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Don’t Overdo the Social Media Mutual Appreciation

November 11, 2011 By Marc Hindley 5 Comments

Social networks are in danger of becoming digital sick bags if people don’t stop the cycle of backslapping and mutual appreciation that is currently happening between many small business users.

Of course we want to hear the the good that businesses are doing for their customers, and we want to hear customers’ recommendations, but I’m seeing more and more (and more) self-congratulating and unrestrained swapping of compliments (and @linking) between businesses that we know just wouldn’t be the case in real life.

In fact, real life is exactly the benchmark we should use to curb this type of behaviour – if you wouldn’t say something about a business in real life, don’t say it on your social networks.

Be real, be genuine, give your compliment and move on. Use social media for engagement by all means, but continue your conversation by remembering that all your followers are watching what you say. Leave extended compliments on review sites, and blog about your ‘experience’ if it really is an experience.

Too much ass-slapping, hand shaking, high fiving going on!

Only yesterday, I was asked to endorse someone on LinkedIn who I have never met nor worked with, in return for an equally complimentary endorsement. I refused, but does that mean that this practice goes on and that I can’t really trust recommendations on LinkedIn because they’re just being traded like business commodities?

What’s also happening on Twitter is businesses forming ‘threesomes’ – triangular groups that fill up our streams with overzealus passion for each other’s services or products. That’s fine, once, but over and over, it’s not.

Twitter doesn’t have the privacy of a messaging system (DM doesn’t really cut it) to hide the cheese from the chat, and so these ‘love-ins’ are displayed to the world for all to see. Yugh!

The wonderful idea that started out as ‘Follow Friday’ has just become a breeding ground for this type of thing. One good recommendation and a reason why has turned, in some cases, to just a case of If-I-say-nice-things-I-might-get-their-business.

Fortunately, it’s contained to a few isolated examples, but newcomers learn from what they see, and if this goes unchecked, it will spoil the soup for all.

The trouble is that you can’t hide this stuff. It shows and it sucks. And if you think I’m talking about you, look at it from your customers’ point of view, then ask yourself, is this what you want them to see?

5 Social Media ROI Myths Blown Wide Open

November 3, 2011 By GuestBlogger 2 Comments

1920s businessman Jon Wannamaker once famously quipped: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Fast forward almost a hundred years and many businesses are still saying basically the same thing: “I’m investing in social media, but is it paying off?”

There’s a lot of conflicting information about the value of social media and whether it can provide a positive return on investment (ROI), but social media has become so entrenched in the way that your customers interact with each other and your brand that you have no choice but to embrace the phenomenon.

Will you get more out of social media than you put into it? Will you ever see a return on your social media investment? If you want to stay in business, you’ll have to recognize that the answer is yes. But if you still have doubts, consider the following five myths concerning the ROI of social media.

5 Social Media ROI Myths Busted Wide Open

ROI Myths Busted (credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmelchordiaz/5872520793/sizes/z/in/photostream)

Myth 1: Social Media ROI Is About Direct Sales

It’s easy to think of the standard return on investment model: Invest “X” amount of dollars in marketing to generate a return of “X + some acceptable margin” in sales.

This is a good model, but a good investment is not always measured in terms of the sales it directly generates. For example, what about market research? You need to know about your customers and what’s important to them in order to offer the products and services that they will buy. And what about your competitors? It’s a good investment to know what they’re up to so that you can tailor your products and services with a competitive edge.

For example, Facebook — with its members’ willingness to tell everyone about the brands they “Like” — is a plethora of market research and competitive intelligence. It’s free for a business to set up a Facebook Page and to start collecting data from its customers and prospects. If your investment costs $0 and generates any actionable information (like market research or business intelligence), then by definition, this investment has a positive ROI.

Customer and competitor research may cost money or time, yet the best and most successful businesses are conducting these activities all the time. The businesses that are getting the best return on investment are those that have ported these activities into the realm of social media.

