Big Data Archives

How Can Data Mining and Responsive Branding Grow Business?

September 26, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Data mining and Responsive Branding can be among the greatest practices when it comes to making your business social.

We have discussed Responsive Branding and how it can add value to your business in the past. Essentially, Responsive Branding is the idea of modifying your branding strategy by leveraging the data you collect on tastes and preferences of your social audience.

So how do you get that data? Data mining.

What is data mining?

Princeton defines ‘data mining’ as, “Data processing using sophisticated data search capabilities and statistical algorithms to discover patterns and correlations in large preexisting databases; a way to discover new meaning in data.” It’s the second part of that definition that matters.

The social world is filled with data. You’ve probably heard the term ‘big data’. It’s the buzz word of that day and for good reason: it can do so much. But what exactly is ‘big data’?

‘Big data’ are large data sets derived from a number of new media – sometimes too large to analyze using conventional methods of analysis. The data that can be sourced from social media is virtually endless. Mining this data from these sources (Aha!) and determining correlations can be extremely beneficial when it comes to Responsive Branding.

Data Mining and Responsive Branding

So how can these two work in tandem?

Once you have mined your data, analyzed it and uncovered commonalities, correlations and other factors that you might find important, you can use those data to modify your marketing and business strategies. Why would you do this? These data tell truths about your audience that they haven’t told you themselves. You can leverage these truths in order to cater to their preferences and increase business.

There exist a number of untapped markets that would be perfect to market your product or service to. The only issue is that your business strategy never considered that market a viable target.

When mining data, you can find new opportunities that will help you achieve the goals and objectives you have set for yourself and your business.

Have you ever mined data and made modifications to your business strategy based on your findings? Tell us how it worked out for you in the comments below or on Twitter!

8 Questions to Determine if You Run a Social Business

September 25, 2013/by Corey Padveen

There are a few simple questions whose answers can tell you whether or not you are running a ‘Social Business’.

In keeping with the theme of the week, we decided we would create a short, simple survey that can help a brand determine whether or not it is a ‘Social Business’.

The 8 questions below are simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ questions and come with enough explanation to make answering them fairly easy. Go through the questions, answer all eight, and see if your score was high enough to qualify your brand as a ‘Social Business’!

1. Does your brand have a presence on social networks?

This refers mainly to the ‘Big 6’ (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest) and others. Does your brand have a page, account or simply a presence on any channels that have been deemed social on the web?

2. Does your brand have a blog?

This can either be a standalone blog on your website, or a blog built on a blogging platform like Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress or something else. Essentially, does your brand have a platform on which visitors can see why your company is an industry leader?

3. Are you engaging with your audience?

This is meant purely as conversation. Think about whether your brand is participating in conversations in the socialsphere around your products/services, competition or your industry.

4. Are you leveraging your data?

Every action on social media is recorded and stored. Some brands choose to use it to better their programs and others do not. Which category do you fall into?

5. Do you employ ‘Responsive Branding’?

Responsive Branding is the idea of leveraging big data (question 4) and applying it to your overall marketing and business strategies in order to appeal to the tastes and preferences of your engaged audience.

6. Have you figured out where social media fits into your overall marketing strategy?

Social media is not here to replace your other business activities. It is a tool like any other. Make sure you have figured out where it fits in to your business and marketing strategies (maybe with ‘Responsive Branding’ – just a thought).

7. Are you testing content with your social audience?

Not everything you do is going to generate the kind of buzz generated by a new Apple release. You are going to need to figure out what people want based on content testing in order to find a content strategy that works for you.

8. Has social found a place in areas other than marketing?

Social media is not just about marketing your brand – it is a communications tool. It can be used for internal communication, customer service, research and development – you name it!

Have you gone through and answered all eight of these questions? OK – good.

Now look through your answers. If you answered ‘No’ to any of these eight questions, your business is not a ‘Social Business’ just yet. At least not entirely. You might have answered ‘Yes’ to several, placing you in the maturing stages of becoming social. That’s still far ahead of many brands out there and you should keep up the good work. You’re on the right track!

What is your definition of a ‘Social Business’ and which of these questions might you change/remove and what would you add? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Business: What Does the Concept Mean, Really?

September 23, 2013/by Corey Padveen

We often hear of the concept of Social Business, but what does that really mean?

This week, the theme of each of our blog posts will be this idea of Social Business and trying to breakdown the concept in a way that any business can understand and apply it.

A lot of people see Social Business as meaning a number of different things. That’s understandable; this is a relatively new concept so there is a lot of flexibility in terms of what it is and how it applies.

