AB Social Media Solutions

Be the consumer… 3 things to remember when sharing content

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:38:00 -0400

Share interesting, informative and/or creative content. When not pushing out content, stay engaged with your network.

This should go without saying but too often organizations, ‘dipping a toe in the water’, have the wrong idea about social media.

It’s not anyone’s fault – it’s just the way we’ve been conditioned. Because advertising makes sense to us, we sometimes treat social media as just another vehicle for self-promotion.

“Okay, so the website has flash, we have the billboard up, we bought ad space in the paper; and now it’s time to advertise on social media.”

Right? Wrong.

As we’ve said countless times, social media is for engagement, discussion, thought leadership, service, lead generation, community management, research and reaching a new demographic. Self-promotion is not on that list.

That said, here are a few tips to keep people engaged and make your ‘toe-dipping’ adventures successful.

1. Be the consumer: Before posting anything, ask yourself this: if you didn’t work for brand XYZ, would you read this? If the content is not creative, insightful, entertaining or educational, it’s not useful.

2. Be personal when sharing content: Use I, we and us when engaging and sharing. You’re not writing a press release when you tweet, blog, update, etc. Keep it light and personal.

3. Stop pushing… engage and pull: Sharing news about your company is important, but it shouldn’t comprise more than 20% of your social efforts. Instead – ask questions, engage, and pull people into conversations rather than just pushing content out.

Have fun, make friends and enjoy the social space.

Every employee is a brand ambassador - train them!

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:14:00 -0500

Most organizations, whether they’re strictly ‘listening’ or ‘engaging’, are becoming more and more comfortable with the ‘once-terrifying’ world of social media. Many have developed plans, purchased monitoring solutions and hired social media managers. And others are not too far behind.

Organizations have dipped their toe in and are ready for the next step…

But, as organizations have become more comfortable with social media, so have their employees. Unfortunately however, not all employees have dedicated the same time and resources that their employers have when it comes to social media.

More specifically, employees have jumped in out of curiosity or fun on their own time. They haven’t developed contingency plans, or studied best practices for twitter. They partake in the space on their own time and don’t pretend to be a corporate spokesperson on their Facebook page. (or at least they shouldn’t be - that job is for the social media team.) They may or may not be disclosing information about their place of work and that’s their decision.

There aren’t rigid restrictions for recreational social media use – which is far different than corporate social media.

Okay…..? So what does this all mean?

Your employees aren’t only employees between 9 – 5. They go home and tweet, blog, post, like, comment, pin, etc. at their leisure. And when they do, they still represent your organization in some form or another. They are constant brand ambassadors.

That said, it doesn’t matter how good your social media team is because, ultimately, the social media managers/reps are not the only ones representing your brand online.

So what do you do? After all, you can’t stop employees from partaking in social media activities on their own time.

1. Train them.

- Setup a “best practices” lunch and learn.

- Teach them how to deal with negativity.

- Conduct exercises on social media etiquette.

2. Let them know they are constant brand ambassadors.

- Encourage them!

- Give them a list of Do’s, not Don’ts.

- Make sure they know why you hired a social media team. (Employees are ambassadors, but not corporate account holders. Stress that.)

3. Develop a social media policy for employees.

- “If you choose to speak about the organization, please disclose that you are an employee and that your opinions do not necessarily reflect those of your employers.”

(shoot me a message if you’d like to speak more on creating this for your organization.)

What do you think? Can you add any tips?

5 Predictions for Social Media in 2012

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:06:00 -0500

As we enter the first week of 2012, let’s take a moment to think about what the coming 12 months may look like for the world of social media… or more appropriately, social business.

1. Smarter analytics/ measurement

2012 will see a growth of social media measurement and analytics tools. By growth, we mean in acceptance and influence as well as in numbers. What will separate the players will be the ability to provide insight into the measurement. Capturing mentions and hits is one thing, but calculating sentiment, trends and demographics will be deemed necessary. Reporting what happened is good, but answering what it means will be even more important. Soon, we will even see trend forecasting, not just trend reporting. (proactive vs. reactive measurement.)

2. Content is king… and joker

As more organizations develop content strategies and pay more attention to creating content, we will see both ends of the spectrum. Some organizations will create some great material, while others in an attempt to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ will miss the mark. But, in each failed attempt at creating good content, organizations will learn from their mistakes and get better. Social media is still new and we need to allow for a learning curve (2012 falls somewhere in the middle of this curve.)

3. Diversification of social efforts

Twitter and Facebook will still occupy the top spots in 2012, but that doesn’t mean that new, innovative and exciting tools won’t see success. With mobile’s unprecedented growth in the last few years, we will see more mobile-only apps commanding much attention in 2012. There will still be more fragmentation than consolidation in 2012. What that means is that organizations with strong social IQ will recognize the niche tools and meet their consumers on the most appropriate channels. Expect Instagram and Pinterest to command even more attention than they’ve experienced in the last half of 2011.

