“How Strong Is My Organization’s Social Media Strategy?” Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy
“How Strong Is My Organization’s Social Media Strategy?”
Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy
Nine Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy | 2013 The Brainzooming Group | www.Brainzooming.com 1
“How Strong Is My Organization’s Social Media Strategy?” 9 Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy
Whether your organization is well underway in implementing social media and networking within your business or is just starting, it’s smart to review your strategy to see where you are and where your organization is headed.
While a strategic review can be time consuming, it’s also possible to get a solid, strategic sense of your performance on key issues in a relatively short period of time.
The Brainzooming Group developed these nine social media strategy diagnostics to allow executives to perform a high‐level assessment of an organization’s social media approach in three key areas:
Strategy and Metrics
People
Content, Activation, and Engagement
As you work through these diagnostics, please contact us with any questions you have. We’d be happy to discuss the strategic thinking behind the diagnostics and how they translate into stronger results for your social media effort.
Mike Brown Founder The Brainzooming Group
Email: [email protected] Phone: 816‐509‐5320 Blog: www.Brainzooming.com Subscribe to our free blog: http://ow.ly/olot1 Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/brainzooming (@Brainzooming)
Page Strategy and Metrics
1. Identifying Potential Social Media Opportunities 2 2. Uncovering Social Media Strategy Roadblocks in Your Business Environment 3 3. Highlighting Gaps in Your Social Media Metrics Dashboard 4
People 4. Evaluating the Collaborative Nature of Your Social Media Effort 5 5. Determining If the Right People are Managing Your Social Media Sharing 6
Content, Activation, and Engagement 6. Assessing a Brand’s Personality on Social Media 7 7. Identifying Missed Opportunities for Creating and Sharing Content 8 8. Determining New Social Media Activation Opportunities 9 9. Reviewing Your Social Media Updates for Customer Engagement Possibilities 10
Social Media Strategy Framework 11
Nine Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy | 2013 The Brainzooming Group | www.Brainzooming.com 2
1. Identifying Potential Social Media Opportunities Objective: Identifying new ways to fully exploit social networking’s value Applies to: New and Current Efforts Use: Compare current and potential opportunities to look for opportunities Next Step: Evaluate changes and enhancements to the current strategy
Impact Areas Potential Social Media‐Related Opportunities Using Now? Potential Use?
Increasing Business Growth
• Indirect Revenue Growth – Opportunities to integrate social media into planned campaigns and further support revenue growth objectives.
Yes Yes
• Direct Revenue Growth – Planned or new opportunities for social media to contribute to revenue growth.
Yes Yes
Strengthening Customer Relationships
• Reaching New Audiences – Help reach non‐traditional segments and demographic groups.
Yes Yes
Improving Buying Behaviors
• Repeat Purchases ‐ Increased frequency of use. Yes Yes
• Stronger Product Mix ‐ Consumers trading up within and/or across product lines
Yes Yes
Targeting Messages
• Reinforcing Brand Messages ‐ Positive messaging / goodwill for a brand.
Yes Yes
• Content Marketing – Sharing expertise and insights to enhance brand perceptions.
Yes Yes
Enhancing Interactivity
• Audience Engagement ‐ Participating in audience conversations to drive innovation, product usage, etc.
Yes Yes
Creating Efficient Capabilities
• Capabilities – Building infrastructure for social media to meaningfully contribute to business objectives.
Yes Yes
OTHERS YOU’RE USING
Nine Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy | 2013 The Brainzooming Group | www.Brainzooming.com 3
2. Uncovering Social Media Strategy Roadblocks in Your Business Environment
Objective: Identifying characteristics of the business environment that will impact a robust social networking strategy Applies to: New Efforts Use: Anticipate and plan the social media strategy to account for the business
environment Next Step: Identify strategies to maximize the impact of social media implementation
Potential Business Environment Challenges
To what extent are these issues in your organization? Not Minor Major
• Our culture doesn’t readily share information
O O O
• Senior execs talk about social media in urgent generalities
O O O
• Concern about the power customers have over our brand
O O O
• Our business is concentrated with relatively few customers
O O O
• A distrust of employees and the judgment they use
O O O
• Overconfidence in our senior management team’s judgment
O O O
• Disconnects between parts of the organization that touch customers
O O O
• Inaccessible (or uninterested, uncooperative, etc.) content owners
O O O
• Slow & unpredictable approval times for traditional communications
O O O
• Multiple layers of approval for most communications materials
O O O
• Regulatory pressures which limit open interactions with customers
O O O
• No one on the internal legal team understands how social media might contribute to the business
O O O
Nine Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy | 2013 The Brainzooming Group | www.Brainzooming.com 4
3. Highlighting Gaps in Your Social Media Metrics Dashboard
Objective: Develop a robust set of metrics related to the social media strategy that reflects the using a content marketing funnel strategy
Applies to: New and Current Efforts Use: Organize current metrics within the framework, and identify additional
opportunities to develop metrics to measure returns from social media Next Step: As needed, reorient your social media metrics, including taking steps to
develop whole brain metrics not currently in place
Whole Brain Metrics Framework
Top of the Funnel Middle of the Funnel Bottom of the Funnel
Activity Social Media Actions: blogging, tweeting,
posting, promoting, etc.
