All marketers wish they knew how to better measure results, engage their audience, and measure ROI. Chuck Hemann opens up by warning that he won't solve all of our problems but he will provide guidance on how to approach them.
Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance
There are 5 key steps that each marketer must take to create a successful social media campaign. What does this include?
- Listening to what is being said online
- Assessing the marketplace
- Engaging with current and prospective clients
- Measuring is a way for us to optimize
- Improving our strategy as we learn more
According to Hemann listening and measurement are the two most important ingredients for success. You cannot successfully execute on one without the other. Below are a few of the best practice approaches that Hemann shared with the audience at today's session.
Understand What Simply Listening Can & Cannot Do
- Optimize your content in real time
- Create a better customer experience
- Quickly learn about potential product issues
- Marketing through conversation
- Gain valuable business intelligence
Create A Solid Social Media Strategy
- Planning and beginning and ending stages is essential
- Internal resources for facilitating and executing is critical
- You can't listen to everything so fine tune your process
- Don't rely on just one tool for quantifying results
Tools & Reporting: Questions Every Company Should Ask Themselves
- Has your internal team decided on the tools you want to use?
- Is there a training and implementation schedule in place?
- Has a process for reporting been scheduled?
- Do you know what your competition is doing?
Myths & Misconceptions To Avoid
- Social media cannot be measured: You collect dozens of data points each day that assist in measuring your social media efforts.
- ROI stands for something other than return on investment: ROI does not refer to influence or engagement it is directly related to gaining or saving the company money.
- Social media measurement is different than traditional media measurement: Social media is measured by utilizing a series of strategies and tactics just as you would with any other effort.
- Social media is meant to be organic and we already have too much data: You can never have too much data!
Never Forget the Five W's
- What people are saying about your brand.
- Where they are talking about your brand.
- When people are talking about your brand.
- Who is talking about your brand.
- Why people are talking about your brand.
Common Measurement Questions You Should Always Keep In Mind
- How many people did we reach?
- Did the program create conversation?
- How do I get ad equivalency so the brand can compare this to our advertising?
- Were our fans/followers engaged?
What Is Our Take Away From This Afternoon's Session?
- No subject is unapproachable
- This is a step-by-step process
- Gaining access to quality data provides a huge competitive advantage
There are many ways to effectively track social media metrics for B2B sales. What tools have you found to be effective for social media measurement?
Stay tuned for more posts from MIMA Summit 2011. Follow the hashtag #MIMASummit on Twitter and watch for any posts on @toprank or @azeckman to see updates and photos from the conference.
Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | #MIMASummit: 6 Tips for Developing a Best Practices Approach to Social Media Measurement | http://www.toprankblog.com
[Note from Lee: TopRank Marketing has been working with PRWeb for nearly 5 years and their Director of Public Relations, Frank Strong (Now serving in Iraq - stay safe!), couldn't say enough good things when they hired a new Social Media Community Manager, Stacey Acevero: Smart, passionate about the industry, highly motivated, sense of humor and a true fan of the brand, Stacey has embraced her role as the social media voice of PRWeb in many ways, from blogging to running #PRWebChat.
Many businesses are investing in their social media expertise by adding Social Media Strategist and Community Manager positions. To get an idea of what skills companies should look for, I asked Stacey to share her first-hand insights with our readers.]
The One Job Your Company Really Needs
Being a community manager is certainly a coveted role in the industry (Read: "I get to sit on Facebook all day!") but what most don't realize is how much really goes into the role and the huge benefits to a company it can present. If you've been pondering the position and need a place to start in your search for a social strategist or community manager, take it from me:
10 reasons to hire a social strategist and community manager:
I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you're not on social media, then you're not where your audience is—and you're missing out. The social media potential for brands is astonishing, and it includes:
- An endless stream of information and trends that are happening in your industry
- The chance to check out your competitors to evaluate what you are doing right (and potentially wrong)
- The ability to engage one-on-one with your audience and form a more personal connection
- Tracking mentions of your brand online so you can offer customer service through social media and answer inquires (as well as dispel myths)
- Content creation and curation
- Community-building
- Increasing advocates of your brand through word of mouth marketing
- The opportunity to increase trust and credibility with your community
- Social media can be used for sales
- SEO
Characteristics and skills to look for when hiring:
The number-one skill to look for when hiring a social strategist and community manager is a genuine passion for social media. This means that they love to be active on social media and they are always looking for new tools and ways to engage. Experience should not be the number-one factor, because the field is still new! Other factors to look for:
- Are they an early adopter of social media?
- Do they use social media at various times of day (i.e. it's easy to tweet while you're at a computer all day at work, but do they tweet on evenings and weekends as well)?
- Do they know how to use social media to its greatest potential (incorporating hashtags, using bit.ly to shorten links, using the thumbnail feature on Facebook to select a proper picture when linking to a post, etc.)?
- Do they have a general understanding and involvement for the industry they want to be a community manager in (whether it is a degree or job experience)? Lots can be learned about the industry through their role as a community manager, and they will learn a lot along the way. That's why I say a general understanding.
- Do they have a curiosity and willingness to try new tools and platforms? There are so many more platforms out there than just Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. The emergence of new platforms such as Google + and the plethora of niche platforms such as forums creates an endless social media landscape, and they can't be afraid to delve into those niches to find their audience. In addition, they should demonstrate experience in using new social media tools for integration, time management and organization across platforms (for example TweetDeck, Hootsuite, etc).
Tips on managing your community manager: Give them an outline of duties, let them loose and see how they do with it. Sit with them and run through their duties and point our opportunities they should be harnessing. Also, make sure you have a social media policy in place so they know what language and tone is acceptable. Also, ask them to be creative by writing blog posts and creating simple graphics for your brand. Periodically offering feedback on their posts and nudging them in the right direction is key to keeping them on track. My number-one rule here is to make sure they aren't just broadcasting, and that they are engaging with the online community. Shouting from a bullhorn won't get you anywhere.
Primary responsibilities:
- Creating and implementing a social media strategy
- Finding your brands target audience online
- Engaging with the audience and building a tight-knit community (remember: quality, not quantity!)
- Competitive analysis
- Monitoring brand mentions: answer inquiries, provide customer service, dispel brand myths
- Analytics: track month-to-month changes in social media statistics, find causes for rises/plummets and change strategy accordingly
- Reward brand advocates to increase word of mouth marketing
- Create a link between your brands social media presence and sales + customer retention
A social strategist and community manager should be able to integrate and work with other departments in your company, including PR, marketing, HR and sales. The best way to do this is to hold integrated training sessions where each department learns about the social media aspect of the company and works together on messaging and opportunities.
For a snapshot of what the workflow of a community manager should look like, check out my favorite infographic: A Day In the Life of a Social Media Manager
Gain a competitive advantage by subscribing to the
TopRank® Online Marketing Newsletter.
© Online Marketing Blog, 2011. | Hiring a Social Media Strategist – Essential Skills & Talents | http://www.toprankblog.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment