Outsource My Social Media Marketing

Learn how in-house SEO strategy and in-house Social Media marketing is being accomplished at ABCNews.com. Read the full blog post at: www.instantetraining.com Bob Tripathi: That’s a great point. The next question I want to ask you about is social media. Everyone is doing social media in some shape or form. News sites can really leverage social media and I’ve seen some folks do it. But at ABC News, how are you approaching social media and what are your visions or your plans to integrate social media, search and all of that stuff? Eleanor Hong: Social media is definitely important and it’s changing the landscape for a lot of media sites. We’re seeing that Facebook now is one the most important sites to share news stories and to share video. It’s probably catching up, if not having caught up, with Google News. I think a lot of media sites, for our site we’re having an editorial group called “Audience Growth and Development”, so we’re tasked to really help drive traffic through search and social media and linkage and link partners. For us, we have to look at our Facebook and Twitter strategies on a daily level with editorial. A lot of our digital journalists are just so great. They already have an understanding of social media because they use it themselves. They also use social media to help with finding sources. For ABC News, it’s aligning the business goals with the social media strategies. That can come from just a working relationship with editorial and marketing. So we …

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“Own your own platform – don’t rely on Facebook being in business in a year.”

I recently watched a webinar hosted by Maddock Douglas on social media strategy, and the above quote in the presentation made me think about the place that social media has within overall business strategy.  I’m relatively new to social media marketing myself, but the above quote reminds me of an article I read (Porter, Michael E., “Strategy and the Internet”, pp 62-78, March 2001, Harvard Business Review) about the role of the internet in business strategy in the mid to late 1990s.  I’ll spare you the experience of reading it by providing a very brief and general summary.  I hope you keep reading my short article; I’m interested in your thoughts.

The internet ushered in a new way of conducting business.  Relationships between buyers and suppliers (B2B) were solidified due to the proprietary nature of e-commerce platforms and database management systems.  They were solidified because of the high switching costs inherent in the technology.  As such it was often predicted at the time that the internet would contribute to sources of competitive advantage, the key component of business strategy.  This did not happen.  As internet applications evolved along with internet technology, and implementation as well as hardware costs dropped significantly, it was quickly seen that internet technology would greatly facilitate business processes and transactions, but not result in competitive advantage for any particular firm or sector, simply because everyone now has access to it, and acquisition and switching costs are often not significant.  In fact, the internet increased competition because it allowed buyers, whether business or consumer, to access information that was previously unavailable to them (competitors, 3rd party reviews, videos, and more), and quickly.  In short, the internet made buyers more savvy.

From a company’s perspective, having access to the internet, as well as a website is seen as a necessity in today’s business environment, as opposed to a competitive advantage, as some predicted a decade and a half ago.  This finally brings me back to social media’s place in business strategy.

Adoption of social media platforms is still not ubiquitous.  This is simply because the concept is still relatively new, and popular in only some industries.  In fact, social media use is also regionalized.  By that I mean that some countries have adopted it much more than others, even though they have considerable access to the internet (something to keep in mind when considering your target market while designing your social media strategy).  And for those reasons there are many companies specializing in social media-related services, and more are coming because it’s still a developing industry, just like the dot-coms were in the late 1990s.  The difference is that the internet was thought to revolutionize the way business is done in general, and many dot-com companies abandoned the fundamentals of business strategy.  Very simplistically, this is in part why the dot-com bubble burst early this decade.  Not that the circumstances will be repeated, but nevertheless a lesson that today’s social media marketers and service providers should keep in mind when strategically planning ahead.  But I’m going off topic.

As industries, companies, and countries adapt and embrace social media, it may also become a necessity, just like the internet did, and not a competitive advantage.  This is already happening.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard someone say that if you don’t use social media in your business you’ll be left behind.  So guess what I did.  I started using social media.  You’re looking at it right now.  Adoption of social media is becoming a necessity rather than a differentiating factor in an already competitive business environment.

