We all fear the dreaded social media crisis, and it is important to have a clear cut policy in place when it comes to managing the situation.
Have you ever looked at your overall social business strategy and asked yourself if you have a clear-cut set of steps to follow in the event of a social media crisis? Few brands do. No one likes to think about the devastating social media crisis but it is imperative that we do. After all, we have all seen cases of brands that have no strategy in place and what that can lead to.
There are a few steps that need to be taken in order to effectively manage a social media crisis. How you handle a situation will, of course, be at your discretion. But before you act, take a step back, take a deep breath and follow these instructions.
1. Figure Out What Happened
In the American political system use of the word “coup” to describe civil unrest in another region has some pretty severe consequences. That is why, when something does break out, politicians are very hesitant to use the word. On a much, much smaller scale, you need to have the same approach to a social media crisis.
One or two negative reviews on Yelp! or Trip Advisor does not a crisis make. If you open your social profiles to find a few negative comments, figure out where they originated, to what they are referring and determine whether or not this constitutes a real social media crisis.
In the strategy you create for handling crises it’s crucial that you outline what constitutes a social media crisis. When something does erupt on your social channels, trace it back to the origin and determine if you need to be in full panic mode or if this is something that can be handled easily.
2. Assign Priority Steps
Now, for argument’s sake, let’s say this is a crisis of epic proportions. What you’ll need to do is determine the order of actions determined by priority. If a crisis has reached major news outlets, maybe a press release should take precedent before reaching out to your social audience. If you are facing a barrage of criticism on Facebook, maybe you should focus your efforts on quelling the situation there before moving on to less active networks.
One thing to keep in mind at this point is that there is a notable difference between social crisis and social media engagement.
When engaging with your audience on a day-to-day basis, you want to give equal attention to your most influential audience members as well as those with very few followers and little social clout. While it might seem like a harsh reality, the same does not hold true for crises. In a social media crisis, not every one of your followers can be treated equally. Of course, over time you are going to want to address all comments (or as many as possible) in order to maintain your brand’s integrity. But at the beginning stages, you are going to have to order your individual responses in terms of influence.
The repercussions of a major industry influencer tweeting that they despise your brand are far greater than the repercussions of the negative tweet from a user who created an account simply to spite you. Keep in mind that in the time of a crisis, it is not business as usual.
3. Determine Appropriate Responses
OK – so you have laid out the exact order in which you plan on responding to this crisis, now it’s time to decide how you are going to respond.
There are two ways to go about responding to the crisis: you can either be on the defense (not in the conventional sense), apologizing to your fans and assuring them that this will never happen again, or on the offense, defending your product and explaining, calmly and with a sound argument, why the crisis does not reflect your overall business. Let’s look at a few examples.
Defense
A little while back, Home Depot tweeted an image that was largely seen to be racist and tasteless. While the brand made it clear that it was a third party that was responsible for sharing the message, they had no choice but to take responsibility for what had happened and assure the public that this did not reflect the values of the brand.
This was a clear example of a crisis. And this probably did some damage to the brand’s integrity. But by owning up to the incident, explaining what had taken place and trying to fix it, people eventually forgave them.
Offense
Let’s preface this by saying that going on the offense in the event of a crisis is a 1-for-100 case. Rarely will your brand succeed by standing by your position, particularly when you are in the wrong. That said, when done correctly and, more importantly, under the right circumstances, it can be an excellent way of quelling a crisis.
During the most recent Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Under Armour came under fire when the American speed skating team, for whom Under Armour had designed the ‘fastest’ suits ever made, failed to win or even place.
Instead of apologizing and assuring the world that they would try harder on the next go around, Under Armour decided to defend their product and explain that they were not to blame. Essentially, the brand did not levy the blame elsewhere (as they easily could have) but instead stood by their product, explained the reality of the sport and came out on top, with more long-term contracts being signed in the aftermath.
Going on the offensive is a risky move. If it works it is bold and genius. If it flops, your brand may never recover. Make the choice wisely.
4. Assign Tasks
Now you know that it is a crisis, you know the priority of responding and you have determined how you want to respond. It’s time to assign tasks to different teams.
