MackCollier.com

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Tapping Into the Power of Customer Conversations With Bazaarvoice

Bazaarvoice, Think Like a Rockstar, Brand advocacy

Over the past few years I’ve discovered that two of my favorite things to do is present Think Like a Rockstar, and visit Austin, Texas.  Luckily, I got to do both this week, with the added bonus of learning a lot more about an incredibly interesting tech company called Bazaarvoice.  I’ve known Bazaarvoice’s CMO Erin Nelson for a couple of years now, having first met her when I worked with Dell on its first #DellCAP event while Erin was the CMO at Dell.  And I’ve known BV’s Manager of Content and Social Strategy, Ian Greenleigh, for about as long.  In fact, the insights that Ian provided to this post on how negative feedback online actually HELPS most brands, made the post one of the most popular ever written here.

In short, Bazaarvoice offers a suite of products to clients that do two things:

1 – Help them give their customers the ability to give feedback on products and services via reviews, ratings, etc.

2 – Helps these clients collect and interpret this feedback so that they can use it to make more informed business decisions and improve existing business processes.

Erin shares more about Bazaarvoice’s products and how they help clients in the interview at the end of this post.  But I was delighted to hear the focus Bazaarvoice puts on helping clients collect information from their customers, then using that information to improve their business processes.  I’ve been saying this for years (and repeated it on Wednesday while visiting BV), but the promise of social media for business lies in FEWER conversations.  Meaning that the brand and its customers aren’t having two completely different conversations, but rather that both groups better understand the other, and as a result, their conversations are more similar.  Which means the company can improve its marketing and communication efforts, which leads to lowered costs, and increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

While I was visiting Bazaarvoice, I was lucky enough to interview both Erin and Ian and wanted to share those with you.  I think both interviews are fascinating for completely different reasons.  Erin talked a bit about Bazaarvoice and its products and also offered some fascinating insights into the feedback customers leave online (for example, she explains why 4-star reviews are typically more valuable for a company than 5-star), and also talks about how brands can use the information gained from its customers online to make more informed business decisions.

Ian heads up Social and Content Strategy for Bazaarvoice, so he has a job that a lot of us would want 🙂  I asked Ian to walk us through ‘A Day in the Life’, and he also tells us the very unique approach he took in getting his current position, after applying for and not getting the same job!  If you are interested in becoming a Social Media Manager, you’ll definitely want to listen to our chat.

Both interviews are linked below, just click the link and it will open in a new tab for you and start playing.  I was very happy to spend some time with Bazaarvoice this week, and look forward to returning to see them in April for their annual Social Summit!

Interview with Erin at Bazaarvoice

Interview with Ian at Bazaarvoice

Disclosure: Bazaarvoice paid me for my trip and to present Think Like a Rockstar, but did not pay for this post.  

This was one of the first things I saw when I arrived at Bazaarvoice, so I knew it was going to be a great trip!

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IBM Study: CMOs Look to Focus on Social Media, Connecting With Brand Advocates

Not sure how I missed this, but a couple of months ago IBM released the results of a survey it did of 1,700 Chief Marketing Officers about the future of marketing, specifically the next 3-5 years.  One of the questions asked was what technology CMOs plan to increase their use of over the next 3-5 years.  The top three answers were:

  • Social Media
  • Customer Analytics
  • CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

Another question asked of the CMOs was what were their priorities for managing the shift toward digital technologies.  The number one priority according to the CMOs is enhancing customer loyalty/advocacy.

The beauty of social media is that it allows smart companies to better understand their customers.  Now, companies can simply monitor the conversation happening around their brand, and gain great insights into who their customers are, and what they want.  This leads to greater understanding of their customers, which leads to more effective and efficient marketing.  Which leads to an increase in customer advocacy, and loyalty.

Smart companies are already investing in aggressively monitoring and mining online conversations around their brand, and as a result, they are finding that participating in a conversation changes that conversation.  Rockstars have always understood this, and have actively embraced their fans, and have gone out of their way to connect with them.  Which is a big reason why Rockstars have fans, and companies have customers.

Finally, it seems that companies are beginning to understand the importance of understanding and connecting with their brand advocates.  And in case you’re still not convinced…

brand advocates, think like a rockstar

 

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Sunday’s #Blogchat Topic: How to Amplify Your Blog’s Visibility

Build engagement and visibility for your blogThanks to Rosie Taylor for suggesting this week’s #Blogchat topic on our Facebook page.

We all want to know what we can do to make our blog more visible and build awareness for it.  I think when we look at this, we need to consider what we can do on our blog, and what we can do off our blog.  And I don’t want to steal anyone’s thunder, but I wanted to offer some ideas for each, and hopefully this will get you thinking as we get ready for tonight’s discussion.

What you can do on your blog to build visibility:

  • How can you create compelling content?  What type of content is more likely to attract attention?
  • How can you engage with readers via comments?
  • How can you draw awareness to other blogs as a way to draw attention to your own?
  • What about bring in other bloggers to write guest posts?
What you can do off your blog to build visibility:
  • Are you actively commenting on your space’s more popular sites and blogs?
  • Are you actively commenting on your reader’s blogs?
  • Can you write guest posts for other bloggers?
Those are just some quick ideas.  As a primer for tonight’s #Blogchat discussion, what are some other ways you can build your blog’s visibility?  What has worked for you?

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IKEA Fans Ask For a Sleepover So the Company Gives Them One

IKEA, community-building, brand advocates, fans, think like a rockstar

Over 100,000 IKEA fans took to Facebook to create a page called “I Wanna Have a Sleepover in IKEA“, and the brand granted that wish to 100 lucky members, sending them to their signature warehouse in Essex in the UK.  The fans were given the royal treatment, including snacks, massages, sleep advice from an expert, and goodie bags.  A strict Pajamas-Only dress code was enforced, but unfortunately it seems that few pillow fights broke out.

