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Engaging Social Media and Seeing Results
06/14/2010 - By Craig Erskine "I have Facebook and Twitter. What else is there?"
We hear that a lot. The first question we ask is, "What are you doing to engage your public in those venues?" I know, a question with a question, but most of the time our clients will say, "we have pages (period)". If that's your answer, you are not doing enough. Using those two tools, facebook and Twitter, properly means taking steps to engage your audience in conversation and then cross-linking the two channels.
Once that is done, you are just getting warmed up. If you have any videos at all that relate to your cause, you need to have a properly branded YouTube and a Vimeo channel that crosses into the other social platforms. This may seem like basic information, but the number of people, companies and institutions who are actively working in social media without utilizing these cross-linking strategies are many.
A few months ago I wrote a blog on new trends happening in new media and as things often do, change has come. A new trend is emerging taking social marketing to yet another plateau and into the next generation in cross-linking. Social sites like facebook are providing developers with tools to integrate into their mainstream sites. An example of this is how facebook, Pandora and others now offer a new initiative with Open Graph (OG) which allows sites to create "like" buttons on content which then get shared with social media users and their friends. Pandora allows you to see a list of friends who use the service and what songs and artists they like – even allowing you to listen to stations your friends have created. Newspapers like the Huffington Post have integrated this technology, presenting a "Hot on facebook" module and a "what your friends are reading" module, as well as their now famous "like" button.
Social media integration into sites changes the way marketers approach their marketing strategies. As is normal for society, once there is an 800-pound gorilla in the room, people start throwing bananas at it, forcing a new diet... Facebook, the social media 800-pound gorilla, has undergone some brand bashing based on privacy issues, allowing for lesser-known social media start-ups to gain some valuable "face time." We will have to wait and see what happens, but for the time being I would not recommend ignoring facebooks' marketing power.
The most effective social media mix should be determined by your marketing goals and your target audience. If you have a strong music program in your school, for example, you may want to add MySpace to your mix, as that is their primary audience.
Just as important as finding the proper mix is how you approach social media. Many gurus are saying, "don't attempt to sell on social media." and while this is true, you can successfully market on social media. Good social media campaigns are critical and should find a direct correlation to the environment, be it facebook, foursquare, Flickr, Twitter, or even YouTube. This will take your social media success to the next level if done properly. Social media sites will remain very powerful as a customer relations tool for engaging and listening to your customers and potential customers (in the case of education, students).
What does it all mean?
You need to make a plan – A long-term strategy supported by short-term events or campaigns. Determine your long-term goals, identify short-term objectives, and make sure you develop a comprehensive plan of action. Social media mixes are sure to change and evolve; the facebook of today may well become the MySpace of tomorrow. One thing you can't do with social media is rest on tradition – keep your crystal ball polished and continue to move based on the changes you see coming. Even if you have a few stumbles with short-sighted campaigns or a rogue flame post, be responsive and agile, and you will shine. Be wary of "too much information" (TMI) – control your urges to force things to happen. Social media requires patience and planning to avoid overload. How do you engage an audience? Entertain, listen, relate and adapt.
Overload:
In the recent Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) study, dated March 2010, participants declared how likely they were to read and respond based on five different methods of online advertising: banner ads, pop-up ads, email offers, branded articles, and sponsored search engine links. Respondents said they were "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to read and respond to:
Articles with branding: 53% compared to 51% in the previous year
Email offers: 51% compared to 47% in the previous year
Sponsored search engine links: 40% compared to 39% in the previous year
Banner ads: 28% compared to 25% in the previous year
Pop-up ads: 19% compared to 13% in the previous year
What does this mean? Ben Franklin was right as rain when he said, "all things in moderation." Now he may well have been talking of Ale and Bread, but that has the same meaning today as it had then. People respond in the right measure. You are more likely to get a successful return sending an email once or twice a quarter than twice a month. I believe the ORC study shows a trend toward smarter targeting than it does an increase in people's comfort to "click through."
