m2h blogs

Whether you have a small or large business, creating a sound social media strategy to meet business objectives is important. In a recent post, Shel Holtz points out that Chaos is Not a Strategy. He outlines three types of social media: organic, programmatic, and campaign-based.

I’d like to expand on these three categories and offer possible success metrics for each.

Organic social media — This type of social media originates from dedicated fans or employees and is focused on building relationships. Success metrics should be based on level of engagement and participation.

I think organic social media can also cross over into programmatic or campaign-based when you ask employees to share particular offers or information to their fans or followers at particular times.

Programmatic social media — it’s a specified activity to meet business results. It’s not just creating a Twitter account to build fans, but creating an account like @DellOutlet to increase sales. Or, it’s using Twitter as part of your overall customer service response strategy because your goal is to serve customers where they are. Success metrics should be aligned with the business objective. For example, if the goal of your strategy is to increase brand visibility, then one metric I would include is organic branded-term search results.

RSS Feeds or content that is syndicated can be considered a type of programmatic social media. Often, the success metric associated with this type of social media is number of subscribers or reach. However, if you have the type of company that offers location-based deals, then part of your social media strategy to increase sales could be to provide geo-targeted content that includes location-specific offerings via RSS feeds. It’s not necessarily sexy, but you could be providing information to your customers the way they want to receive it because they are opt-ing in to receive it.

Campaign-based social media — For example, back in 2008 we created a series of 8 educational and entertaining podcasts that were syndicated on various media channels for a set period of time. Success metrics for this type of social media should have some aspect of participation or engagement measurement (after all, anything else would more closely resemble a banner campaign), but when working with traditional media companies, impressions and click-throughs will still be some part of the success metrics and likely determine the cost of the campaign.

I’d argue that any best-in-class social media program needs all three types of social media, but as Shel states, any social media strategy needs to have people who are coordinating efforts. A few dedicated employees can bring more visibility and necessary protocols to a program, and a paid-campaign can help launch a program with well-defined success criteria. However, that’s not to say that programmatic social media will automatically be successful if you bring enough organic attention or paid campaign-based activity to it.

Yet, all of the different types of social media can, and should, have specific success metrics associated with it. Otherwise, you’ve just a bunch of keys without knowing which devices they go with.

Based on what I’ve learned from working within a large organization, there are many suggestions I have for managers in marketing, communications, or public relations before they leap into the social media space.

While I truly believe that large corporations need to learn how to act like small, local businesses again in order to be more successful in the social media space, large corporations that are just now considering their social media strategies face their own unique challenges.

In addition to feeling pressure that they’re behind the adoption curve, leaders in these organizations may face additional challenges than those faced by small businesses [see Small Business Social Media Starting Points]. However, I would suggest the following four broad strategies.

1. Do your research. Find out what your competition is doing and where your target consumers are already participating. You can learn a great deal from the conversations that are already taking place.

2. Bring legal on board. Find out what questions and concerns they have and alleviate those pain points. In all likelihood, they are only trying to protect you from litigation, not stonewall you completely. Remember, they are the ones that will likely have to sign off on all of the content you publish so it’s important to preview your plans and get their buy-in before you get too far down the road.

3. Start with established platforms. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube offer established networks from which to build a social media presence. Building your own site means more internal politics to negotiate. Plus, you may not have enough content to start your own blog or have the best product for a community, so plan accordingly. If you can only dip your toes in the water, maybe Twitter is the place to start by participating at 140 characters at a time. Or, perhaps you have a stellar website that just lacks ratings and reviews to connect with your huge fan base. Existing sites also have moderation options to aid you protecting/managing your corporate reputation. Key here would be to build from your strengths or start with what’s easiest or most cost effective and go from there.