Internet based technologies develop and evolve quickly.  Some become business critical, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems (eg. Salesforce.com), and communication tools (email).  I believe that social media (marketing) is not far from becoming critical to business.  All these technologies have something in common: The rate at which they evolve from tools of differentiation to those of necessity in order to compete on level ground.  Business corporate strategy, on the other hand, does not change at this pace.  Much like other internet applications, social media is a tool and should be part of a business strategy, but alone it is insufficient to be the business strategy.  To be successful, a company’s social media strategy should reflect its foundation, which is the corporate or business strategy.

To me, the quote at the beginning mirrors the rapidly changing nature of technological tools, and the need to ground them in solid business strategy.

Social media is on the rise, and no one denies it any longer. From the largest super brand to the local confectionary everyone has etched out their presence online and is answerable to their online consumers. If you want to be online, you have to be convinced about the power of social online marketing. Most companies have hired a social media marketing management firm who are responsible for devising a social media strategy for the company. Social online marketing is the favorite buzzword and nobody wants to be left out. But have you considered if you have hired the right agency or individual that suits your business needs?

While most institutions have made it big in the world of social online marketing and the social media consultant’s job looks plum, there are a plenty who haven’t tasted success yet. We considered the reasons for their failure and came up with the following:

•    Not responding to client feedback

Most companies have a customer feedback form included in their websites. Sometimes there are open forums or groups created in the social media websites to encourage discussion about the products or services provided. What happens however is that companies or the social media consultant refuses to listen to or respond to them. Over a period of time, these customer grievances remain online for more visitors to see.

•    Concentrating only on their product or service

There might be a plan in place, but the plan includes only ‘us’. This sort of a mindset will not work well in the social media sphere. Your social media consultant needs to be aware how the social media marketing functions on the principles of sharing on the web. Your business page or website needs to be creatively done and full of information, images or videos that attract attention and also acts as a storehouse of information. A curious visitor might not add to your revenues, but in the long run he will remember you for sharing some valuable information with him.

•    Not technology savvy

Does your website replicate an online brochure with some images and a few lines about you? Its time you team up with your social media consultant to jazz up your business page, profile or website that is more attractive and useful to the visitor. Technology is moving ahead in leaps and bounds and your social media consultant is the best person to guide you through this procedure.

•    Company ethics Vs social media

At times the policies and rules come in the way of connecting with the customers. The SMO business can flourish only with honesty and sincerity about how you want to be a part of your customers’ life. When your products, policies, or processes are not customer friendly, social media cannot be of much help.

With prominent brands and institutions meeting a dead end at the social media sphere, its time you seek professional help for your social media strategy. Exploit the power of social media but rely only on a good strategist who knows how to fetch you millions for a zero investment.

There have been many debates as to whether internet marketing services that use social networking and media sharing web sites to improve search engine optimization really work. Do they actually help your website gain improved search engine rankings? These all have been referred to by terms like social media, social media marketing, word of mouth marketing, buzz marketing and web 2.0. Social websites have become the latest craze on the internet and these terms have become the buzz words.

Social media websites and networking web sites offer the website owner a straightforward approach to bond with another community of people who have related points of views or interests like you. Some social networking websites group people with common interests, but some websites are “traditional networking sites” and allow you to search for friends based on your interests. So now how do these websites really operate. In websites like MySpace users share music which was what helped rocket MYspace into the well renown place it is today and in Facebook, users create their personal information that they want shared and use pictures, software programs and audio, videos to display or depict their business environment. In websites like Fastpitch, Joe Popular and Adlandpro the users create product and sale pitches and work with each other. Promotiing your website using these new tools is termed social media marketing.

How can you benefit and improve your search engine optimization ranking by using social media websites? When you use social media marketing and social networking , you have the opportunity to expose your website to a much larger group of people. When your site becomes popular in a social media site, people talk about your site and the post that becomes popular. This is a form of viral marketing that is word of mouth. The additional links means that as you grow these natural links from a large number of relevant websites, your rankings improve in the search engine due to increased organic search traffic.

Another advantage is that search engines programs that roam the web are keen on social media and networking websites and typically go after links on these websites. This means if you have your site link on social networking and bookmarking websites, your search engine optimization ranking is better and your website site will be indexed quickly. Getting bookmarked from different users and different social media websites will definitely help your site rank better on search engines.

Like it or not, social media websites have become an integral part of the internet because social marketing is easy to do, search engines love social links and hence your business by default will benefit. So if you are engaged in operating a website, and search engine optimization is important then you must realign your site to exploit the popular social media websites for increased traffic. To take advantage of this new method of building business you need to know what steps to perform? Well explore search engine optimization services. Also explore social media marketing and the difference to social networking websites.

Are you looking for a company to benchmark? One you might consider looking at first is Intel Corporation.

CASE STUDY
It all started in the early 2000′s with grassroots employee participation. One employee in particular, Josh Bancroft, started to build out the social infrastructure in 2004. The result was the creation of Intelpedia, a team based wiki collaboration site launched in November of 2005. Today, Intelpedia contains over 15,000 articles from Intel employees defining, collaborating and documenting their part of the Intel workplace.

Over time, Intel created a comprehensive set of social media policies simply called the Intel Social Media Guidelines. These guidelines are now available in over 35 languages designed to help everyone use social media in a respectful and responsible way.

(And if you want to really explore what cross section of these social media guidelines look like across companies and industries, you can refer to the Social Media Governance website, with over 105 Social Media policy documents from a wide variety of companies — all available for free at Social Media Governance Database.)

It is important to recognize that merely having social media policies in place at an organization does not necessarily mean an organization’s employees will understand them or incorporate them into their daily jobs. Instead employees must be trained in how to use social media to drive business results. It is the training and policies combined that provide a framework for employees to increase their participation in social media. With this framework in place, a comfort level evolves between employee participation and management’s concerns. Both find satisfaction that everyone is on the same page and that the expectations and responsibilities of social media participation are clearer.

To better foster and manage social media, Intel’s next step was the creation of the Social Media Center of Excellence, a cross functional body of experts in Legal, Marketing, PR, and Web Communications, who come together to create guidelines, processes, strategies, and skill-building courses for how Intel employees can responsibly and respectfully use such social media tools as blogs, wikis, Twitter, Foursquare, and social networks around the world.

In June 2008, Intel added the Digital IQ training program on how to use these social media tools to increase innovation, communication and collaboration at work. The company has created a series of over 60 online courses, organized as an online university granting Intel employees a certification in Digital IQ. The Digital IQ certificate was created to up-level sales and marketing employees’ skills and understandings of the dynamic digital marketing world. While the target audience was Sales & Marketing, the program is open to all global employees who wish to expand their understandings of digital and emerging media.”

The Digital IQ courses cover such areas as:

Tweet Like You Mean It: The Right Way To Tweet Your Brand
The Importance of Brand Identity in Social Media
WOM (Word Of Mouth) The Anatomy of Buzz
Social Media Measurement
Viral Marketing
Mobile Marketing: Wide Reach of a Small Screen
China’s Social Media Landscape

Intel employees select a unique certification path based upon their job role. Then they plan a curriculum path of both required and elective courses leading to a certification in their Digital IQ. Since its inception in 2008, more than 20,000 Intel employees have completed Digital IQ training. Intel went one step further by creating a Masters Course called Digital IQ 500 which licenses Intel employees to practice social media on behalf of the company.

As you plan your social media strategy, first ask yourself: what are the sweet spots in your business where social media can have the most impact? For Intel, it is focusing on the entire population of sales and marketing population who can go through Digital IQ training and then move on to participating and collaborating on the social web. For a company with a large population of new hires, this could mean creating an internal corporate social network to build greater speed in collaboration, innovation and problem-solving.

How are you:

Building a community among your global employee base?
Engaging employees and customers to more easily collaborate with each other?
Moving from a marketing campaign to having a conversation with your customers?
Training your employees to be active participants in using social media to build your brand?
What have you done to customise your social media policy uniquely to your business needs. A specialist legal firm familiar with the social media space is best. They are equipped to advise you on the IP and employee issues that relate to creating your social media policy.

