Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Facebook Business Page Case Study (Coming Soon....)
Stayed tuned for my in-depth case study and analysis of Facebook Business Pages.
Social Marketing Yourself
One of the most enjoyable things you can do on the net is search for yourself and see what comes up. What's even more enjoyable is when you find something you had no clue was going to be there.
But wait....this can also be a huge problem. Consider this, you are an executive at a decently reputable company. You did some stupid things in the past or had a bad experience with an old client. They get angry, bash you on the net, and you don't find it till 6 months later. This could have major affects on your company, your personal reputation, and your overall internet presence.
So what can you do? How about Social Media Marketing yourself!
It's really no different from marketing your company, you just target yourself as the brand/product/service. Take what you want the public to know about you, and market it. Are you an athlete? Do you have a cool hobby? What is one of the best professional achievements of your life? Take this information, create your social site network and broadcast away.
Chances are, you won't only build your reputation and your presence, you will also create traffic that is driven to yourself and your company. Giving you increased exposure and your audience gets better insight about who you really are.
We often neglect ourselves as being a brand. But having a great online reputation can make all the difference. The first thing a potential client is going to do when they here your name is look you up. They want to see your LinkedIn profile. They want to find these extra details about you. This is why it's so important. I can't count how many times I've heard of deals won and lost based on who they knew on LinkedIn or what testimonials and material potential clients came across on the web.
Consider this point. How many companies, after a major crisis, bring someone on just for their reputation? Even if the person has no experience or insight into their business, they are brought in because they make the business look better.
So do yourself a favor. Take a few hours every week, put some time into your own online brand, and remember that your personal brand is just as important as your companies.
But wait....this can also be a huge problem. Consider this, you are an executive at a decently reputable company. You did some stupid things in the past or had a bad experience with an old client. They get angry, bash you on the net, and you don't find it till 6 months later. This could have major affects on your company, your personal reputation, and your overall internet presence.
So what can you do? How about Social Media Marketing yourself!
It's really no different from marketing your company, you just target yourself as the brand/product/service. Take what you want the public to know about you, and market it. Are you an athlete? Do you have a cool hobby? What is one of the best professional achievements of your life? Take this information, create your social site network and broadcast away.
Chances are, you won't only build your reputation and your presence, you will also create traffic that is driven to yourself and your company. Giving you increased exposure and your audience gets better insight about who you really are.
We often neglect ourselves as being a brand. But having a great online reputation can make all the difference. The first thing a potential client is going to do when they here your name is look you up. They want to see your LinkedIn profile. They want to find these extra details about you. This is why it's so important. I can't count how many times I've heard of deals won and lost based on who they knew on LinkedIn or what testimonials and material potential clients came across on the web.
Consider this point. How many companies, after a major crisis, bring someone on just for their reputation? Even if the person has no experience or insight into their business, they are brought in because they make the business look better.
So do yourself a favor. Take a few hours every week, put some time into your own online brand, and remember that your personal brand is just as important as your companies.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Social Media on the XBox 360
Just came across a fairly interesting article on Geek Gestalt. Millions using social media on Xbox Live
Talks about the massive amount of XBox live members who have signed up for social media features that were just added to the Live platform.
If this tells us anything, its that the web user is still searching for that one stop shop. So don't stop your widgets, don't slow your feeds, and certainly don't spread yourself out more. The easier you are to find and manage, the more likely you are to be seen.
Another great lesson on how to be seen and heard. Whatever's easiest, not best, is what usually wins out.
Talks about the massive amount of XBox live members who have signed up for social media features that were just added to the Live platform.
If this tells us anything, its that the web user is still searching for that one stop shop. So don't stop your widgets, don't slow your feeds, and certainly don't spread yourself out more. The easier you are to find and manage, the more likely you are to be seen.
Another great lesson on how to be seen and heard. Whatever's easiest, not best, is what usually wins out.
Hot Button: Social Media Metrics, to pay or not to pay
The biggest hot button issue in the Social Media Marketing world is metrics. Every company believes strongly in the need for metrics and find it difficult to report a true ROI to their management without some sort of numbers to back it.
Recently there has been an influx of companies that have attempted to offer some sort of solution for our metrics needs. They claim to be able to measure sentiment, overall exposure, and depth of your content. Let's take a quick look at what several companies in this space are doing, and we can analyze their effectiveness in this space.
Raidan6 :
Advantages:
Their claim to fame is there mentions tracking. They provide snapshots of what others in the social media world are saying about your company. If your "Brand" is mentioned, they will provide a snippet of the who mentions it and how often it is re-broadcast across the web.
Problems:
Like most tracking, this is a keyword based usage. This means that they track based on combined mentions of the keywords of your company. Keywords are easily mistaken and be complicated when attempting to track.
Trackur:
Advantages:
Same idea as Radian6. It's pretty, has some nice graph features. Can display data in inventive ways. Provides a decent snapshot of your overall sentiment and metrics in the social media realm.
