Outsource My Social Media Marketing

If you’re a company that has been convinced of the benefits of engaging in social media where do you start? (By the way, if you haven’t been convinced please read the Melcrum survey which outlines the measurable benefits). What do you need to consider? Which professionals do you need to engage? Where do you start?

Here’s how I would approach getting involved with social media, with the benefit of some hindsight.

There are six key areas to take into consideration:

1. Strategy

Strategy may sound obvious but it’s actually particularly important in this multifarious medium. What is your purpose? What do you want to gain or achieve out of using social media? Is it a sales tool or a means of disseminating information? Is it a method of engaging employees or customers (two very different purposes)? Are you simply wanting to track what is being said about your product or service or do you want to watch what your competitors are doing. Is it for advertising?  How does it complement existing strategies? What are you using social media for and why? And most importantly, who is going to take ownership of social media in your company? Is it the HR department or the Marketing department, the Sales department or the IT department?

Once you have a clearly defined strategy it will be much easier to approach the other areas of consideration.

Where do you go for help with strategy? There are many social media strategists around, all with varying degrees of expertise and experience in different industries. The best way to find a good social media strategist is to look around and find a company that’s obviously doing well in social media and ask who they used. A social media strategist is a great investment and will probably become part of your organisation on an ongoing basis, so make sure it’s someone you really enjoy having around. My other experience with social media strategists is that by their very interest in social media, they are really interesting, innovative and genuinely inspiring to have around. You’ll probably end up wanting to use them in other parts of your company just because they’re so full of great ideas.

2. Budget

Again, a budget sounds obvious but everyone will tell you at length that social media is FREE, but it’s not. It’s only free if you consider your time worthless because the expense involved is mainly time; if not yours, then someone elses. However, having said that, social media is time consuming to set up and get going but with some persistance and a steep learning curve you will find (free!) tools that help you reduce the amount of time required to manage it.

You will also need to budget for professional assistance – a strategist, a solicitor (more on that later), some PR, possible website upgrades or amendments and any time your employees engage in using social media.

3. Social Media Policy

Every organisation should have some kind of social media policy, even if they are not planning to actively engage in a social media strategy. Why? Read on:

As at March 2010 if Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s third most populated…with over 400,000,000 users.

Whether you know it or not some of your employees, many of your customers and your competitors, will be engaging in activities using social media. How do you protect your company from exposure in this vast, far reaching, medium?

A good, customised, social media policy can assist a company in protecting themselves from the many risks in engaging in social media. As well as incorporating legal “do’s and don’ts”  you should include some general guidelines on how the company expects employees to use social media.  I have written at length about this in previous blogs and you can now download a sample social media policy from our website (BlandsLaw). This is a risk management issue for companies – social media is well worth the engagement but you must consider the potential outcomes.

Where do you go for a social media policy? I would start with your strategist or HR department to write some good “touchy feely” guidelines that will provide a tone of encouragement for employees. I would then take it to your friendly Social Media Lawyer (such as BlandsLaw) to put all the legals around it. A good lawyer should take your commercial strategy into consideration and incorporate these into the policy. Remember, a social media policy has two functions;

To inform and guide your employees (along the lines of your strategy and company ethos)
To protect your business, your customers and your employees from potential risk

4. Training

I can’t emphasise the importance of training enough. There is no point having a social media policy in place if nobody knows about it. Training is a huge opportunity to get your employees together and discuss social media and get them on side. Everyone of your employees is a potential PR person for your business – engage them, train them, encourage and reward them and you’ll find huge benefits in productivity. Also, your policy is a worthless piece of paper, if you end up in court not having conducted training. Regular training reduces the chances of unfair dismissal claims, reduces the chance of leaking confidential information and increases your ROI.

Where do you go for training? Good question! I’ve not see a lot of training being talked about (which concerns me) but we do run legal training sessions (including train the trainer) and I’m sure most social media strategists would be able to run or organise this service for you.

5. Monitoring

Most important. You need to know who is saying what about you and when. Otherwise, how do you prevent some horrible PR crisis damaging your company name or brand? Again, even if your company is not actively engaging in social media, some of your customers and competitors probably are.