As noted above, a crisis is not business as usual. Your customer service team is on apology duty, your social media team is an engagement team and your PR team is reaching out to any and all services to try and prevent the story from growing any bigger. And keep in mind that all of this is happening in seconds. You need to assign tasks and roles.
Again, this is a feature that needs to be included in your crisis management strategy. Figure out who approves outgoing messages. Make sure your teams are all working toward a specific goal and not flying by the seat of their pants. Instinct might be a great thing when creating a new campaign, but a crisis requires knowledge and logic.
This is where the prioritization is going to be extremely valuable. When there is a checklist of items that a team is responsible for (in order) it becomes much easier to get a handle on a situation.
5. Take Ownership
Of course, over the entirety of the crisis management process you have been taking ownership of the situation. At no point did you deny that anything had happened or told your unhappy followers that they were being too sensitive. (NOTE: Do not do that.) But once the highest-rising flames have been extinguished, it’s time to get out there, clearly explain what had happened and convey your sincerest apologies.
We’ve all seen examples of CEOs and VPs posting videos to blogs, YouTube and other social channels explaining a situation. A branded apology is much better than a quote in a news publication. You want people to see that you are taking ownership of a mistake and, more important learning from it.
6. Know When You Can’t Win
According to Jay Baer, “Never send a third reply. A third reply is an argument, not an answer. On the third reply, you take it offline.” Put simply, you can’t please everyone. There are some times when you simply aren’t going to give an audience member what he or she wants. You need to know when to walk away.
Continually responding doesn’t look good. Your brand does not need to get the last word in. When responding to individuals, send the apology, maybe send a follow up explaining what had happened, but don’t start going in circles. Accept that a crisis means you might lose a fan or two. It’s a reality of doing business on a large, public and social scale.
Conclusion
Your brand should learn from what has happened. A crisis is a great opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t. Learn what makes you audience tick and what they dislike. This will help generate brand loyalists down the road and keep you from encountering another crisis.
How does your brand handle crises? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
Turning Big Data Into Smart Data
/by Corey PadveenBig data is an exciting concept and we hear a lot about it, but we need to get our data working towards achieving business goals.
Big data is exciting. We hear about it everywhere we go. There are virtually limitless applications for these kinds of data, but when it comes to our businesses, we need to ensure that our own big data is working towards achieving the goals we have set for ourselves. This is the difference between your average big data, and smart data. But how exactly can we get our data working for us? Not all of us are mathematicians, and with the exception of a few of us, not everyone is all that well versed in mass data analysis. So what are we to do?
The beauty of social data is the fact that it is delivered to us in about as useful a form as data can be presented. We simply have to deduce what our social data is telling us, and turn that into an effective strategy or set of strategies.
The set of strategies listed below are easily optimized through the strategic leveraging of big data from your owned social media. Take a look at the process and see if there is any opportunity you might have missed out on!
Content Strategy
If there is one thing that your data is telling you it is how you should optimize your content for increased engagement and conversions. If you’re wondering what exactly a content strategy is, and how it differs from content marketing, click here. The gist of the concept is that your content strategy is the reason why your audience engages with your brand, based on the types of content and the messages that you are publishing. Your content marketing is the process of leveraging that connection in order to acquire new customers.
Your data is providing you with a world of insight into what types of content will resonate best with your target audience. Look for spikes in engagement and reach, correlations among those spikes and identify exactly how you can craft content that you know will increase overall engagement with your brand.
Think about it this way: say you analyze your data and notice six spikes in the last month where reach and engagement skyrocketed. You look at the content shared at each of those six points and note that at each point in time, your content was shared in the afternoon, featured an image and was posed as a question. These correlations help determine exactly how to structure the content you want to perform best on your social networks.
Social Ad Spend
John Wanamaker is credited as telling the world that half of his ad dollars were wasted, he just couldn’t tell you which half. That’s no longer the case when it comes to the powers offered by social data.
Your social data is telling you not only what demographics make up your largest audience, but also which demographics are most engaged with your content.
