Creating a Social Business through Listening 10th in the Social Media ROI Series With Connie Bensen LET’S TALK: Social Media ROI Whitepaper
Creating a Social Business Through Listening
Sep 01, 2014
Listening without a plan to respond to
or utilize the insight gathered is a waste of time. Organizations that maximize social media technology embrace the information from
the social web and follow through on consumer feedback and suggestions. This drives a cultural shift within the organization, empowering
teams to interact directly with consumers in order to meet specific business objectives. This series has identified the ROI derived across the
organization. This, the final white paper in the Let’s Talk! Series on Social Media ROI, will cover the best practices for creating a social media
strategy and assigning responsibility accordingly.
or utilize the insight gathered is a waste of time. Organizations that maximize social media technology embrace the information from
the social web and follow through on consumer feedback and suggestions. This drives a cultural shift within the organization, empowering
teams to interact directly with consumers in order to meet specific business objectives. This series has identified the ROI derived across the
organization. This, the final white paper in the Let’s Talk! Series on Social Media ROI, will cover the best practices for creating a social media
strategy and assigning responsibility accordingly.
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Creating a Social Businessthrough Listening
10th in the Social Media ROI Series
With Connie Bensen
LLEETTrsquorsquoSS TTAALLKKSocial Media ROI
Whitepaper
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
Executive Summary
This series of ten whitepapers has covered a broad range of use cases for listening to the social web Listening without a plan to respond toor utilize the insight gathered is a waste of time Organizations that maximize the social media technology embrace the information fromthe social web and follow through on consumer feedback and suggestions This drives a cultural shift within the organization empoweringteams to interact directly with consumers in order to meet specific business objectives This series has identified the ROI derived across theorganization This the final white paper in the Letrsquos Talk Series on Social Media ROI will cover the best practices for creating a social mediastrategy and assigning responsibility accordingly
Introduction
The industrial revolution created a business model that relies heavily on hierarchies That hierarchy now presents challenges fororganizations wanting to engage in social media Business teams operate in siloes and are not dependent on other teams and resources infact budgets are closely protected and communication is not always a high priority
Companies seeking success with online social media programs need to revise how they think about engaging with consumers Marketersare starting to realize the many benefits of incorporating social components into their overall marketing strategy and there are three keyaspects to creating an effective social engagement listening a social media plan and an internal champion to drive it
Companies such as Ford Best Buy SouthWest Airlines and Dell all actively leverage social media Scott Monty leads the social media efforts at Ford collaborating with a number of agencies that support Fordrsquos global marketing efforts and Paula Berg manages Southwest Airlinesrsquo efforts in harnessing social media tools
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The Challenges of Listening to the Social Web
A social media strategy requires listening to make informed decisions This first step will present somechallenges such as choosing the right tool and the learning curve associated with that Below is a briefoverview to guide you when considering tools and services
In the last few years a proliferation of social media monitoring tools appeared on the scene and there arelists of tools and apps online that monitor various aspects of the web These lists cause confusion when youstart to research the possibilities for monitoring and measuring social media marketing but the processshould not be overwhelming
Social media monitoring tools can be divided into 3 types
bull Full service
bull Applications that monitor a specific social channel (most are free or at a very low cost)
bull Professional tools and services
Full service reporting was the first generation of social media monitoring This traditional service is ratherexpensive and provides comprehensive reports Many marketers use these for in-depth market research
There are many free applications that monitor specific social networks It isnrsquot difficult to cobble together areporting dashboard but it is difficult to see an aggregate of channels and even more challenging to doextensive reporting based on compiled results Any evaluation over the aggregate such as sentimentanalysis is impossible to do with these tools
With the advent of social media professional tools have come into their own Communications agenciesfind that the do-it-yourself approach allows them to provide unique services to their customers Brandshave found using a social media monitoring tool to be both cost effective and the best way to connectdirectly with their customers Many professional tools also provide reporting for their customers
Listening is Key
When creating your social media strategy make listening the key aspect It provides social intelligence thatwill assist with identifying your business objectives The functions range from being tactical to strategic It isfar better to start your social engagement in the bottom left of the diagram below and have it strategic andproactive Too many companies have started in the top right with a brand crisis online which resulted in theneed to engage before they were ready or had a plan
1 First Priority Listening
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The insights gained from listening will drive the strategy and over time willencourage a culture shift in the organization
While establishing a listening post is imperative for this phase the mostdifficult aspect of a social media strategy is measuring it The following fivesteps will minimize that challenge
a) Plan
b) Ongoing Listening
c) Engage and Participate
d) Measure and Report
e) Refine
a Plan the Strategy Based on the Objective(s)
Listening to the social web for one to three months will provide direction on the business objective for yoursocial media strategy You can gain considerable insight from the social web but harnessing it can beoverwhelming For this reason it is recommended to start with one or two business objectives in order tokeep the project manageable and be able to measure success
In order to create a comprehensive strategy that includes objectives and tactics it is important to definethe goal A simple way to do this is to ask yourself ldquoWhat change in behavior is the desired outcomerdquo
2 Creating a Social Media Strategy in Five Steps
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
Below are some ideas for increasing profit or minimizing loss Depending on the purpose choose one thatmeets your business goals
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
bull Increase in Sales
bull Reduction in Customer Service Costs
bull Reduction in Product Development Costs
bull Increased SEO
bull Increase in Leads from Campaigns
bull Increase in Brand Visibility
This approach to building a social strategy resolves two issues
1 Defining metrics ndash because theyrsquore determined up front the objectives will drive what is measured
2 Calculating the ROI ndash although it can be difficult to put a dollar value on some of the above areas it is possible to measure the percent change
b Continue Listening
Once a listening tool is chosen it should be used on an ongoing basis determined bythe specific objective Set up searches for the brand products competitors and industryterms If you are in the early stages of brand building online the industry terms becomeeven more important in order to identify opportunities
Regardless of your objective for a social media strategy it is most important to listen inorder to find communities that support your brand and products In addition look foronline and offline communities that support your competitors so you can join them andoffer a choice Everyone appreciates choices but make sure you adhere to the socialnorms of each particular community or channel The secret is knowing what differentiatesyour product and offering it as an option to solve an expressed business problem
c Engage and Participate
Once communities are identified the listening tool can be used to find brand advocatesChoose a community and identify the most active people These people are passionateniche experts and they generally hold the keys to the community Though they may notbe influencers in the usual sense of being A-list bloggers they have the power to serveas evangelists amongst their peers
This white paper series covered thecommon use cases and provided manytactical suggestions to accomplish therespective objectives of
bull Brand Audits
bull Product Development
bull Social Media Campaigns
bull Lead Generation
bull Customer Service
bull Corporate Marketing
bull PR amp Reputation Management
bull Competitive Insight
bull SEO
Many organizations create a Twitter account andor a Facebook page and consider that a socialstrategy Participation in social networks is a very small part of a much bigger picture The engagementaspect should augment an in-depth digital content marketing strategy This combination will result inorganic SEO that money simply canrsquot buy This can greatly reduce the need for spending large amountson Pay Per Click
Deloitte proved this by helping a retailer with a multi-millionreduction in spend on paid search by increasing organic search In studying purchasing patterns and demographic information they were able to better understand searching patterns Read more here
A monitoring tool similarly identifies SEO keywords by analyzing the frequency of tags that authors usealong with invaluable demographic information
Content marketing on the social web has an incredible ROI because it is based not only on the preceptsof the social web but it also leverages the concepts of sharing The distribution cost is very minimaland ideally brand advocates share content via social channels Creating compelling content is key
Below are some best practices for content marketing in a web 20 world
bull Create content that is educational and provides value
bull Donrsquot heavily brand the content but rather put a light reference at the end with contact information
bull Make sure that itrsquos not in marketing speak because no one cares about glossy PDFs
bull Create content in a variety of formats since people consume the material in different ways and have unique learning styles
bull Repurpose content for blog posts downloadable PDFs slide decks podcasts videos etc
bull Distribute content on shareable sites such as YouTube and Slideshare
bull Syndicate shared content to LinkedIn Facebook and industry related group blogs
bull Share links to the content in social channels
- Facebook and LinkedIn groups
- Blog comments when appropriate
No matter the type of organization the ultimate goal is to get some type of conversion (a sale of aproductresource or donationssupport in the case of a nonprofit) By setting information free andplacing it on the social web people will find and explore it If it provides value they will trust the source
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
and want to establish a relationship with the organization creating and distributing it These warm leadsare invaluable and the organic SEO resulting from community building combined with effective contentmarketing is priceless
Having a monitoring tool does not always make listening easy Some brands and product names can bechallenging to track A brand such as lsquoMethodrsquo requires keywords such as ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquohand soaprsquordquoor ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquoair freshenerrsquordquo in order to focus the search A company with the URLwwwquestioncom for example presents similar challenges In some cases a brand has such a strongonline presence that it is difficult to track a specific social media engagement Here are somesuggestions for tracking and measuring campaigns
bull Use a hash tag
bull Use a tag line
bull Use bitly links
bull Use shorter Tweets so that they can easily be retweeted
bull Create a microlanding page and only drive traffic from social channels to it
bull Use coupon codes that are specific to the digital campaign
bull Be careful not to run another campaign concurrently and drive all the traffic to the same place
d Measure Calculate ROI and Report
The advent of social media marketing has resulted in much experimentationand avoidance of metrics
One of the biggest challenges for marketers in regard to measuring successin the social realm is shifting to softer metrics The days of clicks are goneand it is now about building relationships Increased brand visibility boostsvalue but assigning a dollar value is more difficult These metrics must bepersonalized in regard to what value they have to your business For examplehow much does a request at your call center cost Social media monitoringmakes it possible to chart changes in volume of conversations and even if aspecific value canrsquot be attributed to this the lift is now quantifiable Overlaythat with the revenue for the same time period and see if trends can beidentified
The following potential business objectives are easily measured utilizing aprofessional social media monitoring tool
According to an August 2009 survey by Mzingaand Babson Executive Education 84 percent ofrespondents said they donrsquot currently measurethe ROI of their social media programs
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
- Decrease in PPC Adwords and traditional marketing due to increased organic SEO
bull Increased Brand Visibility
- Amount of increased conversation over previous period
bull Increased Sales
- Overlay sales performance on volume of conversation
bull Reduced Customer Service Costs
- Number of uses of online content
- Number of issues resolved online by peers
- Increased customer satisfaction (a qualitative value)
bull Reduced Product Development Costs
- Number of ideas gatheredimplemented
- Compare previous cycle cost to present
- Reduced cost due to beta
bull Increased SEO
- Google your brandproduct
bull Increased Leads from Campaign
- Number of leads from digital channels
- Compare percentage conversion compared to cold calling
Calculating the ROI of social engagements is a hotly debated topicNo matter how successful a venture it is very difficult to justifyadding additional resources and growing a program without a clearROI
When evaluating the success of your efforts increased brandvisibility should be considered a return even if it is hard to measurein monetary terms In the long run it will become increasingly moreapparent
Utilizing social media monitoring a marketer can easily gatherqualitative information that previously was only available throughfocus groups taking reporting beyond a quantitative exercise All ofthat content is embedded in the social web and is free and easilyaccessible A beta allows you to not only gather more feedback butalso build anticipation about the future release
Here is a specific lsquohow-torsquo for calculating ROI beyond thesuggestions mentioned in parts (a) ndash (d) above
1 Decide on the objective (it needs to be measurable)
2 What is the increase or decrease change in behavior that is wanted
You need to know the value of increment
3 Measure the baseline
4 After a given period (or campaign time) take the measurement
5 Calculate the ROI based on the cost of resources
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
As with all business endeavors reporting should be done on a regular basis The following items shouldbe included in a social media report
bull Report on Objectives
bull Qualitative
ndash Trends in topics
ndash Sentiment
ndash Insight and specific quotes
ndash Discovery of new communities
bull Quantitative (KPIrsquos)
ndash Benchmark based on previous report
ndash Daily Volume (percentage increase or decrease)
ndash Share of Voice for your brand across channels
ndash Share of Voice for Brand and Competitors
ndash Date Comparisonsndash (percentage increase or decrease)
bull Web Analytics
bull Recommendations based on
ndash Campaign results
ndash Customer feedback
e Refine and Repeat
The social web is moving at a rapid pace and this is one of its best aspects Because social mediamarketing is so new itrsquos still quite experimental Keeping this in mind will help you grow your socialengagement Here are five tips for making sure that you donrsquot lose the momentum
bull Fail Fast ndash You may make mistakes and that is acceptable Understand what went wrong and revise
bull Learn from Mistakes ndash This is a given for every business endeavor Review and refine
bull Build on What Worked ndash Generally there are many aspects that went very well and there will be unexpected successes Build on them
bullGrow the Engagement ndash Brainstorm how you can expand the strategy to incorporate more objectives How can other areas of your business benefit from social engagement
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bullGet More Teams Involved and Provide Training ndash Other teams in your organization will want to participate in social efforts as they realize the value Encourage them by exploring how social media can help them meet their business objectives and empower them by providing training
A periodic social media campaign will not result in creating a social business A number of factors canimpede a company from becoming a social business The biggest one is fear Many executives donrsquotunderstand the value of the social web management is often concerned that staff will waste too muchtime on social networks and the IT department is usually concerned with spam and problems thatsocial networks may cause As a result social networks are blocked in many companies The best way toovercome this is to educate the executive level and ensure that social media policies and staff trainingare in place
The social web offers the most advantages to a global company but it also creates additionalchallenges Many companies are geography-based while the web is global and never sleeps Inaddition to time zones languages create challenges for listening and responding
An organization cannot fully leverage the social web until it has undergone a culture shift and hasempowered the appropriate staff to interact on the web Consumers want to interact directly withbrands and provide feedback The larger the organization the more challenging it is to facilitatecommunication This transition wonrsquot evolve without someone driving it and many brands require aninternal position to guide and champion its social media strategy The CommunitySocial Strategyposition works holistically and cross-functionally ensuring that all departments leverage social media ina way that meets its teamrsquos objectives
The community strategy role
bull Defines a plan to empower staff
bull Reviews all customer touch points and ensures frictionless engagement
bull Reviews all departments and provides recommendations and training on ways teams can utilize social to meet objectives
The diagram to the right shows how communitybuilding assists in moving customers through thesales funnel over time Social channels can beused to build brand awareness and enable theconversion Once the sale is made customerservice is of utmost importance There is a newopportunity to cross sell and upsellCrowdsourcing the social web provides feedbackfor product development
3 Operationalizing Social Media ndash the Social Media Strategist
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The ROI of social media
Over time utilizing social media should deliver
bull Increased word of mouth resulting in reduced PR marketing and advertising spend because acquisition costs are lower
bull Higher quality leads that have a higher percentage of converting since warm leads mean savings on cold calling
bull The ability to provide excellent customer service in the channels that consumers prefer leading to a lower abandonment rate and much higher loyalty
bull A shorter sales cycle while the customer life cycle grows longer
bull Reduces product development costs by utilizing feedback from the social web
bull Increased sales and demand since listening provides insight into what consumers want
The social web offers a multitude of opportunities for companies toengage with consumers Listening is the first step in identifying whatbusiness objectives can be met and used to guide the creation of acomprehensive social media strategy Planning the strategy based on apercent increase or decrease in the desired behavior will provide a basisfor the metrics and a solid foundation for integrating content marketingwith online engagement efforts in order to build word of mouthInteracting in communities will identify advocates and evangelists thatcan support your brand
