If you’re interested in meeting up with like-minded social media professionals and entrepreneurs in a people-oriented, no-cost environment, check out any one of these six largest social media meetups to visit in 2012:

1. Sprout Up – Toronto

Social media marketers, web developers and other entrepreneurs are always free to attend the monthly Sprout Up meetups held in Toronto throughout the year, connecting with colleagues and melding minds in an effort to innovate and enjoy a stimulating atmosphere. Each meetup features a guest speaker, a roundtable discussion and a time for meeting, greeting and networking.

Useful Sites for Location: Toronto (official site)

2. Hacks/Hackers – New York City

As the world of journalism and media overlap more and more, web developers, bloggers and other internet entrepreneurs are finding themselves with increasing control over the way information is presented to the public at large. The Hacks/Hackers meetups held in New York City bring together journalists (hacks) and internet shapers (hackers) with an eye towards working together to shape the future of digital media.

Location: The official NYC city guide and the updated list of New York City attractions

3. Internet Masterminds – Vancouver

Internet Masterminds is a weekly meetup of internet entrepreneurs and social media specialists held in Vancouver, British Columbia – the largest and most active of its kind in the city! Hosted by a nonprofit group, these meetups offer interesting speakers in a free, easy environment meant to foster discussion and debate and culminating in pure inspiration!

Location: Vancouver (visitors’ information)

4. New Media, Tech and the Social Web – Washington, D.C.

Social media professionals and enthusiasts alike from the Washington, D.C. area are invited to attend meetups with a strong focus on the role of platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and friends on the shaping and growth of the internet. Sporting a fun atmosphere electric with creativity, the group offers talks and discussions on topics like multimedia, web design, social marketing, blogging, startups and more, helping all attendees to gain insight and ideas with every session.

Location: Official Tourism Site of Washington, DC

5. Gaming and Mobile Entrepreneurship – San Francisco

Running for several years and boasting San Francisco’s largest social media meetup attendance, GAME meetups offer a relaxed environment in which everyone from mobile game designers to social media marketers can discuss and debate the latest in technology trends. Recent meetups have seen attendees from the staff of major players such as Blizzard, PopCap, Activision and Zynga, giving the events an extra pull for those looking to succeed in business on the social web.

Location: San Francisco travel guide

6. LaunchDFW Tech Startup Happy Hour – Dallas

Cocktails and good company combine in Dallas, Texas with the ongoing LaunchDFW meetups! From social marketing to incredible design, attendees and speakers offer tremendous experience and insight into the world of online entrepreneurship with the relaxed atmosphere (and included drinks!) giving way to time for networking and relationship building, making for a well-rounded event that any web professional will enjoy and benefit from.

Location: Dallas for visitors

Conclusion

Basing your professional endeavors on social media and internet development in general often means long work days with nary a moment off to indulge in social niceties and meetups like the ones featured above offer an excellent way to combine work and play for the betterment of all. Taking a minute to learn more about a group featured here, seeking out a group in your area or launching a meetup of your very own are all great ways to ensure that fresh ideas and unending inspiration are a daily part of your business efforts!

Jessy is the social media addict who writes about content marketing for mommy bloggers.

6 Largest Social Media Meetups to Visit in 2012 is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

1. Build strong, targeted social media accounts.

Your social media accounts are only as useful as the friends and followers connected to them, making the first step of building those accounts absolutely crucial. Instead of simply working to obtain as many connections as possible, work instead to connect with like-minded people who are more likely to have an interest in what you have to offer.

2. Determine your goals and build your campaign around them.

Once you’ve got social media accounts worth leveraging for marketing purposes, take the time to determine your goals and create a marketing plan that helps you to achieve them. Build a thorough plan to cover you in every situation you plan to tackle, helping you to explore and understand the nuances of each platform and each follower and ending with the crafting of seffective ads and websites that will genuinely spark interest among them.

3. Keep “spam” out of your social media vocabulary.

If the advertising art we speak of in this article were as simple as posting as many links to your websites as possible across social networking platforms, everyone would be a professional social marketer. In reality, social marketing involves always being sure that you are on the right side of the spam line, forcing you to be creative if you want to be successful. Never degrade your social marketing efforts by spamming; never send unsolicited messages, never post links in others’ social streams and never push your products or services on someone who isn’t interested.

4. Get marketing!

With your goals and plans determined and an oath taken against the evils of spam, it’s time to get your social marketing campaign rolling. Start slow, working to connect with individuals as opposed to targeting mass amounts of people.

