connecting with customers in social networks: risks and benefits

Risks and Benefits in Social Media Marketing – A Community Engagement Guide 1

2009 Applied Connectioneering – Enterprise Social Media | Community

CONNECTING WITH CUSTOMERS IN SOCIALNETWORKS: RISKS & BENEFITS OF ONLINECOMMUNITIESA COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT GUIDE FOR COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONALS

By Ghennipher Weeks. Founding PartnerApplied Connectioneeringhttp://www.AppliedConnectoneering.comGetSocial@AppliedConnectioneering.com1 (801) 542-9019









http://www.AppliedConnectoneering.com

mailto:[email protected]







TABLE OF CONTENTS

OVERVIEW…………………………………………………………………………………..………..…....3

MANAGING THE ISSUES OF ENGAGING CUSTOMERS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA……..……...………….…...4The Risks – Is Social Media Making Corporate Communications Obsolete?The Opportunity – Control The Marketing Trigger, Engage With Impact

IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT…..……………………………………..8Pitching the CxOsSocialCorp Readiness Quiz

ENGAGE, GATHER FEEDBACK, MANAGE REPUTATION, LEARN………………..………………….……22A New Take On Measuring Social Media SuccessLearning From Social Media Successes

A WORD FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONALS AND CEOS…………………..……24Getting Help Developing & Implementing A Social Media Engagement Program

ABOUT APPLIED CONNECTIONEERING………………………………...…....………………..…...……26



OVERVIEW

Community is an integral part of everyday life – from birth to grave, we all find a senseof belonging in a community. When communities develop online, the sponsoringorganizations face unique challenges and benefits. Corporate communicators allagree that reaching influencers via social media is key to increasing company profits,but many customers say marketers need to do a better job of understanding andengaging them.

Many of the attributes of word of mouth marketing in social media that make it socompelling can also be a source of legal risk, ethical risk and damage to a company’sbrand reputation. This white paper overviews some of the ethical & online reputationrisks and offers suggestions on how to balance them with the obvious rewards of socialmedia marketing.



MANAGING THE RISKS & BENEFITS OFCONNECTING VIA SOCIAL MEDIATHE RISKS - IS SOCIAL MEDIA MAKING CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS OBSOLETE?

RISK FACTOR 1 - Social networking has grown by a whopping 93% since 2006, and mostmedia bypass the “go-between” (PR Folks) to go directly to company blogs to establishrelationships, find story ideas, and to check facts, scandals, and rumors. A-list bloggersoften get high end media coverage in less than 30 minutes time as compared to thehours or days for traditional PR to get media attention. Additionally, because of socialmedia, traditional media has become highly approachable and doesn’t need the PRconduit with social media.

RISK FACTOR 2 - Corporate marketing messages have less influence than ever before.Customers now do the majority of their product fact checking online, seeking outcredible opinions from friends and family on social networks regarding buying decisions,while disregarding obviously corporate sponsored messaging.

RISK FACTOR 3 - Customer complaints on blogs can pose a threat to your company’sreputation. Do you know what customers are saying about your client’s brand? Do youknow how to respond appropriately? Doing nothing virtually guarantees the loss ofbrand value. How do you convert traditional messaging to address social mediareputation management issues?

RISK FACTOR 4 – Social media is a moving target and changes constantly. Some of thelargest corporations are making social media missteps that have caused large marketsegments to complain loudly on social networks. It’s important to be well educatedbefore applying social media to a client campaign. How do you get and stay up tospeed with social media while still serving traditional clients?



CONSIDER SOME RECENT CAUTIONARY HEADLINES ABOUT WOM AND SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING :

“The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) isplanning to regulate online viral marketing that uses blogs andsocial networking sites. Marketers are spending billions worldwideto get the endorsements of key bloggers and groups on socialnetworking sites. Under the new regulations being proposed, suchbloggers would be legally liable if they make untrue statementsabout the products or services. The companies too would facesanctions.

"This impacts every industry and almost every single brand in oureconomy, and that trickles down into social media," AnthonyDiResta, an attorney representing several advertising associations,told The Financial Times.”

Iain Thomson, US editor of vnunet.com, based in San Francisco

“An overwhelming majority (86%) of ‘customers’say that advertisers need to do a better job of understanding andmarketing to them”, according a Lattimer Communications study.



