Why PR Agencies Should be Great at Social Marketing, But So Few Are

If there is a marketing group or function that should be a natural for driving social, media marketing success, I would pick PR. No other marketing function lives and dies by the success of maintaining strong relationships. And that is the key to social marketing success as well.

Successful social marketing is accomplished by building strong relationships such that your audience comes to the brand’s aid and produces word of mouth marketing, advocacy, and promotion of the brand. These actions yield a trusted source of marketing for the brand … much stronger than the brand’s own marketing.

When we look at the role of a PR agency, it is very similar. PR agencies look to manufacture earned media by key influencers for the brand’s target market. As defined at Wikipedia, “Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the spread of information …Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. The aim of public relations by a company often is to persuade the public, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders to maintain a certain point of view about it, its leadership, [and] products, …”

PR companies are very well suited for driving social marketing success because their entire success is based upon relationships. Relationships are what drive social success. Yet PR companies, for the most part, have not championed social marketing in a successful way. Why is this so?

I will start by suggesting that the emphasis of PR individuals is more focused on “what will the relationship do for me” as opposed to the true objective of building valued give-and-take relationships. Now I know that this statement will not be taken well by a majority of PR professionals. So let me give an example to demonstrate why I could make such an unpopular statement. When I was running a social group for a well known magazine publisher, I had a PR professional on my team. She was so guarded of her contacts at other publications, that even when she went on vacation she would not give me, her boss, the email addresses of her contacts to make sure all activities were taken care of. This is common practice in the PR profession and I understand the motivation. Yes, the PR professional should own the relationship with contacts that yield earned media. But does that mean they are the only one that can talk to the “partner”? If PR professionals are so concerned about a strong relationship to truly produce a win-win for both sides, the PR professional would introduce their contact to numerous people they represents. (Okay, maybe not. But this mentality is definitely foreign to the objectives of social marketing.)

Even when I have written articles for publications and a PR professional has brokered the arrangement, I am rarely introduced to the appropriate “publishing” people. Yes, I understand the “preservation” aspect of the PR professional protecting their contacts. But the mentality of holding back is not conducive to strong relationship building with your target audience.

Another reason why there is a deficiency in PR agencies driving social media marketing success is that historically PR agencies deal with one monolithic type of person – the publisher. The publisher wants hot news and something different that will help to distinguish their journal. Pretty straightforward. The reality is that a brand’s audience is diverse with different wants, needs, and desires. Social marketers can define a target market persona of the individual that they are talking to, to best fit their message and communication. But they also need to recognize that the actual conversation in the relationship is going to take different turns. As social marketers look to motivate the target market it will take greater communication to build trust with a diversified group. PR agencies are not use to scaling this dimension of the conversation.

Thus I think there are very few PR agencies that can deliver successful social marketing today. Most are taking their existing PR model and playing that to a social practice and that spells failure. The PR agency that is willing to say, “Hey, we understand relationship building, but we are going to make it more authentic to a larger and more diverse audience than we are used to,” has a chance for success.

Far too many marketing agencies have taken what they have done well through out the years and applied it to a new channel. This won’t work for the digital revolution because new marketing channels driven by new technology provoke new and different audience behaviors. Everything a successful marketer does is based upon complete empathy and understanding of the target audience. The reality is that I have not seen PR agencies, by and large, recognizing this reality and adjusting appropriately and successfully. Who is ready to be the exception?

Make It Happen,
Social Steve

PS – I get it. I understand why PR professionals are possessive of their contacts. I am not suggesting they change this for a PR practice. But if they also run a social practice, a different mentality is required. This requires a strong social leader that appreciates why PR runs the way it does and at the same time shapes the social practice to be slightly different. This also requires a bit of give from the PR agency to allow a changed approach for their social practice.

The Importance of Blogging Beyond the Obvious

No surprise, I am very bullish on blogging, but you should know there is great value in maintaining a blog with continuous updates. Before I discuss some strong benefits that are not so obvious, let’s go through some of the fundamental values of blogging.

Probably the best reason to blog is that it helps to establish a brand or individual as a subject matter expert in a particular field or vertical. Assuming the brand or individual has strong knowledge and expertise in a specific area, blogging helps to reinforce the entity as a thought leader for topics covered.

In addition to demonstrating to your audience your expertise, blogging provokes conversation and engagement. And when you continuously deliver content in a topical area, your SEO and listing on Google is increased.

