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

Social Steve – Social Media 2010 Wrap Up

As the year comes to a close, we see Mark Zuckerberg selected as Time’s Man of the Year. This did not come without controversy. Other names were mentioned including another front runner Julian Assange (WikiLeaks). Yes, I think Zuckerberg deserves it for several reasons. First because of the way Facebook has changed the world. Secondly, how many people had a movie made about them (even if it is most fictitious). And finally he set a great example by joining The Giving Pledge and donating half of his wealth to charity.

But from my perspective, I really don’t care. What matters to me is that 2010 was the year for social media. I have been involved in this industry since 2007, and without doubt, this is the year it took off. In 2010, I have witnessed the change from debate over social media value to mass acceptance. Now the discussions are more about figuring out how to use social media, and looking at social media shaping world events. Not so long ago, we witnessed how broadcast media redefined exposure of news with 24 x 7 coverage. Now social media provides a 24 hour open communication platform for these issues to be broadcasted, shared, and discussed – sometimes even in countries where it has been difficult for people’s voices to be heard.

So yes, 2010 is the year of social media and I have a few observations about the past and expectations on the future.

The End of the Social Media Expert

I am happy to report that I think we have finally seen the end of self professed social media experts. Most proclaimed social media experts were bombarded with comments and insults doubting their knowledge and being labeled as scam artists or snake oil sales people. This is a good thing because I don’t think there are any experts. Social media is emerging, growing, and changing and how can a sector witnessing such change have any experts. What are they experts of? Something that morphs and is not quite what it was six months ago.

In 2010, I went to a number of social media conferences. But I will tell you, there was only one where I got bang for the buck. I heard the same thing in most of them and to be honest, I could get the same information by continuing to do my daily perusal of information on the web and newsletters I receive. Yes, it was good to meet people and network, but as far as learning about social media success, much more came from active participation running strategy and execution for a number of brands.

So still … there is much to be learned for me and all of you.

How Social Media Strategy and Execution Come Together

When asked about running successful social media endeavors, I always answer the same way – get in the water, get wet, and swim. If you want to learn how to use a social platform, find a kid. If you want to learn how a platform can help your business, YOU need to get involved or place this in the hands of someone responsible for both your business strategy and execution.

I think we’ll see greater executive ownership of social strategy, plan, and execution in 2011. Up until now, many business owners and stakeholders have been frightened by the new little social media beast and simply handed it off to sharp, young, web-savvy individuals that lack business experience. The right mix of a combination of business expertise and creative social media intelligence will prove to be most valuable going forward.

4 Key Social Plays

Everyone involved and writing about social media will have their list of emerging trends or key takeaways for 2010. For me, I notice a couple things taking off and other things that started that did not blossom to the extent required to yield true success.

1) Video
Let’s start with the easy one – video. Video consumption continues massive growth. Approximately 70% of global online consumers watch online video. Many companies augmented or replaced TV ads with viral videos. So think about video production for your brand. Something entertaining, compelling, quirky … think about interactive possibilities and how sharing can be promoted. But a word to the wise – “It’s not viral unless it is.” (@JayBaer)

2) Social Media Listening
Listening tools became big with many technology companies providing solutions to generate statistics and report on who is saying what about your brand. (See “A Wiki of Social Media Monitoring Solutions.”) Nice start, but things need to get better – a) with the technology to generate meaningful, accurate, vetted information on brands, and b) organizational commitment to listening to what is being said and proactively using this information for product/service road mapping, capturing advocates and catering to them, and responding to customer service issues. I have personally witnessed the blurring of the lines between PR and customer support. (See my story “’People Have the Power’ – a Social Media Story.”)

3) Social Media Measurement
There is an old saying, “that which is not measured does not get done.” You must measure social media against objectives. This means you must have social media objectives and attributes to measure. (You might want to check out “Defining Social Media Success“ and “Measuring the Value of Social Media.” Measurement is still confusing to so many, but it really should not be. First, what is the objective of social media? Awareness and lead generation. More and deeper relationships. Does anyone think these are not important things for their brand? If you agree, how do you measure these things? Don’t be stuck on ROI debates. Look at parameters that drive these KPIs. Check the two suggested articles.

