Social Media in Communications

Now that we have discussed some key concepts of using social media for your business, such as word-of-mouth advertising, blogging, and advertising, it’s time that we move on to looking at big data. This blog post will examine the keys to Social Metrics and give you the information you need to advance your company’s social media usage past that of your competitors.

According to Erik Qualman, there are seven keys to Social Metrics¹:

Start with the problem, not the data¹

Looking solely at the data may solve your problem in the short term, but in order to make sure the problem doesn’t reoccur you need to analyze the problem and then use the data you have to help you find a solution. Looking at the problem through the lens of the data will limit the potential options that you will find to solve you problem.

Listen before interaction, reaction, and prediction¹  

I can not stress how important it is to listen to your customers and the data that you receive from them. However, even though listening is the first step, it is a step that does not end as you progress through your social media journey!

Share data to get data from customers¹

Customers are more likely to share information when they feel that they have a connection with or know a company reasonably well, rather than a nameless faceless entity. You need to give a little to make your customers comfortable so they will share information.

Assess your current data management and social analytic capabilities as an organization to determine if and where you need to upgrade¹

Unfortunately, social metrics is not one-size fits all. However, there are plenty of tools out there that will help you customize your data management and social analytic usages in a way that is appropriate for your company.

Base the equation of your business on customer-centric metrics¹

Although company-centric metrics can be useful in helping you plan, you should not rely on them. Customer-centric data will benefit  your company more in the long run, because you will be focusing on the customer’s wants and needs, which will lend itself to making changes that will attract and keep customers.

Let computers analyze and scientists analyze, respectively¹

Both computers and scientists have their weak points and their strong points, which often compliment each other. Computers are logical to a fault, and are good at seeing patterns that humans may miss. Scientists can input the human element into data, and allow a company to see why things are happening the way they are. Both of these resources are useful, and you need to be sure to use each to their full advantages.

Stay up-to-date with the latest in social analytics and CRM technology¹

Technology has allowed us to do absolutely amazing things, and our capabilities keep expanding as new technology is invented! Make sure you keep up with the newest inventions and use them to the best of your ability in order to make your social media campaign as successful as possible!

Now that we’ve discussed the seven keys to Social Metrics, I want to share with you some useful resources for social metric tracking and information.

OnBoardly, Keyhole, and SproutSocial have amazing sections of their sites which you can use to learn more about social metrics and the top social metrics tools!

PC Magazine has an amazing chart where you can compare and contrast the different offerings of social media analytic trackers!

As always, sources are under the cut!

Meta, in colloquial terms, means something that refers to itself. I found this appropriate, since this week, we will be studying blogging for your company. A blog about blogging, if you will.

According to author Erik Qualman¹, there are nine steps to blogging for your company successfully.

Commitment

How many times have you found a blog to follow, only to find out that nothing has been posted in years? If you are running a blog, you need to be committed to blogging on a consistent schedule. Otherwise, you may end up losing possible customers who want new and constant content.

Consistency

Many people don’t like change, fearing the slightest upset to their routine. In this vein, your blog should have a consistent theme. That doesn’t mean that you can’t change anything at all, that would be boring! However, you do need to make sure that your general content, layout, and posting schedule do not change too much, otherwise you may overwhelm your potential customers. 

Audience

Some blogs are applicable to almost everyone, your blog should not be. You are trying to attract potential customers, and it is just a fact of life that your product or service is not going to draw everyone in. You should write posts that are tailored to keeping your existing customers, new customers will find you, what’s more important is making repeat customers out of your existing client base.

Momentum Marketing

Make sure that you are paying attention to current news and thinking about how this may effect your potential customers. You can use current news in the industry and general news stories to market your company and give an impression caring and responsibility.

Find-ability

What’s the point of writing a blog if no one can find it? Make sure you have a link to your blog easily accessible on all of your business’ website and social media accounts!

Share-ability

Make sure that the platform you are using easily allows readers to share the content you post with their friends and family to their own social media platforms. Word-of-mouth marketing is very important!

