Social Business

The Fallacy of Social Media ROI with No Investment (or “I”)

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The idea of generating social media ROI without investing in social media is a novel concept; that’s mostly because it is completely irrational.

One of the favorite sayings of economists is as follows: “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” Some attribute the adage to a practice that started in the Old West where patrons at saloons could receive a “free lunch” upon the purchase of a beer. This lunch, of course, would consist of salty ingredients, which in turn would lead to the patron buying several more drinks. (Why do you think there are peanuts, pretzels and popcorn given out for “free” at most bars?) From an economics point of view, the saying relates to hidden costs and externalities; even if you think something is free, there are economic costs that go into it.

This has been true in business for generations. So why do marketers and business owners now think that they can reap the benefits of the “free lunch” offered by social media marketing?

When it comes to running a social business, there are several costs that a corporation will incur. These can either be material costs – like ad spend – or immaterial costs – like adaptation time. All that to say is there are costs we need to consider when undertaking a social media initiative, and we need to accept that these costs are unavoidable if we wish to reap the benefits that social media can offer.

The four costs listed below are by no means the only ones that businesses will incur over the course of a social media campaign or program. That said, these are fairly standard, and businesses should be ready to factor them into the cost of doing (social) business.

Time

So often this is an investment that is quickly overlooked. It is hard to imagine why. What happened to the self-confidence of the average businessperson? Your time is an extremely valuable asset. Take it into serious consideration when determining the costs of running a social media program.

How much would you be making per hour if you were not toying away with Facebook marketing or writing your blog? Is the return going to justify how much time you are investing in these activities? Too often when calculating costs, individuals forget about all the time that needs to go into effectively executing a strategy. Give this cost serious consideration whether you are a one-person operation or a large organization.

Tools & Technologies

OK – this is an easy one. While some tools and/or technologies are free – generally those integrated into a social network or larger company, like Facebook Insights or Google Analytics – the majority of social media tools are standalone companies. That, of course, means that they need to make money in order to stay in business. So with the exception of a few, you are going to need to make an investment in tools.

With so much happening in the world of social media – and so much happening so fast – a tool can be a wonderful complement to a strategy. But the key thing to remember is that your tool is a complement, not the program. Though many technologies boast themselves as being the godsend application to rid you of all your social media woes, most simply offer a solution to one (or a select few) issues. You still need to put in the work.

Social Ad Spend

Another fairly simple one. But it is one that, again, is completely forgotten. Not because people do not realize that they have to invest in advertising, but because they think that they to not need social media advertising. This is a key component behind many brands having trouble finding success with social media. It also relates closely to the concept of the “free lunch” and the misconception of the true cost when it comes to investing in social media.

The Golden Age of social media marketing, where brands could generate huge awareness and boost sales without so much as a penny spent on ads is, sadly, dwindling. Of course, this is still possible – but only to an extent. Much like the tools discussed above, networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are businesses. These businesses all have (hugely inflated) valuations and need to find a way to justify those price tags to investors. The answer? Charge businesses to access their huge reservoir of potential clients. This is why we are seeing things like the near-extinction of Facebook organic reach. Brands are going to have to pay-to-play. There is still a tremendous amount of potential when it comes to social media marketing. You’ll just have to invest in advertising in order to reap that social media ROI.

Adaptation

Much like time, adaptation is an oft-overlooked cost that businesses will have to incur whether they notice it or not. Transitioning into a social business is no easy feat. It requires dedication, perseverance, and perhaps most of all, willingness to change. Social business is not business as usual; it is a whole new way of conducting yourself in the marketplace.

 adapting to change

Image Credit: Shutterstock. Used under license.

This is something that takes time to adjust to and that time needs to be factored into your costs. The decision to become a social business is a smart one, but one that needs to be undertaken methodically so that you do not become overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. Figure out what you know and what you need to learn based on the goals of your strategy, and determine the cost of adapting to this new way of doing business.