THE OPPORTUNITY- CONTROL THE MARKETING TRIGGER, ENGAGE WITH IMPACT

Despite the need for care, as illustrated by the points above, Social Media is quitesimply a revolution in communications - ripe with benefits for corporations that adopt it.Social media has evolved from the domain of kids on MySpace and Facebook to thestrategic business, communities of practice (CoPs), and communications strategies ofthe world’s largest companies. Companies prove their relevance by expanding theirfocus to these social media strategies:

Access To Vital Information: Online communities provides companies withsocial media content creation and community, connections with bloggers in aspecific niche, etc. But this only works if your company knows social media insideand out. Social media gives you insight into brand perception, the competitivelandscape, buying habits of your market, customer service needs, & othervaluable information to help you make use of the fact that your prospect’sonline needs are now different than they were just 2 years ago.

Boosting Brand Awareness & Perception: One-on-one conversations helpscompanies engage in genuine conversations with “influencers”, providing aboost in brand perception. Social media provides a distribution channel acrosshundreds, or even thousands of outlets. This is one immediate benefit of socialmedia with smart community engagement.

Better Engagement: Engaging with “influencers” gives corporations a windowinto how each potential and current customer wants to be approached, on theirterms, in a way that’s relevant to them. Prospects feel they are being listened to.Ensure that your employees receive adequate training to help them engage inconversations online without overstepping company policy.

Increased Brand Control: Paradoxically, in social media, “letting go” of thecompany’s brand allows companies to be more in touch with customers. There’sa conversation going on about your company, and the only way to maintaincontrol is to participate in the conversation. People currently spend more time onthe internet than with any other medium. Your value as an organizationincreases as you learn and implement the proper way to engage influencers insocial networks.

Richer Experiences: Social media and Web 2.0 technology enables companiesto deliver experiences that conventional websites cannot. Common tools youneed to become skilled at using are blogs, video, images, podcasts, as well asoffline social events.

Expanded Online Metrics & Monitoring: Social media enables measurementof not only traffic, visitor behavior and conversion, but also soft measures like



brand perception, engagement, blog comments, blog mentions, RSSsubscriptions, social network rankings, social bookmark activity, etc. You canprove ROI with a well-thought-out social media metrics strategy. You’ll also needto make sure you’re monitoring all the right blogs, social networks and otherconversations for information relative to your industry. Relentlessly implementnext steps: respond, comment, or react on your blog as necessary.

Direct Conversations: Blogs give corporate executives an opportunity neverbefore experienced to talk directly to their customer base, reshape theirrelationships with the public, and create company evangelists by engaging inconversations. CEOs are generally hesitant to get involved in social media. GetCxO-specific training to fuel social media buy-in from the top.

Customer Growth & Retention: People are looking to their social networks forpurchase recommendations in record numbers. They spend more money onlinethan before social networks became popular, and are loyal to companies whomeet their deeply felt needs and desires. Create compelling content for yourblogs, video & podcasts, and help employees create user generated content,as well.

Brand loyalty Over Time: People change. The social network a customer joinedwhen beginning a research project may not provide the community she needsonce she’s on a professional career path. Specially branded communities canaddress these time factors in their design and utility, thus ensuring brand loyaltyover years.



IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT

Engagement in social media networks is critical for the success of organizationsmarketing to customers online. Effective social media engagement frames you as anengaged organization, a communications thought leader, and a progressive, forward-thinking company that has adopted social media effectively and accomplishesstrategic business objectives in the process.

“The agency of the future is a ‘connected’ one. Ican’t imagine ever advising a client to deal with an advertising,PR, or interactive team that doesn’t get social media. But with thepower shifting to the participants, agencies must demonstratethey can participate before they can ever help clients with it”

Jeremiah Owyang, Forrester/Web Strategist Blog

PITCHING THE CXOSGetting corporate buy-in for social media may not be as difficult as it once was.

"Senior marketing executives in several countries agree that theuse of social media for corporate, brand and product marketingis not a passing fad”

Research sponsored by TNS media intelligence/Cymfony

CEOs have been scared of social media. Some of the underlying notions of socialmedia – that effective communications are not possible without completetransparency and “brand surrender” – well, for many corporations, this just doesn’tmake sense.

In truth, customers have always owned company brands. Instead of the drastic “brandsurrender” some experts extol, corporations need to begin to “let go” of the brand, asA.G. Lafley, the CEO of consumer products of Proctor and Gamble notes:



“Consumers are beginning in a very real sense to own our brandsand participate in their creation. We need to lear to begin to letgo.”

CRITICAL FACTORS TO ENABLE CORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT:SOCIALCORP READINESS QUIZ

This quiz will help you rate your company’s social media readiness in six key areas. Asyou take the quiz you’ll detect certain themes. Feel free to make copies and share itwith colleagues. After you finish the quiz, review your responses and see where yourcompany is strong, where it needs to improve, and why. For each question, rate yourresponse in any of the boxes, from left to right, with the far left box indicating thehighest level of agreement, and the far right box indicating the highest level ofdisagreement with the statement.

