Social Media's Unwritten Rules

Social media seems easy because the barrier to entry is low. You can be up and running on any number of social media platforms in minutes and usually at no cost. In reality, social media is hard for exactly the same reason. When the barrier to entry is low, the barrier to attention is high.

The fundamental path to succeeding with social media is to consistently contribute meaningful content.  The path to engaging with you you or your brand should make the lives of those engaging with you, more meaningful.

As you think through your social media strategy, here are some unwritten rules of social media that I have found under the layer of best practices.

More does not equal better

Just because you did something great in the past whether it was hit content or a campaign, do not forget that everything in social media has a life cycle of it’s own.  That viral video that worked yesterday, may mean nothing today.  You must adapt to the ecosystem that is social media.

Activity does not equal productivity

The barrier to create content on a social network is virtually non-existent. So, you can write whatever you want irrespective of whether that content applies to your business or not. Unfortunately, you can then get extremely busy with social media while trying to post anything and everything.  In your enthusiasm to share, be careful not to drop the quality of content.  Otherwise, people will silently begin to ignore you.

The art of reciprocity

Don’t have the false expectation that someone will reciprocate back because you followed, re-tweeted, liked or anything else. Equal actions don’t create equal impact on social media. Say you have a 15,000 followers and you share something from another person who has 150,000 followers. Expecting that person or company to share something from you would mean you are expecting someone to give back ten times of what you gave them.  Have realistic expectations for better results.

Amplification without accomplishment is futility

We can agree that social media is known to be a wonderful amplifier.  You must show relevant accomplishments as the foundation for your efforts and social media can help amplify those efforts. Unless your business is to make money with social media, you have to get out of social media and spend time on building some meaningful accomplishments. Once you have them, you can then use amplification to influence and engage on social media.

Engagement without enrichment cannot be effective

Engagement for the sake of engagement will only make you get tired and waste your time. Engage with an intention to enrich and you’ll not only win in social media but you will also make the world a better place. You can only be rich through the enrichment you bring to the world around you. Social media provides a wonderful opportunity to bring value to you business and enrich people’s lives.

Access does not grant entitlement

When you connect with someone on a social network and engage with them, you have access to them, as well as their engaged followers and friends. Don’t assume that they owe you something because you are now engaging them on social media.  Create and give your connections great content, something of value and watch the access grow.

Connection does not grant permission

Many social networks make it easy for you to connect with anyone. You can follow someone on any number of the top 5 social media platforms, without requesting their permission to do it. A small percentage of those you follow might follow you back. If they do, you have a two-way connection. Don’t confuse the two-way connection as permission to interrupt them, spam them or blast them with unnecessary content. You must build a relationship through engagement and there is no shortcut for that endeavor.

Do you have any thoughts or additions on these unwritten rules?  I would love to hear them! 


@RikWalters

Trends And ROI In B2B Social Media – Is There Still Room For Improvement?

The future has never been brighter for social media marketing.  New research shows that the biggest opportunities for marketers are in the B2B vertical.  Although, a  rather amazing statistic is that 75% of B2B marketers, who conduct social marketing, say that they do NOT measure the ROI of social initiatives.  As marketers, we must provide ROI statistics not only to substantiate budgetary spends, but also to prove what we all believe to be true - Social media is the future of marketing.

Some trends surprised me, while others are aligned with what I thought back to early 2010.

Despite anticipated increases in budges for digital and social marketing, only 30% of marketers say they have a strong understanding of social media conversations happening around their brands, according to a survey from Alterian.

What about marketing in the Age of The Customer? Few (11%) marketers say they tailor website experiences to individual visitors. Some 55% say they concentrate on campaigns to drive website activity, and 34% say they use their company website as a corporate brochure.  I hear that often in talking with company CFO’s and Marketing Directors. 

Email personalization is more advanced than other channels: 43% of marketers say they use some type of segmentation strategy to deliver specific email messages to each audience, although only a small portion (13%) deliver emails based on preferences at the individual customer level, monitored in real-time.

There Is Still Room For Improvement

Nearly one-third of surveyed marketers (31.4%) say they have little or no understanding about social media conversations around their brands, and 38.6% say they use a few ad-hock tools to track and measure social media conversations.

