Top 10 Social Media Questions Marketers Want Answered, Part 1

10.  What are the best tactics to use?
- Which social media method has been the most successful overal and how has that method been implemented?
- How does my company stand out while creating strategic partnerships with those in the same field?
- Can using blogs, short videos, tweets, and status updates help us market our core products, or do they just get in the way of our message?
- Is it true that social media marketing is better suited for branding than direct response?

9.  How do I measure the effectiveness of social media?  How can I know if campaigns are working and what will the return be?
- How do you measure success?
- What is the ROI?
- What metrics are translatable in real terms that we can use as proof points or milestones?

8.  Where do I start?
- Is there a system or a plan that can be reproduced?  Such as, “start here, go here, then here and then here…”
- I want to better incorporate social media into my marketing efforts, but there are so many options that I don’t know where to begin.  Where are the best places to start?
- How do newbies like me get started?

7.  How do I manage the social balance?
- How do I respect the medium and maintain proper etiquette for each social media outlet?
- How carefully should we proceed with social media, so what’s meant to be “social” doesn’t turn out to be “sales-y?”
- Are there online protocols for beginners so we don’t break the “unspoken rules” that experienced marketers know about already?

6.  What are the best sites and tools out there?
- Which social media sites should I concentrate my efforts on?
- What are the top three most effective and easiest to implement social media tools?
- What social media platforms are customers going to be looking at in three months and three years from now?
- Which elements are persistent and long-term versus those that are fads?
- What sites are best to use for my market?

Cornerstones of Social Media Strategy

Think of your social media strategy as a platform supported by four pillars.  You really need all four to stabilize and support the platform to make the strategy work.

1. Communication
2. Collaboration
3. Education
4. Entertainment

COMMUNICATION: Every company already does something to communicate with its audience.  How is your communication perceived by your audience?  How do you measure the effectiveness of your communication strategy?  Which particular strategy triggers the most beneficial action, response, or behavior from your audience?

With some social media tools, you can measure things that eventually translate into something on your company profit and loss statement.  For example, let’s say you develop a monthly e-newsletter delivered through a service such as Constant Contact.  Your email might include a special discount offer with a link to your web site where your customer can request more information or place an order.  These requests or orders are easily measured and a cause-and-effect relationship can be determined.  With most programs like Constant Contact, you can measure how many people open your email and how man click on which links within the e-newsletter.

COLLABORATION: Every year numerous books and magazine articles are written about collaboration in the workplace.  It’s hard not to be in favor of collaboration, but why do some organizations do it so well and others fail miserably?  Is is the company culture that makes a difference or perhaps the skills of those who endeavor to collaborate?  Could it be the tools used to collaborate?

Charles Schwab took an interesting approach to this opportunity by creating a customer advisory community with approximately 400 members who discuss issues, share opinions, and provide feedback that influences Schwab’s product offerings.  In July 2008, Schwab extended an invitation to be considered for their Schwab Client Forum.  In exchange for 5 to 15 minutes of mindshare per week, Schwab offered selected panel members the opportunity of  “periodic rewards such as online gift certificates, occasional drawings for other gifts, and a few surprises along the way.”  the response from their customer base was overwhelming, and within a few days of launching the e-mail invitation, the community was full.  It appears that Schwab has learned something powerful about the power of engaging your customers through collaboration.

EDUCATION: Many of us have had the experience of standing helpless and hapless in front of a plumber as we try hard to understand what the problem is and what the solution will cost.  You realize that your plumber has expertise, and when that expertise is combined with an ability to effectively educate you about your home’s plumbing, you have been engaged by the plumber experience.

How often are you/your company required to educate your internal or external audience, and do you look for opportunities to do so?  Your ultimate social media strategy should leverage your expertise, the expertise of people within your company, and your customers’ expertise as well.  Several social media tools and applications can be used to engage people through education… YouTube, Flickr, blogs, and discussion boards to name a few.

ENTERTAINMENT: If kitchen blenders can find a starring role on YouTube, there’s no reason for just about any business to be optimistic about the prospects of entertaining your audience by finding those attributes of your product or aspects of your company that others might consider entertaining.  Be cautious, however, because entertaining doesn’t necessarily mean funny.  In fact, humor can be dangerous terrain to traverse.  What some people find funny is patently offensive to others.  Christian Lander’s blog is a fitting example of content that many people find hilarious and others inappropriate.  Lander is building a brand around an audience who enjoys an opportunity to self-deprecate, but his brand of sarcasm and irreverence could prove disastrous to other product offerings.