4. Be prepared to tell your story.Operating at a best-in-class level according to innovators in the space takes time, budget, and headcount. There will always be new vendors and social media “experts” who come along and tell you how you can do it better, cheaper, or faster. Or, on the flip side, try and sell you a myriad of tactics that look interactive and engaging for your users, but cost a million and don’t deliver much long-term value for the price. Just remember — there are different criteria for success. Plan in advance to make sure you have enough data to illustrate how and why you’re participating in the ways you are. For example, because of budget and headcount limitations, your social strategy may need to rely more on optimizing for organic search, rather than on seeding your efforts with paid advertising that would bring in larger quantities of traffic. Because of time constraints, you may be limited to how many sites you can manage and listen in at the same time. Figure out what’s feasible and most important to the organization.

In a nutshell, you need to do your research, develop your strategy, plan your tactics, and communicate effectively. If you had to focus the advice you’d give large businesses into 3-4 broad tips, what would you suggest?

Are you ready take your business into social media?
If you’re at the research stage and trying to figure out if social media is the place for you, then the following three tips are something to consider as you evaluate whether to get your business into social media.

Because, let’s face it — not every small business owner is ready to start a blog, Facebook Fan page, YouTube channel, or community site. Before you consider establishing a handful, or even one, social media site for your business, you may want to check the following 3 items off your list.

1. Clean up your website. Does your main website represent you in the way that it should? Do you have a professional design? Can users find the information they need or do you have a bunch of broken links that you need to fix? You’ll want to spruce up your main site because this is where you’ll be pointing the new traffic you generate in social media.

2. Evaluate your schedule and interests. Managing multiple sites and showing up online in meaningful ways takes time and creative energy. Is having conversations and marketing yourself online something you would enjoy? It will be a lot easier to maintain your presence in one or multiple social communities, if you can make time in your schedule and would enjoy the process.

3. Consider your content sources. Do you have an opinion or something to say? It can be a challenge to generate enough text, audio, images, or video to keep a site going. Perhaps you can manage 140 characters, but not a blog post every day. Offering enough entertaining, educational, or informative content to keep your fans, followers and subscribers coming back regularly is key, so think about how much you can publish on a regular basis.

In my next post, I’ll offer some tips for large organizations that are trying to figure out where to start in social media. For now, what tips or suggestions would you share with small business owners who have limited time and resources? What should they consider before they hit the start button on their social media plans?

Last year, I won a customer service award because of how I acted proactively to assist customers on Twitter. I was one of about 50 employees invited to a special luncheon with Dennis Haysbert. I didn’t know about the special lunch ahead of time. I just did what I thought needed to be done, and the award was a surprise that came out of no where after the fact.

As I think about my plans for this year and how I can again go above and beyond, I happened to read a post on Nuts About Southwest, Seriously. This *really* is what we do, and who we are. If you click through, you can read about Southest Airlines employees, who on their own time, did a home renovation for someone who lives in one of their employee’s communities. Talk about customer service above and beyond!

Ally bank is another brand that I think is getting customer service and support right. If you visit the ally website, you’ll see:

1) In the top right corner, they publish their phone number and the current wait time in the queue. Not only does this signal that they welcome consumers’ calls, but it also shows they value our time by publishing how long we might have to wait in the queue.

2) Ally also offers additional features at exactly the right time. When I clicked on a term to learn more and then closed the window, the site offered a secure chat option, with the question, Want to learn more?

3. Lastly, Ally’s twitter channel (@AllyBank) advises they are “always open” and I can chat with an actual person any time I want. Love it! I can talk to a real person, and not an automated service, at any time. Now I think that’s good service.

What are other brands to do?

Is it time for more brands to offer 24/7, “Always Open” customer service and support on Twitter?

Should Twitter be seen as a regular customer service channel, with staffing coverage during the times our customers are shopping, not necessarily just during business hours where our branch or headquarters is located? If so, brands would need to staff for that.

As I look at what I can accomplish, I know I can help make every person I help on Twitter feel like they’re getting the star treatment. But let’s face it, that should be just standard operating procedure. I’m looking to take it to the next level.

I learned recently that my photo of the Staten Island Ferry was included in a Schmap.

Then, I’ve finally managed to upload more photos to Flickr. Check out my latest sets (Blue Ridge Parkway, Biltmore Estate, Battleship North Carolina, Charleston SC, Charlotte NC, and the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden) view my photostream for fall pictures, including the squirrels.

