindful of others. Audiences on certain platforms prefer certain types of content and communication methods and Google Plus is no different. If you are posting four or five things within a very short time period then this is going to annoy people. Why? Well, because you will dominate someones stream. This is probably the single quickest way to piss someone off on Google Plus. So avoid this at all costs.
The other big consideration is who you share your posts with. Google Plus is great because it lets you segment the people you share specific posts with. This means you don’t share things that won’t be of interest to certain people in your sphere. Remember if you are going to make your posts public then they will very much be this. Anyone can comment them. If you are tagging people in those posts makes sure you ask them. As they would also get public comments and responses.
A hotly debated feature of Google Plus is the ‘notify people about this post’ feature. If you select this then everyone in your selected circles will be notified. This is ok if it is a post for close friends but i would avoid it for any other audiences. This is another thing that will annoy your followers. You can also turn this feature off by click here.
Do’s: be yourself, share relevant posts with relevant circles, be creative, be respectful
Don’ts: notify every user of new posts, share all posts with all circles, post large number of posts in short succession, don’t be offensive, don’t post private pictures publicly
Guidelines for Re-Sharing
Re-sharing is a slightly trickier affair with accreditations and privacy. If you are re-sharing something that is already in the public domain then it is good practice to tag the post with some like ‘via +originalpostername’ and also provide a comment or opinion. This lets people know why you re-shared it and the original poster know that there stuff is being shared in good faith.
The area where caution is required is when you are considering re-sharing a post by a friend or someone in your circles who have only shared their post with specific audiences. There maybe a reason why they limited the post to certain circles, for example privacy. As a result you don’t want to be re-sharing this publicly as this would then mean anyone could see the post. It is sometimes difficult to remember this but is very important.
Do’s: Consider using +1 rather than a re-share where appropriate, re-share interest posts to interested circles, always accredit the original author
Don’ts: Don’t re-share private posts of others publicly, don’t re-share stuff without accrediting the original author
Etiquette in Hangouts
This really comes from my own experiences of hangouts but might not be applicable to all of them. The first thing is to ensure that you mute your microphone when not talking. This is because background noise can really disrupt a hangout and annoy other users. If you are not actively participating in a hangout you should also make sure you logout. This is because spaces on popular hangouts are limited and someone else can benefit from being involved. Other things include testing your camera and microphone before you login. This video about Google Plus Etiquette as posted by +Katerine Graman rounds it up nicely.
Do’s: Test your cam and microphone before hand, share your ideas, mute your microphone when not talking
Don’ts: Have loud music or noise blasting in the background, but in repeatedly, talk out of context
Check-ins
This feature doesn’t seem to be heavily used yet but i suspect it might do more with the recent changes to Google Local pages. If you have not come across these before it is when someone shares their current location through Google Plus. The FourSquare platform is currently much better at this but anyway the key thing here is to ensure that you only share your location with friends. Not everyone is going to be interested in your movements, especially people who don’t know you.
So as you can see there is nothing here that isn’t common sense. However people do often fall down on the smallest things. The main one i experience is over posting. I have unfollowed a number of people because of this. I could adjust my stream settings but frankly its not something i can be bothered to do for one person. If you want to read some other great posts on this i would recommend checking out JAANA NYSTRÖM’s post, Don’t Feed the Animals posts or Axel Kratel’s. All interesting reads and helped to form the basis of this post.
Social Media Tips - Expand The Voice Of Your Business
The world of social media is ever changing and is very fast paced. To use the social sites available for your business here are some social media tips for you to get you started. Keep reading as there's some great stuff for you if you're starting out
1. Firstly you need to be yourself on social media. Just because you are a business doesn't mean you have to be corporate. In fact, on social sites people are looking to connect with people. They want to know who is behind the business and not be faced with some faceless corporate entity.
2. Here's one of the most important tips of all. Listen to your customers. They're making the effort to be on social media. They're looking at your stuff, they're obviously interested and social sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter are fantastic sites for you to find out what they're saying. Look at their posts, read their comments, and above all else take action on what you learn. They can be your biggest advocates so treat them like real people and listen to them.
3. Social media is a long term game so you need to be patient. It takes time to build a brand, but because of the reach of social media, once you've got your name out there, it's very hard to hold back the floodgates! (If you do it properly). Give helpful tips about your niche, interact with people and that will go a long way to building and establishing your brand.