Leadership

1. Is Senior Management interested in leveraging Social Media as a new marketingchannel?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

2. Does your leadership value the opinions of younger employees?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

3. Are there people in your company whose sole responsibility is social media strategyand policy?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No



Innovation

4. Does your company reward entrepreneurial behavior within the organization?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

5. Is it possible for employees to research and implement new initiatives outside theirformal job descriptions?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

6. Do you have a progressive IT organization that will work with you to deploy thesoftware and infrastructure required for your social media initiatives?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

Industry

7. Have other companies in your industry successfully used social media in corporatecommunications or marketing?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

8. Are you in a highly regulated industry, such as financial services or pharmaceuticals,in which extra caution is required in your communications programs?

Yes 0 o 1 o 2 o 3 o 4 o 5 o No

Business Objectives

9. Would your company benefit from more cross-functional team collaboration?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

10. Do you use the results of focus groups, surveys, and other customer data to makechanges to your products, processes, and policies?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

11. Does your management evaluate the success of your communications initiativessolely on traditional business metrics, like revenue and margin?

Yes 0 o 1 o 2 o 3 o 4 o 5 o No



Engagement

12. Do you actively monitor what’s being “said” about the company through traditionalchannels, such as print media?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

13. Do you actively monitor what’s being “said” about the company through Web2.0/social media channels, such as blogs, social networks, and online communities?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

14. Do you respond to negative “buzz” about the company?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

15. Do your customers consider peer reviews or word of mouth in purchasing productslike yours?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

Culture

16. Do your clients and customers currently use social media for business purposes?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

17. Are your employees active on Facebook, MySpace, or other social networks?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

18. Does anyone within the company blog on business-related issues?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

19. Do any of your company’s social media “experts” participate in externalconferences on subjects like social media, corporate communications, or Web 2.0?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No

20. Does your company embrace less formal communication with the outside worldwithout the involvement of legal, marketing, and PR departments?

Yes 5 o 4 o 3 o 2 o 1 o 0 o No



Score

This quiz is intended only to give you an overview of the kinds of things that will affectyour company’s ability to adopt and take advantage of social media. Once you’veidentified any areas of concern, formal research—like surveys, focus groups, marketresearch, analyst input, and competitive analysis—will help you more accurately definethe steps you need to take to become a true SocialCorp.

Use the following scoring guidelines to help you determine your organization’sreadiness:

90–100: Your company is already a Social Corp. Congratulations.

80–89: You have the right culture, leadership, and other conditions in place to allowyour company to become a Social Corp, with great potential for broad social mediaadoption.

70–79: The fundamentals are good, and you’re well on your way to becoming a SocialCorp, but to be successful you’ll need to carefully factor those areas in which thecompany might not be perfectly aligned for success.

Below 70: Don’t despair. Your responses indicate only that there are some barriers tosocial media adoption in your organization and that there might be certain socialmedia strategies that won’t work in your company or industry.

Next, let’s look at what your responses to these questions tell you about your company’spotential to be a Social Corp.

Social Media Readiness

Now that you’ve taken the quiz, you’ve identified some characteristics of yourcompany that will influence your social media strategy. The Social Corp Readiness Quizhelped identify your company’s strengths or weaknesses. This section expands on thesefactors and what you can do to influence them.

Leadership

1. Is Senior Management interested in leveraging Social Media as a new marketingchannel?

Key to social media adoption is open-mindedness and willingness within the company’ssenior leadership. Think back, in a broad way, on the behavior of your seniormanagement team over the past year. Have they demonstrated creativity and a



willingness to take calculated risks in the initiatives they have adopted? Has thecompany expanded into new areas of business? At a macro level, what does thecurrent communications “mix” look like, and how willing is your direct management totry new initiatives?

As with any new strategy, you may have to “sell” social media to your organization.Once you have an idea of how you think your company can best employ socialmedia, you should develop a social media strategy presentation and be prepared to“take it on the road” and give it numerous times to senior management and others inthe organization who will influence your success.

2. Does your leadership value the opinions of younger employees?

There is an incredible wealth of social media experience within the company’s fourwalls that will help you build a groundswell of support for the company’s social mediaprograms. At the risk of being ageist, to a large degree social media is a cult of youth,and the younger people in your organization will provide much of this expertise. Theyare so-called “digital natives” who grew up online, and most of them have used socialnetworks extensively before joining the company. They also tend to have less inhibitionwhen it comes to trying new online tools.