Conclusion

One of the greatest values of running a social business is that virtually everything is measurable; while some criticize traditional operations for its lack of exactitude, every last detail can be attributed in social thanks in large part to big data. What’s more, communications and overall business costs are reduced as a result of becoming an effective social business. That said, there are still costs, and we can’t forget that costs are a natural part of doing business. Don’t be afraid of the “I” in ROI – that is what is going to generate the “R”.

What other costs have you noticed when it comes to running a social business? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

7 Habits of Highly Effective Social Media Managers

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What makes a social media manager stand out from the crowd?

While every social media manager approaches his or her job differently (after all, the job changes quite drastically depending on your goals) there are a few habits that the most effective social media managers will have in common.

These seven criteria should be applied if you want to succeed in your role as social media manager. With a medium that changes as often and as quickly as social, it’s important to be on top of your game.

Early Starter

The day does not start when you wake up, it carries over through the night and early into the next morning. If you want to find success in your position, you are going to have to be right there monitoring your brand and industry conversations on social first thing in the morning. A major part of the job has to do with keeping an eye out for bad press, negative comments or a social media crisis. These kinds of cases do not wait for you to sleep in and take your time in the morning.

Getting an early start means being alert from the get go. With real-time platforms like social, managers do not have the luxury of easing themselves into the day. If an issue or event comes up, you have to be ready to tackle it. So for all those morning people, you’re off to a good start. For the rest: a cold shower and a bucket of coffee should do the trick.

Great Writer

Great as in even when you throw something together quickly most people envy your innate ability to write. You don’t need to have the most eloquent of speech, but you should be able to speak well (not good, but well) and with complete grammatical accuracy. One of the most upsetting things for social media users is poor grammar from brands. That’s right – not terrible customer service, but poor grammar. (That said, don’t overlook good customer service in the name of proper grammar.)

As a social media manager for a brand or business, you are (generally) speaking on behalf of the company. That means that everything you say or do reflects not on you, but on the brand. So a whole bunch of misspellings and grammatical slip-ups means the brand looks bad and you’ll be taking the heat.

Quick on Your Feet

As noted above, a lot is happening and it is happening fast. You don’t always have the luxury of taking your time to deal with things as they come up. It’s important that you are quick on your feet when it comes to social media. When you need to respond to a tweet, for example, you should know your brand’s voice, the image it wants to maintain and, most importantly, how best to address a comment (or let it lie) in order to avoid any negative repercussions. That takes some quick, critical thinking on your part.

Of course, in the event of a crisis, the best thing to do is to bring the issue to higher ups that know how to handle these sorts of things. Try not to take on too much yourself. Which brings us to our next point:

Modesty Can be an Asset

There is a time to let your ego shine and there is a time where modesty can be your best friend. As a social media manager, you are going to have to realize (sooner rather than later) that you cannot do everything. Sometimes a senior marketing executive is going to have to take the reigns. Sometimes the PR department will have to step in. Sometimes there is an issue best handled by your support staff or the sales team.

Know the limits of your job description and recognize times where something is out of your league. Knowing when to pass things off is just as important as knowing when to take charge.

Friendliness

You were not put in this position because you are a monotonous drone with no people skills. You were likely charming in your interview and a great conversationalist. That’s a great start. That personality should extend to your brand’s social presence. Of course, you will probably be given some guidelines when you first get started indicating what you can and cannot say, but try to give everything that human touch.

People are active on social media because they want to engage in conversations with people all over the world who share similar interests. So, make the social channels highly sociable. A great example of a brand that understands this is Cadbury.

Coolheadedness

We seem to keep circling back to one important point: social media are fast paced environments wherein a ton is happening all in real-time. You need to be able to handle that sort of thing if you plan on being a successful social media manager. Becoming easily overwhelmed means it will be tough to go far with the platform. So if you want to succeed in your role, know that you will be able to take a step back, take a deep breath and handle everything that is going on without feeling like it ‘never ends’ – because it doesn’t.