And now for the not-so-obvious …

How many times during the week do you have a thought about something that happens in your profession? Do you take time to think it through and detail a solution or position? When you are committed to blogging you force yourself to think it through and work out details. As a result, your knowledge and expertise actually increase. Certainly bloggers work through more solutions than an inactive content producer. Not only that, bloggers sharpen their thoughts and become more attuned to their profession. The preparation and action of blogging take you deeper into your profession. The fact that you have thought through the topic and detailed a solution or stance now makes you better prepared for discussions on the topic whether they are online or offline.

Another important aspect is that when you write an article on a topic, you now have a documented stance and position. When you engage in conversation with others, often the same topic comes up. Point people to what you have written.

I can say without any hesitation that blogging about social marketing has made me a much stronger digital/social marketing executive. So what is keeping you from blogging? Show your stuff.

Make It Happen,
Social Steve

When Looking for Your Company’s Social Media Marketing Leader, Consider ….

Whether you are looking for an internal employee, agency, or consultant to lead your social media marketing efforts you really need a hybrid of digital expertise and traditional marketing experience. In today’s world, everyone jumps to the conclusion that a young digital power user should lead the social marketing efforts, but if you are looking for someone to drive a holistic, integrated social practice that yields company KPIs (key performance indicators), then you need a seasoned professional. At the same time, you should make sure the “seasoned professional” is not only experienced in delivering social success, but is one who is consistently keeping up on current innovations and audience trends and behaviors.

Far too often there is a sole emphasis on knowledge and use of digital platforms. Yes, of course, this is most important as they are the marketing channels that your social leader will be responsible for. But digital channels cannot sit in isolation. They must be connected and integrated with all other marketing endeavors. You require someone that has worked in other marketing channels that can be integrated and leveraged with social. Social marketing is by and large a brand marketing play. Social needs to be integrated both with other brand marketing efforts and direct marketing efforts as well. Make sure your social leader has the knowledge and experience to create synergy between brand and direct marketing.

So your social leader needs to understand the other marketing functions and make sure social is a holistic integrated function. It takes a true leader to make sure social works with other marketing functions. Honestly speaking, this is difficult as most marketing counterparts do not understand social marketing well. In some cases, they are scared by it because of their lack of knowledge. It takes a non-threatening, patient, collaborative person to work through the organizational evolution required.

As you consider other qualifications of your social leader, remember it all starts with your target audience. Ask yourself, “Is the person we are considering going to research and engage with the target market such that a complete and thorough understanding of their wants, needs, motivations, and turn offs are completely understood?” The social leader must be driven by the audience behavior more than hype of new platforms.

And while the social leader needs to be concerned about the target audience’s interest to create awareness and consideration, they also want to make sure that once they turn into a customer, the customer remains loyal. Thus the social leader also needs to understand customer delivery and customer service. In the end, you not only want to use social marketing to increase customer loyalty, but you also want social to create and activate brand advocates.

The next area of knowledge and expertise for your social leader is data, analytics, and the ability to drive rational decision making based on empirical data. Social is not a “feel good” marketing endeavor. Like everything else in today’s critical business world, metrics need to be produced and measurable results need to be demonstrated.

These are some core qualifications that should be required of your social leader along with your companies own details of the job description. But there are some soft skills and qualifications that should be required as well. Your social leader needs to be a mentoring type. They need to be someone that not only has patients to educate others, but one that is enthusiastic about doing so. They must be relentless and collaborative in their execution. I can tell you that while everyone is interested in social, many are still overly cautious about taking steps forward. Social is still very new and still very misunderstood. The social leader cannot be frustrated by slow adoption, but rather take each small win as another mile passed in the marathon of success.

The last area I would touch on for your social leader focuses on the ability to derive a creative strategic approach. Everyone is on the social band wagon and there is much social noise in every brand vertical space. True social leadership will drive implementations that stand above the noise to capture the attention of the audience. Make sure your social leader shows strong signs of creativity and strategy.

In closing, I would just mention a couple other attributes that I hope are obvious. 1) Passion – make sure your leader is passionate about the area they lead. 2) Experience – ask for examples of their social marketing success.