4. You need to make the most of every opportunity to get your name out on social media. There are many different social media platforms and if you're serious about building your business using social media, then try to structure your posts to the various platforms. One of the most important tips is to have a schedule of what you're going to post and stick to that schedule. That way you've got a plan of what you're going to say, it prevents you going off on tangents, and will build a better brand for you in the long term.
5. We said above that social and online media is forever changing and that means you need to be flexible. Websites change all the time, Facebook is forever changing and new players are constantly coming into the market, so you need to be nimble enough to allow for these changes. Post great content and you can't go wrong.
6. Collaborating with others is key to your success. Don't think of your competition as competition. Think of ways that you can work together to spread both brands. Social media makes companies very transparent and if you're a small business collaborating with other similar businesses is a great way to get your name visible and noticed.
7. The last of our tips is to be humble about your achievements. You need to let people know what you're doing as you can be sure your competition is doing exactly that (but read point six above!). But you don't need to blow your trumpet from the rooftops. Just be subtle and quietly let people know about what you're doing and if you treat people with respect, and show them your successes you will find your social media marketing to be much more effective.
These seven tips give you an overview about how you should treat your social interactions. You use social and online media to keep your business and brand ahead of the curve and to give yourself high visibility. Use these easy ideas to turn marketing strategies into a successful brand.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7265491
1. Firstly you need to be yourself on social media. Just because you are a business doesn't mean you have to be corporate. In fact, on social sites people are looking to connect with people. They want to know who is behind the business and not be faced with some faceless corporate entity.
2. Here's one of the most important tips of all. Listen to your customers. They're making the effort to be on social media. They're looking at your stuff, they're obviously interested and social sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter are fantastic sites for you to find out what they're saying. Look at their posts, read their comments, and above all else take action on what you learn. They can be your biggest advocates so treat them like real people and listen to them.
3. Social media is a long term game so you need to be patient. It takes time to build a brand, but because of the reach of social media, once you've got your name out there, it's very hard to hold back the floodgates! (If you do it properly). Give helpful tips about your niche, interact with people and that will go a long way to building and establishing your brand.
4. You need to make the most of every opportunity to get your name out on social media. There are many different social media platforms and if you're serious about building your business using social media, then try to structure your posts to the various platforms. One of the most important tips is to have a schedule of what you're going to post and stick to that schedule. That way you've got a plan of what you're going to say, it prevents you going off on tangents, and will build a better brand for you in the long term.
5. We said above that social and online media is forever changing and that means you need to be flexible. Websites change all the time, Facebook is forever changing and new players are constantly coming into the market, so you need to be nimble enough to allow for these changes. Post great content and you can't go wrong.
6. Collaborating with others is key to your success. Don't think of your competition as competition. Think of ways that you can work together to spread both brands. Social media makes companies very transparent and if you're a small business collaborating with other similar businesses is a great way to get your name visible and noticed.
7. The last of our tips is to be humble about your achievements. You need to let people know what you're doing as you can be sure your competition is doing exactly that (but read point six above!). But you don't need to blow your trumpet from the rooftops. Just be subtle and quietly let people know about what you're doing and if you treat people with respect, and show them your successes you will find your social media marketing to be much more effective.
These seven tips give you an overview about how you should treat your social interactions. You use social and online media to keep your business and brand ahead of the curve and to give yourself high visibility. Use these easy ideas to turn marketing strategies into a successful brand.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7265491
Monday, 29 July 2013
Social Media Tips - 4 Top Tactics For Increasing Contacts and Online Influence
Are you a small business with desires of growing big quickly? Using simple social media tips, techniques and strategies you can do it with relative ease. Here is an example of one of my small business coaching clients who followed some easy to follow practical advice I shared with them:
With a daily advertising budget of less than $5, you can grow your site to:
1. 29,000 members, then to over 46,000 members within a matter of a few months using a combination of Search Engine Optimization (SEO),
2. Starting a LinkedIn group (currently has over 3,000 members)
3. Twitter announcements of leads (2,000 followers and growing),
4. A corporate blog.
Using these simple approaches, anyone can do it. However, it takes persistence on a daily basis. By following these steps you will see your revenue increase matching or exceeding your growth in membership. Not only that, but in the process you will quickly become known in your industry as an invaluable source of leads as well as being incredibly inexpensive.
In addition to these strategies, your business can be as easy as a pure B2B Web 2.0 endeavor in that all of your content is supplied by your members. Lots of your projects may come from issuing agencies and organizations, but the vast majority will come from your members that are participating in your exchange program. This social gathering of content will keep your site fresh and exceptionally active as more and more members join on a daily basis.