More than 93% of B2B marketers conduct social media marketing according to marketingprofs.com.  The use of social media is: 26% cite LinkedIn the single most important tool, 20% utilize Facebook, 19% use blogging, 14% leverage customer communities, 13% like Twitter and 7% prefer YouTube.   A glaring lack of leverage of YouTube.  I must believe that marketers know they must utilize more video and YouTube as an SEO tool in B2B marketing.

More than 66% of B2B marketers already use social media marketing and the main focus cited was brand building.  Though customer acquisition was the top goal from B2B marketers last year, less than 50% use social media as a lead generation tool.

More than 75% of B2B marketers plan to increase their budgets for online marketing efforts.  Social media is a more integral part of B2B company marketing, with most marketers planning to increase social media spending by more than 60% next year.

Most B2B marketers are focused on LinkedIn and video, while most B2C are more focused on Facebook.  Notably, B2B companies are using more blogs.  This is in-line with my perceptions in 2009, while there is still a wide gap between the companies that are using social media well and those that are even using digital marketing at all, the gap is narrowing! 

As expected, B2B mobile marketing spend will increase dramatically in the next 3 years, from an estimated $26 million in 2009 to $106 million in 2014.  Frankly, I believe that number to be a low estimate, based on internal trends and my own experience working with top global brands.  In my research and discussions with fellow marketers, B2C companies are more interested in ‘learning’ about Facebook (at least 70%), blogging (about 70%) vs. only about 65% for B2B companies. 

The latest research also shows that 100% of Fortune 500 Company’s have executives using LinkedIn.  Importantly, 50% of LinkedIn’s users are key decision makers in their company.  Also, more than 40% of individuals using LinkedIn for marketing have generated business with it.

The top obstacles for B2B marketers adopting social media marketing are:

-        Poorly defined success benchmarks, metrics and Key Performance Indicators: 57%

-        Lack of knowledge of social media: 44%

-        Management resistance: 22%

Social media is at the fore-front of marketers plans going forward, now, more than ever.  It is also clear that social media is still not where it needs to be.  The digital universe of social media continues to grow and expand in all directions. What do you think the social media landscape look like in 1, 2, or 5 years?  It is an exciting time to be a digital marketer, and better yet to be thinking about the road ahead.

Please comment, add your thoughts and insight.  Also, connect with me on Twitter - @RikWalters 

The 5 W's of Business Social Intelligence

The five W’s are fundamentally a part of how companies and their brands must comprehensively look at social network information.  Companies must analyze, gaining weighted insight into what is happening within the social media eco-system for their brand.  Social media has dramatically changed how companies communicate, market and sell their products and service. It has also changed the dynamic relationship between companies and their customers.   


Now, customers can play a major role in what's being said publicly about your products and brand.  This is a great challenge, however I believe it is the best opportunity to engage with customers in new and different ways, building stronger, longer-lasting relationships and enhancing loyalty and great sales.

Who is doing the talking and what's their influence?

Quickly identify the key influencers and get detailed information about their gender, age industry, Klout rating and interests.  Key influencers can work with you for a win-win situation.  Remember, the influencers are talking about others at a 15-to-1 ratio over talking about themselves.  Are you?

What are people talking about and what are the key conversations?

Monitor (listen) to buzz and key conversations to see what is being said about your brand, service and products.  Then identify the major themes and issues that are raised about you within the social media landscape.  Engage in those conversations as needed to show you are involved in an authentic way.

Why are conversations happening and are they positive or negative?

Discover why those conversations are happening. See whether what's talked about is positive, negative or neutral and determine the impact on your brand and business.  Don’t wait until it escalates; listen often for the best results.

Where did these conversations occur?

Access geo-demographic information to see where and when around the world conversations are taking place - drill-down to the country or city, as well as the age demographic to gain relational insights.  

When did these conversations happen?

Analyze the activity to learn more about when these conversations happened - both historically and in real-time.  Then, compare and contrast buzz generated over time vs. efforts and time-lines associated with related buzz and awareness.

Using this intelligence, it is then important to take next steps utilizing Social Media Best Practices:

Listen:  The social media eco-system has a lot of white noise.  Utilize tools to overcome this challenge.  Identify and monitor the conversations on social networks, blogs, forums & communities, news sites, etc.  There are millions of conversations about your company, your brand and your products.  Listen in real-time for effective engagement.