Screenshot taken 4/28/2014
Based on these engaged audiences, consider how you want to spend your ad dollars. The targeting capabilities that exist within social advertising platforms are unparalleled. Never before have such detailed audiences been targetable. You can now pinpoint audiences by much more than age and location. Go as deep as interests, political affiliations, marital status and even pages with which they have connected. There are virtually no limits to how targeted you can get, or you can go as broad as ‘everyone’. Use the social data you have at your avail in order to effectively target those audiences that have been most active with your brand (or your competitors).
Social Ad Optimization
For the first time in the history of marketing and advertising, we do not need to wait for a campaign to conclude in order to see our results and optimize a program for better performance in a future campaign. We can now make all the necessary changes in order optimize our performance and results in real time.
The data presented in your social ad campaigns tells you exactly how well a campaign is performing as it is taking place. This data should be used as often as possible in order to ensure that the ad spend discussed above is at no point being wasted. As you begin a campaign, several target demographics should be tested and tweaked until you have found the ideal target audience. You never know where it might come from!
Operations Efficiency
On a much higher level, your social data can help you improve the efficiency of your digital operations. It might sound like fantasy, but it isn’t.
When looking through your activity on social, connecting that to your website and observing the dynamic between the two, there are certain key indicators to pay attention to that can help improve efficiency of your overall marketing efforts when it comes to digital. Using an analytics platform like Google Analytics, you can see how your activity on social media extends to your website. Leverage the insights in your social dashboard to see where your most engaged audience is coming from. You can create goals and filters to see which members of these audiences are most likely to convert.
Screenshot taken 4/28/2014
One added benefit with the recent rollout of Universal Analytics out of Beta is that you can now get additional insights into your website’s audience members on top of the activity in which they are engaging, like gender, age and interests. All of this is hugely valuable when it comes to fine tuning your digital strategies in order to ensure that everything you do is geared towards growing your business.
Conclusion
Big data is exciting on a number of levels. Maybe one day it will be able to predict things like natural disasters, epidemics and change society for the better. On a smaller scale, there is a lot of value to your big data on social networks that most brands are not leveraging.
These are just a few of the ways in which your brand can get some value out of your big data. Perhaps the most exciting aspect is that we still don’t know what all of these data can do!
Have you used your social data in a creative way in order to drive business goals? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
Combining Content Marketing with SEO [INFOGRAPHIC]
/by Corey PadveenContent marketing is the process of telling stories through your content shared to social media; it is also a great way to improve your search rankings.
Content marketing has been a rising star in the realm of social media and digital marketing in recent years. As social business has moved to the forefront, marketers have started to realize that their audience members want to engage with stories. Creating a content strategy and adapting it into a marketing initiative can be challenging. But if it is done correctly, it can provide a world of benefits to your brand.
Among those benefits is search engine optimization. Through the strategic use of your content on social platforms, you can quickly improve your search rankings. This infographic from Blog Most does a great job of showcasing just how effective your content marketing initiatives can be when it comes to improving your search results.
The Best and Worst Features of Major Social Networks for Brands
/by Corey PadveenNot every brand is right for the major social networks, and not every one of those networks is right for a specific brand.
When a brand gets started with social media marketing, the initial thought process is something along the lines of: “I need to be everywhere, all the time, no matter what.” Considering the massive presence that some of the most successful brands have had on major social networks, this is a natural rationalization. But to really find success when it comes to social media marketing, you need to understand two things above all else. The first thing is crucial not only to where you want to have a presence, but to the success of your program as a whole: you need to set your goals. Your goals will be a defining characteristic of virtually every decision you make, and the process that led to that decision. Second, you are going to want to have a fairly strong understanding of the benefits and the drawbacks of every one of the major social networks. For this discussion, the networks that make up that group are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Google+.
One common benefit is obvious: they are popular. You want your brand to have a presence on networks where people are talking. Considering the mass of users these networks have garnered, you are more than likely (in most cases) to find members of your target audience on these platforms. That said, depending on your brand’s message and the social persona you create for your brand, it might not be all that beneficial to have a presence on every one.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the greatest strengths and weaknesses of these five major social networks. Of course, there are others (dozens if not hundreds, depending on what you consider a social network) on which you might want to have a presence. The likelihood is, however, that these five will be among your pool for consideration, hence our decision to look closely at them.