Social Business: A Definition

A lot of people consider the term ‘Social Business’ to mean something that it isn’t.

On a very superficial level, there is the school of thought that thinks a social business is one that has a presence on social media. There are also those that feel as though a social business refers to a member of the tech world, maybe an app developer or a standalone social network. These are not ‘wrong’ per se, they are just incomplete.

According to Deloitte, a ‘social business’ is one that employs any of the following elements:

Consumer-based social media and networks
Technology-based, internally developed social networks
Social software for enterprise use
Data derived from social media and technologies

(Definition taken from the MIT Sloan Management Review Research Report 2013 in collaboration with Deloitte University Press, Social Business: Shifting Out of First Gear.)

I would recommend taking it a step further. There are millions of businesses that could technically, based on the criteria above, be considered ‘social’ in some form or another. Now, the study cited goes on to explain that there are three types of ‘social businesses’: those in the early, developing and maturing stages of becoming social. That said, I would still create an additional barrier to considering a business social.

What Is It, Really?

In order for a business to truly be considered ‘social’, at least two of the criteria above must exist within the business. Those two are that the business must be present on consumer-based social media and that data derived from social media activity needs to be incorporated into the execution of business initiatives.

The world is social. In order for a business to be considered social as well, it needs to be highly active on social media and using the data derived from these media in order to modify and (this is the important part) improve business operations. A few weeks ago, I wrote an article detailing the concept of Responsive Branding. For a business to be ‘social’, this has to be a factor in business operations.

Take the data collected on social – and there is a lot – and use it to your advantage. If you really want to be a ‘social business’ you need to be using social to run your business. Simply sharing content to Facebook does not a ‘social business’ make. Analyzing response, engagement, customer reception, conversion and any other data from your social networks and using that information to build your business makes your business social.

Now, one of the inherent (or, at least, more likely) results of taking social so seriously is going to be the use of internal tools, like Salesforce Chatter, in order to increase internal efficiency. But for a business to really be social, points one and four need to be there.

So ask yourself, is your business social, really? Tell us why or why not in the comments below or on Twitter!

Also, stay tuned for more articles this week on Social Business!

Social Equity: A-B Testing on Social Media

September 13, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What value can A-B Testing on social media add to your business?

Last week, we discussed the value added to your business from Responsive Branding in our Social Equity segment. This week, we are going to look at a similar concept: A-B testing on social media.

When putting together a campaign, branding initiative, launching a new logo or simply figuring out which content generates the highest engagement, you might have several options to choose from. Social media adds a considerable amount of ease to the decision-making process, and that saves you time and money.

New Techniques

Focus groups are expensive and time consuming. And even after creating a questionnaire, putting a campaign together and making a decision based on the opinions of a selected group of people, you still may not have the data you are looking for.

A-B testing on social media offer a new type of focus group. You have two company slogans and you are not sure will generate a better response form your audience. What can you do to figure it out? Instead of going the conventional focus group route, why not reach out to the people that are actually your fans?

People who have liked your page or followed your brand online are more likely to provide you with honest, useful answers. Furthermore, you will be able to aptly apply the data knowing that your audience made the decision for you!

Social Equity

In our piece about Responsive Branding, we noted that your brand needs to be able to adapt to the market in real time. There is no longer the option of reactive marketing techniques. By evolving with the tastes and preferences of your audience, you stand to keep in touch with them in a much more personal way than the competitor who ignores the audience.

Reaching out to your market provides you with valuable insights. The costs saved (noted above) can grow considerably, and by the time certain changes are implemented, it might be too late to recoup those investments. A-B testing on social media offers fast, reliable ways to circumvent these costs and generate significant returns.

Is your brand testing content and initiatives on social media? How has the strategy worked for you? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: DKNY #UK2012

September 5, 2013/by Corey Padveen

How did DKNY leverage the power of social media in their #UK2012 campaign to drive live traffic to their store?

FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. We have all heard about it and many of us have experienced it at one time or another. DKNY and their marketing team recognized that people enjoy being where the action is, and created the #UK2012 campaign in order to capitalize on that.

DKNY wanted to do something big last year when they were re-opening their London location. They decided that, considering the nature of the campaign and the power of social media, there was no better way to drive success and traffic than with a viral video campaign that leveraged FOMO, social media and industry influencers.

Essentially, DKNY reached out to 50 industry influencers and asked them to begin discussing the store re-opening using the #UK2012 hashtag. As the video below shows, the event went viral and people from all over the world were getting ready to visit the new London store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yUrxaBBhvrs

Thanks to the digital marketing experts at Fashionbi, we were able to find that the campaign generated over 12 million impressions, DKNY’s active followers increased by 31%, retweets of DKNY’s content increased by 42% and #UK2012 became an organically trending topic on Twitter.