5. Engage your friends and followers individually.

Being an effective social marketer involves more than just posting ads; the generation of real targeted leads with high potential is going to require more leg work than that. No matter what they’re in the market for, consumers want to know that there is someone there to answer their questions and address their concerns and this is where the real potential of social marketing lies. You should never be too busy for a question; make yourself available to anyone, any time they need it, reassuring your followers and building confidence in your offerings with clear and timely answers.

6. Be a person, too.

Devote yourself to being a real person with an interest in educating people about your products and services, setting yourself apart from the multitude of social spammers in the process. While a wall full of links gives people the ability to obtain more information about your offerings, you most likely already have a website for that. In the interest of leveraging the unique opportunity presented by social networks, make sure that you’re prepared to follow up your initial efforts with all of the one-on-one time your followers may require.

7. Analyze, adapt, repeat.

While the previous six steps offer tips on helping you to be a more effective social marketer, real success is determined by your ability to analyze your efforts and their results and adapt when needed. Not every tactic you employ will be successful and its important that you allow your material and delivery method to evolve with the needs and wants of the people you’re trying to reach.

Conclusion

While following these steps cannot guarantee you any particular level of success, it does provide the basis for a successful foray into social marketing. With the thought constantly in mind that positive exposure can only mean good things for your business, don’t be discouraged if sales don’t begin to rack up in the early going of your efforts. The name you build for yourself, your social account and your products today will be part of the difference in your success tomorrow.

Tom Chu is the SEO manager at PsPrint, an online printing company specializing in brochure and poster printing among other popular services. Follow PsPrint on Twitter and Facebook

Image Credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

7 Ways to Be a Successful Social Marketer is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

Google Plus (Plus.Google.com) is a new tool in a business’ social media arsenal. But it is much more than that – it can directly impact Google search results. This is another reason why getting on Google Plus is so important.

Creating Circles

One of the problems with combining Facebook or LinkedIn with Twitter or other instant messaging system is the overload of tagging or constantly being added to groups that you do not wish to join. Google Plus eliminates this problem via the creation of “circles”. These circles can overlap, be updated whenever you wish, they protect against the invasion of privacy, and can help you target specific types of customers.

A Google Plus circle is an identifier of a group that you create and manage yourself. You can add contacts to one or more of these circles. They are visible only to you, not the general public or even your network friends. Google Plus includes a program that scans email and smart phone contacts, suggests addresses that may be of interest to you, but adds these contacts to your circles only if you agree.

How to Create Targeted Circles

As for being a business tool, Google Plus can be used to add contacts for the purpose of promotions, sales, or to send information that might be valuable to the recipient or one of his or her friends. And if you want to follow other people, “encircling” people is easy via the Google Plus search feature. Google+ is a great way to network and build connections with people, whether they are business contacts or current or potential customers.

Posting company information to a specific population is key when using Google Plus. The last thing you want is for information to be spread to those who are not interested in what you have to offer. This is why you will want to create business circles that are specific to a certain product or service, and include only those who have purchased, are planning to purchase, or have responded to a previous promotion.

One circle can contain all of your customers who have purchased similar items. Another circle can include all of those who have inquired about a particular product or service. Information sent to these contacts can have anything to do with the business or a certain product or service offered. This is far better than public posting, because you already know who is receiving the information you send.

Like It

The Google +1 button is similar to the Facebook “Like” or “Recommend” button. It always looks good if you leave a favorable +1 when any contact in your circle posts a comment. It shows them that you are paying attention and that their comment is important and meaningful to you. This positive feedback can greatly increase the probability that this person will respond at a future date.

Setting Up Hangout Meetings

Much like a conference call, Google Plus Hangout allows you to set up a limited audience meeting for promotional or business purposes. This could be the announcement of a sale price, the introduction of a new product, or a special giveaway or raffle.

If the business has received a number of queries regarding prices, shipping, returns, refunds or product quality. Hangouts can be an excellent tool for addressing the issue with a group of people. It also creates a feeling of company responsibility with the customer and builds community within the company when you all can’t be in the same place.

Making Google Plus work as an effective marketing tool may take some practice, but there is plenty of help available. Internet marketing professionals can help you gain a better understanding of how to best utilize this powerful tool for your business. Social media is playing an increasing role in search rankings and the two are becoming more closely aligned as an overall Internet marketing strategy for online success.

AscentInternet.com contributed this article. Their Internet marketing services in St. George, Utah can help you incorporate social media as an important component of online marketing.

Image Credit: allaboutcms,

How to Use Google+ As a Powerful Business Tool is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

Social Media

Social media is a type of media and an instrument of communication that not only provides a person with information but also encourages interaction. This interaction can be as simple as adding comments on a particular news article or as complex as making recommendations in a movie website. It uses different web-based technologies that allow for interaction between users; it also lets users create and share different kinds of content. These technologies are easily accessible to almost everyone who uses the Internet.