Engage:  Now that you have heard those voices about your brand, identify key people, drilling into those conversations and understand who they are, what interests them and how their authority or relevance applies to your brand.  Engage key influencers and thought-leaders to build, nurture and manage those important relationships.  Using tools to automatically secure authority measurement and Klout scores, you can work with these influencers based on inbound links, social bookmarks and mentions, comments and other important activities.

Measure:  This is where you need the right tools.  Using real-time analytics, you can track and measure your campaigns, products, as well as brand reputation and sentiment.  Analyzing this data over time garnishes your metrics with context, benchmarking and comparisons with competitors.

Understand:  By listening, engaging and measuring, you gain valuable understanding into the intelligence (IQ and EQ) of where the conversations are taking place.  You can then determine the impact on your company’s brand and products, and if needed, make adjustments to align your communications, PR, marketing or sales plans.


Look forward to your comments and thoughts.




Twitter: @RikWalters

Top Content Tips for Facebook Marketing - Lead Generation and SEO

Facebook Content Marketing Basics

 
If you are writing a Status Update or creating a post in Facebook Groups then remember to include the keywords you want to gain rank.

Have a blog?  Using Twitter?  Make sure you tie them together.  Use backlinks and let twitter know about your Facebook page and vice-versa.

Use FBML (facebook markup language) to design a landing page.  Research shows that is a far more effective way of gaining ‘likes’ than the wall which just looks like a mass of words.  You will need some basic skills.  If you lack those, there are vendors that can do this for you for a reasonable cost.  Well worth the effort.

It is important to back-link with your website, landing pages and micro-sites.  Search Engines use the number of backlinks that a website has as one of the most important factors for determining that website's search engine ranking, popularity and importance. Google's description of their PageRank system, for instance, notes that - Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.  Got that?  This not only helps your overall SEO efforts, both for your social media and more importantly for businesses, for your website traffic and lead-gen efforts.

Vanity URL.  Simply get to 25 page ‘fans’ and then go to Facebook.com/username to change the URL of your page to make your page not only easier to find, but stand out in search results. 

 
Top Ten Facebook Content Tips

Use the 80/20 rule.  80% of status updates should give value to the fans first, 20% of status updates can be promotional, or brand first.

Use every status update category.  Text, links, images and video. Variety increases reach and user engagement.

Reply to fans.  When they comment on status updates. This encourages fans to comment more and increases the total interactions count for an update.
  
Recursive linking.  Include links with videos and links: When uploading videos and call-to-action links, include links to in the description to drive viewers back to your website, micro-site or landing page.  Double up and add the link back to Facebook within your SEO structure on your website, micro-site or landing page.

Contests.  Ask fans to title interesting photos and announce a winner, have a “Fan of the week/month” for mentions, etc., every 100 likes and more.  When promoting contests, email sign ups, sales landing pages or other calls to action, send fans to a Facebook tab for these actions whenever possible. Research shows conversion rates increase when Facebook users do not have to leave Facebook.

Create a consistent offer or specials.  Fans to look forward to on a regular basis. For instance, post a new product specific 20% off coupon the first of each month.

Top Ten Lists.  Spread out top 10 lists over the course of 10 status updates, once every day or week as a countdown.

Celebrate awareness months (engaging in community).  Find creative ways to celebrate commemorative months like Black History Month (February), Autism Awareness Month (March), Clean Up Your Computer Month (January), and more.

Post simple facts or stats.  Fans love numbers and stats, but include a question to actually get a response. Otherwise, you will get mainly likes.

Ask fans questions (quizzes, contests, facts).  Ask fans to upload simple photos to the wall “What is the view like from your desk?” or “What does your computer desktop look like?”  When fans post content to your wall independent of likes or comments on your status updates, it increases the chance that they will see your status updates in their news feed in the future. And it makes the activity on your Facebook wall look more fan friendly.

The key here is to keep it fun and make the most out of your page with great and engaging content.  You must use call-to-action and offers to get people excited about being a 'fan'!  Whether you are a small business, large corporation and whether you are a B2C or B2B facing company.  Leave the formal relationship to your website.  Facebook is where you can show people the human side to your business, engage customers and potential customers, talk about them and let them ASK about you and your brand.