Search-ability

Most people will find your blog from a search engine like Google. Make sure you are properly tagging and optimizing your posts in order to show up in the top of the search engines.

Mobile

Many people use mobile phones these days, and it is likely that many people will find your blog through their mobiles, so you need to make sure your content is formatted to look good on browsers and mobile phones.

Contributors

Once your blog gains some momentum, you may have offers from people to write for your blog. Having well-known people write content for your blog will allow you to appeal to that person’s fan base as well as current customers.

Now, you should be well on your way to making a successful blog for your company! For some more pointers, see these blog posts that are also about blogging from buffer, hubspot, and wordpress!

As always, sources under the cut!

 Hello everyone! Today we are going back to the beginning! As Lin Manuel Miranda tweeted,

We should definitely take care of our physical bodies (maybe go eat some fruit like Lin suggested), but it is also important to expand our minds. However, just like a poorly made structure, if you try to implement expert knowledge and ideas without a solid foundation to back it up, the business you are trying to support will crumble. That’s why today we are going to go over the four basic steps to social media.

Listen

It may sound simple, but listen to what consumers are talking about when they discuss your product. Many times, companies will jump right into the selling aspect on social media, and this does your company, your product, and your customers a great disservice. If you don’t listen, how will you know what works about your product and what doesn’t?

As Qualman reassures, “if you do the first three steps [of social media] well... then the selling will happen with a proper push here and a prod there.¹

Interact

In order to successfully promote your product on social media, you can’t just listen, however. You also need to jump into the conversation! Interacting with customers get you invaluable feedback and reviews of your products and services, but it can also give your company the reputation of being engaged with your customers!

If this idea scares you, there are multiple resources to help you better your online communication skills! Business.com, Forbes, and Chainlink are three such resources which give advice for connecting with customers on social media.

React

So, you’ve heard what people have to say about your product by listening and engaging your customers, now that you know, make some changes! Just make sure that any changes to a product or service is based on a majority of customer feedback and not a vocal minority. It’s alright to go back to steps one and two to try again if you’re not sure. Remember, this is your product or service, not only do you want it to be profitable, you also want it to be popular and functional!

Sell

Finally comes the aspect of social media marketing that you’ve all been waiting for! You’ve listened, you’ve interacted, you’ve reacted, now what? Well, as Qualman explains, jumping straight to selling is “the worst thing you can do, and it won’t be effective.” ¹

Customers appreciate being listened to and taken seriously. If you follow the above steps, customers will be more likely to not only buy your products, but also to tell others about your products. Customers telling other customers about products is important, because it gets you that fabled word-of-mouth advertising that everyone says is the best (look here for my post about it).

Hopefully going back to the basics for a little bit has helped you strengthen your social media knowledge foundations, so that you can build upon the knowledge you already have and improve your social media marketing!

As always, sources are under the cut!

Podcasts and television may not be social media in and of themselves, but they are two places where marketing changes are occurring due to our ever growing online world. 

Podcasts

Do: Integrate advertising into the podcast

An example of this can be seen in the popular podcast Critical Role

Before the show starts, the weekly sponsor is brought up in a humorous way by voice actor Sam Riegel.

Don’t: Play the same commercial multiple times within an extended period

An example of this can be seen in Erik Qualman’s (2012) book “Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Ways We Live and Do Business.¹”

On pages 149-150, Qualman (2012) discusses how Best Buy partnered with the podcast Buzz Out Loud¹.

Best Buy had the same advertisement run for seven months straight¹.

Television

Do: Remember, “eyeballs are eyeballs.¹”

Sometimes, companies are hesitant to allow their content to be streamed online, fearing that this will drop their television ratings.

Whether your viewers are watching on a television or through a device connected to the internet, they will still be watching your content.

Don’t: Be tricked by the same old way of doing things.

“Brand budgets that historically went to television, magazine ads, and outdoor boards are moving to digital channels for three main reasons.¹“

That is where the audience has moved¹

It is more cost effective¹

It is easier to track¹

Next, we will discuss some do’s and don’ts of advertising on the social media sites of Twitter and YouTube.