Measurement and reporting on a regular basisare imperative for ensuring that your effortswill be funded and allowed to grow Evaluateefforts and refine them on an ongoing basis
Finally continued listening will create a cultureshift as the organization adopts social habitsCreating a role for someone to coordinateand facilitate social efforts maximizesrevenues and minimizes losses Over time acomprehensive listening strategy will impactmany areas of the organization Companiessuch as Pepsi and Dell are setting the bar bycreating Listening Mission Control CentersTake a look at the future Gatoradersquos MissionControl
Conclusion
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
About the ldquoLetrsquosTalkrdquo Series withConnie Bensen
Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers Thesocial web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most costeffective and efficient manner A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digitalportion of your marketing budget in order to create execute measure and report on a social mediastrategy
The Lets Talk Series by Connie Bensen is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways thatmarketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts Topics will include how to use a social mediamonitoring tool for SEO Lead Generation Social Media campaigns Customer Service CompetitiveInsight Corporate marketing PR and reputation management etc
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian which provides marketingsoftware to help brands engage with their customers She is a key voice amongst online CommunityManagers Her blog wwwconniebensencom is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating onlinecommunities providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbescom as one of the 20Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women
Alterianrsquos SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR andMarketing professionals SM2 helps you track conversations review positivenegativesentiment for your brand clients competitors and partners across social media channelssuch as blogs wikis micro-blogs social networks videophoto sharing sites and real-timealerts
Alterian (LSE ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant effective and engaging experiences withtheir audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand through the use of theAlterian Integrated Marketing Platform Alterian drives the transformation of marketing andcommunications making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannelengagement with the individual
Alterianrsquos unprecedented integration of analytics content and execution through industry leading toolssuch as the Dynamic Messenger email platform SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the awardwinning Content Management solutions enables companies to build integrated communication strategieswhich create a true picture of the individual
Alterian works with marketing services partners system integrators and agencies who recognize the needto plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients For moreinformation about Alterian products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterianrsquos PartnerNetwork visit wwwalteriancom or the Alterian blog at wwwengagingtimescom
About Alterian
SM2 Social MediaMonitoring (SMM)
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
Executive Summary
This series of ten whitepapers has covered a broad range of use cases for listening to the social web Listening without a plan to respond toor utilize the insight gathered is a waste of time Organizations that maximize the social media technology embrace the information fromthe social web and follow through on consumer feedback and suggestions This drives a cultural shift within the organization empoweringteams to interact directly with consumers in order to meet specific business objectives This series has identified the ROI derived across theorganization This the final white paper in the Letrsquos Talk Series on Social Media ROI will cover the best practices for creating a social mediastrategy and assigning responsibility accordingly
Introduction
The industrial revolution created a business model that relies heavily on hierarchies That hierarchy now presents challenges fororganizations wanting to engage in social media Business teams operate in siloes and are not dependent on other teams and resources infact budgets are closely protected and communication is not always a high priority
Companies seeking success with online social media programs need to revise how they think about engaging with consumers Marketersare starting to realize the many benefits of incorporating social components into their overall marketing strategy and there are three keyaspects to creating an effective social engagement listening a social media plan and an internal champion to drive it
Companies such as Ford Best Buy SouthWest Airlines and Dell all actively leverage social media Scott Monty leads the social media efforts at Ford collaborating with a number of agencies that support Fordrsquos global marketing efforts and Paula Berg manages Southwest Airlinesrsquo efforts in harnessing social media tools
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The Challenges of Listening to the Social Web
A social media strategy requires listening to make informed decisions This first step will present somechallenges such as choosing the right tool and the learning curve associated with that Below is a briefoverview to guide you when considering tools and services
In the last few years a proliferation of social media monitoring tools appeared on the scene and there arelists of tools and apps online that monitor various aspects of the web These lists cause confusion when youstart to research the possibilities for monitoring and measuring social media marketing but the processshould not be overwhelming
Social media monitoring tools can be divided into 3 types
bull Full service
bull Applications that monitor a specific social channel (most are free or at a very low cost)
bull Professional tools and services
Full service reporting was the first generation of social media monitoring This traditional service is ratherexpensive and provides comprehensive reports Many marketers use these for in-depth market research
There are many free applications that monitor specific social networks It isnrsquot difficult to cobble together areporting dashboard but it is difficult to see an aggregate of channels and even more challenging to doextensive reporting based on compiled results Any evaluation over the aggregate such as sentimentanalysis is impossible to do with these tools
With the advent of social media professional tools have come into their own Communications agenciesfind that the do-it-yourself approach allows them to provide unique services to their customers Brandshave found using a social media monitoring tool to be both cost effective and the best way to connectdirectly with their customers Many professional tools also provide reporting for their customers
Listening is Key
When creating your social media strategy make listening the key aspect It provides social intelligence thatwill assist with identifying your business objectives The functions range from being tactical to strategic It isfar better to start your social engagement in the bottom left of the diagram below and have it strategic andproactive Too many companies have started in the top right with a brand crisis online which resulted in theneed to engage before they were ready or had a plan
1 First Priority Listening
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The insights gained from listening will drive the strategy and over time willencourage a culture shift in the organization
While establishing a listening post is imperative for this phase the mostdifficult aspect of a social media strategy is measuring it The following fivesteps will minimize that challenge
a) Plan
b) Ongoing Listening
c) Engage and Participate
d) Measure and Report
e) Refine
a Plan the Strategy Based on the Objective(s)
Listening to the social web for one to three months will provide direction on the business objective for yoursocial media strategy You can gain considerable insight from the social web but harnessing it can beoverwhelming For this reason it is recommended to start with one or two business objectives in order tokeep the project manageable and be able to measure success
In order to create a comprehensive strategy that includes objectives and tactics it is important to definethe goal A simple way to do this is to ask yourself ldquoWhat change in behavior is the desired outcomerdquo
2 Creating a Social Media Strategy in Five Steps
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
Below are some ideas for increasing profit or minimizing loss Depending on the purpose choose one thatmeets your business goals
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
bull Increase in Sales
bull Reduction in Customer Service Costs
bull Reduction in Product Development Costs
bull Increased SEO
bull Increase in Leads from Campaigns
bull Increase in Brand Visibility
This approach to building a social strategy resolves two issues
1 Defining metrics ndash because theyrsquore determined up front the objectives will drive what is measured
2 Calculating the ROI ndash although it can be difficult to put a dollar value on some of the above areas it is possible to measure the percent change
b Continue Listening
Once a listening tool is chosen it should be used on an ongoing basis determined bythe specific objective Set up searches for the brand products competitors and industryterms If you are in the early stages of brand building online the industry terms becomeeven more important in order to identify opportunities
Regardless of your objective for a social media strategy it is most important to listen inorder to find communities that support your brand and products In addition look foronline and offline communities that support your competitors so you can join them andoffer a choice Everyone appreciates choices but make sure you adhere to the socialnorms of each particular community or channel The secret is knowing what differentiatesyour product and offering it as an option to solve an expressed business problem
c Engage and Participate
Once communities are identified the listening tool can be used to find brand advocatesChoose a community and identify the most active people These people are passionateniche experts and they generally hold the keys to the community Though they may notbe influencers in the usual sense of being A-list bloggers they have the power to serveas evangelists amongst their peers
This white paper series covered thecommon use cases and provided manytactical suggestions to accomplish therespective objectives of
bull Brand Audits
bull Product Development
bull Social Media Campaigns
bull Lead Generation
bull Customer Service
bull Corporate Marketing
bull PR amp Reputation Management
bull Competitive Insight
bull SEO
Many organizations create a Twitter account andor a Facebook page and consider that a socialstrategy Participation in social networks is a very small part of a much bigger picture The engagementaspect should augment an in-depth digital content marketing strategy This combination will result inorganic SEO that money simply canrsquot buy This can greatly reduce the need for spending large amountson Pay Per Click
Deloitte proved this by helping a retailer with a multi-millionreduction in spend on paid search by increasing organic search In studying purchasing patterns and demographic information they were able to better understand searching patterns Read more here
A monitoring tool similarly identifies SEO keywords by analyzing the frequency of tags that authors usealong with invaluable demographic information
Content marketing on the social web has an incredible ROI because it is based not only on the preceptsof the social web but it also leverages the concepts of sharing The distribution cost is very minimaland ideally brand advocates share content via social channels Creating compelling content is key
Below are some best practices for content marketing in a web 20 world
bull Create content that is educational and provides value
bull Donrsquot heavily brand the content but rather put a light reference at the end with contact information
bull Make sure that itrsquos not in marketing speak because no one cares about glossy PDFs
bull Create content in a variety of formats since people consume the material in different ways and have unique learning styles
bull Repurpose content for blog posts downloadable PDFs slide decks podcasts videos etc
bull Distribute content on shareable sites such as YouTube and Slideshare
bull Syndicate shared content to LinkedIn Facebook and industry related group blogs
bull Share links to the content in social channels
- Facebook and LinkedIn groups
- Blog comments when appropriate
No matter the type of organization the ultimate goal is to get some type of conversion (a sale of aproductresource or donationssupport in the case of a nonprofit) By setting information free andplacing it on the social web people will find and explore it If it provides value they will trust the source
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
and want to establish a relationship with the organization creating and distributing it These warm leadsare invaluable and the organic SEO resulting from community building combined with effective contentmarketing is priceless
Having a monitoring tool does not always make listening easy Some brands and product names can bechallenging to track A brand such as lsquoMethodrsquo requires keywords such as ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquohand soaprsquordquoor ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquoair freshenerrsquordquo in order to focus the search A company with the URLwwwquestioncom for example presents similar challenges In some cases a brand has such a strongonline presence that it is difficult to track a specific social media engagement Here are somesuggestions for tracking and measuring campaigns
bull Use a hash tag
bull Use a tag line
bull Use bitly links
bull Use shorter Tweets so that they can easily be retweeted
bull Create a microlanding page and only drive traffic from social channels to it
bull Use coupon codes that are specific to the digital campaign
bull Be careful not to run another campaign concurrently and drive all the traffic to the same place
d Measure Calculate ROI and Report
The advent of social media marketing has resulted in much experimentationand avoidance of metrics
One of the biggest challenges for marketers in regard to measuring successin the social realm is shifting to softer metrics The days of clicks are goneand it is now about building relationships Increased brand visibility boostsvalue but assigning a dollar value is more difficult These metrics must bepersonalized in regard to what value they have to your business For examplehow much does a request at your call center cost Social media monitoringmakes it possible to chart changes in volume of conversations and even if aspecific value canrsquot be attributed to this the lift is now quantifiable Overlaythat with the revenue for the same time period and see if trends can beidentified
The following potential business objectives are easily measured utilizing aprofessional social media monitoring tool
According to an August 2009 survey by Mzingaand Babson Executive Education 84 percent ofrespondents said they donrsquot currently measurethe ROI of their social media programs
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
- Decrease in PPC Adwords and traditional marketing due to increased organic SEO
bull Increased Brand Visibility
- Amount of increased conversation over previous period
bull Increased Sales
- Overlay sales performance on volume of conversation
bull Reduced Customer Service Costs
- Number of uses of online content
- Number of issues resolved online by peers
- Increased customer satisfaction (a qualitative value)
bull Reduced Product Development Costs
- Number of ideas gatheredimplemented
- Compare previous cycle cost to present
- Reduced cost due to beta
bull Increased SEO
- Google your brandproduct
bull Increased Leads from Campaign
- Number of leads from digital channels
- Compare percentage conversion compared to cold calling
Calculating the ROI of social engagements is a hotly debated topicNo matter how successful a venture it is very difficult to justifyadding additional resources and growing a program without a clearROI
When evaluating the success of your efforts increased brandvisibility should be considered a return even if it is hard to measurein monetary terms In the long run it will become increasingly moreapparent
Utilizing social media monitoring a marketer can easily gatherqualitative information that previously was only available throughfocus groups taking reporting beyond a quantitative exercise All ofthat content is embedded in the social web and is free and easilyaccessible A beta allows you to not only gather more feedback butalso build anticipation about the future release
Here is a specific lsquohow-torsquo for calculating ROI beyond thesuggestions mentioned in parts (a) ndash (d) above
1 Decide on the objective (it needs to be measurable)
2 What is the increase or decrease change in behavior that is wanted
You need to know the value of increment
3 Measure the baseline
4 After a given period (or campaign time) take the measurement
5 Calculate the ROI based on the cost of resources
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
As with all business endeavors reporting should be done on a regular basis The following items shouldbe included in a social media report
bull Report on Objectives
bull Qualitative
ndash Trends in topics
ndash Sentiment
ndash Insight and specific quotes
ndash Discovery of new communities
bull Quantitative (KPIrsquos)
ndash Benchmark based on previous report
ndash Daily Volume (percentage increase or decrease)
ndash Share of Voice for your brand across channels
ndash Share of Voice for Brand and Competitors
ndash Date Comparisonsndash (percentage increase or decrease)
bull Web Analytics
bull Recommendations based on
ndash Campaign results
ndash Customer feedback
e Refine and Repeat
The social web is moving at a rapid pace and this is one of its best aspects Because social mediamarketing is so new itrsquos still quite experimental Keeping this in mind will help you grow your socialengagement Here are five tips for making sure that you donrsquot lose the momentum
bull Fail Fast ndash You may make mistakes and that is acceptable Understand what went wrong and revise
bull Learn from Mistakes ndash This is a given for every business endeavor Review and refine
bull Build on What Worked ndash Generally there are many aspects that went very well and there will be unexpected successes Build on them
bullGrow the Engagement ndash Brainstorm how you can expand the strategy to incorporate more objectives How can other areas of your business benefit from social engagement
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bullGet More Teams Involved and Provide Training ndash Other teams in your organization will want to participate in social efforts as they realize the value Encourage them by exploring how social media can help them meet their business objectives and empower them by providing training
A periodic social media campaign will not result in creating a social business A number of factors canimpede a company from becoming a social business The biggest one is fear Many executives donrsquotunderstand the value of the social web management is often concerned that staff will waste too muchtime on social networks and the IT department is usually concerned with spam and problems thatsocial networks may cause As a result social networks are blocked in many companies The best way toovercome this is to educate the executive level and ensure that social media policies and staff trainingare in place
The social web offers the most advantages to a global company but it also creates additionalchallenges Many companies are geography-based while the web is global and never sleeps Inaddition to time zones languages create challenges for listening and responding
An organization cannot fully leverage the social web until it has undergone a culture shift and hasempowered the appropriate staff to interact on the web Consumers want to interact directly withbrands and provide feedback The larger the organization the more challenging it is to facilitatecommunication This transition wonrsquot evolve without someone driving it and many brands require aninternal position to guide and champion its social media strategy The CommunitySocial Strategyposition works holistically and cross-functionally ensuring that all departments leverage social media ina way that meets its teamrsquos objectives