InteractiveWays your audience is engaging with your presence: following, commenting, liking, sharing content,
exchanging information for content assets
ResultsDirect or indirect
realization of revenue (and supporting
activities), cost reduction (along with supporting activities), and other financial metrics
Quantitative Metrics
Qualitative Metrics
For more information on Whole Brain Metrics, download the white paper
from The Brainzooming Group: http://brainzooming.com/resources/socialmediaroi/
Nine Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy | 2013 The Brainzooming Group | www.Brainzooming.com 5
4. Evaluating the Collaborative Nature of Your Social Media Effort
Objective: Evaluate the degree of true collaboration within your social media effort Applies to: Current Efforts Use: Assess whether the social media effort is simply incorporating multiple
authors (individual authors creating content with few/no guidelines) or realizing the benefits of a truly collaborative approach (multiple content creators working under some central direction)
Next Step: Identify key opportunities and migrate the social media effort in a more collaborative direction
Assessing How Collaborative and Coordinated a Social Media Effort Is Multi‐Author Fully Collaborative Target Audience O O O O O
Vague sense of target audience
Well‐developed audience persona
Content Guidelines O O O O O
Minimal direction on content creation
Team trained on content creation
Writing Styles O O O O O
Varied, uncoordinated writing styles
Individual writing styles are coordinated
Editorial Planning O O O O O
No overarching editorial plan
Coordinated, strategic content mix
Editing O O O O O
Ad hoc editing Designated editor(s)
Content Mgmt O O O O O
No tools to support multiple authors
Applications to support multiple authors
Schedule O O O O O
Challenges to meeting publishing schedule
Planned calendar with extra content available
Nine Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy | 2013 The Brainzooming Group | www.Brainzooming.com 6
5. Determining If the Right People are Managing Your Social Media Sharing
Objective: Ensure the strongest person(s) are managing social media sharing Applies to: New and Current Efforts Use: Determine what weak spots to address with the individual(s) handling
social sharing to ensure the best brand impact Next Step: Look to training, additional participants, and staffing changes to address
any shortfalls
Is Your Corporate Social Media Person Ready?
Would you depend on the person your brand has doing social media to…?
Completely trust them
Somewhat trust them
“OMG…Never!
Actively participate in a joint sales call on your largest customer or prospect?
3 2 1
Review your brand standards document for typos and for real strategic brand errors?
3 2 1
Speak about your brand and what it represents to a large group of employees?
3 2 1
Work a customer service shift with minimal supervision?
3 2 1
Credibly summarize your business, what you do, and discuss its size, scope, and prospects with a group of potential investors?
3 2 1
Have a conversation with a competitor without disclosing any proprietary or otherwise damaging information?
3 2 1
Be interviewed by a national (or even local) TV reporter who is doing an unfavorable profile about your company?
3 2 1
TOTAL SCORE:
Evaluating the scores: • 17 – 21: You have a strong candidate to be handling social media updates for your organization. • 13 – 16: This person has real potential for social media success, but there are some fundamental
brand‐related areas which need development. • 12 or under: Maybe this person’s a blogger where you have time to edit and make sure they’re
aligned with your brand, but don’t put them behind a Twitter or Facebook account….EVER!
Nine Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy | 2013 The Brainzooming Group | www.Brainzooming.com 7
6. Assessing a Brand’s Personality on Social Media
Objective: Performing a self‐check on social media content to ensure it conveys an appropriate level of brand personality
Applies to: Current Efforts Use: Assess a sampling of your social media content relative to the questions
and determine if it is truly “social” Next Step: Perform a comparable check on your competitors and determine if you
need to inject more personality into your brand’s social media content
Yes NoOur social media content suggests an overriding emotion.
2 0
The attitude of our brand’s employees is clear in our social media content.
2 0
The ways our people go above & beyond to help customers is clearly suggested.
2 0
This content’s tone suggests it could be shared in a genuine conversation or letter exchange with someone familiar to the author.
2 0
The content reflects the level of familiarity customers or potential customers would expect when they deal with our employees in person.
2 0
There is a spark of imagination and spirit in our social media content.
2 0
The information we share via social media would pass the straight face test.
2 0
The tone and delivery of the social media content treats the reader with respect.
2 0
The reader will be enriched both intellectually and emotionally.
2 0
People would legitimately want to spend more time with the person delivering our social media content.