Problems:
Same as Radian6. It measures keywords and tracks your own activity. While this is wonderful, we'll see in a moment what the real problem is with this.
Other platforms:
Viral Heat
Omniture
Overall Overview:
So the real problem with metrics is that we can't really tell who is seeing it and when its being seen. We can find out that our posts are being retweeted, but who's retweeting them and who is seeing the retweets. We never know the quality of our audience off of these programs. We get numbers, we get names, but we don't get any data.
It's like if the cable company tells me that they can get 100,000 people to see my commercial. Immediately I think, "Wow, that's great!" Then ten seconds go by and I realize, who is seeing it, are they my target audience, do they care about my product?
The same rings true with social media. The audience is massive, the information is everywhere, but is anyone of value seeing it?
Solution:
The real tracking solution is a daunting task. Track your success by really identifying your audience. Do you have major players in the blogging world following you? Do you have huge influencers in Facebook and Twitter who are talking about you? A campaign is ten thousand times more successful if they have 10 good influencers instead of 1,000 overall audience.
So to measure your campaign you must dig in. Identify your influencers. Go after them. Cater to them. Let them get involved, get an idea of your campaign and then spread it for you. It's the best way to succeed and its the easiest thing to measure.
Recently there has been an influx of companies that have attempted to offer some sort of solution for our metrics needs. They claim to be able to measure sentiment, overall exposure, and depth of your content. Let's take a quick look at what several companies in this space are doing, and we can analyze their effectiveness in this space.
Raidan6 :
Advantages:
Their claim to fame is there mentions tracking. They provide snapshots of what others in the social media world are saying about your company. If your "Brand" is mentioned, they will provide a snippet of the who mentions it and how often it is re-broadcast across the web.
Problems:
Like most tracking, this is a keyword based usage. This means that they track based on combined mentions of the keywords of your company. Keywords are easily mistaken and be complicated when attempting to track.
Trackur:
Advantages:
Same idea as Radian6. It's pretty, has some nice graph features. Can display data in inventive ways. Provides a decent snapshot of your overall sentiment and metrics in the social media realm.
Problems:
Same as Radian6. It measures keywords and tracks your own activity. While this is wonderful, we'll see in a moment what the real problem is with this.
Other platforms:
Viral Heat
Omniture
Overall Overview:
So the real problem with metrics is that we can't really tell who is seeing it and when its being seen. We can find out that our posts are being retweeted, but who's retweeting them and who is seeing the retweets. We never know the quality of our audience off of these programs. We get numbers, we get names, but we don't get any data.
It's like if the cable company tells me that they can get 100,000 people to see my commercial. Immediately I think, "Wow, that's great!" Then ten seconds go by and I realize, who is seeing it, are they my target audience, do they care about my product?
The same rings true with social media. The audience is massive, the information is everywhere, but is anyone of value seeing it?
Solution:
The real tracking solution is a daunting task. Track your success by really identifying your audience. Do you have major players in the blogging world following you? Do you have huge influencers in Facebook and Twitter who are talking about you? A campaign is ten thousand times more successful if they have 10 good influencers instead of 1,000 overall audience.
So to measure your campaign you must dig in. Identify your influencers. Go after them. Cater to them. Let them get involved, get an idea of your campaign and then spread it for you. It's the best way to succeed and its the easiest thing to measure.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Auto Dealers dealing the right cards in Social Media
The auto industry has taken the forefront for success in the social media realm.
DrivingSales.com is showing record numbers Link. PRNewswire reports that they have shown massive growth over the past year. This idea of an entire community for just the auto industry has spurred the birth of many individual auto social media programs. Not just the big boys, Ford, Chevy, Toyota (though they do have wonderful programs, and I'd suggest checking them out), but smaller individual dealerships are using SM as a lead generation source.
If you really think about it, it makes perfect sense. Razorfish recently reported that Social Media has the highest sentiment/effectiveness when pertaining to car buying, Razorfish . Why wouldn't it? Car buying has always been a word-of-mouth industry. For several reasons:
1. Who doesn't like to brag about their new car and all the features they got with it.
2. Everyone is skeptical of trusting a salesman, so they ask their friends for advice.
3. Car dealers need to appear as real people and appeal to real people.
These three principles also dictate what Social Media is all about. Connecting with people. Recognizing authenticity. Finding the truth about people.
So the auto industry clued in on this. They know that word of mouth works. So why not have a network where your customers sell for you. Encourage people to post about their buys. Give them that outlet and audience to brag. Inform your audience of "friends" about your dealership and what you offer. The best part is, this is what people want. The internet is the car dealers main outlet anyway. Cars.com and Autotrader.com are a staple resource for any new car buyer. But what would make it better than when you are searching for those sites, you see a dealers Facebook or twitter site pop up in the results as well.
