By Ted Rubin

Many people are finally realizing that social media is serious business. Not “serious” as in stuffy, fun-resistant, and devoid of personality, but “serious” as in something that is of great value to our companies and needs to be treated as such.

What is one of the first things that come up when a new tool or process is introduced to a company? Metrics… what are the numbers we’re aiming for? What will tell us if it (the implementation and use of the tool / process) was a success? How will we get that information and make sense of it in a way that can inform our business strategy? These same questions – plus a few new ones — need to be asked as we begin taking social media integration seriously in our businesses and marketing strategies.

Defining metrics around social media advertising and marketing campaigns has been challenging enough that for a while many people said it simply could not be done. Now, however, we are learning that social media measurement (re: use and impact) IS possible – just not always using traditional metrics and methodologies.

One of the most important new ways to establish social media metrics is to set “conditions of satisfaction” (a concept promoted by Jeffrey Hayzlett, former CMO of Kodak and the author of best seller… The Mirror Test). In other words, what are the specific outcomes that will bring satisfaction to you, your brand, your business, and your customers? Notice how the word “satisfaction” here requires you to think not just about actions, but about the whole experience resulting from the outcomes. This is absolutely critical for successful social branding!

While Jeffrey applies this concept primarily to employees, vendor services, etc., it is equally important to set conditions of satisfaction in this emerging world of social media where standard metrics may or may not apply. Social media marketing campaigns need to be built on relationships, and metrics include words like “trust” and “engage” and “authentic conversation” and “online reputation” – all things that are at the heart of what a brand/company wants and needs … and all things that can be defined by setting up conditions of satisfaction.

Conditions of satisfaction around social media need to be different for every organization. They need to be based on the each company’s specific and unique GOALS and VISION and VALUES to ensure that the information gathered can strategically inform the marketers and the C-level Suite. Aligning your conditions of satisfaction with the heart of the company gives you the blueprint for plans that will go far in creating a genuine brand, and brand experience that connects with your customers.

Bottom line: Metrics matter and social media for business gets no exception. Don’t take another step until your conditions of satisfaction are set.

By Jenny Tobias, Social Media Marketing Manager, Social2B

Social media removes the filters that traditionally barred people from getting their views heard by the wider public. Without help from large media organizations, until now it always took a lot of work for an individual to get noticed. This is no longer the case.

By Ted Rubin

Traditional customer service certainly gets its share of bad-mouthing:  endless pre-categorized “service” menu selections followed by long wait times to speak with a customer representative, plus the constant risk of getting disconnected, or the call dropping in the middle of the wait.

Social media is now giving customers an interesting alternative to telephone customer service and the lines at the in-store returns desks.  Many who are getting shunned by traditional customer service are now getting satisfaction through … Twitter.

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Is your organization ready to scale social media efforts? Are the budgets allocated, C-Level Suite is ready to embrace the ‘client centric’ strategy and you are ready to plunge into the world of Social Media?

Well, if this sounds to good to be true, many organizations are doing just that in 2011 – they are getting ready to scale their social media efforts. And when they do, they will need the help of ‘the few, the proud, and the very capable’ Social Media Directors.

Explore how you can find one, hire one and get your organization ready for the Social Media plunge of 2011!

1. SM Bookmark 1: Don’t forget that Successful Social Media campaign is still about LINKS – and that means that people will link to you based on relevant content and topics that you will post
2. SM Bookmark 2: Also don’t forget that CONTENT is the next part of the successful Social Media effort – the more you and others write about a topic or a promotion, the better the results will be overall
3. SEO Bookmark 1: Successful SEO campaigns and efforts were ALWAYS about CONTENT RELEVANCY – the more relevant your content is the better are chances that people will find you in their search efforts
4. SEO Bookmark 2: In SEO terms, if people are LINKING to you, they are thinking about you and they are talking about you – give them enough reasons to do so more often
   

Typically, when people start talking about you or your products (B2B or B2C), they begin to ‘buzz’ and that buzz gets amplified through Social Media channels. If your infrastructure is robust and scalable enough, that buzz will be amplified through MANY SM channels (social profiles, LIKE buttons on blog posts, apps, social media integration points, etc.). And if the topic happens to be ‘viral’, the effect will be much more scalable through social media than traditional link building, which would typically require a pitch to each website publisher (unless you are JCPenney ).

