MackCollier.com

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Interested in finding Social Media ROI? Get better metrics.

The above is from slide 20 of the Altimeter Group’s deck on Social Business Forecast 2011.  The previous slide said that the top thing that corporate social media strategists are focused on in 2011 is creating ROI measurements.

In order to do that, you need to be measuring the right metrics.  Look at the above slide and note that the most popular metrics that corp social media strategists are tracking are ones associated with engagement.  Now if your goal for using social media is to build engagement, then that’s fine.  But if your goal is to generate sales, then measuring your number of Twitter followers is a terribly weak metric to measure.

If you want to improve your ability to measure the value of your social media efforts then start measuring metrics associated with the action you want people to take.

For example, if you want to use your blog as a tool to generate sales, then you need to focus on metrics that are tied to product sales, or interest.  Such as, signups for a product demo, number of times you are contacted for more information about a product, downloads of brochures etc associated with the product, referrals from the blog to a specific product page.  Or….actual sales generated on the blog.

All of those metrics are tied to the action you want the user to take, buying a product.  They all indicate someone that is interested in the product and that indicates a potential customer.

On the flipside, if you are using your blog to generate sales, why measure traffic?  Traffic is almost meaningless, you need to measure what people do AFTER they arrive on your blog.

Here’s some examples of picking better metrics:

Notice as you go down that list of metrics, you are getting closer to your actual goal of generating sales.  That’s what you need to be striving to do.  A lot of the chatter we’ve heard over the past couple of years is about the inability to accurately measure the ROI of social media.  A good deal of that isn’t due to deficiencies in the tools, but rather in the measurement process.

Put your metrics on trial, and make sure that you are measuring what you should be.

BTW need help designing a better measurement program for your social media efforts?  Check out my social media training options.

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3 Reasons Why Social Media Training is Critical for Companies in 2011

The above is a graph from EMarketer listing the top areas that corporate social media strategists will be investing in 2011.  Note that the most important investment area for these strategists, behind only measuring SM ROI, was internal education and training.  I think there are 3 reasons why social media training is so critical for companies, especially larger ones, in 2011.

1 – Social media for companies has evolved, teams are now in place.  Larger companies are no longer experimenting with social media, they’ve now committed and staffs have been hired.  It’s very important for companies to invest in training these teams and not only that, but that they get the same training.  And that open interaction and collaboration is facilitated.  In many cases, the people that spearheaded a company’s social media efforts a couple of years ago, are now training all areas of the company on using these same tools.

2 – Social media training is cost-efficient.  I’ve seen this far too often over the past 2-3 years. A company sends an employee to a social media conference, then that person takes copious notes all day in every session, then goes back to her office and tries to explain to her team what she learned.  So the end result is the company paid $1,500-$2,000 to send one person to a conference, and all they get is a notepad full of hastily scribbled notes that no one can really explain.

This is exactly why last year I shifted the focus of my consulting to providing on-site social media training for companies.  I realized that for about the same amount that a company could send an employee or 2 to a social media conference, I could give them on-site social media training for an entire day, to their entire team.  This is a huge cost-savings to the company, and helps the entire team be more efficient in its social media efforts, meaning the investment in social media training easily pays for itself several times over.  Please check out my Social Media Training and Workshops page to see exactly how this service works.

3 – Social media training helps get everyone on the same page.  Instead of having ‘the blogging guy’ and ‘the Facebook gal’, your entire team can be up to speed on how your company is using these tools, and more importantly, what you are trying to accomplish.  That means that the efforts of the individuals will be more effective, and as a result, the output of the entire team will increase dramatically.

So if your company now has an organized social media team, there’s three reasons why I think it’s critical for you to invest in social media training in 2011.  If your company has started a social media training program, either internally, or by bringing in external consultants or agencies, how has that worked for you?

And if your company would like to hire me to either provide on-site social media training to your team, and/or to help your company organize an internal social media training program for your employees, please email me.

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You don’t inspire change by telling someone they are wrong

One of the things that has always bothered me about how we (consultants and agencies that sell social media marketing services) talk to companies about social media is that the conversation almost always starts with telling the company what they are doing wrong.

