As you can tell from previous posts and your own experiences with social media, it is a very useful tool. It doesn’t matter if you’re using it to connect with family and friends or promote a business or cause, it’s going to be seen (and if you did it up righteously, it’ll be seen by a LOT of people!). So, it goes without saying that there are a ton of success stories out there from organizations that use it to get the word out.
Now, I couldn’t drone on and on about who’s doing what and in what arena, “this is how it’s working for them”, nor would I have the time to do so. However, I will recount a small number of them and then list some links for more, if you’re interested in reading about what others have done and why it worked for them. Sound like a deal?
Enhance Me specializes in customizing kids portraits, by switching out the backgrounds to those of more, well, interesting places. I can imagine that kids are amazed by the results and parents are amused as well. I can say, as a parent, that I am interested in knowing more and checking it out (assuming I can find some spare time for fun things).
In any case, the site owner, Victoria Dixon, uses the Top 2 (Twitter and Facebook), as well as a blog to get the word out and build relationships with her customer base. According to Top Rank Blog, where I first read about Ms. Dixon, her company was endorsed by customers on verygoodservice.com…quite a good achievement and a measurable one at that.
The Social Man is a social coaching company with personality and a real affinity for their clients. They use video marketing to get the word out, build relationships and provide value to potential, as well as existing, clients. With coaching channels on both YouTube and Blip.tv, they run a series called “Ask the Social Man” that focuses on answering questions brought to them by listeners, which are largely dating-related. The success of their video channels have served to increase both site visits and sales. Check out this Mashable article for more on the Social Man and other companies using social media.
This next company is one that’s closer to me, as social media has built something of a friendship between me and the owner. Her name is Duni and she has a talent for creating wonderful things with fabric. Since I first traded in my Myspace blog with one on Blogger in 2009 and found her via Entrecard, I’ve seen Duni's shop evolve from handmade purses and makeup bags to including sleep masks, laundry bags and some very comfy-looking PJs! She only uses designer fabric and the product quality is remarkable, which is evident even in the photos.
Social media has proven kind to Duni’s business, as she uses Facebook, a blog and an online shop community (Etsy), which has allowed her to build relationships with current/potential customers and fellow entrepreneurs. In fact, she is an inspiration to me and stands out as someone who runs a business with her personal values intact and even incorporated into the way she does things. It is something I hope to accomplish when I start my own online shop in the near future.
I hope these summaries and links are helpful in showing how successful social media efforts can be.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Social Media Efforts
There’s a lot of talk in social media marketing about whether or not it’s worth the time and planning it takes to execute a successful strategy.
My answer: It absolutely is!
Think about it…a (very!) large number of people – from all walks of life – are using the Internet to interact with one another, and they’re discussing brands while they’re at it. It would be foolish not to take advantage of such a wide range of marketing possibilities. Any number of these possibilities could be used any number of ways to equate to sales, participation, or any other measure of conversion you can come up with.
However, there are some basic rules to follow (for lack of a better term) to ensure you get the most mileage out of your efforts. The Business2Community website lists their 3 top “keys” in an article about making social media work for you.
Another thing to consider is how you are going to manage all those profiles you’ll need to stay on top of your industry and be seen as a legitimate player within it. You want to reach out to the largest group possible and get your brand out. The best way to do that is to use a social media account aggregator, such as 8Hands or Spindex. 2 articles that cover some of these aggregators are here and here.
It takes more than setting up accounts and managing them to build a brand via the Social Web, however. You need to know where to find the Influencers and engage them proactively. You’ll need an analytics platform, such as Radian6, to find your most prolific followers. Then, you need to follow what they do, what they like, etc. and find ways to connect with them more intimately. After all, it’s your brand evangelists that make you go viral!
In addition to all that we’ve just covered, it pays to note that tracking conversations about your brand through the Social Web is an important part of learning how the public views your brand. Think of it as a PR measure for social media marketing and put it to work for you! You can do basic web searches to find these conversation, do searches on your social media platforms, and/or try a program like Tribe Monitor.
In short, the trick isn’t in using social media to build your brand…it’s in knowing how to use it!
My answer: It absolutely is!
Think about it…a (very!) large number of people – from all walks of life – are using the Internet to interact with one another, and they’re discussing brands while they’re at it. It would be foolish not to take advantage of such a wide range of marketing possibilities. Any number of these possibilities could be used any number of ways to equate to sales, participation, or any other measure of conversion you can come up with.
However, there are some basic rules to follow (for lack of a better term) to ensure you get the most mileage out of your efforts. The Business2Community website lists their 3 top “keys” in an article about making social media work for you.
