Social Marketing Conversations

We begin this final episode with Joan Koerber-Walker, CEO of CorePurpose a global management consulting firm based in Phoenix, by comparing traditional and social platforms and how engagement with an audience, or a lack of engagement, becomes more obvious the deeper you go into a social media presence.  Many business people are still looking at social media as just another media channel or a project you can establish and then ‘set-and-forget’ and it is anything but and a lack of engagement becomes painfully obvious.

The use of social in a business-to-business setting is really an extension of the idea that people do not do business with businesses, people do business with people; the transparency that social media afford is relevant and is important as the adoption of media channels with social elements emerge and are more widely adopted.  The consumer, whether in business or personal transactions must first trust and believe in the people and team behind the brand.

The value of an online presence and how it translates to an offline presence is relevant for business as well.  A listener in the audience of the Blogtalkradio.com broadcast we did asks about the use of social media to create a real-life connection.  Joan responds that she sees “meet-up” as opportunities to gauge the effectiveness of the online strategy, but whether the meet-up is impromptu or planned weeks in advance, the events that begin online allow people to meet and share their passion.  These days it is often a passion about social media. So she dive a bit deeper and suggests that a meet-up that is a meet-up with other social media people is often not an application of time CorePurpose invests their time in.

She also explores how the use of social media has benefitted a non-profit she heads up, that would be the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation, or OTEF (disclaimer: Joan and I both serve on the board of OTEF).  She shares her educational journey in social media on her blog where she chronicles the things she has learned during the last year through trial & error and a little help from her friends.

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CorePurpose’s adoption of social media did not occur until January 2009, so while Ms. Koerber-Walker claims ‘late bloomer’ status, her results speak volumes for a consistent, conscientious approach in using social media.  Her initial goals for metrics were exceeded relative to her expectations and she claims that they have led to additional prospects and customers for CorePurpose. 

The primary application of social media for CorePurpose is for community building and advertising, so metrics are not necessarily revenue related, but there are key performance indicators (KPIs) that support an understanding of how a social media presence leads to to revenue.

How does CorePurpose monitor their presence and what are the metrics she uses?   The tools are simple enough; Google Alerts, Google Analytics, Feedburner, and YouTube stats.  They do not employ any of the for-fee tools to track their segmented presence right now.

The various KPIs are pretty straightforward too; where did they access a resources that their social media presence made possible, where did CorePurpose make a connection that was directly related to their social media presence, did they get a customer that came from a social network or were they able to find a piece of information for a client or research that the social media presence provided?

CorePurpose monitors the number of hits a blog posts receive, how comments made by visitors and from those indicators, they get a sense of what people are looking for in terms of the online content they post – and based upon the result, they move to determine if an engagement might result in a productive off-line, real-life relationship.  So another KPI is ‘of those conversations that begin online, how many convert to an offline, person-to-person conversation.’

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A frequent topic in conversation with businesses looking to leverage social media is ‘what do I talk about?’  It’s a fair question and one that many of us have had to deal with in varying degrees.  I have friends who come to social media from journalism and are very prolific and then I know others who have come from marketing, technology or entrepreneurship and we are (yes, I am one of them) sometimes struggling to find regular topics to explore that are of interest to our audience.

Joan talks about accepting the challenge of developing her own content for her presence and reveals the genesis of her #BeOriginal blog / project and how she overcame the challenge of developing meaningful content for her worldwide social presence, and how she has used social media as a tactic to reach out and connect with other thought leaders, regardless of their location on the globe.

What kinds of obstacles does Joan face in using more social media or using it better?  As an established business leader, writer and public speaker, Joan cites that social media was not a start-up strategy, as it is for many businesses, it is an expansion of the thought leadership, visibility and publicity programs she already had underway and she compares the use of social media in a traditional marketing / advertising model for institutional companies vs. the tactics and tools used even a few years ago.  She cites how social media as an institutional advertising tactic is quickly emerging and how CorePurpose has transitioned all their institutional advertising to online and an expanded, long term ‘word-of-mouth’ campaign.

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Joan is the CEO and principal of CorePurpose and has a background in the practical application of social media in a small to medium business setting and it’s use in personal branding. 

This episode is from a BlogTalkRadio.com session which was presented live on December 15th 2009, just prior to the Christmas holiday.