They aren’t being ‘human’ enough.  They are being too self-promotional.  They don’t ‘get’ social media and they don’t do a good job of connecting with their customers.  The message we seem to be sending companies is ‘We aren’t going to get anywhere until YOU fall on the sword and admit that your approach to social media is dead wrong.  Then and only then, can you learn how to do it the RIGHT way.’

Yes that’s being a bit overdramatic, but I think we need to consider how our message is resonating with the companies we are trying to reach.  If you take a CEO that’s already highly skeptical of the value of social media, then tell him that everything he thinks he knows about social media marketing is dead wrong, then it’s not too hard to imagine them shutting down and not listening to what you have to say.

People don’t like hearing that they are wrong, and they don’t like being talked down to.  We as consultants need to remember this and respect the skill it takes to build a business and remember that social media is just one tool in a toolbox, and not the Holy Grail.

It’s not always about the message you are sending but the way you deliver that message.  It helps to remember the other person’s point of view and business reality.

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Three smart ways you can use #Blogchat to be a better blogger

If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t checked out #Blogchat yet, then you are missing an amazing tool to help you become a better blogger.  The chat happens on Twitter every Sunday nite at 8pm Central, and you can learn more about it here.

As I was watching the tweets stream by (literally) last nite, I was noticing a few different ways that people were using #Blogchat.  Here’s a few ways I picked up on:

1 – By being helpful. Note Mitch’s tweet above.  He was using #Blogchat as a way to answer everyone’s questions on blog design and setup.  This is a great way to help establish his expertise and credibility with potential clients.  And notice DJ was doing the same thing when it came to questions about email marketing:

Both DJ and Mitch were using #Blogchat to be helpful, which helps gain them Twitter followers, and gives them more exposure to potential clients, and blog readers.

2 – By asking for advice.  This is a great way to use #Blogchat, there’s SO many smart people there, it’s a perfect opportunity to get advice from dozens of people at once.  Here’s some examples I spotted:

The great thing about #Blogchat is that there are so many people there that you can almost always find someone that’s already encountered and solved the same problem or issue you are having.

3 – By crowdsourcing posts.  Every week, @Allison_Boyer scans #Blogchat and takes a relevant tweet or two and uses it to write a post each week for BlogWorld’s blog.

So there’s some ideas for how #Blogchat can help your blogging efforts.  If you are a #Blogchat regular, how has it helped your blogging efforts?

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Use Google Reader’s Shared Items for post ideas

Veteran blog readers have probably already discovered that Google Reader is a great way to keep up with the blogs you are subscribed to.  But one of the features I get a ton of value from is the Shared Items from my friends.  Think of it this way: Everyone else is subscribed to dozens of blogs and as they are going through their feeds, they are picking out the most interesting and valuable posts, and sharing them with their followers.  Which means I am exposed to a lot of great blogs and sites that I might otherwise never find.

And of course, this gives me a great idea for post ideas, because in viewing my friend’s shared items, I can see which topics and ideas are important to them.  Which gives me an idea of what I should be writing about.

And here’s another great tip: You can set up Google Reader to let you send interesting posts you find in Google Reader (Either your subscribed feeds or Shared Items from friends) directly to Facebook and Twitter.

First, click on Settings in the top right corner of the screen, then Reader Settings.

Next, click on Send To, the last option on the right.  You’ll be given a list of several services that you can send your posts to, including Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, Friendfeed, etc.  Click the services you want to share posts with, and that’s it!

Then when you see a post in Google Reader that you want to share, click the Send To option, and a small dropdown menu will let you click the service you want to send the post to!

So if you are using Google Reader, check out the Shared Items section, it’s a great source of inspiration and a wonderful way to discover interesting new sites and blogs!

BTW, if you want to see all the posts and articles I have shared in Google Reader (over 300), then click my Google Profile.

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Use TweetDeck to track who favorites your tweets

My pal Ian alerted me to a really cool feature in TweetDeck, the ability to see who is favoriting your tweets, and which tweets they are favoriting.  To the left is a screenshot of how this shows up in your Mentions column.

You might have to turn this feature on to see it, if so, click on Settings, then Twitter, then click on Enable Realtime Twitter Streaming, then click the option for Show in Mentions When People Favorite Your Tweets.  That’s it!

