Hello friends, clients, and partners of 6kites. As I promised in our first Kite Flyer back in 2011, “You’ll hear from us when we have something we think you’ll benefit from, we won’t just ping you as a reminder that we exist.” Since it’s been 10 months since the last Kite Flyer, I guess we’re staying true to our word! There’s always plenty to cover when you work at the convergence of Social*Mobile*Web. In this issue, we offer news you can use that’s straight to the point. And for those who are only here for the “Keeping It Light” section, it’s still there at the bottom.
Until next time, whenever that may be…

Kite Flyer | Volume: 3 Number: 6

We’re on a Great Trajectory

Just Skimming? Here’s What You Need To Know:

• New Optimization Services for Facebook Ads and Offers lowers your ad costs and revs revenue.
• Learn how Mobile Roadmaps save money and boost ROI.
• We’ve expanded our services and capabilities and need more people to join the team. 
• See our Highflyer Section for links to items recently posted to our website and information on how you can party on the 6kites tab in 2013.
• And don’t miss our “Keeping It Light” feature — life’s too short to be taken too seriously. Plus, you could win dinner for two at 6kites client OAK at fourteenth in Boulder!

Maximize ROI on Your Facebook Ads & Offers

Most Facebook advertisers end up running ineffective ad campaigns. A majority have no way to measure their performance. 6kites’ new SOAR™ service removes the uncertainty and confusion about how to use Facebook Ads and Offers to boost your audience, engagement, and revenue. SOAR is short for Social Optimization Acquisition and Results. Learn more about SOAR™ for Facebook

How Does Your Mobile Strategy Measure Up?

Offering Even More Services to Help You SOAR.

6kites works with companies of all sizes to transform their businesses through practical approaches to social, mobile, web, and enterprise applications. Our extensive portfolio spans multibillion dollar corporations, local businesses, some of the hottest venture backed companies in the country, and innovative up-and-coming startups.

New Services to Improve the Performance of Our Clients’ Initiatives:

• 6kites’ SOAR™ Facebook Ads and Offers Optimization Service
• Strategic Roadmaps for Social Business, Mobile, and Web
• Mobile and Social Analytics

We continue to hear that it’s our combination of strategy and technology that makes us unique, so we’re making investments in both areas. In application development alone, we now have over 20 developers spanning mobile development, Ruby on Rails, HTML5, JavaScript, and WordPress.Each development effort is held together by our highly collaborative approach to Agile development, which provides our clients insight to all aspects of their projects.

Give us a holler if you know anyone who wants to get in on the ground floor of the Kite Factory (employee or contractor). Check out our jobs posted on 6kites.com:

• Freelance Creative Design
• Social Business Strategist
• Mobile Strategist
• Mobile Application Developer
• Software Developer
• Project Manager
• Analytics Expert

6kites HighflyersYour guide to what’s happening in Social*Mobile*Web + Fun

Looking for ideas you can borrow for your company’s Social*Mobile*Web initiatives? See how we approach solutions for our clients. Check out our recent blog posts highlighting our work. Find out what advice we’re being asked to share with some of the top CIOs in the Denver area? Here’s a sampling of our recent posts:

• 6kites Partners with HootSuite to Build Apps for HubSpot andGet Satisfaction 
• Dental Lifeline Network Mobilizes Its Sales Efforts with a New iPad App Built by 6kites
• 6kites Presents Mobile Strategy for CIOs

Fun FactorThose who know us well appreciate that FUN is a core value at 6kites. One way we measure our fun factor is by the number events we hold each year.  We did pretty well in 2012, and we have high hopes for 2013 with even more special events to say “Thank You” to our clients, partners, contractors, friends, and employees. Watch for an announcement soon about our “Not-Shark-Dog” Party! Make sure you’re on our party list by emailing Mary Keelan.

Keeping it Light…Announcing the CrAPPy Awards

And finally from our Executive Vice Prez, Teen of Fun, Mr. John A. Morreale (aka Herb’s son).  Last time John brought you the Narwhal video, the most annoying video of all time. John’s back with the 2013 CrAPPy Awards for some truly Dumb Apps Fun! And we give you an opportunity to win a dinner for two on 6kites at our client OAK at fourteenth in Boulder. Working hard from his couch over winter break, John nominated some of the dumbest apps out there for your amusement. Check out the nominees for our 2013 CrAPPy Awards. Vote for the dumbest app and you will be entered into our drawing!