@RikWalters

5 ways to build a strong brand community

Every business needs a base of loyalists and advocates to build it up — a community, a fan club, advocates or a tribe.  I recently read an article with tips that can help businesses that are unsure how to build a following and keep it strong.  I have broken down the 5 ways to build a strong brand community from both my experience and leading experts opinions on the subject:

• Aim for the evangelists and advocates first - When building a following, you shouldn’t be targeting all your current customers, Warner says. Instead you should focus on people who are extremely passionate and supportive of what you are doing. If you create a product or an idea and sell it to a customer who’s really excited by your brand, his enthusiastic explanations to his friends about what you offer will multiply your fan base. Enthusiasm spreads, so always be working to build a web of passionate people.
• Create a sense of demand - A sense of urgency, such as deals that “end in 24 hours,” lead people to feel like they must get involved or risk missing out. Missed opportunities break hearts, and nobody likes the feeling that they can’t go back and change their actions. It’s the same concept that exclusive nightclubs use when they turn people away. You get a sense of fulfillment when you make it in, so you continue going back instead of trying that new bar down the street. Make your brand an exclusive club and people want to be a part of it.
• Don’t let them forget what you’re all about - Never let people forget what your selling or trying to accomplish. Feature your product on every page of your website. Be bold in your requests and be willing to urge customers to take their commitment to your business to the next level.
• Bring in a ringer - Involve someone or something that’s bigger than your brand, then capitalize on the benefits of association.  Partner with a larger brand, service provider or celebrity.  Capitalize on the "big hitter" status - it's a win-win!
• Treat your people well - Their loyalty and appreciation comes from recriprical giving - once you have them, help them enjoy being there.  Special offers, contests and giveaways build advocates, friends and a real loyal following.

Start with these ideas, bring your own to the table and GO FOR IT!  Comment to let me know what other ideas or thoughts you have that have worked for you!

@RikWalters

Five Ways You Can Grow Your Business Using Social Media

Social media and blogs must be a key part to you company marketing strategy.  Here are 5 ways they help grow your business and your brand's awareness:

1. Low Cost - Social media websites and tools are either free or available for a low cost.  You can get started in social media and blogging for very little or no money. Theese are among the most cost-effective methods of reaching your audience.  Like any marketing effort, you must formulate a plan of action and BE CONSISTENT.
2. Instant Inter-connectivity - Working with leading global brands, I know you get all kinds of feedback through the comments on blogs and other social media verticals.  Both blogs and social media can give you nearly instant market feedback - good and bad.  Also, people will leave reviews and other comments for you on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other layered SM sites. This insight is available to you right now, for no cost! 
3. Social media drives search results -  I read a recent survey which indicated blogs and social media make it more likely that your prospects will find you online when they search (see my blog from last week).  This is based on the new search model by both Google and Bing.  Over 90% of people searching online, begin their purchasing process in search engines.
4. Inbound Marketing -  Outbound marketing is telemarketing, direct mail, email blasts, Cable/TV and print ads - All the things that buyers are blocking out more and more.  Social media and blogs are essential inbound marketing tools.  Pull marketing and inbound marketing give you amazing information that is at your fingertips (Literally!).
5. It's all about LISTENING! - For blogs and social media, there is a distinct advantage to being accessible and listening in the social media online space. If you don't get involved in the conversations about your brand or business service, your competitors will.   Then you're fighting an uphill battle to become influential in these online conversations after the fact. 

Start now to claim the advantage against competitors and valuable insight into your marketing efforts, your brand's reputation with customers and hear what other have to say about you.

You must reach out to hear your customer...they will tell you what they want!

As always, please follow me on Twitter (@RikWalters) for daily insights and information.

Thanks for stopping by!

@RikWalters

The Top 5 Reasons To Incorporate QR Codes Into Your Marketing NOW!

The easier the accessibility to your product and brand, the better chance you have in that initial engagement and closing a sale.

Link to online marketing assets quickly - Including a QR code in your offline marketing enables viewers to connect with a targeted landing page with a snap of their smartphone.

Create location-based engagement - Get prospects, customers, and the public to interact with you by placing QR codes on maps, windows, and other marketing collateral. Use to supply additional information or to engage in a location-based contest.

Provide contact information - Utilize QR codes in lieu of business cards and related marketing collateral at a conference or event.