There are numerous ways to incorporate their insights into the company’s social mediastrategy. You could, for example, conduct a social media readiness survey within thecompany, to assess what applications they believe would be useful inside and outsidethe company, and gauge their experience and comfort level. A statistically valid third-party survey might provide data of sufficient quality to motivate a stubborn seniormanagement team to venture out into the world of social media.

If social media use is not yet pervasive in your company, there may be people whohave embarked on small, ad hoc social media initiatives in the company, and theirexperience will be quite useful. These early initiatives could be made more visible to thesenior executive team by including them in your social media strategy presentation.When appropriate, innovative use of social media inside the company might also besuitable for a mention on the company’s intranet home page. Strategically, you willneed the cooperation and buy-in of the social media pioneers within your company.You could invite them to be formal or informal members of your team and mightconsider bringing them along when you make your pitch to management.



3. Are there people in your company whose sole responsibility is social media strategyand policy?

More and more, companies are establishing an individual or an entire group withspecific management responsibility for social media strategy and policy across thecompany. This does not relieve the other functions within the company, like marketingcommunications, public relations, and employee communications, from developingtheir own social media expertise, nor should it. Each organization will have specificobjectives for their social media programs and will be best equipped to implement andmanage them.

The function of a centralized role is rather:

To develop and manage companywide social media policy to ensurecompliance with applicable regulations and laws and the company’s ownguidelines and standards.

To ensure that each function is aware of what others are doing, to leverageexpertise and tools, and perhaps most importantly, to share content across socialmedia vehicles.

• To serve as a clearinghouse for company social media resources.• To engage with social media experts from the outside world to demonstrate thecompany’s expertise and commitment and to learn from these experts.

Innovation

4. Does your company reward entrepreneurial behavior within the organization?

5. Is it possible for employees to research and implement new initiatives outside theirformal job descriptions?

The degree to which the company encourages innovation and entrepreneurialbehavior will directly affect the adoption of social media programs. According to theNew York Times, “Google engineers are encouraged to take 20 percent of their time towork on something company-related that interests them personally. This means that ifyou have a great idea, you always have time to run with it…It sounds obvious, butpeople work better when they’re involved in something they’re passionate about, andmany (of Google’s) cool technologies have their origins in 20 percent time, includingGmail, Google News, and even the Google shuttle buses.”

You’ve probably heard this story before, and it’s equally probable that you don’t workat Google. It’s not the intent of this book to offer guidance on designing employee



motivation programs but only to point out the importance of such programs in theadoption of any new strategy, technology, or communications tool. It wouldn’t be oneof your first steps, but if there are no such programs in your company, you shouldconsider recommending one to senior management. It would not only free people tocontribute to your social media programs, but it would benefit the entire organization.

In a typical “performance management” framework, it would be highly unusual for anemployee to devote any significant amount of time and effort to developing socialmedia programs unless that was a current job responsibility.

Specific mechanisms, formal and informal, must be in place so that employees canexplore these new communications tools not only without penalty but with the potentialfor the employee to receive reward and recognition for doing so. This is one of the mostdifficult situations to foster within a company, because it requires a specificcommitment to allowing employees to pursue work that does not at the moment seem“mission critical.” To not allow this kind of work would ultimately condemn a companyto failure anyway, but there are those companies that don’t operate this way, and theywill find social media adoption to be awkward and difficult.

6. Do you have a progressive IT organization that will work with you to deploy thesoftware and infrastructure required for your social media initiatives?

A good working relationship with your IT organization is perhaps the single mostimportant factor affecting your ability to implement innovative social media programs.Oftentimes, simply having a single friendly contact in the IT organization will be enoughfor you to establish a beachhead.

The larger your company, the more complex (and often fixed) its IT infrastructure. The ITorganization will generally have a predominant platform, operating system (such asWindows or Linux), security environment, and network and identity protocols. These willall influence IT’s perception of what kinds of projects are possible. Note that in somecases these conclusions are realities and in other cases are simply perceptions that canbe influenced. The story in the book’s introduction of the “impossible” podcast thatended up taking less than 36 hours to implement is but one example of how, armedwith a little bit of information, you can motivate your IT organization to “do theimpossible.”

The IT organization, and the web team, which plays a similar role, are among thepeople you need to influence with your social media strategy presentation. Let themknow the kind of things you’re considering and what you expect of them. To do that,you’ll need to research the basic technical requirements for any specific software you



have chosen, but you also need to be open-minded and listen to alternatives your ITorganization might feel are easier and/or more beneficial to implement.

If you need additional help motivating your IT organization you can often do so with anexecutive sponsor. An executive sponsor is someone in the organization who carriessome clout. Let’s face it, as persuasive as you may be, and as important as your socialmedia programs are, some people will be quicker to respond to you if they see it as anopportunity to make a good impression on a senior executive.