As one tweet puts it, “DKNY #UK2012, Social media is the new press release!” This campaign goes to show it.

So what can marketers learn from the campaign?

Adapt to Changing Markets

There was a time when social media would not have even been considered as a viable medium to direct physical traffic to a local store. The marketing team at DKNY, however, realized that social media has become one of the world’s primary tools for communication.

It is important, as marketers, that we keep in mind that social media is much more than a place to post vacation pictures. It is the primary resource for sharing information and keeping up to date. When you are generating buzz, few places are better for getting started.

Capitalize on Influence

For every one influencer there is an attentive audience of thousands. In a recent Social Equity segment, we discussed the great value of influence marketing. By reaching out to influencers, DKNY was quickly able to reach the viral status that every campaign hopes to achieve.

Keep influence in mind when putting together a campaign. It can be the quickest way to social media success, as exemplified by the #UK2012 campaign.

Every Channel Has Its Use

In the video above, virtually every major social network is showcased as playing a role in the success of the #UK2012 campaign. It is premature to nix a network from a social media strategy early on in a campaign or program. Every social network can add value in some way or another, it is just a question of figuring out how it can be leveraged to benefit your brand.

Big Spending Is Not Big Return on Social Media

Social media is about time, commitment and fluency in every network. Spending thousands on paid ads and featured posts might generate exposure, but it will not necessarily translate into the same success as understanding how to use social media.

For DKNY, #UK2012 became a trending topic on Twitter with no paid media. The influencers volunteered and the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about the campaign as news, not an ad. The proper planning and execution of a campaign is what makes it succeed.

Special thanks to Fashionbi for their hard work and the excellent data they provided for this article.

Which lesson do you think is most useful for marketers? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Financial Times

August 29, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What is there for marketers to learn from the Financial Times social media strategy?

Visit the Financial Times Google+ page and you will see an innovative use of social media by a brand in an industry that many think is outdated. The Financial Times social media channels looks great on the outside, but there is a lot taking place on the inside as well from which marketers can take a lesson or two.

At a 125 years old, the Financial Times is not necessarily a brand that many would expect to see incorporating social media in such a crucial way. With the exception of a select few, like the Huffington Post, news publications tend to use social media for nothing other than a secondary vessel through which to share information. The Financial Times, on the other hand, has adapted their model to incorporate social media to the fullest, and it is paying off in a big way.

There are two key features when it comes to the Financial Times social media program that make it stand out. First, it is engaging with its broad audience on a number of channels, primarily Google+. Second, the marketing team behind this strategy has been paying close attention to the analytics of their social media efforts, and they have been evolving according to the successes and failures they have experienced.

Below are three key lessons that marketers can learn from the marketing team behind the Financial Times social media success.

Sharing Rich Content

Much like the case study we did about H&M, the Financial Times shares rich, social-specific content to their social media audience.

Their networks do not simply regurgitate information posted to their website, they are sharing much more with their audience in order to keep them engaged.

Engaged with the Audience

And speaking of engagement, this is at the forefront of their strategy. They are not simply sharing, they are talking.

The Financial Times has built their network to its current size by engaging with their audience wherever they could. By listening to what is being said, the strategy was able to adapt and appeal to what the audience wanted. This has proven to be among the most successful factors in their strategy.

Monitor Analytics and Adapt

The only way to grow a social media program is to pay close attention to your results, and use that data in order to expand your network. This is exactly what has grown the Financial Times social media program into what it is.

Few brands – in the media field or otherwise – truly pay attention to their metrics. It is hard to imagine considering the weight put on the measurability of social media. By focusing on their analytics, the Financial Times has managed to continually grow their social presence.

Which of these three features do you think is most important for a brand’s success on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Important Social Media Analytics [INFOGRAPHIC]

August 26, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Based on some of these social media analytics, there is no denying that social marketing is continuing to grow.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, there are still naysayers out there who suggest that there is no significant value when it comes to social media. When you look through some of the social media analytics in the infographic below, it is very hard to agree with that viewpoint.

You have undoubtedly seen them: articles and blog posts talking about the ‘end of Facebook’ or the ‘death of social media’ and frankly, they simply do not match the numbers. Every year (heck, every week!) more and more businesses are involving themselves in social media marketing.

According to the data below, 94% of businesses are involved in social media in some form or another. 94%. And with each poll, it becomes increasingly clear that marketers from every industry – both B2C and B2B – are planning on furthering their involvement in social media. You simply can’t justify the argument that social doesn’t matter. It matters in a very big way.