Facebook
As the largest of the bunch (with an audience size well over 1.2 billion users) this is almost a guarantee to be added to the “Yes” column. The page layouts are simple and effective. Other networks can be easily integrated. And there exists a world of possibilities when it comes to apps and plugins as well as a huge mobile audience. Everyone is familiar with the “Pros” list when it comes to Facebook. But what about the “Cons”? What is it that brands should be wary of when venturing to use Facebook to grow their social presence?
First of all, if you don’t want to make an investment, don’t waste your time with Facebook. The network has made it abundantly clear that they have no intention of doing brands any favors when it comes to organic growth. Recently, it was made public that Facebook intends to decrease the organic reach of Pages – reach without any ad dollars spent – to roughly 1%. What’s more, certain tactics that have been used to game the system for some time (such as the “Like” vs. “Share” posts) will soon be penalized. So for brands thinking that it will be easy (or, for some foolish reason, free) to grow their brands on Facebook, they will not find the network particularly beneficial after just a short while.
Twitter
Twitter has made a lot of strides when it comes to the benefits for brands. The introduction of Twitter Cards has made interactive content much more readily available and inspires increased engagement with target users. Twitter also recently announced over a dozen new ad features, which will certainly be beneficial to brands. Then there is their most recent announcement about real-time communications (like Facebook chat). Twitter is going above and beyond when it comes to providing new ways for brands to use the platform. But what might hinder your desire to use the network?
Well, for starters, everyone is thinking the same way you do: I can just share my brand’s message a thousand times a day and get people to click through to my page! While it’s true that this is an option, no one will see what you have to say. And as more brands go with this approach, fewer users care to follow brands at all. The most difficult part about Twitter is the content strategy. 140 characters can be used extremely well or very poorly. It all depends on how you plan on getting your message out. What is going to entice the audience you wish to target? And when it comes to targeting, the same problems exist on Twitter as they do on Facebook: you’re going to have to be willing to spend money. A lot of those benefits listed in the paragraph above are really only apparent if you’re using Twitter’s ad platform (which is an excellent one). So if you won’t invest, you won’t succeed.
YouTube
Obviously, if you plan on sharing videos, you don’t have a choice but to share them to YouTube. You might prefer Vimeo or some other video sharing platform, but the reality is that these other platforms aren’t owned by Google. (One of the benefits of owning the Internet.) Sharing videos (that are properly optimized) on YouTube can mean increased search rankings, and linking your other networks, website and Google profile to your YouTube channel can mean some incredible benefits to those rankings. And all of that can happen very fast.
The drawbacks to YouTube are in the numbers. The longer your video, the less likely it is that people will watch it. The more boring your video (i.e. all corporate videos) the less likely people are to watch it, and the more likely they are to make snide comments. With so many hundreds of lifetimes of content available on YouTube, you need to really pull your audience in right away. Anything more than eight seconds, you’ve lost them. YouTube also cannot stand alone. Without the help of your other channels and your website, it is unlikely that your YouTube audience will grow. Again, with so much content available, people simply are not going to find your videos organically. At least, that is the case for most brands. Lastly, video sharing networks in general are not for every brand. Videos are (or can be) expensive and time consuming. And much like a blog or website, you’ll need to continue producing new content in order to find your channel on top. If you don’t feel like this is something your brand can do, don’t create a blank YouTube channel; that’s a worse option.
LinkedIn
The professional network that every eager entrepreneur or seasoned veteran is using has some pretty obvious benefits. For starters, it’s full of professionals, many of whom have common interests. For individuals, it provides an excellent platform on which to build out your professional network, and for brands, it means garnering support and exposure within your industry or from potential investors. The latter item in that last point is especially true for B2B brands looking to make a splash and reach decision makers.