Industry

7. Have other companies in your industry successfully used social media in corporatecommunications or marketing?

The examples and case studies in this book will show you how similar companies areusing social media in corporate communications and marketing. Once you are familiarwith the general state of corporate social media, you’ll have a better idea of whatmight work in your company, and you’ll be able to find more specific examples on theweb and through other resources such as blogs, conferences, and online courses.

Adoption within your industry will give you some idea of the potential for success, but ifthere is little adoption evident, don’t be put off. This could indicate simply that you areahead of the industry in thinking about this.

8. Are you in a highly regulated industry, such as financial services or pharmaceuticals,in which extra caution is required in your communications programs?

Your company’s industry and marketplace may make it more or less conducive tosocial media programs. Certain industries will have limits to the kind of communicationsprograms in which a company could comfortably participate. For example, privacyand regulatory concerns might limit companies in financial services, stock andcommodities trading, healthcare, legal, government agencies, and some otherindustries.

In most cases, these limitations will not entirely preclude participation in social mediaprograms but will be a factor in your social media strategy and may require additionallayers of oversight and review. To better understand this in the context of yourcompany’s specific situation, you should work closely with your legal and financedepartments to understand, and respond to, any concerns they might have.



Business Objectives

9. Would your company benefit from more cross-functional team collaboration?

One of the benefits of internal social media programs is improvement of cross-functional collaboration. Internal blogs, communities, and other social media canprovide employees and management with a new level of engagement and intimacy intheir communications. As this should be a goal in any company, it is one area in whichyou can clearly “sell” social media and its benefits within the company.

10. Do you use the results of focus groups, surveys, and other customer data to makechanges to your products, processes, and policies?

A company that uses focus groups, surveys, market research, and other informationsources to influence its business is one that is willing to look outside its walls forinformation to guide the company on new product and service introductions, newways of providing customer support, and the company’s leadership position in themarketplace.

Many forms of social media offer the company the next generation of customer data,so a company with an established willingness to invest in collecting this data, and acommitment to responding to such information, will better see the potential for socialmedia in this context.

11. Does your management evaluate the success of your communications initiativessolely on traditional business metrics, like revenue and margin?

Depending on your company’s financial health, executive leadership, and culture,there may be specific, preferred methods for measuring the success ofcommunications initiatives. This is important since social media measurement is anemerging field, and you may be unable to show direct correlation between your socialmedia programs and revenue generation and margin, for example. You will be able toshow things like additional site traffic and improved brand awareness.

As you design your social media programs, you obviously need to develop a strategyfor measuring effectiveness to the satisfaction of your management. Most likely you willhave to persuade them that “softer” measures like engagement and brand awarenessare important to the company, so you should be prepared to do that when you presentyour social media strategy.



Engagement

12. Do you actively monitor what’s being “said” about the company through traditionalchannels, such as print media?

13. Do you actively monitor what’s being “said” about the company through Web2.0/social media channels, such as blogs, social networks, and online communities?

Most large companies have both internal public relations organizations, and agencysupport for monitoring the effectiveness of their media relations programs. Typical ofthese is the “coverage report,” outlining external responses to the company’s activitiessuch as press coverage and other “mentions” in the media. These are often qualifiedsimply as positive, negative, or neutral, or they may be subject to more sophisticatedanalysis in which things like company messaging and competitive factors areconsidered.

This same kind of monitoring is easily done in the world of social media. It can be doneeither manually, via web search, or through the use of automated software toolsdesigned for this purpose.

14. Do you respond to negative “buzz” about the company?

Another company attribute that will affect the company’s effective participation insocial media is its willingness to deal openly with negative comments and coverage.Sadly, some companies choose to ignore negative comments and hope they simply goaway. Others see many discussions as isolated rants by angry consumers, not worthy ofan “official” company response.

Many social media channels, such as blogs (both internal and external), Twitter, andcustomer communities offer the company numerous opportunities to respond tocriticism in a highly effective manner and turn a seemingly bad situation to itsadvantage.

For example, if a blogger writes a negative post about a product, the manufacturercould either ignore it, thereby leaving the negative information as-is for anyone to findthrough a web search on the company’s name, or a company representative couldleave an objective, explanatory response on the blog, correcting any misinformation,and thereby setting the record straight and regaining some control of the conversation.



15. Do your customers consider peer reviews or word of mouth in purchasing productslike yours?

It’s important to understand whether your customers rely on peer reviews and otherforms of word-of-mouth communications in considering purchases of products andservices in your industry. Many consumers use blogs, online user reviews, and other formsof social media to make purchasing decisions, and this naturally increases the potentialfor your company to use social media to influence these decisions.