The community strategy role
bull Defines a plan to empower staff
bull Reviews all customer touch points and ensures frictionless engagement
bull Reviews all departments and provides recommendations and training on ways teams can utilize social to meet objectives
The diagram to the right shows how communitybuilding assists in moving customers through thesales funnel over time Social channels can beused to build brand awareness and enable theconversion Once the sale is made customerservice is of utmost importance There is a newopportunity to cross sell and upsellCrowdsourcing the social web provides feedbackfor product development
3 Operationalizing Social Media ndash the Social Media Strategist
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The ROI of social media
Over time utilizing social media should deliver
bull Increased word of mouth resulting in reduced PR marketing and advertising spend because acquisition costs are lower
bull Higher quality leads that have a higher percentage of converting since warm leads mean savings on cold calling
bull The ability to provide excellent customer service in the channels that consumers prefer leading to a lower abandonment rate and much higher loyalty
bull A shorter sales cycle while the customer life cycle grows longer
bull Reduces product development costs by utilizing feedback from the social web
bull Increased sales and demand since listening provides insight into what consumers want
The social web offers a multitude of opportunities for companies toengage with consumers Listening is the first step in identifying whatbusiness objectives can be met and used to guide the creation of acomprehensive social media strategy Planning the strategy based on apercent increase or decrease in the desired behavior will provide a basisfor the metrics and a solid foundation for integrating content marketingwith online engagement efforts in order to build word of mouthInteracting in communities will identify advocates and evangelists thatcan support your brand
Measurement and reporting on a regular basisare imperative for ensuring that your effortswill be funded and allowed to grow Evaluateefforts and refine them on an ongoing basis
Finally continued listening will create a cultureshift as the organization adopts social habitsCreating a role for someone to coordinateand facilitate social efforts maximizesrevenues and minimizes losses Over time acomprehensive listening strategy will impactmany areas of the organization Companiessuch as Pepsi and Dell are setting the bar bycreating Listening Mission Control CentersTake a look at the future Gatoradersquos MissionControl
Conclusion
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
About the ldquoLetrsquosTalkrdquo Series withConnie Bensen
Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers Thesocial web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most costeffective and efficient manner A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digitalportion of your marketing budget in order to create execute measure and report on a social mediastrategy
The Lets Talk Series by Connie Bensen is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways thatmarketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts Topics will include how to use a social mediamonitoring tool for SEO Lead Generation Social Media campaigns Customer Service CompetitiveInsight Corporate marketing PR and reputation management etc
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian which provides marketingsoftware to help brands engage with their customers She is a key voice amongst online CommunityManagers Her blog wwwconniebensencom is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating onlinecommunities providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbescom as one of the 20Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women
Alterianrsquos SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR andMarketing professionals SM2 helps you track conversations review positivenegativesentiment for your brand clients competitors and partners across social media channelssuch as blogs wikis micro-blogs social networks videophoto sharing sites and real-timealerts
Alterian (LSE ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant effective and engaging experiences withtheir audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand through the use of theAlterian Integrated Marketing Platform Alterian drives the transformation of marketing andcommunications making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannelengagement with the individual
Alterianrsquos unprecedented integration of analytics content and execution through industry leading toolssuch as the Dynamic Messenger email platform SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the awardwinning Content Management solutions enables companies to build integrated communication strategieswhich create a true picture of the individual
Alterian works with marketing services partners system integrators and agencies who recognize the needto plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients For moreinformation about Alterian products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterianrsquos PartnerNetwork visit wwwalteriancom or the Alterian blog at wwwengagingtimescom
About Alterian
SM2 Social MediaMonitoring (SMM)
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The Challenges of Listening to the Social Web
A social media strategy requires listening to make informed decisions This first step will present somechallenges such as choosing the right tool and the learning curve associated with that Below is a briefoverview to guide you when considering tools and services
In the last few years a proliferation of social media monitoring tools appeared on the scene and there arelists of tools and apps online that monitor various aspects of the web These lists cause confusion when youstart to research the possibilities for monitoring and measuring social media marketing but the processshould not be overwhelming
Social media monitoring tools can be divided into 3 types
bull Full service
bull Applications that monitor a specific social channel (most are free or at a very low cost)
bull Professional tools and services
Full service reporting was the first generation of social media monitoring This traditional service is ratherexpensive and provides comprehensive reports Many marketers use these for in-depth market research
There are many free applications that monitor specific social networks It isnrsquot difficult to cobble together areporting dashboard but it is difficult to see an aggregate of channels and even more challenging to doextensive reporting based on compiled results Any evaluation over the aggregate such as sentimentanalysis is impossible to do with these tools
With the advent of social media professional tools have come into their own Communications agenciesfind that the do-it-yourself approach allows them to provide unique services to their customers Brandshave found using a social media monitoring tool to be both cost effective and the best way to connectdirectly with their customers Many professional tools also provide reporting for their customers
Listening is Key
When creating your social media strategy make listening the key aspect It provides social intelligence thatwill assist with identifying your business objectives The functions range from being tactical to strategic It isfar better to start your social engagement in the bottom left of the diagram below and have it strategic andproactive Too many companies have started in the top right with a brand crisis online which resulted in theneed to engage before they were ready or had a plan
1 First Priority Listening
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The insights gained from listening will drive the strategy and over time willencourage a culture shift in the organization
While establishing a listening post is imperative for this phase the mostdifficult aspect of a social media strategy is measuring it The following fivesteps will minimize that challenge
a) Plan
b) Ongoing Listening
c) Engage and Participate
d) Measure and Report
e) Refine
a Plan the Strategy Based on the Objective(s)
Listening to the social web for one to three months will provide direction on the business objective for yoursocial media strategy You can gain considerable insight from the social web but harnessing it can beoverwhelming For this reason it is recommended to start with one or two business objectives in order tokeep the project manageable and be able to measure success
In order to create a comprehensive strategy that includes objectives and tactics it is important to definethe goal A simple way to do this is to ask yourself ldquoWhat change in behavior is the desired outcomerdquo
2 Creating a Social Media Strategy in Five Steps
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
Below are some ideas for increasing profit or minimizing loss Depending on the purpose choose one thatmeets your business goals
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
bull Increase in Sales
bull Reduction in Customer Service Costs
bull Reduction in Product Development Costs
bull Increased SEO
bull Increase in Leads from Campaigns
bull Increase in Brand Visibility
This approach to building a social strategy resolves two issues
1 Defining metrics ndash because theyrsquore determined up front the objectives will drive what is measured
2 Calculating the ROI ndash although it can be difficult to put a dollar value on some of the above areas it is possible to measure the percent change
b Continue Listening
Once a listening tool is chosen it should be used on an ongoing basis determined bythe specific objective Set up searches for the brand products competitors and industryterms If you are in the early stages of brand building online the industry terms becomeeven more important in order to identify opportunities
Regardless of your objective for a social media strategy it is most important to listen inorder to find communities that support your brand and products In addition look foronline and offline communities that support your competitors so you can join them andoffer a choice Everyone appreciates choices but make sure you adhere to the socialnorms of each particular community or channel The secret is knowing what differentiatesyour product and offering it as an option to solve an expressed business problem
c Engage and Participate
Once communities are identified the listening tool can be used to find brand advocatesChoose a community and identify the most active people These people are passionateniche experts and they generally hold the keys to the community Though they may notbe influencers in the usual sense of being A-list bloggers they have the power to serveas evangelists amongst their peers
This white paper series covered thecommon use cases and provided manytactical suggestions to accomplish therespective objectives of
bull Brand Audits
bull Product Development
bull Social Media Campaigns
bull Lead Generation
bull Customer Service
bull Corporate Marketing
bull PR amp Reputation Management
bull Competitive Insight
bull SEO
Many organizations create a Twitter account andor a Facebook page and consider that a socialstrategy Participation in social networks is a very small part of a much bigger picture The engagementaspect should augment an in-depth digital content marketing strategy This combination will result inorganic SEO that money simply canrsquot buy This can greatly reduce the need for spending large amountson Pay Per Click
Deloitte proved this by helping a retailer with a multi-millionreduction in spend on paid search by increasing organic search In studying purchasing patterns and demographic information they were able to better understand searching patterns Read more here
A monitoring tool similarly identifies SEO keywords by analyzing the frequency of tags that authors usealong with invaluable demographic information
Content marketing on the social web has an incredible ROI because it is based not only on the preceptsof the social web but it also leverages the concepts of sharing The distribution cost is very minimaland ideally brand advocates share content via social channels Creating compelling content is key
Below are some best practices for content marketing in a web 20 world
bull Create content that is educational and provides value
bull Donrsquot heavily brand the content but rather put a light reference at the end with contact information
bull Make sure that itrsquos not in marketing speak because no one cares about glossy PDFs
bull Create content in a variety of formats since people consume the material in different ways and have unique learning styles
bull Repurpose content for blog posts downloadable PDFs slide decks podcasts videos etc
bull Distribute content on shareable sites such as YouTube and Slideshare
bull Syndicate shared content to LinkedIn Facebook and industry related group blogs
bull Share links to the content in social channels
- Facebook and LinkedIn groups
- Blog comments when appropriate
No matter the type of organization the ultimate goal is to get some type of conversion (a sale of aproductresource or donationssupport in the case of a nonprofit) By setting information free andplacing it on the social web people will find and explore it If it provides value they will trust the source
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
and want to establish a relationship with the organization creating and distributing it These warm leadsare invaluable and the organic SEO resulting from community building combined with effective contentmarketing is priceless
Having a monitoring tool does not always make listening easy Some brands and product names can bechallenging to track A brand such as lsquoMethodrsquo requires keywords such as ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquohand soaprsquordquoor ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquoair freshenerrsquordquo in order to focus the search A company with the URLwwwquestioncom for example presents similar challenges In some cases a brand has such a strongonline presence that it is difficult to track a specific social media engagement Here are somesuggestions for tracking and measuring campaigns
bull Use a hash tag
bull Use a tag line
bull Use bitly links
bull Use shorter Tweets so that they can easily be retweeted
bull Create a microlanding page and only drive traffic from social channels to it
bull Use coupon codes that are specific to the digital campaign
bull Be careful not to run another campaign concurrently and drive all the traffic to the same place
d Measure Calculate ROI and Report
The advent of social media marketing has resulted in much experimentationand avoidance of metrics
One of the biggest challenges for marketers in regard to measuring successin the social realm is shifting to softer metrics The days of clicks are goneand it is now about building relationships Increased brand visibility boostsvalue but assigning a dollar value is more difficult These metrics must bepersonalized in regard to what value they have to your business For examplehow much does a request at your call center cost Social media monitoringmakes it possible to chart changes in volume of conversations and even if aspecific value canrsquot be attributed to this the lift is now quantifiable Overlaythat with the revenue for the same time period and see if trends can beidentified
The following potential business objectives are easily measured utilizing aprofessional social media monitoring tool
According to an August 2009 survey by Mzingaand Babson Executive Education 84 percent ofrespondents said they donrsquot currently measurethe ROI of their social media programs
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
- Decrease in PPC Adwords and traditional marketing due to increased organic SEO
bull Increased Brand Visibility
- Amount of increased conversation over previous period
bull Increased Sales
- Overlay sales performance on volume of conversation
bull Reduced Customer Service Costs
- Number of uses of online content
- Number of issues resolved online by peers
- Increased customer satisfaction (a qualitative value)
bull Reduced Product Development Costs
- Number of ideas gatheredimplemented
- Compare previous cycle cost to present
- Reduced cost due to beta
bull Increased SEO
- Google your brandproduct
bull Increased Leads from Campaign
- Number of leads from digital channels
- Compare percentage conversion compared to cold calling
Calculating the ROI of social engagements is a hotly debated topicNo matter how successful a venture it is very difficult to justifyadding additional resources and growing a program without a clearROI
When evaluating the success of your efforts increased brandvisibility should be considered a return even if it is hard to measurein monetary terms In the long run it will become increasingly moreapparent
Utilizing social media monitoring a marketer can easily gatherqualitative information that previously was only available throughfocus groups taking reporting beyond a quantitative exercise All ofthat content is embedded in the social web and is free and easilyaccessible A beta allows you to not only gather more feedback butalso build anticipation about the future release
Here is a specific lsquohow-torsquo for calculating ROI beyond thesuggestions mentioned in parts (a) ndash (d) above
1 Decide on the objective (it needs to be measurable)
2 What is the increase or decrease change in behavior that is wanted
You need to know the value of increment
3 Measure the baseline
4 After a given period (or campaign time) take the measurement
5 Calculate the ROI based on the cost of resources
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
As with all business endeavors reporting should be done on a regular basis The following items shouldbe included in a social media report
bull Report on Objectives
bull Qualitative
ndash Trends in topics
ndash Sentiment
ndash Insight and specific quotes
ndash Discovery of new communities
bull Quantitative (KPIrsquos)
ndash Benchmark based on previous report
ndash Daily Volume (percentage increase or decrease)
ndash Share of Voice for your brand across channels
ndash Share of Voice for Brand and Competitors
ndash Date Comparisonsndash (percentage increase or decrease)
bull Web Analytics
bull Recommendations based on
ndash Campaign results
ndash Customer feedback
e Refine and Repeat
The social web is moving at a rapid pace and this is one of its best aspects Because social mediamarketing is so new itrsquos still quite experimental Keeping this in mind will help you grow your socialengagement Here are five tips for making sure that you donrsquot lose the momentum
bull Fail Fast ndash You may make mistakes and that is acceptable Understand what went wrong and revise
bull Learn from Mistakes ndash This is a given for every business endeavor Review and refine
bull Build on What Worked ndash Generally there are many aspects that went very well and there will be unexpected successes Build on them
bullGrow the Engagement ndash Brainstorm how you can expand the strategy to incorporate more objectives How can other areas of your business benefit from social engagement
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bullGet More Teams Involved and Provide Training ndash Other teams in your organization will want to participate in social efforts as they realize the value Encourage them by exploring how social media can help them meet their business objectives and empower them by providing training
A periodic social media campaign will not result in creating a social business A number of factors canimpede a company from becoming a social business The biggest one is fear Many executives donrsquotunderstand the value of the social web management is often concerned that staff will waste too muchtime on social networks and the IT department is usually concerned with spam and problems thatsocial networks may cause As a result social networks are blocked in many companies The best way toovercome this is to educate the executive level and ensure that social media policies and staff trainingare in place
The social web offers the most advantages to a global company but it also creates additionalchallenges Many companies are geography-based while the web is global and never sleeps Inaddition to time zones languages create challenges for listening and responding
An organization cannot fully leverage the social web until it has undergone a culture shift and hasempowered the appropriate staff to interact on the web Consumers want to interact directly withbrands and provide feedback The larger the organization the more challenging it is to facilitatecommunication This transition wonrsquot evolve without someone driving it and many brands require aninternal position to guide and champion its social media strategy The CommunitySocial Strategyposition works holistically and cross-functionally ensuring that all departments leverage social media ina way that meets its teamrsquos objectives
