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The Million Dollar Question

Friday, September 23rd, 2011

During Social Media: An Information Treasure Trove, our moderator, Amy Guth of the Chicago Tribune, kicked off the session with a fully loaded question: Why do we measure, what do we measure and how do we measure?  With only an hour and a half, my first thought was how are we ever going to get to the second question?  This is the million dollar question for any marketer exploring the social space.  As Justyn Howard, CEO of Sprout Social, pointed out, we would be surprised how many businesses don’t even have a benchmark to measure against and it’s probably because they don’t know where to start.

So, where do you start?  Patrick Rooney, EVP of Zócalo Group, says the first step is listening.  You need to get to know the landscape of your industry by understanding your audience, what they are talking about and where they are talking about it.  Knowing your market will be indicative of your success.

Then you need to determine what you are going to measure.  Just measuring everything is not the solution.  Chuck Hemann, VP of Digital Analytics at Edelman, shared that even at the enterprise level you can’t measure everything.  Your goal is going to be at least one of three things: make money, save money or make consumers happy.  What you track needs to help you prove one of these.  Understanding the objective of your program will help with this.

Among all of the metrics you can measure, the panel agreed there are some that are undervalued.  Content is one, Patrick suggests.  Listen to what your audience wants to hear about and take a closer look at your content mix.  Mandy Zaransky, Manager of Strategic Insights for the Chicago Tribune, says sentiment is undervalued.  Although most tools used to measure sentiment are not totally accurate, if done right, sentiment is a great indicator of how people feel about your brand or product over a period of time.

However, the most powerful statement made was from Chuck: primary research is not dead.  You should be surveying your fans and followers, as well as holding offline focus groups to learn from your consumers.  When someone tweets “I love your new line of gym shoes!” instead of just saying thank you, ask them why they like them?  What’s their favorite part?  Would they recommend them to a friend?  Use these engaged followers to gain some insight. When you couple primary research with social listening, Mandy says, you will get the best results.

Are there any social media metrics that you feel are undervalued?

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Posted in Engagement, facebook, SMWCHICAGO 2011, social networks

Are You Sure You Want to Know ROI?

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

Demonstrating the return on investment, or ROI, for social media is a challenge every marketer faces.  But Scot Wheeler, Marketing Science Director, and Shaina Boone, VP of Marketing Science at Critical Mass, question whether ROI is what your senior management really wants to know.

ROI has almost become synonymous with value.  So is your CEO interested in the value of social media or the actual ROI?  It really depends on what they are willing to put into it in terms of time and budget.  If they truly are interested in the ROI, Critical Mass says there are three secrets to success:

1.  You have to have clearly defined business, marketing and consumer objectives

2. You need adoption, belief and trust in your objectives

3. You need to set targets and goals for your objective

Trying to measure ROI without clear objectives already set is quite literally a crapshoot.  Instead, use your first six months to a year on social media to monitor activity and set benchmarks.  This will help you estimate the returns you should expect moving forward.

As websites became more ubiquitous and necessary, people didn’t worry about proving their ROI.  Critical Mass hopes that as social media becomes a more mature channel, the same thing will occur.  If that doesn’t happen, Shaina jokes, you can easily talk someone out of wanting to know the ROI by showing them the process to find it.

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Posted in facebook, SMWCHICAGO 2011, social networks

Don’t be Barbara

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

The Internet is a scary thing for some people.  But Mark Britton, CEO of Avvo.com, assured us during They Said What?! How to Manage Your Online Reputation and Tackle Defamation Online, our opinion should not be skewed by the 90’s hit The Net.  International internet terrorists are not taking our information and plotting against our lives. The Internet is actually taking us back in time and closing the gap between people and products.  Before websites, companies relied on word of mouth marketing to grow their business, and those owners who interacted with their community were the most successful.  Thanks to Web 2.0, the same is true today; it’s just happening on a different platform.

A large factor in closing the gap between people and products is reviews.  If you have a product or offer a service, of any kind, you will be rated and reviewed.  This is a fact.  It’s what you do with those reviews that sets you apart from competition and defines your online reputation.