For example, social media plays a strong role in the selection of technology products.There are both individual blogs and blog networks dedicated to topics like consumerelectronics, small- and medium-sized businesses, and enterprise IT.

For consumer services businesses, online peer review rating sites like Yelp can be veryinfluential in the buying process. In these scenarios, consumers place more credibility onthe information offered by other independent consumers than they do on informationfrom official company sources. A set of websites featuring peer review is available onConsumerreview.com, with specific sites for photographic equipment, golf, audio gear,bicycles, and other consumer products.

You should identify as many of the places as possible online where these kinds ofconversations take place and then factor this in your social media strategy. Under theright circumstances, this could become a one of the richest, most rewarding channelsfor your company’s customer communications.

Culture

16. Do your clients and customers currently use social media for business purposes?

Another factor to evaluate when considering your company’s readiness for socialmedia is the extent to which your clients/customers and business partners are usingsocial media. This will determine whether social media will have good adoption amongthese people, or if they are not truly social media savvy, whether they might requireadditional education and promotion or may be entirely unwilling to employ socialmedia for certain communications tasks. The best way to research this is through asearch of blogs and social networks, through market research, or perhaps by acompany-initiated survey of these groups.

17. Are your employees active on Facebook, MySpace, or other social networks?

This is difficult factor to assess. Many of your employees may already be active onFacebook, MySpace, and other social networks, and some will be extremely well-



versed in social media. This is particularly true of younger employees. This is theproverbial double-edged sword within many companies that may recognize the valueof having well-connected employees who understand the technology but may also bethreatened by the perceived (or real) issues of productivity, reputation, and informationsecurity presented by employee use of external communications tools.

Whether this is a good thing or bad thing also depends on how they have been usingthese networks in the past. Employees who use Facebook, for example, strictly forpersonal activities, friendships, and socializing may have misconceptions about suitableexternal conduct and appropriate use of company time. On the plus side, they willhave a daily working familiarity with the tools and a clear understanding of the powerof social media, which will apply equally in a corporate setting.

If instead of predominantly personal or social use, employees have previously beenusing social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Plaxo in a professional or careerdevelopment capacity, this may be extremely useful in their development. Most peoplewho become proficient in social networking develop a community of professionals withsimilar interests whom they can tap for information and referrals to other resources andwhom they can influence in regards to perceptions about the company.

18. Does anyone within the company blog on business-related issues?

Even if you don’t have an official company blog, your company may already haveactive bloggers writing on appropriate topics. These people can serve as the leads forsome of your social media initiatives. For example, if one or more of the company’stechnical people already have a following on an independent blog, you mightconsider bringing that person and his or her blog into a more formal company bloggingenvironment. Or, you could take steps so that the blog clearly identifies him or her as anemployee and representative of the company, and you could link to and from the blogfrom the company’s website. If the content of the blog is appropriate, this strategy cangive you an almost instant entry into corporate social media.

19. Do any of your company’s social media “experts” participate in externalconferences on subjects like social media, corporate communications, or Web 2.0?

Just as your company may already have active bloggers, you may have people whoare particularly well-versed in social media, and even recognized as industry experts,who currently speak at conferences and industry events. These people are valuableresources who can influence other professionals and can learn about and influence thedirection of social media in general.



Competent participation in these conferences also serves to generate incrediblegoodwill for the company in the social media world. Like anything examined under thesocial media magnifying lens, the speakers, what they have to say, and theircompanies have the opportunity to become widely known among social mediaexperts for their expertise.

A good example of this is Dell, well known for their broad use of social media andsupported by several highly visible social media evangelists who participate activelyboth online and in live conferences.

20. Does your company embrace less formal communication with the outside worldwithout the involvement of the legal, marketing, and PR departments?

Another cultural measure of a company’s potential for success in social media is itswillingness to allow its employees and its leadership to participate in less formalcommunications with the outside world. For example, the very best executive blogs arethose that are relevant, current, and frequently updated by the executive. Theseupdates could come any time of day or night from anywhere in the world, and acompany unwilling to trust its executives to communicate properly on behalf of thecompany will have too many reviews and processes to allow this kind of spontaneouscommunications.

In other areas of social media, like Twitter and other social networks, opportunities tospeak on the company’s behalf may occur in “real time.” If employees feel they canrepresent the company without fear of retribution, they will be more apt to weigh in asgoodwill ambassadors. Some companies have dozens or even hundreds of employees“carrying the message” through various forms of social media.