Talking with Joan we discover that CorePurpose was founded in 2002 to support organizations with resources that they needed to make their efforts more successful.  She works with medium to large organizations around the globe.

Her journey in social media has been one that questions the time that was needed, from a beginning of a single blog, a single twitter account and a LinkedIn profile, she has connected with customers and prospects. 

For Core Purpose, social media is a communication medium to meet and stay connected with her audience.  The lessons learned in her journey include moderating her shares and making sure the content she produces are relevant.

Her realization is that the message needs to be about the audience, not arbitrary and not about the communicator.   The lesson was sometimes hard learned, she shares about how she dealt with the sometime harsh commentary from people listening to her messages, but she also will admit it has made her a better communicator and user of social media tools and technology.

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Equating a successful social media presence to a well-planned cocktail party is a common comparison.  When plotting a strategy consider a variety of techniques based around the cocktail party model.

One of those tactics is a drawing or door-prize that uses a contest model.  The conversation on how to develop an online contest has come often enough and over the holiday break, I took the time to use my favorite ideation tool to develop a model.

There are two legs to this model – one is low ‘hard cost’ and just requires a good deal of manual labor to implement, monitor and manage.  The second leg assumes most all of what is in the first, but allows for a more robust implementation assuming a funded budget for custom programming and monitoring tools.

What would be the results of this kind of a campaign?

• Increased awareness of the brand / message
• Increased followers / fans
• Some combination of the two

How would you determine the ROI of the effort? Begin with tracking the initial investments and setting the baseline of what’s happening now.  Establish what a success looks like and monitor measure and readjust as needed.

There are probably a few more aspect than I have considered here though – what would you add?

The model used MindManager from Mindjet to create the Mind Map of the Online Contest Model.  Make sure you are current with Adobe Acrobat8 and Flash9 installed and this mind map & player should work (MindJet requirements).  Mac users may have issues – contact me to send you the MindMap itself if you have the Mac version of MindManager.

FCC Disclaimer – TSMB Media is a registered reseller of Mindjets Mind Manager products and receives no remuneration / compensation

Working as a marketer in social media, a typical question is how do I find prospects for my product in service in social media?  My answer, aside from first listening for mentions of your name, company, product or brand, is to also listen for what it is your product or service addresses.

Today I had a follow up with my dermatologist and in my pleasure of a mostly clean bill of health, I tweeted “Skin Dr says I’m good! Just dry skin!” with in a few minutes I received the following -

The link led to their web page where I saw some pretty ugly pics of Infantile Eczema and how their 100% natural product benefited that poor pink baby.  I also learned that they are pretty good brand in the UK.  Hmm… I might try some of their stuff (never have before and do not have any of their products in my house).

What I also gained out of this was another case study on how to engage an audience.  Maybe not perfectly, but to me it was obvious they were listening to the social conversation at least.

I’ve tell business and brands that if you really want to connect to the audience, think for a moment about what it is your prospects are looking for, what condition or symptom they are trying to deal with when they might be looking for your product or service – when you uncover it, let them know you are open to the engagement.

In my case, I’m looking for a way to treat dry skin.  What if you sold aspirin?  Look for headaches / body pain.  Auto body repair? someone commenting that they’ve been in an accident (hmm… good topic for ambulance chasing lawyers too I suppose).

You get the idea – to paraphrase Wayne Gretsky “don’t go to where the puck is, skate to where the puck is going”.

In the earlier post on The Trinity of Social Media, we explored blogging and I stated that the blog is a foundational component.  The basic components are a blog, a microblog and the social network.

This post explores how the microblog fits a basic strategy we laid out in the Trinity of Social Media.  Hope you enjoy it and comment on how a microblog has worked for you, or even if you still cannot get your brain wrapped around why should you use one at all.

The idea behind the Trinity of Social Media is that any one of the components are a good start, but a strategy of these three elements are better – much better.

What is a microblog?  In The Social Media Bible, (chapter 15, pg 263) we write that "Microblogging is text messaging and a bit more".   Yeah – I’ll go with the "bit more" side of the comment.

To begin with, we see the term ‘blog’ embedded in the name, which to the uninitiated, suggests a blog like function.  In many ways, it does have many of the functions of a blog.  The blog was explored in depth in this post.