There are two problems, however, with LinkedIn. First, their ad platform is a little archaic. Targeting capabilities are excellent, but people have become accustomed to ignoring right column ads, and that’s where the majority of your ad dollars will go. Second, LinkedIn hasn’t quite yet figured out how to create value for Company Pages. Sure, they’re great to feature your brand and some of your services, but there is nothing to really pull people in. To their credit, LinkedIn is now in the process of revamping Company Pages (they just removed the poor-performing Products & Services tab) and have been working to make it a content publishing platform. That said, while the network is an excellent resource in which individuals can share content and expand their network, it still has not found that “it” factor for the brand itself.
Google+
Google+ is an invaluable (yes, as in has so much value, you can’t even assign it a number) tool when it comes to increasing your exposure. Why? Much like YouTube, it is a Google product so it has to be used and it has to be used well. It also has a huge customer base outside of the United States, so brands with an international presence can leverage the platform to reach a global audience. The Communities feature on Google+ also offers users a great way to connect with like-minded individuals, and allows brands to share relevant content to an already engaged audience.
The biggest problem with Google+ is that everyone knows they need to use it, but a lot of people are having trouble figuring out how to use it. As such, much of what you see on Google+, particularly in Communities, is self-promotional. Only the truly devoted Community Managers keep their networks clean from spam. But it still makes its way in there. There is also a lack of strong analytics with Google+ Pages. Of course, Google Analytics is designed to be integrated with the network, but unlike Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even YouTube, another Google-owned property, Google+ doesn’t provide much more than superficial data. So if Analytics are important to you – as they are to most people – you might find yourself a little disappointed with Google+.
Conclusion
Every major network has its positives and its negatives. And depending on your brand and what it is you want to accomplish by leveraging social media, your choices are going to be different. But it’s important to remember that a successful program does not mean a presence on every single network. A Pinterest board (and yes, Pinterest was a consideration to be added to this list, but frankly, the article was running a little long) with a handful of images that is infrequently updated has less value to a brand than no Pinterest presence whatsoever (in many cases).
So to sum up, consider your goals, the strengths and weaknesses of each of these networks and what the best course of action is in order to achieve those goals in the shortest timeframe possible.
What network is your most beneficial for achieving your goals on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
The Fallacy of Social Media ROI with No Investment (or “I”)
/by Corey PadveenThe 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.
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
/by Corey PadveenWhat 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!
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!
The Steps to Managing a Social Media Crisis
/by Corey PadveenWe all fear the dreaded social media crisis, and it is important to have a clear cut policy in place when it comes to managing the situation.
Have you ever looked at your overall social business strategy and asked yourself if you have a clear-cut set of steps to follow in the event of a social media crisis? Few brands do. No one likes to think about the devastating social media crisis but it is imperative that we do. After all, we have all seen cases of brands that have no strategy in place and what that can lead to.
There are a few steps that need to be taken in order to effectively manage a social media crisis. How you handle a situation will, of course, be at your discretion. But before you act, take a step back, take a deep breath and follow these instructions.
1. Figure Out What Happened
In the American political system use of the word “coup” to describe civil unrest in another region has some pretty severe consequences. That is why, when something does break out, politicians are very hesitant to use the word. On a much, much smaller scale, you need to have the same approach to a social media crisis.
One or two negative reviews on Yelp! or Trip Advisor does not a crisis make. If you open your social profiles to find a few negative comments, figure out where they originated, to what they are referring and determine whether or not this constitutes a real social media crisis.
In the strategy you create for handling crises it’s crucial that you outline what constitutes a social media crisis. When something does erupt on your social channels, trace it back to the origin and determine if you need to be in full panic mode or if this is something that can be handled easily.
2. Assign Priority Steps
Now, for argument’s sake, let’s say this is a crisis of epic proportions. What you’ll need to do is determine the order of actions determined by priority. If a crisis has reached major news outlets, maybe a press release should take precedent before reaching out to your social audience. If you are facing a barrage of criticism on Facebook, maybe you should focus your efforts on quelling the situation there before moving on to less active networks.
One thing to keep in mind at this point is that there is a notable difference between social crisis and social media engagement.