(SocialCorp Readiness Quiz, reprinted with permission from SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate,Voices That Matter, Joel Postman, copyright 2008-2009)



ENGAGE AND GATHER FEEDBACK

A NEW TAKE ON MEASURING SUCCESS IN SOCIAL MEDIA

Let’s say you’ve gotten the approval to get your company involved in social mediamarketing and are ready to launch a campaign. How do you define whether yourcampaign will be a success or not?

This is an important question, because a large number of companies have jumped intosocial media campaigns without any clear business and communication strategy.Before the financial meltdown of the last few months, some companies had theresources to experiment with social media without worrying about financialaccountability. But now, most businesses are forced into having solid success metrics forsocial media.

In fact, the lack of good metrics is cited as the biggest barrier to marketers’ adoption ofsocial media. Particularly in this shaky financial climate, measuring impact is one of thedefinitive measures of a marketing strategy’s value. If you want to skip theexperimentation, particularly in view of our current global financial crisis, I’ve assembleda list of 5 tips to help you measure success in your social media campaigns.

Success Tip #1: Identify your communications target and listen to themThe first step to measuring success in social media marketing is proper scope. There arenew social networks popping up each week. It’s a waste of resources to join every newsocial network only to find you have no time to manage them. Find out where yourmost active customers & influencers spend time online – then listen and take notes.

Blogosphere Listening Tools:

Technorati Google Blog Search Ice Rocket Bloglines Twitter Search AideRSS

Success Tip #2: Become involved in conversationsThe second measurement of success is consistently utilizing social media to engagecustomers. Sure, in the identify/listen stage, you might have heard some things aboutyour company that weren’t very complimentary. That’s ok. Your job now is to engage



these customers and find a way to help. Be willing to acknowledge mistakes when theyhappen. Customers are surprisingly forgiving of honesty by a company.

If you’re one of the lucky companies who have only enthusiastic and happy customers,recognize their need to interact with your brand. Be open to engage with them on theirturf. They’ll reward your brand with greater enthusiasm – which is a message thatspreads through social networks like wildfire, and solidifies your brand.

How involved is your brand in communicating with customers and influencers? Howoften do you blog, Tweet, Flickr, comment, Podcast, upload videos, etc? This is animportant success metric to track. Over time, you can connect this active conversationwith social networks to increased sales.

Success Tip #3: Reduce CostsAs a social media marketing consultant, time after time I’ve seen companies get moreexcited about the great social media tools out there than in finding ways to connectwith customers to reduce costs. But reducing costs is one of the prime success metricssocial media can provide for you. How do you start?

Start down the path of reducing costs by empowering your customers:

Create an open community where customers can support each other andreduce your internal customer service costs.

Learn from your customers – some of your most innovative ideas can come fromlistening to your customers.

Reduce your advertising costs. Tell your story to customers and encourage themto share it with others. Be compelling and open or it won’t work.

Focus on long-term metrics. Successful campaigns often extend for a year ormore where the pay-offs are more clearly shown.

Success Tip #4: Measure Your Website AnalyticsMy opinion is that social media is the next generation of search engine optimization. SoI always encourage companies to think in those terms, and consider these analytics:

Search engine ranking Social bookmarking activity Video/podcast views/listens Inbound links Technorati rankings Blog trackbacks RSS subscriptions Blog comments on your blog



Active commenting on complimentary blogs Visitors (first-time and repeat) Visitor paths Referrers

Website analytics tools are more sophisticated and helpful the more clearlyyou’ve defined your objectives. Some of the most popular are: HubSpot Tools,Google Analytics, Omniture, WebTrends and Core Metrics.

Success Tip #5: Convert Conversations Into LeadsAs you’ve heard often, customers are talking about your brand online whether you likeit or not. Your risk of inaction is to ignore the conversation. Your return on investment willcome when you engage these customers. Your conversations must provide value andbe personable.

For instance, on Twitter both Starbucks and Whole Foods share customer comments,local specials, and ask customers what their favorite items are. It’s casual and open, yetsubtly appeals to the attractiveness of the brand. Check out some of the brands onTwitter, and implement some of their conversation techniques. Use tracking codeswhenever possible.

Measuring social media marketing performance is vital for your long-term success. Foryour next social media campaign, try implementing these 5 success metrics into yourstrategy. You’ll have more focus and a better handle on the time and resources yourput into social media. Best of all, you’ll strengthen your brand and help incite greatercustomer loyalty and sales.