The community strategy role
bull Defines a plan to empower staff
bull Reviews all customer touch points and ensures frictionless engagement
bull Reviews all departments and provides recommendations and training on ways teams can utilize social to meet objectives
The diagram to the right shows how communitybuilding assists in moving customers through thesales funnel over time Social channels can beused to build brand awareness and enable theconversion Once the sale is made customerservice is of utmost importance There is a newopportunity to cross sell and upsellCrowdsourcing the social web provides feedbackfor product development
3 Operationalizing Social Media ndash the Social Media Strategist
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The ROI of social media
Over time utilizing social media should deliver
bull Increased word of mouth resulting in reduced PR marketing and advertising spend because acquisition costs are lower
bull Higher quality leads that have a higher percentage of converting since warm leads mean savings on cold calling
bull The ability to provide excellent customer service in the channels that consumers prefer leading to a lower abandonment rate and much higher loyalty
bull A shorter sales cycle while the customer life cycle grows longer
bull Reduces product development costs by utilizing feedback from the social web
bull Increased sales and demand since listening provides insight into what consumers want
The social web offers a multitude of opportunities for companies toengage with consumers Listening is the first step in identifying whatbusiness objectives can be met and used to guide the creation of acomprehensive social media strategy Planning the strategy based on apercent increase or decrease in the desired behavior will provide a basisfor the metrics and a solid foundation for integrating content marketingwith online engagement efforts in order to build word of mouthInteracting in communities will identify advocates and evangelists thatcan support your brand
Measurement and reporting on a regular basisare imperative for ensuring that your effortswill be funded and allowed to grow Evaluateefforts and refine them on an ongoing basis
Finally continued listening will create a cultureshift as the organization adopts social habitsCreating a role for someone to coordinateand facilitate social efforts maximizesrevenues and minimizes losses Over time acomprehensive listening strategy will impactmany areas of the organization Companiessuch as Pepsi and Dell are setting the bar bycreating Listening Mission Control CentersTake a look at the future Gatoradersquos MissionControl
Conclusion
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
About the ldquoLetrsquosTalkrdquo Series withConnie Bensen
Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers Thesocial web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most costeffective and efficient manner A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digitalportion of your marketing budget in order to create execute measure and report on a social mediastrategy
The Lets Talk Series by Connie Bensen is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways thatmarketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts Topics will include how to use a social mediamonitoring tool for SEO Lead Generation Social Media campaigns Customer Service CompetitiveInsight Corporate marketing PR and reputation management etc
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian which provides marketingsoftware to help brands engage with their customers She is a key voice amongst online CommunityManagers Her blog wwwconniebensencom is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating onlinecommunities providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbescom as one of the 20Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women
Alterianrsquos SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR andMarketing professionals SM2 helps you track conversations review positivenegativesentiment for your brand clients competitors and partners across social media channelssuch as blogs wikis micro-blogs social networks videophoto sharing sites and real-timealerts
Alterian (LSE ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant effective and engaging experiences withtheir audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand through the use of theAlterian Integrated Marketing Platform Alterian drives the transformation of marketing andcommunications making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannelengagement with the individual
Alterianrsquos unprecedented integration of analytics content and execution through industry leading toolssuch as the Dynamic Messenger email platform SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the awardwinning Content Management solutions enables companies to build integrated communication strategieswhich create a true picture of the individual
Alterian works with marketing services partners system integrators and agencies who recognize the needto plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients For moreinformation about Alterian products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterianrsquos PartnerNetwork visit wwwalteriancom or the Alterian blog at wwwengagingtimescom
About Alterian
SM2 Social MediaMonitoring (SMM)
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The insights gained from listening will drive the strategy and over time willencourage a culture shift in the organization
While establishing a listening post is imperative for this phase the mostdifficult aspect of a social media strategy is measuring it The following fivesteps will minimize that challenge
a) Plan
b) Ongoing Listening
c) Engage and Participate
d) Measure and Report
e) Refine
a Plan the Strategy Based on the Objective(s)
Listening to the social web for one to three months will provide direction on the business objective for yoursocial media strategy You can gain considerable insight from the social web but harnessing it can beoverwhelming For this reason it is recommended to start with one or two business objectives in order tokeep the project manageable and be able to measure success
In order to create a comprehensive strategy that includes objectives and tactics it is important to definethe goal A simple way to do this is to ask yourself ldquoWhat change in behavior is the desired outcomerdquo
2 Creating a Social Media Strategy in Five Steps
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
Below are some ideas for increasing profit or minimizing loss Depending on the purpose choose one thatmeets your business goals
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
bull Increase in Sales
bull Reduction in Customer Service Costs
bull Reduction in Product Development Costs
bull Increased SEO
bull Increase in Leads from Campaigns
bull Increase in Brand Visibility
This approach to building a social strategy resolves two issues
1 Defining metrics ndash because theyrsquore determined up front the objectives will drive what is measured
2 Calculating the ROI ndash although it can be difficult to put a dollar value on some of the above areas it is possible to measure the percent change
b Continue Listening
Once a listening tool is chosen it should be used on an ongoing basis determined bythe specific objective Set up searches for the brand products competitors and industryterms If you are in the early stages of brand building online the industry terms becomeeven more important in order to identify opportunities
Regardless of your objective for a social media strategy it is most important to listen inorder to find communities that support your brand and products In addition look foronline and offline communities that support your competitors so you can join them andoffer a choice Everyone appreciates choices but make sure you adhere to the socialnorms of each particular community or channel The secret is knowing what differentiatesyour product and offering it as an option to solve an expressed business problem
c Engage and Participate
Once communities are identified the listening tool can be used to find brand advocatesChoose a community and identify the most active people These people are passionateniche experts and they generally hold the keys to the community Though they may notbe influencers in the usual sense of being A-list bloggers they have the power to serveas evangelists amongst their peers
This white paper series covered thecommon use cases and provided manytactical suggestions to accomplish therespective objectives of
bull Brand Audits
bull Product Development
bull Social Media Campaigns
bull Lead Generation
bull Customer Service
bull Corporate Marketing
bull PR amp Reputation Management
bull Competitive Insight
bull SEO
Many organizations create a Twitter account andor a Facebook page and consider that a socialstrategy Participation in social networks is a very small part of a much bigger picture The engagementaspect should augment an in-depth digital content marketing strategy This combination will result inorganic SEO that money simply canrsquot buy This can greatly reduce the need for spending large amountson Pay Per Click
Deloitte proved this by helping a retailer with a multi-millionreduction in spend on paid search by increasing organic search In studying purchasing patterns and demographic information they were able to better understand searching patterns Read more here
A monitoring tool similarly identifies SEO keywords by analyzing the frequency of tags that authors usealong with invaluable demographic information
Content marketing on the social web has an incredible ROI because it is based not only on the preceptsof the social web but it also leverages the concepts of sharing The distribution cost is very minimaland ideally brand advocates share content via social channels Creating compelling content is key
Below are some best practices for content marketing in a web 20 world
bull Create content that is educational and provides value
bull Donrsquot heavily brand the content but rather put a light reference at the end with contact information
bull Make sure that itrsquos not in marketing speak because no one cares about glossy PDFs
bull Create content in a variety of formats since people consume the material in different ways and have unique learning styles
bull Repurpose content for blog posts downloadable PDFs slide decks podcasts videos etc
bull Distribute content on shareable sites such as YouTube and Slideshare
bull Syndicate shared content to LinkedIn Facebook and industry related group blogs
bull Share links to the content in social channels
- Facebook and LinkedIn groups
- Blog comments when appropriate
No matter the type of organization the ultimate goal is to get some type of conversion (a sale of aproductresource or donationssupport in the case of a nonprofit) By setting information free andplacing it on the social web people will find and explore it If it provides value they will trust the source
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
and want to establish a relationship with the organization creating and distributing it These warm leadsare invaluable and the organic SEO resulting from community building combined with effective contentmarketing is priceless
Having a monitoring tool does not always make listening easy Some brands and product names can bechallenging to track A brand such as lsquoMethodrsquo requires keywords such as ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquohand soaprsquordquoor ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquoair freshenerrsquordquo in order to focus the search A company with the URLwwwquestioncom for example presents similar challenges In some cases a brand has such a strongonline presence that it is difficult to track a specific social media engagement Here are somesuggestions for tracking and measuring campaigns
bull Use a hash tag
bull Use a tag line
bull Use bitly links
bull Use shorter Tweets so that they can easily be retweeted
bull Create a microlanding page and only drive traffic from social channels to it
bull Use coupon codes that are specific to the digital campaign
bull Be careful not to run another campaign concurrently and drive all the traffic to the same place
d Measure Calculate ROI and Report
The advent of social media marketing has resulted in much experimentationand avoidance of metrics
One of the biggest challenges for marketers in regard to measuring successin the social realm is shifting to softer metrics The days of clicks are goneand it is now about building relationships Increased brand visibility boostsvalue but assigning a dollar value is more difficult These metrics must bepersonalized in regard to what value they have to your business For examplehow much does a request at your call center cost Social media monitoringmakes it possible to chart changes in volume of conversations and even if aspecific value canrsquot be attributed to this the lift is now quantifiable Overlaythat with the revenue for the same time period and see if trends can beidentified
The following potential business objectives are easily measured utilizing aprofessional social media monitoring tool
According to an August 2009 survey by Mzingaand Babson Executive Education 84 percent ofrespondents said they donrsquot currently measurethe ROI of their social media programs
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
- Decrease in PPC Adwords and traditional marketing due to increased organic SEO
bull Increased Brand Visibility
- Amount of increased conversation over previous period
bull Increased Sales
- Overlay sales performance on volume of conversation
bull Reduced Customer Service Costs
- Number of uses of online content
- Number of issues resolved online by peers
- Increased customer satisfaction (a qualitative value)
bull Reduced Product Development Costs
- Number of ideas gatheredimplemented
- Compare previous cycle cost to present
- Reduced cost due to beta
bull Increased SEO
- Google your brandproduct
bull Increased Leads from Campaign
- Number of leads from digital channels
- Compare percentage conversion compared to cold calling
Calculating the ROI of social engagements is a hotly debated topicNo matter how successful a venture it is very difficult to justifyadding additional resources and growing a program without a clearROI
When evaluating the success of your efforts increased brandvisibility should be considered a return even if it is hard to measurein monetary terms In the long run it will become increasingly moreapparent
Utilizing social media monitoring a marketer can easily gatherqualitative information that previously was only available throughfocus groups taking reporting beyond a quantitative exercise All ofthat content is embedded in the social web and is free and easilyaccessible A beta allows you to not only gather more feedback butalso build anticipation about the future release
Here is a specific lsquohow-torsquo for calculating ROI beyond thesuggestions mentioned in parts (a) ndash (d) above
1 Decide on the objective (it needs to be measurable)
2 What is the increase or decrease change in behavior that is wanted
You need to know the value of increment
3 Measure the baseline
4 After a given period (or campaign time) take the measurement
5 Calculate the ROI based on the cost of resources
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
As with all business endeavors reporting should be done on a regular basis The following items shouldbe included in a social media report
bull Report on Objectives
bull Qualitative
ndash Trends in topics
ndash Sentiment
ndash Insight and specific quotes
ndash Discovery of new communities
bull Quantitative (KPIrsquos)
ndash Benchmark based on previous report
ndash Daily Volume (percentage increase or decrease)
ndash Share of Voice for your brand across channels
ndash Share of Voice for Brand and Competitors
ndash Date Comparisonsndash (percentage increase or decrease)
bull Web Analytics
bull Recommendations based on
ndash Campaign results
ndash Customer feedback
e Refine and Repeat
The social web is moving at a rapid pace and this is one of its best aspects Because social mediamarketing is so new itrsquos still quite experimental Keeping this in mind will help you grow your socialengagement Here are five tips for making sure that you donrsquot lose the momentum
bull Fail Fast ndash You may make mistakes and that is acceptable Understand what went wrong and revise
bull Learn from Mistakes ndash This is a given for every business endeavor Review and refine
bull Build on What Worked ndash Generally there are many aspects that went very well and there will be unexpected successes Build on them
bullGrow the Engagement ndash Brainstorm how you can expand the strategy to incorporate more objectives How can other areas of your business benefit from social engagement
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bullGet More Teams Involved and Provide Training ndash Other teams in your organization will want to participate in social efforts as they realize the value Encourage them by exploring how social media can help them meet their business objectives and empower them by providing training
A periodic social media campaign will not result in creating a social business A number of factors canimpede a company from becoming a social business The biggest one is fear Many executives donrsquotunderstand the value of the social web management is often concerned that staff will waste too muchtime on social networks and the IT department is usually concerned with spam and problems thatsocial networks may cause As a result social networks are blocked in many companies The best way toovercome this is to educate the executive level and ensure that social media policies and staff trainingare in place
The social web offers the most advantages to a global company but it also creates additionalchallenges Many companies are geography-based while the web is global and never sleeps Inaddition to time zones languages create challenges for listening and responding
An organization cannot fully leverage the social web until it has undergone a culture shift and hasempowered the appropriate staff to interact on the web Consumers want to interact directly withbrands and provide feedback The larger the organization the more challenging it is to facilitatecommunication This transition wonrsquot evolve without someone driving it and many brands require aninternal position to guide and champion its social media strategy The CommunitySocial Strategyposition works holistically and cross-functionally ensuring that all departments leverage social media ina way that meets its teamrsquos objectives
The community strategy role
bull Defines a plan to empower staff
bull Reviews all customer touch points and ensures frictionless engagement
bull Reviews all departments and provides recommendations and training on ways teams can utilize social to meet objectives
The diagram to the right shows how communitybuilding assists in moving customers through thesales funnel over time Social channels can beused to build brand awareness and enable theconversion Once the sale is made customerservice is of utmost importance There is a newopportunity to cross sell and upsellCrowdsourcing the social web provides feedbackfor product development
3 Operationalizing Social Media ndash the Social Media Strategist
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The ROI of social media
Over time utilizing social media should deliver
bull Increased word of mouth resulting in reduced PR marketing and advertising spend because acquisition costs are lower
bull Higher quality leads that have a higher percentage of converting since warm leads mean savings on cold calling
bull The ability to provide excellent customer service in the channels that consumers prefer leading to a lower abandonment rate and much higher loyalty
bull A shorter sales cycle while the customer life cycle grows longer
bull Reduces product development costs by utilizing feedback from the social web
bull Increased sales and demand since listening provides insight into what consumers want
The social web offers a multitude of opportunities for companies toengage with consumers Listening is the first step in identifying whatbusiness objectives can be met and used to guide the creation of acomprehensive social media strategy Planning the strategy based on apercent increase or decrease in the desired behavior will provide a basisfor the metrics and a solid foundation for integrating content marketingwith online engagement efforts in order to build word of mouthInteracting in communities will identify advocates and evangelists thatcan support your brand