If you are out to attract prospective customers and develop your online presence and exposure, you owe it to yourself and the financial future of your business to learn everything you can about social media.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3478955
With a daily advertising budget of less than $5, you can grow your site to:
1. 29,000 members, then to over 46,000 members within a matter of a few months using a combination of Search Engine Optimization (SEO),
2. Starting a LinkedIn group (currently has over 3,000 members)
3. Twitter announcements of leads (2,000 followers and growing),
4. A corporate blog.
Using these simple approaches, anyone can do it. However, it takes persistence on a daily basis. By following these steps you will see your revenue increase matching or exceeding your growth in membership. Not only that, but in the process you will quickly become known in your industry as an invaluable source of leads as well as being incredibly inexpensive.
In addition to these strategies, your business can be as easy as a pure B2B Web 2.0 endeavor in that all of your content is supplied by your members. Lots of your projects may come from issuing agencies and organizations, but the vast majority will come from your members that are participating in your exchange program. This social gathering of content will keep your site fresh and exceptionally active as more and more members join on a daily basis.
If you are out to attract prospective customers and develop your online presence and exposure, you owe it to yourself and the financial future of your business to learn everything you can about social media.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3478955
Does Your Company Have a Social Media Plan?
Social media and conversation marketing have the potential for transforming brands like no other communication methodology ever employed. The reason? It transforms the fundamental nature of the traditional brand/customer relationship. Historically, companies have used traditional media to advertise in a uni-directional way. It used to be all about broadcasting a message - with feedback loops tied chiefly to the ultimate purchase of a company's product - or worse, no purchase at all.
Thanks in part to the transformative impact of online social media, that brand/customer relationship is experiencing a sea-change.. As increasingly informed and savvy consumers begin to demand more transparency and honesty from businesses they support, companies are no longer able to hide behind an ability to fully control the message. Steadily, businesses are now leveraging social media as both an offensive and defensive means to forge new and solidify existing relationships while building trust through transparency. The most successful of these organizations are now doing much more than simply monitoring the consumer pulse... they are engaging and interacting on a real-time basis with existing and potential customers, throughout the entire buying cycle.
In some respects, today's businesses face the same challenges that early marketers experienced with emerging print and electronic advertising mediums, the most important of which is building meaningful and lasting relationships with new and existing customers. The key difference this time around is that successful marketing efforts increasingly hinge on the ability to reciprocate, in authentic ways and real-time ways, with a growing and increasingly sophisticated online consumer audience.
That's why, planning for consumer engagement through social media is an increasingly central consideration for today's business owners!
However, the pitfalls of a poorly or ill-conceived plan are myriad, and social media and conversation marketing by themselves are only a part of an integrated marketing solution. Although it's important to stress the value of building relationships through social media, it's incredibly difficult to achieve success when you're developing those relationships in an unstructured fashion.
Thus, social media is not to be performed in a haphazard way. Rather, it works best when applied in a logical sequence using a more structured approach. The mistake that most often leads to frustration and ultimately, abandonment, is not having a plan of attack!
Instead of thinking of social media as a freestanding tactic, first consider how you can add social media components into your existing marketing plan. Before you begin any social media campaign, you should think about incorporating these three elements specific to these marketing channels:
1. Know what you don't know. 2. Determine how much time you have to commit to a social media campaign 3. Understand your audience objectives within each social network 4. Dovetailing social media objectives with where your customers "live"
Know What You Don't Know
Social media and conversation marketing are not ends unto themselves... like traditional marketing, they are simply tools, albeit transformative tools, to building brand, market affinity and sales. And while it may be too much to expect even the wisest "old dogs" to learn to master all the nuances of these "new tricks", true wisdom stems from surrounding yourself with people who get it. Don't let fear control, instead become intellectually engaged in ways that leverages your knowledge of your core business, customer and products and work with teams who can help convert your vision into the social media and conversion marketing space.
Social Media Time Commitment
It's essential to understand how much time you have to devote to social media. The online world is a vastly different place than the traditional advertising space largely due to the lightning fast and highly reciprocal communications the web presents. In terms of product marketing, people now have the ability to share experiences, provide recommendations and promote products and services with speeds unmatched in other forms of media. Positive experiences, as well as bad ones, are shared easily and can make their way through the online landscape with an immediacy never before experienced.