Why is this cool?  Because it tells me WHO is favoriting my tweets, and WHAT they are favoriting.  This gives me a great idea of which type of content I am creating that’s resonating with my followers.  Which means I can share more useful content with my followers, which means I will hopefully get MORE followers, and maybe more RTs of my content, when I share it.

Are you managing and tracking who is favoriting your tweets?  If so, what tool are you using to do this, is it TweetDeck, or something else?

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CMOs look to find revenue growth from Social Media in 2011

Ian Greenleigh, who heads up Social Media at Bazaarvoice, gave me a heads-up on a new report that the company has published on how CMOs use and view social media heading into 2011.  Long-time readers here will remember that I interviewed Ian here a few months ago.  You can receive a free copy of the report here.

Here are a few of the key takeaways I had from the report:

  • 40% of CMOs surveyed said they were able to tie some of their company’s revenue back to their social media efforts in 2010 (I am surprised the percentage is that high)
  • Site Traffic is the most popular metric used by CMOs to track the success of their social media efforts, followed closely by Page Views and number of Fans/Followers
  • Of the ‘Big Three’ Social Media tools (Blogs, Facebook, Twitter) CMOs feel they get the highest return on their investment for company blogs, followed by Facebook and then Twitter

At the heart of this report, I think it verifies that as companies are becoming more familiar with using social media and how these sites and tools function, they are getting a better idea of how to measure the effectiveness of their efforts.  The fact that most CMOs look to Site Traffic and Pageviews to gauge the effectiveness of their social media efforts suggests that when they launch their efforts (a blog, for example) that they are assuming that the same/similar metrics that they use to judge if their website is working, will work for social media.  I also think this is partly why CMOs feel that they have a better handle on the value created by blogs, simply because companies have been using blogs as a tool to connect with customers for longer than they have Facebook and Twitter, for example.  As the knowledge of the tool/site increases, so does the efficiency in which the company uses that tool/site.

Of course, traffic and page views aren’t worth very much unless that traffic performs certain action(s) on the site.  I believe companies are starting to realize this, and THAT is why you will begin to see companies being able to quantify real ROI from their social media efforts.  I also think the report addresses this, as the 2nd most popular metric that CMOs are expecting to use to gauge their social media efforts in 2011, is conversion.

So thanks to Ian and the folks at Bazaarvoice for creating this report, and you can download your free copy here.  Also, on February the 2nd (Next Wednesday), Bazaarvoice will have a free webinar where they will do a deep-dive into the findings of this report, with several top CMOs.

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‘Be Awesome!’ is not a social media strategy, it’s a soundbyte

How many times have you heard this advice for having a great blog or social media presence?

‘Be Awesome!’

‘You have to join the conversation!’

Or my favorite advice, on how to get more Twitter followers, ‘Be worth following!’

The bottom line is that social media isn’t quick and easy.  If you want to REALLY have a successful social media program, you have to get your hands dirty.  You have to track, measure, tweak, compare, experiment, and break stuff.  I’ve been blogging here for two years, and still can’t tell you what the exact ROI of my efforts here are.  But during those 2 years I have been constantly searching for the answer, and my efforts here have improved dramatically.

Of course, if I’d listened to the ‘rockstars’ in this space, I would have known exactly what I had to do:

1 – Write great stuff

2 – Write every day

3 – Write short posts 300-500 words

That’s all there is to it, if you listen to some people.  The business reality is that every company is going to have to invest time and energy into a successful social media program.  It won’t be easy, but as Ian added, most important things are hard.

And if anyone tells you that all you have to do is ‘Be Amazing!’, then they aren’t trying to help you, they are trying to get retweets.

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How to overcome your boss’ objections to using Social Media

In the last post, we talked about some ideas for selling your boss on why your company or organization should use social media.  But if you are having to ‘sell’ the boss on social media, that probably means she is skeptical, and probably has a set list of reasons why she does NOT think social media is a good option.  You need to address those concerns head on, and here’s how to tackle the objections you are most likely to hear:

1 – We don’t have time for social media. Social media is a big time requirement, but most companies don’t have to start from zero.  Often, you can take existing content and repurpose it for your blog or even Twitter and Facebook presences.  For example, if you have any whitepapers, or articles, or interviews, or even videos that you’ve created, these can be used as content sources for your social media efforts.