4. Less customer service slipups

Since some of the first slipups on Twitter and Facebook were recorded, organizations everywhere invested in contingency and emergency plans and placed them in their social media policies (where they belong.) Then, they invested in smart, young talent to help them craft their social identities online. Both the plans and the talent will prove to be smart decisions for most organizations in 2012. Expect less slipups. Some organizations are even implementing things like a talent management system to help recruit this new generation into their workforce.

5. Everyone gets on board

In 2011 we saw a surge in businesses jumping on the social media train and 2012 will be no different. Businesses that were once skeptical of social media, can’t scoff anymore at its ability to reach consumers everywhere. Expect everyone to be online, at least in some capacity, in the coming months.

Near the end of 2012, we will revisit these predications and make a few more.

Have we missed anything? What do you predict?

Calculating social media ROI - is it even possible?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:31:00 -0500

Determining an organization’s social media ROI has become one of the most critical questions facing communications, PR, advertising and marketing departments. And in many cases, those championing the social media efforts in their own organizations can’t quickly answer this question.

Determining ROI isn’t easy when a dollar figure isn’t directly correlated to a particular marketing effort. And with social media being most often used as a tool for brand awareness and customer engagement, it’s often difficult to provide a concrete ROI figure.

One thing I want to stress before I shed some light on the ROI question is that not all communications efforts should be tied directly to revenue. Sure, increasing the bottom line can be a result of a successful social media campaign but for the overall social media strategy, there are several things that can be measured to help define success.

I’m certainly not saying throw money out the window, but what I am saying is that we need to reshape the way we think about what constitutes a ‘return’ on investment.

So how does one determine ROI if it’s not about ‘money’ first?

It starts with an objective. First ask yourself and your organization “what do we want to accomplish with our social media efforts?” Once you establish what success looks like, you’ll be able to apply a simple formula that will help you determine ROI.

Here’s the formula….

ROI = Social Media Objective / Parameters + Measurement

Step 1 – Define your social media objective(s) (can be quantative or qualitative)

Step 2 – Select measurement parameters

Step 3 – Measure against your parameters

Step 4 – Review the results and determine ROI

Example: ROI = Social Media Objective / Parameters = Measurement

Objective = Increasing customer satisfaction

Parameters = Providing solutions to customers queries on Twitter/FB/G+/etc.

Measurement = Number of questions fielded/answers provided

ROI = Determine if results are worth the resources invested.

And remember, objectives should always be placed in context of business goals – (more followers is not a business goal.)

Here are a few good objectives that can be measured.

-> Increasing sales leads

-> Increasing sales

-> Aid in research and development

-> Increasing customer satisfaction

-> Earning media coverage

-> Reaching new demographic

-> Driving visits to the website

-> Reduction in support costs

-> Etc.

I know this is a simple formula and a simple example, and obviously we are leaving stuff out, but that’s the point. We are just trying to help you reshape the way you look at ROI and what social media success looks like.

Can you add anything?

Who Funds the Social Media Budget: Sales or the Communications Team?

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:05:00 -0500

This week I wrote a guest post for PR at Sunrise. If you’ve ever thought about the social media budget (for organizations/brands), I think you should give it a read.

- AB

10 reasons why free social media monitoring tools don’t measure up

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:16:00 -0500

In the past we’ve talked a little bit about free vs. paid social media monitoring tools. And I’ve always said free is okay…. Only if you can’t afford paid. And although free sounds nice, I should emphasize the fact that they can’t do nearly as much as a paid service.

There are literally hundreds of free social media tools out there; some are strong and others fail miserably. But even most of the ‘good’ ones pale in comparison to a paid social media monitoring service. I suggest using the free ones as a complement to a paid service.

Here are 10 weaknesses of free tools:

1. Most free tools can’t capture all mentions of your company, brand, products, competitors, issues, etc. (They usually track one keyword at a time.)

2. Most free tools lack various sources to monitor. (They lack the twitter pipeline, or good blog crawlers, etc.)

3. Most free tools can’t save searches to a dashboard. (You have to perform ad hoc searches each time you log in.)

4. Most free tools don’t have a query and tag system. Or, should I say: advanced search criteria. The result is that most retrieve a lot of irrelevant results and spam.

5. Most don’t have an accurate way of measuring sentiment, demographics, track conversations, gauge influence, etc.

6. Most free tools don’t allow you to engage directly from the application. (You have to sign in to Twitter and then find the particular tweet to respond to, for example.)

7. Most free tools don’t allow you to compare different results from different search terms and themes. (Is there a correlation between results?)