Social Media Marketing for Events

In the next week, Wendistry is launching Social Media for Events and is hosting its introductory workshop in Dallas, Texas, on Tuesday, September 15th.

When using social media to achieve event marketing goals, consider your event’s three phases:  Before, During, and After.  Here are some recommendations for each aspect of your event:

•    Before the event: Event marketers need to focus on expanding their universe of prospective attendees while attracting exhibitors, sponsors, and other types of show-related advertisers. Social media can help build interest with video, podcast, and blog interviews, as well as social communities. With these formats, exhibitors and sponsors can share information without being directly sales-driven.

•   During the event: Social media can broaden the conference’s engagement for attendees and those who are unable to attend in-person through the use of community forums and webcasts.  Provide a special area during events for bloggers, videocasters, and podcasters, and allow them to use PR facilities to interview event speakers and attendees.  Create a dedicated event blog to build excitement around the event and to provide a transcript. Microblogging formats like Twitter allow attendees to comment on the proceedings as they occur.  Ask attendees to post to your photo galleries, either on your site or on public forums like Flickr.  Provide Wi-Fi and public computers at the event to aid this process.

•    After the event: Social media enables event marketers to remain connected to attendees, extend the impact of exhibitors and advertisers, and market other products including future events.  Post webcasts, videocasts, podcasts, and photos on your site to attract a broader audience for the content and to help build a house file for future events. Also, leverage other types of information, such as forums, to continue to engage attendees.
Five Other Event Marketing Considerations
As an event and meeting planner or an event marketer, you must remember that social media doesn’t exist in a vacuum.  Here are five factors that can have a big impact on your performance:

1. Invite a wide range of content creators to participate.  Everyone your event comes in contact with has the potential to contribute new material and add to the conversation and promotion of your event.  This includes employees, exhibitors, sponsors, attendees, customers, speakers, and the press.  Remember, they may not all share your perspective!
2. Integrate your marketing efforts across channels.  Expand your social media reach by promoting your social media brand IDs through your offline collateral and during the event.  For example, some event marketers/planners have screens showing online forums during sessions.
3. Exploit social media’s search friendliness.  Social media can aid search results and enable you to reach a broader audience.  Make sure content is optimized for the words your audience uses when they search.
4. Encourage participation in a variety of formats.  Since events often focus on a broad audience, invite contributors to use the media of their choice to connect with your event — blogs, videos, podcasts, social networks, forums, photos, and microblogs.
5. Allow for activity that doesn’t occur on your Web site.  Consider that content creators may use public forums, such as YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as their personal or company sites to distribute their content.

Commonly Used Social Media Tools

Twitter 86%
Blogs   79%
LinkedIn  78%
Facebook  77%
YouTube or other video  41%
Social bookmarking sites (i.e. Del.icio.us)  38%
Forums   38%
StumbleUpon 28%
Digg, Reddit, Mixx  26%
FriendFeed 18%

By a long shot, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook are the top four social media tools used by marketers, with Twitter leading the pack.  All the other social media tools paled in comparison to these top four… which really is unfortunate due to the SEO friendliness/stickiness of both Flickr and YouTube.  (more on this soon!)

Owners of small businesses were more likely to use LinkedIn than employees working for a corporation.  Another intesting finding is that men are significantly more likely to use YouTube or other video marketing than women (52.4% of all men compared to only 31.7% of women).

The percentages and rankings shift slightly for those just getting started with social media marketing.  In this situation, LinkedIn is ranked as the number two choice behind Twitter with blogging coming in third.  Facebook jumps up to 2nd place for marketers who have been using social for a few months.  In addition, even more of these folks use Twitter.  Twitter is used by 94% of marketers who have been using social media for years, followed in a close second by blogs.

Now, how to find your audience?  This comprehensive list should help.  Remember… it’s not just about finding AN audience, but the RIGHT audience.