Myth 2: Social Media ROI Can’t Be Measured

Yes, it can. We’ve already busted the first myth that social media ROI has to be all about direct sales. Try taking a step back to measure what actually led to those sales in the first place. Is a given sale the result of an online referral? Has someone arrived at your sales page from a social media platform like Twitter or Facebook?

Those type of metrics are actually very easy to measure. For example, you can use our social media management tool Sprout Social to measure how many times your business is mentioned on a variety of social media platforms. You can even search for phrases like “I’d recommend brand X” to measure how many times your brand has been recommended to other people on Twitter or Facebook. Capture your customers’ social media information when they make purchases and correlate that data with mentions of your brand online.

You can also use very powerful analytics tools, like Google Analytics, to measure how many people arrive at your website or sales page through social media. Once you get a good idea of where your target audience is coming from, you can increase your social media efforts on the platforms that bring you the most traffic.

Myth 3: Social Media Customer Service Has a Negative ROI

Many businesses are fearful of opening up their customer service and support functions to social media. The common misconceptions are that you’ll have too much negative feedback on display for all to see, or that your staff will be overwhelmed by customer service tweets and incoming Facebook updates.

The fact is, your customers are already talking about you on social media. If you are not there to address customer complaints (or compliments), these incoming missives can take on a life of their own — beyond your control. Using social media as a customer service tool, you can address both positive and negative comments from your entire customer base. Not only does this model of customer service produce a positive ROI in terms of staffing, it can also introduce your brand to new customers — especially when your existing customers broadcast their positive experiences to their social networks.

Myth 4: Everyone Is Doing a Better Job Than You

We’ve all heard the expression “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence,” and of course we know it’s not true. If your business is new to social media, you may think you’re already behind other businesses when it comes to realizing a positive return on your investment.

The fact is, many businesses area still trying to figure out the best way to effectively utilize social media. For example, a recent study by Socialbakers shows that only 5% of Wall posts on brand Facebook Pages ever receive replies. This kind of startling metric provides a real opportunity for your business. By investing the time and effort to make your social media presence more engaging to your followers, you’ll have a real advantage over your competition.

Use this competitive advantage to make your brand stand out as a social media leader. Use social media to become known as the brand that listens and responds to its customers. Before long, your followers will be singing your praises through social media, and drowning out your competitors’ voices in the process.

Myth 5: Social Media Is Not Worth The Investment

Often, when brands are just starting out with social media, there’s a steep learning curve and many think “what’s the point?” As you’ve seen in the above examples, social media provides increased awareness of who your customers are and what’s important to them. Social media is also a powerful business intelligence tool that you can use to monitor and outperform your competition.

The social media audience is also becoming a purchasing audience for the brands that are represented there. For example, a recent study found that more than half of the people that follow brands on Twitter are more likely to buy and recommend those brands’ products and services. Brands that have not invested the time or effort to get on social media are missing out on potential sales and powerful referrals.

The social media phenomenon appears as though it’s here to stay. If your business has not yet embraced social media because of your uncertainty about its ROI, the best advice is simply to get in the game and start busting a few of these ROI myths for yourself.

Don Power is Managing Editor of social Web business guide Sprout Insights, and is a social media consultant and speaker. Sprout Insights is a property of Sprout Social, a company that provides social media monitoring and analytics tools. Sprout Social is an official partner of The Social Penguin Blog.

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Filed Under: Online Measurement Tagged With: social media, social media return on investment, social media roi, sprout social

The Benefits of Sharing More (yes, more!)

October 14, 2011 By Mike McGrail 5 Comments

Yes, you are reading right, I said share MORE! Listen up people! And businesses too…

Recently my enjoyment of Twitter has dwindled. I’ve been thinking why this may be the case. I definitely don’t spend as much time on it as used to, could it be that I just not giving it the time it needs? Have the people I follow stopped firing out golden nuggets of info and insight? It would be unfair to blame others.