This goes to the heart of something I talk about in Think Like a Rockstar: Create Something Amazing For the People That Love You.  IKEA was smart enough to see that their fans had self-organized into this group, so all they had to do was find 100 lucky fans, and make the group’s dream come true.

Now to be sure, this was a BIG expense for IKEA.  Even if all 100 selected fans were local, they had to outfit the store, bring in experts, plus all the goodies, manhours, etc.  But when you Google ‘IKEA Facebook Sleepover 100 Essex’ you find almost 90,000 entries covering this event.  That is a LOT of free publicity for IKEA, and almost all of it is positive.  I’m not sure what IKEA would say the PR value of 90,000 positive articles and posts is, but I’d guess it’s probably more than what they spent on this event.

And yes, you may argue that ‘Well IKEA can do this because their customers are the Cult of IKEA!‘  Maybe one reason why IKEA has such devoted fans is BECAUSE of events like this?

Feed subscribers please click here to watch the video in the post.

HT – PSFK.

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A No-Nonsense Guide to Finding the ROI of Your Business Blog

blogging, business blogging, social media ROIWe often make our social media efforts much harder than they have to be.  For example, if your company has a blog, how do you know if it’s successful?

Oops.

Finding the value of your blogging efforts is one of the biggest issues companies face when it comes to social media.  Now finding the ‘value’ is not the same as calculating ROI, but when a company asks ‘What’s the ROI of our blog?’ they usually mean ‘What’s the value?’ because unless you have access to their financials, you can’t give them an accurate ROI figure.  But we’ll look at both.

First, you need to start with a solid strategy for your blogging efforts.  This is the biggest mistake most blogging companies make, and without a solid strategy, you make it MUCH harder to accurately measure the success of your blogging efforts.  I am working with a client now that has a business blog, and is having difficulty seeing how their blog is making ‘the needle move’.  In this case, that needle that they want to move is called ‘sales’.  I bet many of you are wanting your blog to move the same needle at your company.

So if we think about it, we need to use the blog as a tool to either do 1 of 2 things:

1 – Generate sales directly

2 – Move the visitor closer to a sale, via on the company website, on the phone, by carrier-pigeon, whatever.

The great thing is, now that we know how to use the blog, we can begin to craft our strategy to reach those goals.  And in doing so, we can begin to measure certain metrics that will help us determine the success of our blogging efforts.

For example, let’s say I make software that helps automate a company’s social media efforts (I don’t and have no desire to, just an example).  On my blog, I would probably want to focus the content to discuss how companies can improve their social media efforts, and especially the role that automation can play in that success, since I am selling a product that does just that.

Let’s also assume that I am not selling my software package on my blog, but rather on my site.  So then my blog’s biggest goal becomes sending qualified leads to my website.  Then once they reach the website, I need to convert them into a sale.  One way to do this is to put Calls To Action in my blog posts.

For example, let’s say I write a post entitled ‘5 Ways Automation Can Save Your Company’s Social Media Strategy’.  This post is designed to educate the reader on the value of automating some of their social media efforts.  If I do my job well, the post should open the reader’s eyes to the value of automation, and I could end the post with a Call to Action.  Such as a link to my website, inviting them to check out my software package.

Then I can track how many people read that blog post, and clicked my Call to Action link, and visited the page on my website for that software package.  Then I can go to the website side, and see what people did once they reached that product page on my site.  Did they leave without doing anything?   Did they signup for a free trial?  Or did they purchase the product right there on the page?

All of this means I can now track and measure metrics associated with my goals.  If I did this with every post, I might notice the following:

1 – If I write a post with a Call to Action sending visitors to my website and the software package page, an average of 50 visitors will click the CTA in the post and arrive on the website’s product page.

2 – Of those 50 visitors, 10 will signup for a free trial.  I also know from past tracking that for every 10 signups I will generate one sale of the software package.

3 – Of those 50 visitors, 1 will purchase the software package directly on the website page.

So, I know that for every 50 visitors I send to the website from a CTA in a blog post, that it will result (on average) in 10 free trial signups (which average converting into 1 sale) and 1 direct sale.  So for every 50 visitors I average 2 sales.  Which means that if every post with a CTA averages 50 visitors sent to the website, then every post also averages 2 sales.

Whew.  But by rolling up our sleeves and creating a solid strategy AND aggressively tracking our blog and website analytics, we can now accurately judge the success of our company’s blogging efforts.  When the boss asks if our blog is working, we can confidently state that “Yes, every post we write with a sales-oriented call-to-action sends 50 visitors to the company website, and on average 2 of those visitors ultimately convert into a sale.

Now in order to calculate the ROI of your blog, all we need to know is 2 things:

1 – The amount of profit your company makes from each sale of your software package. And total number of sales generated from your blog in the reporting period.  Let’s say this was $5,200 for the last quarter.

2 – The total amount of expense of your blogging efforts.  Include all associated costs such as hosting, design, and writing costs.  Let’s say this was $3,600 for the last quarter.

The ROI calculation would be ($5,200 – $3,600) / $3,600.  Which would equal  $1,600 / $3,600, which would equal an ROI of 44%!  Not bad!

 

But the upshot of ALL of this is, you need to start out figuring out exactly what you want to accomplish, then develop a strategy to help you reach those goals.  When you have that strategy in place THEN you can determine which metrics to measure and that will help you determine what value your blogging effort is creating for your business, as well as your blogging ROI.