If you have read through up to this point you are probably saying, wow, how am I going to find someone that has all that? You’re right. That is much to ask and there are very few that can fit the bill. And that is the exact point. Not many can really be a true leader for your social marketing, but if you want successful results, make sure you take time to find someone that can deliver what is required.

Make It Happen,
Social Steve

Full disclosure: having recently left the agency I was working at leading the social practice, I am currently searching for and pursuing my next leadership position.

Social Media Highlights the Important Difference Between Marketing and Sales

Marketing is not sales and yet so many seem to forget that. If marketing is not sales, why would we measure marketing success by sales figures? And if marketing shouldn’t be measured by sales figures, does it have any importance in companies?

Some tough questions here, but let’s start with a definition. According to Wikipedia, “Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers. It is a critical business function for attracting customers.” But I would take this a bit further and add that marketing is the act of creating desire, want, and need of a brand and motivating the target market to act. This “act” can be a number of things. Yes, the act can be a purchase, but it can also be many other valuable dealings.

You see, a salesperson asks, “What can I do to get someone to purchase my product today?” A marketing person should ask, “What can I do to get someone to want my product for a lifetime and share my product value with others?”

When you look at these two different questions, you see how brands should utilize social platforms. Social media is best used to build trusted relationships. As brands build trusted relationships they continue to deliver value to a target audience. The relationships create awareness, brand consideration, loyalty, and advocacy. Continuous communication and delivery of valuable content is what reinforces these attributes. And by the way, these things can be measured, and they tee up sales. So while these “marketing efforts” may not result in direct sales, they absolutely have value for companies.

The difference between sales and marketing is short term survivability and long term sustainability – when done correctly. And this is a value of social marketing – it provides long term sustainability as opposed to short term sales when done correctly. Thus the term social marketing is emerging. Social marketing is a valuable business function. Social media is the technologies that make social marketing possible.

Not surprisingly, you do not hear the term “social sales.” Yes, social marketing can tee up sales, but is not typically successful when going at sales directly. We do hear of social commerce. And social commerce “involves using social media, online media that supports social interaction, and user contributions to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services.” Social commerce includes:

1. Loyalty and referral marketing
2. Social CRM
3. Mobile social commerce
4. Better location-based marketing
5. Group buying
6. Social shopping
7. Ratings and reviews
8. Recommendations and referrals
9. Forums and communities
10. Social ads and apps

In most cases of social commerce it is the audience that takes an action. The promotion of sales in social channels comes best from the target audience as opposed to the company itself. It is more authentic and trusted selling. But you can only expect your audience to come rally advocacy and word of mouth as you continually deliver value to them. Don’t push sales in social channels. Let your audience do it as you market to them.

Think about social marketing; ease up on social selling.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Conservative Social Marketing is Dead – Be Bold

No – this is not a political statement. Conservative social marketing … yes, 98% of brands and companies are too conservative. Nothing bold and thus, nothing that stands out.

The fact is everyone has a social media presence now. But most are “just doing it.” They do some sweepstakes or promotion to get a large following and then just idle along.

Do you really expect your audience to continue to sip your kool-aid, or do you think they will be better served and have greater interest if you spike your social communication and engagement a bit?

I heard a great line this week from Jeffrey Hazylett, author of The Mirror Test and Running the Gauntlet as well as chairman of the Hazylett group that you should consider. He said, “I might get described as a bull in a china shop … that’s an inaccurate description of me or of any agent of change. You see, I’ve never broken a plate or crystal glass.” Isn’t this exactly what you want in your social marketing … To startle and maybe even shock your audience to truly grab their attention and continually keep them interested?

Everyone is looking at social marketing best practice. I do think it is important to look at others and learn from them. But do not just copy others. Do something different. Be bold. Here are some considerations to push you and your brand to the bold side:

- Creativity and originality, first. This is most important as you take toll of the other points that follow.
- Examine your audience behavior and engage in their manner, not yours.
- Have a cause beyond your product.
- Amaze your audience with responses that they would never expected.
- Establish a reputation as a committed content producer beyond product/service.
- Consider video production – be an independent video producer with compelling and entertaining content.
- Make listening and responding the heart of your social marketing – true social engagement.
- Time is of the essence – put real-time marketing in the hands of your most trusted employees … Social communications beyond the “marketing communications” people.

Look, just about anyone can launch their social marketing now. But I guarantee you that you will get negligible results if you just do it and do not take some risk in being bold. There is way too much status-quo noise out there and you need to rise above the hum and make your brand sonic.

