By Social2B Analytics Unit

Before social media was “social”, brands relied on traditional marketing techniques to reach their target audiences and strengthen their foundations. Today, in an age of thriving social media interaction, businesses are able to harness online tools that allow them to sift through perspectives that connect customers to their products and services. Brands are utilizing social media to drive traffic to company websites and increase leads for business development. But to be truly effective in social media, it is your job as a brand to learn how to listen to your customers, provide topics of interest to a diverse population and distribute information freely and wisely. Here’s how it’s done.

Are You Listening?

Use your social media platforms to identify people who might be interested in your product or service, then monitor and interpret their conversations. We personally like SocialReport (www.socialreport.com) for their ability to ‘actively listen’, which means that the platform can not only monitor the conversation, but also can convert it and act on it. And since reading and monitoring every tweet, facebook post, status update, tag and comment is nearly impossible, SocialReport does a great job of aggregating social media marketing activity into a number of manageable dashboards, with unique capabilities to do more.

SocialReport’s process is involving semantic analysis of every social media message you get and extracting useful information, such as:

• City (i.e. Sacramento, New York, Cairo)
• Company (i.e. Dow Jones & Company, Inc., Apple, Google)
• Country (i.e. Canada, United States, Egypt)
• Entertainment, Award or Event (i.e. the Oscars, Sundance)
• Holiday (i.e. Memorial Day)
• Market Index (i.e. S&P)
• Medical Condition (i.e. pancreatic cancer)
• Medical Treatment (i.e. acupuncture)
• Movie (Iron Monkey)
• and many others……

SocialReport is a unified social and web analytics dashboard, integrating many of your social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Meetup, YouTube, and many others) and blog posts with ease.

SocialReport takes the art of ‘social listening’ a step further, tracking not only followers, but immediately giving you statistics on daily increase in following, direct messages per day, campaign results (we will mention these later), and overall activity behavior. You can also see where the response is originating from globally.

Pay close attention for mentions of your brand, and pay attention to what people are saying about your competitors brand as well as what is going on in your industry. Social media not only provides an open door to audiences of all types, but also an in-depth way to which you can interact with people. If you listen to what your audience is saying and listen to customers at their point of need, you can begin informing and engaging customers about your brand.

Join the Conversation

Once you are ready to join the conversation, you have the ability to do so by not only creating content and posting it via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MeetUp, and other social media network profiles, but you can do so via Campaigns, which are measurable and justifiable.

In the example of SocialReport, you can setup a Campaign and even assign the cost of the conversion to better track ROI of your social media activity – down to the ‘tweet’ level.

Clearly, marketers and product managers need to know the value of each transaction and cost associated with it.

Naturally, you have to reach people where their attention is focused and inspire them to take an action. You have to gain an understanding of what your customers are looking for and collaborate to answer questions, give advice or make changes to existing problems, even before they buy or have intentions to do so. A customer who loves, or hates, your brand has the ability to broadcast your qualities to the world and you can track that via tools, such as SocialReport.

Close the Deal, Not Your Relationship

Knowledgeable buyers usually base much of their decision making processes on proposals presented by the quality of care and type interaction they receive from a brand. It is important to create and maintain a good relationship with each customer, prospect and buyer you encounter to ensure that your brand is topic for future mentions and referrals.

More and more people are using social media as their primary information source and many people are using social media to express their feelings, get opinions and look for answers. Brands that are connected to customers by listening, engaging and maintaining relationships through social media are on the right track to expanding their clientele and improving their image.

Converting from positive sentiment has always been a primary goal of many marketers and online sellers. Doing it through social media engagement, while measuring and building your relationship is the next frontier in social media marketing.

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.

