Influence Marketing Archives

4 Ways to Increase Your Influence on Twitter

July 17, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Twitter can be a great tool for expanding your reach to a targeted audience, but how you can measure your influence on Twitter?

There is no shortage of tools and marketing suites that offer solutions when it comes to measuring of your Twitter marketing. Great tools like Simply Measured and SocialBro offer fantastic resources when it comes to looking at your influence on Twitter.

There are, however, a few key metrics to consider when determining and improving your influence on Twitter, and these can be done simply, and with little more than an investment of some time.

Create Lists

Look through your followers. Who is retweeting your content? Who is responding more regularly than others? These are important metrics to pay attention to for a number of reasons. Among those reasons is the use of these data when building Twitter lists.

Lists are a great way to segment your followers based on demographics, engagement, influence, etc. Creating lists and carefully watching how users interact will help you know what types of people you are influencing, where your tweets are going and how effective your Twitter audience is when it comes to building business.

Track Your Mentions

When someone mentions your brand, do a little bit of research.

Do they have a lot of followers? Are their tweets retweeted? Do they have original content or simply retweets of others? Find out where your brand is being mentioned on Twitter in order to modify your strategy to appeal to the audiences that are seeing your name most.

It won’t be long before you see this simple activity turn into increased influence on Twitter.

Track Your Links

Using a link shortening service like Bitly goes a long way when it comes to measuring influence. The data provided will help you understand what links are being clicked, by whom and from where.

Your Google Analytics might suggest that a given page or post on your site is very popular, but you might see, using your trackable link, that few clicks are coming from Twitter. Again, this data helps you understand where your influence is and give you insight into how you can improve it.

Identify and Engage Other Influencers

You might find yourself unintentionally hanging on the words of every tweet of a given user. Congratulations – you have found an influencer.

Take a look at different influencers in your industry and reach out to them. You never know when you may be able to collaborate with an industry influencer and find your own influence skyrocketing.

Influence is a key to success on social media. Try some of these tips and watch your influence begin to climb on Twitter.

How do you increase your influence on Twitter? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

LinkedIn Facts & Figures 2013 [INFOGRAPHIC]

July 1, 2013/by Corey Padveen

LinkedIn is the business network, but what are the benefits to using the network?

The LinkedIn facts and figureds in the infographic below showcase some impressive data that marketers and businesspeople should be aware of.

We all know that LinkedIn is the professional social network – that is what sets it apart from the rest. But other than being a pool of a few hundred million working folk, what value does LinkedIn have when it comes to helping us grow our business?

Perhaps the most interesting figure when it comes to professional relationships in the data below relates to the growth of face-to-face relationships with the help of LinkedIn. 44% of users build stronger in-person relationships with the help of LinkedIn. That is certainly a feature unique to the network.

When it comes to business, the most important element of the LinkedIn facts has to do with trust. 87% of people on LinkedIn trust the product-related information they find on the network. What’s more, 49% of users trust word-of-mouth brand suggestions they see on LinkedIn. That’s a lot of influence on the network, and it certainly should not be passed up.

Take a look at the infographic and let us know which of the data you think is most important or surprising. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Nutella

June 6, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Marketers were shown exactly what not to do on social media in this week’s social media case study on Nutella.

It is a brand that so many are fond of. And yet, in this week’s social media case study on Nutella, this brand showcases exactly how they damaged that loyalty by not understanding the rules of the social media game.

On February 5th, 2007, Nutella super-fan, Sara Russo held the first annual World Nutella Day. Over the last few years, the unofficial event has become something of a phenomenon: 40,000 Facebook fans, 6,500 Twitter followers and featurettes on authoritative blogs (understandably, considering Sara Rosso and fellow Nutella fan Michelle Fabio operates their own blogs).

For most brands and marketers, this is a dream come true. A fan-organized day, recognized internationally that promotes your product and touts its excellence…for free! This kind of publicity is the thing of legend, and it would make sense, after years of loyalty and dedication to Nutella, that Rosso be recognized and thanked by the brand and its parent company, right?

Well, she was certainly recognized by the brand, but the thanks must have gotten lost in the mail. All that showed up was a cease and desist letter from the legal department of Ferrero, Nutella’s parent company.

In what is widely perceived as a catastrophic brand blunder, there is a lot that marketers can learn. Sometimes, the best lessons are those that teach us what not to do.

Let the Good Times Roll

It was never suggested that World Nutella Day involved Nutella or Ferrero officially. In fact, it was very clearly understood to be unaffiliated with the brand. It was just a group of fans proclaiming their love for a tasty product.