Twitter

Do: Use tiny URL’s, so that your content can be shared easier.

Examples include Bitly and TextMagic

Don’t: Let your content go stale

Make sure someone from your marketing or PR team is constantly checking the Twitter feed to answer questions.

YouTube

Do: Place advertisements where they won’t be disruptive

Disruptive ads annoy customers and may make them resent or lose interest in your product or brand.

Don’t: Use Banner ads which will disappear when the video is shared.

These types of ads usually do not accompany the video when it is shared on another social media site, which means you lose out on potential viewership and revenue.

To close the blog post today, I am going to leave you with a few pieces of general advice!

As Qualman (2012) stated,

“Consumers today, in particular Millennials and Generation Zers, don’t want advertisers to shout; they’d rather have conversations and steady ongoing relationships with companies” (p. 153).¹

Therefore, make sure you are not shoving your content into customer’s faces, start a conversation and let the consumers come to you! Additionally, like Napster, Limewire, and iTunes, jumped on the music industry’s inability to embrace digital media and sites like Priceline, Orbitz, and Expedia were able to move booking to the web, “aggressive conduit companies will be able to deliver what the audience wants.¹” If you want to be a successful marketer in these social times, you need to beat other companies to the spaces where people are! For more information about advertising on other forms of social media, check out this article about the six most effective types of social media advertising!

Sources under the cut!

Many people know the Buggles song “Video killed the Radio Star.” This is one flaw with advancement, someone will always come along and make improvements. DVD’s replaced VHS, Blu-Ray and Ipod’s replaced MP3 players which replaced CD players. Will social media, with it’s many marketing uses, replace traditional marketing styles?

Erik Qualman discusses this in “Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Ways We Live and Do Business.¹”

“Businesses, both large and small, have to realize that they no longer own relationships. Yet, when it comes to social media, many companies haven’t shaken their old tried-and-true marketing models.¹”

One example that demonstrates this is the different strategies that three companies used when they all made a new type of travel app for Facebook.¹ 

1. Acme 

Acme’s app made users give up personal information, such as their email address and mailing address.¹ When told many people may be turned off by having to supply this information, Acme decided that it didn’t matter, because on a good day they would get 50,000 downloads.¹

2. Where I’ve Been

This app was developed by Craig Ulliott, who was the concerned customer who brought the issue of Acme’s request for personal information to their attention.¹ Being a talented programmer himself, after his concerns were ignored by Acme, Ulliott decided he could do better on his own, and he was correct.¹ The app was so successful that Ulliott was able to open a seven-person company under the same name as his app!¹

3. TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor approached Craig Ulliott, and offered him around 3 million dollars for the purchase of his app.¹ However, when Ulliot decided that sum wasn’t enough, TripAdvisor decided to take matters into their own hands for a cheaper price.¹ TripAdvisor paid approximately $20,000 for the development of their app, and in 2009 TripAdvisor had 1,779,246 monthly active users compared to Where I’ve Been’s 885,577 monthly active users. In 2010 TripAdvisor’s number went up to 5,187,366 while Where I’ve Been went up to 1,031,902 users per month.

What do these numbers show us? Although they received tons of new information for their databases, Acme could have done so much more if they branched out from their traditional marketing strategies. Both Where I’ve Been and TripAdvisor had major successes by using a nontraditional social-media orientated marketing strategy. While Where I’ve Been’s numbers were significantly lower than TripAdvisor’s numbers, the fact that they grew large enough to warrant the starting of their own company and that they were competitive with already well-known brands such as Acme and TripAdvisor, shows that it’s not always down to the name, it’s also how you market yourself.

Do you have questions on the best ways to market your business on social media? Look no farther! Links to useful resources can be found here, here, and here!

Sources below the cut!

Did you know that social media changes the ways we live, communicate, and share personal information? It turns out that many people don’t realize this about social media, or underestimate its potential both in and out of business settings. This post will discuss the ways that social media has changed our lives, and how businesses can harvest this change to benefit their businesses or workplaces!