 

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What they’re after is a cut of the estimated $38 billion in revenue consumers will generate over the next two years from mobile transactions.

Unfortunately, many of these companies will push out an app just to be able to say they have one. But smart CIOs and CMOs will first ask “Can’t we use apps to help achieve business objectives? And what’s our ROI?”

Recently, our own Dean Rizzuto spoke to a group of CIOs and leading IT professionals at the Society for Information Management about how to build an effective mobile strategy for businesses.

Dean gave attendees 4 key themes to consider when going mobile.

1. The mobile landscape is constantly evolving.

Spurred on by new mobile device releases, many just in time for the holidays, users are creating new demands on CIOs. With Microsoft entering the tablet market, tablet-hybrids hitting the scene and the rise of the cloud, CIOs are sprinting to support a wider array of mobile technology.

Without doubt, support calls for network access and app issues will shoot up in January 2013. That’s because company employees have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) mentality. They expect to be able to use their personal devices at work. Add to that, the lines between personal and professional social media are blurrier than ever. CIOs have to think more like their CMO, CFO and HR director.

2. CIOs must overcome increasing mobility challenges.

It’s not merely a matter of how do we build it? CIOs have to think through network and device security, data storage, support costs, monetization, ROI, and policies and procedures that protect their company from internal and external risk. And don’t forget, they also have to ensure their customers and employees have exceptional brand experiences.

In a BYOD environment, CIOs must ensure personal devices are usable in a business environment without undue risk to the company or inconvenience to the user. CIOs will rely on appropriate policies as much as device management and software technology to provide tight security, protecting against data loss and downtime. Policies and procedures need to allow for the flexibility our modern workforce demands. But policies need to work as hard as the technology used in securing devices and data. If you can afford it, consider a “bookend” approach: mobile device management paired with appropriate policies.

3. A solid mobile strategy looks both ways.



Just because you build it doesn’t mean hoards of traffic will download AND use your shiny new app. Even if they do, what will it do for your bottom line? A mobile strategy looks inward AND outward. Yes, you must first identify your Business Objectives and understand what your hard and soft ROI will be. But don’t forget, you are developing mobile technology for people. Make it matter to your business and create an experience that keeps users engaged.

Your audience has unique desires, needs, use preferences, and instances when they will or won’t use a phone, a tablet or a PC. Regardless, they want simplicity, immediacy and context. Will your app deliver a great experience? Does it truly extend your brand? How do you get your mobile solution into your customers’ hands? And what about mobile analytics – how will you analyze results? And what will you do with those? If you don’t understand your user’s journey, then your strategy is “half baked.”

4. Mobile App or Mobile Web? 



When deciding which approach is appropriate for you and your business, you first need to look at what your goals are. What content are you offering? What users’ preferences are by content category? What’s your budget? How quickly you need to go to market? Do you need extensibility?

Recent studies found user preference for mobile web vs. mobile app varied drastically based on the task at hand. Internet users prefer mobile browsers for shopping, searching and entertainment. By contrast, users prefer mobile apps for managing data, navigation and connecting with others.

Example of how to decide when a mobile app makes sense:

a) Do you have a clear sense of what your business objectives are for having a mobile solution?
b) Does your use case tie nicely to a social platform through a custom integration?
c) Do you have budget for development, data management, app support, and marketing to promote distribution and usage?
d) Do your business objectives allow you the time needed to go through the approval process often required by some app distributors? iTunes isn’t the only gatekeeper for mobile apps!
e) Can you see opportunities for enhancements and add-ons in future releases?

Of course there are other key strategic considerations and options available depending on other factors, including what you want and need to do with data collection, how dynamic or static your content is, what your target platforms are, and so on.

You may even find opportunities to create hybrid approaches where you build a mobile app to handle certain user tasks, but also offer additional content that’s tailored for mobile web. This approach can save project time and money for the right project and circumstances.