8. Most free tools don’t allow you to add multiple users to the account or manage the workflow. (You will have to go offline to assign work to people.)

9. Most free tools don’t archive results/searches from the past.

10. Most free tools don’t offer support from a professional social media representative. (When you pay for a service, you usually get support from a professional.)

We don’t want to say that free tools are useless – in fact, many of them are actually pretty good. We just want you to know their limitations.

What do you think?…..

5 steps to foolproof your social media efforts

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:44:00 -0400

Earlier this year, we talked about the 9 parts to a social media plan. That post provided, in detail, the framework behind all successful social media campaigns.

In this post, we’d like to complement that post with 5 ‘must-do’ steps to foolproof your social media efforts. Once you devise your 9 step social media plan, follow these 5 steps to really make your social media efforts pack a punch.

1. Listen

- Start monitoring. Use a social media monitoring tool (Heartbeat by Sysomos and Radian6 are both great choices.)

- Take a web snapshot (what is the online perception of your organization?)

- Follow the influencers (also make note of the not-so-influential influencers; they are also important)

- Conduct a competitive analysis (what are your competitors doing? what is the competitive climate?)

2. Prepare

- Develop a creative strategy (what is unique about your organization?)

- Develop a content strategy

- Establish a production/editorial calendar

- Think about the visual design of your email campaign, Twitter page, Facebook page, blog, etc.

3. Execute

- Start blogging, tweeting, posting to your Facebook page, emailing, etc.

- Connect with the influencers and the not-so-influential influencers (everyone has a voice)

- Collect and segment your audience

- Use the data from your social media monitoring tools to engage effectively

4. Engage

- Engage with each defined audience (keep your business goals in mind at all times.)

- Continue producing content

- Continue monitoring your efforts

- Integrate all digital efforts

5. Evaluate

- How effective were your efforts?

- Which channels performed well? Which channels need more attention?

- Were your goals realized?

- How can you make your efforts more effective?

What else would you include in a foolproof plan?

Selling Social Media in the Boardroom

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:45:00 -0400

Your senior management team may not know the first thing about social media. But, chances are, they do know that to be competitive, they need to engage in social media.

If you’re passionate about engaging in social media, and think now is the time to dedicate some resources to a social media effort, here’s your opportunity to pitch your ideas and get corporate buy in.

Here are the 3 things to address when pitching your plan:

1. Tie social media efforts to the organization’s goals

Executives may not care about retweets and followers, but what they do care about is business goals. So, show them how your social media plan will address the larger goals of your organization.

Tell them that by engaging online, you will be able to improve customer satisfaction, conduct research about existing products, help generate more sales leads and become an industry leader, etc.

Example: If a business goal deals with enhancing customer satisfaction, explain to them that by engaging online with customers, you will be able to field questions and provide more info about products and services.

2. Give them case studies

Executives are smart people. They hold high positions within the organization because they have an ability to learn from mistakes and find new ways to achieve success.

Provide them with case studies from competitors or other businesses in similar industries. Don’t scare them with horror stories of companies that didn’t properly manage their social media campaigns. Do show them social media success stories. Let them draw the connection between proper social media management and business success.

They will figure it out.

3. Show them how you will manage risk

Shiny social media tactics and tools may excite you, but they may scare the executives. They don’t necessarily understand social media, which is why they are hesitant to get started.

Provide them with the following:

a. Risk management plan - preapproved messages

Set up a list of preapproved messages and tweets for employees speaking on behalf of the organization. Legal should approve these messages from the start.

This step helps keep ‘control’ of what is being said on behalf of the organization, at all times.

If the messages can be fluid and interchanged, they won’t seem ‘canned.’

b. Contingency plan - Advisory board

Before something goes wrong, organize an advisory board so that potentially negative situations can be quickly diffused. Have a contact point for all departments within the organization and use them whenever you need specific expertise and/or information.

If something doesn’t work out and a negative situation is imminent, have a plan B and plan C to use, if need be.

Show the executives what you’ve done to manage risk and you’ll be off to the races.

Did I miss anything? What would you add to the social media sales pitch?

Proper Community Management - 3 tools in the kit

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:18:00 -0400

We’ve heard the social media horror stories. Community managers who take too many liberties with their messaging and organizations without a strong enough presence to dispel misinformation online are two of the most common forms.

The latter requires a digital overhaul – one that may include: a digital audit, social media strategy, listening tools, a CRM system and a dedicated (and properly trained) community manager. (More on this ‘digital overhaul’ in future posts)

For now, let’s talk about the first form of bad brand management.

Hiring a community manager is tough work. You need to find someone who is passionate about social media, a good communicator, creative, flexible, quick learning, level headed, confidant…. And has institutional knowledge (they understand the company, its values, its core principles, hot-button issues, etc.)