BlandsLaw is a specialist legal firm advising companies on establishing their social media policies. They also offer staff training programmes in social media policies and speak at various conferences on social media policies.

What if you could reach a few million people, improve customer support, tap into an incredible wealth of customer satisfaction data, protect and enhance your brand, and obtain some positive coverage, all for under $500? But wait, there’s more! Sounds like a late-night infomercial, but in fact, a minimal investment (mostly time) can help you establish a highly visible and rewarding social media outpost on Twitter.

If you’re trying to figure out how social media can be integrated into your corporate communications strategy, follow this simple program. Don’t hire expensive consultants, don’t spend millions of dollars on viral marketing programs, and don’t wait to be shown proven ROI for social media initiatives. Just roll up your sleeves, get on Twitter, be genuine, and actually respond to and assist consumers.

Of course there are other social networks and opportunities to use social media in your corporate communications initiatives, and Twitter hosts a relatively small audience, perhaps two million people. But online, two million people who are extremely well-versed in the use of social media tools can be a very influential audience. Their comments on your company, its willingness to engage with customers, and the quality of its customer support not only reach a potentially much larger audience, but once published, are on the web almost forever to be retrieved via a search on your company name. If those comments are negative, wouldn’t you like the opportunity to respond? And if they’re positive, wouldn’t you like to know that as well?

I’m sure you’ve heard it said hundreds of times, that there’s an online conversation going on about your company. And as much as this is a metaphorical conversation, it is also, in many social networks, forums and chat rooms, an actual conversation in which real people are sharing their experiences with your company.

I was inspired to write this piece as I watched this morning as a well known vehicle rental company come under attack on Twitter. A Twitter user with more than 1500 “friends” commented on a bad experience involving the company. Perhaps feeling that the company didn’t care about his plight, he invited other Twitter users to share their negative experiences with the company, and thus was born a groundswell of negativity. The company in question had no clear presence on Twitter, and did not get involved in the conversation. Here are a few of the comments:

“horrendous service…fails on many levels…poorly maintained trucks too.”
“I’m going to need a moving truck soon…maybe I should try another company this time around”
“abysmal customer service”
“I have had way too many problems with them – bad equipment, oversold equipment, etc.”
To get an idea whether your company is being talked about on Twitter, go to http://www.search.twitter.com, and enter your company name. You will be able to scan, in chronological order, user comments about your company. Whether these are largely negative, positive or neutral, each is an opportunity for you to weigh in, which is perfectly legitimate to do on Twitter. And you would be remiss not to.

It’s difficult for me to say that they “should” have been on Twitter, but I have to ask, why not? One company after another has been in the news as they have established a presence on Twitter and started engaging one-on-one with consumers. I am not exaggerating when I say the cost of being on Twitter is under $500. Twitter membership, even for corporations, is free, but I was allowing $500 to pay for the time to have someone in corporate communications sign up, create a simple graphics backdrop for the page, complete the very brief profile, and begin the conversation.

It’s not that hard to do. I recently wrote on my blog about the Seven Rules for Establishing a Corporate Presence on Twitter. These are very simple guidelines for branding your Twitter account and making it clear to consumers that it is an authorized company communications vehicle.
There are no barriers to Twitter entry. As I said, it costs nothing, and you do not need to create any content, but you do need to identify one or more company spokespeople who can be online periodically to respond to consumer inquiries, questions and concerns. Home Depot’s account is staffed by Sarah, a PR person who has agreed to “moonlight” on Twitter to respond to customer comments and issues. Comcast’s account is staffed by its “digital care” group, and jetBlue’s is managed by the company’s corporate communications team. Surely there are one or two people in your company who are social media savvy, and connected either to your communications or customer support organizations, who can spend 30-60 minutes a day engaging with consumers, solving problems, and improving the company’s reputation. Not doing so doesn’t seem very smart.