When engaging with your audience on a day-to-day basis, you want to give equal attention to your most influential audience members as well as those with very few followers and little social clout. While it might seem like a harsh reality, the same does not hold true for crises. In a social media crisis, not every one of your followers can be treated equally. Of course, over time you are going to want to address all comments (or as many as possible) in order to maintain your brand’s integrity. But at the beginning stages, you are going to have to order your individual responses in terms of influence.
The repercussions of a major industry influencer tweeting that they despise your brand are far greater than the repercussions of the negative tweet from a user who created an account simply to spite you. Keep in mind that in the time of a crisis, it is not business as usual.
3. Determine Appropriate Responses
OK – so you have laid out the exact order in which you plan on responding to this crisis, now it’s time to decide how you are going to respond.
There are two ways to go about responding to the crisis: you can either be on the defense (not in the conventional sense), apologizing to your fans and assuring them that this will never happen again, or on the offense, defending your product and explaining, calmly and with a sound argument, why the crisis does not reflect your overall business. Let’s look at a few examples.
Defense
A little while back, Home Depot tweeted an image that was largely seen to be racist and tasteless. While the brand made it clear that it was a third party that was responsible for sharing the message, they had no choice but to take responsibility for what had happened and assure the public that this did not reflect the values of the brand.
This was a clear example of a crisis. And this probably did some damage to the brand’s integrity. But by owning up to the incident, explaining what had taken place and trying to fix it, people eventually forgave them.
Offense
Let’s preface this by saying that going on the offense in the event of a crisis is a 1-for-100 case. Rarely will your brand succeed by standing by your position, particularly when you are in the wrong. That said, when done correctly and, more importantly, under the right circumstances, it can be an excellent way of quelling a crisis.
During the most recent Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Under Armour came under fire when the American speed skating team, for whom Under Armour had designed the ‘fastest’ suits ever made, failed to win or even place.
Instead of apologizing and assuring the world that they would try harder on the next go around, Under Armour decided to defend their product and explain that they were not to blame. Essentially, the brand did not levy the blame elsewhere (as they easily could have) but instead stood by their product, explained the reality of the sport and came out on top, with more long-term contracts being signed in the aftermath.
Going on the offensive is a risky move. If it works it is bold and genius. If it flops, your brand may never recover. Make the choice wisely.
4. Assign Tasks
Now you know that it is a crisis, you know the priority of responding and you have determined how you want to respond. It’s time to assign tasks to different teams.
As noted above, a crisis is not business as usual. Your customer service team is on apology duty, your social media team is an engagement team and your PR team is reaching out to any and all services to try and prevent the story from growing any bigger. And keep in mind that all of this is happening in seconds. You need to assign tasks and roles.
Again, this is a feature that needs to be included in your crisis management strategy. Figure out who approves outgoing messages. Make sure your teams are all working toward a specific goal and not flying by the seat of their pants. Instinct might be a great thing when creating a new campaign, but a crisis requires knowledge and logic.
This is where the prioritization is going to be extremely valuable. When there is a checklist of items that a team is responsible for (in order) it becomes much easier to get a handle on a situation.
5. Take Ownership
Of course, over the entirety of the crisis management process you have been taking ownership of the situation. At no point did you deny that anything had happened or told your unhappy followers that they were being too sensitive. (NOTE: Do not do that.) But once the highest-rising flames have been extinguished, it’s time to get out there, clearly explain what had happened and convey your sincerest apologies.
We’ve all seen examples of CEOs and VPs posting videos to blogs, YouTube and other social channels explaining a situation. A branded apology is much better than a quote in a news publication. You want people to see that you are taking ownership of a mistake and, more important learning from it.
6. Know When You Can’t Win
According to Jay Baer, “Never send a third reply. A third reply is an argument, not an answer. On the third reply, you take it offline.” Put simply, you can’t please everyone. There are some times when you simply aren’t going to give an audience member what he or she wants. You need to know when to walk away.
Continually responding doesn’t look good. Your brand does not need to get the last word in. When responding to individuals, send the apology, maybe send a follow up explaining what had happened, but don’t start going in circles. Accept that a crisis means you might lose a fan or two. It’s a reality of doing business on a large, public and social scale.
