Social Media for Business Archives

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!

3 Audiences on Social Media You Are Marketing To

September 24, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What audiences on social media are you targeting with your marketing?

We are all familiar with demographics when it comes to social media. We might be looking to target middle-aged women, or college-aged men, but these criteria are pretty superficial. We need to ask ourselves what audiences on social media we are really looking to target when it comes to social marketing.

There are three very specific types of audiences that we aim to engage with on social networks. Each of these groups engage with brands in very different ways, and our marketing efforts need to reflect that.

In order to simplify the explanation of these audiences, we’ll stick to one, easy example: a health research institute.

Direct Affect

When it comes to health, wellness and research, there is a small group that consistently has one aspect of the field or another on their mind. These are people who have been directly affected by the illness or condition that the research is looking to cure.

For the health research institute, the goal in using social media is to keep this highly and inherently engaged audience up-to-date with the work that is being done and breakthroughs in the field.

While sharing content every second of every day is not necessarily going to be the best course of action for most brands, there should be an attempt to keep this audience active on social channels by sharing content relatively consistently.

First-Degree Separation

Now a much larger population when it comes to this health research institute is going to be the one made up primarily of people who have not experienced the condition that the research is hoping to cure, but who can relate personally to it due to the fact that someone they know or are related to someone who has.

This is a group that does not consistently think of this ailment, but when it is brought to their attention, it certainly resonates. For the health research institute, there needs to be an effort every so often to remind this second audience on social media as to why they exist.

This audience does not follow the activity of the health research brand as closely as the first group, but calls to action will certainly resonate, often profoundly.

Societal Connection

The third and final audience on social networks is the one least aware or affected by the brand. This group is not thinking about the activity of a brand consistently, if ever, and will likely not pay attention to the content unless it is relevant within society.

One example of this is the month of October for breast cancer awareness. During this month, the cause is seen almost everywhere, from community fundraisers to the NFL. It is during this period that research institutes can generate new awareness within this third audience. From there, during the rest of the year, the content shared to the first degree audience may seem a little more relevant to this somewhat removed group, and calls to action may generate more success.

Of course, there are other audiences we may find on social networks. But these three categories need to be front of mind when creating content. Understand what types of audiences will be looking at your content, and diversify your content strategy in order to appeal to every one of those audiences.

How do you appeal to all three of these audiences on social media? 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: Social Media Measurability

September 20, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social media measurability is one of the driving elements behind the value of social media.

There are few things that social marketers hate more than hearing the phrase, “You can’t measure social media.” Virtually every single aspect of your social media marketing initiatives is measurable, and it is this social media measurability that can add tremendous value to your business.

Consider other forms of marketing. Has there ever been an initiative or campaign as tangibly measurable as social media? It’s very hard to think of one. The Social Equity that this social media measurability offers can be considerable for quite a few reasons.

Justify Your Costs

When it comes to marketing and advertising, there are some initiatives that we simply have to trust blindly. With the exception of focus groups and questionnaires, it is hard to say whether a particular initiative worked.

When it comes to social media, you can easily justify the costs that it incurs. The ability to measure every single element on social and see exactly how your activity translates into Social Equity means that there is no longer a need to blindly trust an initiative. Justify every penny you spend, and showcase why a certain budget is required.

See Tangible Results

In keeping with the theme of the previous point, every single aspect can be measured in order to ensure that every single aspect is performing.

By incorporating the concept of Responsive Branding into the mix, you can make real-time modifications to your social media marketing initiatives in order to ensure that your program produces the highest possible returns.

Watch Your Business Grow

Another great feature that comes with social media measurability is the fact that you can see exactly how your business is growing online. Of course, Google Analytics provides insights into your activity online. But setting up your Google Analytics Social Dashboard and incorporating the performance monitored there with your other measurement criteria will mean watching how and where your audience is growing most rapidly.

The concept of Social Equity relates to using social media to build your business. As your social audience and results increase, so does the long-term value added to your company.

Everything on social is measurable. There is virtually no feature of a social media program that cannot be measured in some form or another.

What is your favorite measurement criteria on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: McDonald’s on Facebook

September 19, 2013/by Corey Padveen

A great example of practices to avoid in your Facebook strategy comes from McDonald’s on Facebook.

Have you ever visited McDonald’s on Facebook? The brand might look great by the numbers – nearly 30M likes, tons of check-ins, and plenty of engagement on their individual posts – but if you look closely, you’ll see that the brand is displaying some bad habits that smaller companies, without a household name, should probably avoid.

When it comes to McDonald’s on Facebook, there are certain things that the company can get away with based solely on the nature of the brand. Those golden arches are recognized the world over, and there is little the brand can do without getting a massive amount of attention for it – for better or worse.