Measurement and reporting on a regular basisare imperative for ensuring that your effortswill be funded and allowed to grow Evaluateefforts and refine them on an ongoing basis
Finally continued listening will create a cultureshift as the organization adopts social habitsCreating a role for someone to coordinateand facilitate social efforts maximizesrevenues and minimizes losses Over time acomprehensive listening strategy will impactmany areas of the organization Companiessuch as Pepsi and Dell are setting the bar bycreating Listening Mission Control CentersTake a look at the future Gatoradersquos MissionControl
Conclusion
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
About the ldquoLetrsquosTalkrdquo Series withConnie Bensen
Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers Thesocial web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most costeffective and efficient manner A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digitalportion of your marketing budget in order to create execute measure and report on a social mediastrategy
The Lets Talk Series by Connie Bensen is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways thatmarketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts Topics will include how to use a social mediamonitoring tool for SEO Lead Generation Social Media campaigns Customer Service CompetitiveInsight Corporate marketing PR and reputation management etc
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian which provides marketingsoftware to help brands engage with their customers She is a key voice amongst online CommunityManagers Her blog wwwconniebensencom is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating onlinecommunities providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbescom as one of the 20Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women
Alterianrsquos SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR andMarketing professionals SM2 helps you track conversations review positivenegativesentiment for your brand clients competitors and partners across social media channelssuch as blogs wikis micro-blogs social networks videophoto sharing sites and real-timealerts
Alterian (LSE ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant effective and engaging experiences withtheir audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand through the use of theAlterian Integrated Marketing Platform Alterian drives the transformation of marketing andcommunications making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannelengagement with the individual
Alterianrsquos unprecedented integration of analytics content and execution through industry leading toolssuch as the Dynamic Messenger email platform SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the awardwinning Content Management solutions enables companies to build integrated communication strategieswhich create a true picture of the individual
Alterian works with marketing services partners system integrators and agencies who recognize the needto plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients For moreinformation about Alterian products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterianrsquos PartnerNetwork visit wwwalteriancom or the Alterian blog at wwwengagingtimescom
About Alterian
SM2 Social MediaMonitoring (SMM)
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
Below are some ideas for increasing profit or minimizing loss Depending on the purpose choose one thatmeets your business goals
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
bull Increase in Sales
bull Reduction in Customer Service Costs
bull Reduction in Product Development Costs
bull Increased SEO
bull Increase in Leads from Campaigns
bull Increase in Brand Visibility
This approach to building a social strategy resolves two issues
1 Defining metrics ndash because theyrsquore determined up front the objectives will drive what is measured
2 Calculating the ROI ndash although it can be difficult to put a dollar value on some of the above areas it is possible to measure the percent change
b Continue Listening
Once a listening tool is chosen it should be used on an ongoing basis determined bythe specific objective Set up searches for the brand products competitors and industryterms If you are in the early stages of brand building online the industry terms becomeeven more important in order to identify opportunities
Regardless of your objective for a social media strategy it is most important to listen inorder to find communities that support your brand and products In addition look foronline and offline communities that support your competitors so you can join them andoffer a choice Everyone appreciates choices but make sure you adhere to the socialnorms of each particular community or channel The secret is knowing what differentiatesyour product and offering it as an option to solve an expressed business problem
c Engage and Participate
Once communities are identified the listening tool can be used to find brand advocatesChoose a community and identify the most active people These people are passionateniche experts and they generally hold the keys to the community Though they may notbe influencers in the usual sense of being A-list bloggers they have the power to serveas evangelists amongst their peers
This white paper series covered thecommon use cases and provided manytactical suggestions to accomplish therespective objectives of
bull Brand Audits
bull Product Development
bull Social Media Campaigns
bull Lead Generation
bull Customer Service
bull Corporate Marketing
bull PR amp Reputation Management
bull Competitive Insight
bull SEO
Many organizations create a Twitter account andor a Facebook page and consider that a socialstrategy Participation in social networks is a very small part of a much bigger picture The engagementaspect should augment an in-depth digital content marketing strategy This combination will result inorganic SEO that money simply canrsquot buy This can greatly reduce the need for spending large amountson Pay Per Click
Deloitte proved this by helping a retailer with a multi-millionreduction in spend on paid search by increasing organic search In studying purchasing patterns and demographic information they were able to better understand searching patterns Read more here
A monitoring tool similarly identifies SEO keywords by analyzing the frequency of tags that authors usealong with invaluable demographic information
Content marketing on the social web has an incredible ROI because it is based not only on the preceptsof the social web but it also leverages the concepts of sharing The distribution cost is very minimaland ideally brand advocates share content via social channels Creating compelling content is key
Below are some best practices for content marketing in a web 20 world
bull Create content that is educational and provides value
bull Donrsquot heavily brand the content but rather put a light reference at the end with contact information
bull Make sure that itrsquos not in marketing speak because no one cares about glossy PDFs
bull Create content in a variety of formats since people consume the material in different ways and have unique learning styles
bull Repurpose content for blog posts downloadable PDFs slide decks podcasts videos etc
bull Distribute content on shareable sites such as YouTube and Slideshare
bull Syndicate shared content to LinkedIn Facebook and industry related group blogs
bull Share links to the content in social channels
- Facebook and LinkedIn groups
- Blog comments when appropriate
No matter the type of organization the ultimate goal is to get some type of conversion (a sale of aproductresource or donationssupport in the case of a nonprofit) By setting information free andplacing it on the social web people will find and explore it If it provides value they will trust the source
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
and want to establish a relationship with the organization creating and distributing it These warm leadsare invaluable and the organic SEO resulting from community building combined with effective contentmarketing is priceless
Having a monitoring tool does not always make listening easy Some brands and product names can bechallenging to track A brand such as lsquoMethodrsquo requires keywords such as ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquohand soaprsquordquoor ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquoair freshenerrsquordquo in order to focus the search A company with the URLwwwquestioncom for example presents similar challenges In some cases a brand has such a strongonline presence that it is difficult to track a specific social media engagement Here are somesuggestions for tracking and measuring campaigns
bull Use a hash tag
bull Use a tag line
bull Use bitly links
bull Use shorter Tweets so that they can easily be retweeted
bull Create a microlanding page and only drive traffic from social channels to it
bull Use coupon codes that are specific to the digital campaign
bull Be careful not to run another campaign concurrently and drive all the traffic to the same place
d Measure Calculate ROI and Report
The advent of social media marketing has resulted in much experimentationand avoidance of metrics
One of the biggest challenges for marketers in regard to measuring successin the social realm is shifting to softer metrics The days of clicks are goneand it is now about building relationships Increased brand visibility boostsvalue but assigning a dollar value is more difficult These metrics must bepersonalized in regard to what value they have to your business For examplehow much does a request at your call center cost Social media monitoringmakes it possible to chart changes in volume of conversations and even if aspecific value canrsquot be attributed to this the lift is now quantifiable Overlaythat with the revenue for the same time period and see if trends can beidentified
The following potential business objectives are easily measured utilizing aprofessional social media monitoring tool
According to an August 2009 survey by Mzingaand Babson Executive Education 84 percent ofrespondents said they donrsquot currently measurethe ROI of their social media programs
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
- Decrease in PPC Adwords and traditional marketing due to increased organic SEO
bull Increased Brand Visibility
- Amount of increased conversation over previous period
bull Increased Sales
- Overlay sales performance on volume of conversation
bull Reduced Customer Service Costs
- Number of uses of online content
- Number of issues resolved online by peers
- Increased customer satisfaction (a qualitative value)
bull Reduced Product Development Costs
- Number of ideas gatheredimplemented
- Compare previous cycle cost to present
- Reduced cost due to beta
bull Increased SEO
- Google your brandproduct
bull Increased Leads from Campaign
- Number of leads from digital channels
- Compare percentage conversion compared to cold calling
Calculating the ROI of social engagements is a hotly debated topicNo matter how successful a venture it is very difficult to justifyadding additional resources and growing a program without a clearROI
When evaluating the success of your efforts increased brandvisibility should be considered a return even if it is hard to measurein monetary terms In the long run it will become increasingly moreapparent
Utilizing social media monitoring a marketer can easily gatherqualitative information that previously was only available throughfocus groups taking reporting beyond a quantitative exercise All ofthat content is embedded in the social web and is free and easilyaccessible A beta allows you to not only gather more feedback butalso build anticipation about the future release
Here is a specific lsquohow-torsquo for calculating ROI beyond thesuggestions mentioned in parts (a) ndash (d) above
1 Decide on the objective (it needs to be measurable)
2 What is the increase or decrease change in behavior that is wanted
You need to know the value of increment
3 Measure the baseline
4 After a given period (or campaign time) take the measurement
5 Calculate the ROI based on the cost of resources
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
As with all business endeavors reporting should be done on a regular basis The following items shouldbe included in a social media report
bull Report on Objectives
bull Qualitative
ndash Trends in topics
ndash Sentiment
ndash Insight and specific quotes
ndash Discovery of new communities
bull Quantitative (KPIrsquos)
ndash Benchmark based on previous report
ndash Daily Volume (percentage increase or decrease)
ndash Share of Voice for your brand across channels
ndash Share of Voice for Brand and Competitors
ndash Date Comparisonsndash (percentage increase or decrease)
bull Web Analytics
bull Recommendations based on
ndash Campaign results
ndash Customer feedback
e Refine and Repeat
The social web is moving at a rapid pace and this is one of its best aspects Because social mediamarketing is so new itrsquos still quite experimental Keeping this in mind will help you grow your socialengagement Here are five tips for making sure that you donrsquot lose the momentum
bull Fail Fast ndash You may make mistakes and that is acceptable Understand what went wrong and revise
bull Learn from Mistakes ndash This is a given for every business endeavor Review and refine
bull Build on What Worked ndash Generally there are many aspects that went very well and there will be unexpected successes Build on them
bullGrow the Engagement ndash Brainstorm how you can expand the strategy to incorporate more objectives How can other areas of your business benefit from social engagement
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bullGet More Teams Involved and Provide Training ndash Other teams in your organization will want to participate in social efforts as they realize the value Encourage them by exploring how social media can help them meet their business objectives and empower them by providing training
A periodic social media campaign will not result in creating a social business A number of factors canimpede a company from becoming a social business The biggest one is fear Many executives donrsquotunderstand the value of the social web management is often concerned that staff will waste too muchtime on social networks and the IT department is usually concerned with spam and problems thatsocial networks may cause As a result social networks are blocked in many companies The best way toovercome this is to educate the executive level and ensure that social media policies and staff trainingare in place
The social web offers the most advantages to a global company but it also creates additionalchallenges Many companies are geography-based while the web is global and never sleeps Inaddition to time zones languages create challenges for listening and responding
An organization cannot fully leverage the social web until it has undergone a culture shift and hasempowered the appropriate staff to interact on the web Consumers want to interact directly withbrands and provide feedback The larger the organization the more challenging it is to facilitatecommunication This transition wonrsquot evolve without someone driving it and many brands require aninternal position to guide and champion its social media strategy The CommunitySocial Strategyposition works holistically and cross-functionally ensuring that all departments leverage social media ina way that meets its teamrsquos objectives
The community strategy role
bull Defines a plan to empower staff
bull Reviews all customer touch points and ensures frictionless engagement
bull Reviews all departments and provides recommendations and training on ways teams can utilize social to meet objectives
The diagram to the right shows how communitybuilding assists in moving customers through thesales funnel over time Social channels can beused to build brand awareness and enable theconversion Once the sale is made customerservice is of utmost importance There is a newopportunity to cross sell and upsellCrowdsourcing the social web provides feedbackfor product development
3 Operationalizing Social Media ndash the Social Media Strategist
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The ROI of social media
Over time utilizing social media should deliver
bull Increased word of mouth resulting in reduced PR marketing and advertising spend because acquisition costs are lower
bull Higher quality leads that have a higher percentage of converting since warm leads mean savings on cold calling
bull The ability to provide excellent customer service in the channels that consumers prefer leading to a lower abandonment rate and much higher loyalty
bull A shorter sales cycle while the customer life cycle grows longer
bull Reduces product development costs by utilizing feedback from the social web
bull Increased sales and demand since listening provides insight into what consumers want
The social web offers a multitude of opportunities for companies toengage with consumers Listening is the first step in identifying whatbusiness objectives can be met and used to guide the creation of acomprehensive social media strategy Planning the strategy based on apercent increase or decrease in the desired behavior will provide a basisfor the metrics and a solid foundation for integrating content marketingwith online engagement efforts in order to build word of mouthInteracting in communities will identify advocates and evangelists thatcan support your brand
Measurement and reporting on a regular basisare imperative for ensuring that your effortswill be funded and allowed to grow Evaluateefforts and refine them on an ongoing basis
Finally continued listening will create a cultureshift as the organization adopts social habitsCreating a role for someone to coordinateand facilitate social efforts maximizesrevenues and minimizes losses Over time acomprehensive listening strategy will impactmany areas of the organization Companiessuch as Pepsi and Dell are setting the bar bycreating Listening Mission Control CentersTake a look at the future Gatoradersquos MissionControl
Conclusion
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
About the ldquoLetrsquosTalkrdquo Series withConnie Bensen
Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers Thesocial web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most costeffective and efficient manner A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digitalportion of your marketing budget in order to create execute measure and report on a social mediastrategy
The Lets Talk Series by Connie Bensen is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways thatmarketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts Topics will include how to use a social mediamonitoring tool for SEO Lead Generation Social Media campaigns Customer Service CompetitiveInsight Corporate marketing PR and reputation management etc
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian which provides marketingsoftware to help brands engage with their customers She is a key voice amongst online CommunityManagers Her blog wwwconniebensencom is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating onlinecommunities providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbescom as one of the 20Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women
Alterianrsquos SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR andMarketing professionals SM2 helps you track conversations review positivenegativesentiment for your brand clients competitors and partners across social media channelssuch as blogs wikis micro-blogs social networks videophoto sharing sites and real-timealerts
Alterian (LSE ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant effective and engaging experiences withtheir audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand through the use of theAlterian Integrated Marketing Platform Alterian drives the transformation of marketing andcommunications making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannelengagement with the individual
Alterianrsquos unprecedented integration of analytics content and execution through industry leading toolssuch as the Dynamic Messenger email platform SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the awardwinning Content Management solutions enables companies to build integrated communication strategieswhich create a true picture of the individual
Alterian works with marketing services partners system integrators and agencies who recognize the needto plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients For moreinformation about Alterian products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterianrsquos PartnerNetwork visit wwwalteriancom or the Alterian blog at wwwengagingtimescom
About Alterian
SM2 Social MediaMonitoring (SMM)
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