The larger and more public the brand, the truer this holds. If you recognize this aspect and still feel confident that you can handle this without breaking a sweat, you’re in great shape so far. Only one more step to go!

Coolheadedness is good for social media managers

Born Decision Maker

In contrast to the modesty mentioned above, you will also want to be a born decision maker. Marketing, PR and advertising executives do not want to be bothered with every little thing that comes up. It might not seem like it at first (especially when people constantly ask you if you simply post to Facebook all day) but you are being given quite a bit of responsibility as a social media manager. The public voice of the brand is being put in your hands, and you ultimately control its fate. To succeed in this role, you’re going to have to be able to make some important decisions with the utmost confidence.

Know when to respond and when to leave a comment or criticism alone in the socialsphere. You need to be capable of making decisions in real-time about a number of different elements including what content to share, how to respond to messages, how to handle small crises, the best ways to measure returns, the best tools to use, the right campaigns to run, the key demographics to target and quite a bit more.

Conclusion

If all of this sounds like a walk in the park, and these seven habits identify you to a tee, then you might have found your calling! Of course, these are not the only seven habits of highly effective social media managers. Quite a bit more goes into the job. But if you possess these qualities, you are certainly off to a great start!

What other qualities do you think effective social media managers possess? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Growth Opportunities You Might Have Overlooked

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Growth opportunities exist all around us on social networks, and there is a good chance we have overlooked one or two.

We are always looking for growth opportunities on social media. After all, why does our business have a presence on these networks if not to expand? The social web is filled with these growth opportunities, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise to hear that we might have overlooked one or two.

These four growth opportunities are surefire ways to get your brand noticed in new communities and by potential customers across the social web.

Google+ Communities

Before the detractors attack Google+, keep in mind that it is a Google-owned product. That alone makes it important. What’s more important is that this year, according to SearchMetrics, Google+ +1s are the most important ranking factor for your content on Google (shown in the chart below).

us-ranking-factors-2013-growth-opportunities

Communities on Google+ are groups of individuals with similar interests. When you share content from your brand’s profile to these Communities and it generates shares, +1s and comments, that’s a powerful ranking factor for Google. It becomes even more important if you have influential users engaging with your content. All that to say is do not overlook the power of Google+ – and Communities in particular – when it comes to increasing your brand’s presence on search engines.

Quora

Sometimes all people want is an expert opinion without having to pay an expert for their opinion. Enter Quora.

If you are not familiar with Quora, it is a network where people ask questions and have them answered by others with the answers. Simple, and a great opportunity to showcase your expertise in a given field.

Create alerts for yourself to be notified of new questions that come up in your given field and make it a point to show people just how much you know by answering questions. It is important that these answers are detailed, on point and not self-promotional. You are there to be an expert, not to sell your services. That comes naturally when people see how qualified you are.

LinkedIn Groups

First of all, if you have not joined as many groups as you possibly can, do it now. There is no reason not to be engaging with your industry peers wherever possible. Moreover, this is a great way to increase your relationships on LinkedIn.

In these groups, you might have noticed an influencer rating on the right-hand side. Engaging and, more importantly, starting conversations in these groups (not just sharing your content, but maybe asking a question every once in a while) is a great way to build your influence. People take note of a top influencer in their groups and, a generally common reaction is to view their profile, maybe research their company, etc.

Groups aren’t all about finding interesting articles; they are a great way to generate new interest in your business and your expertise.

Bookmarking

Effectively bookmarking your blog posts, articles and guest blogs with proper tags is a great way to generate exposure. Take something like StumbleUpon, for example. You have people regularly clicking through content to find something that they might like, based on their preferences. By properly assigning your content to a category, you are more than likely to have someone interested in what you have to say landing on it.

Bookmarking is an excellent way to generate new exposure. Sites like Digg allow your network to see what you have archived and share it with their extended networks as well. Don’t overlook the value of simply clicking the icon and bookmarking your content (and ensuring that it is enabled on all of your pages, of course).