What is Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is a kind of marketing strategy that utilizes social media to market the products and services of a company. Businesses can use the low-cost social media technologies for their marketing. Social networking sites play a big role in social media marketing because these are the places where netizens usually hang out. These are also the places where their products and services are advertised by different users with the help of liking and sharing. Because social networking sites also serve as forums for users, these are the places where users also post reviews about a company’s product or service. Moreover, social media marketing allows for personalization of a product or a service therefore creating a brand that is truly the business’ own.

Why Use Social Media for Marketing

Small businesses can utilize social media as one of their marketing strategies. It is a great tool to inform consumers about the company and the products and services they offer. With social media, the company can form relationships with their customers because it enables them to interact with one another. Using social networking also makes things real to the client because they are afforded a more personal service by the company. It is also easy to give out information and updates through tweets, announcements, and e-newsletters.

However, a company must not rely on using social media alone for their marketing, They must incorporate it with other marketing strategies such as print and television marketing. The key factor in using social media marketing is to create awareness and visibility for their product or service, especially to people who have no idea who the company is and what they can offer. When they use social media for establishing relationships with their customers, it is more likely that their customers will use their product or service again; this is important if they want to establish customer loyalty. Companies that are interested in using social media as an avenue for marketing must know the ins and outs of it so they can tailor-fit their marketing strategies to maximize its usefulness.

The post was written by Robert Kirk who works for RFK Print Solutions as a Graphic Designer. RFK Print Solutions sell business cards online along with other products such as flyers, leaflets, brochures etc.

Image Credit: the.sprouts,

Researching and Reaching Out To Your Target Audience is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

Pinterest is continuing down. Pinterest market share of visits went down, from 0.94 in April to 0.92% in March 2012. So Pinterest has plateaued in US. This does not mean the have stopped growing but in US who wants to pin has apparently started to do so. With this result Pinterest stays 5th on the list.

Twitter has reached 1.73% of market share of visits. As I predicted last month April became Twitter’s highest number ever. Twitter has posted 7 months of solid growth and the trend seems to continue.

Similarly, Google+ is slightly up. Reaching a new high of 0.58% of market share in US. Google is pushing Plus into everything they do and the sheer number of Google users will make their social networking service slowly expand.

Other sites: LinkedIn and Yelp are moving sideways 0.77 and 0.36 percent respectively. And interestingly, MySpace has moved up a bit, from 0.39 in March to 0.41% in April. Is that just a hiccup or have they discovered something that will help them start growing again?

Percentages for the big players in March:

• Facebook 63.18% (-)
• Youtube 20.29% (+)
• Twitter 1.73% (+)

Let us know in the comments what will happen with Pinterest and Google+ in 2012.

About this chart

The chart below is in logarithmic scale so that the smaller sites wouldn’t just a single line around 1% of social network market share. Every month in the chart lists the top 10 sites of that time by the market share of visits. Please note that it is just a percentage and 30% in January 2009 is a lot less than 30% in September 2010. The gaps in the the lines mean that the site wasn’t in the top 10 at that time.

I used an interactive chart making software Tableau Public for this visualization. If you don’t see anything below please try reload. If all else fails then look at the image or download the chart in PDF format: Top 10 Social Networking Sites by Market Share of Visits.

Top 10 Social Networking Sites by Market Share of Visits [April 2012] is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

In order to be successful, businesses must stand out from that crowd. One way to do that is to employ different and more creative strategies.

Stand Out Cover Photo

Facebook now offers brand pages the ability to capitalize on the featured photo section. A large, but awkwardly designed, area is offered up for you to customize. With some creativity, however, this prime area could be used as an incredible opportunity to feature your brand.

Consider methods to make use of this space to your benefit. Facebook prevents businesses from including totally obvious calls-to-action within the image. Sales pitches are not allowed as part of the highlighted image, nor are contact info or any other reference that might be construed as promotional.

Try changing photos on a regular basis to raise fan interest and keep them coming back. Have contests, where you allow your fans to contribute of choose the featured photo.

Photo Stories

Use your ability to add photos to your page as an opportunity to tell your company story visually. Use tagging, commenting and highlighting to feature important milestones. This creative history showcase shows some of your company personality and allows you to connect better with your fans.

For example, if you have evolved from a business that deals with plastic surgery Harrisburg, to a company that now only deals with breast implants Harrisburg PA, then show that in your history timeline.

Feature Posts

Try highlighting, expanding or promoting fan posts. Most people love a little recognition and that possibility encourages participation. Giving preferred status to a rotating group of fans, which places them at the top of your timeline, is a very creative way to make your brand fun and compelling.