I would also add that there is a difference between being bold and being stupid. Consider the Ford debacle in India. Their recent ads of women in bondage in the hatch of a Ford car were not bold, they were stupid. Always start with your audience. Understand them. If you truly know your audience, you will be able to separate stupidity and boldness. The Ford ads were down right offensive. Especially in a country that is getting horrible press related to gang rapes.

Some of the keys to your social marketing success is to a) know your audience and their behaviors and motivations b) learn from others successes and failures, and c) turn it up a notch and demonstrate creativity and originality. When I say conservative social marketing is dead, I am referring to a “me too” attitude and execution. This approach to social will keep you in the noise and never elevate you to standing above the crowd. Is this what you want? Think not. Be bold.

Make it happen,
Social Steve

The Successful Social Marketing Framework

Social marketing should not be an add-on to other marketing efforts. Far too often, marketers put together a promotion or other marketing program and then look to tag on social. As dictated by user behavior marketers need to think social first. So let’s run through the successful social marketing framework that marketers should follow.

When it comes to social marketing, you cannot just do it. You need to start with a strategy because “where you start often defines where you finish.” In order to develop a solid social marketing program you need to know your target audience and competition, and at the same time reinforce your brand position. Do research and capture key customer insights, especially as they relate to digital usage and behavior. Use social monitoring tools to listen to what the target audience is saying. Go to specific relevant blogs and search the vast digital world using applicable keywords to find the appropriate conversations. Conduct a social audit on your competition – where are they active; what are they saying; how is their audience responding? And certainly re-examine your brand position – what do you stand for; how do you differentiate from the competition; what is your current communication strategy? These four activities are the basis for a messaging and content strategy, engagement plan, and social channel plan for your social marketing strategy.

Once the social strategy is defined, core social marketing activities are ready to be performed, not before. Social marketing must start with content production. Develop a content calendar, but also be prepared to produce real-time content based upon current events and conditions. Content production should include articles, photos, videos, curated content, and user-generated content. Of course social marketing includes community management. Community management includes postings and engagement with members of the brands digital assets. But another core function of the social media manager is “off community management.” This is seeding conversations and engagement on non-brand digital assets on behalf of brand.

In addition to core social marketing functions as a starting point, there are a number of ongoing activities that are also required. Once content has been developed and published, social managers need to make sure appropriate steps are taken to optimizing user sharing. Besides attracting a core audience, look to identify influencers that will help rally awareness and interest in your brand. This process of influencer marketing produces positive word-of-mouth marketing and earned media. The social manager must also generate formal monthly reports on social metrics – comparisons to leading competition and Social Action Index which quantifies awareness, consideration, loyalty, and advocacy trending. And then there is social gamification which is not “game playing.” It is a reward system that keeps the audience coming back and engaged. And finally you need to tie in social CRM (customer relationship management) which is a combination data collection to have linkage to other marketing efforts as well as customer social engagement.

The social marketing effort is a year round activity. Conversely, most marketing programs are for specific drive periods and then end. This fact coupled with user behavior are the two reasons why social marketing must be derived as its own top down effort. But that is not the end. Social must be connected to all the other drive period marketing efforts to have one cohesive marketing front for the audience. The social manager must be part of all market briefs and plans. Other marketing leaders outside of social marketing should expect the social leader to define how they are going to integrate the marketing programs into social.

The key difference in what I have defined is what comes first. There should be no chicken versus the egg confusion here. Social marketing must lead for customer awareness, engagement, and advocacy. Brands need to aim for continuous relationship building, not just during marketing drive periods. Yes, marketing programs provide the opportunity to heighten awareness, consideration, sales, loyalty, and advocacy, but the social light must burn eternally. Do you really want someone you trust, not to be there when you want to engage?

Make It Happen,
Social Steve

We Cannot Segment the Digital Revolution

Blogs. Social media. Interactive. Transmedia. Content marketing. Social TV. Smartphones. Tablets. Mobile. Are all these things really separate? Or should we looking at them holistically from the user and consumer perspective?

A few things happened this past week that helped to solidify for me that the digital revolution is a twisted web of marketing synergy and all attempts to segment individual executions and pin-pointed results are flawed. I’ll take you through three “a-ha” moments that happened for me this week that resulted in my position that ”we cannot segment the digital revolution.”