Are there any other subtle growth opportunities that have worked for you? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Reasons Why B2Bs Should Leverage Social Data

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Though it is no secret that social data is important, B2B brands are not taking enough advantage of it.

Data mining – whether on a large or small scale – is a critical component when it comes to a successful social business strategy; this is especially true when it comes to B2Bs. And yet, so few B2B brands are taking advantage of the values that social data can offer when building a comprehensive, goal-oriented strategy.

The reasons listed below should be enough to convince any decision maker as a B2B enterprise to start paying closer attention to their social data.

Optimize Your Content Strategy

Recently, we published an article discussing the difference between content strategy and content marketing. Essentially, your content strategy is the strategy with which you are going to generate interest from your target audience on social platforms.

As a B2B, it can sometimes seem difficult to find a message that resonates with your audience. After all, with so much content from which people can choose, the message from a B2B is not always going to make it to the top of the pile. By keeping a close eye on your data, however, you can see exactly what types of content and what motifs generate the most interest from your audience, and share information geared towards garnering their attention.

Monitor Your Competition

It’s one thing to look at superficial measurements, like the growth of a competitor’s network. It is another thing entirely to dive into the public data that exists about your competition’s social presence and see where they are succeeding, where opportunities exist for your brand and, most importantly, how you compare in terms of share of voice and sentiment when it comes to key criteria.

Because we might not necessarily be looking at increasing sales directly through social media as B2Bs, it is important to find a way to set benchmarks for measuring success. Often, identifying KPIs among your competition’s data and striving to surpass those benchmarks is a great way to work.

Reach Broader Audiences

Understanding when your target audience is most active and where they spend the majority of their time is going to be essential to reaching the broadest audience possible.

At the outset of any social business program, you are going to want to ask yourself who you want to reach. Do you want to reach your buyers, or would you rather reach the end users of products or services to whom you are selling? Knowing what kind of audience you want to reach with your content will help you better leverage this data in order to ensure that every piece of content you share is shared strategically so as to reach the broadest audience possible.

Understand Your Buyers

On the surface, social is all about sharing stories. But just beneath there is a world of opportunity in the form of data, and that data can be leveraged not only on these social media, but in your business operations.

Studying the data that concerns your buyers – either as individuals or businesses – on social media can help you optimize your offline and off-social marketing initiatives in order to ensure that they resonate with your buyers.

Traditional B2B marketing tactics need to incorporate, at least to a degree, social data. By understanding your buyers’ habits, preferences and knowing what it is they are looking for, you can better prepare yourself offline to make the sale.

The potential that exists within your social data is virtually limitless. With so much being published every day, and more insights being made available at every second, it is hard to understand why more B2B businesses are not taking the time to study social data.

Are you leveraging your social data? What are you using it for? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

And next week, don’t miss our Director of Global Social Business Strategy, Corey Padveen speaking live in Las Vegas! Find out more here.

What’s the Difference Between Content Strategy and Content Marketing?

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While both content marketing and content strategy fall into a very similar category in the realm of social business, there are some subtle but important differences to be aware of.

What's the difference between content marketing and content strategy?One of the most trending concepts in the world of social business these days (both on and offline) is content marketing. We hear it mentioned by virtually every thought leader and industry member. But as with a lot of buzzwords, as they increase in popularity, they can often decrease in clarity.

People use content marketing and content strategy interchangeably. That’s a mistake. While both phenomena are closely related, they possess some notable differences that make them distinct features of a business strategy.

Why do we keep hearing about this stuff, anyway?

Content marketing and strategy are much more than simply sharing content to different media; content marketing is storytelling.

Lately, we have seen some outstanding examples of brands leveraging the power of the story. Lots of brands – from small to large – are jumping on the content marketing bandwagon to try and create an engaging story of their own, but it is a lot easier said than done.