I finished my second BlogTalkRadio show today for the Vehicle Vibes Radio channel. Things were going fine, and then the second guest wasn’t able to make the show.

How many times in life does this happen — you’ve done your best to schedule things in advance, you think things are ready to go, but then — surprise — something happens to disrupt the plan.

Social media is not always easy, especially live shows and events.

Yet, today’s show wasn’t a complete loss by any means. I’m actually feeling pleased with how we handled the challenges that arose. The first guest totally rocked and provided lots of good tips and advice. Then, the producer and I chatted for the second half of the show to fill the remaining time.

The missing guest ended up not being a huge deal, although I’m glad I didn’t have to fill the time by myself.

This challenge reinforced to me how important it is to create a back-up plan for live radio shows. For a live radio show, I’d suggest having a back-up plan with:

1. alternate topics of conversation sketched out (at a minimum, especially for people like me who are newbies at Internet radio and are not used to BSing their way through things)
2. an alternate host or co-host who can help keep the conversation going for the remainder of the show
3. an alternate segment pre-recorded to fill the available time slot
4. multiple shows pre-recorded (so I can go on vacation every once in a while)

To make it feel more like I’m just hitting the easy button when things like this happen, what else should I consider putting in my back-up toolkit?

Yesterday, I was at the Round Lake Classic Car Fest for a LIVE video shoot for Vehicle Vibes. I’ve been doing more of these for Allstate social media this summer. I really enjoy talking with people who attend; however, I’ve also learned there are challenges to doing a live shoot in addition to memorizing questions and looking presentable on camera.

3 Challenges to a Public Video Shoot

1. Sounds
Shooting at a public event means there can be airplanes overhead, trains rolling by on nearby tracks, and especially at car shows, lots of cars revving their engines. Even when doing shoots at parks or at homes, there are customary traffic sounds of cars driving by, brakes squealing and drivers honking car horns.

2. Weather
I’ve learned that shooting in sunlight makes for a better video product, but looking into the sun while on camera is significantly more tiring than shooting in the shade. Also, if it is hot, then I start getting sticky, and that doesn’t make for an ideal look on camera.

3. Distractions
Inquisitive little ones who ask questions and walk in and out of the frame, and opinionated observers can make for loud background noises and multiple takes.

I’m glad there are crew members and production managers like @bethrosen to help me along when the day starts getting long.

Someone asked me the other day the difference between link baiting, link building, and link or comment spam.

Trying to keep it simple, here is what I said:

Link baiting: is a philosophy that places importance on creating useful, remarkable content that people will, just as a matter of course, want to share with their friends because of the content’s intrinsic value.

Link building: is a method of gaining connections via a hyperlink to another web page or site. Increasing the number of links to your site from credible sites is important because it’s one of the ways Google measures the popularity of your site and the position it achieves in search engine results. More good links increases a site’s visibility with Google.

Link/comment spam: In face-to-face conversations, this type of person likely talks highly of himself and what he’s doing while not listening to others. Online, this sort of behavior is called link or comment spam. It’s the frowned-upon practice of a poser saying little or nothing relevant in a comment on a post, but including a link to his site with whatever keywords he deems important. It can leave a bad impression that he’s just doing it to game the system and drive traffic to his site.

As in this funny picture I found, this type of behavior may make you want to tape his mouth closed or glue the keys on his keyboard together. But of course, the first route of link baiting with professional link building are the best options of how to handle things.

However, even more, I like meeting and talking with people face-to-face. I’m so glad it’s a component of my job because then I have the opportunity to build real relationships that have the potential to continue on and on past one blog post. That’s why I wanted to attend BlogHer, the Social Media Soiree, Social Luxe Lounge, and BowlHer last week. It’s inspiring to build relationships with so many savvy entrepreneurial women. If later, we and our companies do more business together, then that’s icing on the cake.