When fans are talking and generating buzz, feel free to engage, but don’t step in front of a moving train. The momentum that this event has built over the last six years is much more delicate than it might appear to be. This kind of traction is easily derailed (sorry about all the train metaphors) if not approached carefully. So, when there is buzz about your brand, and the results are nothing but positive, let it ride.

It’s not every day you get free positive publicity.

Everyone Sees Everything

Perhaps the largest oversight in the actions taken by the legal team at Ferrero was not considering the power of social media and the viral effect.

If the only thought was that a paper copy of a cease and desist was going to remain hidden from the public eye, then shame on the senior executive that approved the course of action. Everyone, in every department should always consider the vast power that virality and social media can have on any given action. The question, “What happens if this gets out on Facebook?” should never go unasked, and that is exactly what happened in this situation.

Love Your Loyalists

Brand loyalists are the key to your brand’s expansion and long-term success. If you are the only one talking about your brand, eventually people might get tired of listening. So when you see someone professing love for your brand, reach out and thank them; never ask them to stop. In fact, go out of your way to make sure they continue.

Andrea Stegmann, a fan of World Nutella Day expressed her shock and disappointment on the event’s Facebook page: “This is some sad news. And I actually lost respect and love for Ferrero. You’ve [done] nothing but promote Nutella. They should thank you and send you Nutella for a life time. And not send cease and desist letters.”

After the outcry, World Nutella Day was reinstated and the cease and desist was dropped by Ferrero. But it all could have been avoided if the power and influence of a strong social community was taken into account from the outset.

What actions do you think Ferrero should have taken in this case? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

8 Tips for Optimizing Posts on Social Media

May 21, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Optimizing posts on social media can significantly boost your engagement, reach and influence across a number of networks.

When it comes to optimizing posts on social media, there are certain elements that are universal, and should be applied to posts on every one of your networks. Below we have showcased some of the most important tips when it comes to optimizing posts on social media.

Engage Your Audience

No matter where you are posting, you should be sharing content that engages your audience. Sure, sharing fun facts and information is important, but are you following that up with a related question? Where is the incentive to get your audience commenting, liking, sharing and talking? It is always going to be important that you keep engagement in mind no matter where you are posting.

Optimize Your Content for SEO

Each network contains different elements for SEO. (To find out more about those in detail, read some of these articles.) It is important that SEO is on your checklist when it comes to social media. Each network possesses different benefits when it comes to SEO, and in order to increase your findability, you need to incorporate those into your posting strategy.

Maintain Your Voice

The voice you create for your brand on social media needs to be clear in everything you write. Consistency is going to be crucial to getting your message across. After all, on social media, people are engaging with your brand’s personality, not simply your company. By maintaining that personality across all of your posts, people will be all the more willing to engage with you.

Consistency is Important

A posting spree followed by weeks of silence is going to hurt your brand. Consistently sharing relevant content with your network will keep your brand on the forefront of their mind, and it will do wonders when it comes to converting those fans into customers. Furthermore, sharing content on a regular basis will encourage visitors to return to your page frequently.

Make Sure You Are Linking Back

Social signals are of ever-growing importance in the world of SE (see the point above) and using social media as a back-linking strategy is going to be a big asset. When creating content on any of your chosen networks, be sure that you are linking back to your site whenever possible. As your build your network, this will serve as one of the most important linking strategies you have in place.

Engage in Conversations

Social networks are great for broadcasting your brand and showcasing your expertise, but the best way to see your referral traffic skyrocket is by engaging in the conversation with your network on your own posts. When someone responds to a tweet, post or update on any of your channels, you should engage with them. Whether it is a retweet, a share, or a simple ‘Like’, people will appreciate a reciprocal effort to engage.

Explain Your Links

Simply sharing a link with no explanation as to where it is going will mean a low click-through rate. Create a short but enticing description to go along with your link. Perhaps as a question that encourages the reader to find out more. When linking on social networks, provide readers with a reason to click on it.

Be Visual

There is a reason why Pinterest is so popular – human beings are visual by nature. Google+ is a great place to share images, and on Facebook, photos generate 104% more comments than the average post, and 53% more Likes. Use the visual nature of most social networks to your advantage, and get your content seen.

These are just a few tips you can use when looking to optimize the content you share on social media. Can you offer any other tips? 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!

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!

Social Equity: Communities on Social Media

May 3, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Building and joining niche communities on social media can be one of the greatest assets to your business.

Communities on social media have been a growing trend since the concept originated with the networks themselves. While any network – like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. – can be considered a community, the true Social Equity derived from communities on social media comes from the niche communities filled with like-minded and highly engaged individuals from around the world.

In this week’s Social Equity segment, we aim to understand how social media communities add value to your business, and where there are unique traits to these communities compared to other types of communities that may also be beneficial to your business.