4) Location Based Services (LBS)
Facebook growth is not a surprise. Twitter continues to emerge as an important platform. But LBS (foursquare, gowalla, SCVNGR, Facebook Places) are still more hype than power. So many are missing a major opportunity here. How could you not want to track an audience and as I have suggested in the past – seed where you want your traffic to go. In 2010, I’ve heard way too many people say “I don’t want people to know everywhere I go.” Works for some, not for others. I really could care less. But brands showing up at places and communicating this to their audience is the golden opportunity so many are not seizing. Think about LBS this way and tie a marketing program to it from this perspective.

The Year of Mobile

The over used cliché – “the year of mobile.” I think I’ve heard this for the past 10 years. But you know what. I think it is justified. The definition of mobile continues to change. It is about providing people the convenience and capabilities while they are on the run – everywhere. First, mobile was just about talking. Then unified messaging emerged and we had mobile texting and email. Now technology should provide us all the conveniences we can get online, plus. Look at smart phones today. Embedded in the device are a telephone, email, camera, application platform, social platforms, GPS, and other technologies. Solution providers need to look beyond these amazing technologies and define use cases that deliver increased value. It really needs to be about the integration of white spaces between the technologies. So yes, 2010 was the year in mobile and I think 2011, 2012, etc will also be the year of mobile. Strap on your seatbelt and enjoy the ride.

2011 Outlook

Many will have their predictions for 2011. I’m going to keep it simple and merely suggest that in 2011 the social media focus needs to be on content and publishing, and IP (integration and publishing).

1) Content and Publishing
At the end of the day you must have compelling content and healthy stream of it. But Content is not King, Conversation around content is King. (Always loved this quote I picked up from @johnhutson.) Brands need to have content – something that starts the conversation. So marketing departments of brands begin to feel more like a media company. They have two choices – partner with some form of content company or produce their own content (need the right resources to do so.) As we begin to see this evolution, publishing becomes cumbersome and a solution is needed to help manage the content and its distribution. We will see more need of this given the ramifications of stuff like Open Graph and the need to produce content to multiple social channels. As we saw in 2010 that listening and measurement tools were important technologies that need to be part of the social media, we will see that in 2011, there will be a great reliance on technology providers to have social media publishing and management tools. (I can tell you that this is very important to my efforts.)

2) IP (Integration and Packaging)
Yes, IP has been very important for the past number of years – Intellectual Property, Internet Protocol. But I am talking about another kind of IP – integration and packaging. As I mentioned in a handful of past articles, social media needs to be completely integrated into all other business functions and not just a last minute add on – “oh we need a social element” as I have seen so many times. It should be part of the product/service definition, part of the marketing communication, part of customer service. Social media should be part of the packaging of your product or service. When you design your offering, you should think about how the product will be shared, talked about, word of mouth referencing and bake that into the actual design and user experience. I think we will see a significant number of winning case studies where brands do integrate and package social media into their offering and these efforts will yield winning, measurable results.

For me, 2010 has been very much about evangelizing social media and its value. 2011 will be more about marketing as a whole and leveraging the power of social media.

In closing, I want to say it has been truly exciting connecting with a number of you. I appreciate your shout outs, comments, and interests. Let me know your perspective on the past year. Have a fabulous holiday and a grand New Year. Onward to 2011 …

Make It Happen,
Social Steve

Defining Social Media Success

This past week, Brian Morrissey of AdWeek reported that
“YouTube names top 10 brand videos of 2010.”. No shocker, the Old Spice video was top ranked. I personally liked Toyota’s Swagger Wagon video which came in 6th place. These videos are great. They create a much more compelling user experience than straight up TV ads. In fact, this use of social media is the “new generation” TV ad that plays in a different channel where users are more apt to view, interact, and ultimately build relationships with the brand.

But this got me thinking and prompted me to write my perspective on “Defining Social Media Success.” Not every organization or person can allocate the resources or budget to produce the videos that gained YouTube top accolades and numbers. So I’ll share with you the social media plight for one of the brands I work with.

