Aqua Pebble

How to convince Management to use Social Media

Lee — Wed, 26 May 2010 11:57:08 +0000

Social Media is still a new concept to many companies and there are still many people not convinced that it can work for them. Then there are companies that have embraced it and management are enthusiastic and totally into Social Media. This article is aimed at people who have discovered social media and believe that it can work for their company, but their management are either less than enthusiastic or perhaps almost in the dark about social media.

The first and probably the most important thing to be able to convince management that social media is for your business is for you to believe that it will work. If you don’t believe it – they won’t believe it! Once you have this you then need to prepare your case.

First off you need to have a plan and understand what it is you want to achieve with Social Media. Just approaching management with a we should use it – will probably get you no where.

Once you have an idea and plan the best place to start is your own market/industry. Start with your main competitors and see whether they are using social media and how. Search for success stories on companies in your market/industry or vertical markets/industries. If you can’t find any for your specific market/industry you may have to go outside – there are many success stories around. Find some that are using Social Media in the same way you have in mind. Perhaps you will even get some new ideas that could work for you.

Search for internet statistics to back up your case. Internet World Stats is a good place to start. It is important though that the facts you quote should be relevant to your case.

Now you have your plan, you have some facts, you have some examples you need to show management what it would mean to the bottom line. Now this is still a new area and as with any new business venture the bottom line is a calculated estimate. Some of your ideas may not even have anything to do with the bottom line. These are usually measured by KPI’s.

The best way to approach this is to look at the measurements that are considered critical by management and establish whether you could measure the same things for your social media initiative and how that could be done. There are new tools coming into the market all the time and companies focusing on benchmarking, search around and see if any are relevant. You may have to see whether the results of your social media can be integrated into your current measurement system. You could find that initially it may have to be manual. The most important thing is that you have a solution and have considered how to measure performance.

The last thing to tie up your case is to outline how you would implement this plan and the timelines involved.

To improve your chances of a success make sure the presentation is professional and to the point.

Once you have a solid case it is time to present it to management. Good Luck!

How to drive traffic to your website using Social Media

Lee — Mon, 10 May 2010 12:13:02 +0000

Those of us using Social Media know how effective it can be in driving traffic to one’s website. But, unlike some make out, it does require ongoing effort and perseverance. Social Media is not the secret ingredient to instant success, however, it is a powerful tool when combined with a focused strategy and the commitment to carry it out.

One of the biggest problems is driving relevant traffic to your website. It is easy to get hundreds and maybe even thousands of people to your website, but if they are the wrong type — the effort is wasted.

Therefore, my first bit of advice is that you make sure that you target as many relevant people or businesses with your Social Media effort.

Once you have created accounts on all your chosen social mediums you need to join relevant groups, pages or lists you. Then it is time to take part in discussions, share information and offer helpful advice and provide links back to your website. Here are some examples:

• If you are selling something then you would offer the link to your relevant page on your website.
• If you have helpful content then you refer back to this
• You can advertise all sorts linking back to more information
• If you have written an opinion piece you can share a brief opinion and link back to a longer explanation
• You can ask questions and link to a discussion
• You can announce events and link to them
• If you want to share things you find elsewhere on the web (e.g. industry news) you link to that.

Sometimes you can’t be selfish and only offer your site, but need to go outside – this will help with your reputation (provided you don’t link to rubbish) and people are more likely to click your links to your website as they get to know and respect you. The key here is that you link back what you are promoting to your website.

It is also important that you put links on your website to your various social media accounts e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and any other you may belong to so that visitors to your site from SEO efforts have the opportunity to follow you and keep up-to-date and return to your website.

You can also put links to these social mediums in RSS Feeds.

You can develop and run campaigns in the same way you would in traditional marketing that drives people to your website. The world is wide open to what you can communicate. Just make sure it is strategic, relevant and targeted and your efforts should increase traffic to your website.

No related posts.

How honest should you be in Social Networking?

Lee — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:21:02 +0000

In today’s world of cyberspace we all connect and make friends across the globe. Connections we probably would never have had before the advent of the Internet. We have all heard of horror stories of people being conned, stalked or even murdered through someone they met on Facebook or some other social network. Personally, I am not sure that the numbers are higher than this happening from face-to-face or personal connection (in other words not via the Internet) – in fact my guess is that it is less (I am not referring to hacking or phishing).

Something I have experienced through using social networks is that people seem more open (or possibly people who use social networks are more open by nature). But, just because someone seems open doesn’t mean it is honest. When we stand face-to-face it is easier to tell from body language if someone is being dishonest, but it is a lot harder from written and even voice communication. So really I think the door is wide open for dishonesty.