• Wordtracker:   Free trial is a great choice for keyword research if you only do it once in a while.
• Keywords Analyzer:   A desktop-based keyword tool, since I conduct keyword research all the time.  It’s always updated in a timely fashion.
• Submit Equalizer:   This submits your site to search engines and directories.
• Web2Submitter:   Submits your site to several social bookmarking and story submission web sites at once; much faster than doing it by hand.
• Camtasia Studio:  To make screen capture videos.
• Tubeinator:   This adds friends to your YouTube account (among other functions), which in turn helps your videos get more views.
• Press Equalizer:   Automatically submits your press release to the hundreds of press release services out there.
• CommentHut:   A BIG FAVORITE!  Allows you to quickly and easily find Squidoo pages, HubPages, and blogs on your topic that allow comments.  You then leave a comment linking back to your site.
• Google Keyword Tool
• Forrester Research’s Groundswell, Techrigy’s SM2 and Radian6

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

The number one benefit of Social Media Marketing is gaining the all-important eyeball.  A signficant 81% of all marketers indicated that their Social Media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses.  Improving traffic and growing lists was the second major benefit, followed by building new partnerships.

An unexpected benefit was a rise in search engine rankings reported by more than half of participants.  As the search engine rankings improve, so will business exposure, lead generation efforts and a reduction in overall marketing expenses.  About one in two marketers found social media generated qualified leads.  However, only slightly more than one in three said Social Media Marketing helped close business.

- 81% said:  Generated exposure for my biz
- 61% said:  Increased my traffic/subscribers/opt-in list
- 56% said:  Resulted in new business partnerships
- 52% said:  Helped us rise in the search rankings
- 48% said:  Generated qualified leads
- 45% said:  Reduced my overall marketing expenses
- 35% said:  Helped me close business

Some questions that naturally emerge from the information above might include, “Is there a way to improve the likelihood of achieving these benefits by investing more time in Social Media?” and “Are those marketers who’ve been doing Social Media Marketing for years gaining even better results?”

Consider the following…
Helped me close business:
It takes time to develop relationships that lead to actual business.  However, a large percent of marketers who take the time find great results.  For example, 61.62% of marketers who have been using Social Media for years report it has helped them close business.  More than half who spend 16 or more hours per week find the same results.

Generated exposure for my business:
Owners of small businesses (2 to 100 employees) were more likely than others to report greater exposure (84.8% reporting benefits).  Nearly all marketers who’ve been doing social media marketing for years report it generates exposure for their business and a significant 64.86% strongly agree.  Nearly all marketers spending 6+ hours a week on social media marketing found exceptionally positive results.

Resulted in new business partnerships:
Those who invest the most time in Social Media Marketing gain the most business partnerships.  However, 61.83%of people who have only invested a few months in their social media marketing report that new partnerships were gained.

Generated qualified leads:
Many businesses are hoping that Social Media will be the Holy Grail for lead generation.  Indeed, after only a few months and with as few as 6 hours a week, more than half of marketers have generated qualified leads with Social Media Marketing.  Sole proprietors were more likely than others to see benefits.

Reduced my overall marketing expenses:
The only financial cost of social media marketing is the time it takes to gain success and the personnel to manage the project.  However, a significant percent of participants strongly agreed that overall marketing costs dropped when social media marketing was implemented.  sole proprietors were more likely than others to see reductions in marketing costs when using social media marketing.

Helped us rise in the search rankings:
Improved search engine rankings were most prevalent among those who’ve been using social media for years, with nearly 80% reporting a rise (and most reporting a strong improvement).  Know that Flickr and YouTube have highest SEO “stickiness.”

Increased my traffic/ subscribers/ opt-in list:
At least 2 in 3 participants found that increased traffic occurred with as little as 6 hours a week invested in Social Media Marketing.  And, those who have been doing this for years reported even better results.  Owners of small businesses (2 to 100 employees) were more likely than others to report benefits.

Branding + Blahs = Blanding

Not sure if it’s the heat, the end of Summer blues or what, but I’m worn out.  The entire process of re-branding Wendistry has exhausted my last nerve.

It’s so easy for me to do this stuff for others.  Their visions are so clear… mine is clouded by the mists of my latest cosmeceutical and artistic and media endeavors.  How to convey the fact that Wendistry has become simply the holding company for all my flourishing interests and all the facets of my personality?

I’m accepting any and all suggestions from others who know me personally or only know me in print.

Drop me a line and give me your thoughts, suggestions, rants, raves.  I’m going to take a nap.

Shopping Support

Economists are boosting growth forecasts.  Employment numbers are improving. Manufacturing activity is bottoming. Housing demand is strengthening.  Business leaders are starting to say the worst may be over.