Another thing to consider is how you are going to manage all those profiles you’ll need to stay on top of your industry and be seen as a legitimate player within it. You want to reach out to the largest group possible and get your brand out. The best way to do that is to use a social media account aggregator, such as 8Hands or Spindex. 2 articles that cover some of these aggregators are here and here.
It takes more than setting up accounts and managing them to build a brand via the Social Web, however. You need to know where to find the Influencers and engage them proactively. You’ll need an analytics platform, such as Radian6, to find your most prolific followers. Then, you need to follow what they do, what they like, etc. and find ways to connect with them more intimately. After all, it’s your brand evangelists that make you go viral!
In addition to all that we’ve just covered, it pays to note that tracking conversations about your brand through the Social Web is an important part of learning how the public views your brand. Think of it as a PR measure for social media marketing and put it to work for you! You can do basic web searches to find these conversation, do searches on your social media platforms, and/or try a program like Tribe Monitor.
In short, the trick isn’t in using social media to build your brand…it’s in knowing how to use it!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
So Many Metrics Tools, So Little Time!
Among the most asked questions regarding the use of social media in marketing is “How can I measure its effectiveness?”. If you’ve found yourself asking it as well, you’re certainly not alone.
Knowing which metrics to measure by is the most logical starting point. First, you have to determine what your end goal is for using social media. Are you after increased traffic or links to your site? Sales? Looking to build buzz for a new company or product? Improving customer relations? Or are you more interested in using it for PR and branding? Honestly, the possibilities are endless, but to develop a strategy that gives you what you want, you have to know what you want. Google’s Analytics tool, among others, can help you figure where you are now and help compare starting stats to future ones and track your return on investment (ROI).
Now comes the fun part – finding the tools that can help your efforts along. You’ll likely find a slew of lists that offer up the latest and greatest in social media metrics. Some of the tools are free, while others are paid. Here is a list of a few that can help you track your stats:
*Feedburner – lets you start your own feed and provides stats, such as subscribers, reach and popular feed items.
*TweetReach – provides stats and metrics for PR/Marketing pros (these can get expensive as each topic requires its own “tracker”)
*Google Analytics – offers stats of your site, such as who’s coming from where and with what keywords…can also be added to FB now
*Social Report – provides analytics/reports for all social profiles and websites (free trial with paid starting at $9/mo)
*PostRank – tracks social engagement of your profiles, site and even PDFs, etc…also tracks competition (free and paid plans)
*Social Media Monitor – tracks and compares brands while allowing both individuals and professionals, businesses, etc. to create their own campaigns (free and paid versions)
*SocialBlaze – tracks and reports on conversions directly related to Twitter and Facebook campaigns, pinpoints brand evangelists, as well as which individual posts, etc. brought the traffic in
If you’re looking to build buzz, doing a simple search in any other the social sites (or Technorati-type sites for blogs) for your industry, product-type and/or keyword to get a list of who may be interested in knowing about it (and passing it along to others). This may be singly or in tandem with other demographics and SEO efforts.
It really pays to do your due diligence in finding the social sites and analytics you need to run effective marketing campaigns via social media. The more you can discover about your fans, followers and influencers, the more you can target your efforts and the better off your campaigns (and ROI) will be.
Interactive Insights Group has an article that covers more information on social media metrics. Definitely check this out for one of the most comprehensive lists you’ll find!
Knowing which metrics to measure by is the most logical starting point. First, you have to determine what your end goal is for using social media. Are you after increased traffic or links to your site? Sales? Looking to build buzz for a new company or product? Improving customer relations? Or are you more interested in using it for PR and branding? Honestly, the possibilities are endless, but to develop a strategy that gives you what you want, you have to know what you want. Google’s Analytics tool, among others, can help you figure where you are now and help compare starting stats to future ones and track your return on investment (ROI).
Now comes the fun part – finding the tools that can help your efforts along. You’ll likely find a slew of lists that offer up the latest and greatest in social media metrics. Some of the tools are free, while others are paid. Here is a list of a few that can help you track your stats:
*Feedburner – lets you start your own feed and provides stats, such as subscribers, reach and popular feed items.
*TweetReach – provides stats and metrics for PR/Marketing pros (these can get expensive as each topic requires its own “tracker”)
*Google Analytics – offers stats of your site, such as who’s coming from where and with what keywords…can also be added to FB now
*Social Report – provides analytics/reports for all social profiles and websites (free trial with paid starting at $9/mo)
*PostRank – tracks social engagement of your profiles, site and even PDFs, etc…also tracks competition (free and paid plans)
*Social Media Monitor – tracks and compares brands while allowing both individuals and professionals, businesses, etc. to create their own campaigns (free and paid versions)
*SocialBlaze – tracks and reports on conversions directly related to Twitter and Facebook campaigns, pinpoints brand evangelists, as well as which individual posts, etc. brought the traffic in
If you’re looking to build buzz, doing a simple search in any other the social sites (or Technorati-type sites for blogs) for your industry, product-type and/or keyword to get a list of who may be interested in knowing about it (and passing it along to others). This may be singly or in tandem with other demographics and SEO efforts.