Conclusion
Your brand should learn from what has happened. A crisis is a great opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t. Learn what makes you audience tick and what they dislike. This will help generate brand loyalists down the road and keep you from encountering another crisis.
How does your brand handle crises? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
5 Bitly Features You Probably Didn’t Know About
/by Corey PadveenBitly is a great tool for shortening links and watching the clicks come in, but there are some great additional features as well.
When you hear someone mention Bitly, your immediate thought is something along the lines of, “Link shortening!” While Bitly is a great tool for shortening links and monitoring clicks, there are some additional Bitly features that are extremely valuable to the optimization of your activity on social media.
These four Bitly features are not universally known, but are definitely worth remembering.
Bitly Analytics
You account shows you how many clicks a particular link (or a version of a link) has garnered, and a lot of people think that the counting stops there. But for serious marketers who are looking to optimize their activity, there are Bitly insights a click away.
When you copy a link and paste it into a new tab or window with a small ‘+’ next to it, you are introduced to a world of insights about the activity that has taken place on that link. Similarly, if you have access to the link in your account, you can simply click on the ‘View stats’ link (shown above) and see the same insights.
See what Bitly analytics look like when you dive in!
Competitive Insights
What a lot of people don’t seem to realize is that these Bitly insights can be viewed by anyone. So next time you see a competitor using a Bitly link, copy it, add the ‘+’ mentioned above and take a look at the activity on their link.
These insights can provide you with some idea of how to position your product on social media, what demographics to target and how to optimize your content schedule for optimal exposure and click-through rate.
Custom Links
Data shows that social media users are generally more comfortable clicking on a link when they know where it is going. From a content marketing point-of-view, this means that your posts shouldn’t have cryptic, ambiguous calls-to-action like, “Want to Make Money?” or “Start Your Journey Here!” Instead, they should be clear and straightforward. The same goes for your links.
One of the best features when it comes to Bitly is that you do not have to be a webmaster to customize your links. Sure, there are options to fully-customize (go to the Advanced section in your Bitly account’s Settings) but you can also simply customize the ending of your link.
Instead of a messy bit.ly/abc123-style link, you can click on the pencil next to your link (see it in the image above?) and customize it! Of course, if someone else has already taken your customized link, you’ll have to think of something else, but the more specific you are the better. For example, in the link above you’ll see that we changed it to t2SocialBlog so that people know they are clicking through to our blog and not some spam-filled webpage.
Networking
Wether you are sharing links with your public community (hence the ability to make links public) or you are creating bundles on Bitly to share with your personal networks, Bitly offers you the ability to be social right from your link shortening dashboard.
One of the great features of Bitly is that it is, essentially, a content curation tool as much as it is a link shortener. By building a community and actively participating in it, you might find that you can access a bundle with some great new content or resources and add to your sea of most-visited websites.
Real-Time Media Map
One of the cooler tools that exists out there today is Bitly’s Real-Time Media Map. Though it is still working it’s way into the market (only showing information for the United States right now) it is a very unique, fun and informative resource.
Start by choosing the type of media you want to peruse (say for example magazines or newspapers) then see what accounts are being shared most actively in different states in real-time. You can track the hottest accounts and keep up-to-date with the most popular stories as they are shared with Bitly links.
As this tool evolves, it will certainly become something worth leveraging for your own insights and strategies.
Next time you find yourself shortening a link with Bitly, remember that the information you receive is much more than some data on the number of clicks you have had. What link shortening service do you use? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!
How to Use Twitter Analytics to Optimize Ad Targeting [VIDEO]
/by Corey PadveenAre you optimizing your ad targeting on Twitter?
Twitter Analytics may be simple and easy-to-use, but they can be extremely valuable when crafting an ad strategy on the network. While our business might target one demographic with ad platforms like AdWords, Facebook Advertising or even LinkedIn, we might find that there is an entirely different demographic engaging with our brand on Twitter.
One of the benefits of creating an ad account on Twitter is access to the analytics of your audience. Learn where they are, what their interests are and use that information to craft highly engaging ads. Take a look at the simple tips in this video to see exactly how you can take advantage of the insights offered by Twitter Analytics in order to optimize your next ad campaign on the network.