1 – Create the strategy

2 – Decide on the tactics you will use to help you execute that strategy

3 – Measure metrics associated with those tactics

4 – Determine the business value of those metrics

Now, back to work!

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Stop Lying to Yourself, Your Problem Isn’t Figuring Out What to Write About…

writing, blogging, publishing…it’s actually writing the damn post.

You don’t need ideas, open Google Reader or join #Blogchat.  You’ll have enough ideas to write posts for the next year.

The problem is, when you actually WRITE the post, then it’s real.  Then you are dangerously close to publishing it.  Which means suddenly everyone will see it, and read it, and judge it.

And yet, you are often the harshest judge of your own work.  Too often, you assume that your post isn’t worthy of the reader, before they have a chance to dismiss it.  So it stays in your Draft folder, mocking you.

You can’t ‘sell’ until you ‘ship’.

Stop assuming that you know better than your reader does.  Write the damn post.  Then if it bombs, you can figure out why, and make the next post better as a result.  Stop writing with a perfect filter.

And if you haven’t figure it out, when I say ‘you’ need to just write the damn post, I mean *I* do 😉

 

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Are Brands Finally Waking Up to the Potential of Sponsored Content?

Dell, Sponsored Content, SXSW, #blogchat, social media, blogging

Around this time last year, and mostly on a lark, I left a post here asking for sponsors for a Live #Blogchat at SXSW.  Honestly, I didn’t expect to get any responses, but within 15 minutes of publishing my post I started receiving offers, and within an hour, my friends at 1680PR were on as the Main Sponsor of the first-ever Live #Blogchat.  That would be the first of 7 Live #Blogchats held in 2011, and I’m planning on announcing the first Live #Blogchat for 2012 in just a few days.

What was really interesting was what happened next.  As soon as I arrived in Austin for SXSW, everyone had 2 questions for me.  The first was ‘So how does a Live #Blogchat work?’, and the second was ‘So who is 1680PR?’  Answering the first question paved the way for my getting more Live #Blogchats throughout the year.  In fact, I met Joe Pulizzi at the Houston airport flying INTO Austin for SXSW, told him about the Live #Blogchat, and that began the conversation that would eventually lead to me doing a Live #Blogchat at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame to kick off Content Marketing World.

But what was really cool was to see how everyone was interested in learning more about 1680PR.  To me, this is how sponsored content should work.  By joining my friends at Dell in sponsoring the first ever Live #Blogchat, Ken and the team at 1680PR were doing two things:

1 – They were helping to facilitate an event that had value to the #Blogchat community

2 – They were becoming RELEVANT to that same community in the process

I got to spend a lot of time with Ken during SXSW, and he got to meet a lot of the people I know in this space, and they got to know him.  To this day, during #Blogchat on Twitter I will see Ken jump in and immediately some of the people he met during SXSW will chime in and say hi!  I had so many of my friends pull me aside during SXSW and tell me how much they liked Ken, and was glad 1680PR had helped sponsor the Live #Blogchat.

Also during SXSW, I got to talk to my friend Tom Martin about how he was providing sponsored content at TalkingWithTom.com.  What Tom did was go around the country interviewing some of the top thought leaders in the social media marketing space, and once a week he would post a new video interview he had done with them.  And Emma sponsored the site.  It was a smart move by Emma, because they got to have their brand associated with all these smart people, but they also made possible the creation of this site, which created value for others.

Tom and I have spent the last year discussing the idea of sponsored content.  But not just that, but the idea of how companies could benefit more from partnering with content creators that have an established community versus simply connecting with influencers.

For example, if a brand contacts an influencer about promoting their product, the influencer may be willing to promote the product if they are properly compensated, maybe with money, or maybe with a free product.

But if a brand contacts me about sponsoring #Blogchat, my first question is ‘Will this sponsorship create value for the #Blogchat community?’  This is an important distinction, because whereas the influencer’s motivation might be in receiving the free product, my motivation is in getting money from the #Blogchat sponsorship, but also in seeing how that sponsorship can be leveraged to create more value for the #Blogchat community.

For example, I’ve begun talking to a select few brands about having them be the long-term sponsor for #Blogchat.  I’m doing this for two reasons:

1 – It will give me a new source of income

2 – The income generated from the sponsorship will allow me to devote more time to building the #Blogchat brand and providing more value to its community.  Which will grow the #Blogchat community, ultimately providing even more value to the sponsor.

I really think you will begin to see more brands moving toward working with content creators to sponsor their content.  In fact, I’ve been talking to several other Twitter Chat hosts over the last several weeks, and many of them had either recently brought on sponsors to their Twitter chats, or were being approached by major brands about sponsorship opportunities.

I also think it makes more sense for the audience, because the content creator has a more vested interest in vetting the sponsors and making sure that bringing them on will provide more value to their readership/audience.  Tom also shared with me a Business Week article on how Expedia is teaming up with bloggers to promote their site.  I thought this ending passage was interesting:

Both company and bloggers say they aren’t concerned that readers may be turned off by commercial relationships between the travel agent and writers. Kim Mance, a Brooklyn, N.Y., video blogger and co-founder of Galavanting, a site aimed at female adventure travelers, says disclosure is important for readers but bloggers need to retain the mission and voice that garnered an audience in the first place. “Bloggers will miserably fail and lose their audience if they piss them off,” Mance says.

Bloggers say they’re ready to deliver travel tales and potential new Expedia customers—so long as they are compensated with exposure and cash. “I’ve spent five years traveling and building up an expertise and a following,” says Sherry Ott, a blogger from South Dakota who was among the Expedia visitors in Seattle. “I want to be able to be paid for my knowledge and for access into my audience.”

This speaks to why I think sponsored content makes so much sense.  Bloggers, for example, that have built up a following, are smart enough to know that if they bring on a sponsor, and their content suffers as a result, that they will lose that following.  So naturally, they only want to bring on sponsors that will bring VALUE to their following, because they want to GROW that following.  Which means they can get MORE sponsors.

It really does seem like a win-win when properly executed.  BTW if your company would like to talk to me about sponsoring #Blogchat on Twitter for either 3 or 6 months, please email me.  Since it is a 3-6 month sponsorship, it will be a bit more, but the benefits will be greater as well versus simply sponsoring one week.

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How Much Does Social Media Cost Companies in 2012?

Social Media Marketing, Social Media Consulting, Social Media Marketing Fees, Twitter, Facebook, Blog, Google Plus, YouTube, Pinterest

Two years ago I wrote a post entitled So How Much Will a Social Media Strategy Cost, which was designed to give businesses and organizations an idea of how much they should expect to pay consultants and agencies for basic social media marketing services.  As you might expect, that post was insanely popular, so I followed it up with How Much Does Social Media Cost Companies in 2011 last year, and now this year those prices are being updated again with this post.  For all three, these prices are taken from published rates found online, as well as what other agencies and consultants have told me they charge for these services.

In general, both posts in 2010 and 2011 were designed to give companies basic price information around the most common services, such as setup and execution of a blog, Twitter and Facebook page, as well as basic Social Media Training.  In the comments of both posts, many of you mentioned that there were additional areas that you would like to see addressed in the future.

With that in mind, I reached out specifically to some friends and fellow consultants that offer Social Media Marketing services to their clients either as independents, or as part of an agency (their own, or someone else’s).  I would like to thank the following experts for helping me by giving me their rates for these services so I could have the most accurate price information(And on short-notice during the Holidays!):

Jason Falls, Tom Martin, Jay Baer, Tamar Weinberg, Nick Westergaard, Mitch Canter, Lisa Petrilli, David Griner, Drew McLellan, Bobby Rettew, DJ Waldow, Jennifer Kane and Kary Delaria.  If you have any questions about these services or need to hire a consultant or agency to help you with your Social Media Marketing efforts, please email me and I will be happy to work with you, or refer you to one or more of these fine people.  Also, please click their names to visit their blog/site and learn more about their services.

Before I get to the prices, I wanted to talk a bit about how the area of Social Media Consulting has changed over the last few years.  In 2008 and 2009, Social Media Consultants were in fairly high demand, especially the more well-known and established ones.  Companies were realizing that they needed to start using Social Media as a way to listen to and connect with their customers, yet they had little to no idea how to do so. Enter the Social Media Consultant.  A shift in marketing philosophy by many companies created a real demand for professionals that could create and execute social media strategies for companies.

By 2010 and 2011, most companies began to understand that Social Media wasn’t simply a fad, and it was a business necessity that they needed to address via hiring.  Many companies, especially larger brands, hired Social Media Managers, and then entire Social Media Marketing teams.  This shift had a profound impact on the area of Social Media Consulting in two ways:

1 – Many of these companies hired existing Social Media Consultants to be their Social Media Managers and fill their Social Media Marketing teams.  Companies like Radian 6 and Edelman PR aggressively hired independent consultants as well as professionals at other agencies to build and compliment their own Social Media Marketing teams.

2 – Many of these companies stopped (or slowed in) hiring Social Media Consultants for execution work, instead giving that to their in-house team.  The successful consultants and agencies today are usually the ones that adapted the quickest to this change.

As a result, the average Social Media Consultant today is doing less execution work, and is spending more time actually consulting with and training companies on how to use Social Media properly.  Diversification is a good thing.

Now, on with the prices.  As with last year’s post, for every service I am providing a range, as well as a Most Charge distinction.  In general, the fees associated with setup of basic social media tools like a company blog, Twitter or Facebook page have gone down.  On the other hand, rates for comprehensive Social Media Strategy auditing, creation and training services have generally increased.

In general, smaller businesses and non-profits can expect to pay prices that are closer to the low end of the price range, while large companies and organizations will probably see their quoted rates closer to the top end of the range.

Also, when looking at rates for monthly content curation and management of individual social media tools, remember that the more content the consultant/agency has to curate and create/edit for you, the higher the rates.  Likewise, if you can handle the content creation and just need training and some light editing, then your rates will usually be lower.

Here’s the prices:

Blog

Custom design and template creation – $1,000 – $5,000

Most Charge – $1,000-$3,000 

Writing/Editing Content for the blog plus ongoing training – $500-$4,000 a month (Assume 1-2 posts a week at this rate)

Most Charge – $1,000-$3,000

Ghostwriting blog posts – $50-$500 per

Most Charge – $75-$200 per

 

Twitter

Account Setup – $500-$2,000

Most Charge – $500-$1,000 

Ongoing Account Management and Training – $500-$3,000 a month (For this service, the more content you need provided for you, the higher the fees)

Most Charge – $500-$1,500 a month

 

Facebook

Initial Page Setup – $500-$2,500

Most Charge – $500-$1,500

Monthly Content Management and Curation – $500-$3,000 a month 

Most Charge – $1,000-$2,000 a month

Facebook Promotion Creation

Short-Term (1-3 months) Contest, including branding for the app, limited promotion on other channels such as Facebook and Twitter to promote the contest.  Fee doesn’t include prize and Facebook Ads to promote – $1,500-$20,000

Long-Term (3-6 months) Contest, including above, more elaborate promotion based on client’s needs – $25,000-$75,000

Note: These are the ‘Big Three’ tools when it comes to Social Media for business, and many consultants and agencies will offer companies a package deal on setting up and maintaining all three.  For other tools such as Google Plus, Pinterest, MySpace (yes many entertainment and music-related businesses especially still use it) and others, assume that rates in general will be consistent for what you could expect to pay for similar services with Facebook or Twitter.