There are three things that the brand does on Facebook, however, that might work for McDonald’s, but should be avoided at all costs by smaller brands without the commercial clout the fast food chain has to fall back on.

No Engagement

Despite the fact that every post shared by McDonald’s generates hundreds if not thousands of comments by fans of the brand, McDonald’s has virtually never responded to a single user.

Now when a post generates hundreds of responses in a matter of hours, it might be hard to respond to every one of them – that’s fair. But there is not so much as a ‘Thank You’ by the brand anywhere. Now pretend this was not McDonald’s. Let’s say it was a small, single-location restaurant with a loyal customer base. Would it not seem strange if people were sharing content and reaching out to the company and being completely ignored?

There should always be some form of Social Care in place – customer service on social media. Let your audience know that you are listening and being social, and not simply using the platform to promote your brands.

And that brings us to the second faux pas by the brand.

All About the Sale

Go through the posts shared by McDonald’s on Facebook, and you might be surprised to see that almost everything the company is sharing is promoting their products – and nothing else. With the exception of a few albums for some McDonald’s-sponsored events or Monopoly, everything McDonald’s shares has that sales pitch feeling to it.

Again, what would people say if a brand without the commercial clout that McDonald’s has started doing this? It probably wouldn’t go over so well.

No Thanks Given

Despite consistently high levels of engagement with their sales-based posts, there is nothing unique offered by McDonald’s on their Facebook page in order to reward loyal fans.

Take a look at what Cadbury did to thank their fans on Facebook, and you’ll see an excellent example of a brand showing customer appreciation. McDonald’s makes no effort to show gratitude, and one has to assume that if those golden arches were not behind it, would they find as much success on Facebook?

It might look good on the surface – hard to argue that close to 30 million fans is a bad thing – but in reality, McDonald’s exhibits several ‘Do Nots’ when it comes to Facebook. Smaller brands would be best to take the McDonald’s Facebook strategy as a list of practices to avoid.

What big brands do you think have done a great job on Facebook or other social channels? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

5 Best Types of Blog Content

September 18, 2013/by Corey Padveen

There are certain types of blog content that are going to generate some much better results than others – for any blog.

It’s no secret that blogs are a great way to increase business, showcase your expertise and ramp up your search rankings, but there are just some types of blog content that perform better than others.

It’s simple: there are things people like to read, and others that they do not. In this list are the five best types of blog content to share, regardless of the industry you are writing for. (Some people may have different opinions of what the best types of blog content are, but these are almost certain to be right up there, at least in the average blogging expert’s top 10.)

‘Best Of’ Posts

When is the last time you looked up a ‘Worst Of’ list when trying to choose among your the options you had available? Probably never.

People love ‘Best Of’ lists because it provides insights that they might not have otherwise known about. When trying to choose the best platform on which to publish your blog, you are probably going to type ‘Best Blogging Platform’ into your search engine and choose among the top results.

This should apply when writing your articles as well; people are always interested in knowing what the best options are.

Oppositional Posts

When you read a headline that completely contradicts everything you’ve ever thought, aren’t you at least a little interested in reading more? Think about it.

If you saw an article pop up on your search results or on a Facebook or Twitter feed that read ‘Why blogging will lead to the end of your business’, don’t you think you might be inclined to read about it? People like to get every perspective they can on a subject. Even if they do not agree with you, they might still be inclined to see why you are making your argument.

Practical Advice

When you have no idea what to do, maybe an unbiased third party has the answer.

Write an article that shares some practical advice that relates to your subject matter. Helpful insights are always appreciated by blog readers regardless of the field in which the blog categorizes itself.

Reviews

Why do you think websites like Yelp! or TripAdvisor have become so incredibly popular? People like to read reviews. Rotten Tomatoes is an aggregator for several reviews – both professional and personal – and it has become huge!

Before diving into something that someone might not be very familiar with, reading an honest review might be helpful. If your blog shares some of those honest reviews, you can certainly expect to capture some readers’ attention.

Lists

You’re reading this article, aren’t you?

Some of the most popular content on blogs today are lists that name the ‘Top #’ or the ‘Worst #’. People are always interested in reading lists – much like the ‘Best Of’ but a little more broad – to learn more about a particular subject or field.

Write with some of the types of content in mind and it won’t be long before you start to see your blog posts grow in popularity. This is, of course, assuming you are promoting them correctly!

What types of blog posts do you think do the best job of grabbing an audience’s attention? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Reasons Why Social Media is a Must for Business

September 17, 2013/by Corey Padveen

There is a lot out there that defends the use of social media, but here are four reasons why social media is a must for business.

It’s everywhere. We hear about it every day and yet, there are still some companies out there that do not believe in the potential that social media offers. Well, below are four reasons why social media is a must for business and shouldn’t be ignored – by anybody.