Many organizations create a Twitter account andor a Facebook page and consider that a socialstrategy Participation in social networks is a very small part of a much bigger picture The engagementaspect should augment an in-depth digital content marketing strategy This combination will result inorganic SEO that money simply canrsquot buy This can greatly reduce the need for spending large amountson Pay Per Click
Deloitte proved this by helping a retailer with a multi-millionreduction in spend on paid search by increasing organic search In studying purchasing patterns and demographic information they were able to better understand searching patterns Read more here
A monitoring tool similarly identifies SEO keywords by analyzing the frequency of tags that authors usealong with invaluable demographic information
Content marketing on the social web has an incredible ROI because it is based not only on the preceptsof the social web but it also leverages the concepts of sharing The distribution cost is very minimaland ideally brand advocates share content via social channels Creating compelling content is key
Below are some best practices for content marketing in a web 20 world
bull Create content that is educational and provides value
bull Donrsquot heavily brand the content but rather put a light reference at the end with contact information
bull Make sure that itrsquos not in marketing speak because no one cares about glossy PDFs
bull Create content in a variety of formats since people consume the material in different ways and have unique learning styles
bull Repurpose content for blog posts downloadable PDFs slide decks podcasts videos etc
bull Distribute content on shareable sites such as YouTube and Slideshare
bull Syndicate shared content to LinkedIn Facebook and industry related group blogs
bull Share links to the content in social channels
- Facebook and LinkedIn groups
- Blog comments when appropriate
No matter the type of organization the ultimate goal is to get some type of conversion (a sale of aproductresource or donationssupport in the case of a nonprofit) By setting information free andplacing it on the social web people will find and explore it If it provides value they will trust the source
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
and want to establish a relationship with the organization creating and distributing it These warm leadsare invaluable and the organic SEO resulting from community building combined with effective contentmarketing is priceless
Having a monitoring tool does not always make listening easy Some brands and product names can bechallenging to track A brand such as lsquoMethodrsquo requires keywords such as ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquohand soaprsquordquoor ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquoair freshenerrsquordquo in order to focus the search A company with the URLwwwquestioncom for example presents similar challenges In some cases a brand has such a strongonline presence that it is difficult to track a specific social media engagement Here are somesuggestions for tracking and measuring campaigns
bull Use a hash tag
bull Use a tag line
bull Use bitly links
bull Use shorter Tweets so that they can easily be retweeted
bull Create a microlanding page and only drive traffic from social channels to it
bull Use coupon codes that are specific to the digital campaign
bull Be careful not to run another campaign concurrently and drive all the traffic to the same place
d Measure Calculate ROI and Report
The advent of social media marketing has resulted in much experimentationand avoidance of metrics
One of the biggest challenges for marketers in regard to measuring successin the social realm is shifting to softer metrics The days of clicks are goneand it is now about building relationships Increased brand visibility boostsvalue but assigning a dollar value is more difficult These metrics must bepersonalized in regard to what value they have to your business For examplehow much does a request at your call center cost Social media monitoringmakes it possible to chart changes in volume of conversations and even if aspecific value canrsquot be attributed to this the lift is now quantifiable Overlaythat with the revenue for the same time period and see if trends can beidentified
The following potential business objectives are easily measured utilizing aprofessional social media monitoring tool
According to an August 2009 survey by Mzingaand Babson Executive Education 84 percent ofrespondents said they donrsquot currently measurethe ROI of their social media programs
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
- Decrease in PPC Adwords and traditional marketing due to increased organic SEO
bull Increased Brand Visibility
- Amount of increased conversation over previous period
bull Increased Sales
- Overlay sales performance on volume of conversation
bull Reduced Customer Service Costs
- Number of uses of online content
- Number of issues resolved online by peers
- Increased customer satisfaction (a qualitative value)
bull Reduced Product Development Costs
- Number of ideas gatheredimplemented
- Compare previous cycle cost to present
- Reduced cost due to beta
bull Increased SEO
- Google your brandproduct
bull Increased Leads from Campaign
- Number of leads from digital channels
- Compare percentage conversion compared to cold calling
Calculating the ROI of social engagements is a hotly debated topicNo matter how successful a venture it is very difficult to justifyadding additional resources and growing a program without a clearROI
When evaluating the success of your efforts increased brandvisibility should be considered a return even if it is hard to measurein monetary terms In the long run it will become increasingly moreapparent
Utilizing social media monitoring a marketer can easily gatherqualitative information that previously was only available throughfocus groups taking reporting beyond a quantitative exercise All ofthat content is embedded in the social web and is free and easilyaccessible A beta allows you to not only gather more feedback butalso build anticipation about the future release
Here is a specific lsquohow-torsquo for calculating ROI beyond thesuggestions mentioned in parts (a) ndash (d) above
1 Decide on the objective (it needs to be measurable)
2 What is the increase or decrease change in behavior that is wanted
You need to know the value of increment
3 Measure the baseline
4 After a given period (or campaign time) take the measurement
5 Calculate the ROI based on the cost of resources
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
As with all business endeavors reporting should be done on a regular basis The following items shouldbe included in a social media report
bull Report on Objectives
bull Qualitative
ndash Trends in topics
ndash Sentiment
ndash Insight and specific quotes
ndash Discovery of new communities
bull Quantitative (KPIrsquos)
ndash Benchmark based on previous report
ndash Daily Volume (percentage increase or decrease)
ndash Share of Voice for your brand across channels
ndash Share of Voice for Brand and Competitors
ndash Date Comparisonsndash (percentage increase or decrease)
bull Web Analytics
bull Recommendations based on
ndash Campaign results
ndash Customer feedback
e Refine and Repeat
The social web is moving at a rapid pace and this is one of its best aspects Because social mediamarketing is so new itrsquos still quite experimental Keeping this in mind will help you grow your socialengagement Here are five tips for making sure that you donrsquot lose the momentum
bull Fail Fast ndash You may make mistakes and that is acceptable Understand what went wrong and revise
bull Learn from Mistakes ndash This is a given for every business endeavor Review and refine
bull Build on What Worked ndash Generally there are many aspects that went very well and there will be unexpected successes Build on them
bullGrow the Engagement ndash Brainstorm how you can expand the strategy to incorporate more objectives How can other areas of your business benefit from social engagement
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bullGet More Teams Involved and Provide Training ndash Other teams in your organization will want to participate in social efforts as they realize the value Encourage them by exploring how social media can help them meet their business objectives and empower them by providing training
A periodic social media campaign will not result in creating a social business A number of factors canimpede a company from becoming a social business The biggest one is fear Many executives donrsquotunderstand the value of the social web management is often concerned that staff will waste too muchtime on social networks and the IT department is usually concerned with spam and problems thatsocial networks may cause As a result social networks are blocked in many companies The best way toovercome this is to educate the executive level and ensure that social media policies and staff trainingare in place
The social web offers the most advantages to a global company but it also creates additionalchallenges Many companies are geography-based while the web is global and never sleeps Inaddition to time zones languages create challenges for listening and responding
An organization cannot fully leverage the social web until it has undergone a culture shift and hasempowered the appropriate staff to interact on the web Consumers want to interact directly withbrands and provide feedback The larger the organization the more challenging it is to facilitatecommunication This transition wonrsquot evolve without someone driving it and many brands require aninternal position to guide and champion its social media strategy The CommunitySocial Strategyposition works holistically and cross-functionally ensuring that all departments leverage social media ina way that meets its teamrsquos objectives
The community strategy role
bull Defines a plan to empower staff
bull Reviews all customer touch points and ensures frictionless engagement
bull Reviews all departments and provides recommendations and training on ways teams can utilize social to meet objectives
The diagram to the right shows how communitybuilding assists in moving customers through thesales funnel over time Social channels can beused to build brand awareness and enable theconversion Once the sale is made customerservice is of utmost importance There is a newopportunity to cross sell and upsellCrowdsourcing the social web provides feedbackfor product development
3 Operationalizing Social Media ndash the Social Media Strategist
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The ROI of social media
Over time utilizing social media should deliver
bull Increased word of mouth resulting in reduced PR marketing and advertising spend because acquisition costs are lower
bull Higher quality leads that have a higher percentage of converting since warm leads mean savings on cold calling
bull The ability to provide excellent customer service in the channels that consumers prefer leading to a lower abandonment rate and much higher loyalty
bull A shorter sales cycle while the customer life cycle grows longer
bull Reduces product development costs by utilizing feedback from the social web
bull Increased sales and demand since listening provides insight into what consumers want
The social web offers a multitude of opportunities for companies toengage with consumers Listening is the first step in identifying whatbusiness objectives can be met and used to guide the creation of acomprehensive social media strategy Planning the strategy based on apercent increase or decrease in the desired behavior will provide a basisfor the metrics and a solid foundation for integrating content marketingwith online engagement efforts in order to build word of mouthInteracting in communities will identify advocates and evangelists thatcan support your brand
Measurement and reporting on a regular basisare imperative for ensuring that your effortswill be funded and allowed to grow Evaluateefforts and refine them on an ongoing basis
Finally continued listening will create a cultureshift as the organization adopts social habitsCreating a role for someone to coordinateand facilitate social efforts maximizesrevenues and minimizes losses Over time acomprehensive listening strategy will impactmany areas of the organization Companiessuch as Pepsi and Dell are setting the bar bycreating Listening Mission Control CentersTake a look at the future Gatoradersquos MissionControl
Conclusion
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
About the ldquoLetrsquosTalkrdquo Series withConnie Bensen
Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers Thesocial web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most costeffective and efficient manner A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digitalportion of your marketing budget in order to create execute measure and report on a social mediastrategy
The Lets Talk Series by Connie Bensen is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways thatmarketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts Topics will include how to use a social mediamonitoring tool for SEO Lead Generation Social Media campaigns Customer Service CompetitiveInsight Corporate marketing PR and reputation management etc
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian which provides marketingsoftware to help brands engage with their customers She is a key voice amongst online CommunityManagers Her blog wwwconniebensencom is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating onlinecommunities providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbescom as one of the 20Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women
Alterianrsquos SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR andMarketing professionals SM2 helps you track conversations review positivenegativesentiment for your brand clients competitors and partners across social media channelssuch as blogs wikis micro-blogs social networks videophoto sharing sites and real-timealerts
Alterian (LSE ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant effective and engaging experiences withtheir audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand through the use of theAlterian Integrated Marketing Platform Alterian drives the transformation of marketing andcommunications making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannelengagement with the individual
Alterianrsquos unprecedented integration of analytics content and execution through industry leading toolssuch as the Dynamic Messenger email platform SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the awardwinning Content Management solutions enables companies to build integrated communication strategieswhich create a true picture of the individual
Alterian works with marketing services partners system integrators and agencies who recognize the needto plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients For moreinformation about Alterian products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterianrsquos PartnerNetwork visit wwwalteriancom or the Alterian blog at wwwengagingtimescom
About Alterian
SM2 Social MediaMonitoring (SMM)
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
and want to establish a relationship with the organization creating and distributing it These warm leadsare invaluable and the organic SEO resulting from community building combined with effective contentmarketing is priceless
Having a monitoring tool does not always make listening easy Some brands and product names can bechallenging to track A brand such as lsquoMethodrsquo requires keywords such as ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquohand soaprsquordquoor ldquolsquoMethodrsquo and lsquoair freshenerrsquordquo in order to focus the search A company with the URLwwwquestioncom for example presents similar challenges In some cases a brand has such a strongonline presence that it is difficult to track a specific social media engagement Here are somesuggestions for tracking and measuring campaigns
bull Use a hash tag
bull Use a tag line
bull Use bitly links
bull Use shorter Tweets so that they can easily be retweeted
bull Create a microlanding page and only drive traffic from social channels to it
bull Use coupon codes that are specific to the digital campaign
bull Be careful not to run another campaign concurrently and drive all the traffic to the same place
d Measure Calculate ROI and Report
The advent of social media marketing has resulted in much experimentationand avoidance of metrics
One of the biggest challenges for marketers in regard to measuring successin the social realm is shifting to softer metrics The days of clicks are goneand it is now about building relationships Increased brand visibility boostsvalue but assigning a dollar value is more difficult These metrics must bepersonalized in regard to what value they have to your business For examplehow much does a request at your call center cost Social media monitoringmakes it possible to chart changes in volume of conversations and even if aspecific value canrsquot be attributed to this the lift is now quantifiable Overlaythat with the revenue for the same time period and see if trends can beidentified
The following potential business objectives are easily measured utilizing aprofessional social media monitoring tool
According to an August 2009 survey by Mzingaand Babson Executive Education 84 percent ofrespondents said they donrsquot currently measurethe ROI of their social media programs
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
- Decrease in PPC Adwords and traditional marketing due to increased organic SEO
bull Increased Brand Visibility
- Amount of increased conversation over previous period
bull Increased Sales
- Overlay sales performance on volume of conversation
bull Reduced Customer Service Costs
- Number of uses of online content
- Number of issues resolved online by peers
- Increased customer satisfaction (a qualitative value)
bull Reduced Product Development Costs
- Number of ideas gatheredimplemented
- Compare previous cycle cost to present
- Reduced cost due to beta
bull Increased SEO
- Google your brandproduct
bull Increased Leads from Campaign
- Number of leads from digital channels
- Compare percentage conversion compared to cold calling
Calculating the ROI of social engagements is a hotly debated topicNo matter how successful a venture it is very difficult to justifyadding additional resources and growing a program without a clearROI
When evaluating the success of your efforts increased brandvisibility should be considered a return even if it is hard to measurein monetary terms In the long run it will become increasingly moreapparent
Utilizing social media monitoring a marketer can easily gatherqualitative information that previously was only available throughfocus groups taking reporting beyond a quantitative exercise All ofthat content is embedded in the social web and is free and easilyaccessible A beta allows you to not only gather more feedback butalso build anticipation about the future release
Here is a specific lsquohow-torsquo for calculating ROI beyond thesuggestions mentioned in parts (a) ndash (d) above
1 Decide on the objective (it needs to be measurable)
2 What is the increase or decrease change in behavior that is wanted
You need to know the value of increment
3 Measure the baseline
4 After a given period (or campaign time) take the measurement
5 Calculate the ROI based on the cost of resources
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
As with all business endeavors reporting should be done on a regular basis The following items shouldbe included in a social media report
bull Report on Objectives
bull Qualitative
ndash Trends in topics
ndash Sentiment
ndash Insight and specific quotes
ndash Discovery of new communities
bull Quantitative (KPIrsquos)
ndash Benchmark based on previous report
ndash Daily Volume (percentage increase or decrease)
ndash Share of Voice for your brand across channels
ndash Share of Voice for Brand and Competitors
ndash Date Comparisonsndash (percentage increase or decrease)
bull Web Analytics
bull Recommendations based on
ndash Campaign results
ndash Customer feedback
e Refine and Repeat
The social web is moving at a rapid pace and this is one of its best aspects Because social mediamarketing is so new itrsquos still quite experimental Keeping this in mind will help you grow your socialengagement Here are five tips for making sure that you donrsquot lose the momentum
bull Fail Fast ndash You may make mistakes and that is acceptable Understand what went wrong and revise
bull Learn from Mistakes ndash This is a given for every business endeavor Review and refine
bull Build on What Worked ndash Generally there are many aspects that went very well and there will be unexpected successes Build on them
bullGrow the Engagement ndash Brainstorm how you can expand the strategy to incorporate more objectives How can other areas of your business benefit from social engagement