Unlike conventional forms of marketing and advertising, the concept of content marketing relies heavily on your ability to connect with your audience. For consumers, the novelty of endless content being shared on multiple media channels has worn off. People only want to see (and, more importantly, share) content that they find interesting and resonates in some way.

For this reason, the brands that have found the most success when it comes to content marketing are those that have developed an intricate content strategy based on what they have deemed relevant to their audience.

What is content strategy?

Content strategy all starts with some good ol’ fashioned research. Sure, there are plenty of tools to help you out; after all, there is so much data to sift through that we would never be able to do it without at least a little help. But content strategy all starts with determining what your audience cares about.

This can be industry-relevant – for example, maybe you notice that your audience is most interested in learning about the difference between content marketing and content strategy – or it can be a social issue. And no, not a social media issue. A social as in societal issue. First identify what your audience cares about, then share information that they find relevant and interesting.

People do not like spending money if they don’t have to. (Or really want to.) So, when you share nothing but self-promotional content, they are more than likely to ignore you. After all, why would they listen to what you have to say if they know it is all going to lead back to a sales pitch?

Content strategy is all about avoiding the sales pitch. Determine how your brand can connect with your audience on a human level and share information that resonates from that perspective first.

How is content marketing different?

Content marketing is, by definition, a form of marketing to your audience. When people are listening to what you have to say and develop a rapport with your brand, then you can tell them about your products, services or special offers.

Considering the historical seller-consumer dynamic, there is, in many cases, an inherent distrust of the brand by the consumer. However, if, through your content strategy, you can build that trust by showcasing that you really do care and really are a brand that your consumers can relate to, there is a much greater likelihood that your audience will listen, and maybe even consider your product or service.

Your sales position needs to be in line with the issues that connected you to your audience in the first place. Maybe it is something as simple as a donation to a worthy cause from the sale of certain products.

Is there an example that showcases both these concepts?

Say, for example, there is an office products retailer than develops a content strategy around recycling. Much of the content that is shared with their audience relates to green practices and recycling.

After some time, their content begins to go viral, as their target audience – businesspeople with a penchant for environmentalism –  can relate to what they share. At this point, they begin to promote one of their complimentary services: buyers can return used ink cartridges for reuse instead of throwing them away.

There is a much greater likelihood that people will listen to the sale pitch if this is the case.

The difference between content strategy and content marketing is all about the marketing side of things. While content strategy sounds a lot like it is done behind closed doors, it is actually a very active endeavor.

Brands have to devote to learning about their audience and be patient when it comes to successful content marketing. Success with the strategy is not going to come overnight. But with patience and a strong devotion to your audience, content strategy and content marketing are sure to pay off.

Have you ever considered a content strategy or engaging in content marketing? Tell us about yours in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

How to Look at Post Details on Facebook [VIDEO]

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Your post details on Facebook can give you some tremendous insights into the success of your Facebook marketing.

When it comes to marketing on Facebook, the network has come a long way. That’s not surprising, considering it is now a public company and needs to provide value to the businesses that use it.

That said, Facebook is constantly going through changes – some more drastic than others – and it is not always easy to keep up.

One of the great features that Facebook provides for marketers is the ability to look at post details on Facebook to see exactly what your audience is doing when they come across and engage with your content.

Superficially, it’s a simple feature. But when you tie it into some of the great data that Facebook Insights provides, it can be extremely valuable.

Have a look at the video below and see for yourself why the ability to look at your post details on Facebook can be a great asset when marketing your brand on the world’s largest social network.

Marketers are Moving On from ROI; Data the New Challenge

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Leveraging data is now the biggest challenge facing marketers.

social business big data leveraging dataSince the dawn of social business, one of the greatest challenges facing marketers was how they could measure ROI. It is ironic that in a field that has so long been dominated by the immeasurable – the hope that print media gets into the right hands, the dollar value of great branding – now, the most measurable feature of all was being criticized for its inability to be measured.