Everybody’s Doing It

Admittedly, this is something our parents warned us against when we were younger: “If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do that too?” But social media is different!

Over a quarter (27%) of time spent online by American consumers is now spent on some form of social network. What’s more 85% of Internet users have a Facebook account, and 49% have Twitter accounts! It’s hard to argue the other side when there is only a small minority left on it. (Eventually, even the most devout BlackBerry users switched to another device.)

It Spreads the Word

How much has your company spent on trade shows? What about telemarketing or PPC? Well, did you know that a properly implemented social media program generates double the amount of marketing leads as those marketing efforts?

The average Facebook user has 141.5 connections, and the average Twitter user has 208. Where else will you be able to reach such a broad audience with one line of text?

Marketing on Steroids

53% of companies have found at least one customer on Facebook, 43% of LinkedIn and 36% on Twitter. Social media lead conversion rates are also 13% higher than the average lead conversion. Ask any marketer: these numbers deserve double, triple even quadruple takes.

It Helps Business and Sales

60% of customers give feedback – willingly – to brands on social networks. That feedback can be applied to your business in order to improve the customer experience and drive new sales.

When it comes to sales, over 50% of marketers believe that social media has helped them improve sales. And in the retail industry, 73% of brands have found a new customer on Facebook. Lastly, 81% of social media users have their purchasing decisions influenced by comments made by friends on social networks.

Social media is an extremely powerful tool and it is right there in the numbers. Don’t miss the boat and think it’s a fad. Social media is a must for business!

Which of these stats do you think is most interesting? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Interesting Vine Statistics [INFOGRAPHIC]

September 16, 2013/by Corey Padveen

We do not hear too much about Vine statistics, but there are some interesting ones available.

Last week, Dunkin’ Donuts premiered a commercial made entirely out of Vine videos. We don’t hear too much about Vine – at least not since Instagram video was made available to the public. Still, there are plenty of very interesting Vine statistics featured in this infographic.

Six seconds can be a very long time. There is a lot you can showcase in just a few seconds of video. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many can a video be worth? Still, people rarely talk about Vine even though it can still be used as a powerful part of a marketing strategy.

Of the Vine statistics below, we are most inclined to focus on the fact that since Instagram launched its video service, 37% more Instragram videos are shared on Twitter (Vine’s parent network) compared to Vine. That said, there are still some pretty interesting Vine statistics here, and they should be incorporated into any strategy when it comes to the network.

Which ones do you think is most interesting? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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: General Electric on LinkedIn

September 12, 2013/by Corey Padveen

How was a major impact made in specific industries by General Electric on LinkedIn?

As one of the largest brands in the world, there are not many verticals in which General Electric has not made an impact. When the energy and healthcare divisions wanted to reach out to influencers and policymakers around the world to promote new initiatives, the most logical choice was for the brand to focus on LinkedIn.

Using content and display ads geared towards industry leaders around the world, Sponsored InMail to speak directly to individual users, and by building communities around the content of General Electric on LinkedIn, some impressive results were achieved.

By the end of the campaign, General Electric saw a 5.75% interaction rate with their ads, leading to over 1,300 downloads. They also saw a whopping 13% open rate for their InMails geared towards specific industry leaders and personalized for the individual. Ultimately, there was a high rate of traffic generated as a result of their efforts on LinkedIn.

The Lessons

What can marketers take away from this campaign? General Electric can teach virtually any business professional a lesson or two in any of their campaigns. Just a few weeks ago, we even wrote another case study on General Electric. But in this case, even one of the largest brands in the world used the tools available to the average LinkedIn user in the right way, and the results were outstanding. Here’s why.

Find Your Audience

Would there have been the same results for this campaign if it had been conducted on Facebook, Twitter, or some other network? Probably not. General Electric succeeded with this campaign because from the outset, there was a clear target audience in place, and research showed the brand where they would be most likely to find success in targeting said group.

Know where your audience is before launching a campaign. It will be much harder to succeed when you know who you want to target, but do not know where they are talking.

Develop a Strategy

Strategy is at the heart of any successful social media program or campaign. In this particular case, it was clear that every aspect of a social media strategy was considered before launching the campaign. In doing so, each step was easily measurable and General Electric was able to monitor their successes and knew exactly where improvement would be needed in the future.

Personalize Your Campaigns

When sending InMail to industry leaders, General Electric was able to personalize their campaign. People like the one-on-one approach from big brands, particularly the largest in the world. That is why General Electric saw such a high open rate on these messages. People like to be addressed by name. A personal touch goes a long way on social media, and should never be discounted.

What other factors do you think went in to the success of General Electric on LinkedIn? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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