There are some simple ways of monitoring what is being said about you in the social media space such as Google Alerts and search features in Twitter. At a minimum you should watch your company name, brand names and names of key employees, customers and competitors. Be aware that if you are going to monitor your employees, you must inform them first (preferably via your social media policy).

We have also found a great company that can do all of this for you, including some incredible metrics on conversations via geographical location. I’d highly recommend you look up Buzz Numbers and take a look at their comprehensive service.

6. Crisis Management

Most companies will hopefully not encounter a social media crisis. They are in fact few and far between and most companies have a very positive engagement with social media. However, you do need to have a plan in place in case disaster strikes. The way a social media crisis is handled in the first instance can determine whether it’s over and done with very quicly with very little collateral damage or whether all hell breaks loose and you end up with a virul negative information campaign.

In terms of crisis management, there are two considerations:

Public relations – have a really good social media PR person set up a crisis management plan for you that can be implemented instantly if you encounter a problem.
Legal – there will be legal considerations so enage a lawyer to be involved in step one and available should something go awry.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something – there’s so much to consider and I would really appreciate this being added to via comments.

Recently, Oprah Winfrey came under fire from Newsweek magazine in an article ironically titled “Live Your Best Life Ever!” Authors Weston Kosova and Pat Wingert took on the one of the most powerful people in media by saying that Winfrey, on her show and through her ever growing online social network, often promotes unproven health “cures” to her throngs of fans. 

Doctors and readers reacted in droves, many agreeing with the authors’ stance on Winfrey’s championing of misinformation. While the Newsweek story was certainly in the spotlight, it proves that everyone needs to be exceedingly careful in the medical advice they give through the media, whether something as powerful as The Oprah Winfrey Show or as small as a Twitter feed. 

While most businesses are racing to explore how to leverage the social media phenomenon to their advantage — Facebook pages, RSS feeds, YouTube and even Twitter are increasingly in the marketing and PR mix for consumer-facing companies — biotech firms have been slow to test the social media waters. The regulatory environment and risk aversion are legitimate concerns.  But many close to the industry believe that biotech, among the most technology-oriented of all industries, needs to be more aggressive in its approach.

“Social networks hold tremendous promise and opportunity for biotech companies to enhance their consumer marketing,” said Mouli Cohen, Ecast and Voltage Capital founder, who heads a venture firm that invests in biotech startups.  “The Internet is the primary way consumers search for and find information on health issues and treatment options, but how reliable are the sources of all that information?  Social media is a logical extension of a company’s online presence, and one that provides new opportunities to engage consumers and make sure the information they receive about drugs or medical devices is accurate.”

Pushing information out to consumers is only one facet of the power of social networks.  Social networks are about making connections, and life science companies can harness blogs and networks like Facebook to facilitate interactions among consumers who share common health conditions and concerns. 

The ability to monitor what consumers are saying is equally valuable. Twitter has spawned a host of online applications, such as Tweetscan and Twist, that allow companies to monitor and analyze what people are tweeting about specific topics. “Think of how useful that is in a crisis situation,” wrote Mark Senak of Fleishman-Hillard in his EyeOnFDA blog. “You can monitor what people are saying about your crisis, discern the messaging, develop your own response document and send it out directly to those who have been talking about it via Twitter.”

Life science companies are watching for signals from the Food and Drug Administration on how the use of social media might be regulated. The FDA, which carefully monitors the pharmaceutical industry in its messaging to consumers, recently admonished a pharmaceutical company for posting a video on YouTube. The regulators took exception to certain claims made in the video as well as important information that the FDA said was left out.  The use of YouTube as a communications vehicle, however, was not addressed – a fact that was duly noted and widely reported by bloggers. “It’s not the medium, it’s the message,” Dr. Jean Ah Kang of the FDA’s Division for Drug Marketing, Advertising and Communications, told Senak in a recent interview.

Pharmaceutical companies are well aware that direct-to-consumer advertising is likely to be under review by the Obama Administration as part of the broader health care reform initiative.  While new guidelines may be created, it’s likely that “the message, not the medium” will continue to be the overarching policy, and social media won’t specifically be restricted.

“The Obama administration is extremely Internet savvy and its ability to harness social media played a big role in the election, so I expect them to have an informed and sophisticated position in terms of how they regulate the use of social media by business,” said Cohen.