As a result, dipping a tentative toe in social media waters without knowing how to swim (or at least tread water) is a prescription for looking at the sky from the bottom of a pool. Nor is it right to spend time developing valuable online relationships, only to appear and disappear like a social media ninja. The best results are often achieved with steady participation, constant communication and engaging interaction with your audience. People will want to hear what you have to say as long as it provides real value to the community.
But note, online communities can spot an online poacher from a mile away! Savvy users of social media know what this term means but for those of you who don't, online poachers are only there for one thing: to use social media merely as a platform to broadcast their marketing messages in much the same manner as they would with traditional media. Don't fall into this trap. Make sure that you are prepared to get involved in more than a one way communication.
Ultimately, the only way to succeed is to make time and commit to an on-going online relationship campaign. Know that once you decide to engage your customers in the virtual world, there should be no turning back.
Understanding Audience Objectives Within Each Social Network:
What is the audience objective within each social network? The great thing about social networks is the ability to pinpoint with precision special interest groups that dovetail nicely with your company's mission. But beware the trap of hitting the "right" audience with the "wrong" message.
For example, professional networks like LinkedIn are not really the best place to deliver your sales pitch as they often fall on deaf ears. For instance, if your company sells women's high fashion clothing, you'll likely miss your mark with a buy now sales pitch on the 1,550+ entertainment groups found on LinkedIn. Here, you'll be better served offering helpful content relating more to industry news, trends, jobs and advice. On the flip side, Facebook's 100,000+ entertainment groups offer a tremendous opportunity to find and interact with audiences that may already be talking about your products. This may sound like marketing 101 stuff but no social media plan should be undertaken without understanding network- specific audience objectives.
Dovetailing Social Media Objectives with Where Your Customers "Live"
This said, where do you go online to find that audience? Social networks, much like traditional marketing channels, do tend to cater to specific audiences. However, unlike offline marketing mediums, social networks require companies to engage with consumers on their own terms. Therefore, it's important to do some research to find out which social networks are right for your business' message.
At a high level, social networks like LinkedIn focus more on professionals while Faceook and MySpace are more informal and cater to X and Y gen audiences alike. But the real value (and opportunity) with sites like LinkedIn and Facebook rests in the ability to get involved with a variety of mini networks such as Groups, Pages and Causes.
Here, businesses can find and interact with consumers in a highly relevant setting. Say your company sells high performance mountain bikes. There are currently an amazing number of Facebook Groups (3,600) devoted to mountain biking and over 35 on LinkedIn! Your company's target audience is here and might already be talking about your products so why not join in the conversation?
Facebook allows companies to create a free Fan Page where your product evangelists can "Become a Fan" and get breaking news, tips and even special Fan discount offers. In addition, Fan Pages can be marketed to other Facebook users much like the way Google's AdWords paid search service works. If your company doesn't already have a Facebook Fan Page, it is highly recommended to start one now.
The internet marketing era may have only come about in the decade or so but the rate of evolution is, to put it mildly, a revolution. We haven't yet reached the pinnacle nor can anyone say for sure where social media will be or what role it will play in business communications in the coming years but one thing is certain, having the right plan and committing to its proper execution will place your company at the forefront of the new age of digital communications.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3303009
Thanks in part to the transformative impact of online social media, that brand/customer relationship is experiencing a sea-change.. As increasingly informed and savvy consumers begin to demand more transparency and honesty from businesses they support, companies are no longer able to hide behind an ability to fully control the message. Steadily, businesses are now leveraging social media as both an offensive and defensive means to forge new and solidify existing relationships while building trust through transparency. The most successful of these organizations are now doing much more than simply monitoring the consumer pulse... they are engaging and interacting on a real-time basis with existing and potential customers, throughout the entire buying cycle.
In some respects, today's businesses face the same challenges that early marketers experienced with emerging print and electronic advertising mediums, the most important of which is building meaningful and lasting relationships with new and existing customers. The key difference this time around is that successful marketing efforts increasingly hinge on the ability to reciprocate, in authentic ways and real-time ways, with a growing and increasingly sophisticated online consumer audience.
That's why, planning for consumer engagement through social media is an increasingly central consideration for today's business owners!
However, the pitfalls of a poorly or ill-conceived plan are myriad, and social media and conversation marketing by themselves are only a part of an integrated marketing solution. Although it's important to stress the value of building relationships through social media, it's incredibly difficult to achieve success when you're developing those relationships in an unstructured fashion.
