Measurements

You cannot manage what you do not measure.  Fortunately, Internet-based platforms provide a wealth of information and metrics in real time allowing you to obtain almost immediate feedback and to make adjustments early.

When considering the success of a Social Network Strategy, it is not just the number of page views or how many people have “click on” your company home page, but how engaged are they?  The use of an “Engagement Index” that measures the breadth and the depth of your user’s experience with your business is an important management tool.  You will want to see that your customers and prospects are not just passively consuming content but using the content to foster conversations and make connections, referring the content to friends and colleagues, giving feedback to other users, communicating… engaged.

Some sample metrics you want to gather are:  # of customers, # of prospects, # of logins, # of page views, amount of new content added, page rankings, # of blog entries, # of click-throughs….  How are you going to measure these objectives?  What can you measure that has meaning?  This is where your choice of technology solutions becomes important.  Your technology solution will ideally allow you to maintain a “dashboard” view of all your customers’, prospects’, members’ and champions’ activities.  Wendistry and Blackbox Technologies are currently exploring and reviewing several technologies and will be making recommendations in future blog posts.

In addition to measuring the activity on your network, you will also want to keep your Social Marketing Strategy up to date by maintaining regular updates of:

• Customer profiles
• Prospect profiles
• Competitor and ally network profiles
• Alternative platform profiles

In conclusion, Social Marketing enables companies to provide dynamic new ways for businesses and their target audiences to communicate, collaborate and associate more freely and richly.  The barriers of mass communication have fallen dramatically and with them, so have the barriers to entry for new competitors to your business.

Yet, these changes also provide amazing opportunities to master and apply these new tools… refreshing a company’s intellectual content, increase the level of conversation with the customer and extend the reach and impact of marketing to position the business for future growth and success.

Does YOUR business have a strategy for this new environment? If not, LET US KNOW.

Craft your processes, plan, resources and budgets

The inclusion of a Social Marketing Strategy in your business will have implications for your governance structure and business plans, affecting particularly how you allocate human and financial resources.  These are potentially very positive changes as your organization adjusts to become more nimble, open, responsive and innovative.

Because the changes are ultimately profound, we would suggest that you start small and be ready to grow.

Phase 1:  Discovery and Scoping:  review mission, vision and governance structure of company; define objectives; prioritize goals.

Phase 2:  Baseline Setting:  measure current activities and results

Phase 3:  Environment and Market Research:  environmental scan; interviews and focus groups with current customers; SWOT analysis; competitor mapping; market research

Phase 4:  Analysis:  analyze and interpret collected data; craft alternative scenarios

Phase 5:  Governance Review:  impact on employees, leadership, and stakeholders; legal and by-laws

Phase 6:  Business and Social Marketing Strategy Development:  business approach

Phase 7:  Plan Composition:   evaluate implementation options; determine mix of strategies and platforms

Phase 8:  Implementation:  change management; allow for adjustments

What if your initial results are up by 100%?  What if they just meet expectations?  How do you adjust if they are off by -50%?  Operational plans must anticipate the impact on your business and departments:  Marketing, IT, Finance, Communications, Management, Legal, etc.

Because your Social Marketing Strategy is potentially one of the most important initiatives your organization will undertake, it requires support at the highest possible level from both Board and Staff to succeed.  A proper Social Marketing Strategy requires internal accountability with coordination across multiple departments.

Prepare a comprehensive budget that reflects the total investment in your Social Marketing Strategy and to make sure sufficient resources are applied to make your strategy a success.  Budget will include:

• Hosting platform and application
• Design  (look, feel and user interface)
• Content
• Project management
• Promotion and Marketing
• “Champion” care (recognition and support)

During implementation, be willing to tolerate negative feedback… it is an opportunity to improve and demonstrate your ability to listen and meet the needs of your customers.

Recruit Your Network Champions!

Social Media Marketing only succeeds when you have several important ingredients:

• Critical mass
• Peer groups (defined by common interests)
• Easy-to-use technology
• Openness and inclusiveness
• Thought leaders and champions (fanatics are a plus!)

Although one of the defining characteristics of Social Networks is user generated content, the vast majority of network participants are consumers, not creators of content.  In fact, one of the most common reasons so many new networks ultimately fail is because they do not provide a consistent flow of fresh, quality content to keep the network participants effectively engaged.

Whether it’s a group of volunteers, staff with subject matter expertise or contracted content providers, your social marketing campaign needs a small group of “champions” to drive the discussion and contribute high quality content to bring the network to life.

It’s much easier to engage additional network participants as active users if you have fresh, quality content being provided by experienced and knowledgeable experts.  Your champions, together with active members, create the critical value add for the entire campaign.

Your Platforms

Do we have to build our own Social Networking system, integrate a proven social media application or use an available 3rd party public platform (ex: LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)?  How do we use multiple platforms to the best effect?  Then, what do we do with our legacy systems?  Which IT partners offer the best choice for these new technologies?  What about our other existing communication channels?  And, should we actually consider how to collaborate with competing platforms?  How do I identify a competing versus a complementary platform?

There seem to be more questions than answers when it comes to choices about technology platforms and potential solutions.  And, it isn’t getting any easier with the massive proliferation of new entrants, new solutions, interesting add-ons and plug-ins and the temptation to do something, ANYTHING, to avoid being left behind.

The selection of an appropriate technology platform will become far easier when you have gone through the steps of profiling your target audience, defining your objectives, and crafting a business plan that is focused on outcomes prior to implementing a social media marketing platform.

In most cases, you will want to use a combination of private, proprietary members’ only areas together with existing, publicly accessed professional platforms where large numbers of your current and future customers are connected right now.  The key is in knowing how to use which platform for which purpose and to manage your organization’s presence on each.

Publicly open social networks, like LinkedIn and Facebook, can be used to raise awareness about your business and to attract potential customers.  This strategy requires thoughtful engagement and participation in established communities of interest relevant to your company, even when they appear to be directly competing.  You’ve got to be present wherever your customers and prospects are meeting and communicating.  So, you will want to scan the environment regularly to identify already existing communities where your customers and prospects might be present.  This activity includes looking at the web sites of your sponsors, stakeholders, competitors, key clients and any other source where a community of interest that appeals to your customer/prospect base might emerge.