Learning From Social Media Successes

What are some of the social media success stories in your specificindustry? Social media experiences vary widely within industry sectors –understanding how to successfully connect with customers in a specificindustry gives you deeper insights most all-purpose social media trainingcompletely ignores. As an organization on the path to becoming aSocial Corporation, you’ll have the upper hand if you keep up to speedand learn industry specific social media strategies in AppliedConnectioneering’s exclusive “closed-door” sessions, and learn withinnovative and successful organizations and firms.



A WORD FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONALS

AND CEOS

GETTING HELP DEVELOPING & IMPLEMENTING A SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT

PROGRAM

Balancing business objectives, corporate responsibility to stakeholders, engaginginfluencers and customers, and especially the moving target of “online conversation”through new media publishing technologies, change the nature of a sale. They shift thefocus from communicating your company’s message via advertising and marketing tothat of a CEO having one-on-one conversations with customers. Your social mediaengagement proves its value impressively in customer sales and retention whencorporate cultural challenges to social media integration are addressed andovercome, allowing for innovation and enterprise-wide literacy and adoption of socialmedia. But doing so is not simple in a large corporation.

If you successfully bridge this gap, intelligently and effectively staying on the good sideof your target market, the SEC, EU, FTC, etc., as well as monitoring and engaging inonline conversations, you will be among the businesses for which social media hasimpacted huge revenue boosts and closer relationships with customers – even if yourindustry experiences commoditization.

Applied Connectioneering believes this so strongly that it will support its customers in thiseducational process through white papers, webinars, and one-on-one consulting,training, and events. We pledge that if we see a social media tool that is risky from acorporate communications point of view, we will steer you away from it. Why? Becausenobody – you, your shareholders, or your customers needs those complications.

And while engaging audiences via social media is new to most corporations, we willprovide satisfying, understandable answers.

WHERE TO START: WHAT CAN ORGANIZATIONS DO?

While focus on traditional media is still required, the current economic climate isimpacting investment decisions and steering more companies to less expensive socialmedia solutions. Social media investment is growing at a steady pace. At the same



time, the ROI is becoming more evident as audiences clearly choose social networks astheir preferred community.

ASSESS YOUR COMPANY’S RISKApplied Connectioneering has developed a comprehensive Essential Social MediaReadiness & Risk Assessment System for companies already involved in or consideringmarketing via social media. This Assessment evaluates the factors most critical tonegating online risk in social media. You get a 30+ page report addressing yourorganization’s social media risk in the most critical industry factors. Afterward, weschedule an hour session to review the recommendations of the report. Here’s more ofwhat we accomplish together in these fast-paced, no-nonsense session:

Social Media Tools: Putting social media tools ahead of business communicationgoals can eat productivity and ROI. But an understanding of how to socialmedia tools work best can easily put productivity back on track – so long as youknow what crucial missteps not to take. We’ll walk you through our three-stepprocess which shows you exactly what social media tools to start using todaywhile staying on the good side of the FTC. This will immediately enhance youreffectiveness as an executive, and establish your credibility in social networks.

Monitoring Conversations: Lying awake at night worried about the negativereviews about your company? We help you clear this hurdle with specificreputation management strategies. We’ll give you a checklist for improvingsocial media awareness. This valuable checklist can be used to help you knowwhere to focus your energies.

Engaging Influencers: We’ll show you six key guidelines you need to startengaging with influencers online, while keeping the lawyers happy.

These Social Media Risk Assessments are conducted by the principal and co-founder ofApplied Connectioneering, Ghennipher Weeks, who has worked with more than 70companies in online marketing since 1999. The Assessment and Consultation will consistof the latest intelligence we can supply in a sixty minute time span. AppliedConnectioneering helps you put all the social media pieces together for yourorganization.

This Assessment will typically take place within 1-2 weeks of your call. To schedule a timefor this Assessment, please send an email to [email protected]’ll send along a brief questionnaire that will prepare both us and you to get themaximum value in our session.




ABOUT APPLIED CONNECTIONEERING: CONSULTING &TRAINING IN CORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA OPTIMIZATION

Applied Conectioneering is a new corporate social media marketing group focused onhelping PR Firms, Agencies and individual organizations convert site visitors into activecommunity members by applying customer-centric social media strategies developedspecifically for the unique needs of corporations. Applied Connectioneering’s practiceis based on a decade of hands-on experience in online conversion rate optimization,over five years of research into how people shop online, and more than fifteen years ofcollective experience in social media marketing, strategy and communications thatconvert.

Applied Connectioneering’s services evolved from Ghennipher’s successful onlinecommunity and conversion projects such as: Well’s Fargo, Phillips, Overstock, Her workwith corporations for inclusion in the book SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate,and various social media reputation management client campaigns.

CONNECT WITH US: 801.542.9019