Try this with videos as well. Fans love to share videos, especially funny or inspiring ones. Highlight the ones that strike a nerve or get a good reaction from a large number of visitors. Pay attention to the “Likes,” not just the comments. Many users do not leave comments, preferring to use the “Like” feature, but they are visiting and reading your page nonetheless.

Cross-Promote

Don’t be afraid to cross-promote. Let your fans see that you are involved in a positive way with other companies in your industry, even competitors, maybe especially competitors. This practice shows good will and demonstrates that you are confident in what your brand has to offer. It shows that you are not afraid of the competition. For instance, x company collaborated with y and promoted their mission.

These are just some of the ways to use your creativity to build customer loyalty and a healthy fan following. Use the new timeline design to your advantage. Don’t be put off by the constant evolution of Facebook, embrace it and make best use of it instead.

Now that you’re well versed in how to use the new Facebook design, whether you provide plastic surgery Harrisburg or sell designer handbags, you’d probably like to learn more about Twitter. Guest post written by James.

Image Credit:  Alexander Smolianitski,  2,  bhima @ flickr,

Facebook Marketing: How to Stand Out from the Crowd is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

Before you start

Planning is a necessity when putting together a social media contest. You need to think about why you want to run it, ie; what do you want to gain from the competition? Gaining more followers is an obvious target, but also one that only offers a false perspective as many of those followers lose interest once the contest has ended. Therefore, a far more achievable goal would be to produce a higher return on investment ie; money or to gain research on the types of followers your page attracts for example. The point is, you need to formulate a clear plan with an achievable target that will ultimately benefit your company or website.

image source

Putting together the contest

Picking the correct prize is essential in ensuring that your contest will be a success; the best prizes often relate to the competition, but this isn’t a necessity. Whatever the value of the prize, the most important thing is that the prize is desirable. The contest itself needs to be accessible for an audience, with clear instructions and very easy to participate in. You also need to think about what social media sites you will utilise. Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr are the obvious sites, but apps such as Instagram are increasing in popularity so you must tap into the current market; doing some research beforehand is the best way to find the current social media trends. The competition itself can vary in difficulty and participation; some opt for creative contests, others are very straightforward and simple. Some contests require their entrants to make a video submission for example, whereas others simply require the participant to re-tweet a statement on Twitter. Whatever the competition, make it work for you and your website.

Promoting the contest

Promoting the contest ultimately helps to promote your site, and hosting the contest via social media means that promoting is has never been easier. Re-tweeting on Twitter, for example, is very easy and acts as instant promotion; so getting participants to follow the page and then re-tweet to enter the competition is an easy and effective way for promotion. With something like a video or photo entry, the winner could be selected by a poll of votes; thus the entrants themselves promote the competition to their own friends and followers in order to get more votes. The friends and followers then have to join the page to vote (on Facebook for example), thus the competition reaches many more people and promotes the website at the same time. It is essential that a requirement of the competition is that the entrant must be a follower of the page.

image source

Once the contest has ended

Tasks such as ensuring that the winner has been informed and that they receive the prize are key. A great idea is to get them to tweet once the prize has been delivered. This can be re-tweeted by your own page, allowing the other followers hope for future competitions, and it also makes the whole process seem more ‘real’. Enticing followers who didn’t win this time with future completions is also vital. Teasers such as “stay tuned for a new contest next week” are a great way of keeping interest.

The key then to the perfect social media contest is pre-planning combined with giving the consumer something they want, whilst making sure the contest works for you. As shown above, it can be done.

About the Author: Jon Dennis has been involved in online marketing for many years, and currently works on behalf of Ladbrokes Games.

Image Credit: 1, 2

Constructing the Perfect Social Media Contest is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

But let’s see what has happened in the big countries where Facebook is still growing and may not yet have a dominant position.

(Click to zoom)

India

Half a year ago in India Facebook had 37.37 million active users. Now we can say for certain that India has been won by Facebook. Right now there are 45.82 million Facebook users and the penetration of online population is more that half (56.57%). I predict that Facebook penetration will reach to about two thirds of India’s online population bringing the total number of users close to 60 million.

Brazil

The kingdom of Orkut is no more. Half a year ago I predicted that Facebook will overtake Orkut in Brazil in early 2012. But it happened even earlier and Facebook’s growth in Brazil has been unbelievable in the last 6 months. It started from 29.3 million users in October 2011 and now it’s 46.34 million. The rate of growth has been 58.16% which means Facebook has gained 1 user per second for that period of time in Brazil. With this insane growt Brazil passed India by almost 1 million users. Penetration of online population has reached 61.90%.