Markets are celebrating, hoping the good news will keep on coming.  But there is a smudge on the picture.  A surprisingly large number of money managers and economists are warning that, despite the hopeful signs, the economy is still deep in the woods, not strong enough to support a long-running stock and bond recovery.

To keep rising in the future, the market needs a sign of real economic recovery, and that requires a surge in consumer spending, business investment and home buying.  One word explains why: debt.  Despite an uptick in consumer saving, debt levels have only barely begun to come down.

Can YOU Start a Company?

Before you start a company, ask yourself these six questions:

1. Do you believe you have what it takes? We don’t mean personal characteristics- or not just personal characteristics, anyway.  Do you believe you have all the skills, energy, money, people and knowledge to start a business?  Founders who carefully identify and evaluate their resources in pursuit of a well-defined goal display “entrepreneurial self-efficacy,” a trait many academics believe to be the best predictor of success.
2. Are you able to let other people down? A founder may set out in a rowboat, but pretty soon, she is piloting a cabin cruiser with investors and employees on board and their families huddled below decks.  Risking your own fortunes is easy compared with risking the fortunes of those who believe in you.  These people may not completely understand the business or the level of risk, but they think they’ll be okay because you’re smart.  Breaking their dreams sometimes is very painful.
3. How do you handle setbacks? When you are smiling, the whole company smiles with you.  In their book, Resonant Leadership:  Renewing Yourself and Connecting With Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee explain that emotions are contagious:  Morale rises and falls with the mood of the leader.  Consequently, people who succumb to black moods or depression can fatally infect their own companies.
4. Are you really an inventor, rather than an entrepreneur? Raising a child is generally more challenging than creating a child, and the same is true of new products and services.  Some people mistake the act of invention for the tough part.  Too many times, these inventor types spend an inordinate amount of time on the patent making the prototype just so.  They think that once they’ve done that, the world will beat a path to their doorstep.
5. Can you accept that your company may outgrow you? Some entrepreneurs love to rag that they don’t need an exit strategy, because they are not going anywhere big anyway.  But at some point, your business may need you less than you need it.  That’s particularly true at fast-growth companies where entrepreneurs may not have enough time to develop the necessary leadership and business skills.
6. When you look in the mirror, does an entrepreneur look back? If so, and if that’s the reason you are starting a company, BEWARE.  Many traits- persistence, creativity, and risk tolerance among them- are commonly ascribed to entrepreneurs, but having those traits doesn’t much improve the odds that you will succeed.  Things like persistence and need for achievement explain only about 5 to 10 percent of the difference between people who start companies and those who don’t.

excerpted from July/August issue of Inc. Magazine.

GM’s Marketing Decision

General Motors’ new advertising and marketing czar is Bob Lutz, who until April of of this year headed global product development.  According to CEO Fritz Henderson: “Bob’s responsibilities beyond creative design will include brands, marketing, advertising and communications.”  (I can just visualize Bob at his first meeting with one of GM’s agencies: “I’m not a marketing expert, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.”)

Has respect for marketing fallen so low that the most difficult job in the profession (getting GM out of the ditch) can be given to someone with so little experience in marketing?

Hello, GM… Marketing comes first, advertising comes second.  That’s why Bob Lutz seems to be on the wrong track when he immediately focuses on fixing the advertising.  “I think you will very quickly see a drastic change in the tone and content of our advertising,” said Mr. Lutz.  “And if you don’t, it will mean that I’ve failed.”

I think he’s wrong (and Wendistry agrees with Al).  Advertising at GM is not broken.  Marketing is.

Marketing’s job is to coordinate all the various disciplines inside a corporation in order to develop the right product, the right price, the right position, the right distribution strategy and the right brand name.  Advertising’s job is to position that brand name in the minds of consumers.

Good marketing makes advertising decisions relatively easy.  Bad marketing makes advertising, and everything else related, difficult, if not impossible.

So, what is GM’s marketing problem?  One complaint of commentators in the media is that “General Motors doesn’t build cars that people want to buy.”  This is true.  People want to buy Toyotas, Hondas, BMWs, Mercedes, Lexus and other brands.  People want to buy brand experiences, not just vehicles.

What you park in your garage is your family’s most visible status symbol.  Nobody wants to buy a Walmart V-8, no matter how cheap it would be.