Thus, social media is not to be performed in a haphazard way. Rather, it works best when applied in a logical sequence using a more structured approach. The mistake that most often leads to frustration and ultimately, abandonment, is not having a plan of attack!
Instead of thinking of social media as a freestanding tactic, first consider how you can add social media components into your existing marketing plan. Before you begin any social media campaign, you should think about incorporating these three elements specific to these marketing channels:
1. Know what you don't know. 2. Determine how much time you have to commit to a social media campaign 3. Understand your audience objectives within each social network 4. Dovetailing social media objectives with where your customers "live"
Know What You Don't Know
Social media and conversation marketing are not ends unto themselves... like traditional marketing, they are simply tools, albeit transformative tools, to building brand, market affinity and sales. And while it may be too much to expect even the wisest "old dogs" to learn to master all the nuances of these "new tricks", true wisdom stems from surrounding yourself with people who get it. Don't let fear control, instead become intellectually engaged in ways that leverages your knowledge of your core business, customer and products and work with teams who can help convert your vision into the social media and conversion marketing space.
Social Media Time Commitment
It's essential to understand how much time you have to devote to social media. The online world is a vastly different place than the traditional advertising space largely due to the lightning fast and highly reciprocal communications the web presents. In terms of product marketing, people now have the ability to share experiences, provide recommendations and promote products and services with speeds unmatched in other forms of media. Positive experiences, as well as bad ones, are shared easily and can make their way through the online landscape with an immediacy never before experienced.
As a result, dipping a tentative toe in social media waters without knowing how to swim (or at least tread water) is a prescription for looking at the sky from the bottom of a pool. Nor is it right to spend time developing valuable online relationships, only to appear and disappear like a social media ninja. The best results are often achieved with steady participation, constant communication and engaging interaction with your audience. People will want to hear what you have to say as long as it provides real value to the community.
But note, online communities can spot an online poacher from a mile away! Savvy users of social media know what this term means but for those of you who don't, online poachers are only there for one thing: to use social media merely as a platform to broadcast their marketing messages in much the same manner as they would with traditional media. Don't fall into this trap. Make sure that you are prepared to get involved in more than a one way communication.
Ultimately, the only way to succeed is to make time and commit to an on-going online relationship campaign. Know that once you decide to engage your customers in the virtual world, there should be no turning back.
Understanding Audience Objectives Within Each Social Network:
What is the audience objective within each social network? The great thing about social networks is the ability to pinpoint with precision special interest groups that dovetail nicely with your company's mission. But beware the trap of hitting the "right" audience with the "wrong" message.
For example, professional networks like LinkedIn are not really the best place to deliver your sales pitch as they often fall on deaf ears. For instance, if your company sells women's high fashion clothing, you'll likely miss your mark with a buy now sales pitch on the 1,550+ entertainment groups found on LinkedIn. Here, you'll be better served offering helpful content relating more to industry news, trends, jobs and advice. On the flip side, Facebook's 100,000+ entertainment groups offer a tremendous opportunity to find and interact with audiences that may already be talking about your products. This may sound like marketing 101 stuff but no social media plan should be undertaken without understanding network- specific audience objectives.
Dovetailing Social Media Objectives with Where Your Customers "Live"
This said, where do you go online to find that audience? Social networks, much like traditional marketing channels, do tend to cater to specific audiences. However, unlike offline marketing mediums, social networks require companies to engage with consumers on their own terms. Therefore, it's important to do some research to find out which social networks are right for your business' message.
At a high level, social networks like LinkedIn focus more on professionals while Faceook and MySpace are more informal and cater to X and Y gen audiences alike. But the real value (and opportunity) with sites like LinkedIn and Facebook rests in the ability to get involved with a variety of mini networks such as Groups, Pages and Causes.
Here, businesses can find and interact with consumers in a highly relevant setting. Say your company sells high performance mountain bikes. There are currently an amazing number of Facebook Groups (3,600) devoted to mountain biking and over 35 on LinkedIn! Your company's target audience is here and might already be talking about your products so why not join in the conversation?
Facebook allows companies to create a free Fan Page where your product evangelists can "Become a Fan" and get breaking news, tips and even special Fan discount offers. In addition, Fan Pages can be marketed to other Facebook users much like the way Google's AdWords paid search service works. If your company doesn't already have a Facebook Fan Page, it is highly recommended to start one now.