Russia

In Russia is Facebook is lagging. However in the last 6 months it has added more than 1 million users reaching 5.63 million. The growth has been modest (22.39%) compared to other countries in this review, but it’s steady. This slow adoption rate is caused by Vkontakte.ru and odnoklassniki.ru that are the major competing social networking sites in Russia. I think that the adoption rate of Facebook is speeding up and by the end of 2012 we can see 7-9 Facebook million users in Russia. Read more about Social Media in Russia.

Japan

Japan exploded! Facebook grew 74% in the past six months. From 5 million to 8.7 million users. As I mentioned in my earlier post the rate of growth is accelerating. This means that by the end of the year Japan may reach 13-16 million users.

South Korea

Similarly to Japan, South Korea has seen a huge growth in the adoption of Facebook with 67.38% increase in monthly active users. It has reached 7.03 million users. Now the penetration rate in online population is 17.81%. This penetration rate suggest that the tipping point has been reached and the Facebook user-base may well double by the end of 2012.

China

Banned! Not available! China is blocking Facebook. Facebook will do all it can to get that ban removed. Until then there’s nothing to report. Some sources say that Facebook is looking for a partner that operates in China to get in. Also Facebook’s recent acquisition of Instagram may open some new avenues. However, if social, economical and political pressure open China for Facebook then network effect will do its magic for Facebook.

Network effect is a powerful force that works in favor of Facebook. People are not interested in using a lot of different general purpose social networking sites. This means that over the time the dominant player will get its competitors users to switch.

If nothing will get in the way, Facebook will top 1.5 billion users.

Facebook Statistics 2012: Taking Over the World is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

However, as dynamic businesses know, you cannot let that pull you down.  Instead, see what the new timeline looks like and see what you can do about it.

What Changed?

You now have two identifying photos for your business profile: the smaller profile picture and the bigger cover photo.

Tabs, which was an ever useful feature of the old layout, is now called apps.  Instead of being in the left navigational column, it now appears under your cover photo.  There will only be four apps shown under the timeline, with the first one reserved for photos and the others free for the taking, so you could put your custom apps there.

Status updates or posts are now called stories.

So how can you maximize the new time line for your business?  Read on:

Tell your story.

The best thing about the new timeline is that you can add a story even if it’s somewhere in the past.  So you can tell your customers about your company’s milestones such as the opening of your first, your 100th, or you 1,000th store.  Anything in your company’s history that would help you strengthen your brand and make your customers feel closer to you as a company would be good to share.

Get back your lost traffic.

One of the biggest complaints that business owners had about the new timeline was that it took away default landing tabs, which were used to drive more people to their website and convert Facebook visitors to sales.

The good news is that it would seem a bulk of your traffic do not come from these landing pages but from  links and ads on your profile.  TechCrunch reveals that 9 out of 10 of your app traffic comes from published links and ads.

You can use pinned posts to help highlight a story you have.  With pinned posts, you can keep the story at the top left space of your timeline so it would be easier to direct your Facebook fans to the pages and the places where you want them to go.

Make the most out of your cover photo.

The cover photo is an image you can upload and it will show up at the top of your timeline.  It is one of the first things that your visitors would see.  This is a great way to strengthen your branding.

Your cover photo should be 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels high, and it would help to show a relevant and visually engaging cover photo.

Top tips for your cover photo:

• Do not promote anything on your cover photo such as discounts or directing people to your website.  Not only does this turn your customers off, but Facebook expressly prohibits it.
• No contact information on your cover photo.  Use the About section to post telephone numbers or website URLs.
• Avoid those arrows pointing to the like or share button. You should also not have a blatant call to action text such as “visit our website” or “tell your friends about us” on your cover photo.
• Use your own photos.  Do not use images owned by others and infringe on their intellectual property.  More importantly, do not mislead your customers by posting a deceptive cover photo or including deceptive text on your cover photo.

Profile pictures, on the other hand, are smaller, measuring 180 pixels all around.  You could use your logo or a head shot for this one.  Just bear in mind that a smaller version of your profile picture will be used as a thumbnail picture for all of your posts on other parts of Facebook.

Make the most out of your apps

Apps are no longer relegated to the left navigational column and appear as a list.  Instead, you can have three featured apps under your cover photo and you can even attach a thumbnail to it.  In short, apps are now more visual and easier to spot.

You can use a thumbnail image for each of your apps.  Thumbnails should measure 111 x 74 pixels.  More than the image, it is more important to include a call to action text such as Subscribe or Enter Contest or Donate along with your apps.

Interacting with your customers

Make your customers your brand ambassadors.  Always encourage your Facebook fans to share your updates, stories and photos with their friends.

If you receive a negative feedback on your timeline, always acknowledge the receipt of the feedback and indicate in your timeline that you are sending the user a private message.  This will show your customers that you are responding to a negative comment and are addressing the issue.