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bullGet More Teams Involved and Provide Training ndash Other teams in your organization will want to participate in social efforts as they realize the value Encourage them by exploring how social media can help them meet their business objectives and empower them by providing training
A periodic social media campaign will not result in creating a social business A number of factors canimpede a company from becoming a social business The biggest one is fear Many executives donrsquotunderstand the value of the social web management is often concerned that staff will waste too muchtime on social networks and the IT department is usually concerned with spam and problems thatsocial networks may cause As a result social networks are blocked in many companies The best way toovercome this is to educate the executive level and ensure that social media policies and staff trainingare in place
The social web offers the most advantages to a global company but it also creates additionalchallenges Many companies are geography-based while the web is global and never sleeps Inaddition to time zones languages create challenges for listening and responding
An organization cannot fully leverage the social web until it has undergone a culture shift and hasempowered the appropriate staff to interact on the web Consumers want to interact directly withbrands and provide feedback The larger the organization the more challenging it is to facilitatecommunication This transition wonrsquot evolve without someone driving it and many brands require aninternal position to guide and champion its social media strategy The CommunitySocial Strategyposition works holistically and cross-functionally ensuring that all departments leverage social media ina way that meets its teamrsquos objectives
The community strategy role
bull Defines a plan to empower staff
bull Reviews all customer touch points and ensures frictionless engagement
bull Reviews all departments and provides recommendations and training on ways teams can utilize social to meet objectives
The diagram to the right shows how communitybuilding assists in moving customers through thesales funnel over time Social channels can beused to build brand awareness and enable theconversion Once the sale is made customerservice is of utmost importance There is a newopportunity to cross sell and upsellCrowdsourcing the social web provides feedbackfor product development
3 Operationalizing Social Media ndash the Social Media Strategist
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The ROI of social media
Over time utilizing social media should deliver
bull Increased word of mouth resulting in reduced PR marketing and advertising spend because acquisition costs are lower
bull Higher quality leads that have a higher percentage of converting since warm leads mean savings on cold calling
bull The ability to provide excellent customer service in the channels that consumers prefer leading to a lower abandonment rate and much higher loyalty
bull A shorter sales cycle while the customer life cycle grows longer
bull Reduces product development costs by utilizing feedback from the social web
bull Increased sales and demand since listening provides insight into what consumers want
The social web offers a multitude of opportunities for companies toengage with consumers Listening is the first step in identifying whatbusiness objectives can be met and used to guide the creation of acomprehensive social media strategy Planning the strategy based on apercent increase or decrease in the desired behavior will provide a basisfor the metrics and a solid foundation for integrating content marketingwith online engagement efforts in order to build word of mouthInteracting in communities will identify advocates and evangelists thatcan support your brand
Measurement and reporting on a regular basisare imperative for ensuring that your effortswill be funded and allowed to grow Evaluateefforts and refine them on an ongoing basis
Finally continued listening will create a cultureshift as the organization adopts social habitsCreating a role for someone to coordinateand facilitate social efforts maximizesrevenues and minimizes losses Over time acomprehensive listening strategy will impactmany areas of the organization Companiessuch as Pepsi and Dell are setting the bar bycreating Listening Mission Control CentersTake a look at the future Gatoradersquos MissionControl
Conclusion
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
About the ldquoLetrsquosTalkrdquo Series withConnie Bensen
Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers Thesocial web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most costeffective and efficient manner A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digitalportion of your marketing budget in order to create execute measure and report on a social mediastrategy
The Lets Talk Series by Connie Bensen is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways thatmarketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts Topics will include how to use a social mediamonitoring tool for SEO Lead Generation Social Media campaigns Customer Service CompetitiveInsight Corporate marketing PR and reputation management etc
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian which provides marketingsoftware to help brands engage with their customers She is a key voice amongst online CommunityManagers Her blog wwwconniebensencom is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating onlinecommunities providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbescom as one of the 20Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women
Alterianrsquos SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR andMarketing professionals SM2 helps you track conversations review positivenegativesentiment for your brand clients competitors and partners across social media channelssuch as blogs wikis micro-blogs social networks videophoto sharing sites and real-timealerts
Alterian (LSE ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant effective and engaging experiences withtheir audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand through the use of theAlterian Integrated Marketing Platform Alterian drives the transformation of marketing andcommunications making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannelengagement with the individual
Alterianrsquos unprecedented integration of analytics content and execution through industry leading toolssuch as the Dynamic Messenger email platform SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the awardwinning Content Management solutions enables companies to build integrated communication strategieswhich create a true picture of the individual
Alterian works with marketing services partners system integrators and agencies who recognize the needto plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients For moreinformation about Alterian products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterianrsquos PartnerNetwork visit wwwalteriancom or the Alterian blog at wwwengagingtimescom
About Alterian
SM2 Social MediaMonitoring (SMM)
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bull Reduced spend on PR Marketing and Advertising
- Decrease in PPC Adwords and traditional marketing due to increased organic SEO
bull Increased Brand Visibility
- Amount of increased conversation over previous period
bull Increased Sales
- Overlay sales performance on volume of conversation
bull Reduced Customer Service Costs
- Number of uses of online content
- Number of issues resolved online by peers
- Increased customer satisfaction (a qualitative value)
bull Reduced Product Development Costs
- Number of ideas gatheredimplemented
- Compare previous cycle cost to present
- Reduced cost due to beta
bull Increased SEO
- Google your brandproduct
bull Increased Leads from Campaign
- Number of leads from digital channels
- Compare percentage conversion compared to cold calling
Calculating the ROI of social engagements is a hotly debated topicNo matter how successful a venture it is very difficult to justifyadding additional resources and growing a program without a clearROI
When evaluating the success of your efforts increased brandvisibility should be considered a return even if it is hard to measurein monetary terms In the long run it will become increasingly moreapparent
Utilizing social media monitoring a marketer can easily gatherqualitative information that previously was only available throughfocus groups taking reporting beyond a quantitative exercise All ofthat content is embedded in the social web and is free and easilyaccessible A beta allows you to not only gather more feedback butalso build anticipation about the future release
Here is a specific lsquohow-torsquo for calculating ROI beyond thesuggestions mentioned in parts (a) ndash (d) above
1 Decide on the objective (it needs to be measurable)
2 What is the increase or decrease change in behavior that is wanted
You need to know the value of increment
3 Measure the baseline
4 After a given period (or campaign time) take the measurement
5 Calculate the ROI based on the cost of resources
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
As with all business endeavors reporting should be done on a regular basis The following items shouldbe included in a social media report
bull Report on Objectives
bull Qualitative
ndash Trends in topics
ndash Sentiment
ndash Insight and specific quotes
ndash Discovery of new communities
bull Quantitative (KPIrsquos)
ndash Benchmark based on previous report
ndash Daily Volume (percentage increase or decrease)
ndash Share of Voice for your brand across channels
ndash Share of Voice for Brand and Competitors
ndash Date Comparisonsndash (percentage increase or decrease)
bull Web Analytics
bull Recommendations based on
ndash Campaign results
ndash Customer feedback
e Refine and Repeat
The social web is moving at a rapid pace and this is one of its best aspects Because social mediamarketing is so new itrsquos still quite experimental Keeping this in mind will help you grow your socialengagement Here are five tips for making sure that you donrsquot lose the momentum
bull Fail Fast ndash You may make mistakes and that is acceptable Understand what went wrong and revise
bull Learn from Mistakes ndash This is a given for every business endeavor Review and refine
bull Build on What Worked ndash Generally there are many aspects that went very well and there will be unexpected successes Build on them
bullGrow the Engagement ndash Brainstorm how you can expand the strategy to incorporate more objectives How can other areas of your business benefit from social engagement
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bullGet More Teams Involved and Provide Training ndash Other teams in your organization will want to participate in social efforts as they realize the value Encourage them by exploring how social media can help them meet their business objectives and empower them by providing training
A periodic social media campaign will not result in creating a social business A number of factors canimpede a company from becoming a social business The biggest one is fear Many executives donrsquotunderstand the value of the social web management is often concerned that staff will waste too muchtime on social networks and the IT department is usually concerned with spam and problems thatsocial networks may cause As a result social networks are blocked in many companies The best way toovercome this is to educate the executive level and ensure that social media policies and staff trainingare in place
The social web offers the most advantages to a global company but it also creates additionalchallenges Many companies are geography-based while the web is global and never sleeps Inaddition to time zones languages create challenges for listening and responding
An organization cannot fully leverage the social web until it has undergone a culture shift and hasempowered the appropriate staff to interact on the web Consumers want to interact directly withbrands and provide feedback The larger the organization the more challenging it is to facilitatecommunication This transition wonrsquot evolve without someone driving it and many brands require aninternal position to guide and champion its social media strategy The CommunitySocial Strategyposition works holistically and cross-functionally ensuring that all departments leverage social media ina way that meets its teamrsquos objectives
The community strategy role
bull Defines a plan to empower staff
bull Reviews all customer touch points and ensures frictionless engagement
bull Reviews all departments and provides recommendations and training on ways teams can utilize social to meet objectives
The diagram to the right shows how communitybuilding assists in moving customers through thesales funnel over time Social channels can beused to build brand awareness and enable theconversion Once the sale is made customerservice is of utmost importance There is a newopportunity to cross sell and upsellCrowdsourcing the social web provides feedbackfor product development
3 Operationalizing Social Media ndash the Social Media Strategist
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The ROI of social media
Over time utilizing social media should deliver
bull Increased word of mouth resulting in reduced PR marketing and advertising spend because acquisition costs are lower
bull Higher quality leads that have a higher percentage of converting since warm leads mean savings on cold calling
bull The ability to provide excellent customer service in the channels that consumers prefer leading to a lower abandonment rate and much higher loyalty
bull A shorter sales cycle while the customer life cycle grows longer
bull Reduces product development costs by utilizing feedback from the social web
bull Increased sales and demand since listening provides insight into what consumers want
The social web offers a multitude of opportunities for companies toengage with consumers Listening is the first step in identifying whatbusiness objectives can be met and used to guide the creation of acomprehensive social media strategy Planning the strategy based on apercent increase or decrease in the desired behavior will provide a basisfor the metrics and a solid foundation for integrating content marketingwith online engagement efforts in order to build word of mouthInteracting in communities will identify advocates and evangelists thatcan support your brand
Measurement and reporting on a regular basisare imperative for ensuring that your effortswill be funded and allowed to grow Evaluateefforts and refine them on an ongoing basis
Finally continued listening will create a cultureshift as the organization adopts social habitsCreating a role for someone to coordinateand facilitate social efforts maximizesrevenues and minimizes losses Over time acomprehensive listening strategy will impactmany areas of the organization Companiessuch as Pepsi and Dell are setting the bar bycreating Listening Mission Control CentersTake a look at the future Gatoradersquos MissionControl
Conclusion
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
About the ldquoLetrsquosTalkrdquo Series withConnie Bensen
Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers Thesocial web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most costeffective and efficient manner A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digitalportion of your marketing budget in order to create execute measure and report on a social mediastrategy
The Lets Talk Series by Connie Bensen is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways thatmarketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts Topics will include how to use a social mediamonitoring tool for SEO Lead Generation Social Media campaigns Customer Service CompetitiveInsight Corporate marketing PR and reputation management etc
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian which provides marketingsoftware to help brands engage with their customers She is a key voice amongst online CommunityManagers Her blog wwwconniebensencom is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating onlinecommunities providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbescom as one of the 20Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women
Alterianrsquos SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR andMarketing professionals SM2 helps you track conversations review positivenegativesentiment for your brand clients competitors and partners across social media channelssuch as blogs wikis micro-blogs social networks videophoto sharing sites and real-timealerts
Alterian (LSE ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant effective and engaging experiences withtheir audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand through the use of theAlterian Integrated Marketing Platform Alterian drives the transformation of marketing andcommunications making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannelengagement with the individual
Alterianrsquos unprecedented integration of analytics content and execution through industry leading toolssuch as the Dynamic Messenger email platform SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the awardwinning Content Management solutions enables companies to build integrated communication strategieswhich create a true picture of the individual
Alterian works with marketing services partners system integrators and agencies who recognize the needto plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients For moreinformation about Alterian products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterianrsquos PartnerNetwork visit wwwalteriancom or the Alterian blog at wwwengagingtimescom
About Alterian
SM2 Social MediaMonitoring (SMM)
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
As with all business endeavors reporting should be done on a regular basis The following items shouldbe included in a social media report
bull Report on Objectives
bull Qualitative
ndash Trends in topics
ndash Sentiment
ndash Insight and specific quotes
ndash Discovery of new communities
bull Quantitative (KPIrsquos)
ndash Benchmark based on previous report
ndash Daily Volume (percentage increase or decrease)
ndash Share of Voice for your brand across channels
ndash Share of Voice for Brand and Competitors
ndash Date Comparisonsndash (percentage increase or decrease)
bull Web Analytics
bull Recommendations based on
ndash Campaign results
ndash Customer feedback
e Refine and Repeat
The social web is moving at a rapid pace and this is one of its best aspects Because social mediamarketing is so new itrsquos still quite experimental Keeping this in mind will help you grow your socialengagement Here are five tips for making sure that you donrsquot lose the momentum
bull Fail Fast ndash You may make mistakes and that is acceptable Understand what went wrong and revise
bull Learn from Mistakes ndash This is a given for every business endeavor Review and refine
bull Build on What Worked ndash Generally there are many aspects that went very well and there will be unexpected successes Build on them
bullGrow the Engagement ndash Brainstorm how you can expand the strategy to incorporate more objectives How can other areas of your business benefit from social engagement
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bullGet More Teams Involved and Provide Training ndash Other teams in your organization will want to participate in social efforts as they realize the value Encourage them by exploring how social media can help them meet their business objectives and empower them by providing training
A periodic social media campaign will not result in creating a social business A number of factors canimpede a company from becoming a social business The biggest one is fear Many executives donrsquotunderstand the value of the social web management is often concerned that staff will waste too muchtime on social networks and the IT department is usually concerned with spam and problems thatsocial networks may cause As a result social networks are blocked in many companies The best way toovercome this is to educate the executive level and ensure that social media policies and staff trainingare in place
The social web offers the most advantages to a global company but it also creates additionalchallenges Many companies are geography-based while the web is global and never sleeps Inaddition to time zones languages create challenges for listening and responding
An organization cannot fully leverage the social web until it has undergone a culture shift and hasempowered the appropriate staff to interact on the web Consumers want to interact directly withbrands and provide feedback The larger the organization the more challenging it is to facilitatecommunication This transition wonrsquot evolve without someone driving it and many brands require aninternal position to guide and champion its social media strategy The CommunitySocial Strategyposition works holistically and cross-functionally ensuring that all departments leverage social media ina way that meets its teamrsquos objectives