Product usage and promotions - Support the already popular use of smartphones for product information and add product reviews. Attach a targeted promotion to the QR code.  Useful at a presentation to give attendees a discount to buy your product or try your service. Customers may be checking your competitors too, so integrate this into your promotional offers.  Allow the customer to get more information with the manual to their new product or for more detailed information.

Use tracking and analytics with codes for ROI measurement – Utilize targeted URL’s to track code metrics.  As with any other marketing initiative, utilizing QR codes matched with incentives builds impressions, more importantly it is the quickest way to engage dynamically with customers, prospects and the general public.

Developed in Japan by Denso-Wave, QR codes (Quick Response) are two-dimensional bar codes that store up to 7,089 characters of numeric code that provide a great, convenient way to enhance marketing and content. 

QR codes have hurdles to expanded usage - namely user behavior - plus, a smartphone with a QR code reader installed and connectivity.

Consumers are finding QR codes offer a diverse functionality that is convenient and they are snapping with more regularity. As a marketer, this is a great time to jump in and experiment to broaden your potential response channels with consumers.

Are you utilizing QR codes now in your marketing efforts?  If so, how are you using them and what is your experience.

Google and Bing Increase Impact Of Social Media On Search Results. How Will Social Search Affect Social Media And SEO In The Future?

The Social Media Future Is Here...Now!

What most of us believed to be true is now showing acceptance by the big boys.  Google and Bing are beginning to increase the impact of social media content and links on their search results, citing social networking activity as an indicator of what might be most relevant to business and consumer searches.   This developing acceptance is likely to spread fast (given social media!), as the positives and negatives begin take shape.

For digital Media & PR, social media and SEO agencies, the changes have the potential to significantly manifest in new key priorities.

How this will affect search and social media?:

Increased focus of social media buzz for brands/businesses – an increased requirement for your brand to be mentioned in social media to benefit from high search engine rankings.  Social ‘chatter’ is important now, but to have an impact on search results, the pressure is will be your brand to develop conversations and be in the mix of online discussions.

Increased importance of social media link strategy:

Buzz quality is important, however the links back to branded assets (website, social media assets) will generate the most traffic and show search engine spiders that a brand is relevant in the social space for matched search topics or terms.

It’s not yet clear if spiders/bots will analyze semantics and ‘social speak’, but perhaps it should be presumed that they do now, which is extremely relevant to social media content.

Brands must, more than ever, monitor online audience sentiment: There are plethora of sentiment tools that analyze social media content to filter out how a brand is perceived in the social ecosystem.  We can then presume that Bing and Google will measure this too.  Very important to maintain positive buzz around a brand, because if it turns negative without monitoring, there could be a risk that the search results of the brand would then be mirrored by its social media perception.

Now the positive - Brand benefit from new search engine results: Your brand stands to significantly benefit from the impact of social media content in search engines.

If your brand has a savvy social media team or manager, they will have a positive impact on the quantity, quality of conversations on social networks involving the brand. 

Are you a part of the conversation about your brand?: The spread of ecommerce into social media is on! Relevance in social media commerce now and the future will depend on your brand’s willingness to commit to social media.  Your business and brand must ensure that any social media commerce platforms developed are well optimized.  Make the most of social media functionality to develop conversations around your products, the new key to achieving more traffic through search engines.

What effect will all of the above have on the online marketing world in the future?  We  need to see how it all develops, but it’s safe to say this will change the way brands use social media.  There are undoubtedly more changes over the social media horizon, brands and businesses must be prepared…now.

Augmented Reality on iPad seen via Vuzix glasses

Always exciting developments in the realm of Augmented Reality.  I saw this posted on YouTube from ARDOORMoscow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i1NYVaYv8g. 

There is so much being accomplished in the Augmented Reality area.  Augmented reality allows people to view the physical world with digital content overlaid on top of it.  AR can add information to the world and change the way people interact with it.

So many applications and yes, some are worried about the unintended consequences.  Well, that could be said of what happened with the Google "street view" technology, coupled with satellite photos of their homes and businesses. 
Privacy groups are tracking all of this technology and I believe we will see those groups keep finite uses under control.

The cat is out of the bag on Augmented Reality, so we should find a way to use this great technology for your personal lives and businesses.