In my previous post, Video is Queen, I wrote about why video is queen (if content is king) and that video has the potential to strengthen endorsements and brand recommendations.

It’s no secret that one of the values for brands is when multiple viewers click through in a timely manner to purchase based on a video endorsement. These conversions are relatively easy to measure. However, it gets more difficult for a brand to track conversions over time, especially for videos.

Over time, it also gets harder for people to find video reviews.

I may remember for a few weeks or months (depending on the effectiveness or affectiveness of the video), but unless I use social bookmarking, I’m not going to be able to find the video review easily over time because searching video content is still not fully possible.

Sure, on YouTube or social bookmarking sites, it might be easier if people use good tags and descriptions, but that might not be a full explanation of what the video actually contains. That will only begin to happen when the content of the video becomes searchable.

If a blogger wants to transfer more long-tail ROI to the brand because of positive feelings about the product, then in addition to doing a video review because of its affective potential and popularity, they might also consider writing optimized copy including a blog post, headline, and tags that are search friendly along with the video review.

Despite the affective nature of video and its popularity, video is hard to find via search unless combined with text that can be optimized. It’s an issue both brands and bloggers might consider as they calculate longtail ROI.

If content is king, video is queen.
YouTube is now the second most popular search engine. People are creating and watching more and more video these days. Textual content is still strong and has it’s uses, but video captures our attention in more and more ways.

Video is queen because:
1. Video is fun and engaging.
2. Video is personal.
3. Video can make for a stronger connection.

Video is fun and engaging.
Yesterday a colleague and I were trying to find information on YouTube’s Overlay function. After exploring Help, I tabbed to search Google. Only when that didn’t work did I chuckle and click back over to search YouTube to see if anyone had created a video with specific instructions (People will create videos about everything these days!). Today I didn’t have any luck finding what I needed. Instead I found short videos exclaiming what a COOL feature Overlay is!!!!! You should use it because it’s a cool. new. feature!!!

The over-the-top appreciation gave my colleague and I an opportunity to laugh and connect. Plus, I was hamming it up talking to my computer, “Dude, I don’t really care right now how cool it is, I just want to know how to work it.” While I didn’t learn what I needed to know, I did have a good time in the process.

Video is personal.
I’ve been watching Chris Brogan’s video reviews. I love his video reviews because by watching them, I get a glimpse into his world and get to witness another aspect of his personality. It’s not about his conveying or learning the same amount of content as in a product description or a book review on Amazon. It’s because a video is more personal than plain text.

For example, last week he talked about these fabulous bags. I don’t remember the make of the bags. Right now, that’s not important because I’m not in the market for a bag; however, if I needed to buy a really nice bag for a guy, I’d go back to his blog and search for it, because the experience is going to stick with me because Chris made it personal. He and his daughter think it’s a really nice bag.

Video can make for a stronger connection.
Yesterday, Chris did another video book review. Again, I love the video, not because I learned 7 important take-aways or the top 3 must read chapters, but because at the end, Chris’s son threw something, and it wasn’t edited out. Chris just nonchalantly said, and that’s my son who just threw his train. No heavy scripting and no editing it out.

It’s real. It’s not heavily scripted and we see his personality and how he interacts with his family, and as such it has the potential for a stronger connection. Now that is cool, and I want to watch more.

The affective aspects of video can make it an effective tool for people to use to convey not only the primary message or endorsement, but also convey the passion behind the message and any corresponding emotions or affects in the viewer. However, if it’s overly scripted or edited, it would lose its potential.

On the other hand, I think big brands can move in the direction of less scripting and less editing, being more personal, and engaging; however, I don’t think they have the same levels of freedom. As I work on developing more video content for Allstate, it’s one of the things I consider and try and hit the right balance.

Massumi: “Affect enlivens. Its vivacity, ever on the move from situation to situation, strings context-orderings together in eventfulness, holding them together from the angle of what new and unpredictable enters into them. Its context-rocking trans-situational drift is the life-glue of the world–a world capable of surprise (surplus value of being)” (Parables for the Virtual, 220).

Your thoughts?