I am a robot…

Then I cracked it. I’m not as human on Twitter as I used to be. I’ve turned in to an info – sharing robot with an occasional Tweet built into my software that attempts to show I am actually trying to be a person. I used to send out lots of tweets about the things I was doing/eating/reading/visiting. I would seek conversations to get involved in, comment on people’s updates and just generally be sociable, while at the same time being a content filter. I’ve not completely stopped this but it has definitely dropped off. I have realised that I am missing the conversations that sharing a bit of life and personality can generate.

Don't be a Robot. (image - http://blog.frag-ment-ed.com)

Get the right blend!

Of course, there is a blend that leads to a happy Twitter life. Sharing relevant and interesting information is key. Offering a balanced opinion is also a nice Twitter trait. Of course, it can be too easy to get in to a habit of over-sharing – no-one needs to know you are tired or bored or hate your job, but working in parts of your life can help to give you a nicely rounded Twitter experience. Your Twitter actions are out there for the world to see. Think how you would like others to see you. But don’t be false!

This approach not only applies to individuals, but brands too.

Keyboard warriors

You know the type, always got a bee in their bonnet about something? Sniping at people, brands and other innocent Twitter users? Nobody enjoys watching these clowns in action. The crazy thing is, there are people out there who have their own businesses, state so in their Twitter bio but proceed to give over an awful impression. Give it a rest. I wouldn’t even think about hiring a business if their figurehead was a full-on Twitter tosser. Opinions are good and healthy, but don’t ram them down people’s throats. In the words of Otis, try a little tenderness.

Go forth and share…

That’s what I’m going to do. See you there.

What do you think? Is it good to show a bit of life? Do you prefer a brand to have a little heart and fizz? Do tell…

If you want to share with me, you can do so on Twitter:

Follow @mike_mcgrail

Filed Under: Social Media Marketing, Twitter Marketing Tagged With: sharing, social media, Twitter

Our Guide to Killer Blog Design

September 30, 2011 By Marc Hindley 2 Comments

Starting a blog is simple. You find a template or theme you like and start writing.

Blogging platforms like WordPress.com, Blogger, Tumblr, Posterous, et al have thousands of templates and themes readily available, and anyone can sign up and start blogging in minutes.

But if you’re serious about blogging, or blogging for your business, you want your site to be as professional as it can be, or at the very least, digestible. And there are a few things you should consider before putting pen to paper, or finger to keyboard!

The way it is designed will be largely in the hands of your blogging software, but there’s more to a design than a logo and a colour scheme, so whether you already have a blog, or are thinking about starting one, these handy tips will keep you on the right track.

Design for content

This is your blog’s reason for being. If you remove all the visual styling, it should have the same value to its readers. Make sure your spend time and effort on your content. Bad spelling, punctuation and grammar all make difficult reading and reduce trust and confidence in your content’s worth.

Pictures add interest and there’s no excuse for not having some sort of supporting illustration. If you’re blogging for your business, then you should be able to lay your hands on a picture that illustrates your point. If not, get out your phone and take one! Failing that, go to a stock photography site and buy one! Or use an image from a photo hosting site like Flickr, but make sure your image is marked ‘Creative Commons’ and check the licensing details, or you could end up infringing copyright.

On the subject of copyright, always make sure your content is original. Never, ever, EVER, cut and paste large portions of someone else’s work, unless they have given their permission or you are using it as a reference or discussion point for your own blog and provide a link back to the resource.

Make sure your headline is eye-catching without being too clever. Clever headlines may work well in tabloid newspapers, but poorly in blogs. Use words that describe your content or no-one will read on. Your headline may be all that potential readers see on, say, Twitter, so you need to ‘sell’ your content in one line.

Design for readability

Easy reading is enjoyable reading. Correct spacing, colouring and typography is essential to make your blog a pleasure to read. So make sure:

you use dark type on a light background.
you use a clearly readable typeface, if in doubt, Arial or Georgia are safe choices.
column widths sensible. Too wide or too narrow can both have detrimental effects on readability.
that letter-, word- and line-spacing are sensible. This is controlled by your blog’s ‘stylesheets’ which you may not have access to, but if you have a choice, use your eyes to judge readability

If your blog allows you to edit your stylesheets, make use of Google Web Fonts, which currently has a range of over 250 free fonts, and it’s very easy to implement. But be sensible!

