May 2013

Social Equity: The Viral Effect

May 17, 2013/by Corey Padveen

We all strive for the viral effect when sharing content on social media, and when it happens, we need to know where Social Equity is derived.

Virality is one of the most common terms when it comes to social media measurement. How many people are we reaching? Is our content being shared? Is our network growing? Is our business growing? It all relates to virality. Yet, while we measure what the viral effect might be, we may not be taking note of how it adds Social Equity, and therefore value to our business.

In this week’s Social Equity segment, we aim to explain how the viral effect on social media adds value to your business in three ways: credibility, exposure and network growth.

Credibility

If Company A and Company B are both pitching your project but Company A has an outstanding track record, dozens of referrals, an impeccable portfolio and a proven history of success, whereas Company B has no distinguishing benefits, you will most likely choose Company A. That is not to say that Company B might not be capable of producing good work, but without the same level of credibility that is backing Company A, it is hard to choose Company B.

The viral effect adds a tremendous degree of credibility to your brand. Your name popping up on news feeds, timelines, in groups and on search engines means you have made a name for yourself. When it comes to making a choice between you and your competitor, you can bet that the credibility garnered from the virality of your company’s content will make a big impact.

Exposure

Once again, if you are choosing between two companies, and Company A is easily discoverable for a given topic while you have to dig deep to even find a mention of Company B, chances are the choice is Company A.

Discoverability is at the heart of success in the online world. The goal we are all aiming to achieve is inbound business. According to the inbound marketing company, HubSpot, inbound leads cost 61% less than outbound. The exposure you receive from viral content can translate directly into inbound traffic, calls, leads and business.

Network Growth

If you’ll recall, our first Social Equity segment discussed the example of the dentist. Essentially, the added value of the dentist’s online presence and the size of his network allowed him to sell his practice at a much higher price than if he was relying solely on his current patient roster. The growth of your network resulting from the viral exposure of your content will lead to Social Equity in the long-run.

Keep in mind, virality is not a one-hit-wonder concept. Of course, there are examples where content goes viral without a business strategy behind it. (It is almost guaranteed that the sneezing panda wasn’t intending to capitalize on the massive audience that watched the video.) In business, if your content goes viral, you can expect to see a spillover effect. While not everyone exposed to your content will look to familiarize themselves with your brand, there are those that will. Down the road, this increased network will mean big value for your business.

Have you seen any of your content go viral? Tell us what you noticed in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Comodo

May 16, 2013/by Corey Padveen

It doesn’t take a big brand to do something innovative that warrants a social media case study!

If you’ve ever scrolled through the images of Instagram, you know that food is a pretty popular subject on the photo-sharing network. Comodo, an independently-owned restaurant in New York City, recognized the app’s popularity, and decided to integrate the food photographing hobby into their establishment.

Essentially, the idea was to allow users to share their experience in a very natural way that not only promoted diners’ experiences in the restaurant, but also provided user-generated publicity, virality and some pretty nice images of dishes to a wide audience.

The video below does a great job of outlining the premise of the campaign:

The Lessons

This is a simple, cost-effective concept, but there is a lot that marketers can take away from the study.

Make Social Media a Part of Your Brand

There should not be a distinction between your physical brand and the one you have created on social media. What Comodo did was integrate their social media efforts into the dining experience. Thus, the same friendliness, fun personality they were aiming to establish online was personified in the restaurant itself.

There needs to be fluidity in all of your marketing efforts. Consistency is how you will be identified by markets that are both familiar and unfamiliar with your brand. The marketing team behind Comodo realized that and the proof is in the campaign.

Provide Clear Avenues for Engagement

You’ll notice in the video that Comodo’s menu offered the hashtag for sharing images on the bottom. Direction is something that many brands often forget to provide, and the result is a less than optimal social media campaign.

In order to see the greatest benefits from your efforts in social marketing, you need to let people know how, where and with what type of content they should be engaging. Don’t rely solely on organic engagement, help the conversation get started. Two examples of this are Best Buy’s Twelpforce and Comcast Cares. Both are Twitter channels that provide nothing but support, and that is made perfectly clear everywhere they are mentioned.