You’ve heard many people state that “quality” is more important than “quantity” in social media. That is to say that you want a very engaged audience as your priority as opposed to focusing on driving fan and follower numbers. I totally agree with this perspective and I would also add that if you specifically concentrate on quality fans/followers, the residual affect is that you will actually increase the number as well.

This is the exact case with the brand I referenced. We did not allocate a hefty budget to do high production videos or massive marketing campaigns, but instead we concentrated on our users’ experience with our brand in specific social media channels and made sure we delivered a winning experience and value there. The obvious primary social channels these days are Facebook and Twitter. (They clearly are not the only ones. We do have plays in other social areas as well.)

When I started HFM-US most of the brands already had Facebook fan pages and twitter accounts as is the case with most brands and organization. But that does not mean that they were using the platforms in ways to draw in users and create word-of-mouth references. We defined how these channels were to be used and what the objective was for each. Do this! This is the start of definition for your KPIs (key performance indicators). We noticed that our post and comments were not necessarily on brand – in content, brand voice, stylization, and aesthetics. We modified what we posted, cadence of post, and format of post. We looked at how URLs were listed and images were inserted. We made some tweaks and measured (continuous process) results. The net results of these efforts are as follows:

- 211% increase of Facebook fans (likes)
- 553% increase of visits to our site from Facebook
- 1721% increase of page views on our site from Facebook
- 1084% increase of Facebook interactions
- 2411% increase of Twitter followers
- 421% increase of visits to our site from Twitter
- 952% increase of page views on our site from twitter

Pretty encouraging results! And there are some key takeaways:

1. There was not a plan for an expensive social media blitz and simply concentrated on the basics. Having a traditional marketing mentality (position, voice, communication, audience focus) and bringing it to new media, social media is imperative.
2. You must have a social media plan that is sustainable – continuous in execution; continuous in growth of audience. If you do have a quick hit growth spike, you must retain the new users’ interest. How are you going to continue to keep your audience engaged? Yes a sweepstake might help to get new gains and followers, but you need to continue to deliver value and/or entertainment to your audience. And when you do have their interested, engage with them.
3. When you are really focused on your target audience and you deliver what they want, not only do you increase your following, but you increase the consumption of your content. Yes, we increased fans and followers, but what I find most successful is the increase of page views. Page view percentage increase is much greater than the increase of friends and followers and unique visits. What this really means is that not only was there an increase in connections, but an increase in the right connections. Quality connections increased – those that measured greater consumption of brand in the past.

So when push comes to shove, do the right “marketing” things when you go about your social media endeavors. Continuously do small things right. Measure and assess. Don’t think of hitting a grand slam success like the Old Spice campaign. Do things that are sustainable. Sustainable for you to implement and sustainable with regards to keeping your target market interested and engaged.

I should add one more point since it is the topic of so much discussion and debate. It deals with social media ROI. As I mentioned in the article “Measuring the Value of Social Media,” over a year and a half ago, social media does not generate sales. Social media generates awareness and increases leads.

So the debate on social media ROI will be endless – as long as people continue to include an unrealistic expectation of measuring sales increase from social media. (If you want more on this, check out the article “Reality Check: Social Media Integration and Measurement.”) Are we still going to debate the value of having more relationships with our target segment and having those relationships deeper in nature and loyalty? This is a rhetorical question. Social media does not produce sales. It increases and strengthens relationships. Measure social media appropriate. Not sales and ROI. Attributes of relationships and KPIs.

Make it Happen!
Social Steve

How You Can Execute Social Media Successfully

You know you need social media to connect with customers. You are beginning to hear more success stories. But connecting the dots and defining how YOU can leverage social initiatives to win over customers has been elusive thus far. You are not alone – I hear this from so many. So let me help.

Almost one year ago, I wrote an article “Executable Game Plan for Winning Ultimate Customers with Social Media.”. I wanted to give some real examples and direction of how you could use the A-Path to deliver social media results. I made some simple suggestions defining how to find the right keywords to use; tweeting; reinforcing your position; using RSS, Facebook, LinkedIn and enewsletters; and establishing key one-to-one relationships with influencers. While all these examples are still applicable, generating positive results with them is a little more difficult than a year ago when I suggested them. Why? – The social space is more crowded now with more noise. You’re focus and objective must be to rise above the noise. Thus, this is kind of a re-look and a revamp a year later.