Tick all the boxes and you could have a popular blog.

Design for concentration

Avoid distractions on your page, such as flashing adverts, spinning or animated graphics. Bright coloured side panels and backgrounds will draw the eye away from your content.

Make sure your focus is on your content to maintain concentration. If your blog is too long, people may tire of reading it, or become easily distracted. Cut it down to a reasonable reading length or split it up into parts, or pages. Use pictures to break up sections and make use of subheadings, blockquotes and bold/italic to allow readers to speed-read your page.

Design for sharing

Make it easy for readers to share your content if they like it.

Put buttons for Twitter, Facebook, and email at the end of your post. That’s exactly where readers will stop and think ‘that was a good read, I’ll share it with my friends’, make it easy for them. Use a sharing widget such as AddThis or ShareThis, both have analytics built in. Twitter and Facebook also provide their own content sharing buttons. Make use of them.

Make sure you share your own blog posts on your own networks when you publish them. WordPress can make use of plugins to automatically share your posts when they are published, but otherwise it’s as easy as posting the link into Twitter or Facebook along with your headline.

Prompt your readers to sign up to your mailing list, RSS feed, Twitter or Facebook and they’ll get your updates ‘pushed’ to them when you publish them, rather than relying on them returning to your site.

Design for comments

Comments are the lifeblood of any blog. Encourage commenting and you will build a thriving community around your blog. This can only be good as long as you manage your comments well. The downside of this is that commments can also become a haven for spammers and bots. If your blog software supports it, use a spam blocker like Akismet for WordPress, which almost completely eradicates spam.

Be bold. Ask for comments. The first comment is the hardest one to attract, especially for a blog that doesn’t generate a lot generally. but ask a direct question of your readers, and they are more likely to respond.

Design for search

Your blog could turn out to be an excellent tool to get your content well-ranked in search engines. Remember to use relevant keywords in headlines and body text, but never write as if to influence the search engines, otherwise you risk alienating real readers if your copy is too keyword-heavy., Write for human consumption, but be aware of how search engines work. Use proper headline tags (h2,h3, etc) for subheadings and make sure your main page title has an h1 tag around it. Blogging software generally does this automatically, based on ‘heading styles’ and you may never see tags like h1,h2,h3 at all.

Design for the future

Most blogging platforms are free to use. WordPress for example, allows you to download their software and install it on your own site. This gives you total freedom to build and control your site away from the constraints of a free account.

Consider how you think your blog may grow. Will a free platform always be right. If it’s a business blog, you may want your blog to be part of your site, branded with your colours and logo, etc. Free services will limit your options in the future.

WordPress is a perfect ‘evolution platform’ – you can start free, and convert to a self-hosted version at a later date without losing any content or functionality.

Follow @MarcHindley

Canary Dwarf are our wonderful technical partners. Be sure to check them out for amazing web and blog design, paired with top-notch service.

Filed Under: Blogging Tips Tagged With: blog design, blogging, blogs, canary dwarf, content, design, social media, typography

What Would David Ogilvy Have Thought About Social Media?

August 4, 2011 By Mike McGrail Leave a Comment

On a recent vacation I read Confessions of an Ad Man by the late, great David Ogilvy. Ogilvy is regarded by many as the father of advertising, and his approach to copywriting, creativity and agency structure still resonates today. As I was reading his story, I started to wonder what he would think of digital marketing and in particular, social media…

Twitter

David was a busy man, and Twitter can be a time consuming activity if not managed correctly, however he was also a great consumer of knowledge and opinion (he advises that we should all read a book per day on holiday) and Twitter is a great source for both. As a marketing tool it may well have appealed due to his like for succinct headlines – if you want to get someone to click a link within a tweet it needs to have a compelling reason to do so, spelled out in the short space you have to work with. The listening powers of Twitter would also have helped David keep an eye on rival brands related to his clients, which would have appealed to his competitive nature.