It really pays to do your due diligence in finding the social sites and analytics you need to run effective marketing campaigns via social media. The more you can discover about your fans, followers and influencers, the more you can target your efforts and the better off your campaigns (and ROI) will be.
Interactive Insights Group has an article that covers more information on social media metrics. Definitely check this out for one of the most comprehensive lists you’ll find!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
The Why and How of Social Media Strategy and Metrics
It seems as though the entire world is all abuzz about how social media is changing how we use the Internet. It’s particularly chatty about how SM can enhance aspects of the business, ranging from marketing to customer/client relations. That’s all well and good, but what good is using it for business if you don’t track what it’s doing for you? Sure you may get increased sales and traffic, but how can you really measure its effectiveness in regards to your marketing efforts?
Enter social media metrics.
Measuring a campaign’s effectiveness is paramount to other areas of marketing, so why not put the same standards to use for your social media efforts? Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not talking about how many re-tweets you got for your last tweet or how many Facebook fans you have. I’m talking real results! Anybody can rack up a long buddylist if they put forth the time to do so…the question is, are they visiting your site and making purchases or are you just another face on their friends list?
Contrary to what many believe (or would have you believe), a lot of followers does not equate to a lot of sales, in the majority of cases. Some useful information on the difference between quantitative and qualitative results can be found on Taylor Pratt’s article, which also covers strategy and offers a link to a detailed report on the subject.
Speaking of strategy, it plays a direct role in whether or not you see the results you’re looking for. Going in with a plan can provide a focus for your efforts and help prevent the burnout many face when writing about the same topic over time. It also helps to determine what you want to know about your target audience/consumer, which in turn determines the metrics you will need to measure against. Once you know who your target audience is and how you want to reach them, a major hurdle has been overcome and you can get started on designing your strategy, with the end goal in mind.
Deciding what to measure can be tricky, because what works for one company may not work for another. The answer largely depends on what you want from your social media efforts. Are you looking for sales, qualified leads, increased brand awareness or referrals/backlinks from key Influencers in your industry? Identifying your main motive will determine your main metric, though it will pay to use more than one to see the best results.
Once you have your metrics figured out, it’s a good next step to measure them before creating a profile or, if you’ve already made them, measure where they currently sit. This will determine where your starting point is and what you need to improve on moving forward. Now you can begin implementing your plan. For more on developing your strategy, check out Jason Mikula’s article on the steps to a solid social media metrics plan.
There’s more to social media than setting up a page, adding some content and waiting for the visitors (or sales) to roll in. From making the decision to use it to actually using it, going in with a plan of action is your key to quality, long-term results.
Enter social media metrics.
Measuring a campaign’s effectiveness is paramount to other areas of marketing, so why not put the same standards to use for your social media efforts? Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not talking about how many re-tweets you got for your last tweet or how many Facebook fans you have. I’m talking real results! Anybody can rack up a long buddylist if they put forth the time to do so…the question is, are they visiting your site and making purchases or are you just another face on their friends list?
Contrary to what many believe (or would have you believe), a lot of followers does not equate to a lot of sales, in the majority of cases. Some useful information on the difference between quantitative and qualitative results can be found on Taylor Pratt’s article, which also covers strategy and offers a link to a detailed report on the subject.
Speaking of strategy, it plays a direct role in whether or not you see the results you’re looking for. Going in with a plan can provide a focus for your efforts and help prevent the burnout many face when writing about the same topic over time. It also helps to determine what you want to know about your target audience/consumer, which in turn determines the metrics you will need to measure against. Once you know who your target audience is and how you want to reach them, a major hurdle has been overcome and you can get started on designing your strategy, with the end goal in mind.
Deciding what to measure can be tricky, because what works for one company may not work for another. The answer largely depends on what you want from your social media efforts. Are you looking for sales, qualified leads, increased brand awareness or referrals/backlinks from key Influencers in your industry? Identifying your main motive will determine your main metric, though it will pay to use more than one to see the best results.
Once you have your metrics figured out, it’s a good next step to measure them before creating a profile or, if you’ve already made them, measure where they currently sit. This will determine where your starting point is and what you need to improve on moving forward. Now you can begin implementing your plan. For more on developing your strategy, check out Jason Mikula’s article on the steps to a solid social media metrics plan.
There’s more to social media than setting up a page, adding some content and waiting for the visitors (or sales) to roll in. From making the decision to use it to actually using it, going in with a plan of action is your key to quality, long-term results.
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