The way to rise above the noise is to have a kick @$$ marketing campaign using social media. Now I know there are many comments that social media is not a campaign; that it needs to be a continuous way of life for corporations, and I totally agree. It’s just that it should START the way marketers define campaigns, but run perpetually by having on going elements that always focus on relationships with your audience and delivering them value. The initial campaign definition should address solutions for accomplishing the sequential elements of the A-Path. How will I get someone’s Attention? Attraction? Affinity? How will I get them to be part of my Audience? And then turn some audience members into Advocates? Recognize that once you have advocates, they refuel the A-Path. They do crowd sourcing for you and get attention and attraction to your brand. This is what Jeff Hazylett often refers to as having others doing your marketing work.

So let’s take a quick look at ways to execute on the A-Path. Certainly not an exhaustive execution plan, but hopefully enough guidance that should put you on your execution path specific to your brand and its position …

Attention
First recognize the difference between being a known brand versus a start up. If you are a known brand, your “attention” efforts should be focused on endeavors that are likely to provoke sharing. Use your existing audience to tell their friends and network about your value. Put incentives in place. This could be as simple as bartering mentions (blogroll and tweet mentions). If you have a Facebook fan page, your members’ likes and comments show on their friends’ news feed. Getting them to “Like” the post makes your post show up on their friends’ news feed. This is a form of sharing and getting attention.

If you are not an established brand, you need to do something to stick out. DO NOT think, oh we’ll create something that will go viral. As Jay Baer says, “It is not viral unless it is.” Many have set out to accomplish this and failed … far, far more than those that have succeeded. Restating what I wrote in an article a year ago … understand how your target might capture information. Understand the keywords they use. Compare related keywords using Google Trends. Tag these keywords to your content. Define a plan for your content distribution looking at all the possible channels. Where is the target audience already congregating? Go there for starters and engage. Join the conversation.

Consider use of Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr, and other niche platforms, communities, and forums specific to your industry focus.

Attract
Gaining attraction is really just a continuation of getting attention. You’re activities and channels and really pretty much the same. But, once you get someone’s attention, you need to add two things to move them forward to attraction. First, you need to continue providing valuable information to them and reinforce both your brand position and the reason why you got their attention in the first place. Second, you need to engage with them. Not just broadcast. Think about what customer service really means and how you feel when someone at a company gives you the time of day, stops to respond to you, or simply says, “Thank you.” Continue to use the same social channels you used getting attention and engage there.

Affinity
You move to affinity from attraction by having a greater focus on relationships. This will be accomplished by continuous engagement. To quote Mike Lazerow of Buddy Media, “the only way to scale social is with people.” People want to do business with those that they feel comfortable with. It takes people to build relationships – not an automated process. Affinity means people are latching on to your brand. You want to increase the number of Twitter followers, RSS subscribers for your blog, followers on a Tumblr blog, Facebook fans, bookmarking of your content, etc. You need to set (continuous) campaigns to increase “opting-in” at these channels. There are three ways you increase these numbers: 1) define incentive promotions for signing up and friend-sharing, 2) continue to deliver valuable and/or entertaining content, and 3) cross promote your socials channels.

Audience
From an entertainment perspective, an audience is usual a group of people that have paid to see a movie, show, or concert. They are one step deeper than an affinity group because they have invested some equity. In social space, personal information is equity. It usually starts with a login name and password or could be as simple as an email address. Ultimately, you want customer information so you can segment them appropriately and interact with them. Recognize you don’t get this from your Facebook fans. I am not knocking Facebook – it is an awesome platform to engage with your audience, but I would argue that you can only go so far as gaining affinity with your target market on Facebook. If you really want to take this one step further and have a true social audience, you need to define where you bring together your audience and be able to collect information about them over time. Some examples include email newsletters and social networks platforms (OneSite, Ripple6, KickApps, Elgg, etc), (You should have an information collection strategy that aims at getting more data, slowly over time, as your participants get deeper into brand loyalty and usage. You do not want to turn them off by asking for too much early on. Normal relationship building principles apply similar to building your personal relationships.)