 

Video

Total to shoot, produce and edit video – $500 – $30,000 (Note:  Obviously, the complexity and length of the video plays a huge role in the final cost.  If you want custom animation, several scenes and a 30-minute video, obviously that’s going to cost far more than a simple, 2-minute one-on-one video.  One expert told me that they charge $1,000 per minute of finished product.)

 

Social Media Strategy 

Social Media Monitoring (Note – Number of keywords/phrases tracked here has a big impact on fees.  More costs more.):

Setup – $500-$5,000

Most Charge – $1,000-$2,000

Ongoing Reports and Advisement – $500-$7,500 a month

Most Charge – $1,000-$2,000

Social Media Strategy Audit (Examine existing Social Media Strategy and give detailed recommendations on what strategy should look like moving forward, with instructions on how to measure results) – $2,000-$25,000

Most Charge – $5,000-$10,000

Social Media Strategy Creation and Integration with Existing Marketing Efforts (Note – Most consultants and agencies will require that this service be married to a Social Media Strategy Audit, as they will then create the strategy recommended in the audit) – $10,000-$30,000

Most Charge – $10,000-$15,000

 

Social Media Training and Consulting

Hourly Training/Consulting – $50-$500 an hour

Most Charge – $100-$250 an hour

Note: These rates are for 1 hour of work.  If you can commit to a certain number of hours a month, for example, consultants and agencies will almost always give you a discount.

Social Media Workshops(All fees exclude travel and are for ON-SITE Workshops, not online):

Half-Day (Up to 4 hours): $500-$7,500

Most Charge – $2,000-$3,500

Full-Day (6-8 hours): $1,000-$15,000

Most Charge – $4,000-$6,000

Note: Keep in mind that these rates represent a significant amount of training and content creation time.  So if you pay a consultant $5,000 for a day-long workshop, that consultant might have spent 20 or 30 hours creating that workshop.  So the prep time has to be considered in addition to the actual time delivering the workshop when looking at fees.

 

Rates to Hire a Social Media Speaker

Individual session (Up to 90 minutes, usually 1 hour): $1,000-$5,000

Most Charge: $2,000-$3,000

Keynote: $1,000-$15,000

Most Charge: $5,000-$10,000

All rates exclude travel.

Finally, I wanted to close with some advice on choosing a Social Media Consultant.  First, before you begin the process of hiring a Social Media Consultant, you need to address a few areas:

  • Figure out what you want to accomplish via Social Media.  Do you want to generate sales?  Increase brand awareness?  Establish thought leadership for your CEO or company?  Connect with donors?  Giving some thought to what you want to accomplish via your social media efforts will make the rest of the process smoother.
  • What are your human resources?  How many people can work on your social media efforts?  If you have a team of 10 at the ready, then the amount of assistance you will need is far less than if you are the only person for your company that will be handling your social media efforts.  Know how many people can work on your social media efforts and how much time they can devote, because if you plan on executing a Social Media Strategy that will require a team of 5, and you only have 2, that shortcoming will have to be addressed either through hiring, or outsourcing to the agency/consultant.  Either way, it costs you money.
  • How long is your project going to be?  You probably can’t pin this down exactly without talking to the consultant first, but it helps to give some thought to this.

When you contact a consultant or agency, they should be asking you questions as well.  They should want to know why you want to use social media, what are you trying to accomplish.  If they try to give you prices or push you toward using a particular tool without asking you questions, that is a red flag.  They really can’t give you prices until they know more about your company, your resources, and what you are wanting to accomplish.  Even if you contact them and tell them you need prices on creating and launching a blog, they should still ask you some questions to determine if you do need a blog to reach your intended business goals for your social media strategy.

As always, I hope this helps you in creating your Social Media budgets for 2012.  If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.

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10 of My Favorite Reader Comments From 2011

It seems that every blogger is doing a ‘Best of 2011′ list on their blogs, and almost all of these posts are a list of their 5 or 10 most popular posts for the year.  For me, that seems like too much horn-tootin’, and if I’m gonna do that, y’all are coming along for the ride 😉

So instead of posting the 10 Most Popular Posts of 2011, I wanted to share what I think are 10 of The Best Comments Y’all Left Here.  These posts were so good cause of the comments y’all left, so you deserve the spotlight as much as I do.  Here’s 10 of the Best Comments Left Here in 2011 (Ranked by most recent first):

10 – Tom Martin – One Way You Can Be a Better Blogger Than Seth Godin:

“Mack,

Great helpful post here. Something I’ve been thinking about lately is how you can use the post headline to help you in Google and then use your Tweets, FB posts, G+ posts to test and push click-worthy headlines. Meaning, the headline you tweet doesn’t have to be the headline of the post.. it could be something more titillating to garner a click and then when a person comes to the post they are rewarded with good content.

Thoughts?”