Finding someone with all of this can be difficult (especially the institutional knowledge). So how do you go about it?

Find someone with all the skills and then teach them about the business. And finally, equip them with the proper tools to do their job right.

Here’s what should be in every community manager’s toolkit:

1. Response assessment plan/tree

Comments and posts can be broken down into several different categories. Give your community manager a proper breakdown of each ‘type’ of comment so that they know how to classify and handle each of them.

Have a plan of action for each ‘type’ of comment/post, once it’s been evaluated. What key messages should be used for each type of comment, and issue?

For example, an ‘unhappy consumer’ can be engaged with a simple: “Hi ….., I’m sorry you feel that way, is there anything I can do to help? My name is ……”

Evaluate Statement

Positive Negative

Spam? Spam?

Happy consumer? Troll?

Misinformed?

Unhappy consumer?

*this is only an example; a proper response assessment tree is much more extensive.

Once you establish the sentiment and type of comment/post, you can craft key messages for each individual issue mentioned.

2. Key messages

You wouldn’t send a CEO up on stage without giving him or her some key messages on a variety of topics. So don’t send a community manager out there without some proper talking points. Your community manager should know the hot-button issues surrounding your organization and be ready to deliver the right messages.

A good community manager’s messages never seem canned – this comes from their creativity and good communication skills. (Hire for the skill, give them the knowledge.)

3.Contingency plan

Not all comments can be dealt with easily with the response assessment tree (or whatever you wish to call it). So, create an advisory board for the community manager to use when facing the tricky comments and posts.

The community manager can handle ‘code yellow’ comments/posts, but who should they turn to for the ‘code red’ ones? Or, what should they say in these situations?

That’s up to you to decide. If you lay it out, and equip them with these tools, you’re well on your way to keeping your community properly managed.

What else do you think a community manager needs?

How Facebook Timeline Might Radically Change the Look of Brand Pages [PICS]

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:25:39 -0400

How Facebook Timeline Might Radically Change the Look of Brand Pages [PICS]:

Facebook’s blockbuster announcements last week have already gotten marketers to rethink how they will use the platform, but what about their brand pages? Facebook hasn’t said anything specific about how the likes of Coca-Cola or McDonald’s might take advantage of the new design, though it look…

AB Social Media Solutions – The importance of having a content plan

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:25:00 -0400

Most agree that creating a social media strategy is one of the most important things you can do before getting started in social media. And to be honest, it is.

But there is one important piece to a social media strategy that people and businesses tend to overlook. That important piece? A content plan.

It’s one thing to define your audiences, outline your objectives and choose your tactics, but if you haven’t addressed content, you haven’t completed your strategy.

You’ve heard the expression before – content is king. If you don’t have engaging, interesting and/or enlightening material, it won’t matter how comprehensive your strategy is.

So what do you do?

Before getting started with your social media efforts, develop content that will carry your efforts forward for at least a month in advance. After the month, be ready with your second set of material. Write a block of blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn updates, etc. and then stagger the dissemination of this material for the upcoming days, weeks and months. Doing this will ensure you always have content and a presence in all the forums you outlined in your strategy.

Too many people and businesses start a blog and update it frequently for the first few weeks. Then, they lose steam and their content gets stale. By scheduling your material, you’ll be able to keep things fresh and keep your presence consistent.

There are a few things to consider when creating a content strategy:

1. Consistency – How often do you want to post product or company-related material? By keeping your material spaced out in a consistent fashion, it will be easier for your fan base to stay engaged.

2. Relevance – Develop material that meshes well with the time of year or season, for your business or just in general. Think: back-to-school, Halloween, first week of winter, Christmas, BBQ season, product launches, government announcements, etc. etc. (these are just examples and may be irrelevant for your company, but note the formula and adjust accordingly.) Your product/service line-up will help you determine when you should post content.

3. Be flexible – Don’t be afraid to deviate from the plan. If something important comes up, you can always postpone a planned update and address the current situation.

Always approach content from an outside-in perspective – ask yourself: does this content provide value to your customers/readers? Is the content interesting? Will people want to visit your website, blog, page, etc.?

One last thing, just because you have pre-planned content doesn’t mean you should stop engaging with your followers and fans on a day-to-day basis. Work-in personal tweets and updates and always be there to answer questions.

What are your thoughts on pre-planned content?

Enhancing your brand’s image on Twitter - 5 step checklist

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 01:09:00 -0400

Twitter has become one of the best online tools for companies looking to build and enhance a positive brand image.

But signing up for a Twitter account and sending Tweets that only link to your press releases or photo gallery doesn’t mean you’re using Twitter properly. Sure, you may have 500 or more followers and you appear to be active in the space, but there is more to positive digital posturing than just reiterating messages from your website.