So onto my question about how honest you should be. I think, if you want to have a good reputation or business, you should be totally honest. However, I do not think being honest equals revealing all about your personal self. I do understand that there are times where the truth offends and it is better to abstain, but I am not really talking about those types of situations.

Honesty and transparency in the social world are valuable and are an important differentiator. News spreads fast in the social world and we have seen a number of gaffes cost large companies millions. In the social world customers talk back louder than ever with far more extensive consequences.

I believe that people or businesses who are dishonest will be caught out eventually (well most). They will not be able to deliver on their promises or provide the service they claim. And the effect will be like wildfire. I don’t think dishonesty is worth the risk and consequence.

How honest do you think we should be?

Avoiding social media networking becoming a time sink

Lee — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 10:38:58 +0000

Imagine if we could map out the Internet – what would it look like? Well I had a picture in my head that resembled a picture with a few big websites, almost like cities, and almost a radial affect getting smaller. So I went onto Google and had a look. The pictures I found are almost like looking out into space. So what does this have to do with social networks and media?

I imagine that social networks mapping has it’s own galaxy in those maps and I have used the phrase before: that you can get lost in the infinity that is the Internet and I believe the same goes for social networks and media.

An objection we often see to Social Media and Networking is that it takes too much time for the results. Now I agree that this can be true if you are not on a clear path. Here is what I suggest you do to avoid it becoming a time sink:

1. Know where you are going: without a clear destination you could wonder forever.

2. Plan your time: without a planned route you could follow many detours on your way. Set aside the amount of time you have either, daily, weekly or monthly (hourly for some).

3. Use that time efficiently: stay focused on what you need to do and avoid distractions (in social networking distractions are all over and quite hard to avoid)

4. Keep a log of your activity so that you can measure your efficiency.

5. Measure your social networking results against your other activities to determine a balance.

This is an on going process and one you need to keep assessing. Often the tools we use for social networking and media are not expensive, but the time we put in is. Detouring (distractions) are a big temptation and often can lead to less efficient time management…so don’t go on a detour unless it obviously will add value.

PS: I am busy developing a social media eCourse and my newsletter subscribers will be able to get the beta version for free!

PSS: If you have time please choose an answer in my poll in the first, right hand column. Thanks.

Choosing Relevant Social Networks and Media

Lee — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:18:26 +0000

In a previous article about choosing between all those other social networks I highlighted how many other social networks there are aside from the main players and link to a number of resources. Weekly, I am invited to join new social networks or groups or hear about new ones popping up.

The problem is choosing which ones to belong to. You will have often read that the word “relevant” in my articles, so how do you choose or even know what is relevant? You may have heard go where your target market is, but how do you know whether they are using a particular social network or medium without doing expensive research?

Finding relevant networks could take a lot of work and effort if you go by trial and error and most of us just don’t have that sort of time. Even I, sometimes, wonder whether I could be missing out by not joining a group I was invited to – but that is just good selling. Here is my advice for choosing relevant social networks or mediums:

1. Decide what you want to achieve using social networks; there are many objectives e.g. improve knowledge, build new relationships, selling, branding, research, PR, customer service to name some.

2. Build a list of keywords relevant to your objective.

3. Start with the main social networks e.g. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and search your keywords.

4. Take a look at the results, are the conversations relevant to your objectives, if they are join or follow.

5. Search for active blogs based on the topics in your keyword list and add them to your favourites or feed and contribute whenever you can add value.

Just taking these 5 steps should get you started and help you to get your head around the networks, groups, pages and blogs that are relevant to your objectives.

Relevance means that they add value or help you achieve your objectives. The rest is just noise, but always keep an eye open for new opportunities that are relevant. Once you have some experience taking part in your chosen social networks, understand the time requirements and can assess the results from what is in your current basket then you can then put out your feelers and widen your horizons. Just be careful not to go too wide – it is easy to get lost.

PS: I am busy developing a social media eCourse and my newsletter subscribers will be able to get the beta version for free!

PSS: If you have time please choose an answer in my poll in the first, right hand column. Thanks.

Social Media – A leap of faith? What to think about when starting out.

Lee — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:55:20 +0000

As we know social media is a hot topic and causing quite a buzz in the business world. Some people are all for it and others think it is a load of rubbish. There are many different ways people and businesses are using social media. Some have made a huge profit from it and others nothing at all.

One thing for sure, is that even if we decide to ignore it – it is not going away. I wonder how many of the people or businesses making a profit took a leap of faith? Personally, I believe they most likely took a calculated risk, especially the early adopters.