Hence, Bob Lutz’s approach:  “We’re going to go from being very defensive and risk-adverse in communications and become much bolder in getting our story out.”  Bob, I’ve got news for you… you have no story.

Bob, your problem is marketing, not advertising.  I don’t care how good your cars are.  I don’t care that Buick is the most dependable vehicle made in America.  I don’t care that Tiger Woods endorses it, and I like Tiger.  It doesn’t matter.  You have no story.

For that matter, Tiger didn’t really even do much for the brand.  In the eight years of the Tiger, Buick sales fell from 404,812 in 2000 to 137,197 last year, a decline of 66%.  (Why, for the love of Pete, didn’t the marketing people at Buick ask the obvious question:  Is the owner of a $20 million yacht likely to drive a $30,000 Buick?)

Get a real marketer in charge at GM and get a real story.

Al Ries‘ Column:  excerpted from July 27, 2009 edition of Advertising Age.

Be Open to What Emerges

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” – Lao Tzu

One of the things we’re told by productivity gurus is that we need to have clearly defined goals or outcomes — the better defined it is, the more likely you’ll achieve it.  And, an end date – a definite stop point where the goal is “due.”  This process has worked for me.  In the past, when I visualized my goals and set my mind to achieving it, and took small action steps to get there… I achieved my goals.

And, while this is true to some extent, it’s not the only way. In fact, depending on your outlook on life, it may not be the ideal way.

The problem with focusing on the outcome is that things don’t always turn out that way. And when they don’t, you’ll often end up either 1) trying to force something when it shouldn’t be forced; or 2) being hugely disappointed or frustrated.

So, here’s a method that embraces simplicity:  Don’t try to force outcomes — let them happen. Be open to what emerges.

This is a change that I’ve been trying in my life over the last year or more — slowly, gradually, because it’s not always easy. You have to learn to let go of the need to achieve certain outcomes, to embrace the flow, and that can be very difficult for Type A, only-child, perfectionist personalities.

Goals Made Simple
One of the questions I’m asked, especially now while moving through this re-branding process for Wendistry, is, “What are your plans for Wendistry in the next year or two?”  And my answer now is, “I have no plans. I just want to keep enjoying what I’m doing, give the best and most creative work possible, and see what arises.”

This is a radically different approach from the way many people do things. It’s not necessarily better, but it’s working well for me.  I’m not shutting the door on any unknown opportunities and serendipities because I’m so hard-driven toward a result that I expect… what if fate, or God, or the Universe has something better in mind?  And, now I’ve close the door on it because of my “small” thinking.

Another reason I’ve taken this approach is that when I started Wendistry in its latest form 2.5 years ago, I had absolutely no idea it would be a company of value. I mean, I knew that I had value… I had consulting service knowledge and skills that would help others launching businesses, but I didn’t know if the concept could compete in the marketplace.  I thought, “If I can have 3-5 clients that I work with and no other employees, I’ll be happy. If I make a solid six figures annually, it’ll be a nice single girl income.  Well, here we are almost three years later and I’m launching three other businesses that have completely shifted my focus off of Services and on to Products.

The lesson learned is: you don’t know what will happen, or what opportunities will arise, until you arrive at that moment. You can plan and plan and plan, but there is just no way to know how things will turn out. And if my plan doesn’t include an opportunity that I didn’t see coming, I might miss it.  Sure, I could continually adjust my plans based on changing circumstances … but then, what’s the point of the plan?

Instead, I have forgone the need to define outcomes, and have focused on enjoying the journey. That doesn’t mean I’m not motivated to do my best — I am — nor does it mean that I take a lackadaisical attitude toward my work (although I do get lazy, like anyone else). It means that I’m motivated by the work, that I enjoy the activity, not by the destination, goal or outcome.

The hardest part about this approach: if you aren’t striving for a particular outcome, you won’t know what will happen. This lack of knowing is difficult.  Most people like the security of predicting and controlling the future with goals and plans.  Letting go of that security is scary.  But, here’s what you need to realize… that security is an illusion.  We have no way to predict the future.  We cannot control it.  We can try (and we do try), but we fail, all the time.  We chalk it up to “plans gone wrong” or making mistakes or not planning for contingencies, but the truth is, we just need to admit we can’t control or predict the future.

“Basically, I no longer work for anything but the sensation I have while working.” – John Gay, English poet & dramatist

Excerpts taken from “ZEN HABITS” by Leo