1. “…next year is really going to be about paring down to the essentials based on proven successes and strong metrics.” http://mashable.com/2010/12/21/small-business-predictions/ 2. “Outsourcing social media such as blogs, writing e-mails, answering customer service inquiries, writing web copy, social media, ghostwritten blogs, tweets. People don’t always have the availability to write, tweet, research and post their own content.” http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2011-big-ideas-for-small-businesses-0835/ 3. “All signs are pointing toward a multicultural Web. By 2015, a billion people in BRIC countries [Brazil, Russia, India and China] will be using PCs. Thus, 2011 will mark the year that businesses either adapt to these changes or get left woefully behind.” http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2011-big-ideas-for-small-businesses-0835/ 4. “If you don’t have a mobile version of your site today, you are already behind.” http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1934793/21-social-media-predictions-trends-2011 5. “B2B companies will catch up to B2C companies in using social media.”           http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1934793/21-social-media-predictions-trends-2011 6. “The Rise of the Marketing Technologist – Marketers for the last few years have been closet techno geeks and it’s time for them to rise up – companies need digitally fluent marketers who can apply technologies to help make marketing more measurable and scientific. Then we can really change the dynamic from marketing as a cost center to marketing as a profit center!” http://socialmediatoday.com/pauldunay/250079/11-b2b-marketing-predictions-2011 7. “Marketing and sales alignment continues to be the #1 issue impeding marketing’s ability to be perceived as a major driver of B2B business value.” http://www.b2bmarketinginsider.com/strategy/b2b-marketing-predictions-for-2011 8. “Consumers’ increasing concerns over noise and privacy will decrease the relatively open access marketers have enjoyed in social channels. The easiest tactics will be the least effective, forcing marketers to bring the same kind of creativity, audience differentiation, and strategy that they bring in other channels. www.forrester.com/rb/Research/2011_now_social_media_marketing_gets_tough/q/id/57771/t/2?cm_mmc=Forrester-_-Blogs-_-Related%20Research-_-5583 9. “Social media measurement will mature rapidly now that there is real money being spent by marketers in the social realm. http://marketingmeasurementtoday.blogspot.com/2011/01/predictions-for-social-media-metrics.html 10.  “Commerce happens in communities of interest — not social networks. First, I’d like to distinguish between a social network and a community of interest, though the terms are often used interchangeably. Social networks or, more aptly, social networking is how we connect with people.” http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=147897 11.  “In 2011, those brands that truly embrace “social content generation” will build themselves a kingdom. The connections between brand, art or skill and visual communications in a socially connected world can create powerfully authentic appeal for brands.”  http://www.fastcompany.com/1712634/2011-back-to-the-future So there you have it- the 11 ‘social’ pointers set to make big news in 2011.  All of which tell us that the future of Social Media is changing and evolving into a force that no business large or small can afford to ignore.   The future is bright. The future is Social (albeit a new hybrid of ‘social’). Are you ready for it?

By Alex Romanovich June 10th, 2009 Alex Romanovich is the Founder and CMO at Social2B ** Yes, it is another channel, however, it is also 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. Embracing Social Media channel requires discipline, and in many cases, courage – starting is the most difficult step and you have to engage with your audience in a much more interactive mode – your approach to communications has to evolve. With current tools and analysis methods, marketers have a newly found muscle to provide insight and to demand accountability. New technologies allow enterprise to ‘mash’ multiple channels into one cohesive, client-centric view. Inference engines, text analytics tools, and mining methodologies allow businesses to come as close to predicting performance, as you can get these days. Yes, it is another Channel, but I would call it the ‘Mother of all Channels’. Let’s take a look at how it can be potentially utilized. The Enterprise can not only predict sales performance based on historical and trend data, but it can validate it with real, live, on-demand information coming from the ‘user generated’ feedback. Marketing can potentially assess the risks associated with brand performance based on events – this ‘event-driven’ response, and subsequent analysis can mean better client engagement, and better handle on the overall ‘brand reputation’, leading to a much more ‘predictable’ performance. Woody Allen ad by American Apparel was a good example of an ‘event driven’ phenomenon. Yes, American Apparel did the ‘wrong thing’ and yes, Woody Allen was upset – but what will be the short term, and long term effect of this ‘event’? Will the sales go up or down, will the conversion rate increase or decrease, and will the public respond favorably or negatively to the next assortment of communications coming from the brand. The ‘channel’ will tell all and the analytics crowd at American Apparel should be using this opportunity to capture, analyze and mash information related to the community feedback. In the end, Social Media could be considered just another channel by some, but the benefits and opportunities it presents is something we’ve never seen before. It is becoming an integrated fiber, connecting all points of Value Chain. I will talk more on this topic in an upcoming series titled ‘“What would Michael Porter do, or Social Value Chain and Impact of Social Media on the overall corporate structure’.