Marketers are now moving past this issue, particularly as they begin to understand how social media, in particular, Social Equity, can be measured. The new challenge facing marketers: leveraging data and making it actionable.

Recently, StrongView released their “2014 Marketing Trends Survey” and the results are very interesting.

What is so interesting about it?

Well, for starters, the findings seem to allude to a more evolved digital marketer. There is no longer a focus on the issues of measurability – which many social marketing evangelists would tell you was never a major issue – but rather a focus on how the vast amounts of data can be leveraged by brands.

What’s more, marketing is getting more attention. This means two things. First, on a macro scale, when it comes to business, marketing expenditures are generally a good indication of how the economy is performing. This survey found that 93% of those surveyed planned on increasing or, at least maintaining their marketing budgets in 2014, up 4% from 2013.

On a micro level, this means that the value of big data and new age digital marketing strategies is finally being recognized by businesses of all sizes. Now, the question is how to use it.

What exactly is big data?

Big data is exactly what it sounds like: it a whole lot of data. We wrote an article a little while ago detailing exactly what big data is and how it can be used by brands.

So why is it so valuable?

Well, big data provides business with insights into their audience, industry, brand and competitors that has never before been captured. There are billions of social accounts on dozens of networks out there, each capturing and publishing so much content that it is literally impossible to keep up.

It is no surprise that brands are having a tough time leveraging data.

What do you mean by leveraging data?

These endless fields of data are ripe for the harvest, but so few marketers know where to start with it. When billions of pieces of data exist out there about your industry, or even your audience alone, how can you turn it into something valuable?

Leveraging data can mean quite a few different things. First, data can be used for branding purposes. When you look at the data collected about your audience, you can position your brand – at least on social – to relate as closely as possible to them.

It can also mean more efficient marketing and advertising campaigns, both in and out of social.

Imagine knowing exactly what your audience tastes and preferences were, and having the ability to build campaigns targeted to those preferences. That is a benefit that leveraging data can have for your brand.

Again, this is much easier said than done. With so much to sift through, even the most experienced marketers are having a tough time getting a grasp on big data. That’s not their fault – this is a brand new concept, and a very exciting one at that.

What else have we learned about marketers?

The StrongView report also points out that, as per usual, there are a lack of resources to execute comprehensive initiatives. The irony here is that the biggest issue – leveraging data – can’t really be dealt with until the second major issue – lack of resources – has been addressed. But such is life.

Marketers are also looking to improve engagement, while 36% want to improve their targeting.

There are more great stats available in the summary and the report as a whole here.

So what can we expect in 2014?

It appears that data, in all its glory, will be the focal point of the marketer’s 2014. As the business world has slowly come aboard the move to social business and integrated digital marketing, it is finally time to see what great benefits these new media can have.

What are your biggest challenges when it comes to marketing right now? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Top Content Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2014 [INFOGRAPHIC]

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We can expect to see some of these content marketing trends pick up steam in 2014.

Content marketing is storytelling. It is, essentially, what attracts people to our brands online. Last year, we saw a major explosion is the concept of content marketing. Now that it is an established practice, we can expect to see some of these content marketing trends take shape in the coming year.

Research by Content Marketing Institute noted that most business plan on increasing their involvement in content marketing in some form or another in 2014, particularly through the use of social media.

If you have not yet involved yourself in content marketing, or taken the time to learn more about it, now is a good time to start.

How do you plan on engaging in content marketing in 2014? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Top 6 Content Marketing Trends to Watch Out This 2014 (Infographic) - An Infographic from Digital Marketing Philippines

Embedded from Digital Marketing Philippines

How to Track Goals in Google Analytics [VIDEO]

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Ever wonder how you can track goals in Google Analytics?

goals in google analyticsGoogle Analytics is an outstanding tool. With the right filters, goals, segments and understanding, it can be as powerful as many enterprise level softwares when it comes to tracking the success of your digital and social marketing.