Niche Communities on Social Media

One of the most touted features of Google+ is their Google+ Communities. In these groups, content is shared with each member without any filtration, as each community consists only of users that have an expressed interest in the content being published. These communities can range anywhere from five or six members to tens of thousands or more; it all depends on how interested people are in the content.

The benefits of communities like those on Google+, groups on LinkedIn and others around the social web is the ability to reach an audience far greater than what was ever possible. Furthermore, unlike conventional, expensive digital and print marketing, communities on social media offer an inexpensive way of reaching out to an engaged audience, sharing relevant content to prospective clients all over the world.

The Key Difference with Social Media Communities

As noted above, there are a few key differences between communities on social media versus conventional business communities. Think about your LikedIn groups and Google+ Communities. Every member is there for the same reason.

The only other type of communities like this that exist are business networking communities, and before social media, these were local business people who may or may not have shared an interest or mutually beneficial business opportunity. Of course, there were conferences, but for many small business owners the cost of attending one is prohibitive, and thus few people (relatively speaking) were able to take part.

Now, with these social communities, opportunities exist where there were none before, and for a fraction of what it would have cost to reach an audience as targeted and wide as those in these social media communities.

Social Equity of Communities on Social Media

The ability to build influence and drive new business in a community on a social network is perhaps the most crucial aspect of the Social Equity derived from these communities. In an infographic we posted recently, we noted the importance of influence on social media. These communities allow you to build that influence with a very targeted audience, very quickly. This in turn results in your market power increasing and, subsequently, your business increasing.

In addition to influence, there is also the ability to reach targeted audiences worldwide without incurring massive costs as with traditional forms of marketing and advertising. Therefore, there is a twofold bump in Social Equity: business generated from engagement in social communities and expenses saved from your involvement in them.

Communities can be a major asset to growing your business, and there is no doubt that they add a considerable degree of Social Equity to your brand.

Where do you see the benefits of communities on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Best Buy

May 2, 2013/by Corey Padveen

The Best Buy Twelpforce program has taken the brand from a major force in local retail to an industry leader on social media.

Everyone knows about Best Buy, and everyone knows about their expertise. But a few years ago, Best Buy was faced with a challenge: How does a giant in electronics retail go beyond the walls of a store and engage with an audience, provide ongoing, real-time support, garner brand advocates and build their own brand on multiple channels in the most efficient, measurable way possible? The solution: @Twelpforce.

Twelpforce is Best Buy’s Twitter handle for their online community. Essentially, the Best Buy team provides support and answers to thousands of engaged users who want access to the Best Buy experts.

In this week’s social media case study, we look at what Twelpforce has accomplished, and what genius lay behind the concept that led to it being such a huge success.

The Concept

How is Twelpforce designed? Essentially, it is a handle to which all Best Buy employees have access. Questions about anything and everything electronics-related can be sent, and the Best Buy team answers them as quickly as possible.

With thousands of employees actively engaging with the Twelpforce platform, there is no shortage of experts that can answer a customer’s question without ever trying to close a deal. Thus, people can be comfortable knowing that they are getting a genuine, qualified response from someone who truly knows what they are talking about without being worried that they have fallen into a sales trap.

The Genius

When it comes to Twelpforce, there is a lot for Best Buy to proud of. Tens of thousands of questions have been answered since the program was founded and it has been a continually growing success. Below are a few features of note from the Twelpforce program.

Focus on Conversation

If this social media case study proves anything, it is that conversation is always better than monologue. In the first year of the Twelpforce program, Best Buy noted a 20% drop in customer complaints online. By engaging in active conversations with their clientele and providing simple, straightforward answers, Best Buy managed to boost customer morale and shrink complaints.

People like to talk to someone, with thousands of people ready to answer, conversation was inevitable.

Use Your Whole Team

People might hesitate to look at every employee and ask them to participate in a public, unfiltered conversation. Understandably so; particularly when you have a company as large as Best Buy. But the benefits to this tactic far outweighed the risks.

Limiting your engagement to a small team detracts from the purpose of a program like this. The goals, as noted above, are to start a conversation, and when you are simply providing support, there is nothing exceptionally unique. By involving the expertise of their whole team Best Buy accomplished two things: first, they ensured that questions would be answered promptly. Second, they ensured that no question would go unanswered, as they had a veritable “expert” in every field imaginable!

A 20% drop in complaints proves this was the right move.

If You’re There to Help, Help!

One of the most crucial aspects that led to the success of Best Buy was that they did not use their social community as a direct sales tool. Of course, if someone is asking about Best Buy-related products, then they can be driven to a landing page that helps them out further. But as far as sales go, that is not why people engage in a conversation with Twelpforce, nor would that angle have led to the same amount of success.