 

9 – Jeff Hurt – Planning for 2012: Which Social Media Conferences Should Your Company Attend?:

“As a conference organizer, I’m not sure that Regional is better than National. I often find more innovation and cutting edge ideas from a national/international audience than I do from the regional folks. As for networking, I don’t see that a regional or national/international provides more or less. To me, location is not a boundary to networking today.

i want to go to conferences where I can be challenged and stretched by ideas. I often find that regional conferences are echo chambers of ideas because everyone is sharing, borrowing and adapting, especially those in close proximity. I find totally new ideas from people across the states or from around the globe.

here’s another tidbit I like to suggest to people. When we go to conferences with coworkers, we often take the “Divide and conquer” route to get as much info as possible. I like to shift that thinking. Become peas in a pod…go to a couple sessions together. Then discuss each other’s point of view and how to implement back in the office. Their is more likely a benefit for the organization when there is two or more of you tacking an issue together than just one of you. That’s the best organizational learning around…IMO.”

 

8 – Bobby Rettew – What Rockstars Can Teach You About Creating Kick-Ass Online Content:

“Mack…you know i love it when people use stories in their blogs. Whether it is a business blog or a personal blog…stories create such palatable context for the audience. The second point of this post is a great reminder to us all…we have to hear, see, and feel as our audience. We have to pear at life through their (the audiences) eyes and ears…then write with them, telling stories that connect us together. Blogging is one of the most wonderful opportunities for our very own personal editorial…connecting with our audience in complete symphony. I am a fan of point number 2.

This point makes think of a story the other day. I am working on a series of stories and I was doing a pre-interview with the main focus of the story. He was explaining his point of view, sharing that his experience was like a symphony. He was saved by numerous healthcare providers and first responders, flown to a hospital, and received a life saving procedure. He described this event as a moment where everyone worked as a symphony. The instruments were the technical tools and the healthcare providers were the musicians…and they created beautiful music. Imagine if we could do the same with words…telling stories that bring life to our blog where the audience and the writer work together as a symphony.

Thanks for your great writing!
BR”

 

7 – Sean McGinnis – Planning for 2012: Which Social Media Conferences Should Your Company Attend?:

“I can see your concerns and they make a lot of sense.

My experience was in a slightly different industry. I sent about 10 SEO consultants to various conferences across the country between 2006 and 2009. During that time I attended only one conference. I felt sending my top employees was more important because they were doing the front line work and also because they really valued the experience of attending these industry events. These were the senior people on my large team (we were about 40 people by 2009) and the feedback I got when sending them was they really appreciated the opportunity.

In fact, as I recruited new employees, i used conference attendance as a job perk, which I know had an effect. I know my replacement has taken the opposite view and only attends conferences himself, and team morale has suffered as a result.

During the report out, I was far less interested in hard core specifics and more interested in their analysis of the event. What were the trends? What should we be aware of as a business? Did they uncover any product opportunities we should consider? What should we be doing that we were not, and what should we possibly not doing any longer that we had been doing. It was a real opportunity to influence policy and change the behavior of my team as well as the business (because SEO was such a big part of our business at that time).”

 

6 – John Moore – The Promise of Social Media Isn’t in Leveraging Your Customers, it’s in Better Understanding Them:

“What gets measured, gets manufactured.” That’s a line I’ve used many times to describe how companies are making a game out of social media. If Facebook “likes” are being viewed as a measurement of successful customer engagement then, by golly, companies can find ways to make that happen.

I believe social media is making companies lazy as it relates to meaningfully connecting with customers. It’s easy to quickly respond to a customer in “real-time” on Twitter or Facebook or whatever. However that response pales in comparison to a business connecting meaningfully to customers in the “real world.”

At the FIRE Sessions #Blogchat a question came up about how to take customer engagement to the next level using social media. It was then I jumped in the fray to say my HMO (hot marketing opinion) that picking up the phone and calling a loyal customer to thank them was the true school way to take customer engagement to the next level. That’s not the easy way to engage, but it’s a meaningful way that I hope more companies find ways to make happen.

Mack, thanks for the post and for sharing my FIRE Sessions #Blogchat HMO.”

 

5 – Lisa Petrilli – The Promise of Social Media Isn’t in Leveraging Your Customers, it’s in Better Understanding Them:

“Mack,

I can understand where Jim Farley was coming from having sat in a room full of CEOs listening to them discuss social media. The overwhelming sentiment was fear – which thoroughly surprised me.

I had expected them to be open to the power of social media to connect them more closely with their customers, to deepen loyalty, and to help them understand customer needs – all of which would lead to significant ROI. Instead, what I observed was fear due to a lack of control.

This lack of control over the message (what will our employees say about us? what will our customers say about us?) is not something that they learned to deal with early in their careers, and so they’re well outside the boundaries of the comfort zones. Even the quote from Toby’s Facebook page reflects this. The Big PR Firm VP says their job is no longer control, but that’s exactly what they’re trying to do by arming their fans with talking points.

When a CMO like Jim or the Big PR Firm VP steps in the CEO’s office and presents a message that implies a bit of control…”we’ll do social media this way and then our customers will spread OUR message” that’s something that feels better – less risky.

So, I can see how this perspective would become common in the corporate environment – it’s the one that gets buy-in.

On another note, I don’t know if you saw the link I shared on Twitter earlier today via eMarketer, but it showed that the majority of companies either don’t know if their customers are commenting about them online or are convinced they’re not, and a high percentage don’t respond consistently when they do: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1008686&ecid=a6506033675d47f881651943c21c5ed4&R=1008686

I think this further shows that the mindset of companies is still, “What’s in it for me?” instead of, “What’s in it for you, the customer, and how can I help you with that?”

Excellent, thought-provoking post, Mack!”

 

4 – Mike Ashworth – The Key Feature That Neither Google Plus or Facebook Really Addresses:

“hi mack, you raise a valid point though i’ll answer by way of coming at this from a few angles.