Take a look at the infographic below and see just how important social marketing already is and see how its growth shows no sign of slowing down.

Which statistic do you find most interesting/important? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media for B2B Companies [INFOGRAPHIC]

August 12, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Can there be a place for social media for B2B companies?

There is a lot of debate over whether or not there is a use of social media for B2B companies. Why? Because many people do not see just how important social media is – for any industry!

There is a very important place for social media when it comes to businesses in the B2B world. The reason there are so many skeptics is simply due to a lack of understanding of how to properly use social media, a hesitancy to take on the task and, most importantly, not knowing the phenomenal results that other B2B brands are already achieving!

In the infographic below, some insightful data is provided by Clearpoint that illustrates just how important social media is for B2B companies. Perhaps the two most interesting sections of data are the reasons why B2B companies are using social media, and how they are measuring their results.

So many marketers – particularly those in the B2B field – fail to see the benefits of social media marketing outside of brand awareness. While this may be the top reason for the use of social media by B2B companies, the four additional uses are extremely important, particularly thought leadership.

With regards to measurement, there is no shortage of criteria that can be used to measure your success on social media. Again, this applies to any industry.

Take a look at the infographic and let us know which data you find to be most interesting. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

5 Great Social Media Monitoring Tools

July 30, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media monitoring is important to managing your brand’s presence and reputation online.

Social media monitoring can be a powerful activity in your arsenal when it comes to reputation and brand management online. Being able to join in the conversation as it is taking place is invaluable, particularly when you can join in with conversation about not only your brand, but your competitors and your industry as well.

However, simply scouring the net for mentions of your brand and keywords is going to take quite a bit longer than you might have time for. Therefore, identifying high-quality social media monitoring tools is important to a successful listening strategy.

Of course, there are tools like Radian6 and Sysomos that can be cost-prohibitive, but the five social media monitoring tools below are inexpensive, efficient and will do a great job assisting you with your monitoring activities.

Yext

Yext is among the best tools for merchants, particularly local sellers.

There are not too many social media monitoring tools that allow users to listen in on conversation taking place on review sites and see how their brand is being perceived on both a local and global level. The ability to amalgamate all of your reviews, ratings and user comments is both time-saving and a fantastic advantage.

Reputation.com

Reputation management on social media is of ever-growing importance. Considering the trust people have in recommendations they read online, preventing any damage to your reputation is virtually invaluable.

Reputation.com is designed to help you manage your brand’s reputation across a number of channels on the web. One of the best features of this tool is the ability to find out what is being said and how your brand is being perceived on a local level.

Brandwatch

With a built-in spam filter, Brandwatch is among the more user-friendly social media monitoring tools around.

Users can put together a set of keywords, start a search on relevant networks, and the tool will automatically filter out results that are less than ideal so that you receive nothing more than the best, most relevant results for your searches.

Tweetbeep

Tweetbeep monitors the Twittersphere to pick up on conversations that are relevant to you and your brand.

This free tool allows users to insert keywords related to their brands, competitors and their industry and receive notifications when conversations using those keywords start up on Twitter. This is great when you need to focus on other priorities and only need to be alerted when a conversation is happening.

Put simply, “Tweetbeep is like Google Alerts for Twitter.”

BrandsEye

There are dozens of reports that can be generated using BrandsEye, including whether or not a marketing campaign was effective and where conversations are coming from most.

The reporting capabilities with BrandsEye are the real gem with this tool. Some great data can be gathered and analyzed to optimize future social media and online marketing campaigns for your brand.

Incorporating one or more of these tools will certainly boost the effectiveness and value of your social media monitoring activities. Try them out and tell us what you think of them in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Crisis Management [INFOGRAPHIC]

July 29, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What are some of the most important steps to take when it comes to social media crisis management?

We always hope that there is never a need for social media crisis management when it comes to our brand. After all, we never like the idea of something going wrong and finding our brand at the center of a negative discussion. However, these things happen and they are usually (one would hope) out of our control when they do.

When crisis does strike and our brand is left with a flurry of negative conversation to deal with, it is important that there is a strategy in place. Simply ‘playing it by ear’ is not going to work in such cases. Without a strategy, before you know it, the issue will be far beyond any controllable level, and you will have to simply hope that the repercussions are not too detrimental.

In the infographic below from Tatu Digital, a few simple but important steps are highlighted. Whenever it comes to social media crisis management, this checklist should be observed, as it might be the key to keeping your brand above water.

Take a look at the data and let us know which step you think is most important when it comes to handling a crisis on social media. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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