You can also send your fans a private message and find out what they need from you or discuss their concerns.

Other best practices include:

• The best time to post is generally any time from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.  But things may be different with your company, so do some experiments and check your analytics to see which posts at what times are reaching more of your fans.  If you could only post once a week, then do it on a Wednesday where there is higher engagement from fans.
• Never post more than twice a day.  This is to avoid making your fans feel like they are being bombarded with too many messages, prompting them to hide you from their timelines.
• Be short and concise.  Posts with 40 characters or less drive more engagement from your fans.  Longer posts are also in danger of being truncated.
• If you like to increase engagement from your fans, ask questions or let them fill in the blanks.

Overall tips:

1. The new timeline is highly visual.  This means that posts with images or videos are much more eye-catching than just posts with text.

2. Read back on your previous posts to see if there are things that you should delete such as irrelevant, embarrassing or outdated stories.

3. Highlight a story by starring it.  This will make the story occupy the whole width of your timeline, making it more eye-catching.

4. Use the Milestones feature to highlight your company’s big events and other notable points in your history.  Suggestions include: opening date and number of fans reached at a certain time.

Chris Barnwell works for SEO Inc.; a Search Engine Optimization company that assists businesses with their Social Media Management.  In addition to SEO services, they also help brands face the challenge of navigating ever-changing landscapes like the new Facebook Timeline.

Facebook Timeline: The Easy Best Practices Guide for Businesses is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media

The questions are preceded by my initials KCP, Kelli-Carolin Parkja, and the experts’ answers are indicated with their names.

The interviewees:

• Andrea Colaianni, Social Media Strategist, senior associate at 90:10 Group,
• David Meerman Scott, Marketing and Leadership Strategist,
• Jay Baer, Social Media Strategist at Convince and Convert,
• Jen McClure, Senior Director, Social Media Strategist at Thomson Reuters,
• Michael Hopps, Social Media Specialist at Cisco Systems and
• Peter Kim, Chief Strategy Officer at DachisGroup.

KCP: How do you define the value of your marketing efforts?

Andrea Colaianni: We need to consider our marketing efforts from several points of view. It does not just mean getting money or return on investment from marketing. You also have to look at it from a long-term perspective. You have to consider all the value of engagement that you can have with your customers and all the value in terms of corporate equity and awareness. It is especially important to build a strong image for one’s enterprise and moreover, with our marketing efforts we need to build a strong reputation for our enterprise.

David Meerman Scott: The value of marketing comes from being able to drive people to your brands, products and services by way of the content that you create for them online. I am going to specifically talk about online marketing. When somebody goes to the search engines to look for a certain product and when they ask their friends or colleagues or family members, then they are also going to generate content. This helps people to get interested in what you do and the best way to do that is to create valuable information online.

Jay Baer: As a consulting firm, we look at three things first. We look at attention – whether we can generate views, downloads, clicks, subscriptions to content that we create. So attention is at the top of the funnel. Then we look at leads, that means people enquiring about hiring us for a consulting, about enquiring us to come and speak at conferences, that sort of middle of the funnel lead generation. At the bottom we look at actual sales. Clients generated, opportunities booked, do we actually make money as a result of the social media activities that we have engaged in? We really look at it from the business perspective, we don´t pay a lot of attention to the number of Twitter followers, number of Facebook fans, because ultimately, all of that needs to build into a business outcome. We measure marketing value by inbound leads and sales, which we then translate into loose ROI calculations.

Jen McClure: It is a mixture of qualitative and quantitative assessment. The quantitative and qualitative is getting easier because of social technologies. We have a lot more opportunity to hear the words of our customers, of how they react to our marketing and how they react to our brand because of social. We are not just broadcasting our messages out to them and never really understanding how they resonate on the public. Now we understand very clearly how those messages are resonating on the public. We see that in things like for example GAP changing their logo and then having the customers saying that they hate that logo. Social gives us voice and that changes how we measure the value. Now we look at things like engagement levels. We have social technologies that have brought meaning to what engagement is. Does it mean, for example, that someone takes time to comment or to share an article or create their own meaning around the brand and post that somewhere. So there are these new levels of engagement that we can have with our customers that really can define what kind of relationship we have and therefore measure the impact we are having on them with our marketing efforts.

Note: at the request of Jen McClure and Michael Hopps, the author points out that the answers by these two experts do not reflect the answers of their current employers but are based on their professional experience.

Michael Hopps: The value of an enterprise’s marketing efforts is defined by how it is using marketing to listen to its customers and how it is addressing their needs. The faster and the more efficiently the enterprise can do this, the more satisfaction it brings to the customers. As a social media specialist, I see it from a social perspective. Quickness and quality of addressing the customer are important in any kind of marketing campaign. But in comparison with traditional marketing activities, social media enables organizations to address their customers at a higher speed and across a larger scale.