The internet marketing era may have only come about in the decade or so but the rate of evolution is, to put it mildly, a revolution. We haven't yet reached the pinnacle nor can anyone say for sure where social media will be or what role it will play in business communications in the coming years but one thing is certain, having the right plan and committing to its proper execution will place your company at the forefront of the new age of digital communications.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3303009
Friday, 19 July 2013
Should Facebook Tell Users Who Has Seen Their Posts?
Last week, an article by Buzzfeed’s Charlie Warzel started an interesting debate. The question: should Facebook show users how many of their friends see their posts, as well as how many likes and comments these posts get?
Motivated by a Stanford University study entitled “Quantifying the Invisible Audience in Social Networks”, which revealed that Facebook users were “reaching 35% of their friends with each post and 61% of their friends over the course of a month”, Warzel opined that it might be beneficial to users if they had access to their posts’ reach stats, just as page manager’s and advertisers do.
He also theorised why Facebook didn’t reveal these stats, based on two passages from the Stanford University study which speculated as to why the 220,000 users involved in the study thought that a lower percentage of their friends were seeing their posts that the actual 61%.
The first passage:
Why do people underestimate their audience size in social media? One possible explanation is that, in order to reduce cognitive dissonance, users may lower their estimates for posts that receive few likes or comments. A necessary consequence of users underestimating their audience is that they must be overestimating the probability that each audience member will choose to like or comment on the post. For these posts without feedback, it might be more comfortable to believe that nobody saw it than to believe that many saw it but nobody liked it.
The second passage:
Some measure of social translucence and plausible deniability seems helpful: audience members might not want to admit they saw each piece of content, and sharers might be disappointed to know that many people saw the post but nobody commented or “Liked”.
Warzel reasoned that it is probably in Facebook’s interest to keep reach stats from users, so that they aren’t disappointed by the fact that their friends will often see their posts but won’t engage with them, which might in turn cause them to post on Facebook less.In the article, however, Warzel did not definitively say whether Facebook should make reach stats available to users or not, instead concluding that Facebook kept the vast majority of statistics hidden from the average user – a fact that Warzel didn’t say outright was a bad thing, but did imply as such with the overall tone of his article.
Thirteen hours ago, Facebook engineer Lars Backstrom posted a response to Warzel’s article on Facebook. He wrote that the main premise of Warzel’s opinion piece – “that everyone wants to know how many friends see each of their posts and Facebook doesn't want to tell them” – is incorrect, revealing that, in fact, Facebook had built and tested a similar feature internally but concluded that there wasn’t any real demand for it:
[People] are way more interested in seeing *who* liked their posts, rather than just the number of people who saw it. In fact, in all of the thousands of pieces of feedback we receive about News Feed each month, virtually no one has asked to see this information.
Backstrom took umbrage at Warzel’s implication that Facebook’s engineers “have lots of ulterior motives when [they] make decisions about News Feed”. In the case of users seeing reach stats, for example, Backstrom said the time it took to implement the feature “isn't worth the space it would take up on the screen”.
TechCrunch’s Josh Constine drew Warzel’s attention to Backstrom’s rebuttal, asking for his opinion viaTwitter. On Twitter, Warzel clarified his position on the main question “should Facebook tell users who has seen their posts?” He argued that users should be able to see how many people have viewed their posts, but not who these people are.
Warzel went on to say that he thinks it strange that Facebook encourages users to connect, but then doesn’t reveal how much users are actually connecting through posts and comments, saying that he finds it “hard to believe [that] those looking to 'share' with 'friends' don't care at all about actually reaching them” asking “why do it then?” A question Constine answered, saying that posting adds “another competitive element” to Facebook and people are actually sharing “for themselves”.
Constine then wrote an article about the conversation himself, determining that Backstrom is probably telling the truth:
[The] missing view counts stems not from some malicious fight to keep users in the dark, but from Facebook’s philosophy of trying to only build things that are useful for a wide audience.
Personally, I agree with Constine and Backstrom, I don’t think that the average user really wants or needs to see their posts’ reach stats. It would benefit me more, in fact, if the engagement stat became available, as I post videos and articles more often than statuses. It would be interesting to see how many people engaged with my embedded content, even if they didn't like or share it themselves, just to see what sort of things my friends were interested in.
In reality, though, I would prefer things to stay as they are, with just likes and comments, as they’re the only two positive options I have ever really needed (I say positive because a ‘disapprove’ button would also come in useful, but would never become a reality).
Do you think Facebook users should be able to see the reach of their posts?
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