Monthly Archives: November 2011

Social Media Marketing is a constant learning process

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Launch. Learn. Adjust.

The vast majority of organizations are not designed to operate this was so these principles are not easy to digest for them.

Traditional marketing programs rely of some level of predictability. Social media marketing, though easier to measure in real-time, is not so predictable as everyone says it is. The results I mean.

With different types of networks popping up everyday, you must really be diligent in studying if your audience is on these networks. For example, Pinterest has recently risen to become new channel for people to make better shopping decisions. Who would’ve predicted that?

No one.

That’s why you have to make an effort to participate in new networks, to test and learn and see if they are any relevant to your business and your customers. To see how they might evolve. I like this quote from Miki Berardelli, CMO, of Fashion Label Tory Burch:

“While the voice is consistent across all platforms, we treat each one differently because they are all unique.”

Exactly!

Every platform, be it Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube and Pinterest are different from each other.

Constant learning and experimentation is needed to see what works and what doesn’t work. Making adjustments on the fly is a task you must be comfortable with. Being stubborn thinking that a detailed grand plan is going to work from the get-go is going to result in a lot of frustration when all that planning doesn’t play out as you expected.

No marketing plan survives contact with the customer. Let’s add platforms in there too.

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Why you should take survey results with a grain of salt

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This past week there have been reports that social media use is growing among small businesses. There have also been reports that small businesses will not invest in social media in 2012.

So if social media use for business is growing among small businesses why wouldn’t they invest more resources in the coming year?

This is the main problem with surveys. Nobody surveys the same audience, but a similar audience.

In any case, which one is it?

Both.

Both surveys were done by separate companies and so those companies attract a completely different demographic of businesses.

The truth is some small businesses are taking advantage of social media as a marketing channel, but the vast majority are still not there or are just catching up. With that said, there is a gap between knowing where to start and what exactly to do in this new channel.

Look at the infographic below, and see for yourself how small businesses are struggling with social media.

state of social media in small business

Taken together, lack of education on social media marketing is the main problem. This isn’t surprising. The vast majority of businesses are not designed to operate in world where customers have more power to control the message than they do. In a world where change is accelerating precisely because information travels so fast.

In any case, survey results can make you believe things might be going smoothly. But the truth is if you ask any small business owner if their social media initiatives are paying dividends, the vast majority are going to say no. Others will look at you with a puzzled face.

Doing business through social networks, connecting with customers, engaging them and making them your friends is how the future of business looks like. It’s already here, that’s all the education you need to know to get started.

Will you?

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Staying in touch with friends: Main motivation for using social networking sites

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That’s not surprising at all!

The Pew Internet & American Life project  polled over 2,250 Americans to find out why exactly they use social media platforms.  The results pointed to one common answer: keeping in-though with acquaintances or reconnecting with former friends they may have lost touch with.  Some of the lowest motivators include using social media to create new friends, find dating partners or follow celebrities.

motivations for using social networking sitesIt’s also interesting to note that only 9% of people want to make new friends and 14% want to connect with people with share hobbies or interests.

I think this is a very important point because it’s clear indication that the vast majority of people who jump on Twitter or Facebook do so because their friends are already there. Again, not a surprise. But it also shows how one of the main advantages of social networking (meeting new people, expanding your network) is not taken advantage off immediately. Twitter and Facebook may be the main social networks, but there are niche and specialized networks around interests such as food, fashion, toys, video games, cars, coffee, etc.

Anyhow, to see more data, view the entire report from Pew Internet.

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Infographic: How to make your tweets more clickable

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Hubspot’s Dan Zarrella wanted to know if the placement of a link within a tweet matters and makes people click more often:

But about a month ago, I decided to actually look at the data about it and test my assumption. Over the course of the next few weeks I gathered 200,000, random, bit.ly-link-containing Tweets. I used the bit.ly API to calculate a click through rate (clicks on a link divided by number of followers of tweeter). And then I analyzed the relationship of the link’s position inside the Tweet and it’s CTR. I figured the best way to visualize this would be through a heat map.

He came up with this nifty heat map:

Twitter CTR Heat Map

The entire heat map symbolizes a Tweet, with areas to the left in the beginning of the Tweet and areas to the right at the end. Dark red bars represent a position with a high CTR and light-red or white bars show a position with a very low CTR.

As you can see from the heat map, the best place to place a link and make it more click-able is 1/4 of a way through your tweet.

I’m not really sure about this finding and haven’t tested it myself. Have you?

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How educating a targeted audience drives sales

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Does your targeted audience really understand your message? Can they clearly tell their friends what your brand is about? Are you making it easier for them to make an informed decision?

These are some of the questions social media marketing activities, like monitoring conversations let’s you answer. Why is this important?

Because communication is everything, and if your targeted customers are confused in any way, your message is irrelevant to them.

For example, PepsiCo has built a Mission Control center for its Gatorade brand, with the sole purpose of analyzing and driving conversations about the hydrating beverage on every social platform that matters.

They found out, through monitoring conversations on social media, that people believe that water and Gatorade hydrate the same.

This, of course, isn’t true. They then had an opportunity to reach out and educate their targeted audience on how Gatorade is better at hydrating the body than water. This in turn lead to sales. (Though PepsiCo’s head of digital Bonin Bough doesn’t provide any specific numbers).

The other advantage your organization has, is that you can find out about these things rather quickly; no need to do an expensive and time consuming focus group or survey. These conversations are happening right now, in real time. All you have to do is know what you’re looking for (what to track) and then figure out how to approach it.

PepsiCo’s Mission Control Center is a look at the future of marketing. PepsiCo is really bringing the pieces together and finding a way to make it work. Your business should take notice because this is how most organizations will operate in the near future.

Be sure to watch the complete interview with PepsiCo’s head of digital Bonin Bough for more insights.

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Best practice for social media results: Give something away for free

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One of the most asked questions about social media marketing is: How do I get people to talk about me?

The answer: Target people you would like to share your content.

But how do you do this?

This doesn’t mean outright to send them a link to your blog post, video or picture when you publish it. It means becoming a source of ideas first, a source of conversation. One of the most important things that is happening in social media is around varied topics of conversation. There’s also a lot of learning going on. If you can become a focal point around a specific topic of conversation and provide value on top of that, you’re already targeting people because they’ll be drawn to you.

One great way to do this is giving away something for free. Like an eBook.

For example, my friend Jorge Barba brought to my attention Stefan Lindegaard. Stefan is an innovation consultant, and he recently released his second book on internet for free. Yup, for free.

Stefan’s are of focus is open innovation, which also covers how social media tools can help you build your open innovation capabilities.

His book Making Open Innovation Work is available free for download.

P.S. This is not a shameless plug for Stefan’s book, but it serves as an example of you can drive word of mouth about your product or services. It also has an interesting topic around social media (which we talk about a lot here) and how organizations can use these tools to build an open innovation capability.

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