Facebook

I don’t tend to think of Facebook as a direct response mechanism at a basic level – it’s great for sharing news with your customers and prospects, generating conversations and growing a community that will hopefully help you to spread the word. David would have appreciated the ability to gather feedback from a customer base without the need for focus group. An area of Facebook that would be of great interest to Mr Ogilvy would be apps. Creating apps within Facebook allows us to create more simplistic opportunities for direct response, whether that be gathering data, making an enquiry or actually completing a purchase. This would have been in line with Ogilvy’s approach of proving worth via consumer action.

The Dapper David Ogilvy (image - http://10engines.blogspot.com)

Facebook Ads

Bingo! ‘Dave’ would have loved Facebook ads – he waxed lyrical about the importance of engaging headline copy and hard hitting sub copy, two things that are paramount to a successful Facebook ad. If you throw in the fact that he could have targeted particular demographics etc then I believe that David would have hailed Facebook ads as King. Not to mention the pure direct response nature of them.

Blogging

While David was a fan of punchy copy, he also talks about not being scared to write longer prose when required and how successful it can be. The long form nature of a blog would’ve appealed to David as would the flexibility of a blog platform. Imagery was hugely important in David’s work and we all know that images and infographics can add so much to a post. He clearly liked to write and a blog would have been the perfect home for him.

YouTube

Another win in David’s eyes, YouTube (other video sharing sites are available) would have been a Mecca for the King of 5th. The ability to study other agencies work in the form of TV ads and virals (which would have also held great appeal) would’ve been a mainstay of D.O.’s research. Of course the ability to reach potentially huge audiences would also have been an attractive proposition.

Google+

Who knows where + will lead for brands, but you can be sure that David would have been itching to get involved and lead the way.

Overall I think David would have seen value in social media marketing, however the purist’s that social media ‘is not about selling’ may well have put him off. I can bet he would have tried his damnedest to make the most of it, and perhaps even shake up the way people in business view it.

So what do you think? Would David have been behind social media or would it have been too fluffy for him? What about other social media channels such as Quora or Wikipedia?

Disclaimer – clearly I never met Mr Ogilvy so there is no evidence behind these thoughts other than what I gleamed from the book.

Mike
Follow @mike_mcgrail

Book featured – Confessions of an Advertising Man

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Filed Under: Digital Marketing, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: david ogilvy, Mike McGrail, social media

Social Media & TV – A Match Made in Heaven – Sanjay d’Humières

July 22, 2011 By GuestBlogger 3 Comments

Audience Engagement has been key to the success of British television for decades. However, there have been issues in the past few years due to stories of dishonesty, resulting in tougher regulatory and compliance procedures, meaning broadcasters have found it difficult to maintain the relationship with their audience. Modes of communications such as the phone and letters became outdated and even at that time had their limitations in terms of how programme-makers could respond to viewers and how quickly! (I personally waited six months for a reply to my letter sent to Blue Peter about the ‘Bring and Buy Sale’ some of my friends and held to help the programme’s appeal!)

The social networks have been a god-send to the TV networks and producers. Despite what you might think, about old media being over-shadowed by ‘new media’, the new is actually helping the old out. Twitter and Facebook have been instrumental in providing television programmes with new ways of building relationships with viewers. Providing real time feedback not only when a programme is on-air but all day everyday, tapping in the communication addictions within us all.

The Way we Watch TV Has Changed Forever (image - twistedsifter.com)

There are some great examples of television show’s getting social media engagement right such as The One Show on BBC One. They have been great at using Facebook as an exchange forum and publicity platform, publishing a programme preview naming that evening’s special guest every morning. Before Alex Jones and Matt Baker go on-air, fans/viewers can leave comments on The One Show’s Facebook page making the experience even more interactive. This wouldn’t have been possible five years ago. Today 18,791 fans like the page and regularly leave messages. Twitter has also been used by Question Time to great effect, with each question and answer being tweeted during the live programme. In fact, it’s so good you could almost watch the programme via Twitter and never switch on your telly. Viewers at home are also given the chance to ask questions bringing the debate into the homes of millions in a new innovative way.