Social media has exploded the internet space and businesses are realizing the amazing potential to attract more customers. The social space multiplied rapidly because it gave internet users a chance to interact with each other and share photos, content, or personal information via the web. Up until its inception, the internet was purely an informational engine. The latest advancements transformed the way people view the internet and as a result more and more people are utilizing the web than ever before.

With so many businesses communicating to potential customers via the social media space, you cannot afford to stay away. Hundreds of millions of users utilize these platforms and are congregated in the major sites such as Twitter and Facebook. This represents an amazing opportunity for you to showcase your brand to so many people at one time.

By connecting with your audience, you can display your services without deliberately selling to them, and interact with new and existing customers to gain necessary feedback. How is your company seen? What would people like to see as an improvement? By feeling the pulse of the people, you can gear your marketing campaign to better suit their needs. It will take you out of the dark and into the reality of what your target audience desires from you.

Though social media will seriously impact your business, be careful not to focus all of your efforts on it. If you  are communicating with people, but the website you are driving them to is low quality, you will not help your business. Continue to work on the aspects of your marketing plan that will attract new visitors and convert them to sales. You can also further your search engine optimization campaigns and email subscriber lists. Social media should be an adjunct to your strategy not a complete replacement.

Never put all of your eggs in the social media basket but do not disregard it either. Find the balance between capitalizing on new trends and perfecting your current strategies. Outsource some of your other tasks, if need be, to inject some social time into your efforts. With the proper balance of communication and effective website and search methods, your company will enjoy a well-rounded campaign and will continue to stay abreast of the latest trends on the web.

There is no shortage of buzz about social media and many companies are feeling the need to get involved. However, many cite the time commitment as a road block. I often hear questions about how businesses can measure the effectiveness of their social media efforts, and systemize their approach.

Social networking for business can, and should, be approached like any other business activity – with a plan that identifies objectives, benchmarks and a determination of the resources that will be dedicated to reaching them. Having a plan in no way negates the genuine, social contributions you will make. It is comparable to deciding how many (and which) business organizations and networking meetings you will go to in a month. Like face-to-face networking opportunities, there is some discipline involved (think of the last After Work Network where you were tempted to spend an hour catching up with an old friend to the exclusion of meeting new ones).

While social media strategies can be extremely detailed, you can begin the process by addressing the 5Q’s – who, what, when, where and why.  All efforts stem from the ‘what’,  so we begin by examining the purpose of participation, which then guides the other elements of the plan.

WHAT are your Objectives?  When we develop a social media strategy for our clients, we begin with identifying objectives. What do you want to accomplish? The core goal, of course, is to build and grow relationships with clients, prospective clients, strategic partners, employees, vendors, the media, etc.  However, what are some of the business uses that you will tap into your network to accomplish?

WHERE will you Participate?  There are mega-channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, that most everyone is familiar with. However, there are literally thousands of additional channels that may offer great potential for you as well. Just like your offline networking efforts, you can’t be an active participant in all of them, so decisions have to be made as to which channels offer you the best return on your efforts and time spent. Where are your prospective clients spending time? Where are your competitors active? Where can you reasonably – and regularly – contribute? (If you are not recording video, and don’t plan to, YouTube isn’t a good choice!) Are there industry-specific sites where you would benefit by participating?

WHO will represent your company?  If one of your goals is to establish yourself as an expert – or to establish various members of your team as subject matter experts – then you and the specific subject matter experts on your team are the obvious choices. Are there other members of your team who could participate in specific activities, such as writing blog posts? Will you hire a firm to develop video content for you? Will you have your PR firm create and distribute online press releases for you? Do you have strategic partners who can provide you with content or ideas that would be of value to your network? It isn’t necessary to limit your social media efforts to the business owner; tap your in-house resources and consider whether there are outsource options for rounding out your efforts. As long as you have clearly-defined guidelines for what is appropriate to publish, you can maximize your efforts by including others in your strategy.