Advocates
Once you have established an audience you will notice some power users. These are the people that are on the platform on a regular basis, peruse most sections, and often are the most vocal. This subset of your audience represents potential advocates. The way to persuade them from being power users to becoming advocates is to acknowledge them and give them things that are special and unique. Recognition might be the most valued attribute as discussed in “The Power of Generosity” by Josh Bernoff.

So just a couple more things here. I realize this is long, but my wife has been bugging me to put some more useful information in my blog.

1) When I address the brands I work with, I often say one slide shows our social strategy. Here it is …

What I want you to take away from this is what I covered about the various A-Path steps described above. You start the early stages of the A-Path offsite. Then there is a cross over to your site or your platforms. You have the strongest success of the A-Path steps offsite in the beginning and the greatest success of the A-Path steps in the later stages on your platforms.

2) Many people ask me which social platforms are best. I have said numerous times, there is more to social media than Facebook and Twitter and even wrote an article “In Social Media, Twitter is Just the Start.” When selecting the most appropriate you should consider Brain Solis’ Conversation Prism. It was introduced in 2008, and an update was provided in 2009.

While new platforms continue to be introduced and gain popularity, the categories of social channels have not really changed. You should look at the bullet list of types social outlets, understand your target market preferences and plan appropriate places to get attention and attraction, build affinity and audience, and acquire advocates. I do really like the mind map method Solis recommends in the Conversation Prism V2.0.

This is a game plan to drive success, but no game plan ensures success. Winners take some calculated risk – they are not followers. Are you ready to be a winner and willing to create something new and innovative?

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

You Are Pretty Easy to Pick Out

This past week, I was walking into work in the crowded lobby of my downtown Manhattan office. All of a sudden I feel a tap on my shoulder and turn around and see my boss. After the usual “hi, how’s it going,” exchange, he says to me “You’re pretty easy to pick out.” I say, “Yeah, my shinny bald head” and not to mention that there are not too many men who have both ears pierced in that lobby. Hey – what can I say, I do like to stand out. What else would you expect from someone who had spiked hair and shaved lines in the back of their head and a long tail dropping down the back in the late ‘80s.

But you know there is a really important takeaway here. Let’s relate the “easy to pick out” nature of a person in a crowded Manhattan high-rise lobby to a brand in today’s age. And let’s turn the subject to social media. (What a surprise .)

Today, I no longer find myself convincing anyone they need to play in social media, but rather describing that social media is more than Twitter and Facebook, and how to go about it. So I’ll start by recalling one of the first articles I ever wrote for my blog, “Before You Start with Social Media”. I emphasized the importance of knowing who you are, and knowing your target audience. It is important to go through the very old marketing practice of defining your positioning statement. A strong position statement should consist of the following parameters:

• For ……………………… [target customer]
• Who ……………………. [key qualifier - form]
• Our product is a ……… [product category]
• That provides ………… [key benefit]
• Unlike …………………. [main competitor]
• Our product ………….. [key point of differentiation]

Make sure this is honest and real. I am not suggesting that the positioning statement be explicitly communicated, but everything you do communicate should be tested against the positioning statement to make sure your communication reinforces who you are and speaks to your target audience. (Read “bases for Facebook and Twitter strategy” into this statement.) Spend some time on this … this is the structure for everything you do and gets magnified by the branding activities you do. So if this is weak, you’ll be branding crap and if it is strong, you are at step one of strong product/service brand reputation management.

Once you clearly understand your position in the terms described above, you MUST determine how you will rise above all the noise provided by others in your vertical industry. A great example of this is the recent Old Spice campaign in a highly competitive and saturated deodorant space. Take a lesson here. The elements of this success are: 1) knowing who you are and what you stand for, 2) telling your story in a quirky or standout matter, 3) selecting the best social channels to get your story out, and 4) provoking customer engagement. And the outcome – Old Spice will be “pretty easy to pick out.”

Another example is Ford Fiesta. While some car companies are easy to pick out appearing in front of Congressional meetings, Ford is pretty easy to pick out rallying customers and garnering buzz. Ford has a complete integrated marketing strategy that relies heavily on continuous social media – not a limited time campaign.