Why Every Business Should Blog [INFOGRAPHIC]
/by Corey PadveenDo you have a business blog?
Every brand should have a business blog. It’s as simple as that. Whether you post to your business blog every month, every week, or every day, there are a number of assets that it can provide in addition to generating a significant degree of brand and Social Equity.
In this great infographic from Quick Sprout, some of the greatest benefits of your brand owning a blog are outlined. Take a look at the assets that it can provide and let us know what you think the greatest benefits of a business blog are in the comments below or on Twitter!
6 Social Media Engagement Mistakes to Avoid (at All Costs)
/by Corey PadveenMake sure you avoid these social media engagement mistakes like the plague!
The (slowly slipping into the category of ‘age old’) expression of “Think before you tweet!” has never been more true than it is today. With billions of people tuning into social platforms and listening to what you have to say, you (and your brand) simply need to be on top of your game when it comes to sharing information and engaging in conversation.
There are some social media engagement mistakes that brands will simply have a next-to-impossible time overcoming. After all, you are only as good as your most recent crisis, and you want to keep those to a minimum. These social media engagement mistakes are a surefire to see you brand come under heavy criticism, particularly if they go viral. And isn’t that always the case with these kinds of situations?
1. Arguing
Do not argue with your customers on social channels. Ever. It doesn’t matter how wrong they may be, and how right you think you are. The second you respond with the maturity of a pubescent high-schooler, you’re brand does not look good.
We all say that social media requires a human touch. But at the end of the day, there are certain human qualities we would like to leave out of our brand. One of those is the argumentative nature of human beings. It may sometimes result that you are better off ignoring a comment (still not a great option) than arguing in the public’s eye. Consumers will side with each other.
2. Automation
Automating certain posts and your content schedule is fine. No one expects the average brand to send out messages all day long, and sometimes the process is made much easier when certain aspects (not all, but a select few) can be automated. The one thing that has no business (and never will have business) being automated is engagement.
The human touch mentioned above is all about that engagement people are looking for with brands. If you plan on automating responses (as is done with email responses) than expect to see your brand laughed out of the socialsphere. It’s happened to bigger brands than you might think.
3. Grammatical Errors
OK, granted, your brand can recover from grammatical missteps. In fact, a lot of people won’t notice them. And, at the end of the day, they happen. But your brand is not supposed to make little mistakes. If you plan on presenting your brand as the best in the business, keep a close eye on syntax. People pay a lot of attention to those kinds of things.
Keep your brand integrity in order and proofread social media engagement posts before they go out. Sometimes a little something might get by you. That is especially true if you post content to multiple channels on a constant basis. Don’t make your brand look bad by engaging with a consumer directly and making a little, avoidable mistake like this.
4. Bulk Responses
If you plan on engaging as a brand, do it as conversations are taking place. Nothing looks worse in a Twitter feed than radio silence followed by dozens of responses, one after another, to messages sent to your brand days, if not weeks before you responded.
If you can’t engage in real time, don’t worry about it. It’s not a practice that every brand is comfortable with, and not one that should be approached without serious consideration of the pros and cons. That said, if engagement is in your bag, make sure you have an appropriate strategy that addresses comments and questions in a timely manner.
5. Automated ‘Thank You for Following’ Messages
This is, for the most part, relegated to Twitter. Have you ever followed a brand only to receive a direct message shortly thereafter thanking you for the follow and directing your to their blog, website or Facebook page? It’s annoying and defeats the purpose of engagement.
As with the automated responses mentioned above, the automated ‘Thank You’ message takes away from the personal touch that social media engagement offers and reflects poorly on your brand. That said, a personalized ‘Thank You’ message is a great way to welcome a new follower.
6. Bad Mouthing Competition
We have seen plenty of great examples of brands – sometimes competitors – coming together on social media for a wonderful experience for fans. But, as with arguing, getting into it with a competitor is a direction that should be avoided at all costs.
You want to showcase your highlights, not another brand’s flaws. Commend your peers on jobs well done and tout your own successes. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all, just, get along?
What other mistakes can you think of that brands should avoid when it comes to social media engagement? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!