WHEN (and how often) will you participate?   Once you have determined who and where your business will be active online, it is important to establish a schedule for participation. As with any social group, you are only as visible and valued as you are committed. (Think of the occasional networking group members who never attend meetings; they aren’t top-of-mind for referrals, nor do they benefit from the regular contact gained at gatherings.)

WHY are you doing this?  Social networking is both fun and engaging – by design! Nonetheless, it is important to stay focused on why you are participating. We encourage our clients to regularly review their goals and to measure the results they are getting against those objectives. Is your network growing? Are you engaging in two-way conversations, or simply talking ‘at’ those in your network? Bear in mind that developing your network online is no different than developing a network offline; it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to build relationships through regular, meaningful dialogue. If you are not reaching your objectives, give consideration to the factors that are impacting your results. The great benefit of social networking is that you can easily gain feedback from those you interact with. Ask! Modify your efforts and keep watch on your benchmarks to determine the effectiveness of your participation.

Social networking offers widespread opportunities for businesses of all sizes. By carefully considering your options and developing a strategy, you, too, can tap into the power of your own social network. Remember: Speak Authentically and Work Strategically™!

Social media implies that you facilitate a two-way discussion, rather than a one-way bombardment of marketing messages. In short, this means that you stay engaged and in a discussion with visitors.

Social Media sites come and go like the wind. It seems like every 5 seconds some entrepreneur is just around the corner with another Digg or del.icio.us knockoff.

Hoping that whatever maneuver they can bring to the table will make them this week’s hot topic or at least clever enough to catch the eye of whomever might have some money and want to absorb some wicked bit of code or an entire social media community.

Social media (or new media) involves a LOT of things, a lot of tech, and could need a lot of resources (not necessarily money). When you say you do social media, and you want to launch a network of some sort, does that mean the entire process is done in-house?

Social media marketing can bring traffic and links to any website. Too often, marketers overlook the value of social media and tend to stick with traditional methods, while the younger generation of webpreneurs has employed social sites as an every-day strategy.

Social media is gowing at a such a rate that domains, websites and blogsites will increase in value due to the increased demand for webspace. The social aspect is driving the net into new territory and expands exponentially because of its viral nature.

Social media – as understood in a Web 2.0 context and has enabled us to play more effectively than was practical previously, on a global field.

Social Media has released us, freed us: and we won’t go back. Social media has been a great resource for both ideas and traffic for my blog. If you work and get noticed in social media and it gets passed around that’s a great way to promote your work.

Social media seek’s (in theory and in word, at least) a different kind of influence: peer review and approval. The medium and the form of discourse that it supports are wide open.

Social Media is a Branding Exercise – while social media sites can send you a lot of traffic very very quickly they can also be excellent places to do branding. Every time a reader or potential reader comes across you on a social media site the more you reinforce your brand.

Social media marketing is actually becoming necessary but it has to be done right. It is about the weight of numbers and it will bring some honesty, ethics and accountability back to doing business.

Social Media is conversational media in all its interactive forms including text, video and spoken words – whether face to face, over the Internet, over the airwaves or via mobile technologies such as iPods and cell phones.

A Social Media Club is intended to be a place where amateurs and professionals can come together to learn from one another, to understand each other and to work together on the things that make meaning in their lives – their personal passions, their professional endeavours and their noble pursuits.

Social Media, doesn’t even really exist as a subset of media. Everything is social now, we just expect it. Social media companies will race to provide metrics that show impressive results, but that’s not necessarily a good thing, especially given the ways measurement may shape investment and in turn shape the evolution of social mediums.

Social media campaign’s go far beyond the traditional agency model of media planning and buying. So do advertisers they actually get into the game and get their campaign’s out there.

Social media is changing the way online businesses advertise because control of the message is shifting to the consumer.

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a new term that was recently coined by Rohit Bhargava and has since been taking on life of its own. SMO tactics can drive huge amounts of people to a website and can also determine whether a startup, website or idea will make it or not.

Social media will be the optimal place to market especially with a recession. Social networks are a rich source of HIGHLY niche audiences and therefore are highly target-able.