Regardless, it’s important to remember that the mobile landscape is constantly evolving. Your mobile strategies need to evolve too. Revisit them quarterly and get objective help. Just as there are PPC, SEM, SEO and Social Media experts getting found and creating social engagement, 6kites is here to offer mobile strategy and development expertise.

It’s important to have a strategic advisor that keeps up with changing mobile landscape. You and your team may also want to create a “mobile task force” with representatives from other departments with a stake in mobile strategy success.

In the end, while mobility strategies affect Marketing, HR, Sales, Finance and other departments, company leadership (CEO/COO/CFO) will turn to IT for mobility policies, best practices and technology solutions to meet business objectives.

_________________________________
Dean Rizzuto is VP of Client Services at 6kites. Download his presentation and notes from his presentation to the Society for Information Management http://www.6kites.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/MobilityV2.pdf in Denver, Nov 13, 2012. To talk with Dean about mobile strategy email or call: dean@6kites.com or 303.847.6164.

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Savvy CIOs and CMOs know that before starting development, they need to define their objectives and determine what the right set of analytics are for their business case in order to make informed decisions. In fact, Gartner identifies “Actionable Analytics” — driven by mobile analytics — as one of 2013’s top strategic technology trends. Still, it appears many companies are struggling with metrics and ROI.

Forrester reports “Executives have big plans for downloadable apps.” But those plans appear to be lacking a crucial element: strategy. Another recent study shows only 16% of marketers currently have a mobile strategy, let alone an understanding of how to monetize one. Unfortunately, most companies are developing mobile apps without first clearly defining business objectives, determining what metrics they will measure, or knowing how to report ROI.

Much like when the Web first began its growth as a marketing tool, marketers are finding it challenging to understand how to measure success (or failure) of a mobile app. Just as “hits” was an early web metric that was easy to measure but convoluted, app downloads is also an easy to measure metric that really doesn’t tell much about the value of the app to customers or the business.

That’s where a strategic partner like 6kites comes in.

When developing mobile strategies with clients, 6kites identifies metrics and measurements for mobile to help our clients clearly understand how users are adopting and using mobile applications. We apply our experience using advanced Web analytics and metrics to develop a set of standard mobile app metrics our clients can use to measure mobile app usability and ROI (detailed below).

With each 6kites app initiative, we include measurement strategies and metrics dashboards to provide clients with a view and an understanding of the important ROI information their app collects. And our mobile apps collect this data because we build that functionality into them. This functionality provides a clear understanding of how users are adopting the app, how their customers are using the app, and what pieces of functionality are most popular.

6kites helps our clients define key metrics to measure ROI, user experience, and performance based on their specific business objectives and their users’ needs. We build these analytic functionalities into our apps, collect metrics directly, and organize them to deliver to our clients a custom analytics dashboard. These types of metrics dashboards create a real-time means for businesses to understand how and when customers are using their apps. This also allows us to help our clients make faster, more targeted decisions about their mobile initiatives and their users’ needs.

These metrics also tell us the story of what pieces of functionality and content app users are (or aren’t) utilizing frequently. And in turn, metrics help our clients make decisions about what types of content and functionality is valuable to their users and what should (or shouldn’t) be included in future versions of the app.

 
While each app and mobile initiative is different, here are some standard mobile usage and performance metrics you can use in assessing ROI:

• Usage patterns and flows – what are the most common usage paths and patterns for your app? Are they the paths and patterns that were expected?
• Feature usage – which app or web features are the most used? Are they the features that were expected?
• App Updates – what percentage of your installed user base is actually performing regular app updates?
• Active Users – which specific users are the most active
• New vs. Returning Users – what percentage of feature and content users are new vs. returning users?
• Access by Network Carrier – which carriers are brining your app the most usage?
• Location Usage – where are your customers accessing your app and features from the most (geo-location)?
• Referrers – which sites are making the most referrals to a mobile website?

These metrics are a good jumping off point for thinking about what to track in your app. In the end, they should map to your business and user objectives. Make sure developers enable apps to track and report on all the key metrics needed to understand your app’s ROI and usability for your situation.