So how should you use Twitter to enhance your brand’s image?

Here are 5 steps to help ensure your Twitter efforts are helping enhance your brand’s image and reputation. Just follow these (in this order) and you’ll be well on your way.

1. Listen – Even before you start Tweeting, be sure to search for mentions of your brand and issues related to your industry. You may be surprised to see that not everyone loves your brand and/or your products. Listen to the conversations and then set up a spreadsheet that addresses all the different opinions people have towards your brand or company.

2. Learn – After listening, you can start developing Tweets that address concerns or reiterate positive sentiment. If there are unanimous concerns about your brand or company, develop Tweets that answer questions and help you shape or reshape your brand’s image.

3. Address and connect – Now you can start connecting. Address the concerns and praise your brand ambassadors. Send Tweets that answer questions and address concerns. You can even direct users to pages on your website that provide information on the products and services in question. Show the world that your brand is listening and ready to connect, publicly. People like being thanked on Twitter. Send ‘kudos’ Tweets and show your appreciation for those who invest time talking about your brand. Turn negative sentiment into positive connections.

4. Monitor – After a few weeks of engaging on Twitter, monitor and analyze the new conversations about your brand. Has negative sentiment changed? Have people started talking positively about your brand? How successful were your efforts? Return to your original spreadsheet and input the new data. Keep a record of your efforts. This will help prove value and keep you on track.

5. Repeat - Learn from the first round and continue connecting.

Following these tips/steps will help build a positive brand image and let you achieve your outlined objectives (whatever they may be).

What do you think? How do you evaluate your brand’s image?

How to become a ‘thought leader’

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 01:04:00 -0400

Earlier this week I noticed a lot of talk on twitter about some of the most overused words in PR. Words and expressions like unique, revolutionary, state-of-the-art and the like seemed to be on everyone’s list. But in my opinion, the most overused expression in PR is ‘thought leader.’

Much like respect, being a ‘thought leader’ needs to be earned, not proclaimed. Obviously, everyone wants respect just as much as they want to be considered a ‘thought leader.’ And in many ways, the two terms complement each other very nicely; when you earn one, you get the other.

So how do you become a ‘thought leader’ in your industry? Well, there are several ways to earn respect and thus, be considered a ‘thought leader’ in your industry. Here are my top 3 ways to gain ‘thought leader’ status.

1. Produce good online content

Think of your website as your home. If you’re like most people, when you invite someone to your home, you make sure the house is clean, warm and welcoming. These steps should also be taken with your website, microsite or blog. Make sure the website architecture makes searching efficient and always give people a reason to stay on your site or come back frequently. This is done by looking at your website from an outside-in perspective. Anticipate what people want to see and address any questions they may have before they have a chance to ask them.

Fill your pages with relevant content and always think about quality over quantity; the best websites are usually the simplest. Think about the ‘bigger picture’ when talking about your products and services. How will these products and services help the consumer? How do they compare to your competitor’s? What is the current environment in the industry? What is your unique selling proposition (USP)? Etc.

2. Sharing is caring (be a curator)

Nobody knows everything. When you don’t have the facts or stats to back something up, cite another source and use third-party references. If you can find the best material, and share it, it shows people that you know what you’re talking about and you’re not afraid to defer to others.

Just like writing an essay in high school and/or university, the strongest arguments are those that are substantiated by professional opinion and insight. For example, Men’s Health magazine is perceived as a leader in fitness, health and nutrition because they defer to expert opinion in all their columns and lessons.

You don’t always have to produce great work, finding and sharing great stuff works just as well.

3. Seize opportunities to demonstrate knowledge

To be a ‘thought leader’ online, you need to be present in several forums. Listen to the conversations on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Google+, Quora, chat forums, etc. and when an opportunity to share insight presents itself, take advantage and answer questions. Without being too self-promotional (you’ll seem spammy if you only talk about your company), provide answers to questions and engage in the conversations.

By looking for opportunities to share your opinion and show your knowledge, you will quickly be considered a ‘thought leader’ in that particular industry.

2 quick examples: If you sell cars, look for opportunities to talk to people about the value of buying a fuel efficient car or cars with high safety ratings. Or if you sell homes, talk to people about the current state of the industry and why now would be a good time to buy or sell.

Give value and you’ll be respected.

There are several other ways to earn ‘thought leader’ status; I just think these are some of the easiest and quickest ways to get you started.

What do you think are some other ways?

Social Media Evaluation – 4 great tools

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 23:50:00 -0400

(Heartbeat by Sysomos dashboard)

In the last post we talked about the importance of evaluating your social media efforts. We stressed that it’s not about ‘output’, it’s about ‘outcome’. Once the C-Suite agrees to engage your company in social media they will want to see results.