Adapt Your Marketing Strategies to Your Audience

It’s hard to believe how unique this case study is. It was simple to execute and the results have been outstanding for Comodo. Yet, we still see more billboards and bench ads than we do hashtags when it comes to restaurant marketing.

Comodo’s success arose from the very simple fact that they adapted their marketing for a new generation of consumers. While not all of their customers will be using Instagram to promote the restaurant and the dishes, imagine how much they would lose out on if there were no social media initiatives in place! The opportunity cost of not engaging in social marketing is far greater than the cost that goes into such a program.

Although Comodo is a small, local restaurant, they managed to do something innovative, creative and successful. Social media marketing provides avenues down which anyone can create a viral sensation out of their business.

Do you know of any other small businesses that have used social media to create a viral effect? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

How Organizations Structure Social Media Teams [INFOGRAPHIC]

May 15, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media teams can be responsible for some of the most crucial marketing decisions when it comes to your business, but how are social media teams structured?

The importance of strong social media teams is right at the top of the list when it comes to modern marketing. Yet, because social media is so new and so fast-paced, many businesses – both large and small – are not sure how they are supposed to go about structuring their social media teams.

One of the most interesting figures in the infographic from Go-Gulf below is right at the top: 65% of organizations assign social media tasks on top of regular job responsibilities. Furthermore, 25% of companies are using interns to manage social media! The many benefits of social media for business are of growing importance to a company’s success. That being the case, assigning an inexperienced staff member to manage your social media will certainly not lead to a revenue-generating program, and the numerous benefits that can be derived from social media will be lost.

The result of this lackluster effort on the part of most organizations? Only 5% of organizations are highly satisfied with the results generated from their programs. It doesn’t take a statistician to see the correlation: if you are not devoting the proper resources to your social media program, you cannot expect to be satisfied with the results!

Have a look at this infographic to see how companies are structuring their social media teams. What data do you think is most interesting/surprising? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Important Social Media Metrics

May 14, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Marketers are always looking for the best social media metrics, and these four social media metrics will be among your most important.

We are always faced with the task of measuring our social media campaigns in order to generate ROI reports. No matter what your goals are at the outset, there are going to be certain social media metrics that you will need to keep in mind when compiling these reports.

Influence

Granted, this is a somewhat arbitrary metric. Some might venture to argue that influence is not a metric at all. However, it is something you are going to want to pay attention to. There are plenty of services – like Klout, Kred and PeerIndex – that will provide you with a concrete number to help measure your influence, but you will want to do a little work on your own.

Pay attention to the groups, communities and networks where you are seeing your highest levels of conversation, and audience engagement. If, for example, on Facebook you see that your content is shared five times more than it is on Twitter, you might want to reevaluate your Twitter strategy in order to increase the influence you have on your community there.

Engagement

As noted above, engagement is something you are going to want to keep a close eye on. Engagement is at the heart of a successful social media program, and it is going to be one of if not your most important metric.

When measuring engagement, it is important to keep in mind that a conversation is not the only form of engagement. Look at instances where you audiences are engaging with content by simply liking, or sharing it. These are social signals, and are very important to both SEO and a success program. Take note of the types of content where you are seeing the most engagement, and modify your campaigns accordingly in order to maximize those levels wherever possible.

Share of Voice

Looking at the conversation taking place around your own brand is one thing, but how big of a share in the industry discussion does your brand have? This is why it is important to measure share of voice.

Your share of voice is the percentage of mentions in your industry that relate to your brand compared to your competitors. This is an important metric for a few reasons, the most important of which is to know where you need to become more involved in the conversation. To help you measure share of voice, there are free tools like Social Mention that can be used.

Social Referral Traffic

In the Traffic Sources section of your Google Analytics dashboard, you will see where your traffic is coming from. This is going to be a key focal point for a successful program.