Several mobile analytics packages are beginning to draw some attention including: Flurry and MixPanel; even Google Analytics is touting mobile app analytics. Once it’s clear what you should be measuring, you will be able to look at these types of packages to determine which may work best for your needs.

What types of additional metrics are you finding to be valuable in tracking and reporting that didn’t make our list? Want to see how your app strategy measures up? Contact 6kites for an assessment.

The post Mobile Usage and Performance Metrics appeared first on 6kites.

Volume: 2 Number: 1

High Winds the Last Several Months…

We said we would only send a flyer when we had real news. We do, and waited too long so there’s a lot here.  Just scan the headlines if you’re short on time, but don’t miss our “keeping it light” feature – life’s too short to be taken too seriously.

Our Kite Design is Evolving

If you’ve seen our redesigned website, you know we’re working so hard, they’re putting nets outside our windows. It’s really important for us to communicate who we are, what we do and why you want to keep us on board. Our services have been evolving and now span social, mobile, and web.

Think It. Build It. Run It.

On the home page of our website, you will see how we attack The Convergence of social – mobile – web: “Think It, Build It, Run It.”   6kites covers it all – we help with the conception of your strategy, execute development, and manage your product and service. Simply…it’s our ability to cover the whole spectrum that makes us unique, and our clients successful.

Our New Office

Client Successes

A Publicly Traded Oil & Gas Company- Our Story of True Convergence

There’s always that one client that exemplifies what it’s all about. With this company, a large independent oil & gas company, 6kites brought together social and web in such a way as to benefit several parts of their business. As usual, the 6kites approach was focused on ROI from the start. See the “Results” page on our website to learn more about this extensive project and other 6kites engagements.

Hootsuite Integrations- Efficient and Strategic

After developing a relationship with Get Satisfaction for more than a year, 6kites was the obvious choice when it came time to integrate their community software into the streams of Hootsuite. Get Satisfaction saw the opportunity to be one of the first companies to be part of Hootsuite’s expanded app strategy. They approached 6kites because of our experience providing social business results- our domain expertise and technical capabilities were critical to implement this integration. 6kites moved quickly to finish this build that, according to HootSuite, exemplifies their strategy. This project was a win/ win for everyone.

HealthONE – Fast LocatER Mobile App

Our first mobile app has gone to new heights. We developed the mobile app, Fast LocatER for iPhone, iPad and Android. It can direct you to the nearest HealthONE Emergency Room, help you find a doctor and schedule an appointment. The iPad app also has a series of informational videos, and the back-end has enhanced analytics capabilities. We provided strategic recommendations, got the green light, and we worked to build new features into the app. We also found that we were able to improve the backend, which made the app even better for continued success. Another great feature that we deployed is an interactive voice response system that does much of what the mobile app does, but for those (living in the dark ages) without a smart phone. You can check it out here!

OAK at fourteenth – Diners Engaged

Back in business, OAK is once again leading all restaurants in Boulder in terms of engagement as measured by our innovative Facebook Crawler. What does that mean to OAK? A more loyal and engaged patronage. Aside from managing their social media campaign, we designed their new website, www.oakatfourteenth.com, and are now exploring mobile solutions.

We Promise to be in Touch Again. Pinky Swear.

• Social Business Strategist
• Mobile Strategist
• Mobile Application Developer
• Ruby Developer
• Director of Engineering
• HTML developers

Keeping it Light…

We always have something fun in our newsletters. Courtesy of Herb’s son, John, we bring you the Narwhal video- the most annoying video of all time. If we have to watch it over and over in the office, you do too. The song will get stuck in your head. You’ve been warned…

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Facebook Activity Statistics
For a recent project, we crawled Facebook Pages from various industries of differing sizes and make-ups. We collected 112,000 interactions (posts, comments, likes) across 20 Facebook Pages. Here’s how that breaks down:

• 70,517 unique users acted
• 4% of the actions were status posts
• 13% were comments
• 83% were likes

These are interesting ratios supporting the 1:9:90 rule about the proportion of users in a community who are creators, commenters, or lurkers. This rule states that in an online community, 1% of the people create and share content, 9% like this content, and 90% only “lurk” and view this content, but do not participate in the conversation. For our analysis, we change the original concept of a “lurker” to an “active lurker”. An “active lurker” is someone who has viewed the content and taken the extra step to like the content.