Fair enough. After all, they are paying your salary and paying for the social media campaigns.

And now that we know what to evaluate, we need to talk about how to evaluate. More specifically, what tools you should be using to evaluate your social media efforts.

There are two types of social media monitoring tools – Free and Paid. Using free online tools will give you a general sense of engagement and sentiment while the paid tools provide a much more comprehensive snapshot.

So let’s look at my top 2 paid services:

1. Heartbeat by Sysomos

This online tool is simply fantastic. After setting up keywords, you’re off to the races. It has a simple, intuitive dashboard that lets you customize keywords and assess performance. The dashboard shows you where your brand and keywords are mentioned online. It breaks it down by online source in a designated time frame. It also provides information on overall sentiment – positive, negative or neutral.

With Heartbeat you can view each source and assign a task to a particular team member. This is known as managing ‘Work Flow.’ For example, if you received a nice reference in a blog somewhere, you can assign a ‘kudos’ task to a colleague. The chosen colleague will receive an email with your instructions and then proceed to complete the task by thanking the responsible party online.

This tool also provides background info on all sources as well as any further details on demographics of the user. You can also edit the sentiment and background details for a more accurate report.

Finally, my favourite part of Heartbeat is that you pay a one-time fee for service each month, regardless of number of hits returned. You pay for keywords and not for sources returned. This helps keep the budget in check and lets you work on getting more hits each month because busy months cost the same as slow ones.

For my money, this is my favourite tool.

2. Radian6

This is another great tool. It provides the same metrics as Heartbeat but shows more background details for each hit returned. It also provides a snapshot of top ‘influencers’ talking about your company online. Whether or not you need extra details about demographics, that’s up to you – Radian6 lets you customize everything to help fulfill your business needs.

The only downside to Radian6, in my opinion, is the pricing structure. You pay a set price each month for a set number of hits returned. If you go over that set number of hits, you have to pay more. Busy months will cost you more than average months. This is fine, but if your budget is tight, you may have to pay more than you want for busy months.

Nevertheless, Radian6 is a leader in online monitoring and deserves your business if you require extremely detailed reports.

If you don’t have money in the budget for paid services, here are 2 good free tools:

1. Addictomatic

This is a good tool that returns hits from several different online sites. The dashboard quickly and efficiently shows you top results on various online sites – Bing news, Google blogs, Twitter, Youtube, Twingly blogs, Flickr, Ask.com news, Wordpress search, Wikio, Friendfeed, etc.

The only catch with this tool is that it doesn’t provide sentiment or background details for each hit returned.

2. Social Mention

This tool is almost as good as a paid service. It does everything addictomatic can, but also provides sentiment, top-user information, top sources and top hashtags related to your search.

The only downfall for this site is that it doesn’t capture every mention. However, when you combine this source with addictomatic, you can get a pretty good snapshot of what’s being said about your company and brand online.

What monitoring tools do you use? Is there one I’ve missed?

Social Media Evaluation – what you should be measuring

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0400

As the world of social media continues to grow and gain acceptance in boardrooms across all industries, metrics and evaluation are becoming increasingly important.

After the C-Suite decides to embark on a social media campaign, they’ll want to gauge the success of the organization’s efforts. If you’re the community manager or social media specialist, you’ll be asked to report back to executives with numbers and stats. Embrace this challenge.

In the next post we’ll talk about the different tools you can use to examine your efforts and track your results. But before we talk about tools, let’s talk a bit about the theory behind ‘good evaluation.’

Don’t get hung up on numbers.

Too many people use the number of Twitter followers and Facebook ‘likes’ as a marker of success. Sure, they can paint a good picture and provide stats for your campaign. But, these numbers aren’t everything.

Rather than just counting ‘likes’ and followers, count the number of connections and conversations you’ve made with your various audiences. Have these connections delivered results? Even if a follower retweets one of your tweets, you’ve made a positive connection. After all, ‘connection’ and ‘engagement’ is what social media is all about.

So, when compiling your weekly, monthly and/or quarterly stats reports, ask yourself these questions and answer honestly:

1) How many people have you connected with, one-on-one?

2) How many retweets have you received?

3) How many people have commented on your posts and online material?

4) How many questions have you fielded?

5) Have you received feedback for your products and services?

6) How many public discussions have you created on your Facebook page/ blog posts?

If you just count followers and ‘likes’ you aren’t really measuring the success of your social media efforts. Anyone can increase their number of ‘likes’ and followers, but the level of engagement is what really matters.

Obviously you can keep track of followers and ‘likes’ but use these numbers as a supplement to the stats derived from the questions above.

Have I missed anything? Do you keep track of anything else?