To know whether or not your social media program is driving traffic and, subsequently, leads and business, you need to be monitoring that activity. This will give you a good indication of where your efforts and the strategy you have in place are paying off, and where you need to make adjustments. Engagement, influence and a significant share of voice are great metrics, but if those are not converting into leads and sales, then you need to modify your approach.

These may only be just four metrics, but they are universal and among the most important when it comes to social media metrics. You will need to look at these no matter what kind of a campaign you are conducting, or what your goals are.

What other social media metrics do you use? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

5 Things Brands Should Never Do on Social Media

May 13, 2013/by Corey Padveen

An effective social marketing strategy is as much about what you should never do on social media as it is about what you should be doing; sometimes, the former is even more important.

There are plenty of articles, books and white papers that lay out social marketing strategies. But sometimes, the best strategy is knowing what to never do on social media. Acquiring new leads and customers is a difficult, labor-intensive task. But losing them can be as simple as not knowing what you should stay away from.

The tips below lay out 5 things that you should never do on social media as a brand.

Never Go In Without a Strategy

A strategy is going to be your best friend. Without one, it will be impossible to find success. (And when we say impossible, we mean it; even if you are successful, how will you know it?)

Before diving into the world of social media marketing, you need to have a strategy in place in order to establish a few things. First, what channels are you going to focus on? Second, how are you going to measure success and determine where your program needs modifications? Third, how do you plan on engaging with your audience on each network? And finally, what are the long term aspirations for the program? Answer these questions with a strategy, and your program will be much more successful.

Never Speak Ill of Your Social Competition

Your words are out there, and actions like this are simply in bad taste. While you might be competing for the attention of the same leads as your competition, you are much better off showcasing why you are the better choice and not why your competitor is a worse choice.

Never Focus Only on Selling

Social media is all about the conversation. If you do nothing but sell, it won’t be long before you are selling to no one. Your social channels will quickly become ghost towns if you are not making an effort to engage. Social selling is a tricky process, and one that needs to be approached carefully. If all you are using your social media program for is selling to anyone who will buy, you are better off shutting the program down completely – you’re wasting your time.

Never Ignore Your Audience

Remember when we said social media was all about the conversation? (It’s right up there!) When people comment, or ask a question or even retweet on Twitter they are reaching out to your brand and you need to be there to join in the dialogue. A one-way conversation from fans defeats the purpose of your social media program. The conversation is the beginning stages of that social selling process, and if you are not taking advantage of that, you are missing out on the benefits of social media entirely.

Never Ignore Your Analytics

Analytics are essential to the success and growth of your program. The insights you can pull and the improvements you can make with the help of analytics are going to be among the most important weapons in your arsenal. The issue is, most people never bother to look at the insights any further than the most superficial statistics. You have 1,000 likes on Facebook? Great! None of them fit your target demographic? Not great. Analytics are going to be the first step towards optimizing your program and effectively executing your social media strategy so that it builds your business, and ignoring them can irreparably hinder that success.

Keep these tips in mind when executing your social media program and it will certainly help you find success.

Can you think of any other pointers that brands should stay away from when engaging in a social media program? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: Big Value in Company Pages

May 10, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social Equity receives a major boost with the added value from company pages on different networks.

From LinkedIn to Facebook, there is a way to feature your company, its services, history and expertise on almost every network. the result? Major Social Equity.

In this week’s Social Equity segment, we look at how company pages on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube add value to your business.

Facebook and Google+

We all know about Pages on Facebook and Google+. But with so much taking place on the networks, it is easy for your content to get lost in the noise. The most frustrating part? You might have some great content and a product that attracts a lot of potential customers. Having Facebook and Google+ Pages allows those leads to find everything you are offering in one central place.

Facebook takes a lot of criticism for their EdgeRank algorithm. But the truth is, EdgeRank provides a means of filtering out the noise so that those who “Like” your page, product and content have all of the information you share to the pages featured on their news feed.

The value in Facebook and Google+ Pages is simple: these are hubs that allow reciprocal engagement between your brand and fans in a central place while offering you a chance to share content towards which they have expressed an interest. On the plus side (that’s a pun, considering the point that follows) +1 and shares from your pages add a considerable benefit to your SEO, which further derives value to your business.