In her article, “Is Competition in Your Genes?” journalist Jaqui Kenyon interviewed author Ashley Merryman, who wrote “Top Dog: The Science of Winning and Losing.¹” In her interview with Kenyon, Merryman posits that everyone is competitive saying, 

“Competition is about motivation, passion, and pushing yourself. It’s good to pick your battles--- if it’s just a parking space, let it go. Knowing which competitions are worthwhile doesn’t mean you’re not competitive. It’s a gift I wish we all had.¹”

Social media takes this competitiveness to a whole new level, as author Erik Qualman points out in chapter three of his book, “Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Work and Do Business.²” Essentially, people will tailor their activities and behaviors based on the social media statuses of their peers, in order to feel like they are “winning” the competition that is life². As Qualman (2012) explains,

“Would you rather post “I’m watching reruns of Saved by the Bell” or post “Just snowboarded down a double-black diamond run at Aspen and highly recommend it for those who love Colorado snow!²”

From the competitive nature of humans in general, and the way that social media posts can highlight how much “fun” one is having, and in essence, how much one is living their life, we can see how people might change their behaviors or activities in order to fit into the social mold and “win.”

What does this mean for businesses though? As Drs. Melanie Wakefield, Barbara Loken, and Robert Hornik conclude,

“media campaigns can produce positive changes or prevent negative changes in health-related behaviours across large populations [including use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs and sex-related behaviors]³”

Just as people’s health behaviors can be influenced by social media, so too can their shopping and spending habits be influenced by social media. Get your company to play on the competitive nature of humans, and you can see a major rise in success. Make yourself the “cool” brand, encourage the use of #advertising and the spread of your business through the new word-of-mouth. Give people incentives to visit your social media pages, either through promotional giveaways or the reputation your brand will give the people associated with you, and you will see a rise in your company’s sales and profits!

Sources under the cut

What is the biggest way to garner interest in your company? Word-of-mouth advertising of course! Consumers are more likely to trust a product review if it comes from someone they know to be trustworthy. However, as Erik Qualman outlines in his book “Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business,” there are three main problems with traditional word-of-mouth advertising: 

Reviews can be slow to spread¹.

Friends of friends may not know and trust the original source¹.

The positive review can be altered as it spreads, similar to the children’s game telephone¹.

Knowing this, how can companies make sure that they are getting the most out of this top marketing strategy? The answer is actually to encourage the use of social media, rather than traditional oral communication! Social media use is raising every year, and is expected to reach an astounding 3.2 billion people by 2021²!

This should tell you that social media, even with its many detractors and naysayers, is not going away anytime soon. Not only does this platform offer businesses a new marketing tool to explore, social media based word-of-mouth eradicates the three flaws in traditional word-of-mouth advertising! 

Social media allows a review to be spread to multiple people at once, rather than having to have one person tell one other person, who then tells one other person and so on¹.

Social media platforms allow users to interact with the media they share. This allows people to add their own opinion to reviews and therefore people who know the person who shared the review will be more likely to trust the review. 

Since the review is in text, and not relying on body language and tone, there is minimal chance that the original message will be misunderstood¹. 

Now, there are pros and cons to using social media as a tool for word-of-mouth marketing. According to the Australian Government, there are six things which may stop you from successfully marketing your company or business on social media³. 

“Not having a clear marketing or social media strategy may result in reduced benefits for your business³.” 

“If you don't actively manage your social media presence, you may not see any real benefits³.” 

“Risk of unwanted or inappropriate behavior on your site, including bullying and harassment³.” 

“Additional resources may be needed to manage your online presence³.” 

“Social media is immediate and needs daily monitoring³.” 

“Greater exposure online has the potential to attract risks. Risks can include negative feedback, information leaks or hacking³.” 

However, with some planning, these cons are easy to work around and avoid. For example, the first three cons can be managed by planning your social media presence and planned responses before implementing any sort of social media presence for your company. 

Hopefully this post has proven to you that social media is a useful tool for word-of-mouth advertising, and that change doesn’t always have to be a bad thing! 

Sources under the cut!