How to get C-Suite buy-in for your social media plan

Fri, 27 May 2011 00:04:00 -0400

This week, I was fortunate enough to speak to an enthusiastic group of librarians and PR folks interested in starting a social media movement at their organizations.

I was free to speak about how I initiated a social media strategy for my organization and how these professionals can do the same for theirs.

I talked about objectives, tactics, audiences and overall theory. But, what really stood out as the focal point of the presentation was the way in which PR professionals and librarians can get corporate buy-in from the legal team and corporate executives.

Therefore, this post is dedicated to helping you achieve the ultimate goal for a social media effort, getting the ‘buy-in’ from the legal and executive teams.

So, how do you get the ‘green light’ for a social media campaign or plan?

There are 5 initial steps you need to take before you can even attempt to lobby the C-Suite for a Twitter account, blog or Facebook account. Below, you’ll find everything you need:

1. Get the legal team on your side.

Many social media proposals falter at the legal level. Too many companies invest time and resources into creating the plan and not enough time working with the legal team from the get-go.

Rather than create the plan and then bring it to the legal department for approval, make the legal team part of the process, from the beginning. Let them express their initial concerns and address them in the actual planning process.

By getting legal on board, it will make C-Suite buy-in that much easier.

2. Internal employee policy

Work with the HR folks and legal team to create a comprehensive social media policy for employees. This will help cover your bases and ensure the entire team is informed and onboard.

What’s acceptable behaviour for employees when using their personal accounts? What are they allowed to tweet or post to Facebook? Who is allowed to Tweet or post on behalf of the organization? Address these questions from the beginning and then you’re free to create a quality plan.

3. Commenting guidelines for your blog

If you decide to start a corporate blog, set up guidelines for commenting and sharing. Let people know that everything will be moderated before it is posted and that defamatory, racist, derogatory, sexist, etc. comments will not be posted. Always reserve the right to moderate and remove comments at a later time, if need be.

Again, this keeps the legal team happy and makes C-Suite buy-in easier to attain.

4. Risk mitigation plan - preapproved messages

Set up a list of preapproved messages and tweets for employees speaking on behalf of the organization. Legal should approve these messages from the start.

This step helps keep ‘control’ of what is being said on behalf of the organization, at all times.

If the messages can be fluid and interchanged, they won’t seem overly ‘canned.’

Also, in order to diffuse a potentially negative situation, make sure the social media team is trained to deal with negative comments. Give them a plan and let them steer conversations in the ‘right’ direction.

5. Contingency plan - Advisory board

If something doesn’t work out and a negative situation is imminent, have a plan B and plan C to use, if need be.

Once all these steps have been addressed, take your plan to the C-Suite. Essentially, these 5 steps will answer all the possible questions and concerns the C-Suite may have… before they have them.

If you have any questions, or need a step-by-step tutorial on how to create each plan or undertake each process, send me a message; I’d love to help

Choosing the right tactics for your social media plan

Thu, 19 May 2011 00:15:00 -0400

In previous posts we talked about constructing a social media plan and all its parts. Obviously, at some point, once all the strategies have been developed and all the audiences have been defined, it’s time to ‘let the rubber meet the road.’

By ‘rubber meeting the road’ we mean you need to choose and use the tactics that will carry out your social media plan effectively.

Tactics are your tools.

Will you choose to reach out to your audience on Facebook? Twitter? Blog? LinkedIn? Foursquare/Gowalla? Or a group buying site like Groupon?

Simply put, you need to choose tactics/tools that best meet the needs of your target audience and help fulfill your overall social media objectives.

Below are a few examples and cases that will help you out:

1. If you are targeting middle-aged, affluent professionals, LinkedIn may be the best choice.

2. If you are trying to increase sales and promote a new product, Groupon may be the most suitable tactic.

3. If you are trying to establish your brand as an industry leader, writing a blog would be a wise move.

4. If you are trying to provide superior customer service and reach out to people with questions about products in your industry, a Twitter account would work well.

Basically, what we are saying is that you need to have an ‘outside in’ perspective towards your brand. Where is your audience? And what’s the best way to connect with them? Look at it from your customer’s and/or potential customer’s angle and address their needs/concerns.

We should also mention that when choosing tactics, a quality over quantity approach is the best way to move forward. Don’t enter every forum or use every tactic; bite off what you can chew and chew it well.

Everything you do in social media should have a purpose and an end goal. 20 positive connections in one forum are far more effective than 2 connections in 5 forums.

Keep it simple and whatever you do, do it well.

3 Ways to Create a Powerful Content strategy

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:02:00 -0400

Over the last few posts we’ve discussed your overall social media plan – how to create it and how to make it successful.

But theories and know-how are only half the battle. There’s more to a social media plan than just careful planning and creative ideas; a good plan needs great execution of material.