The community strategy role
bull Defines a plan to empower staff
bull Reviews all customer touch points and ensures frictionless engagement
bull Reviews all departments and provides recommendations and training on ways teams can utilize social to meet objectives
The diagram to the right shows how communitybuilding assists in moving customers through thesales funnel over time Social channels can beused to build brand awareness and enable theconversion Once the sale is made customerservice is of utmost importance There is a newopportunity to cross sell and upsellCrowdsourcing the social web provides feedbackfor product development
3 Operationalizing Social Media ndash the Social Media Strategist
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The ROI of social media
Over time utilizing social media should deliver
bull Increased word of mouth resulting in reduced PR marketing and advertising spend because acquisition costs are lower
bull Higher quality leads that have a higher percentage of converting since warm leads mean savings on cold calling
bull The ability to provide excellent customer service in the channels that consumers prefer leading to a lower abandonment rate and much higher loyalty
bull A shorter sales cycle while the customer life cycle grows longer
bull Reduces product development costs by utilizing feedback from the social web
bull Increased sales and demand since listening provides insight into what consumers want
The social web offers a multitude of opportunities for companies toengage with consumers Listening is the first step in identifying whatbusiness objectives can be met and used to guide the creation of acomprehensive social media strategy Planning the strategy based on apercent increase or decrease in the desired behavior will provide a basisfor the metrics and a solid foundation for integrating content marketingwith online engagement efforts in order to build word of mouthInteracting in communities will identify advocates and evangelists thatcan support your brand
Measurement and reporting on a regular basisare imperative for ensuring that your effortswill be funded and allowed to grow Evaluateefforts and refine them on an ongoing basis
Finally continued listening will create a cultureshift as the organization adopts social habitsCreating a role for someone to coordinateand facilitate social efforts maximizesrevenues and minimizes losses Over time acomprehensive listening strategy will impactmany areas of the organization Companiessuch as Pepsi and Dell are setting the bar bycreating Listening Mission Control CentersTake a look at the future Gatoradersquos MissionControl
Conclusion
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
About the ldquoLetrsquosTalkrdquo Series withConnie Bensen
Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers Thesocial web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most costeffective and efficient manner A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digitalportion of your marketing budget in order to create execute measure and report on a social mediastrategy
The Lets Talk Series by Connie Bensen is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways thatmarketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts Topics will include how to use a social mediamonitoring tool for SEO Lead Generation Social Media campaigns Customer Service CompetitiveInsight Corporate marketing PR and reputation management etc
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian which provides marketingsoftware to help brands engage with their customers She is a key voice amongst online CommunityManagers Her blog wwwconniebensencom is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating onlinecommunities providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbescom as one of the 20Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women
Alterianrsquos SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR andMarketing professionals SM2 helps you track conversations review positivenegativesentiment for your brand clients competitors and partners across social media channelssuch as blogs wikis micro-blogs social networks videophoto sharing sites and real-timealerts
Alterian (LSE ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant effective and engaging experiences withtheir audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand through the use of theAlterian Integrated Marketing Platform Alterian drives the transformation of marketing andcommunications making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannelengagement with the individual
Alterianrsquos unprecedented integration of analytics content and execution through industry leading toolssuch as the Dynamic Messenger email platform SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the awardwinning Content Management solutions enables companies to build integrated communication strategieswhich create a true picture of the individual
Alterian works with marketing services partners system integrators and agencies who recognize the needto plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients For moreinformation about Alterian products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterianrsquos PartnerNetwork visit wwwalteriancom or the Alterian blog at wwwengagingtimescom
About Alterian
SM2 Social MediaMonitoring (SMM)
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
bullGet More Teams Involved and Provide Training ndash Other teams in your organization will want to participate in social efforts as they realize the value Encourage them by exploring how social media can help them meet their business objectives and empower them by providing training
A periodic social media campaign will not result in creating a social business A number of factors canimpede a company from becoming a social business The biggest one is fear Many executives donrsquotunderstand the value of the social web management is often concerned that staff will waste too muchtime on social networks and the IT department is usually concerned with spam and problems thatsocial networks may cause As a result social networks are blocked in many companies The best way toovercome this is to educate the executive level and ensure that social media policies and staff trainingare in place
The social web offers the most advantages to a global company but it also creates additionalchallenges Many companies are geography-based while the web is global and never sleeps Inaddition to time zones languages create challenges for listening and responding
An organization cannot fully leverage the social web until it has undergone a culture shift and hasempowered the appropriate staff to interact on the web Consumers want to interact directly withbrands and provide feedback The larger the organization the more challenging it is to facilitatecommunication This transition wonrsquot evolve without someone driving it and many brands require aninternal position to guide and champion its social media strategy The CommunitySocial Strategyposition works holistically and cross-functionally ensuring that all departments leverage social media ina way that meets its teamrsquos objectives
The community strategy role
bull Defines a plan to empower staff
bull Reviews all customer touch points and ensures frictionless engagement
bull Reviews all departments and provides recommendations and training on ways teams can utilize social to meet objectives
The diagram to the right shows how communitybuilding assists in moving customers through thesales funnel over time Social channels can beused to build brand awareness and enable theconversion Once the sale is made customerservice is of utmost importance There is a newopportunity to cross sell and upsellCrowdsourcing the social web provides feedbackfor product development
3 Operationalizing Social Media ndash the Social Media Strategist
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The ROI of social media
Over time utilizing social media should deliver
bull Increased word of mouth resulting in reduced PR marketing and advertising spend because acquisition costs are lower
bull Higher quality leads that have a higher percentage of converting since warm leads mean savings on cold calling
bull The ability to provide excellent customer service in the channels that consumers prefer leading to a lower abandonment rate and much higher loyalty
bull A shorter sales cycle while the customer life cycle grows longer
bull Reduces product development costs by utilizing feedback from the social web
bull Increased sales and demand since listening provides insight into what consumers want
The social web offers a multitude of opportunities for companies toengage with consumers Listening is the first step in identifying whatbusiness objectives can be met and used to guide the creation of acomprehensive social media strategy Planning the strategy based on apercent increase or decrease in the desired behavior will provide a basisfor the metrics and a solid foundation for integrating content marketingwith online engagement efforts in order to build word of mouthInteracting in communities will identify advocates and evangelists thatcan support your brand
Measurement and reporting on a regular basisare imperative for ensuring that your effortswill be funded and allowed to grow Evaluateefforts and refine them on an ongoing basis
Finally continued listening will create a cultureshift as the organization adopts social habitsCreating a role for someone to coordinateand facilitate social efforts maximizesrevenues and minimizes losses Over time acomprehensive listening strategy will impactmany areas of the organization Companiessuch as Pepsi and Dell are setting the bar bycreating Listening Mission Control CentersTake a look at the future Gatoradersquos MissionControl
Conclusion
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
About the ldquoLetrsquosTalkrdquo Series withConnie Bensen
Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers Thesocial web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most costeffective and efficient manner A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digitalportion of your marketing budget in order to create execute measure and report on a social mediastrategy
The Lets Talk Series by Connie Bensen is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways thatmarketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts Topics will include how to use a social mediamonitoring tool for SEO Lead Generation Social Media campaigns Customer Service CompetitiveInsight Corporate marketing PR and reputation management etc
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian which provides marketingsoftware to help brands engage with their customers She is a key voice amongst online CommunityManagers Her blog wwwconniebensencom is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating onlinecommunities providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbescom as one of the 20Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women
Alterianrsquos SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR andMarketing professionals SM2 helps you track conversations review positivenegativesentiment for your brand clients competitors and partners across social media channelssuch as blogs wikis micro-blogs social networks videophoto sharing sites and real-timealerts
Alterian (LSE ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant effective and engaging experiences withtheir audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand through the use of theAlterian Integrated Marketing Platform Alterian drives the transformation of marketing andcommunications making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannelengagement with the individual
Alterianrsquos unprecedented integration of analytics content and execution through industry leading toolssuch as the Dynamic Messenger email platform SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the awardwinning Content Management solutions enables companies to build integrated communication strategieswhich create a true picture of the individual
Alterian works with marketing services partners system integrators and agencies who recognize the needto plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients For moreinformation about Alterian products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterianrsquos PartnerNetwork visit wwwalteriancom or the Alterian blog at wwwengagingtimescom
About Alterian
SM2 Social MediaMonitoring (SMM)
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
The ROI of social media
Over time utilizing social media should deliver
bull Increased word of mouth resulting in reduced PR marketing and advertising spend because acquisition costs are lower
bull Higher quality leads that have a higher percentage of converting since warm leads mean savings on cold calling
bull The ability to provide excellent customer service in the channels that consumers prefer leading to a lower abandonment rate and much higher loyalty
bull A shorter sales cycle while the customer life cycle grows longer
bull Reduces product development costs by utilizing feedback from the social web
bull Increased sales and demand since listening provides insight into what consumers want
The social web offers a multitude of opportunities for companies toengage with consumers Listening is the first step in identifying whatbusiness objectives can be met and used to guide the creation of acomprehensive social media strategy Planning the strategy based on apercent increase or decrease in the desired behavior will provide a basisfor the metrics and a solid foundation for integrating content marketingwith online engagement efforts in order to build word of mouthInteracting in communities will identify advocates and evangelists thatcan support your brand
Measurement and reporting on a regular basisare imperative for ensuring that your effortswill be funded and allowed to grow Evaluateefforts and refine them on an ongoing basis
Finally continued listening will create a cultureshift as the organization adopts social habitsCreating a role for someone to coordinateand facilitate social efforts maximizesrevenues and minimizes losses Over time acomprehensive listening strategy will impactmany areas of the organization Companiessuch as Pepsi and Dell are setting the bar bycreating Listening Mission Control CentersTake a look at the future Gatoradersquos MissionControl
Conclusion
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
About the ldquoLetrsquosTalkrdquo Series withConnie Bensen
Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers Thesocial web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most costeffective and efficient manner A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digitalportion of your marketing budget in order to create execute measure and report on a social mediastrategy
The Lets Talk Series by Connie Bensen is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways thatmarketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts Topics will include how to use a social mediamonitoring tool for SEO Lead Generation Social Media campaigns Customer Service CompetitiveInsight Corporate marketing PR and reputation management etc
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian which provides marketingsoftware to help brands engage with their customers She is a key voice amongst online CommunityManagers Her blog wwwconniebensencom is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating onlinecommunities providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbescom as one of the 20Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women
Alterianrsquos SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR andMarketing professionals SM2 helps you track conversations review positivenegativesentiment for your brand clients competitors and partners across social media channelssuch as blogs wikis micro-blogs social networks videophoto sharing sites and real-timealerts
Alterian (LSE ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant effective and engaging experiences withtheir audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand through the use of theAlterian Integrated Marketing Platform Alterian drives the transformation of marketing andcommunications making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannelengagement with the individual
Alterianrsquos unprecedented integration of analytics content and execution through industry leading toolssuch as the Dynamic Messenger email platform SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the awardwinning Content Management solutions enables companies to build integrated communication strategieswhich create a true picture of the individual
Alterian works with marketing services partners system integrators and agencies who recognize the needto plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients For moreinformation about Alterian products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterianrsquos PartnerNetwork visit wwwalteriancom or the Alterian blog at wwwengagingtimescom
About Alterian
SM2 Social MediaMonitoring (SMM)
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
copy 2010 Alterian All trademarks belong to their respective owners
The ROI of Integrating Social Media into your Business Model
Creating a Social Business through Listening
About the ldquoLetrsquosTalkrdquo Series withConnie Bensen
Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers Thesocial web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most costeffective and efficient manner A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digitalportion of your marketing budget in order to create execute measure and report on a social mediastrategy
The Lets Talk Series by Connie Bensen is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways thatmarketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts Topics will include how to use a social mediamonitoring tool for SEO Lead Generation Social Media campaigns Customer Service CompetitiveInsight Corporate marketing PR and reputation management etc
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian which provides marketingsoftware to help brands engage with their customers She is a key voice amongst online CommunityManagers Her blog wwwconniebensencom is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating onlinecommunities providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbescom as one of the 20Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women
Alterianrsquos SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR andMarketing professionals SM2 helps you track conversations review positivenegativesentiment for your brand clients competitors and partners across social media channelssuch as blogs wikis micro-blogs social networks videophoto sharing sites and real-timealerts
Alterian (LSE ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant effective and engaging experiences withtheir audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand through the use of theAlterian Integrated Marketing Platform Alterian drives the transformation of marketing andcommunications making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannelengagement with the individual
Alterianrsquos unprecedented integration of analytics content and execution through industry leading toolssuch as the Dynamic Messenger email platform SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the awardwinning Content Management solutions enables companies to build integrated communication strategieswhich create a true picture of the individual
Alterian works with marketing services partners system integrators and agencies who recognize the needto plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients For moreinformation about Alterian products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterianrsquos PartnerNetwork visit wwwalteriancom or the Alterian blog at wwwengagingtimescom
About Alterian
SM2 Social MediaMonitoring (SMM)
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
Corporate Headquarters
T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
Continental Europe Headquarters
T +31 (0) 35 625 7890
North American Headquarters
T +1 312 704 1700
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
T +61 (2) 9968 2449
Other Contacts
Website wwwalteriancom
Email infoalteriancom
Twitter Alterian
YouTube wwwyoutubecomuserEngagingTimesLive
uStream wwwustreamtvchannelalterian-s-engaging-times-live
LinkedIn wwwlinkedincomgroupsgid=1823072
SlideShare wwwslidesharenetAlterian
iTunes Alterianrsquos Leadership Series
Blogs wwwEngagingTimescom
wwwTheMarketingMojocom
wwwConnieBensencom
E infoalteriancomW wwwalteriancom
copy Alterian 2010
White Paper
Related Documents
