Recently my marketing executive peer group met to discuss social media and social engagement. The one most interesting shift we all noticed immediately from the discussion we had two years ago is that one of our top questions is no longer “how do we get started” but more along the lines of “how do we dig deeper and come up with a fit for our company.” I definitely sensed a lot less push-back and less discussion around how to control social media this time around. The focus was much more on how do we keep up, jump a bit deeper, and customize solutions that work for our organization, culture, industry and circumstances? We are still also tackling issues around value and measurement, just like KPIs (key performance indicators) and ROI were key topics of discussion two years ago. It is not a surprise we are dealing with this question in light of the phenomenal numbers we are dealing with. Face book is in essence the third largest company on the planet with 600 million users.
Here are some other questions that surfaced, ranging from high level strategic to tactics:
• How can social media drive relationships with senior executives?
• How do you convince your CEO that Twitter is worthwhile when the topics that are tweeted the most are people engaging in fun and entertainment?
• What are the best practices for reviewing “official” posts? How do we generate content efficiently?
• How much should you be spending?
• How do you take a more targeted approach to identifying and prioritizing user groups?
• How effective is a Facebook page for B2B vs. “subscribed” electronic newsletters and/or white papers?
• How do you reach out to your prospects, key partners and strategic accounts, and at what stage in the process?
• How do you get internal staff to really engage – not just inside the marketing function?
• What kind of businesses lend themselves to content naturally? For what kinds of businesses is it more difficult to build a case for social media? Is there actually a community around what your company does? If so, it’s easier to justify/see value in social media. Without it, we are dealing with a much harder proposition. Communities cannot be forced, they are grown, not “built,” and must center around natural and common interests. And, if you happen to be in an industry where you have a natural community, don’t forget that the whole idea is to market to that community and monetize, or there is really no point in building the community.
• How do we more effectively integrate social media into customer service (inbound), particularly in dealing with complaints?
• From a broader perspective, how do we successfully integrate social media into digital marketing strategies and SEO?
• What is the value of social media in industries where regulations prohibit certain communication within the open forum that is social media?
• What are the social network trends? Aren’t we seeing more vertical networks developing along affiliations, like for graphic designers? Will we continue to see more tools that are about building evangelists such as Foursquare and Google Places?
Here are some of the social media applications the group discussed outside of the BIG FOUR: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube:
• Foursquare, GoWalla (check into locations)
• Quora (more like Q&A for tech industry – good quality answers voted on my users)
• Digg, Deliciio.us (social networks for bookmarks – liking pages = tremendous traffic for visitors to your site and SEO results)
• Bebo (like Facebook, an aggregator)
• Xing (Linkedin for Germany)
• Myspace
It is still a bit of a “wild west” out there! Some other tools roundtable members shared positive things about were Swix and Netvibes. Swix is a simple way to track KPIs. It has a small monthly charge and tracks your followers and engagement across social networks. This tool in essence aggregates your followers and level of engagement over time. It measures RSS subscribers on blogs, how many people like your Facebook page, new visitors, etc.
So, where are marketing executive at on the hype cycle of social media? The peak of inflated expectations? Are we in the trough of disillusionment? Have we climbed out of the slope of enlightenment? The answers from this group of executives varied, but the majority does not appear to have reached the plateau of productivity – at least not yet! On the other hand, while two years ago, few had any resources dedicated to social media. We’re now taking it seriously and professionally with money, staffing and time dedicated to it. Here are some of the results from an informal survey we did of ourselves:
• Budgets are trending up with the average budget around 5%.
• Only about half of us have an official policy on social media.
• Almost 70% of us say that social media is a valuable source of leads/customers.
• Around 70% of us use Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. From an SEO value, we believe that Linkedin is the best network.
• Customer acquisition is mixed, with most of us not sure what the customer impact really is on most of the social media sites. You likely need to send out trackable offers to acquire new customers, like a contest or coupon.
• 55% of us use blogs. The more you update it, the better the traffic is, by a factor of 5-10. Update 2-3 times a week. Doesn’t have to be long…200 to 300 words. Keep it authentic!
• A blog is one of the top ways to improve SEO results.
• You must keep refreshing your website to support SEO results.
Is our group reflective of how other marketing executives perceive the changing social media landscape? Do you have answers to any of the questions we raised? Chime in!
Hi Suzanne,
I’m sorry to have missed the session on social media while I was on vacation this week. While you were hosting the conversation, I was watching pods of whales off the coast of Maui. I can’t say I would have wanted to trade.
It looks like a great conversation took place. I’m happy to add some thoughts to the mix. I’ve been actively thinking and participating in this new space for several years now. I still recognize that I am a student and don’t have it all figured out. That’s going to be true of most of us I suspect.
One of my key insights over the years has been that, like anything else…, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” In other words, it doesn’t pay to rush to the new and shiny tools without a plan. I encourage everyone I talk to practice personally before engaging professionally. And then, when ready, start by developing a social engagement strategy that is right for you. Not a Facebook strategy or a Twitter strategy – a social engagement strategy.
The word media is a noun. Engagement is a verb. Nouns are tools. Verbs show action. It’s more essential for us as marketers, in my mind at least, to understand our social engagement strategy before we ever pick up a social media tool. And we need to keep in mind that 90% of all word of mouth still takes place offline with only 10% being online. A well thought out social engagement strategy will keep that in mind.
Here is a link to ten observations that I’ve made as a student in this area over the last few years. Hope it helps. http://www.rodbrooks.com/my-edge/insights-observations/
Rod
CMO, PEMCO Insurance
President, Word of Mouth Marketing Assn.
Twitter: @NW_Mktg_Guy