You don’t have to be a giant like Procter & Gamble or Ford to stand out. There are numerous examples of small businesses using social media to capture their crowd.
Check out:
• Follow the food truck using social media,
• Doctor uses social media to promote community, customer relationships, and
• Small businesses learn to use social media to connect with customers
just for starters.

These are just a handful of examples of brands using social media to make themselves “be easy to pick out.” Isn’t this exactly what you want from your brand?

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Social Media: “The Numbers Don’t Lie”

“The numbers don’t lie.” This is a phrase I have heard often since @lindsaykap joined The Social Media Dream Team. How true, how true, BUT … it depends what numbers you look at!

Recently, I was asked to comment on a requirement from a RFP (request for proposal) looking for measurement of “brand vitality.” No surprise, some of the parameters that were required for input included uniques per month (on the brand dot com), number of Twitter followers, and number of Facebook fans. The information requested shows an incomplete part of the story. Yes, everyone wants to know how many followers and fans you have, but what is really important from a marketing and social media perspective is how much your content is consumed and shared.

Having 1M followers is an impressive number, but that does not mean a) your followers get your content or consume it, b) your content/updates are shared, and c) you have influence. There are different algorithms out there that measure “social reach”. (i.e. twinfluence) There are other parameters that are extremely important as well – number of retweets and the number of Twitter Lists that you are included in. If any one person is following 1K twitter accounts, how could they possible consume all the tweets from all those they are following? Addition in Twitter Lists and how the follower uses a Twitter client tell a much stronger story. (Not possible to capture twitter client usage, but lists – yes.)

Same scenario for Facebook – how many fans you have tells a part of the story. We were recently looking at Facebook data when we made some “best practice” changes to Facebook. Our small changes resulted in over 50% increase of unique visits back to one of our brand sites Facebook. But even more important than this, we saw over 150% increase of page views from the traffic from Facebook. The point here is not only the importance of user unique visit numbers, but their stickiness to our content. What I emphasize is not just getting an increase of fans (“likes” as it is now) or of visits, but an increase of visits from the right target audience. Now that shows brand vitality.

I also make it a point to stress the importance of relationships. So how do you measure relationships? You can measure engagements which is a key attribute of relationships. Some parameters that fall in this category include:

• Comments:
– Comments to articles and posts
– Comments to posted pictures
– Comments to posted videos
– Comments to livecasts
• Mentions
– Blogs
– Portals
– Twitter – both mentions and retweets
– Facebook
• Conversations
– on Twitter
– on Facebook

We just launched two blogs on Tumblr. The parameters of importance there are not only followers, but notes/comments and reblog numbers as well. Other important social media areas of measurement include Digg, Delicious, and other bookmarks – is your content/brand marked for sharing – is it deemed worthy of sharing?

There are numerous social media monitoring tools that measure “authority” or “influence”. These vendors use their own proprietary algorithms that take into consideration such things as followers, text mentions, URL mentions, RSS feeds, subscribers, and other things. So when we talk about brand vitality, “social reach” needs to be included as well as the obvious things measured (fans, followers, etc) and Comscore/Omniture-like data.

So yes, “the numbers don’t lie” is absolutely correct. But what you measure and report may not tell the correct story. Be smart and proceed accordingly.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Communities – Part 2 (Communities in the Online Space pt. 2)

Instead of sharing my social media experiences with you, I’ve done something I have been preaching on this blog … listened. Based on my last post about communities, many of you have shared your thoughts with me. I have gotten some great comments and I have consolidated some of the best to share with you here.

So onward … let’s talk a little more about communities. What makes a great community? Common interests, common courtesy, and uncommon generosity in sharing advice and insights. Great communities help individuals succeed and persist. The best communities facilitate connections between the digital and real world environment and scenarios.

I think the most important ingredient is participation from the community originator and/or moderator. A community gets drawn together by an active leader that cares about the participants and is active in the discussions. A good moderator stimulates the community by teeing up open discussions. Other communities where this does not happen are clearly less lively and thus participants really do not feel akin to the environment. Strong communities often have participants that encourage one another and ask meaningful questions that prompt others to share their thoughts.