Be that as it may, most pundits expect biotech and pharma companies to continue to proceed with caution.  Cohen, however, thinks they should forge ahead.  “There is too much upside and opportunity that social media offers.  The challenge is to utilize social media in the way it’s meant to be used – as an engagement tool that facilitates two-way communication and adds real value for consumers. The companies that harness the power of social media will gain a competitive advantage and enhance their reputations in the process.”

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth recently conducted one of the first statistically significant studies on the usage of social media in corporations. The study compares the adoption of social media with a list of the fastest-growing U.S. companies assembled by Inc. Magazine – a leading business magazine headquartered in New York City.

The 2009 results prove that America’s fastest growing private companies adopt social media marketing initiatives at much higher rates than other companies, and that interest in social media has grown exponentially since the first study was conducted in 2007.

In 2007, the first study of this group and their use of social media was released and revealed that the Inc. 500 was outpacing the more traditional Fortune 500 in their use of social media. For example, at that time, 8% of the Fortune 500 companies were blogging compared to 19% of the Inc. 500.

This study examines the Inc. 500 one year later in the first study on corporate use of these new technologies. Given that previous research now shows that while only 11.6% of the Fortune 500 currently having a public blog, it is astounding to see that 39% of the Inc. 500 are blogging. The addition of 3.6% more Fortune 500 companies to the list pales in comparison to the addition of 20% more of the Inc. 500 companies after the same time period.

Given this statistical significance, the research proves that social media has penetrated parts of the business world at a tremendous speed. It also indicates that corporate familiarity with and usage of social media with these Inc. 500 businesses has nearly doubled in the past 12 months.

The respondents in the study were diverse in category of business, size and location. The 209 companies who responded were asked the same detailed questions concerning their usage and measurement of social media that were asked of the Inc. 500 approximately one year earlier. Questions asked about the familiarity of respondents with six prominent social media – social networking, blogging, podcasting, online video and wikis.

Here are some pertinent facts from the study: 91 percent of companies reporting that they use at least one social media tool, compared with 77 percent of companies surveyed in 2008. While Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites have seen significant growth in comparison to previous years, interest in some older social media tools such as message boards and podcasting has declined. Social media usage by companies on the list has grown in the past year, with 91 percent of companies reporting that they use at least one social media tool, compared with 77 percent of companies surveyed in 2008. 44 percent of companies without a company blog say they plan to start one and 36 percent intend to use some form of online video. Many entrepreneurs have already embraced these sites as part of their business strategy, with Facebook and Twitter being the most widely used among them, drawing activity from 52 percent of the respondents.

Eric Mattson, CEO of a research firm named Financial Insite and one of the head researchers in the study, believes that the high reception to social media among Inc. 500 companies is important for several reasons. ” Inc. 500 companies are focused on doing anything they can to grow faster and social media is an innovative tool that may give them an edge over their competition,” he says.

Mattson thinks it is significant that the sample group consisted entirely of private companies. “There is less implication for private companies using social media – they don’t have to worry about the stock market going up or down based on someone’s Tweet,” he explains.

Mattson concludes, “From a big picture trend standpoint, these results show how prevalent and widespread social media is becoming in every aspect of business now.”

Often in smaller organizations, there is more room for innovation because it requires less processes to adopt.? The specific ways in which the businesses surveyed use social media tools has also evolved. Now – 34 percent of companies reported that they were using social media to communicate with vendors and suppliers and 26 percent cited Twitter in particular as an important vehicle for communication with outside partners.
The study is important in many ways – the most significant being that the fastest growing private businesses in the United States are embracing social media more than ever before.

Nowadays, the question seems to be not who is on Twitter, but rather, who is not on Twitter. The world seems to be aflutter with the Twitter phenomenon. Even Bill Gates is tweeting.

The proliferation of Twitter and other Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook, YouTube and blogs have drastically changed the way society socialises and communicates. And businesses are taking note.

Some of the world’s largest corporations are themselves changing the way they communicate and collaborate with their customers, stakeholders and employees. Conventional marketing such as advertisements and sending out mass e-mail are no longer enough. These days, companies are more inclined to engage directly with customers via online discussion forums or through blogs.  Marketing personnel are also equally at home typing out pitches using less than 140 characters on Twitter as they are writing out lengthy advertising copies.