First off, Michael Lazerow, former Buddy Media founder and CEO, now CMO for Salesforce Marketing Cloud, wrote an excellent piece, “3 Steps to Become a ‘Customer Company’.” Lazerow’s 3 steps to become a customer company are:

1) Customer Companies Listen to Every Customer
2) Customer Companies Publish Great Content
3) Customer Companies Service Customers Across Every Channel

The article also includes a video from Salesforce Chairman and CEO, Marc Benioff. Benioff makes the point that a customer company is connected … connected to customers, partners, employees, and products.

Then this week I had the pleasure of reconnecting with a great social friend and transmedia expert, Karine Halpern. (Please check out some of Karine’s slideshares, she has some great information to share with you.) Karine and I were talking about moving transmedia forward to deliver commercial success. Now most brand executives are just learning what social marketing is, so I would venture to say, most don’t understand what transmedia is. Transmedia “is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats using current digital technologies.” Sounds pretty close to content and social marketing integration, but it is slightly different. But the point is that most brand managers are beginning to understand the importance of storytelling, content marketing, and social marketing, so I think the strategy, plan, and execution should stay in that context. That is, keep the marketing plan in the context of what the decision makers understand.

There is always a new buzz term coming out. The new buzz is good for hype and headlines, but if we are really concerned about executing and delivering results, we must stick to fundamentals. And these fundamentals must be in context for brand managers and marketing executives to understand. Marketers now realize the importance of digital marketing, but they remain confused about terminology. I see these decision makers understanding the need for:

• content and storytelling,
• social marketing,
• interactivity and engagement,
• the role of digital influencers and the importance of advocates,
• positive online review presence,
• SEO
• integration of owned, earned, and paid media, and
• mobile.

So maybe it is best to keep digital marketing terminology in these contexts and not slice things down in greater detail.

And the third point to highlight comes from some marketing headlines about Coca-Cola … “Buzzkill: Coca-Cola Finds No Sales Lift from Online Chatter.” Eric Schmidt, senior manager-marketing strategy and insights at Coca-Cola stated “We didn’t see any statistically significant relationship between our buzz and our short-term sales.” He also cautioned against reading too much into the research, noting that it covers only buzz, not sharing, video views or other aspects of social media.” And yet these elements not included in the study are the power of social marketing.

Quickly after this initial report, Coca-Cola’s Wendy Clark, senior VP-integrated marketing communications and capabilities, defended Coke’s social media stating it was crucial. I’ll put it this way … what is the value of having your audience feel positive about your brand? Does it turn immediate sales? No. But does it define long term customer loyalty and brand sustainability? Yes. If your audience feels strong about your brand, when it comes time to make a purchase, their brand preference will show.

Clark turned to Coke’s own blog to state that it was true … social buzz or chatter does not generate sales lift in isolation. But she also added that the key point is that “no single medium is as strong as the combination of media.”

And I agree. As I tweeted earlier in the week …

(If you want to see to two videos I referenced, they can be viewed at “Social by Design.”)

So if you pull the three examples together that I have highlighted above, I am suggesting that marketing strategy, planning, execution, and measurement is getting too siloed. We cannot segment the digital revolution. The consumer uses all digital technologies, platforms, and services to support all of their purchase decisions. If you are to be a customer company, you will follow the behaviors and actions of the consumer and build a holistic digital strategy. If you are responsible for a specific digital marketing effort, find connection points with other marketing efforts. Build synergy. And lastly, and probably the most important, no one digital marketing endeavor should be credited with sales. If you look at the journey of the digital consumer, you will notice that they hit multiple touch points before ultimately making a purchase. Should we be crediting the last digital touch point as the only sales enabler and element that carries an ROI? This is flawed.

Thus I strongly suggest that you do not segment the digital revolution. Long live the revolution and what it stands for … connecting with the customer.

Make It Happen,
Social Steve

Social Media Balance – Successful Secrets

We all need it in our life – balance – and it is no different for social media success. At the most macro level, social media balance means the right proportion of entrepreneurial spirit AND some old school business fundamentals. Let’s look at both sides of the coin.

On the entrepreneurial side, the most recent successful example comes from Oreo. Oreo showed their ability to think and react in “real-time” marketing as demonstrated in their now famous Super Bowl tweet.

