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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!

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!

Chapter 13 of Erik Qualman’s Socialnomics gives a list of over one-hundred helpful tools and sites for social media marketing and management. For the full (updated) list, click here.

In order to fully utilize this chapter to its fullest potential, I’ve decided to visit each tool and see which ones I could most easily incorporate into my social media usage. Doing so, I would see what tools were the most helpful and made the biggest improvements in my online life. The only issue I found with the listed tools, is a lot of the links led to dead ends or error messages OR were no longer existent. I can only assume the list is a bit out of date, but nonetheless, the list is extremely helpful. Below are my new favorite tools/sites, and why.

Evernote: Although this isn’t a tool specific to social media usage, I find this tool incredibly helpful. I utilize my iPhone “notes” application, on an almost a daily basis, for reminders, writing down song lyrics to look up later, personal thoughts, epiphanies, etc. Although iPhone notes is a good tool, Evernote takes it to the next level. Not only can you drot down your thoughts, you can record anything (perfect for a lecture), and everything gets saved online, therefore you’ll ever lose your notes. This would’ve been a phenomenal tool to have been using throughout high school, and my previous years as a college student.

HootSuite: HootSuite is like social media marketing on steroids. It allows you to view your site analytics in real time, allows you to schedule future posts, easily respond to comments and tweets, and post to several accounts at a time.

Cyfe: Similar to HootSuite, this tool allows you to see your social media site analytics in real time. You add and configure widgets to show analytics on facebook, youtube, Instagram, Twitter, etc. It’s not overly complicated, but offers a great deal of stats and info, and is also great for a social media comparison. This is a great tool if you’re intimidated by, or can’t afford HootSuite, and only need the bare necessities of tracking analytics.  

TimeHop: As much as I cringe looking through old pictures or statuses, I love TimeHop. Timehop allows you to see what you were posting about every year upon a specific date. It’s crazy seeing how much you’ve grown, and how much your interests have changed. The reason this is a helpful social media tool is not only for nostalgia’s sake, but because often we push our achievements to the back of our minds, telling ourselves we haven’t made any improvements in life. Timehop will change your view. Another way TimeHop is helpful is because you may come across a post that no longer supports your brand as they are today, and “delete the evidence”, not to mention deleting old embarrassing pictures. 

*bonus* one that wasn’t in the book, but has helped me tremendously. 

In chapter 12 of Socialnomics, Erik touched on the art of blogging, and how popular blogs become successful. I decided to dip a little further into this. During my research, along with my own social media surfing experience, I find that most popular posts include one or more of the following (in no particular order):

Top (#) Lists:

The Reason Top (#) lists work is because of the ability to skim through the article quickly. Each heading provides the information you’re looking for, and a blurb of why each item is on the list. Reading the entire article is optional, which is part of the appeal.

Current/Hot topics:

Posts including hot topics are popular, because nowadays people want to stay in the know, and form opinions quickly. Sometimes if I’m not feeling particularly bias, I find myself shuffling through the comments section of drama related posts, reading each opposing side before I form my own opinion.

DIY Projects/Tutorials:

Who doesn’t like to save money? Whether you’re a broke college, a crafter by heart, or just a bored internet dweller, these posts appeal to almost everyone.

Activism/SJW:

We like to feel like we’re doing something to make the world a better place, and often, that “something” is spreading awareness through social media. Whether something is blown out of proportion, or rightfully brought to light, opposing sides are going to duel it out in the comments.

Comedy/humor:

Humor cheers up your timelines, newsfeeds, and/or dashboards. We often use these types of posts to drown out the sounds of our depressive states. The more depressed we are as an online culture, the more popular these posts become.

Videos:

Videos allow you to take in information with minimal effort. Success!

Images/Gifs:

This is pretty self-explanatory. Taking in information with our eyes with as small as a quick glance.

One-liners:

Because of quickly deteriorating attention spans, short text posts are popular. If a post does not suck me in within the first couple of lines, I will scroll past a post solely out of laziness, muttering the excuse “I don’t have time for this”, even though I more than likely do.Beauty tips/vanity:

Beauty Tips/Vanity:

In a society who pays far too much attention to our appearance, we’re almost all guilty of paying a little too much attention to the little ways we can “fix” ourselves. These types of posts almost have a way of making you feel worse about yourself after watching them. They bring attention to the flaws you didn’t know you had, which is why they get repeat viewers.

Erik Qualman mentions the power of social media in regards to return on investment. In doing so, he broadcast-ed successful entrepreneurs and businesses that were proving this. One of the successors of this philosophy that was mentioned is Gary Vaynerchuk. Ironically enough, I began following Mr. Vaynerchuk on twitter four years ago, after stumbling across his periscope broadcast by complete accident. I sat through an intriguing thirty to forty minutes of his stream, in which he talked about marketing and branding yourself to create and/or increase your revenue. He has mastered the art of broadcasting himself and grabbing the attention of the audience. When I go on periscope, I’m usually in the mood for mindless entertainment. Periscope has thousands of other broadcasters doing wacky challenges, talented musicians, and comedians, but I WILLINGLY stayed and listened to what Mr. Vaynerchuk had to say. He made such an impression, that YEARS later I still remember him by name, after ONE broadcast viewing. And now hearing his name mentioned again makes me want to check up on his progress. THAT, my friends, is perfecting your brand.

This got me thinking.. How DO you perfect your brand? Why not hear from the man himself:

Click here  - it’s a bit lengthy, but with Gary’s charisma, it’ll fly by! 

How often have you made a purchase with someone else in mind? How many times have you bought an item, because your your friend, acquaintance, or idol broadcast-ed it on social media? Probably more times than you think. Do you truly have control over your spending habits, or are you under the influence of consumer peer pressure?

Businesses almost rely solely on word of mouth, so much so that social media influencers are paid lump sums of money just to talk about their products. There are Youtube Series’ called “Instagram Made Me Buy it:” where they purchase items popularized by the picture sharing platform. Think about the Sugar Bear Hair growth gummies endorsed, and made popular, by Kylie Jenner. I can admit, even I’ve almost fallen into the trap of buying them. And although I’ve slipped through the claws of the Sugar Bear Hair gummies, I’ve definitely had my buying habits influenced by social media.

Here’s a fun activity to play along with. What are some products you didn’t know you ”needed” until social media brought it to your attention? Who specifically encouraged you to make that purchase? I’ll play along, too.

Waist Cincher - Kardashians and beautiful instagram models

Puma Creeper shoes - Rihanna

Tarte Tape Shape - All the beauty gurus use it

Morphe Products - Just about every Youtube beauty guru affiliated with Morphe

Charcoal Teeth whiteners - Instagram

Apple Cider Vinegar - Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook - weight loss videos, beauty/care related videos

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