Jumping on the social media bandwagon

According to an August 2009 survey by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, 86% of companies from various industries said social media now forms part of their businesses. 61% have integrated social applications within their websites or other sites, while 40% have set up standalone online communities. 39% chose to embed third-party widgets into their sites.

Marketing was cited as the top reason for adopting social media tools (57%), followed by internal collaboration (39%).

In another survey done by McKinsey in 2009, 53% of business respondents said they plan to increase their investment in social media tools and technologies in the next three years.

Why the interest in social media amongst companies? It is considered a word-of-mouth marketing phenomenon that commands a higher level of consumer engagement, and in some cases, better return on investment (ROI), than conventional advertisements.

Power of social media

If there are any doubts as to the power of social media as a marketing tool, look no further than Dell. The computer maker made headlines last year when it reported that it had generated USD6.5 million in revenue from sales alerts on its DellOutlet (http://twitter.com/delloutlet) Twitter account. Granted, that is a tiny percentage compared to Dell’s total revenue of USD60 billion in 2008. However, considering that it cost the company next to nothing to set up the Twitter account, the ROI is pretty significant.

Another good example of the power of social media is Intuit’s use of online discussion forums. The financial and accounting software company’s “Live Community” forum allows customers to ask other customers questions, including those that the company isn’t allowed to answer because of regulatory restrictions. Through word-of-mouth and consumer feedback, Intuit has seen sales increase by more than 30% each year.

Technologically-savvy

Dell and Intuit are two examples of technology companies that are socially savvy in an industry that is by far the most comfortable when it comes to embracing Web 2.0

Tech companies already utilise podcasts, webcasts and video to market their products and service offerings, while online discussion forums and the blogosphere are used to solicit free feedback and suggestions for their products.

They have also started to engage bloggers to create awareness of new products by inviting them to do trial runs and pre-launch product reviews. This can work both ways though. A bad review may hurt a brand, but an endorsement from an established blogger can be powerful marketing.

Financial institutions – still on the sidelines

On the other hand, financial institutions in general, are still contented to be wallflowers in the realm of social media. They don’t engage much at all. This is not surprising as strict industry regulations and compliance issues prevent many banks from embracing the ‘open transparency’ that social media requires.

The only platform most of them seem to be in is LinkedIn. Although some banks have a Facebook page, most of the accounts seem to be opened by fans, rather than the lenders themselves.

Still, there are signs that some financial institutions are beginning to experiment with social media. Banks like Citibank and HSBC have discussion forums on their websites to get feedbacks from customers. While Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong has its own Standard Chartered TV (http://www.youtube.com/user/scbtv09) on YouTube.

Management consultancies – some are greater converts than others

Management consultants probably have the most to gain from engaging in social media, especially in promoting their thought leaders. Many partners from these firms already have their articles posted on the company’s website. These thought leadership pieces could potentially reach out to a wider base if they also have their own blogs or twitter accounts, or if they are linked to bookmarking and news sharing sites like Delicious, Digg and Reddit.

Deloitte Consulting and McKinsey are two of the best examples of management consultancies that are fully exploiting social media to promote their thought leaders. They use platforms such as Delicious and Digg to draw more people to their websites. By starting a discussion forum on their articles, they are able to provide links back to their corporate website showcasing more of their services. This, in turn, generates more traffic hits and eyeballs, and potentially, new clients.

Unfortunately, aside from Deloitte, McKinsey and Accenture, most management consultancies have yet to jump on the social media bandwagon.

LinkedIn

The only social media channel that all companies across the three industries seem to be on is LinkedIn. This is to be expected. Unlike other social networking sites, the approximate 50 million registered users on LinkedIn are professionals looking to connect with like-minded peers, or to create their own business connections.

The site’s large treasure trove of professional contacts has become a popular “go-to” place for human resources personnel. Because it also has different groups for any number of organisations or special interest groups, companies also find LinkedIn especially useful when looking for candidates with a specific set of skills.

Bookmark it and share and share alike

While blogs, Twitter and Facebook are the more popular social media channels being utilised by businesses, B2B companies should also look into exploring bookmarking services like Delicious and news sharing sites such as Digg and Reddit to generate greater awareness.