LinkedIn

The Company Page on LinkedIn is the strongest in terms of adding value to your business.

First, there is the Services tab. The ability to showcase your products and services to an engaged audience disrupts the conventional model of print advertising. Furthermore, the ability to link these sections to appropriate landing pages means both the ability to create backlinks and the ability to drive sales and traffic through LinkedIn.

Second, there is the ability to build a following on your page (as with other networks) and share content to those followers in an effort to drive new business. Unlike Facebook and Google+, LinkedIn offers the ability to broadcast and showcase your business to the engaged audience following your page. Users are following you knowing that LinkedIn is a medium in which companies aim to derive new business, and an active, engaging and popular page translates into Social Equity.

YouTube

A YouTube channel is an important feature, and one that can be very beneficial both in terms of its value to your business’s image and your overall Social Equity.

The ability to centralize all of your videos means two things: first, viewers can easily find your videos and, on the channel, discover more about your business and research your company further, outside of YouTube. Second, the optimization of a channel and your videos can be a tremendous SEO tool. Lone videos in the YouTube universe can easily disappear. With a discoverable, optimized channel, your business is easily showcased to your audience in video form.

Effectively, the true value of all of these pages lies in the disruption they cause to conventional marketing. No longer are you required to focus on print marketing. These pages are your corporate portfolio, and they are live, evolving elements that continually showcase your business.

In which social media company pages do you find the most value? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Volkswagen

May 9, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Through the strategic use of LinkedIn, Volkswagen India was able to garner nearly 3,000 car recommendations in under a month.

We often think of LinkedIn as a B2B social network. Often times, that is true. After all, LinkedIn is the professional social network, and rarely do we hear of instances where companies use the platform for direct B2C campaigns. However, through the strategic use of LinkedIn, Volkswagen India managed to receive 2,700 recommendations in just 4 weeks.

In this week’s social media case study, we look at how Volkswagen used a carefully laid out LinkedIn strategy that paid off.

The Challenge

Volkswagen India was looking to increase their exposure in a relatively new market among professionals. But rather than simply running a conventional ad campaign, they wanted a viral component that emphasized the loyalty current customers had and influenced decision-making.

The Campaign

While Volkswagen began their marketing strategy outside of social media, they knew that social would be a large component of any successful campaign. The decision to go with LinkedIn was one that was carefully calculated. According to the Head of MArketing for Volkswagen India, Lutz Kothe, “We knew that for many people, their car affects their professional life and their professional identity affects their car choice. This made LinkedIn a natural choice to connect with current and potential car buyers among the growing professional population.”

Volkswagen India launched a Company Page on LinkedIn and opened it up to the public to begin posting reviews and comments about the product. As engagement increased, they created a series of Recommendation Ads, which showcased some of the brand’s recommendations from their page to other LinkedIn users that fit their targeted demographic. The idea here was to increase engagement and drive traffic to the Company Page and, eventually, the dealership.

Overall, their modest goal was to receive 500 recommendations from current and prospective buyers. Ultimately, in less than a month, they received 2,700 recommendations, over 2,300 new fans asking for more information about the models available and nearly one million viral updates about Volkswagen models.

The Lessons

There is a lot that marketers can take away from this tremendously successful campaign.

Build a Community Around Your Product

If you have a great product, don’t wait for people to figure that out. There is no shortage of competition out there, and the only way you are going to stand out is if you actively seek out a community of fans and continue to engage with them and build that community until, eventually, they are selling your product for you!

Establish Your Goals

This was a very precise, calculated effort on the part of Volkswagen India, and that paid off. If they had gone in without any goals, they would not have known where to begin, and, as the next lesson points out, would not have been able to formulate a strategy.

Start with a Strategy

A strategy is going to be one of your greatest assets when running a social media campaign. One of the most important takeaways in this social media case study is the need for a detailed strategy. Before the program began, the marketing team at Volkswagen India had a challenge, a step-by-step approach, a target demographic, a landscape of where that demographic is located and a plan of execution.