Twelpforce was designed to Tweet help (Twelp). By steering clear of the sales angle, Gina Debogovich, Community Manager at Best Buy noted the following: “Factoring in call deflection and sales influence, our online community engagements provide around a $5MM benefit to the organization.”

What strategy do you employ when it comes to engaging with your online community? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

The Importance of Influence on Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

May 1, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What metrics exist to show us that there is a great deal of importance when it comes to influence on social media?

We are all familiar with influence measurement sites like Klout, Kred and PeerIndex, but what makes influence on social media so important?

There is a lot of talk about your influencers and the people and brands you influence on social media, and people and brands go to great lengths to figure these things out. In fact, in a recent social media case study we looked at Honda’s use of Pinterest influencers to penetrate new markets and reach a massive audience with little cost to the brand. While there are many ways to go about reaching out to influential groups on social media, we might not be sure why they are so important, or how they can benefit our brand.

This infographic does a great job showcasing how and why influence is so important. The most crucial point? Influence on social media translates into influence on decision making. A recent finding showed that 85% of Facebook brand fans recommend those brands to friends and followers, compared to 60% of average social media users. That’s a substantial group. When you consider the power that comes with influence on social media, you can’t ignore its importance.

Take a look at some of the stats in the infographic below and let us know which ones you find to be the most shocking or important! Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Handle Negative Feedback on Social Media Like a Pro

April 30, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Seeing a negative comment about your brand on a social network can be a horrifying sight, but these tips will help you manage negative feedback on social media the right way.

Before you can understand how to deal with negative feedback on social media, it is first important to understand what kinds of negative feedback exist. From there, you can apply some of these tips when the situation comes up (don’t worry, it happens to the best of us) and come out looking like a pro.

Types of Negative Feedback

There are essentially three types of negative feedback that can come up on social media: product issues (malfunctions), service issues (complaints) and brand issues (PR and brand crises).

When customers have an issue with your product, they may try to reach out to you through social media channels. The same goes for customer service when it comes to complaints. We recently posted an article about Social Care (customer service on social media) in which we noted that one-third of active social media users prefer Social Care to conventional customer services options (e.g. phone). That also means that a third of social media users may prefer to vent to your brand on social networks rather than on a private phone call.

The third type of negative feedback on social media has to do with a crisis. This relates closely to brand and reputation management on social media.

So what are a few tactics you can use when it comes to dealing with these types of issues on social media?

Tip #1: DO NOT Stay Silent

Burying your head in the sand may make it seem like there is no issue and everything is just fine, but the reality is that with every passing moment that you say nothing, the issue gets worse. Even if you simply post a generic “We are working hard to resolve this issue. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for any inconvenience.”, this is still better than nothing at all.

That said, direct engagement with individuals is better than a mass message. It shows people you care and lets them know that their business matters to you. Just because it is your average customer posting on Twitter does not mean they should be ignored. They speak for the masses, and silence looks more like you don’t care than anything else.

Tip #2: Act Fast

Social media moves at the speed of light. Some experts estimate that the lifespan of a tweet is a mere 15 minutes, and that of a Facebook post is just a few hours at best. So if you wait hours or days to respond to people, you will be jumping into a conversation that has no participants.

Social media is happening in real time, and if people are talking and you are not talking back, they will not care what you have to say in a week. You weren’t there when it mattered and they made up their minds.

Tip #3: Plan Ahead

What are you going to do if it all goes down without a moment’s notice? Do you have a plan in place? How will you respond to irate customers on social media? Planning for issues and negative feedback on social media is very different from other types of crises. As noted, this is a real-time, very public conversation, so it is in your best interest to have a plan in place in case it all unfolds.

Tip #4: Pick Your Battles

While it is important to be engaging with individuals across different networks, you need to know what comments you should be engaging with and which ones you should let go. At the end of the day, there are some battles you just are not going to win, and engaging in those – for example, someone lambasting your brand on some unfounded grounds – can lead to nothing but a long, drawn out argument that makes you look bad and gets you and your clients nowhere.

Tip #5: See It As An Opportunity

There is nothing more valuable in business than brand advocates. What are those? These are customers that are so enamoured with your product, service or the way you treat them that they go out of their way to promote your brand and advocate your business without any incentive other than the fact that they like working with you.

If there is one opportunity that a crisis or negative feedback on social media presents it is the chance to turn a disgruntled customer into a brand advocate and have a whole group of other users see it happen. People like personal attention. Engaging with them during a crisis and helping them through the process with a personal touch can very easily make them go from an angry client to a strong ally.

Whether it is an industry influencer or one of the little guys, everyone can and should be treated like the most important client you have – it is hands down the best way to turn them (and everyone watching the conversation) into a brand advocate.

Can you think of other tips that can help when dealing with negative feedback on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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