Businesses need to learn from the auto industry. Social Media is about appealing to your audience. Know what they want, tailor your message to it, and deliver it straight and accurate.
DrivingSales.com is showing record numbers Link. PRNewswire reports that they have shown massive growth over the past year. This idea of an entire community for just the auto industry has spurred the birth of many individual auto social media programs. Not just the big boys, Ford, Chevy, Toyota (though they do have wonderful programs, and I'd suggest checking them out), but smaller individual dealerships are using SM as a lead generation source.
If you really think about it, it makes perfect sense. Razorfish recently reported that Social Media has the highest sentiment/effectiveness when pertaining to car buying, Razorfish . Why wouldn't it? Car buying has always been a word-of-mouth industry. For several reasons:
1. Who doesn't like to brag about their new car and all the features they got with it.
2. Everyone is skeptical of trusting a salesman, so they ask their friends for advice.
3. Car dealers need to appear as real people and appeal to real people.
These three principles also dictate what Social Media is all about. Connecting with people. Recognizing authenticity. Finding the truth about people.
So the auto industry clued in on this. They know that word of mouth works. So why not have a network where your customers sell for you. Encourage people to post about their buys. Give them that outlet and audience to brag. Inform your audience of "friends" about your dealership and what you offer. The best part is, this is what people want. The internet is the car dealers main outlet anyway. Cars.com and Autotrader.com are a staple resource for any new car buyer. But what would make it better than when you are searching for those sites, you see a dealers Facebook or twitter site pop up in the results as well.
Businesses need to learn from the auto industry. Social Media is about appealing to your audience. Know what they want, tailor your message to it, and deliver it straight and accurate.
Getting in the Game
Over the past year, I've worked closely with several small-medium companies that were just diving into the social media world. Most of these companies had little knowledge and even less initiative about how to get the ball rolling. Most companies just believe an audience and a Facebook site would be enough to build their SM world. These companies had no goal, little integration with traditional marketing and incomplete buy-in from the higher-ups.
So for this initial blog, I'd like to identify a few key terms that can be used to describe problems in the SM world.
Content-Dump: This is what you get when a company doesn't regularly update their SM campaigns. Usually once a month, they decide to toss as much content as possible onto their sites and create multiple posts at once. Often times its more than enough content to spread over a month but its being "dumped" all at once.
- Problem- Followers need a reason to come back to your site. Once a month will not keep someone's attention. You go to a site, you see new information, come back a couple times over the next 2 weeks and see nothing new, you assume the site is dead. Being fresh requires a little more work, but it keeps your community very active and engaged.
-Fix- Spread your content out. Make sure you are strategic. If you have a hot-button topic, get it out there fast and promote conversation. Even if your content is slow and your lacking, post some relevant articles or research about your industry, anything is better than nothing in the Social Media world.
It's All About Us Syndrome: This is when all your content is surrounded about the greatness of your company. Your message is tailored to your awesomeness and how great your company is. There's little information about your actual company or what you really do. But there's plenty out there about how much you sell or how many accolades your products or services have won.
-Problem- Audience knows nothing about your actual company. SM is all about finding what is at the root of the company. Being involved in the company and feeling like they actually care.
-Fix- Go ahead and mention those things. But show your power by also tossing in promotions. Ask for feedback, give stuff away. Even go as far as to develop apps that are solely for entertainment. People who like you, buy you, even if you aren't the best.
This one is short, check back later for my review of the top Auto-Industry social media initiatives.
So for this initial blog, I'd like to identify a few key terms that can be used to describe problems in the SM world.
Content-Dump: This is what you get when a company doesn't regularly update their SM campaigns. Usually once a month, they decide to toss as much content as possible onto their sites and create multiple posts at once. Often times its more than enough content to spread over a month but its being "dumped" all at once.
- Problem- Followers need a reason to come back to your site. Once a month will not keep someone's attention. You go to a site, you see new information, come back a couple times over the next 2 weeks and see nothing new, you assume the site is dead. Being fresh requires a little more work, but it keeps your community very active and engaged.
-Fix- Spread your content out. Make sure you are strategic. If you have a hot-button topic, get it out there fast and promote conversation. Even if your content is slow and your lacking, post some relevant articles or research about your industry, anything is better than nothing in the Social Media world.
It's All About Us Syndrome: This is when all your content is surrounded about the greatness of your company. Your message is tailored to your awesomeness and how great your company is. There's little information about your actual company or what you really do. But there's plenty out there about how much you sell or how many accolades your products or services have won.
-Problem- Audience knows nothing about your actual company. SM is all about finding what is at the root of the company. Being involved in the company and feeling like they actually care.
-Fix- Go ahead and mention those things. But show your power by also tossing in promotions. Ask for feedback, give stuff away. Even go as far as to develop apps that are solely for entertainment. People who like you, buy you, even if you aren't the best.
This one is short, check back later for my review of the top Auto-Industry social media initiatives.
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