November 2013

3 Departments to Involve in Your Social Business

November 6, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Has your social business involved every department it can?

We all know that the marketing department is going to be among the first to adopt new media when it comes to social business, but what other departments can contribute to it? These three departments are generally forgotten when it comes to social business, and it is easy to understand why: a lot of people don’t know how they can be social!

Customer Service

Now, this is a little paradoxical. Yes, your customer service department is inherently a ‘social’ department per se. After all, it spends the day dealing with people. But when becoming a social business, your customer service department is going to become much more public then ever before. And that’s a good thing.

Social Care – or, customer service on social channels – is increasing in popularity and becoming a favorite among consumers. When evolving into a social business, you are certainly going to want to get your customer service team on the front lines. Just be sure you have a strategy in place for every possible scenario! Now, with social in the mix, your customer service team is a pseudo PR department. They are a direct reflection of how your company treats clients, so make sure they are doing it right.

Tech/Support

Has there ever been a department more suited for conversing on the web? Your tech and support teams need to be able to show that they can help with anything at any time. They are like an extension of your customer service team. In fact, they are your customer service team.

Think about it. When you call a customer service line, they are generally going to connect you with the department most able to assist you with your problem. By making these departments as easily accessible as your customer service team, you can help cut out the middle man and save time on all fronts. Let people deal with matters in the most efficient way possible, and your business will be functioning at optimal capacity.

Sales

If your sales team is not already on social, get them on there! You never know where you might find a new client, but you can rest assured that wherever you might find that client, there is a pretty good chance you will find them on social channels, too.

Your sales team should be listening to the conversation around your industry and involving themselves in the conversation when and where it is appropriate. Take a look at this blog post about cell phone carriers to see some great examples of Dos and Don’ts when it comes to social selling.

What other departments do you think would benefit from a presence on social media when you become a social business? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Important Facebook Targeting Options

November 5, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Have you put together an ad campaign using the Facebook targeting options?

Have you ever tried to promote your content to a broader audience by developing a Facebook ad campaign? Boosting a post is one thing, but if you know how to properly use the Facebook advertising platform, you can reach very targeted audiences and get a specific message across to groups you know will want to hear them.

Below are four Facebook targeting options that are going to be very important when it comes to putting together a successful ad campaign.

Location, Age and Gender

These are the most obvious targeting options. We all know that we have the ability to target by location, age and gender, but we often forget that when it comes to advertising, the more specific we are, the greater the likelihood that our campaign will find success.

With Facebook, you have the ability to target not only countries, but states/provinces, cities and, if you are running a campaign in the United States, by zip code. Why is this beneficial? Well, if you are a local business, this gives you the opportunity to target only those people who are potential customers based on location. It also means that if you are running a campaign in the United Kingdom, for example, you could filter out any users outside of the UK and prevent your ad (and your dollars) from going to users that cannot benefit from the offering.

As for age and gender, figure out exactly who is going to be most responsive to this campaign. Maybe you don’t know – that’s not a problem. Use these targeting options to test different markets. Maybe you create one version of your ad targeted towards males in the United States between the ages of 25 and 39, and another version targeted towards females in Canada over the age of 45. (On a side note, that’s one versatile product!) You might be surprised by what you find.

Precise Interests

Now we’re getting into the real value that exists with Facebook targeting options. One of the great features that a lot of marketers tend to overlook is the ability to target audiences by interest. For those familiar with AdWords, this is something that Google determines based on search history and other criteria, but on Facebook, this is determined by a user’s expressed interests. They are telling you what they like!

You are going to want to include as many Precise Interests or pages (yes, company or brand pages) as you can – just make sure they relate to your ad and landing page (whether it is your Timeline or a page off of Facebook). Just begin typing and you will see a drop down menu of interest options along with the number of people that have listed this item as one of their interests.

Broad Categories

Interests are great for getting right down to what a person might like, but perhaps you will find that you want to target people with a number of diverse interests and one commonality. This is where Broad Categories comes in handy.

Here, you are able to target users based on broader criteria. One of the best characteristics to consider targeting is precise mobile devices. Over 70% of Facebook users access the platform via their smartphone. Don’t miss out on a chance to target those users with your campaign.

Choose Your Users

Maybe you are running a campaign that is targeted specifically to people that are already your fans; this could be something along the lines of a loyalty program. Maybe you are only looking to target users that have not yet liked your company, and are offering something to new fans. In any case, you are going to want to specify whether you want your ad to target users that are already fans, or potential fans.