2 – Social media wouldn’t work for us, since no one is talking about us online. This is a big misconception that many companies have, especially smaller ones.  If no one is talking about your company online, that is often a POSITIVE, not a negative!

Think about it, if you are a big brand, then part of your social media efforts involve monitoring and responding to hundreds if not thousands of daily brand mentions online.  So that big brand is having to REACT to an EXISTING conversation that it’s customers are creating about and around the brand.

But a smaller company that doesn’t have any online mentions can CREATE the online conversation about them.  They don’t have to react to the conversation that their customers are creating.  So while the big brand is responding to and attempting to reframe the existing conversation, the smaller company has the advantage that they are the ones creating that conversation.

3 – Our current marketing efforts are just fine. If done smartly, your current marketing efforts, especially online, can be enhanced by social media.  For example, a blog can help drive qualified traffic to your website, which can increase sales, as we discussed in the last post.  Also, content you create for your blog can help provide inspiration and content for your email newsletter.

4 – We don’t know what to do or which tools to use. Here’s where you will need to do a bit of research, but you can often take your cues from how your current and potential customers are using social media.  If they are mostly on Twitter, then it’s a good indication that make your company should have a presence there as well.  And once you launch your social media efforts, as you are monitoring your online mention, you can track WHERE these mentions are happening.  Are they coming from blogging customers, or maybe message boards?  This gives you a great idea of which tools you should be using, and where you should be spending your time.

5 – Social media is just a fad. Social media has been around for 20 years, at least.  Even in the late 1980s, I was creating content on message boards on local BBSes, then in the 90s on online services such as Prodigy and AOL.  I think the main difference in the current version of these tools and sites is that it’s now easier than ever for individuals to create content, and it can be on their own site (blog) or even pull content from a centralized site (Twitter) to their site, via widgets.

As more customers get more advanced smartphones, these social media tools are following the phone, which means customers now have the ability to create content on the go.  Such as quickly taking a picture and immediately posting it to Twitter or their blog.  So social media has been around for a while, and isn’t going away any time soon.

So there are some ideas for countering possible objections to social media that your boss might offer.  If you have a specific question about how your company can convince your boss to use social media, either leave a comment for all of us, or email me and I will be happy to help!

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How to sell your boss on using Social Media

Ready to have ‘the talk’ with your boss?  The one where you make your case for why it’s time for your company to start using social media (what talk did you think I meant?!?)?  Here’s some tips for helping you make your case:

1 – Don’t talk buzzwords, talk tangible business benefits.  Only mention things like comments, Facebook Likes and Twitter followers IF you also explain how they relate to things like sales, conversions and leads.  Make your case for why your company should use social media by showing your boss how it will help your company generate sales, and/or lower costs.

2 – Point out how social media can help your company build its awareness.  A lot of people focus on ‘the conversation’, but using social media is a wonderful way to increase search placements and traffic.  For example, yesterday I wrote a post titled How to write good blog content.    Here’s a screenshot I took of the Google results for the term “How to write good blog content” right before I wrote this post:

The #1 Google result just a few hours after publishing the post.  Not too shabby.  And this perfectly illustrates how blog content can help your company’s search results.  Maybe even to the point where your company can lower or eliminate its SEM budget?

3 – Social media can make your marketing more effective.  Look at your existing online marketing efforts and how success is judged.  Show your boss how social media can compliment those efforts, making them more effective and efficient.

For example, a blog will help drive qualified traffic to your website.  Let’s say you provide lawn-care services, and you write a post entitled ’10 Steps to Having an Insect-Free Lawn by June’, and someone arrives at that post by Googling the term ‘getting rid of insects in my lawn’.  And let’s say that in that post, you give wonderful advice about ridding a lawn of insects, and add a call to action inviting the reader to visit your website if they want to schedule an appointment with you.  Anyone that arrives at your site from visiting that post is probably going to be a potential customer, or qualified lead.  So the blog is enhancing the website’s ability to sell your services.

So those are some quick tips to helping you convince your boss to use social media.  The problem is, your boss is likely to have a few objections to using social media.  We’ll talk about how you can address and counter your boss’ objections to social media, in the next post.