Mark, who founded and owns a review website, shared a story about a coastline erosion research project, which took place along the same shore the one and only Barbara Streisand resides on.  Aerial photos were taken during this project and among the thousands of homes along the shore that were photographed was Barbara’s.  This is where Mark’s warning comes in: don’t be Barbara.  She was horrified that her home was photographed and immediately sued the research company.  A long story short, Barbara lost the lawsuit and thousands of photos of her home were circulated on the Internet because she stomped her feet and yelled, instead of having an open, positive conversation.

This theory of don’t be Barbara translates perfectly to reviews.  There are going to be negative reviews, but they are nothing to be afraid of.  In fact, Mark shared that during focus groups, consumers do not trust a company that has 100% positive reviews.  Negative reviews are an opportunity for you to have an open, honest conversation with a customer on a public platform, where others can appreciate it.

Reviews should be part of your social strategy and you need to think through your policy and approach in a methodical way.  Don’t just stomp your feet like Barbara.

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Posted in SMW Chicago media coverage, SMWCHICAGO 2011

Social and Successful by Design

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

During the panel session: When Integrated Marketing Met Social: Love at First Like, Brad Keown of Facebook introduced the idea of Social by Design.  We, as humans, are social by design and therefore, we expect our online experiences to be as well.  If the 65% of the 750 million Facebook users who log in daily are any indication of our desire to connect, then businesses should be taking this whole social media thing seriously.

Social by Design is the idea that adding a Like button to your homepage is not enough.  You have to strategically design all of your communication points (website, email campaigns, text messages, etc.) to be social. There are four guiding principles:

Build from the ground up

When writing your social business case, make sure the questions what can we give people that they will want to share? and what would make someone want to engage with us? are at the top of the list.  You have to understand your audience and know what they like.  Facebook’s data can give you insights into this and using a third party tool, like Techlightenment by Experian, can help you leverage this data.

Once you understand who your audience is and what they like, you need to figure out how they consume information.  Take some time to listen to conversations happening on social media.  Where are they taking place?  What are they talking about?  What is the sentiment of the conversation?  All of this will help when deciding how to make your website and other marketing communications more social.

People are at the center

Your audience, or people, should be at the center of your strategy.  Regina Gray, of CheetahMail by Experian, described 2010 as the year of the follow, but 2011 is the year of the relationship.  You may already have a Facebook or Twitter presence, and you may already have thousands of followers.  Now it’s time to start listening to what they saying and using data to segment your communication with them.  A great example Regina provided was a survey for Sears.  They asked people what they purchase from Sears and one option, among many, was clothing and another was none of the above.  Using data from Facebook, they could see people who purchase clothing from Sears Like Katy Perry, whereas people who do not purchase anything Like Lady Gaga.  If the marketing team at Sears is looking for a spokesperson for a back to school clothing campaign, they know they should look into Katy Perry and not Lady Gaga.  By listening to consumers and taking a deeper look into their interests, you can be more strategic and successful with your marketing communication.

Part of putting people at the center is labeling your key influencers.  Charlie Lee, of Techlightenment by Experian, discussed the software’s ability to create a leaderboard of key influencers on social media in relation to your brand,  product or keyword.  Take Joe Shmoe as an example.  Your CRM system may show that his purchasing history is not too impressive, so he is not showing up on any extra-special-gold-VIP list when he calls the support line.  But if you look at his influence on social media, he may have 2,500 followers on Twitter and mention your brand more than anyone else.  Regardless of whether he is buying your products regularly, he is influencing others who are considering your products.  Shouldn’t Joe be added to your extra-special list?

Lay in the social plumbing

Now it’s time to add social plugins to your site so you can track and monitor who is talking and what they are saying.  Facebook makes this very, as Brad Keown phrased it, simple.  For my fellow laymen, essentially Facebook provides a couple lines of code for your tech department to add to your website.  The addition of this code gives you the ability to track shares and see demographic information on those who visit your website and are simultaneously logged into Facebook.  If your target audience is teenagers, who spend 79% of their online time on social networks, you can probably collect some pretty useful information.

Make it easy and scalable

Amy Gibby, VP of Marketing for Redbox, discussed how they have made connecting with them on social media simple for consumers.  Part of this strategy, Amy describes, is understanding that social media can be practical, engaging and emotional.  Redbox connects with users on all three levels. By thinking of social media as an inherent part of what they do in marketing, it has easily been integrated into their communications.  She attributes their social media success to being strategic and lucky, but as Adweek’s third most social company, I have to think it’s a lot more strategy.

