Source:
The 12-Step Social Media Program for Traditional Marketers
A new e-book from Channel V Media (a HubSpot customer and partner) lays out a good plan for agencies and companies trying to develop a social media plan.
They’ve spelled out 12 key things you must consider when developing a social media program for your business.
It’s a good handbook for in-house marketers, as well as agencies, who are still trying to figure out how to replace their piece-meal campaign-after-campaign approach with a full-blown social media program.
Here’s the 12 Steps:
- Audience Identification. If you know who your audience is, you’re already one step ahead of the game. The next step is to figure out where they interact online.
- Platform Development & Design. Figuring out how to engage and interact with this audience.
- Brand Campaign Integration. It’s possible for a social media program to piggyback off a good brand campaign, but it has to be transformed into its cooler younger brother.
- Content Creation/Coordination. You must create a consistent message.
- Goal Mapping. In other words, how do you measure your success? Is it brand mentions? Traffic? Email sign ups? Leads? Sales?
- Brand Identity. Everyone that is engaging via social media on your team must understand your goals and messaging.
- Audience Attraction. Larger brands like to start spreading the word of their new, fancy and glossy initiatives at the outset, but if your social media program is good, your audience will find them on their own and the spread the word for you.
Tagged as:
corporate marketing,
hubspot,
social media
Source:
Twidiots: The Fact and Fiction of Social Media Demographics, by
Augie Ray for
Social Media Today
I’m surprised by the amount of ignorance that exists today about Social Media demographics. Considering how easily accessible statistics and studies are, there is no excuse for marketers and those interested in communications to hold incorrect beliefs, make erroneous statements, or base decisions upon outdated assumptions. But whether due to laziness, fear, or bias, some people are saying awfully dumb things about Social Media.
First Twidiot: In an AdAge.com article about Michelob’s use of Twitter, George Hacker, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said, “Twitter is for kids, and this is a way to put these brand names in their faces.” (Full disclosure: I do not work with Michelob, but I am involved with the marketing of beer brands; my client has an unwavering commitment and takes constant and proactive steps to target their marketing messages to the appropriate adult audience.)
Whether Hacker is simply misinformed or allowed his passion to get in the way of the truth, his contention about Twitter is demonstrably and thoroughly incorrect. I expect better from a guy who is a director at an organization with “science” in its name.
Quantcast’s data cannot tell us specifically about the 21+ audience on Twitter because they divide age groups at 18 and not 21, the legal drinking age, but quantcast’s data still paints a conclusive picture. Just 6% of Twitter site visitors are under 18. More than half are over 35 years old.
Tagged as:
corporate marketing,
social media,
Twitter
Social Media Today, with help from .BIZ, has conducted research and created a new whitepaper to provide you with insights and advice on how the fast moving world of Social Media is about to change… again. Is your business keeping up? We have documented some important marketing trends and shifts in the future use of social media by businesses.
Social media is currently most often used as a general communications tool in public relations and marketing, but there is a major shift underway. In this research, we found that companies are now viewing social media as a primary tool of customer engagement, enabling lead generation, immediate customer contact, and customer interaction.
This study is the first to measure a coming shift in how companies will use social media.
The report describes the factors driving this change, and provides valuable information that your business can use to get in front of the trend.
Tagged as:
corporate marketing,
corporate networking,
Presentations,
social media
by Traci Armstrong, Social Media: A Brand’s Best Friend Or Worst Enemy? (Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic)
In mid-April 2009, two Domino’s pizza employees decided it would be funny to pull a little YouTube prank. One employee prepared sandwiches for delivery while putting cheese up his nose and blowing nasal mucus on the sandwiches – all while his co-worker provided up-close camera work and a play-by-play narrative. Within 24 hours, over a million people had viewed the video. The incident brought a whole new meaning to brand reputation “nose-dive”. Domino’s sales plunged overnight.
In mid-May 2009, Michael Silveira – a 22 year old lab technician who does not own a car, got fed up with receiving unsolicited phones calls to purchase an auto warranty. According to a Wall Street Journal article, Silveira decided to seek revenge on the auto-warranty company by leaving voice-message recordings of Rick Astley’s 1987 song “Never gonna give you up” – sort of an audio version of “RickRolling“. Silveira invited other disgruntled customers to join him in his crusade- by publicly posting phone numbers and addresses on various activist sites. The online mob resulted in overloaded phone lines, changed voice mail greetings and even arson threats for the Irvine, CA based warranty company, AutoOne.
FRIEND OR FOE?
Both of these powerful examples prove the new social media customer service formula: one outraged customer + two fast typing thumbs + 50 Twitter followers = a formula for corporate catastrophe. If there was ever a time for companies to step-up their customer service practice, that time is now.
Tagged as:
brand marketing,
corporate marketing