But in order to get to that point, you need to know how to set the system up. Unlike many enterprise level analytics systems, Google Analytics requires quite a bit of manual labor.

While entire blogs can be (and have been) written about the intricacies of Google Analytics, this short video simply explains how to go about creating and tracking simple goals in Google Analytics. Have a watch and try setting some up on your account to see how they work.

Hint: It is best to create a separate view in Google Analytics when testing different functions in order to prevent any permanent changes or losses to your data.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc5kpNHG0tU&feature=youtu.be

6 Components to Include in Your Social Business Plan

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When developing a social business plan for your brand, there are certain components that simply must be included.

social business plan componentsAs social business becomes the norm, brands are beginning to understand that in order to succeed, there needs to be a comprehensive social business plan in place before getting started. Simply diving headfirst into social media is no longer an option. If a company is serious about transitioning into the social era, then a social business plan is a must.

While every brand will have a unique social business plan that suits their goals, there are certain components that every social business plan needs to include. These six elements should be included in every social business strategy, or at the very least should be seriously considered when drafting a social business plan for your brand.

Social Media & Strategy Audit

What does your current involvement in social media look like? In order to create an effective and useful social business plan, you first need to get a good look at what your current activity on social channels looks like, and give yourself a good criticism.

You might be doing some things right, but look honestly at your work, figure out what you want to accomplish and determine where you might be going wrong. Sometimes, this is a difficult task for a business. After all, we never like to think of ourselves as doing anything wrong. When this is the case, it is sometimes beneficial to bring in an unbiased third party to conduct the audit.

The SocialSandBoxTM

Where do you want to have a presence? Determine what your brand’s SocialSandboxTM is going to look like by evaluating major (and minor) social networks and determining how they can help you achieve your goals.

You might find that some networks are better for helping you achieve certain goals. A keen understanding of every network’s strengths and weaknesses is going to be a must-have when determining this part of your social business plan, so take your time to learn everything there is to know about the major players (and there is a lot to know).

Content Strategy

Social media is all about telling stories that people want to share with their circles. Your content strategy is how your brand awareness is going to increase and, ultimately, what is going to be the driving force behind the success of your program. Figure out what people want to hear about, when they want to hear about it and where they are most likely to pay attention. The answers are going to shape your content strategy.

Social Competitive Analysis

You are not talking in a vacuum. There are billions of conversations already taking place and there is a significant likelihood that at least a few of your competitors are taking part.

In your social business plan, you are going to want to do some research into your competitors’ social business strategies and determine how you want to stand out and what you would like to do both similarly and differently. Analyze what they have done, what they have achieved and set benchmarks that compare to your industry’s standards based on what you have observed.

Data Mining

‘Big Data’ is the buzz word of the day and it can be an invaluable asset to your business – if you use it properly. In order to leverage your data and create Responsive Branding campaigns, you are going to have to properly mine it from the right channels.

Develop a data mining sub-strategy within your social business plan in order to effectively sift through the billions of pieces of data that exist in order to pull out what is most relevant to your company.

Measurement and ROI

One of the most crucial components of any social business plan is going to be the measurement and ROI criteria. These need to be established from the beginning of your transition into a social business. In order to determine if you are succeeding, you need to first determine your key performance indicators (KPIs) and then figure out how you plan on measuring success rates.

There are a number of tools and technologies that can be used to measure the tangible results, but with some returns, you might need to get creative. What is a follower worth? Well, for example, you can determine what percentage of social leads convert, what the value of a conversion is, then apply that ratio to each new fan or follower.

There are plenty of ways to measure your success with social media. You just need to figure out first what you are measuring.

What other components do you think need to be included in a social business plan? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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Insights

Our blog is full of important news and information for you.

Books, white papers and more

Members of t2 are keynote speakers at international digital marketing conferences, content contributors.

Specialized Expertise

t2 can grow your business across integrated verticals. Contact us for help with website development and technical needs, growing your ecommerce or Amazon business, and Web3 projects.