Be the consumer… 3 things to remember when sharing content

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.

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

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

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?…..

Selling Social Media in the Boardroom

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?

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

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’

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

(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

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?

Choosing the right tactics for your social media plan

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.

Developing a Strategy for your social media plan

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.