I was recently asked – what is Social Media Marketing and Viral Marketing? How do I get started? I think it is important to start with basics, since there is a lot of ‘sophisticated Internet advice out there’ and everyone these days is a social media ‘expert’. As a B2B marketer of many years, founder of Social2B, and a member of The CMO Club, I have the privilege of reviewing Social Media ‘case studies’ all day long – there are numerous successes and numerous failures. This may sound very basic, but it works every time. First, decide on your target audience, and match the product or a service to it. Most importantly, you have to decide what type of content value-add you are going to provide – without compelling content, you are D.O.A. That’s your biggest investment. Then, set up ‘listening channels’ – yes, you have to listen first, and observe, before doing anything. You have to understand (through online research), where your community lives, how they interact, behave, and respond. If your segmentation is already done for you, just get involved with this community. Or build your own, by being attractive, and sharing valuable information. Again, the emphasis is on content and value add. If you are an online retailer, help your customers by engaging them in a conversation about your products and post the results back to the community. If you are an exchange for caregivers and healthcare professionals, aggregate valuable, relevant, and up-to-date content on specific medical conditions. If you are a technology services company, show your clients through case studies and examples that you can do more with less, or how to use particular technologies to gain efficiencies and save money. You also have to ask yourself – “am I alone in this exercise, or do I have all major functions of MY organization behind me – CEO, Sales, Customer Service, Technology, etc.? You should discuss expectations and set up metrics to reach your goals. Otherwise, this will be a nice ‘team building exercise’ and your effort will be wasted. Once you answer the above, and use your own creative communications resources to address the content creation and distribution strategies, while building ‘social infrastructure’ through tools, technology and transparency, you have to gradually get involved. And eventually evolve with the community. And at every step of the way, you listen, observe and ANALYZE. You should hire outside help (not an expensive proposition) to do it once with guidance and expertise (make sure the latter is present). Once you see the results, and you will see them, if done right, you can repeat the above method or adjust to your own. Social Media Marketing (with Viral component already built in) is part creative communications, part tools and technology, part marketing courage, and ALL analytics. If done right, not only will you be closer to your community, and get results, you will also earn their trust and improve your reputation.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… CY: wait… I: wait… YCat: wait… C: wait…

By Alex Romanovich May 17th, 2009 ===== Oh no! I don’t want to scare you – this is not yet another post about whether Social Media Marketing (SMM) can be outsourced or not. Instead, it is a brief decomposition of what exactly I think can be, or cannot be, outsourced. Later on, I also provide a few examples of tools and techniques, which can be used to guide yourself into the world of Social Media.  First, let me say – Social Media Marketing, like any other service, can be decomposed, broken into smaller tasks, and yes, outsourced. Let’s also agree that, in reality, outsourcing, is not about ‘shipping jobs overseas’, but rather a fairly old process of off-loading a set of processes and tasks to a qualified professional, hopefully with knowledge of the subject matter.  Secondly, if we were to break Social Media Marketing into components, tasks and functions, we could come up with a very long and interesting list, similar to this one:

• Social Media Marketing Strategy
• Social Media Marketing Blueprint or Action Plan
• Social Media Channel Strategy (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube or a slightly different combination of the previously mentioned social media channels)
• Online Reputation Management, or set of reputation and brand related tools and services
• Social Media Profile Creation, Integration, and Management (Maintenance) – most of us know how to set up Twitter and Facebook accounts, but some of us don’t like to do it
• Blog creation, marketing, and optimization
• Online video marketing (video blogs included)
• Blog and Twitter (‘listening devices’) data collection, analysis, interpretation
• Action, related to ‘what to do next’ in the terms of marketing or communications response or maintenance
• Data mining and text analytics
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Copywriting and Creative Writing

…and many other tasks and functions that we can list above. In reality, depending on how, when and what you are trying to achieve with Social Media Marketing, an organization can decide whether to outsource any of  it or not. Certainly, if you are going to blog about the aviation industry, you would have to know something about it. Or if you are developing a strategy for small and medium size retailers, who are looking for ways to survive,  and potentially grow, you’d better know something about catalog management and eCommerce. Truthfully, organizations need to decide what they can do internally, and what could be outsourced, out-tasked, crowdsourced, and ‘expert-sourced’.  Social Media Marketing opens a number of opportunities for improvement if companies honestly assess their capabilities and admit their weaknesses, one of which could be their inability to manage projects successfully, or political undertones of their operations, blocking progress. In the end, Social Media Marketing is a ‘recombinant set of tools and services’, capable of assembling and disassembling upon need, to deliver tangible results – measured, tracked, and explained. Once the results are well understood by the marketing organization, changes, tweaks, and enhancement can be made. Most importantly, whether you outsource any of the above functions or keep it tightly interwoven within your marketing and technology organizations, one thing is absolutely clear – you,  as an organization, need to dedicate yourself to a long term Social Media Marketing strategy and execution. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.