It may sound like a lot to do, but without that kind of planning, it will not only be impossible to measure successes and failures, but it will be impossible to launch a proper campaign!

Take Advantage of Social Media’s Marketing Features

Each network features different elements that are designed to help marketers. In this case, there was a Company Page and Recommendation Ads. On other networks, there are other such features. Use them! They are not there purely for aesthetics, they are there to provide resources to help you effectively grow your business on social media.

You can argue that this was as successful as it was because of the major brand behind the campaign. But as we noted in the introduction of this social media case study, Volkswagen was brand new in the Indian market when this was launched. The successes here can be achieved by any brand, all they need to do is execute efficiently, just like Volkswagen did.

Have you tried to market your product on LinkedIn? Why or why not? Does this social media case study make you see the network any differently? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Understanding the Facebook EdgeRank Algorithm

May 8, 2013/by Corey Padveen

The Facebook EdgeRank algorithm is something we have all heard about, but what exactly is it and how should it be considered when developing content for the channel?

First and foremost, for those who are unfamiliar with the feature, what is the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm? It is a system used by Facebook to determine what posts appear on each user’s timeline based on certain criteria. The purpose? In theory, it is in place to ensure that each user only sees the most relevant and engaging content based on their history and activity.

What does the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm mean for brands? It can be either a good thing or a bad thing. There is an endless stream of content being shared on Facebook, and if you are not properly implementing a content strategy, yours may never be seen.

There are three main variables that make up the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm: affinity, weight and time decay. These terms sound impressive and technical, but like anything on social media, it all really comes down to engagement.

Recently, Will Cathcart, Facebook’s News Feed Product Manager, broke down the EdgeRank system and clarified exactly how it works and what you should be focused on when it comes to getting your content seen on your fans’ timelines.

The Individual

On an individual level, there are two key points of focus. First, history is a major factor. The more your audience engages with your page over time, the more likely it is that they will see your content appear on their timeline. That’s a given. The second factor, however, is a little more specific.

Individual engagement matters. But as a brand, you need to take note of the types of content your audience is engaging with. If, for example, images receive plenty of interaction but your videos are ignored, your audience may only see images as they are posted and your videos will disappear into the annals of Facebook.

What is important? Study what individual fans are engaging with and encourage engagement both on popular and unpopular types of posts in order to ensure that all of your content is showcased for your audience.

The Network

The second level is the network. There is a secondary effect on Facebook that can help you reach a broader audience. Have you ever noticed that when a post is receiving a lot of attention, your reach sometimes exceeds your fan count? As reactions and interactions from direct users increase on a given piece of content, more people are exposed to that post. Therefore, high engagement on a post might mean bringing back fans that were once lost for lack of engagement.

Second, sentiment plays a major role with network reach. If people are engaging negatively, then you stand to lose a good deal of your reach, and your content might be hidden from users that were once engaged in the future.

What is important? Monitor the popularity of your posts and modify your strategy in order to share only content that is receiving high levels of engagement and reaching broad secondary audiences as a result.

The Facebook EdgeRank algorithm is not a horribly complex phenomenon to understand. Sure, we may not be tech-savvy enough to know how it is coded, or how it does exactly what it does, but we can certainly understand how it produces the end result. Knowing that gives us leverage when putting together a Facebook content strategy, and can certainly give us a competitive advantage when it comes to Facebook.

Did you know about EdgeRank? Did you understand it? Have you done or will you do anything differently with knowledge of how the algorithm works? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

The Importance of Mobile in the Marketplace [INFOGRAPHIC]

May 7, 2013/by Corey Padveen

The importance of mobile in the marketplace is growing every day, and marketers should always take mobile into consideration.

Mobile marketing is not the newest trend (relatively speaking) but as the number of smartphone users continues to rise, the importance of mobile grows faster and greater. Just look at the data below: in two years, the number of mobile searches on Google has grown five fold. Therefore, it is important to always take mobile marketing into consideration when putting together a strategy.