Engagement Statistics
Now let’s talk about the nitty-gritty of what companies are actually doing with their communities and the opportunities for brands and community managers.

Across our most recent data set, we found the following proportions of content types:

• 71% status posts (plain text)
• 13% link posts
• 11% photo posts
• 3% video posts

We further drilled down into the amount of interactions resulting from those post types. An interaction is defined as a comment or a like associated with the original post. The interaction ratios we found are, on average:

• 8 interactions (likes and comments) per status (text-only) post
• 47 per link post
• 67 per photo post
• 43 per video post

The Missed Opportunity
Let’s pull all these numbers together and get to the bottom of this:

• Link posts and video posts are reacted to 5.6 times more than status posts but are used less than 15% of the time.
• Photo posts are reacted to 8.5 times more than status posts but are used little more than 10% of the time.

To people who understand the way Facebook engagement works, it’s not an “ah-ha!” that there would be more engagement from the non-text status posts. However, few people know exactly how much more impactful they are. With these ratios in mind, companies have a huge opportunity to drive ROI just by posting in a way that engages your population more effectively.

If you’re interested in us running data for your company, please feel free to contact us at info@6kites.com.

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Herb Morreale is excited to be speaking at the Denver Executive Contact Center Forum on November 16th. The Forum topic will be on Social Media.

Herb will be speaking about how to drive higher ROI through social media solutions. He will also reflect on his impact at Teletech and the fundamental business changes that resulted from new ways of thinking about social interactions in the workplace.

Herb spent two years at Teletech working on launching their social business initiative. The initiative focused on better call center metrics and employee retention. He is an expert in social business as it relates to call center performance and the unique challenges regarding talent acquisition in call centers.

The Denver Executive Contact Center Forum is a group for executives who lead call centers in the Denver area. It focuses on exploring relevant topics to the industry and the environment surrounding call centers with professional peers.

The post Herb Morreale Speaks at the Denver Executive Contact Center Forum on Social Media appeared first on 6kites.

Rizzuto brings over 20 years of technology, web and mobile experience from a wide spectrum of companies and projects.  Prior to joining 6Kites, Rizzuto was President of FlatIron Consulting, Inc., and his user experience (UX) design business has consistently been the top ranked web strategy company in Denver by Google.  He earned his B.S. degree in Computer Science from the University of Colorado in Boulder.

According to Gartner, Inc., “by 2015, companies will generate 50 percent of Web sales via their social presence and mobile applications.”   In addition, IDC forecasts total smartphone sales in 2011 will reach 472 million across the globe, rising to 982 million in 2015.  Therefore, businesses looking to maximize their investments across social, mobile, and web must implement an interwoven approach to user-centric strategy.

“Dean and I have worked together in the past with great success.  He fits in perfectly at 6kites because his extensive experience leads to practical approaches in an often over-hyped market,” said Herb Morreale, founder and CEO of 6kites.  “As the leader of our client services, Dean will not only directly deliver solutions, but also help build a culture of maintaining long-term relationships with clients and business partners.”

“I have been successfully working as an independent strategy consultant for over 6 years but I am excited for this new adventure,” said Rizzuto. “After partnering with a company sitting at the convergence of many exciting and fast growing technologies for the past year, I’m honored to join the 6kites executive team and leverage my skills in User Experience and client relationship management.”

Rizzuto has served in many different capacities during his career including technology business owner, CTO, and Vice President of Business Development. Dean has worked with companies and brands including CP+B, American Express OPEN Forum, PartMiner WorldWide, First Data Corporation, Sterling-Rice Group, SpireMedia, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Deep Rock Water, Denver Water, The City of Pueblo, The Children’s Hospital, Media News Group, and Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers.

About 6kites

6kites, Inc. is based in Boulder, Colorado provides consulting, managed services, software development, and analytics platforms spanning social, mobile and web.   For more information, please visit http://www.6kites.com/.