Note: at the request of Jen McClure and Michael Hopps, the author points out that the answers by these two experts do not reflect the answers of their current employers but are based on their professional experience.

Peter Kim: When talking about marketing value, there are both short-term and long-term metrics to consider. The most important both in short-term and long-term is business results, so sales are most important at the end of the day. Sales in turn lead to profitability, which lead to evaluating revenues versus expenses, cost of sales and how do we drive business. Those are some important ways to define marketing value. Aside from sales, a tactical, tangible measure, we start to layer on longer-term metrics that are early links in the value chain. Measures like brand awareness, brand recognition that lead to purchase decisions and consideration and then of course again to sales. It is defined, first and foremost, as the abilities to drive business outcomes, which lead in most cases, all cases, to a certain sales or profit services. Then getting away from that or going beyond, would be activities driven by marketing activities that get us to sales.

KCP: Of all the different mass communications tools your organization is using, which is raising the most euros/dollars (directly or indirectly)?

Data is from the June 2011 Focus Research report titled "Marketers’ Benchmarks 2011: A Survey of Marketers’ Priorities & Challenges." 172 marketing professionals worldwide were surveyed online and over the telephone from April 27-May 3, 2011. For the purposes of this study, small business is defined as 1-49 employees, mid-sized as 50-999 employees, and enterprise as 1,000+ employees. Of the respondents, 71% were from the US, 15% from Canada, 4% from India, 3% from France, 3% from Australia, 1% from Romania and 1% from Portugal. Data sourced from: http://www.emarketer.com/

David Meerman Scott: We need to get back to the first question to answer this one. Ultimately, the job of marketing is to make sales and to help a company become more successful. That is what is going to have to happen when you are doing marketing. The answer, which is the right channel – is it TV or radio or newspaper or another channel – that is only a question that each individual company can determine for themselves. But what I can say, is that in general, the best tool for reaching potential customers is the online channel by far. Because every single person practically in the world has access to content on the web. It can be just through a mobile phone, but everybody is online and everybody is using their mobile phones or other ways to connect to online in order to find answers to their problems and to research products and services. The most important thing for companies is to be focused on the online channel, because it is the best in terms of number of people and growth.

Jay Baer: Probably Twitter, just because our audience is the largest on that platform. We reach more people on Twitter than we do anywhere else, but it is definitely a continuum. The way it works for us, is that Twitter drives people to the blog, the blog generates leads and the leads become sales, so there really is a funnel there. If we had Twitter alone without the blog, would it be successful? I do not think it would be as much, no.

Michael Hopps: Social media is gaining attraction among executives both across B2B and B2C companies. B2B companies like Cisco and B2C companies like Starbucks and Google and BestBuy – all are making large investments in social media. That is very interesting to see, considering the newness social media. General trends that are showcasing my belief, include a report by eMarketer, that demonstrates global B2B companies’ budgets across social media. This report indicates that social media is a rising marketing performer in terms of investment. In 2010, social media was at 25% in terms of the marketing budget investment and in 2011, social media jumped to 59%. So it can be noted that social media is massively growing in terms of investment and in terms of marketing budgets.

KCP: Why are enterprises investing so boldly? What is this engagement and this jump in investments, from 25% to 59% in one year, based on?

Michael Hopps: Social media is relatively cheaper than a traditional TV ad or an ad campaign. It is a lot cheaper and more reliable. Social media carries viral characteristics to fuel a post-ad campaign gateway of exposure for the airing TV ads. So these characteristics make social media more of a savvy investment in comparison with the other marketing activities. Some CMOs and CEOs however are still a bit hesitant in investing in social media as it is a relatively new tool. I would say that B2B enterprises like IBM and Cisco carry a very strong belief in the collaboration and customer engagement and that is naturally transforming them into top players in social media, especially in the B2B sector.

Peter Kim: The answer depends on the industry the company is operating in. For example, in the US telecommunications industry, the largest spenders on measured media are AT&T and Verizon. AT&T spends two billion dollars a year on measured media – TV, radio, and other traditional above- the-line advertising. When you are in the telecommunications industry, another company in that industry, the standard is set pretty high. You have no choice but to participate in certain channels. So depending on the competitive dynamics of a particular industry. In general sense, it is important to have an integrated approach regarding all the channels. While there is a lot of interest in social media and social media marketing channels, it is also important to make sure that anything that stands in social media, goes into digital and traditional marketing. What we recommend, how we approach it, is to ensure that all of these channels are used. It is important to determine what is the most appropriate way to reach our consumers and also the understanding of competitive dynamics as a part of the strategy.