If you have not already done so, then definitely take a look at the Facebook targeting options for ads. You might be surprised at how much more effective it can make your campaign.

Have you found any surprises with your ads? Tell us what they were in the comments below or on Twitter!

The Power of Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

November 4, 2013/by Corey Padveen

We all know that social media is important, but have you really considered the power of social media for your business?

We’ve said it countless times before, and the evidence can be found all over: the power of social media is great, and leveraging the platform properly can mean big things for your brand.

There are a lot of very interesting statistics in this infographic from Buzzsmith. Every year, new data emerges that supports the adoption of large-scale social media strategies, and this year is no different. If we look at some of the data in the infographic below, we can see that, unsurprisingly, ROI is the major focal point for most marketers and businesses. This has long been the case. In order to justify the very real cost that social media incurs, we need to be able to measure ROI from social media. Considering this, we can see which statistic is most interesting of the data below.

For those brands effectively measuring ROI (and there are a number of ways to measure it tangibly) they are seeing a 153% return on their investment into social media campaigns! This further exemplifies the great power of social media.

What campaigns have you run that evoke the power of social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

How to Optimize Facebook for SEO [VIDEO]

November 2, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Do you know how to optimize Facebook for SEO? It’s easier than you think!

How to Determine KPIs on Social Media

November 1, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Understanding your brand’s KPIs on social media is going to be crucial to measuring the success of your program.

ROI remains one of the key concerns for marketers and executives alike when it comes to social media marketing. While there exist a number of ways to measure your returns on social campaigns, few marketers know where to look in order to find them. The first place to start is by establishing your KPIs on social media – they are going to be invaluable down the road.

Think about it: how can you know if you are successful, if you do not know what your measurement for success is going to be? For those that do not know what KPI stands for, these are Key Performance Indicators, and they vary from brand to brand.

There are a few steps you are going to need to take in order to determine your KPIs for social media. Below is the set of steps to follow in order to figure out what, exactly, you plan on using as a criteria for success with social media efforts.

Establish Your Goals

Before you can determine how you want to measure your returns, you need to know what you want to accomplish. As it states above, KPIs are going to vary from business to business. Of course there will be some that are fairly general, and observed by almost everyone. But to know what you want to be measuring, you need to know what is going to contribute to achieving your goals.

There are a few goals your brand might have. Maybe you want to increase brand awareness, or drive direct sales. Maybe it is something in between those two. Whatever it is, you need to start by establishing your short and long term goals.

Understand Insights

When it comes to social media, insights are going to come in all shapes and sizes. They can also be assisted by tools and technologies. When looking at KPIs, you are going to need to sift through quite a bit of data. Conventionally, the top-down approach to measuring KPIs started with your goals and simply looked at the processes that led to results as the KPIs. This is not the case with social (well, not entirely the case). While you are going to be looking at processes as KPIs, you are also going to be looking at a number of other resources. Enter insights.

Know where your insights exist both on and off social networks. Look at your activity on Facebook Insights, and compliment that with data collected in Google Analytics. Knowing where all of your data is being collected (and yes, all of your data is being collected) is going to be extremely useful when determining your KPIs and where you can find them.

Simplicity is Not a Bad Thing

Sometimes, the simplest answer is going to be the best. Measuring your return on investment does not have to be some convoluted set of equations that generate a mysterious, variable-filled result. You can look at some of your more simple KPIs and find a whole lot of value.

Something as simple of your number of interactions – a hard, straightforward number – can be an extremely valuable KPI and you shouldn’t go out of your way to complicate things.

Some Helpful Starting Points

When it comes to KPIs on social media, there are going to be some standard ones. No matter what you are trying to achieve, you will ultimately want to keep at least a few of these in mind.

Cost-per-lead/conversion: You have to spend money to make money and social media is no different. Pay attention to how much you are investing in every one of your conversions in order to ensure that you are profitable.
Engagement: Look at how often your fans are interacting with your brand in order to see if your content strategy is successful. If you are talking to no one, how can you expect to drive any business from social media?
Referral traffic: This relates closely to your engagement KPI. How often is your content leading to users visiting your website? What types of content are leading to users visiting your website, or finding landing pages?
Network growth: It might seem trivial, but a lot of people tend to overlook the value of a large network. Whether that is an email database, a group of Twitter followers, or followers on your company’s LinkedIn page, a growing network can have a lot of value if leveraged correctly.

What KPIs are you using to track your work on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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