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We have a few core values at 6kites, one being “Keep Things Light – Heavy kites don’t fly!  Achieving exceptional results doesn’t mean taking ourselves too seriously.” We certainly hope that this comes through in everything we do, including our silly parties!

In case you missed the Fact Page about Shark Dog (it’s in your goodie bag), we wanted to share with you a little about what we’ve been up to here at 6kites.

THE 6KITES SHARK DOGS

NAMES: Mega; Bite
BORN: August 2010
FAVORITE CHEW TOYS: www.6kites.com, Facebook.com/6kites, and twitter (@6kites)
TRAINERS: Herb Morreale, Dean Rizzuto, Alex Decker, Hank Pantier, Jon Christensen, Yuri Gadow
TRICKS: Juggling Social, Media, and Web
FAVORITE THING TO DEVOUR: Hype
SHARK BARK TO OUR FIRST CLIENT: Rally Software
SHARK DOG PARK FRIENDS: BolderBOULDER, Crocs, Forest Oil, Get Satisfaction, HealthONE, Karsh\Hagan, NCWIT, OAK at Fourteenth, Rally Software, RockWare, Scottsdale Promenade, Spire Parking, Sterling-Rice, The Shops at Chauncey Ranch

Thanks for being there with us,

The Kite Fliers

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Do you remember when there weren’t people called community managers?  Well, except for the kind of community manager that ends up running for President… and winning.   I always got a kick out of how Obama was knocked for being a community manager.  Anyways…

Things have evolved a lot over the last few years.   Community managers now hold key positions in many companies.  There are awards for community managers.  There are comprehensive job descriptions.  There are products “specially designed with the community manager in mind.”  As a result of this evolution we are seeing an increasing gap between basic community management, and the kind of approaches that lead to breakthrough results from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.  Like everything in life, there’s a spectrum between “good” and “great,” and defining the points in between isn’t arbitrary.  We’re going to give it a shot because too often all community management is lumped into one bucket.

Community Management

First let’s start with Community Management on one side of the spectrum. The generally accepted definition of the community manager involves their participation with the company’s online marketing outreach through social networking sites and interactions on those platforms. Connie Bensen is frequently cited for her definition of community management and her key points surrounding building relationships and fostering a sense of community.  This Community-Roundtable Article discusses the definitions of social media and community management (placing social media as “OK” on our “good-great” spectrum).

There are many definitions out there and they all place different points along that spectrum, but the community manager role usually encompassed the following capabilities:

• Building trust by creating engaging content to connect with the target audience of the company or brand
• Developing relationships with the crowd through commenting, responding, retweeting, direct messaging, and sharing relevant information
• Monitoring the crowd for mentions, links, number of followers and fans, etc.

Strategic Community Management

The Strategic Community Manager does all of these things and more.  Their interactions are tightly connected to the business and evolving with the business.  Strategic Community Management has a seat at the table when major business decisions are made.  What happens in the community becomes key input into corporate strategy, customer care processes, and process improvement across the entire operations of the business.   Said another way, Strategic Community Management means connecting what happens in the community with the primary business metrics, key financial drivers, and ROI.

Experience

A Strategic Community Manager works on the front lines and gets into the nitty gritty of how the community lives and breathes.  Contrary to some thinking that there are no “experts” in social media, experience and perspective in social business makes a big difference in the outcome.   For example, over time you learn that online crowds (communities) behave in certain ways, and that the crowd can be influenced by a number of things: post types, content, style, identifying key people, creating sub-communities, adjusting to competitive communities, interpreting analytics, escalation processes, community management plans (see below), and more – so much to learn!  The more you understand these behaviors the more you can connect it to the company’s most important business issues. Again, you have to connect ROI- the thing companies care about most- to the things that influence the community.

Social Intelligence

This understanding- this social intelligence and expertise- goes beyond what you’re going to read in a basic description of community management.  Analytics and the things you learn from the trenches are what allow you to go at the problem differently. It’s not just about following rules and interacting with your community. This is about identifying where opportunities and threats exist for the company and the brand by looking at the metrics, analytics, and trends, to improve and connect on the crowd level. These analytics have to be driving the strategies and tactics, and we all know how infrequently they are. Bottoms-up knowledge informs how to succeed.