Recent studies have shown that more people are using social media to enhance their viewing experience and it’s a habit I’ve fallen in to; I love the box AND social media, why not both at the same time?

Social media isn’t without it’s downsides but overall there is no doubt that those of us who work in television should be grateful to social media for what it has done in the field of audience engagement.

Sanjay is studying a MA in Media Management at the University of Westminster in London, UK, specialising in Change Management and Transformation.

Follow @sanjaydhumieres

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Filed Under: Social Networks Tagged With: social media, TV

Why You Shouldn’t Have Skeletons in Your Social Media Closet – Jen Clayton

July 4, 2011 By Mike McGrail 8 Comments

Over 70% of employers use Google to check out potential recruits. Latest studies from ExecuNet suggest that this goes beyond scanning the top 10 search results, and often involves reading each applicant’s website, blogs and social media feeds. Most of us grudgingly accept this practice as an inevitability of the internet age. What might make us more uncomfortable is thinking too hard about what they’re checking for…

What are your Skeletons?

Skeletons don’t have to be the secrets from your past that would make juicy tabloid gossip. Even if you’ve led a squeaky clean life, your social media closet is probably rattling with skeletons that you didn’t know existed. Employers, universities and future clients have high standards. Higher, perhaps, than we’d like to think:

In a recent Guardian interview, Shuvo Loha, the director of headhunting specialists Janikin Rooke, talked about the realities of a Google check: “What seemed like a funny photo from university could end up costing you a job or an interview without you even knowing. Evidence of a negative or bad attitude, revealed through too much complaining or ranting, would put me off…. Bad mouthing other people, especially employers, is out, as is anything that exaggerates or is too self-promotional.”

They Won't Stay In the Closet Forever! (Pic - Lynet McDonald)

Employers who Google check aren’t just weeding out people with criminal records. 35% of employers have rejected a candidate on the basis of a Google search, often for the smallest flaws:

Unflattering/silly photos
Spelling and grammar mistakes
Arguments with friends
Outspoken views
Rants about their current job

Look again through the list and think about your own social media feeds. Do you feel uneasy? Time for a spring clean!

De-Skeleton your Social Media Closet

Out with the old… Spend a day going through your feeds and deleting anything (even slightly) incriminating. Delete, de-tag, remove. Increasingly, things from years ago could back come to haunt you. Facebook’s ‘popular posts’ feature displays random events from your history to your social network. The easiest way to get peace of mind is to clear away the rubbish.

Keep your networks separate – We all have many sides of ourselves, and change our behaviour in different situations. Keep them separate. If you like to let your hair down on Facebook – don’t add your boss. There’s no need to be rude, simply respond to their friend request with a counter invitation to join you on Linkedin.
Keep your friends close – It’s easy to forget who could be silently lurking on our social media feeds. Look over your friends list occasionally. Consider de-friending people that you don’t interact with or who make you uncomfortable. When you write a status update, try to be mindful of your entire audience, not just your closest friends.
Public profiles – Many people don’t pay enough attention to their public profile. Yet this is exactly what potential employers will scour. Log out of the network and check how you look from the outside. A good public profile should be minimal and well written: cards-to-chest rather than heart-on-sleeve.
Ghosts are as dangerous as skeletons – Many of us who grew up with the internet will have built a teenage website. Angsty poetry, punk rock zines and a blog to share your darkest feelings. Are you sure you closed that account and the link is dead? Perhaps you’d better check…

Make A New Resolution

Just like your mother said, it’s easier if you tidy up as you go along, rather than in one mad dash. To keep skeletons at bay, be sure to think before you post. If you keep your updates professional and save your rants and melodrama for the real world, you won’t have a problem. Anything else is just another skeleton in your closet.

Jen Clayton

Jennifer Clayton is a copywriter. She spends most of her time running Ownbeat Creatives (www.ownbeat.co.uk) - a design and marketing firm in York, UK. She likes words, loathes numbers, and needs a drip-feed of coffee to survive.

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Filed Under: Personal Brand, Uncategorized Tagged With: social media

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