To begin with, a remarkable differences is the length of the post.  A microblog post follows the constraint of the mobile phone text message, which is approximately 160 characters.  Giving up part of that 160 characters to a user ID puts us at 140 characters.

So while a blog post is about 200 words, a microblog post is 140 characters – so the post it’s like 8 times smaller than a blog post.

At it’s core, microblogging can be seen as the sending, or posting, of text message by one person to a site on the web.  At the web site, other people can come and visit to read their posts.  Like a blog, the reading can be constrained by the person posting the message.  If they wish to allow it, visitors can subscribe to the messages posted and get them automatically sent to them.

With most microblogging services, the posts can be received on a mobile phone or on a computer.  If on your computer, it can be in your web browser or in a special program that runs on your computer.  When making a post, it can be sent from all the same places (computer, cell phone, browser, desktop program, etc.) as well, so this model presents a very flexible too to connect and communicate with an audience.

The net effect of the service is that you can send messages to not one person, but a whole network of people, or subscribers.  Imaging those subscribers as friends, customers, prospects or stakeholders.  Likewise you can receive message from a network of people in the same way, so you get to determine what is interesting to stay on top of? 

Breaking news stories have emerged in microblogging networks well in advance of when mainstream media can get to it.  Today we can expect that every new agency monitors the microblogging stream of messages for relevant news that they might investigate further and prepare for scheduled mainstream media broadcasts.

How does a business use a microblog? Examine the model I’ve just laid out; a one-to-many, publish & subscribe communication model that the pubic at large can opt-in to, and opt-out just as easily. 

As a retail business owner you might leverage the capability to instantly connect with customers and prospects informing them of specials that have a time limit.  A corporation might insert it into their customer service model, listening and instantly responding to customers that indicate they are unhappy.  A sales team might listen for topics or mentions of their brand (or a competitors!) that indicate when to connect or reconnect with a prospect.

Give subscribers a link to your blog to explore your latest blog post, view an uploaded video or a picture. 

Here’s a very popular thought – how about asking them what it is they want or need so you can then offer specifically that?

How does this fit into the Trinity of Social Media?  The first element was the blog, the blog is a semi-formalized communication with your audience.  It does, or should, require some kind of research, linking and images or video to make the post interesting to your audience.  The frequency of a blog post is however fairly regulated, daily at most, weekly at least or if you like me, when you can get to it while you’re growing the company.

A lot of life happens between those blog posts though – urgent matters arise, meetings are held, pictures are taken for sharing and new prospects and customers find you.  The frequency of a microblog posting is much more frequent than that a blog.  A bearable stream of 2 to 5 posts a day are common and a dozen or so to an interested audience is entirely bearable.

What microblogging tools are best?  Twitter by far has the greatest presence of any public microblogging platform on the planet.  It has been the subject and carrier of participants and first arrivals for breaking news on the 2008 election, USAir plane landing in the Hudson River, and citizen vs. government unrest in Iran.  A lot of good comes out of the Twitter community as well; local meetups that raise funds for charity (@Twestival) and there are microbloggers for almost every cause from AIDS Healthcare (@AIDSHealthcare)to to Saving dolphins and whales (@SaveTheDolphins).  Lastly, it can be just plain fun!  Check out Sockington the Cat (@Sockington) to get a smile as a cat shares her quirky thoughts as she explores her masters house with over 1.2M of her followers know as the Sockington Army.

There are other tools in this space (Jaiku from Google, Plurk, Tumblr all come to mind) and each provides a little different spin on the basic premise of connecting to an audience with a short message. At one point I came across a listing of over 200 microblogging services form around the world, so no matter where you are, there is a microblogging tool and audience for you.

Image from http://www.eventslisted.com/socialmediastrategies/

With my involvement in social media approaching it’s fourth year, I see a pattern emerging in the foundational elements of an effective online presence.  There are three elements in the strategy that encompass the tactics that I believe need to be adopted to support a presence.

I see it as particular to the timeline of an exchange or conversation and how it contributes to social capital.  The caveat is of course that no one strategy fits all companies.  If however you are not going to engage for a professionally developed social media strategy, this is a good one to cut your teeth on and get going.