Measurement Tools

So how do you get at the numbers to drive your strategies and tactics? You need to be looking at insights to understand your audience. This means Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, Klout, monitoring resources, proprietary tools like the 6kites Facebook Crawler; how you get it is less important, but you need to know this stuff.  Once you know the numbers, you need to make sure there are business processes around your tools that supply a feedback loop to make changes in the company and the product based on the data you’re collecting every single day.

Community Management Plans

One of the most important things you can do as a strategic community manager is to have a community management plan to reinforce the feedback loop from community to company and back again. 6kites has a new plan each week for our clients. We have monthly reviews with senior management to go over the plan. I can’t stress enough how important is it to be connected with the change makers in the business. Are you connected to product management? Are you directly connected to the parts of the company that are morphing? You can’t just be someone writing on the wall and running hootsuite (although we do love hootsuite). The ongoing piece of this puzzle involves being the connector that makes things happen. While answering the questions about who your audience is and what they want, you stay plugged in and are forced to be more strategic. It’s the difference between keeping your pages busy and talking about the most important feature of the product that will affect your sales numbers. You have to have an objective with a measurement behind it.   And, instilling an element of discipline with weekly reviews makes a big difference. The community management plan, besides just weekly plans, can also include documented escalation processes, crisis management scenario planning, and reporting,

Outsourcing

At some point you’ll have to address the question of insourcing or outsourcing community management.   If you do your research you will definitely find that there are very experienced and effective outsourcing options.  But, maybe in-house control is more important than the highest level of expertise? Jeremiah Owyang has some interesting points in this article about different industries and their likelihood for outsourcing social media so you can see what other companies like yours are doing.  In our experience, it is possible for community managers to be outside the organization and highly strategic.   What makes this possible is that 6kites works extremely closely with senior management and employees all the techniques mentioned in this post.  Certainly not all outside consulting firms work so strategically.  And honestly, they charge accordingly.

Wrapping-Up

Things have evolved, and definitions need to evolve with them. Call it Strategic, Expert, Super-duper, we don’t care., but, recognize there is a spectrum, and along that spectrum you do different stuff.  Strategic Community Management means:

• Connecting your social media plan to the business strategy process and the key financial drivers such as ROI
• Having an expert (either internally or externally) who truly understands your online crowd and how to influence them using your business objectives
• Using analytics to go at the problem differently
• Using tools to get the numbers to drive your social strategies and tactics
• Having community management plans in place to enforce communication between the community manager and the company that drive changes to affect your bottom line

We know social media response methods and are efficient with sites. We have a deep knowledge of what it takes to drive engagement.

The post Not All Community Management is the Same appeared first on 6kites.

We have a few core values at 6kites, one being “Keep Things Light – Heavy kites don’t fly!  Achieving exceptional results doesn’t mean taking ourselves too seriously.” We certainly hope that this comes through in everything we do, including our silly parties!

In case you missed the cute page from our “baby book”  (it’s in your goodie bag), we wanted to share with you a little about what we’ve been up to for the last year here at 6kites.

OUR FIRST YEAR

NAME: 6kites
FIRST WORD: facebook
PLAYMATES: Herb Morreale, Dean Rizzuto, Alex Decker, Hank Pantier, Jon Christensen, Tiffany Zerges
FIRST BOOK (WEBSITE): http://www.6kites.com (built in WordPress)
NUMBER OF TWEETS (@6KITES): 218
FIRST FRIEND (CLIENT): Rally Software
NEWEST FRIEND (CLIENT): BolderBOULDER
FIRST FINGER PAINTING/MOBILE PROJECT: HealthONE Fast LocatER
FRIENDS: Argyll Gastro Pub, BolderBOULDER, Crocs, Forest Oil, Global Mutual Fund, HealthONE, Nature Sweet, OAK at Fourteenth, Rally Software, RockWare, Scottsdale Promenade, The Shops at Chauncey Ranch

Thanks for being there with us,

The Kite Fliers

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