Tools & Technologies Archives

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 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!

4 Ways to Increase Sales on Social Media

September 11, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Social selling can be a little tricky, but these tips are sure to help you increase sales on social media.

It can be hard to increase sales on social media. This is especially true when you consider the fact that people are not necessarily on social media to be sold. Social selling is a delicate art form that, with much practice, can be one of the greatest tools in your sales arsenal.

There are certain Dos and Don’ts when it comes to social selling. Below are four tips that will help you increase sales on social media. Keep in mind, like anything, social selling takes time. Nurturing your lead is going to be crucial to finding success.

Relationship First, Sales Second

If the first thing a new Twitter follower receives from you is a direct message that reads, “Buy our products at LINK!” you might be underwhelmed at the click through rate.

People engage on social media platforms in order to be social, not to be sold. At least not right away. Once a fan or follower develops a rapport with your brand, then you can casually move over to the sale. However, keep in mind that not all fans are leads, so be sure to have a set of criteria in place in order to qualify your social leads before getting to the sale. You certainly do not want to scare them off.

Listen to Conversations

What is being discussed in your industry? You don’t need an expensive, enterprise-level listening software in order to figure this out. Following hashtags or mentions with free softwares can provide you with the insights you need to position yourself for the sale.

Knowing what is being discussed by potential customers allows you to involve yourself organically in the conversation to build that relationship before selling a product or service.

Solve a Problem

Ever wonder why so many companies sell solutions? A lot of potential leads don’t know they have a problem until a solution is proposed!

When listening to conversations in your industry, learn what issue continuously arises and, once again, position yourself as having the solution for those problems. There is no better way to grab the attention of your audience than by telling them that you can make their life (and business) easier.

Don’t Sugar Coat It

Eventually, we get to a point where we know when we are being sold. It becomes painfully obvious. The only thing that consumers do not appreciate is being told that they are not being sold when they clearly are. It’s undermining and pushes them away rather than brings them closer.

When you reach that point, present your service or product and make the sale. Don’t drag a sale on longer than it needs to go. Leads don’t like it (if they’re buying, they’re buying) and it hurts your business (that’s a lot of time wasted).

Next time you try selling on social, employ some of these techniques and see how it helps!

What strategy do you use to increase sales on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: DKNY #UK2012

September 5, 2013/by Corey Padveen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So what can marketers learn from the campaign?

Adapt to Changing Markets

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

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

Capitalize on Influence

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

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

Every Channel Has Its Use

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

Big Spending Is Not Big Return on Social Media

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

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

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

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

How Restaurants Use Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

September 2, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Restaurants are very well-equipped to succeed using social media, they just need to know how to use it!

There is no shortage of examples for how restaurants use social media. We did a case study on a restaurant’s use of Instagram a short while back to showcase just one of the ways social media can be a powerful tool for restaurants.

However, despite the obvious use of review sites like Yelp! or sharing images of food on Facebook or Instagram, some restaurants have a hard time understanding how they can benefit from the strategic use of social media.

In the infographic below, there are ten great examples of how restaurants use social media, and what they can do differently in order to benefit from the tools. Though some of these uses may seem trivial, many restauranteurs and marketing teams tend to overlook even the most obvious uses of social media when it comes to their restaurants or restaurant clients.

Take a look through some of these examples and think back on when you engaged with a restaurant on social media, and what they did differently that made you remember them. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Examples of Vine by General Electric

August 22, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Video clips are becoming an increasingly popular feature of social media marketing, and there are several examples of Vine used both well and poorly by different brands.

Ever since Twitter’s acquisition of Vine earlier this year, we have seen different brands sharing examples of Vine – sometimes used in an innovative, excellent way, and other times we feel as though they missed the mark completely.

In some cases, when companies use Vine and other short video tools as part of their social media marketing, we can have both good and bad examples of Vine by the same brand.

General Electric tends to use Vine quite often. They have done some very unique and exciting things with the tool, but there have also been instances where they missed the target by a mile. Below is an example of each with some explanations as to why one works while the other falters.

Vine Used Well

On Pi Day (you know, March 14th, or 3.14) General Electric decided to wish everyone a Happy Pi Day with a quick Vine of an endless Pi-themed pie.

https://vine.co/v/bd1xMduMTp9

Why It Works

It is easy, clean and gets a friendly message across is a simple way. While there is a lot you can do in six seconds, you certainly don’t want to do too much. If you’ll recall, The Wolverine tried to pack a two hour movie into a six second Vine. This makes it hard to follow and instead of conveying everything, you end up with nothing that resonates. General Electric hit the right note with this Vine. People who knew what it was for were very appreciative, and it was clear enough that some people probably learned about Pi Day as well.

Vine Used Poorly

Even if you are right on target 99% percent of the time, that still leaves one in every hundred that will not work. This was the case with Inventor’s Day and General Electric’s attempt with Vine.

https://vine.co/v/bvdXevrLW5p

Why It Doesn’t Work

First of all, if you listen to this Vine with sound, you are wondering what in the world is happening. The biggest issue here is that the concept might make sense in theory, but the execution is all wrong.