Of the impressive data in the infographic below, perhaps what is most important is the fact that local searches now account for nearly a quarter of all Google queries; with roughly five billion searches done on Google every day, that’s a lot of local search.

What is also important to note in the data is the fact that 60% of mobile users use their devices for daily activity on social media. The key takeaway derived from this further adds to the importance of mobile marketing: your brand and your message are amplified across a number of social channels and to far greater networks when your mobile marketing incorporates social elements.

Have a look at the infographic below and consider your own mobile strategy. Do you have one? If so, how is it generating business for you? If not, do you plan on developing one? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Tips to Creating a Great Facebook Ad Campaign

May 6, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Facebook can be a successful, cost-effective channel on which to promote your business, and these tips will help you create a great Facebook Ad campaign.

We see Facebook Ads every time we log into the social network. They may not always be captivating, and you may not always notice them, but they are always there and always trying to grab your attention. But more often than not, they are not achieving the goal of converting eyes into clicks.

Facebook Ads may be easy to use, straightforward and simple to monitor, but there are a few key factors that distinguish your average-performing Facebook Ads and great Facebook Ad campaigns. Below are four tips that should help take your Facebook advertising to the next level.

Do Some Research

The first time you put together an ad campaign on Facebook, you are going to be eager to get your content out there and watch the “Like” counter shoot up. Unfortunately, without at least a little bit of research, you are not going to see the results you are hoping for.

Look through your insights, study engagement levels and develop a campaign that both fits the brand you’ve created on Facebook and appeals to a specific audience. If you are trying to target everyone, you might end up reaching no one. (Don’t worry – that makes more sense after you see the next tip.)

Target a Very Specific Audience

When you first start building your ad and you see your options for targeting, you might be excited by the prospect of potentially reaching upwards of 150 million people (and that’s in the United States alone!). But the reality of the situation is, if you are not creating an ad directed at a targeted audience – namely, one based on the research you did before you got started – there is no telling who will see it, and you will likely miss out on opportunities to reach engaged audiences as opposed to a broad audience of uninterested persons.

To put it in perspective, if you are trying to attract people to your page about food and dining for female college students, a broad, unspecific audience might only show your content to middle aged professional men. The result? A lower-than-hoped-for conversion.

Create an Appealing Ad

Sure – it sounds like a no brainer. Why would you do anything else, right? Well, it is not as easy as it sounds. The key to a great Facebook Ad campaign is appeal. People should be intrigued by the content in your ad – and you don’t have much of it considering it might be as small as a little image and text on the right-hand column of someone’s news feed or timeline.

This is where you need to let your creative juices flow. The content and images in these ads should not simply be your logo and a brief description of your company. Leave that on your page. Share a fun fact, an interesting quote, an curious question or any other engaging bit of content. People should feel compelled to see what else you are offering when they see your ad.

Though it has been done by plenty of businesses, let’s look at the “abs of steel concept” we often see floating on the right of our Facebook screen. It might be for a personal trainer, a mail-order program or a diet, but they are showing a picture of a killer six pack and asking something along the lines of, “Do you want abs that look like this in 60 days? Then click here and get started today!” Even the skeptic is compelled to click, just to see what the offer is. Go for something irresistible and your click-through rates will be much higher than average.

Try, Try and Try Again!

There are a billion accounts on Facebook and your first campaign is not going to reach them all. In fact, you might be disappointed in the results of your first campaign. What went wrong? Were you targeting the wrong audience? Was your content not as great as you thought it was? That’s all part of the learning process.

You might find after a few tests that your most engaged market is nothing close to what you thought it was. That’s a great lesson and can translate into a lot more business, and it is not particularly expensive to figure out; your ads can be budgeted very modestly. Testing is the best way to turn your trials into great Facebook Ad campaigns.

Apply these tips and you’ll see your Facebook marketing take off in no time. Once again, one in every seven people on Earth is checking Facebook multiple times every day. Why not try and talk to them with a carefully laid out strategy in place?

What other tips can you think that help build great Facebook ad campaigns? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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