Not bad for the number of retweets and favorites for a cookie.

I was reminded of Oreo this week in the article, “Oreo’s Real-Time Marketing Strategy Requires Entrepreneurial Spirit.” Oreo’s success comes from both fast thinking and creativity – now called real-time marketing. “Real-time marketing requires an entrepreneurial spirit, simple message, willingness to prepare and readiness and ability to act quickly. All the attributes of a startup.”

But there is another side required for success as well. And that is having a social business maturity. This comes from years of marketing and business experience. I thought of this when I read the recent report “The Evolution of Social Business: Six Stages of Social Business Transformation.” If you take time to read the report, it can be pretty scary. You are likely to find many deficiencies in your operations. But don’t be disillusioned. The most important thing is to know the direction you need to go for success and to methodically implement your plan to get there over time. Make sure you do EVERYTHING great. While speed is dictated for so many in this lightning speed digital world, greatness differentiates the winners and losers.

When I think of some of the greatest social marketing brands, I think of Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and Ford. These are brands in the most crowded industries. They must be great to stand out. And they did not get great overnight. They have been committed to audience development via social marketing. They not only produce creative social implementations that create user response spikes, but they remain committed to listening and engaging with their audience. This keeps their audience connected and engaged for the long run.

As another point in case, I’ll give you an example from the agency I work at, Ryan Partnership … we manage social marketing for brands. As part of our ongoing social management, we use empirical data to drive continuous improvement. This past week I looked at data on social channel engagement for one particular brand. The data was extremely telling. Since we took over the social management for this account, we found a steady and consistent audience engagement. Yes there were a few spikes of engagement for specific posts, but more importantly, the brand’s audience is engaging regularly.

The point is that yes … a winning post that is executed in real time marketing is worthwhile, but even more important produces slow and steady growth on engagement. Why? Because continuous engagement leads to loyalty and establishing brand preference. Then compelling content leads to advocacy. Marketers need to unleash their audience and put their brand in the hands of their audience. This leads to social marketing success. You tell the stories of your brand, let your audience add their own slant to that story and motivate them to share with their network.

In other cases at Ryan, we have implemented creative marketing programs that result in strong incremental social following. You need it all … programs to drive spikes and continuous commitment to your audience to keep them engaged.

So when I talk about social media marketing balance, I am really highlighting two elements: 1) equal parts entrepreneurship and solid business and marketing foundation, and 2) standout posts, promotions, and sweepstakes to get immediate incremental awareness and following and at the same time continued value delivery to your audience. This approach keeps your followers engaged and attached to your brand, and motivates them to share.

Yes, the digital world dictates a need for real time marketing, but at the same time fundamental business and marketing practice will produce sustainable, long term winning results.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

How Often Should You Post?

I am probably asked this question more than any other from brand clients? The simple answer is you should post as much as your audience is likely to want to hear from you.

Yes, this answer is somewhat ambiguous, but let’s peal it down a bit. First off, asking this question is not the place to start. Ask yourself, are we jumping to tactics before we have a strategy and plan? Far too many marketers forget marketing fundamentals when establishing a social marketing presence. Consider “Where You Start in Social Media Strategy Defines Where You End Up.”

Next you have to have a rich understanding and empathy for your audience. Social is not about pushing your agenda. It is about your audience, not your product/service. Yes there is a cross section of what your audience values and reinforcing you’re offering. This comes from having a solid message and content strategy. I cannot emphasis enough how important a well thought out content strategy is. Think about providing your audience content that adds value to your offering and reinforces your brand as the knowledge leader in your industry vertical.

So once we have the marketing fundamentals and content strategy in place as described above, we can answer the question of posting numbers, cadence, and timing. If you are producing content that continually provides valuable information and/or compelling entertaining content, you can post more often than if you are simply providing product push. Think about those brands that ask you to subscribe to an email list and then send you a product blast every day. Doesn’t that get tiresome and turn you off to the brand? The same is true for social posting. If you just post product spam, expect your audience to get disenchanted, not engaged, and potentially un-follow your brand.

If you provide valued content, start by posting once a day. See how your audience responds. Examining empirical data to evaluate true audience response is imperative. As an example, I pulled some posting data from Social Bakers for two top notch social brands – Coca-Cola and Starbucks. Starbucks has 34M fans and Coca-Cola 60.5M fans so the magnitude of responses has large variation between the two.