The Harlem Shake videos were short to begin with, but they work on their own because of certain key features, namely the music and style. They cannot be condensed into six seconds. The issue with this Vine by General Electric is that it is clearly forced, and trying to take advantage of a popular concept for the sake of relating to a mass audience.

The idea does not work organically, and it shows. The key to a Vine is to do something intelligent that fits into the parameters. For this case, it simply did not work on Vine.

What other examples of Vine used both well and poorly can you think of? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 of the Best Content Curation Tools

August 21, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What are some of the best content curation tools that exist for bloggers and marketers?

If you’ve ever written a blog or managed social networks, you know how difficult it can be to consistently produce great, original content for your readers and fans. When publishing content on a regular basis, one of the easiest ways to facilitate the activity is to use one of the best content curation tools on the market.

Below are 4 of the best content curation tools that exist on the web. Take a look at them and see how they can help you find great content to review and share with your readers and fans on social media.

Curata

This enterprise-level content curation software scours the web for topic-relevant content. Though it is not for everyone – it boasts a starting price of roughly $1,000 – it does sift through a tremendous amount of content and produces only the most viable and high quality content to share to your social networks and blog.

There is also an option of hosting a microsite for those without a standalone blog.

Aggregage

Community building is one of the most difficult tasks faced by any social or marketing manager. To build a community around your content requires a lot of time and a serious commitment.

Luckily, Aggregage is designed to build communities around relevant content by sourcing it from around the web. You choose your niche, and Aggregage will find blogs, whitepapers, articles and other bits of content to share to your audience.

BagTheWeb

Have you ever found yourself on a website or blog with great content but no way of sharing it with your communities? BagTheWeb is designed to help you find great content, place it into your topic “bags” and share those “bags” with communities of interested readers.

The tool makes it very easy to collect content from anywhere and share it everywhere.

Eqentia

Though there are plans for individual users with Eqentia, this content curation and engagement platform is designed for serious enterprise users.

The enterprise version of the software allows users to mine for content, curate tens of thousands of items, edit the filters in real-time that bring the content to your portal, re-publish content, brand your curated content, integrate social media accounts and, lastly, monitor analytics to see how your content is being perceived by your audience.

All in all, Eqentia is designed for users that are very serious about publishing topic-specific content.

Though these are some great content curation tools, they are not the only ones. There are several other tools out there – free and paid – that can help you with your publishing efforts.

How do you source great content to share? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 SEO Tips for Blogging Beginners

August 13, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Blogging can be fun and help drive traffic to your site, but there are a few crucial SEO tips for blogging beginners.

Your blog will be one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal when it comes to driving an audience to your site. However, in order to fully capitalize on the great benefits associated with blogging, there are a few SEO tips for blogging beginners that should be well understood before you get started.

Keywords Matter…but in the Right Places

Keyword density has become less relevant with all the more recent changes to Google’s algorithm. Filling your article with keywords will not only look bad, but Google will penalize your post (and possibly your site) for this black hat SEO technique. That said, keywords are still quite important in certain areas.

On your blog, get a keyword in your post title, your meta description and alt tags (in photos). Though packing your article with keywords is no longer an effective technique, knowing where your keywords matter still is.

Always Use Images

A picture is worth a thousand words – and in the case of SEO, a picture can be worth a thousand more visits.

With the proper alt tags (with a keyword) in your photos, you stand to increase the chances of having your blog found by people searching images with your designated keyword. Not only do images make your post look better, there are also some crucial SEO benefits as well, so don’t overlook their importance.

Write for Your Audience

Are you writing for engineers with a highly technical understanding of your subject matter, or do-it-yourselfers with little to no idea how to screw in a lightbulb let alone rewire an electrical system? It is important to identify your target audience and write specifically for them.

Sure, this might mean that the average individual will not relate to your content, but if you are trying to find customers that fall into certain demographics, you need to appeal to them directly. Take a look here for a few more of these blog writing tips.

Do Some Research

You might have a baking blog and want to optimize for the term ‘cake’. Bad news, your post will likely never hit the top spot on Google (not in the foreseeable future, anyway). To get the real benefits of keyword optimization, you are going to need to do a little bit of research.

Find out what your competitors are ranking well for and where there is room for potential. You will want to mix it up, optimizing for keywords that have little competition and occasionally jumping into the mix with the more competitive keywords.

Also, focus on long-tail keywords (‘vanilla frosted layered cake’ instead of ‘cake’). There may not be as many monthly searches for your long-tail keywords, but when people do search for them, you know they will be finding you.

These are just a few of the more important SEO tips for blogging beginners. There is plenty more to learn about SEO along the way, but these should help get you started on the road to blogging success.

What other good SEO tips can you think when it comes to blogging? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

5 Great Social Media Monitoring Tools

July 30, 2013/by Corey Padveen

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

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

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

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

Yext

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

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

Reputation.com

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

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

Brandwatch

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

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

Tweetbeep

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

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

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

BrandsEye

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

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

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

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!