The first point of the triangle is the blog.  Recently social media strategist have suggested that CEO’s and thought leaders might want to reconsider their use of the micro-blogging phenomenon, Twitter.   That’s because as valuable as a CEO’s time is, posting to a micro-blogging tool that is not indexed by search engines represents content that cannot be later referenced in the conversation with an audience.  A blog on the other hand will retain the conversation, search engines will find it and those that want to, will then be able to find the content via search, by referral or via direct reference by other sites. 

The blog is the component that represents the location on the web where you would want to to open or reply to conversations regarding your public strategy, the reasons you’ve invested in the products / services you have and the virtues of the organization (your organization) behind it – it’s the stuff you want the public to know about you, your product and your company. 

It’s also where you’ll respond to comments posted elsewhere that you want to reply to that require more than a few dozen words.  Lastly, and this is a point I’ve debated before with friends, pundits and followers, do not attempt to moderate the comments made to your blog.  You can always delete spam, remove rude remarks and ban people who cannot be civil.  An attempt to moderate a blog implies you do not trust your audience – a mistake when trust is the commodity you have to trade in a social media setting.

The second point of the trinity is micro-blogging.  A lot of life and business happens between the more formal blog posts you make.  Sprinkled into the millions of inane tweets are much more salient tweets that, in a well prepared social media strategy, could serve to connect you and your company to your prospects, customers and stakeholders.  One at a time, the tweets might be irrelevant, but taken in context they can present a more human image of you and what you’re trying to accomplish.  They might also support a powerful ROI, one modeled by Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrary.TV in his now famous comparison of direct mail, freeway billboard and micro-blogging-based campaign results.

The third point of the triangle is social networking.  You may find that one social network is insufficient to connect to the audience you’re targeting, or you may find that there is a special-built social network that is already targeting your audience.  A Pew Internet Study shows that the majority of Internet users are participants in social networks now and their use is growing.

The social network rounds out the model by enabling a conversation unfettered by you or your company.  Unfettered, but not unmonitored.  You want your users to be able to connect with one another in a place you can connect with them.  They are going to talk about you, your product and your brand – there is just no stopping it.  By providing a platform for the conversation at least you get a chance to engage.

As an opening effort for the do-it-yourselfer’s out there, The Trinity of Social Media is complete with a blog, a micro-blog and a social network.  Pay attention to this, use at least this as a strategy and you’ll get a more positive result in social media than doing any single one of them without a strategy.

Is there a secret to it?  Only if you think there is a secret to strategy and a coordinated effort.  They need to be coordinated and developed to support one another in their operation and in the way they support one another.  Could one be implemented without the other?  Certainly – I present this strategy often enough to recognize that not everyone want to type / input their content. 

What else needs to be answered in this model? a lot.  If the blog was a video blog or a podcast would that work?  If the micro-blog was video or audio based would that count?  Which social network is the right one or should it be special constructed?  How do you get the answer?  subscribe here, join the community at TheSocialMediaBible.com or get a professional on your team and they can step your through the evaluation quickly.

Are there pitfalls to be avoided in the strategy?  Undoubtedly – but the overwhelming failure is to not engage in social media and believe you will somehow not be ignored or that your competition will also be complacent.  Actually, if you are a company and you are ignored, that is an important data point by itself – what might you be doing wrong?

[Update] I had someone suggest I create a Mind Map to help illustrate the Trinity of Social Media.  Neat idea! I used MindManager from Mindjet to create a Mind Map of the Trinity of Social Media.  Make sure you are current with Adobe Acrobat8 and Flash9 installed and this mind map & player should work (MindJet requirements)

If you’re on an Apple / Mac, you may only be able to open the .JPG of the map (click the image to the left).

I consume a good deal of media, but probably not all I might but a pretty health dose nonetheless.  I confess that the real reason I get a daily paper has more to do with the comics and the crossword puzzle – the sensational trash that fills the pages otherwise is destine to go to the recycling bin unread for the most part.

The other day I came across this cartoon and have told a few people about it and promised to post it.  I found it online over at Arcamax Publishing and linked it here for your enjoyment.  Zits is one of the strips I read everyday, I think because I have a teenage son and daughter that mimic Jeremy’s (the main character) behavior pretty frequently .  We talk often about the technology they and their friends use and Twitter has not yet made it to their mobile device, but I suspect it soon will.

The cartoon got me thinking about the penetration of Twitter into our society.  Is this a landmark event when it makes it to the comic pages of print media?

<< the strip was removed from online publication, looking for a link to it >>