There are three tables for each. I think it is important to look at the number of posts, user engagement (talking about this) and heat maps depicting activity times all together. These three charts help you draw conclusions with regards to the optimal posting for your brand. Yes there are best practices, but each audience reacts differently and you must know your audience behavior and execute accordingly. Notice that responses rates increase with hiring postings. Also, if you witness peak responses as in the case of Starbucks at the end of the month, examine the type of post that produced that spike and take note that the audience responds strongly to that content. It may be worthwhile to do more postings of that particular style.

Also noteworthy – is that postings to different channels should take on different forms. Twitter should be used for quick useful factoids and points of inspiration. Twitter should include a number of curation pieces and RTs from people that reinforce what the brand stands for. FB should be used to engage and extend the conversation and stories of the topics on a brand content hub as well as “tangential” postings of conversations and pieces that the content hub speaks to.

So to answer the question directly, “How Often Should You Post,” start with once a day on Facebook, a couple of times a day on Twitter. Make sure to provide content your target audience will value – not just product promotions. Examine the results (response to types of posts, best times for responses) and modify your posting timing and cadence based on the empirical data.

It is really not rocket science. It is more like the psychology of your audience – understand what makes them tick and play to their emotions.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Digital Marketing Strikes Disruptive Chords for the Music Industry

Digital media and platforms are disruptive. Probably no vertical knows this better than the music industry. But maybe the days of diminishing sales revenue for the music industry are behind us. (Maybe not.) Earlier this week, The New York Times reported year to year sales had increased 0.3 percent. And while you may think that is negligible, it is noteworthy that this is the first increase in music sales since 1999.

Taking this cue, James McQuivey, a Forrester Consumer Product Strategy Analyst, provided some great lessons learned at the hands of the music industry that all brands should consider with regards to managing digital disruption. You should read his entire article and get further explanation, but here are suggestions he listed:

• Disrupt yourself before someone else can.
• Build a digital customer relationship.
• Care more about convenience than quality.
• Anticipate a reduction in revenue on a per transaction basis.

There is definitely some great advice there, but if you want to see a real life example of taking these recommendations and putting them into action, consider Amanda Palmer. Amanda is a punk-cabaret performer and she spoke at TED 2013 this week.

Ms. Palmer’s presentation was titled “The Art of Asking.” She highlighted how she stopped selling music for a sticker price and simply asked people to fund her art. The result – $1.2 million raised.

Now granted, not everyone can raise that much money, but there is a strong message here for brands … have a great product; spend time engaging with your target market; and be truly genuine with your audience and build trust.

Palmer is extremely active on Twitter. She has engaged with people via social channels and has connected with people to provide a place to sleep, asked to practice on an available piano, and other face-to-face favors and meetings.

So when it came time to making money, Amanda had a trusted audience. I the love part in her presentation when she talks about the media asking her “The music business is tanking and you encourage piracy. How do you make all these people pay for music?” Amanda answers, “I didn’t make them, I asked them.” You see when you build close relationships with your audience; they come to your support when you ask them for it. If you are simply prostituting your offering, forget it. Funny enough Palmer tells a story where someone came up to her after a show and gave her a $10 bill and said, “I’m so sorry, I burned your CD from a friend, and I want to give you this money.” That’s an example of a relationship that didn’t even need “the ask.”

Audience development and emotional branding is extremely powerful in the new disruptive digital world. I am not saying brands should just let people pay what they want for their product/service, but if you have a deep relationship with your audience, you can ask them to help on your behalf. You can ask them to share your brand with their friends for example.

Another great quote from Ms. Palmer’s presentation is when she opens her arms wide and says “I trust you this much. Should I? Show me.” This was in reference to her stripping naked and letting people sign her body. I do not suggest you do this (maybe, it could be fun ), but this is a great metaphor. Can your brand strip down naked for its audience and will they show you supreme respect and admiration? She then goes on to say “Celebrity is about a lot of people viewing you from a distance. But the Internet and the content that we are freely able to share on it are taking us back. It is about a few people loving you up close and those few people being enough.” And if you are a brand, you only need a few people to get a movement to build.

So marketers, take the last word from renegade Amanda Palmer about the importance of social engagement …“when you connect with them, people want to help you.”

Are you truly building brand connections?

Make It Happen,
Social Steve