Communities get broad exposure via other social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, flickr, etc. as well as gaining coverage and attention in other communities that address similar interests.

Unfortunately, some people and brands expect the community to build themselves. But in the end, a community must provide some type of value or tangible reward to continue to attract new users. Once you have “attracted” potential community members, you must continue to deliver valuable information in order for them to build affinity for the community. Once they have affinity, you can make users regular participants and truly part of the community audience. Ultimately, social media communities’ power lies in its ability to let users be advocates of a cause, product or brand. (see A-Path)

Communities are something we join when the “fit” looks right and we find others that either identify with us or engage in healthy constructive debates. Some communities are more open and inviting than others, and some are more open to inclusion of differing opinions.

Ah, but then we get to community bullying. Yes, some find communities and social media channels as a secure protective shield to abuse others of opposing view. Quite frankly, I see this as cowardly as some see the absence of direct eye contact a ticket to verbal bombing. Much the way email sparked many comments from people who would not say something to someone’s face, social media outlets and communities provide a safe harbor for over opinionated, but weak individuals. I fully support diverse views and constructive debates, but some communities have become fertile ground for attacks. I have witnessed many intelligent people being scared off by this behavior.

At the same time some choose to avoid talking with one and other, for fear of disagreement. This is quite unfortunate as well. One question I received was, “How do we encourage debate, inspire dialogue, and support healthy disagreement in the pursuit of mutual enlightenment – without unwittingly creating confusion and offense? If we don’t welcome different thinkers into our forums, and invite their perspectives, how are we to grow – intellectually, socially, etc?” And the answer here goes back to the starting point of this discussion. That is a strong moderator will encourage conversation, debate, agreement and disagreement. All in a civil, thought-provoking environment.

Got a good an example of where you see this happening? Please share it.

Best,
Social Steve

PS Thanks to so many for their input – way too many to mention.

Social Media: Are Twitter and Facebook Best?

Twitter and Facebook … most often the first two words after social media. Just about every executive initiative related to social media starts with, “We need to be on Facebook and Twitter.” But are these two high visible platforms really the best channels to rally potential and existing buyers?

Last week, data was released that stated your Facebook fans and Twitters followers are twice as likely to purchase your product or service. “The survey by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research found that 51 per cent of fans of pages on Facebook and 67 per cent of brand followers on Twitter say they are more prone to making purchases from the companies they track.”

Pretty compelling information. But wait. What came first? The chicken or the egg? Do you purchase from a brand first, and then decide to join the brand’s Facebook fan page and follow them on Twitter, or does the social media connection happen before a purchase? We’ll debate that one for a while … at least until there is some empirical data to determine this.

While this debate continues, let me offer an alternative strategy. I am not going to suggest a substitute, but rather something more compelling that should be integrated into your (presumed) existing Twitter and Facebook activities.

If you want to develop relationships with your target audience (this is what social media is REALLY all about), go where they are hanging out as opposed to expecting them to come over to your place. Find the existing communities where they are already participating. (I am sure there are many!) Simply search blogs, portal, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. to find the existing groups. Join these communities. Start by listening to the discussions there. Then join the conversations focusing on providing information that delivers to the communities’ needs (not yours). Continue to position yourself as a subject matter expert. Over the course of time, you will build relationships. Then you can invite them to your community (Facebook fan page) or to follow you (Twitter). But do this slowly and be sincere about the relationships you look to build. DO NOT SELL!!!

Mitch Joel (one of my favorite social media thought leaders out there) suggests, “spend(ing) ten times as much time adding value to the five or ten existing communities where (your) potential members might be hanging out, reading and connecting” in his article “The One Thing About Building A Community.” This is the integrated approach I suggested in the beginning. You will have your community where your existing customers will come (Twitter and Facebook – and others). Your community is an opportunity for you to build loyal customers and advocates. Your community will also attract people who might be considering purchase of your brand. But if you proactively want to rally your target audience, build relationships to new potential customers and over time turn them into your audience, go to their existing communities and play there.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

In Social Media, Twitter is Just the Start

Twitter is all the rage, but it does not represent a winning social media strategy. Don’t get me wrong … I am very bullish on Twitter and think it is a great tool to reinforce the brand that you are, but I would argue it only represents the starting point of a social media execution.

