The Marketing Think Tank call hosted by BrightBlue Marketing and Big Noise Communications was facilitated this month by Andrea Lamarsaude of BrightBlue and focused on the topic of: Maturing Social Media Marketing - how to successfully execute social media tactics that are fully integrated into your overall marketing strategy.
The following are the points we discussed:
1. What determines the social maturity of a company?
Do they have specific goals around social media? How active are they in social media?
Have they found those social media tools that work best for them?
They are integrating social media into their more traditional marketing practices.
Making sure they have a documented social media plan of attack.
Know what part of social media they are ready for and not yet ready for.
Have they learned how to use social media well?
How has social media changed the rules of engagement in marketing?
Social media has created “instant” information and “instant” marketing.
Your relationships matter so much more now because that is how your information gets out.
2. Practically everyone has gone social! What are some creative ways you can be relevant and engaging?
Make sure your messaging is spot on and communicating how you can help relieve and ease your customers “Pain.”. Know what your audience wants to hear, be on top of current events in your industry. You are actively listening as well as sharing your knowledge.
3. Has social media become fully integrated into PR?
What are some strong examples of the partnering of traditional PR tools and social media channels?
When it first came out, it was a little confusing and seemed very “noisy”. As soon as it clicks on what social media can do, it turns PR back to the basics of making and building relationships. You have to stay timely and engaging so people keep following you. Use statistics to show clients that are hesitant to put in time to create their social media plan why it is important to their business.
4. Your client has all their social media set up, but suddenly realize they don’t have the time to craft relevant content and no time to post on a regular basis. Now their social media channels are dormant. How can you help? What would you advise them to do?
Repurpose other presentations or meetings and create a social media use for those. Time Management. Show them the importance of making the time to do it with statistics, success stories, etc. They can hire a company like Big Noise or BrightBlue to manage their social media for them. If you started and stopped and are trying to start again, be sure you send out a notification that you have a great new blog posting, etc. Don’t ignore the fact that you haven’t done anything in a while. Just acknowledge it and let them know you will be getting things out more regularly. Make a comeback posting an event in some way.
5. Your client has fully integrated social media into their marketing mix. What do you measure to determine the success and ROI of their social media channels? How do you measure, what tools can you use?
Watching to see if you have comments, likes, retweets, etc. to see if it is growing or building. Checking the Google Analytics to see how many unique visitors you have, etc. If they are not getting the results they want what do you advise them to do? Did they have realistic goals when they first launched their social media channels? What goals do they want to achieve? Are they reaching their target audience and, if not, what topics would better reach them?
6. Thriving communities will keep the brand relevant and interesting allowing people to express themselves. Planning and creating content, telling stories, organizing events and tying it all together with other communication activities. What are some great examples you have seen of stellar social media community management?
Best Buy has great social media management. They are good at getting to their customer base and staying on top of customer service topics and addressing them. Zappos is also very good example of social media management. Marketing Profs is a great site to look at as an example. Cisco saved a lot of money on a product launch that they did through social media. SXSW conference did a great job of integrating social media in order to keep participants informed of what was happening, when.
7. Thoughts on Foursquare, Facebook Places, Groupon? How are/will mobile and location based services be useful for businesses (Local information, reviews, coupons, loyalty programs and more)?
Here is one viewpoint - Location-based marketing can increase average order value, frequency, loyalty - http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/9540.html
More B2C type of applications for now, but works well for those companies that use them. Still new and many are having a wait and see kind of attitude.
8. What does the group think of/have you heard of Group text apps such as GroupMe, Beluga and Disco that allow users to form groups that can send and receive text messages in a reply and read all manner?
You can think of it like group chat or reply all emails, but on the go and on a mobile device. Click on http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2011/03/30/are-small-private-social-networks-the-next-layer for more details. The group of 18 years – 35 years of age are very open and receptive to getting text ads and that would lend itself to these types of apps. It will keep texting from experiencing a lull once all aspects have been used as much as they can be. This adds a new dimension.
9. What about the future? What next steps will you take with your social media strategy? What will you advise your clients to do?
Education is a big factor in the future of social media. Showing clients why it is important to growing their business. Video is going to become a big component of social media in the future. A funny video can get a million hits right off the bat and bring attention to your client’s products or services.
Here are some links to further reading related to the topic:
Old Media Synergies as Social Media Matures http://ddunleavy.typepad.com/the_big_picture/2011/03/old-media-synergies-as-social-media-matures.html
I especially like this quote: What characterizes the distribution of news today through multiple channels and platforms are two essential factors: interactivity and connectivity. People need to have a place to express feelings and convey emotions. Update: Salesforce.com to buy maker of social media monitoring tools Radian6 technology is used to monitor conversations on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215340/Update_Salesforce.com_to_buy_maker_of_social_media_monitoring_tools_?taxonomyId=18
Social Media Dynamos – What’s Next in Marketing? http://socialimplications.com/social-media-dynamos-whats-next-in-marketing/
THE FUTURE OF MEDIA
Marketers Optimistic About Finding Social Media ROI http://mashable.com/2011/02/08/social-media-roi-2/
Dramatic Difference in Approach to Social Media Metrics http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008224
Top 10 B2B Companies on Twitter [March 2011] http://socialmediab2b.com/2011/03/top-10-b2b-companies-on-twitter-march-2011/
How Social Media Helped Cisco Shave $100,000+ Off a Product Launch http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/cisco-social-media-product-launch/
15 Services to Manage Your Social Media Activity http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/2688-15-Services-to-Manage-Your-Social-Media-Activity
Top Charities On a Mission: Emergence in Social Media, Highest Adoption Rates in Four Years http://www.prweb.com/releases/social-media/not-for-profit/prweb5140664.htm
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