1. i dont think its about “content”. when I follow people rather than say an rss feed of a website, its something else that’s on offer. for want of a better word lets call it your essence, your mojo, the things you post say a lot about the person. recently i’ve been taking a look at behaviours we exhibit in the real world with regard to our interaction rituals and making sense of how this translates to the online world (which in many ways is trying to do just the same except the tools often get in the way). so its more than about content, its about the person. my take on this is that if you want just the “content” subscribe to their blog / rss feed or similar, if you want the “essence” of the person you follow them on twitter (or elsewhere)

2. its all about balance. if i’m connected to someone on twitter then i generally expect to get more than “content”, as explained above. however, and this is an example, if i was following a “thought leader” and pretty much all their tweets seemed to be lame jokes, or updates about reality tv, or all about something other than the passion for which i followed them, then yes, their is a problem. the dilemma for the person hitting enter and tweeting is that the balance between “content” and “other stuff” will always be determined by the person on the other end, always. some ppl will accept / tolerate more non “content” others wont.

3. filters. now this is very interesting and i’ve been reading some research material recently about this, prepare yourself. we don’t need better filters! the reason is simple we only have so many hours in the day to process information. bizarrely as the filters improve, the more “good stuff” is received and then we have to devote more time to processing it, which becomes less efficient. what i’ve discovered is that missing a few things here and there doesn’t actually stop the world revolving, and if it really is something earth shattering, i will definitely hear it from someone, somewhere.”

 

3 – CK – The Importance of Creating Your Own Blogging Path:

“The beauty of blogging is that it gives us all a way to share our voice.”

YUP! And to share it in different ways: video, slideshows, audio, infodoodles!

I had to make a choice: I could either write a lot more short posts–or be able to create infrequent posts with new tools. For instance, I’m including a ton more video which is great… but it takes time to videotape, then edit, then post them. And I really like creating much larger ‘special’ pieces (like the http://b2bmobilerevolution.com paper = 15 pages!) and that takes time to make a quality piece. Same thing with creating slideshows… they take more time to concept and create–but I sure love doing them.

And after years of doing more posts that were smaller (still a great strategy), I decided to try some different formats that may take more time–and lead to less posts–but I’m enjoying it and learning soooo much. I am so happy to now have a full archive of videos (and that was a BIG step for me to do a full video channel — scary!). But video works for my mobile site as well as my blog–as mobile users need video over longer posts. And it’s fulfilling to look back at a suite of slideshows (love both slideshare and audio-enabled brainshark which lets the slideshow be more ‘personal’). And more, bigger papers and the like are planned… but again, these things easily take a month of planning so the tradeoff is not as much blogging.

But it’s not a sacrifice, it’s just a different choice… and a different way to share my voice, as you so adeptly hit on.

So I learned a lot by trying a different formats/tools and a different frequency. In this ‘era of choice’ with so many tools, it’s good to experiment (as our friend Ann Handley underscored at B2B Forum!). As for the future? We’ll see if it’s still the same strategy but I do know this: the future holds more experimentation, more new lessons and many more valued colleagues to meet, learn from, and cherish.

Sending you a virtual hug and thank goodness I got to see you this month–a year without seeing you IRL is far too infrequent! I want a strategy of seeing MORE Mack :-)

P.S.: Gini, it’s great to meet you :-)”

 

2 – Michiel Gaasterland –Wait, My Blog’s Search Traffic is Down, What happened?:

“Hi Mack,

Thanks for all your posts. I am one of your 3324 RSS subscribers and read most of your posts.

I blog 3x a week myself. Fixed schedule Monday, Wednesday, Friday. My content strategy is simple: I write about the tactical questions my clients have about ‘business’ & ‘social web’ (we help our clients become publishers of great content).

Blogging more would definitely help increase my search traffic for the sheer reasons of having more content out there. But I do think that the keyword aspect is really important.

I always try to visualise my target audience, figure out how they will search and translate that to full keyword phrases (incl verbs, etc). Example: I recently wrote a post about converting your Facebook profile to a page. I knew my keywords, but found out through research in forums, comments, etc that all these people used different words. I translated these words to my post. Ended up getting loads of traffic from people who where searching for solutions to this specific problem.

I can’t comment much on the ‘dip’ in your traffic, because I don’t have enough data to compare.

But as for ‘general advice’ (if there even is such a thing ;-) here’s a thought:

You are writing really conversational. You also have a pretty large following. A lot of people on your blog are people you have met in real life and online. (so keep writing conversational!)

But search engine traffic is mostly from people who don’t know you. They might be more solution oriented. They are looking for specific things. You are offering LOADS of great and specific advice in your posts. I think you also optimise and write well. But the one thing you don’t do (at least from what I see) is pay special attention to your Title Tag. If you use the keyphrase you want to be found on in there, you have a much better chace of getting in that search engine traffic.

Tip: use the ‘Custom title tag’ option in wordpress. You can then keep on using your nice conversational headers (they become h1).

Hope this helps. And thanks for all your great blog posts.

(“Sorry for writing you a long letter: I didn’t have time to write you a short one” – Mark Twain)

All the best from Amsterdam,

Michiel”

 

1 – Margie Clayman – What’s the Real Business Value of Comments?:

“Here’s where I come down on the plumber issue. It’s a radical, potentially sacrilegious point of view for which I could be very easily burned or thrown into the river.

Ehem.

Not everyone needs to blog. You might be in an industry where a blog, as in, something that invites back and forth communication, is not really needed. Talk to your customers. See how THEY want to learn from you, and then deliver it that way.