By Marina Shapiro

‘Out with the old, and in with the new.’  The industry of Social Media Marketing is maturing and we are predicting a new dawn for the Social Media revolution. So, what will it mean to be ‘social’ in 2011?  What aspects of Social Media will be integral to the way businesses develop and grow?  How will this impact the technology? Who will ‘win’ at Social Media this year? We’ve compiled top 11 predictions for the world of ‘social’ in 2011.

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By Alex Romanovich, Social2B

“No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else”. – Bill Joy, Cofounder, Sun Microsystems The word Crowdsourcing was coined by Jeff Howe of Wired Magazine, a portmanteau of the words ‘crowd’ and ‘outsourcing’. It is used to describe the phenomenon using group intelligence to solve problems and complete projects. A darling of Web 2.0, more and more companies are jumping on the crowdsourcing bandwagon, and even federal government agencies have begun to explore it, with the Federal Communications Commission crowdsourcing ideas on how to improve America’s broadband infrastructure.

The benefits of crowdsourcing are immense – not only does the crowdsourcing model have the potential to significantly reduce expenditure in the long term by not having to maintain permanent staff ‘on the bench’, it also allows companies to engage staff on a per-project basis, thus benefitting from having the people with the exact skills and expertise to fit each particular project. (more…)

February 9th, 2010. By Alex Romanovich. Is Social Media just another channel? Yes, it may be, but it is so much more than that. Social Media is forcing corporations (brands) to look at how they engage with their clients, how they use information, and how they respond to events. It is forcing companies to treat Social Media as part of their overall value chain. For the B2Bsector, marketing opportunities have always existed throughout the value chain – from logistics to marketing and sales. With the introduction of more pronounced and readily accepted Social Media Marketing techniques into the consumer marketing space, the opportunities for business to generate leads, improve customer service, and raise brand awareness in the B2B arena are becoming more pronounced. The most recent eMarketer polls, as well as B2B Magazine’s report titled “2010 Outlook”, indicate that Social Media Marketing (SMM) will become increasingly important to B2B marketers. Note: This post continues at The Social CMO blog. Please click here.

By Alex Romanovich October 13th, 2009 Alex Romanovich is the Founder and CMO of Social2B ===== According to ENGAGEMENTdb’s recent “Ranking the Top 100 Global Brands” report on how deeply global brands are engaged in Social Marketing, big financial companies are not as much socially engaged as media, retail or technology companies of the same ranking. However, it does not mean that a financial brand cannot “socialize” itself. On the contrary, it shows that the financial services industry, often too closed, hindered by government regulations and by somewhat “conservative culture”, is getting more and more open to “socialization”. According to the same ENGAGEMENTdb’s report, even such giant conglomerates as Visa, ING, American Express, UBS, JP Morgan are, if not very active, are still quite responsive to the today’s demand of being social. Being most commonly engaged in six or fewer social channels, and having below-average engagement scores (as estimated by ENGAGEMENTdb), they have already started integrating social media into their marketing and customer communication strategy. (more…)

By Kent Huffman.

July 24th, 2009

Kent Huffman is the CMO at BearCom Wireless. You can follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/KentHuffman

The Company

Greenlight360 describes itself as an “Internet television network” that will produce and air original episodic Internet TV and films. The startup is based in Boston and intends to provide a platform for emerging talent to gain exposure and monetize their art while providing great original television programming to their viewing audiences.

You may want to think of Greenlight360 as the next HBO or Showtime . . . but online.

The Challenge

With most startups, one of the main obstacles to success is the lack of brand awareness. Greenlight360 was no different.

Since it was to be primarily an online operation, Greenlight360 executives needed to create a buzz on the Internet. And they wanted to do it quickly. So they decided to focus on several hot social media platforms, including Twitter.

The Solution

Marci Reynolds, COO and VP of Sales & Marketing at Greenlight360, developed a carefully planned strategy to build a quality following on Twitter. Her approach began with creating “buyer personas”—detailed profiles of the targeted users—in order to accurately define the types of followers that Greenlight360 wanted to attract. Keeping those personas in mind, Reynolds identified a number of tweeters (using various tools such as TweepSearch.com, Twellow.com, and HootSuite.com), followed them, and read their tweets for several days.

She then began tweeting about topics that would be of interest to those same people, including publishing a variety of content written specifically for them. In addition to quality, relevant tweets, Reynolds ensured the content was sent on a regular basis: approximately 5-7 tweets each day. She also sent tweets at times where they would receive the most exposure, such as the coveted lunchtime slot: 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

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