In a global study by Forbes Insights and Weber Shandwick, executives acknowledge that they have far to go before their companies are truly social: Only a small group of global executives (16%) describe their brand’s sociability as "world class."Is it worth the intense effort to be a world class social organization? Global senior executives think so – they report that the rewards of using social media far outweigh the risks, by a margin of more than 2-to-1. Data sourced from: http://www.webershandwick.com/

KCP: Why do you use social media and what does it mean to you?

Andrea Colaianni: We need to make a difference between tools, technologies and what we do, that is – what people do. Technology is just the way of communicating with our customers. Social media reality is what is already happening since several years. Since the very start, people have wanted to communicate. People want to share and they want to be a part of the reality of the world. Today, they can also be a part of the decision-making and the marketing and the strategy of the brand and of the enterprise. People are already lovers of a brand or they already interact with a brand, they buy it and they also help to “build” it. Today we can talk about the brand online. Social media is an opportunity for an enterprise to be a part of this conversation. Today, enterprises can talk with people – customers, employers, media, shareholders – and they can share and be a part of this kind of a conversational world.

David Meerman Scott: The difference between mainstream media and social media is that mainstream media allows only a one-way communication. It is a newspaper or a television, for example. Social media is where people can interact with that content. That means things like videos, for example. Because you can create your own video, you can post it online, and people can comment on that video. It also means things like blogs, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. My definition of social media is pretty broad. I also include the idea that a newspaper or magazine create a piece of content and if they allow people to comment on it, even though it started out as mainstream media, it can still become social media. I even include Amazon reviews or other products that allow reviews as a form of social media. So all those things are social media.

KCP: So, social media means interaction?

David Meerman Scott: Yes, any piece of content on the web that allows interaction.

Jay Baer: What I like about social media is that it closes the gap, it closes gaps between people. My co-author, Amber Naslund, who wrote a book with me, said something a long time ago, and it really lingers true. She said that what she likes about social media is that it dictates that her friends are no longer defined by geography or circumstance. You can have relationships with people all over the world, you can have relationships with people who are not necessarily in your profession. It makes a big world a lot smaller. The same is also true from a business perspective, thanks to social media, every customer is a reporter now, every customer has the ability to punish or praise brands in five seconds and that is a pretty spectacular change in the way that business is done. Social media allows me to demonstrate expertise and shine the light on other people doing great work in the social media and content marketing industries.

Jen McClure: Here I can talk about Thomson Reuters. The way that we view social media tools is as business tools. We don´t just use them as marketing and communication tools, we actually use them very holistically throughout the company. We have a social intranet that we use for employee communication and collaboration. We use social tools in a way to serve our customers through our services and support organisations. We monitor social channels to communicate with our customers that are having problems with our products or have questions about pricing. We can identify sales leads via social. We look for insights that can inform how our customers or how our prospects are thinking about our brand, but also for innovation that we want to pursue, in ways that we can serve them better. We also, of course, use these social tools for more traditional communication and marketing practices. We use them to increasingly strengthen our relationships with customers, have conversations with them, to enhance our leaderships with our executives and leaders through blog posts to industries that we serve. We also use them for recruitment and retention effort, with perspective employees and also with existing employees we use a lot of social media. We really try to think about every function of business and how we can use social tools that can enhance that function.

Michael Hopps: Social media is more than just a fad. It is a real-time live channel that enables people to connect with each other. I would definitely look at social media in two ways. One way of looking at social media is internally. That means looking at employee engagement in social media – is it accepted in an enterprise or not. On a professional level, social media increases employee satisfaction. Companies are slowly learning this and they understand the need to adapt their policies to attract more high quality younger talent. In order to answer the second half of this question we need to look at social media usage by an enterprise externally. I believe that social media can be used to address customers quickly as I mentioned in my previous responses.

Peter Kim: Social media is primarily digital communication channels used for one-to-one engagement, direct engagement. As we see from the marketing perspective, there is a lot of cross-over with digital marketing tactics. Social indicates a two-way communication. A two-way engagement is expected in opposition to email marketing or online display advertising, that kind of one-way advertising. Social media brings new opportunity and is important to integrate it into what is traditionally one-way unidirectional mass communication. That allows brands to do two of things. Firstly, engage on a personal level with consumers and fans and advocates and secondly, create deeper relationships than mass advertising channels from the past.

Next extract of the interviews will cover the most important question – the ROI of social media. Don´t miss it… Sign up for our social media news and we’ll let you know when it’s ready!

Are Your Marketing Efforts Really Aligned? World’s Leading Experts Answer is a post from: DreamGrow Social Media