Technology is constantly advancing and, as marketers, we need to keep up.  The CEO of Netflix recently pointed out that companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.  Keeping up with, understanding and embracing social media has become an essential part of having a successful marketing strategy.  Is your business social, and therefore, successful by design?

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Posted in facebook, SMW Chicago media coverage, SMWCHICAGO 2011, social networks

Social Media Week Chicago Sponsor Showcase: NM Incite – A Nielsen/McKinsey Company

Sunday, September 18th, 2011

One of the coolest things about social media is that ANYONE can take part in using it.  No matter what level of experience or education one may have, the platforms are there for anyone to leverage.  Increasingly, we’re seeing members of the C-suite take control of social media themselves and thinking of new ways to bring into their organizations.

 

As CEO of NM Incite (a joint venture between Nielsen and McKinsey), Dave Hudson is proof positive that senior leadership can serve as a springboard for social media.  We could all learn a thing or two—or ten—from what an executive like Dave could offer up about social media.  As you’ll see, he had his AHA moment in one of the unlikeliest of places.

 

Dave Hudson, CEO NM Incite

On that note, Dave, when was your first “AHA” moment being introduced to the power of social media?

A few years ago we were remodeling our kitchen. We had an idea about what we wanted in terms of brands for our major appliances. Once I started reading product reviews and remodeling blogs, I decided to go a totally different direction.  Based on simply reading what other consumers had written, I redirected thousands of dollars of spend.  That was my “aha” moment.

 

How do you explain the value of social media to brands and companies out there who are aware of its power and influence, yet unsure how to best leverage the platforms?

There are a few myths that we try to dispel for brands when we work with them on building out a social media strategy.  Social media should not be a “one size fits all” approach and executives need to understand this.  With so many conversations happening in so many places, it’s important to understand where conversations are happening for different segments across the consumer decision journey, and where you are most likely to have an impact with your social media initiatives. A focused approach will allow for the greatest impact and the highest return on investment.

Also, there is a lot of focus on the volume of conversation, but companies should be equally concerned about the reach of that conversation. How many people have been exposed to discussions about my brand? If you have 10,000 people talking about your brand, but that conversation is read by only 10,000 other people, it probably doesn’t matter that much. But if those 10,000 mentions are read by a million or 10 million people, and that conversation happens to be negative, you’ve got a big issue to deal with. Marketers have always understood the power of word of mouth. Social media is word of mouth on steroids.

 

What does transparency mean to you, both personally as well as within your organization?

To me, transparency for both people and in business means owning up to problems and mistakes that are an inevitably part of everyday life.  Social media has really ratcheted up the importance of transparency, authenticity and trust. We no longer live in a world where companies can pretend like they don’t make mistakes.  Customers now have a bigger stake in controlling the conversation and companies and executives not only need to learn how to become more comfortable with this, but how to use authenticity and transparency to their advantage.

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Posted in Nielsen, SMWCHICAGO 2011, Social Media Week Chicago sponsor, Social Media Week Sponsor, social networks

Social Media Week Chicago Sponsor Showcase–MWW GROUP

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

Most people equate “public relations” with “spin.”  Yet most PR people would tell you that “spin” equals “changing the truth.”

MWW GROUP, one of the nation’s top independent public relations agencies, understands how to work with clients to shape a story that yields optimal outcomes.

Kathy Fieweger, MWW GROUP

In this edition of the Showcase, we asked MWW GROUP’s Kathy Fieweger, Executive Vice President and Midwest General Manager (and a former journalist to boot), how she feels social media contributes to truth-telling.
When was your first “A HA” moment being introduced to the power of social media?
I’ve followed social media for a while, particularly as a former journalist at Reuters, but witnessing its evolution into a transformational communications channel has really become undeniable.  As we witness its use in the various revolutions underway around the world, in the crises and disasters that invite mass participation and comment and in the power to break news in the way that traditional media used to do, you can see things have really changed.  All of these phenomena have gained an incredible amount of steam in the last few years.

 

Instead of serving primarily as way to connect with friends, it has become the go-to vehicle in many cases to get the word out about anything important, and also lots of stuff that (frankly) isn’t important.  Also, when you watch anyone under the age of 20 interact with their friends, teachers and schools, brands and social causes, music – essentially anything relevant in their lives – it all happens in social media. That is a huge paradigm shift, for better or worse, and we all have to adapt.
How do you measure social media’s success?
While there are quantifiable measures that everyone is trying to fine-tune and measure, to me, success in the social media arena for our clients happens when anyone reading and interacting in these channels can repeat back to you or to someone else what the message was, what was the point.