So if you are new to Social media or considering embarking on a social media strategy I recommend you take the following actions first:

1. You need to decide what you want to achieve with social media.

2. Research what other in your industry are doing. Find out where your target audience is.

3. You need to select relevant social mediums that will help you achieve these goals. Be selective as there are many out there and many new ones are popping up.

4. You need to decide on an allocated amount of time (daily/weekly) you will devote to pursuing your strategy, otherwise you could get lost in the social media infinity and achieve little for your time.

5. You need to establish the costs involved (usually time, tools, hosting and other services and perhaps expert advice). You can start on a shoe string and build up. You just need to be aware of what is involved.

6. Social Media success seldom happens overnight, it takes perseverance and time, so be prepared to keep at it.

So what I am saying is don’t just take a leap of faith, take an informed, calculated leap.

PS: Have a look at my recently started favourite videos section – I have found some gems.

Social media listening – Are you a fly on the wall?

Lee — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:45:56 +0000

Millions of conversations are happening through the Internet or an electronic medium. Having a focused social media strategy means that there is probably an engagement with ones audience. But what about the conversations happening outside your immediate circle of engagement?

Finding out about these conversations is called listening – almost like being a fly-on-the-wall. How many times have you said if only I was a fly-on-the-wall? Now listening to what your customers are saying directly to you is also listening, but not the type of listening I am writing about today.

There are a number of ways in which you can listen or find conversations that are happening. The following are types of tools or services people use:

Social Media Search engines (some can be used to engage and analyze)

Alerts

Filtered searches on popular social networks

RSS feeds

Searches on traditional search engines

Social news web sites

Board searches

Keyword tools

Web traffic tools

Multimedia

Specialised software that consolidates some of these

Now listening is really useful and gives you an idea of your reach, engagement and influence. The one thing I think to myself when I look at the information I get when I use these tools is – now what? How do I convert this information into measurable KPI’s? How do I extract the information for analysis? And how do I take my perception out of the equation?

Now the reason I mention my own perception is that what some may perceive as a positive comment another could perceive as a negative: so how do I gage the “love” I am getting out there?

Now some of the results like search engine mentions or ranking or any results that produce numbers can be manually captured if need be, but this is not ideal. We are using a host of tools to listen, even when a single tool provides a host of information, it often differs between tools.

I believe it is a real challenge to capture the results of your listening, but is crucial to your success to have a method of monitoring. I believe the way to get around the perception problem is to have an agreed outline of what is considered positive or negative and a list of words that are associated with these different sentiments. This way you could begin to measure the mood towards you.

If you are listening the you can engage. Can you risk not listening? You can only deal with potential threats to your business if you know about them. You need to be a fly-on-the-wall where ever a relevant conversation about you is happening.

I would be interested to hear about your experience, advice, tools you are using and how you are measuring your listening efforts.

PS: Check out this funky video called: What does it mean to “measure” social media? on my favourite video page.

How to convince Management to use Social Media

Pre-planning your website

Lee — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:55:10 +0000

I recently wrote an article for Gossamar Inc, a Canadian company specialising in sales and marketing automation.

You can read the 4 things I advise you to do before you even look at design and content. Read article »>

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Social Media Word-of-Mouth

Lee — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:57:00 +0000

I saw an interesting example of how friends can influence a decision and word-of-mouth in action on Facebook the other day. A family member put out a request to help them make a decision on what mobile/cell phone to buy. They had done research and narrowed it down to 2 options and couldn’t decide.

What was interesting to me was the choice that was made. I will explain a bit later why I think the choice was made, but first let me give you a run down on what happened.

The message went out with ” Please HELP! I am buying a new phone and can’t decide which one to buy. It is between Brand X and Brand Y. They said Brand X has more features and Brand Y has a bit of extra browsing time in the package. Now Brand X and Y are well known brands but Brand Y is a cooler, more status brand with the general public.

So all the advice poured in. Many people were saying they had Brand Y and it is awesome, or I they were really happy with it or it was the best Brand and so on. A few people had another popular brand which I will call Brand Z, but wasn’t one of the two chosen.

I decided to play devils advocate and told them that Brand X had won awards over Brand Y and supplied links and I would go for that one as it is a better phone. The heat turned up for Brand Y. At the end of a few hours there was over 20 recommendations and the family member had also received direct messages. Also think of the number of friends-of-a-friend saw these comments and people it indirectly influenced.

I don’t think I have to tell you what decision they made. They bought Brand Y, the phone with less features, but some browsing time thrown in and in my opinion not the best choice. Why would they do this? It is simple it made them look cooler to the majority of their friends and gave them some status. Now this was interesting to watch, it is not really surprising as people make these types of decisions all the time. Word of Mouth from valued sources is one of the greatest influences around.