Have you ever heard the expression: content is king? Well, if you haven’t, take my word for it – content is always king; true social media success requires great content.

You can build a great network, target the right people, invest in a talented team, but unless you have a solid content strategy, your plan won’t get off the ground.

Ask yourself this: How will you derive content? (for your blog, website, Facebook page, Twitter account)

Your content strategy needs to fulfill your strategic goals. If you want to be an industry leader, build a database of potential customers and/or provide exceptional customer service, you need to give your followers creative, engaging, effective content.

So how do you do that?

Here are 3 ways to keep your content fresh and valuable:

1) Be proactive

Look at industry issues from a consumer’s perspective. Produce content that answers industry/product questions before people have a chance to ask them.

For example: If you’re selling washing machines, produce content (blogs, Facebook updates, Tweets) that speaks to the importance of energy efficiency and put this in a context that everyone understands.

“Energy costs are rising each month. To minimize your bill at the end of the month, invest in a washing machine with a high energy efficiency rating. The following products are leaders in this regard….”

2) Be reactive

Listen to common concerns that many of your clients, customers and potential customers consistently pose and then address them.

For example: If you’re selling cars, produce content that speaks to rising gas prices and how your brand is addressing the issue. Maybe you’re constantly investing in research and development to produce the world’s most fuel efficient cars in the world. Or maybe your cars are lighter and more efficient than the competition. Either way, address concerns and let people know your brand cares.

*Note – Both proactive and reactive plans share many of the same qualities: putting customer’s needs first and producing content that answers questions and concerns.

3) Be customer service focused

Allow consumers, customers and clients the opportunity to engage with you. Let them ask questions and help you produce your content. Answer their questions in a timely manner and provide them with a positive connection. Let them know that you’re listening and you’re here to help.

These 3 tips may not lead to an immediate spike in sales, but they all provide value and credibility for your brand and your social media products.

Engage with people and put a face to your industry so that when people think about making a specific purchase, your brand is top-of-mind.

Always think: quality, engagement, value, credibility and transparency.

Developing a Strategy for your social media plan

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:16:00 -0400

Having a strategy for your social media efforts may be one of the most important factors in your overall plan. Objectives help determine what you want to accomplish, but how you will achieve success resides in the overall strategy.

Once you’ve conducted a situation analysis, determined your audience, established your objectives, it’s time to plan a strategy.

In creating your social media strategy, you need to ask yourself one crucial question:

How do you plan on reaching your objectives?

A strategy should be more than just engaging in social media. Sure, that’s the action, but it’s hardly a repeatable and bulletproof strategy. Also, don’t confuse “strategy” with tactics. Twitter, facebook, blogs are all examples of tactics NOT strategies.

Here are a few good strategies:

-> become a credible source in the industry

-> position yourself as an industry leader

-> motivate people to do something

-> advocate for a cause

-> reach a new demographic

-> raise awareness about your brand or products

-> create buzz around a new product

Once you determine your strategy, you can start thinking about which tactics will help you carry it out.

For example: If your strategy is to become an industry leader, you need to establish yourself/your brand as a credible source of information. You do that by providing thoughtful, creative, informative and interesting content.

In this case, a blog or micro-site/hub would be a successful tactic. Here you can establish a credible voice, feature ‘thought leaders’ from the industry in a guest post and respond directly to consumers’ concerns.

Simply put, strategies help ‘position’ your company online. Once the ‘position’ is solidified, your objectives will be more easily achieved. As well, strategies help determine tactics and will ensure your social media plan is on-track.

Defining Your Social Media Plan's Objectives

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:49:00 -0400

Defining and setting objectives for your social media presence may be the most important step in creating a solid plan.

With objective setting, don’t think of it as HOW you’re going to ‘do’ social media, think of it as WHY you’re engaging in social media.

Too many companies jump into Facebook or use Twitter without defining their objectives. In doing this, these companies aren’t maximizing their performance online; they are wasting time and resources without really seeing any return on investment.

So what does objective setting mean?

It means asking yourself and your team WHY the company needs to be using social media. By asking WHY, it becomes much easier to develop strategies, choose tactics and assess performance.

Here are 3 steps to help you develop objectives:

Ask yourself:

1) What do you want to accomplish?

- Do you want to increase the number of sales leads?

- Reach a new demographic?

- Strengthen customer service?

- Position your company as an industry leader?

- Promote your products?

2) What does success look like?

- Increase sales?

- Build a stronger following?

- Change brand perceptions?

- Satisfy customers by making positive connections?

3) How will you measure success?

You’ll need to periodically assess the performance of your social media efforts in order to keep the C-Suite happy and keep your team on track.

Ask for customer feedback, take polls, look at the sales figures and assess online sentiment. All these methods will help you quantify and qualify your efforts.

There you have it – objective setting 101. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!