 

If people feel like you’re “getting them” and communicating to them in the way they want to get information, you’ve succeeded.  Often it’s a more conversational tone that replicates the way people really talk, instead of stiff or programmatic language. I think that’s hugely successful.

What does transparency mean to you, both personally as well as within MWW GROUP?
Transparency means clearly outlining, in the case of our clients and in the case of our staff, what the goals are for the organization, how we’re getting there and how certain things or behaviors get in the way from reaching the goalpost.

 

When everyone understands why a decision is made or a different choice is made, it helps in the process of actually getting the business there in an orderly way. We constantly see companies who think their employees or customers know exactly why they’re doing what they’re doing, when in fact, they really don’t know at all and instead go through gossip channels to get information, the grapevine.

 

Transparency as an organization requires a level of honesty and authenticity and moving away from a culture of blame if things don’t always go perfectly. When there are so many ways people can and do get information thanks to social media, the soporific platitudes, corporate speak and command-and-control styles of management just don’t really work very well anymore. I have observed that our cutting-edge, most successful companies don’t really seem to engage in that sort of  “top-down only” approach to managing people and getting the job done.

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Posted in Social Media Week Event Schedule, Social Media Week Sponsor, social networks

Social Media Week Chicago Sponsor Showcase: Michael Wade, SocialVibe

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Michael Wade, VP Midwest, SocialVibe

It’s amazing what we learn about sponsors when we get to know them.

Michael Wade is VP Midwest for SocialVibe.  SocialVibe’s value exchange platform rewards consumers for their attention to rich media brand engagements;  trust us when we tell you that you have seen their work before.  An interesting note–SocialVibe first got into social media thanks to its work with non-profit organizations.

When we asked Michael about the first thing that pops into his mind when he thinks about transparency, he noted “…it’s all about having super powers and being completely invisible (but I’m still waiting for that to happen!).”  When it comes to social media, though, Michael and his team understand the real connection between “transparency” and “business.”

Take a read about one of Social Media Week Chicago’s sponsors and see for yourself why this company should be donning capes in addition to their corporate attire.
When was your first “A HA” moment being introduced to the power of social media?

My first “A HA” moment was back in 2008 – I had just started experimenting with Twitter and had asked a colleague what the heck “#” (a hashtag) meant.  That led to a deeper discussion around the value of Twitter and what it could really be used for.  It was at that point he shared with me that the New York Times had confirmed that Twitter was now a Top 10 referral site and rumored to account for almost 10% of their traffic.  I typed “#nytimes” into the search bar and was blown away.

It’s hard to imagine not knowing what a hashtag is now because we live and breathe social media everyday, but my hashtag “A HA” moment has definitely stuck with me.  #aha

 How do you measure social media’s success?

Since I work in digital advertising, that’s a question a lot of our clients ask.  Although it’s easy to look at things like followers, likes, and comments on a Facebook page, social media success measurement needs to take depth of engagement into consideration.  At the helm of engagement is attention — a scarcity for advertisers looking to captivate audiences online. It’s important for advertisers to have a one-on-one relationship with consumers, and social media is the perfect venue to have these conversations.

I encourage brands that are advertising in social media to think about their success from a conversational perspective:

  • Did the consumer pay attention and spend time with your brand when you were conveying your message?
  • Did they get something valuable and meaningful from the interaction?
  • Did they go and tell their friends about it?

Social media success ultimately means real conversations with real people, whether you’re a brand or just plain old @mwade3000 (err, that’s me on Twitter).

 

What does transparency mean to you, both personally as well as within your organization?

I like the fact that social media has challenged a lot of advertisers and brands to come to terms with what people say and think about them.  The ones who have truly embraced the medium are finding a lot of rewards in doing so.  Others who are overly concerned with image are still scratching their heads trying to figure out where to start and probably feel a little lost.  In my opinion, you really have to have a strong sense of identity both as a brand (and a person!) to be transparent, and then trust will follow.

 

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Posted in SMWCHICAGO 2011, Social Media Week Event Schedule, Social Media Week Sponsor, social networks

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