We work with a company whose industry still prefers print publications for the most part. In fact, the publication’s readers threw a fit when the newsprint was abandoned for glossier paper. If you try to blog for folks who are on the road getting their hands dirty all day, you need to ask yourself not just about comments, but you need to ask yourself when your customers are going to wipe off their hands, take time out of their busy schedule, and read for 20 minutes.

If you’re worried that your audience won’t take the time to comment, you need to ask if they’ll take the time to read. If that’s a concern, maybe a better channel would make more sense. That’s why research on the front end of a Social Media campaign is so darned important.

Just my $1.50 :)”

 

So there’s 10 of my favorite blog comments from y’all this year!  To clarify, I decided to limit it to 1 comment per, or a few of y’all would have had multiple entries on this list 😉

In reviewing these comments it really made me appreciate the value that y’all create here every day by sharing your smart thoughts and opinions.  I appreciate every one of you, and look forward to hearing more of your #smartitude in 2012!

Happy New Year everyone!

by

A No-Nonsense Guide to SEO and Content Creation for Bloggers

SEO, Blogging, Content CreationTwo of the most common complaints I hear from bloggers, especially during #Blogchat is:

1 – I wish I could figure out how to post more often and create more content

2 – I wish I better understood SEO and how to optimize my posts for search

I’m going to show you a ‘trick’ that will hopefully help you with both of these issues.  First, we need to pick 3-5 Topic Buckets for your blog.  These are 3-5 key areas that you want to focus on with your blog content.  For example, my Topic Buckets for this blog are:

1 – How businesses and individuals can improve their blogging

2 – How businesses and individuals can better use Twitter

3 – How businesses can create and improve their Social Media Strategies

4 – How businesses can better embrace and empower their fans

5 – Catch-all (Facebook, Social Media Monitoring, everything I don’t want to blog about quite as much goes here)

Now the great thing about this approach is that notice since I have 5 Topic Buckets, if I just write one post a week from each bucket, I’ve got 5 posts for the week!  Or I could spread those 5 posts out over two weeks, so I have 3 posts for the 1st week, then 2 for the second week.  And if I wanted I could add a 3rd post in that second week, either from one of these buckets again, or maybe I want to let you know about a Live #Blogchat coming up, or an event I will be speaking at.

But once you’ve created your Topic Buckets, it makes it MUCH easier for you to organize the content you create on your blog!  And if you want to be super-organized, you could say pick 3 Topic Buckets for your blog, then write a new post for the 1st one every Monday, the 2nd bucket would be every Wednesday, and the 3rd Topic Bucket’s post would be every Friday!

So thanks to Topic Buckets, we’ve tackled the issue of how to create more content.  Really, the biggest issue you will have with this is deciding on what your Topic Buckets should be, and how many you should have.  I think 3 is the perfect number, if you get over 5, then you should probably consider spinning some of them off into a new blog, or eliminating some till you get back down to 5 or less.

Now, let’s talk about optimizing your posts for search and SEO.  Let me say up front I am NOT an SEO expert, the following is good old-fashioned ‘common sense’ advice that I learned by reading SEO experts, then experimenting with my own content here, and seeing what worked, and what didn’t.  This is 101-level stuff to get you started.  I would recommend that you try this, and then when you see the positive results, that will probably whet your appetite to want to learn more about SEO.

First, learn to write better post titles.  Seriously, this was the biggest improvement I made in my blogging this year.  But it goes beyond simply writing a ‘catchy’ headline, you need to seriously consider what words you use in your headline.  Because what you want to do is use certain search keywords and terms in your post’s title.

For example, lets say we want to write a post on how businesses can use Twitter.  Before you start writing the post or even the title, ask yourself ‘what would someone type into Google in order to find this post?’  Put yourself in the shoes of the marketing manager at a mid-sized company that’s trying to decide if her business should start a Twitter account.  Some of the things she might put into Google could be:

  • ‘How do businesses use Twitter?’
  • ‘How can Twitter help my business?’
  • ‘Does my business need to be on Twitter?’
  • ‘How do you get started using Twitter?’

You get the idea.  But notice she is Googling QUESTIONS that she wants the answers to!  Think about it, isn’t this how we usually use Google?  We have a question we want answered.  So taking the marketing manager’s questions in mind, here’s some possible post titles we could go with

1 – Four Innovative Ways Businesses Are Using Twitter

2 – Should Your Business Be on Twitter? Here’s How You Can Decide

3 – How to Start a Twitter Account For Your Business in 5 Minutes!

See how those post titles closely resemble what the marketing manager was Googling?  If you can use the same or similar keywords and phrases in your post title as what others are searching for in search engines, you will greatly increase your post’s chances of ranking high in search results for those words and terms.

Another tip:  Use your keywords as close to the start of the post title as possible.  This helps, but isn’t an absolute.  For example, the first post title of ‘Four Innovative Ways Businesses Are Using Twitter’ could be changed to ‘How Are Businesses Using Twitter? Here’s Four Innovative Ways’.  You may want to make this change because the term ‘How Are Businesses Using Twitter’ will be what more people are searching for.  Personally, I think the 1st version of the post title flows better.

Finally, use the same keyword/phrases in your post title, in the post itself.  Ideally, you want to use the keyword phrase, such as ‘How are businesses using Twitter’ up to 3 times in the post.  Or at least once at the start of the post.  You want to do this because this helps Google and other search engines correctly identify what the post is about.  Google will scan the post and if it sees the same or similar words and phrases repeating in the post, then it assumes that’s what the post is about, then when someone searches for those same or similar phrases, your post will rank higher in search results!

So that’s enough to get you started.  Start creating Topic Buckets for your blog, then start beefing up your post titles with the proper keywords and phrases.  I think you’ll be pleasantly pleased with the results you see!