Twitter needs to be integrated into an overall social media plan. If you have read any of my articles in the past, you know I emphasize (over and over again) the importance of engagement, conversations, and building relationships. This is difficult in 140 characters … how much can you say? Can you really build a relationship with spurts of short sentences? On the flip side, if you think about how you will use Twitter with other social media outlets, 140 characters can say enough to get the ball rolling. Look at the example “Executable Game Plan for Winning Ultimate Customers with Social Media.” In this article, I lay out how you can use Twitter to get your customers on the first steps of the “A-Path” (Attention and Attraction). But getting someone’s attention and attracting them is not enough … damn good start, but not enough to start a relationship. Very good to keep a relationship going, but once again, not enough to start one.

Look at other outlets, such as social networks (yours or Facebook), blogs, YouTube, Ustream, Flickr, and many, many others to determine how you can use these outlets to influence the brand perception you desire. These other sources will be the primary platforms for establishing strong relationships because they will contain content, not just statements. Once you have a good idea of what you should deliver in these social outlets, then it is the time to consider how to use Twitter – not before. Twitter should be an integrated overlay to your core content. Twitter is good for introduction and maintaining relationships.

Here are some benefits of using Twitter:

1) Reinforce your brand and personality.
2) Helpful and informative tips.
3) Listing sources of good information (RT and URLs for postings)
4) Directing traffic to your site. (BUT be careful here – don’t over do it.)
5) Listing instant promotions and discounts. (Should only be a small part of your overall social strategy and tweeting, likely not to stand on its own.)
6) Instant posting of pictures (to reinforce your brand)
7) Limited conversation.

Last couple of notes on Twitter (clearly not the final word, though) … Find other Twitter users that complement your position – engage with them, retweet them. Also think “search”! – consider specific words you use. If someone wants to find information on the topic you are covering, what key words will they search for? Think about using hashtags (see HOW TO: Use Twitter Hashtags for Business) to be part of a conversation topic, or maybe even more importantly, start a trending topic that gains momentum.

I think Twitter is fantastic, but like everything else in the world, you need to make sure to use it correctly. I’ve seen idiots use it as well as “brand artists”. Which list do you want to be on?

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Social Media – Concentrate on How, not What

In social media, it is really not important what you do, but rather how you do it. Okay, I exaggerate a bit … what you do is important as you must determine where you reach your existing and potential audience best. But I find that failures in social media efforts are usually a function of how it is implemented as opposed to the social media channels selected.

More people are participating in social media channels and more companies are allocating time, resources, and budget to social media according to my unofficial survey. If you have read any of my articles in the past, you’ll know I have been extremely bullish on social media and thus I am thrilled to see data supporting strong adoption. What concerns me going forward is that many companies will continue to jump on the bandwagon without understanding HOW to use social media. DON’T SELL … ever hear me say this before. Engage in efforts and activities that focus on building relationships. It is that simple, really. With every plan and step of your social media implementation, ask yourself, is this helping to contribute to building a stronger relationship with my audience?

Here is an example … Twitter and Facebook are getting the most hype of the social media channels. Many company executives immediately say, “Oh, we need to be on Twitter and Facebook.” That is fine … I see nothing wrong with this, even if there are better, more direct channels to a company’s audience. So you set up a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page. You start posting stuff about the company or related field to what your company offers. But this is not building a relationship. Are you LISTENING? Listening to what is being said in other communities about your industry area? Listening for mentions about your company, social media identity, or competition? When you listen, are you responding – engaging in conversations – building a dialog between your company and your audience? Are your posts simply promotion, or are you enticing a conversation?

This is what I mean about “HOW” you do social media. Choose the best social media channels that dictate where your audience is, but make sure to follow the “relationship building mentality.” Once you have relationships then invite your audience to your community. In this day and age, no one comes over to someone house without having a degree of comfort. And you know what, that is no different in a social media context either.

Give it some thought and let me know what you think.

Make it happen!
Social Steve