Now accurately measuring word-of-mouth is not simple. The majority of techniques I have employed through the years has been by collecting source of business information (often this is not reliable) and through research to get an idea of the percentage of business attributed to word-of-mouth. These depend heavily on honest answers and accurate capturing of information and naturally asking the correct questions.

So what I have been pondering is whether word-of-mouth just a result of good branding and customer experience? Does social media play a role or is it merely a vehicle of expression? Would we employ a different strategy to offline? Would we use examples like this to convince people they should not neglect social media?

This is what I think. If you are not engaging in social media you can’t effectively communicate with those that are. Your advertising and other marketing efforts may reach them, but not in the same way.

It is not possible to jump in on private conversation without violating privacy, but there are many public conversations that can be joined. These must be relevant and worth while. For private conversers you can make the information easily available and create fan pages, groups or a community that they could join. You need to be listening to find these conversations. There is a big basket of tools, some free and some paid for to help find these conversations.

Social media word-of-mouth definitely has a wider (and faster) reach than in person (in most cases). I am not talking about viral marketing here, but pure advising and influencing by trusted sources without incentive. We could get into emotional incentives, but you know what I mean.

What is your take on social media word-of-mouth? Is it a driver for your business? I would love to hear others experiences and views on this.

PS: I have posted a brilliant slideshow I found, by Matt Granfield, on this topic in my favourite video page.

The secret of selling to me

Social media ROI – reality or fantasy?

Lee — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:43:57 +0000

Measuring social media (SM ) and measuring social media return on investment (ROI) are hot topics at the moment. I have seen various calculations and suggestions in this respect. There are quite a few views on whether you need to, how to and what it means to measure SM and SM ROI.

I am the first person to champion measuring marketing effectiveness and implementing your marketing strategy in a way that you can measure your marketing activities and their influence. I am also aware that some activities have a long term effect and are only measurable in intangible terms for example goodwill or are a supportive role and do not directly influence profit.

Often I have seen business people say “what is the ROI for social media?” To me this shows a total lack of understanding of social media as well as the potential complexities of ROI.

I will explain why I believe this.

Firstly I will go into ROI and get a little technical, which is needed for me to make my point. The standard formula for ROI is: “Gain from Investment (Income)” less “Cost of Investment (Expenditure)” divided by the “Cost of Investment” and is expressed as a percentage. Some people express ROI in a monetary term by just subtracting “Cost of Investment” from “Gain from Investment” and to me is closer to gross profit, however, at the end of the day they both show how much money you made from your investment and that is what is important.

Now it may seem simple to calculate ROI, but this is not always the case and the results are often different for every organisation. The reason for this is that what is taken into account as income and costs differ for each organisation. For example your efforts may not only produce immediate income but future income e.g. subscription or financial products, how this is taken into account can differ. Whether it expressed in today’s terms (net present value) or not. What about future costs or indirect costs like the cost of processing a sale. So we can see that dependent on the complexity of your product and organisation ROI may not be a straight forward question to answer for any type of medium or tool.

Now I come to social media. There is no single use for social media. It is being used for many different things in business from sales, branding, PR, research, CRM, networking, database building, direct marketing and more. In business how you measure sales would be totally different to how you measure research or CRM. So depending on what you want to achieve with social media your objectives will be different and the measurements you use will be different. Some efforts will not have a direct impact on sales and produce a ROI but rather may be a supportive role that perhaps influences customer retention. You can read about how some businesses are using social media in the series I wrote looking at various SM tools use in business.

So when someone asks “What is the ROI of social media?” The answer really is: it depends.…..

My suggestion on measuring SM and SM ROI is the following:

1. Define your goals (broad and general) and objectives (precise and measurable).

2. Choose relevant social mediums to achieve these goals and objectives.

3. Decide on what measurements are important to you and how they are to be measured in a way that satisfies your organisation.

4. If ROI is one of these important measurements you need to decide on what you will take into account for income and expenses.

5. You need to monitor these and compare it to other mediums/tools you would use to achieve these same objectives.

6. Adjust your objectives if need be.

As far as I know there are no industry standards or benchmarks for SM, however, there are for other mediums/tools and I would use their benchmarks as a guideline. No business person will use a tool to achieve an objective that performs worse than another option. And for that, I mean comparing apples with apples. Remember some new efforts take time to reap rewards and can not be compared to an existing method that is reaping rewards, in the long run the new method may out perform existing methods. Be sensible about how you implement a new tool, just as you would with any other.

I would love to hear from others what their views are.

PS: If any of the steps above are a challenge, which they can be and are not a simple as they sound; there are many experts who can help you work through this process.