Adobe Systems maintains a list of interesting company related news and conversations on Delicious. For instance, the software company used Delicious to store and share a link that gives a tutorial on how to apply the Bokeh, or hazy effect, in web design. By bookmarking this link, Adobe ensures it gets more eyeballs, and potential customers, than it would have had had it only featured the link on its website. It also uses Delicious to advertise its eSeminars.

Meanwhile, Intel’s blog network allows readers to ‘digg’ or recommend the blogs that they have read on Digg. For example, a blog written by an employee on the power of Intel’s 3D streaming technology was recommended by almost one thousand registered Digg users and generated over 100 comments. As a result of this employee’s blog entry, the company was able to review independent feedback, gauge the popularity of the subject and generate some buzz through a third-party site.

So, what’s next?

While some companies, such as Intuit, Intel, Accenture and Deloitte, are taking full advantage of, and reaping the benefits, from Web 2.0 technologies, most business-to-business companies are not very socially engaged.

It would not be long before social technologies become a norm within the B2B space. After all, it aligns with what B2B marketing is all about – and that is to build ongoing relationships with one’s stakeholder communities.

So go ahead and:

Identify your corporate B2B brand and social personality
Identify key targets that the business can engage in conversations with within the social media world (bloggers, online customers etc.)
Set your objectives and goals, and then find a means to measure it, even if it has to be done by proxy
Appoint someone in your organisation whose full time occupation is to be your social media champion and get him/her to nurture the company’s online brand ambassadors
Begin with the basics and build an online community; don’t be afraid to ask for suggestions
Regularly monitor what is being said about your company or brand online
Develop a response mechanism to address negative online feedback
Review and keep improving your conversations – don’t be afraid to experiment and find the right mix of tools for your company
Lastly, the social media landscape is constantly evolving so keep your eyes and ears open online

Like it or not, social media is here to stay. It is no longer a one-to-many business environment, but rather a many-to-many world. B2B companies can no longer afford to stay on the sidelines if they want to get ahead of the competition.  So, is your company socially engaged?

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With the speed and ease that information spreads on the Internet, companies wishing to protect their brand(s) need to stay on top of their reputation management at all times. The popularity of blogs and forums allow ample opportunities for cranks and corporate saboteurs to sully a brand’s integrity overnight. Making matters worse, negative publicity, whether it’s factual or spurious, can appear in search results, whether someone is looking for it or not. This presents a challenge for any company, and proactive reputation management should be part of every marketing strategy.
Here are some proactive reputation management tips for any company to consider when building their online brand:
Use social networking to your advantage—Social networking sites are immensely popular and a great way to reach your target audience. Build pages on sites, such as MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, and others, and update them regularly with good content.

Issue regular press releases—Press releases are a very effective way to generate interest and announce new product features, innovative uses for your products, and promotions. Just make sure that they are well written and newsworthy.

Produce videos—Just over three years after launch, YouTube is a household name around the world. Harness the power of that top-of-mind awareness by producing videos about your brand(s), uploading them to YouTube, and embedding them on your site. They can be how-to videos, demonstrations, or new uses for the product—but make sure they’re not amateurish, or the brand’s credibility will suffer.

Host a blog on the company website—Then update it regularly with topical content that engages your visitors. Use the blog to announce new products, promote exclusive sales and coupons, and gain invaluable feedback from your customers. People love to share their opinions. Blogs make it easy for them to do so and also lets them feel like they’re part of the decision-making process. Blog posts also rank very well in search results!

Include social bookmarking tools—Place them at the bottom of each blog post. The salient point here is: Make it as easy as possible for your viewers to share your content. This will increase targeted traffic to your site and build brand recognition for little or no investment.

Issue articles for syndication—These can be about anything directly or indirectly related to your products. Make them funny, interesting, topical, informative, or whatever you’d like; however, make sure they’re written well so that other Web masters will want to snag this content for their sites. This is a fantastic way to proactively build a brand by creating high-quality back links to your site to enhance ranking opportunities.

All of these tips are practical, inexpensive, and definitely worth your company’s time to implement. This is because they get your name out there, build brand recognition, and proactively protect your online reputation. Negative publicity can happen to any company, whether it’s warranted or not, but if you take steps like these and continue on a regular basis, the potential impact of bad publicity will be significantly reduced.