Facebook, for instance, allows you to set very targeted pay-per-click. Smart targeting means being equipped with specific information about someone, like age, gender and location. For example, a professional marketer would offer one type of shirt to a person in Florida in April versus someone who lives in northern Wisconsin. Ads targeted in this fashion, will have a higher click-through rate. What this study really shows is that we are getting smarter as marketers and better at using new media and social profiling to reach more people. I was watching a show on Hulu this weekend, and as most know the shows are sponsored by ads. Hulu now allows the viewer to provide immediate feedback as to whether the ad is "relevant" or not. For instance, during the show I was watching an ad came up about shampoo for women. Being a male, I clicked that the ad was not relevant allowing a profile to be built on my ad preferences, thus increasing the power of the ads shown. Let's talk a bit more about the things we can control and what we mentioned earlier about setting the game plan.
The Plan:
For whatever reason, be it time or knowledge, plans are usually very informal or skipped entirely in social marketing. A good plan will involve setting social media standards that your marketing team understands and obeys, a segregation of personal and professional social positions. Don't have your personal profiles running your marketing sites. Utilize tools to monitor your brands positions in social segments. Maintain an energy in each facet of your social position. This race has no finish line; it is not even a marathon but a perpetual drive. Think of Forrest Gump and just run for the sheer sake of running, and then watch all the people start following you.
Your plan should be broken into 3 marketing components:
• Social Site Integration – placing social site tools within your main brand sites
• Customer Relations / Brand Monitoring – listening to and engaging with the social culture of your brand
• Campaign Integration and Cross-over – develop campaigns that ignite your social position
Each of these areas represents a very different approach; therefore, they require distinct plans. While most people are content to sit on the long-term goal of brand monitoring and customer/community relations, the real return comes when you add the other two areas of campaigns and site integration. Two of the biggest questions we are asked revolve around how to control the brand in a free-flow social structure and how much time it takes to manage all the different sites and different directions. There are fundamental strategies to both questions discussed below.
Control:
I have sat through a few "Social Media Seminars," and overwhelmingly the crowds are discussing how to control the sparks of discourse that flame on one's brand. If you have the right plan in place with the proper people and an established social media/public relations standards documented, the answers are already established. Unhappy people are a fact of life whether you sell microwave ovens or diplomas – if you can address issues publicly with care and speed, you will turn a negative into a positive. On the other hand, if you ignore or delete angry posts you will incur a wrath from all sides, and things will quickly move out of control. Answer with honesty and compassion, and even if you cannot help the person with the issue, provide them with information to move forward in resolving their troubling tale. Make sure that each person you have monitoring your sites knows how and when to escalate an issue and that they are quick to do so. As far as troublesome link spammers, the community respects the deletion of those posts, and in most instances no repercussions will be felt.
Time:
"Wow, this sounds like it is going to take a lot of time." – Management of a social marketing plan should be established based on the 3 segments of the plan. Site integration should be handled by your web service providers and those you designate as content managers. Once integrated and managed, provide cross-over information to both the community managers and the marketing gurus running the campaign. Community managers for a university, for instance, could be manned by a team/group of university student ambassadors managed by a faculty member or administrator. Social networks are their native environment. Find students who enjoy and understand your position in social circles and will be cheerleaders promoting campaigns and growing community. This allows "free" management on a daily basis with marginal time into oversight. Campaigns can be suggested by the ambassador students but should be planned and implemented through your marketing department or your agency of record.
There are many customized strategies for social media marketing that depend on your needs. If you are overwhelmed with the prospect of taking on all of this, seek out professional help. If you have questions about what was discussed here feel free to email me and I will do my best to answer your questions.
Relevant Links and References: http://www.radian6.com/blog/2010/01/5-steps-to-a-better-social-media-monitoring-plan/
http://mashable.com/2010/06/07/facebook-insights-dashboard/
http://www.eduintersect.com/
http://opengraphprotocol.org/