2 0
TOTALS
Grading the Social Media Content Personality Audit 18 or Greater: “A”– The brand is delivering personality through social media content 16: “B” – The brand is showing more personality than most in social media 12 or 14: “C” – The content might reflect aspects of the brand personality, but it could be
missed Less than 12: “#Fail” – The social media content has drab stock photos (even for what should
be employee images), copy suited for a website (not a blog), and status updates that read like short‐form press releases
Nine Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy | 2013 The Brainzooming Group | www.Brainzooming.com 8
7. Identifying Missed Opportunities for Creating and Sharing Content Objective: Identify smart opportunities to expand the content marketing vehicles
carrying your messages Applies to: New and Current Efforts Use: Compare current content marketing vehicles to those of B2B marketers Next Step: Prioritize additional vehicles to extend brand reach with minimal effort Our Brand Is . . .
Content Marketing Vehicles B2B Pct Using*
B2C Pct Using**
Currently Using
Planning to Use
Not Using & Not Planned
Social Media – Other than Blogs 87% 84% O O O
Articles on Our Website 83% 84% O O O
eNewsletters 78% 78% O O O
Blogs 77% 69% O O O
Case Studies 71% 38% O O O
Videos 70% 70% O O O
Articles on other Websites 70% 61% O O O
In‐person Events 69% 63% O O O
White Papers 61% 28% O O O
Webinars / Webcasts 59% 32% O O O
Research Reports 44% 33% O O O
Microsites 40% 41% O O O
Infographics 38% 33% O O O
Branded Content Tools 38% 40% O O O
Mobile Content 33% 43% O O O
eBooks 32% 28% O O O
Print Magazines 31% 42% O O O
Books 29% 32% O O O
Virtual Conferences 28% 21% O O O
Podcasts 27% 26% O O O
Licensed/Syndicated Content 26% 33% O O O
Mobile Apps 26% 42% O O O
Digital Magazines 25% 29% O O O
Print Newsletters 24% 37% O O O
Annual Reports 20% 28% O O O
Games / Gamification 11% 17% O O O
TOTALS *From 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks – North America: CMI / MarketingProfs http://ow.ly/mOta4 ** From 2013 B2C Content Marketing Benchmarks – North America: CMI / MarketingProfs http://ow.ly/oq9HX
Nine Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy | 2013 The Brainzooming Group | www.Brainzooming.com 9
8. Determining New Social Media Activation Opportunities
Objective: Explore opportunities to enhance a brand’s social media activation by approaching it as a TV network would (since TV networks are experienced in delivering content in varied ways to engage an audience)
Applies to: Current Efforts Use: Determine how the social media presence is being activated currently Next Step: Prioritize activation opportunities that are easily incorporated and fit with
the underlying social media strategy
Improving Your Social Media Content Activation – Adopting a TV Network Model
Does our brand . . . ?
Rarely or Never
Sometimes Regularly Frequently
Do a lot of storytelling? O O O O
Mix both serious and silly content? O O O O
Appeal to both the lowest common denominator and audiences with more sophisticated tastes?
O O O O
Provide a mix of current and timeless content? O O O O
Feature both our own and content from others? O O O O
Offer exclusive live, as‐it‐happens content to attract larger audiences?
O O O O
Offer a mix of new and popular older content? O O O O
Feature competitions – sports, game shows, reality shows, etc.?
O O O O
Create multiple celebrities / personalities to help attract an audience?
O O O O
Run content of varying lengths? O O O O
Offer content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? O O O O
Program content encouraging repeat viewing? O O O O
Stop running content audiences are ignoring? O O O O
Syndicate our own content to appear on other channels we don’t own?
O O O O
Run advertisements for others, ourselves, and for public issues (public service announcements)?
O O O O
Nine Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy | 2013 The Brainzooming Group | www.Brainzooming.com 10
9. Reviewing Your Social Media Updates for Customer Engagement Possibilities Objective: Determining how engaging a brand’s social media content stream is Applies to: Current Efforts Use: Review updates on various social networking platforms, classifying the last
twenty updates based on the questions below Next Step: Modify the update strategy, as needed, to orient it toward greater
engagement potential Review the last twenty status updates on any of the brand’s social media platforms and categorize the updates:
How many updates are intended to benefit readers (with valuable information, links, highlighting others, etc.)?
___ of 20
Of the remaining updates, how many are free of sales‐oriented mentions of what you do?
___ of 20
Of the remaining updates, in how many were you interacting with others (i.e., answering questions, conversing, initiating dialogues)?
___ of 20
TOTAL ___ of 20 The higher the numbers, the better your social media sharing is already! Low numbers mean you’re focused more on yourself, selling things, and not engaging. Using your initial answers and re‐asking these questions in the future provides another social media metric for how you’re doing.
Visit the Brainzooming blog for an Updated Copy of Our Social Media Strategy Framework:
Link: http://ow.ly/mVXCx QR Code:
Mike Brown's Email: [email protected] Mike Brown's Phone: 816‐509‐5320
Blog: www.Brainzooming.com Twitter: @Brainzooming
Nine Diagnostics to Check Your Social Strategy | 2013 The Brainzooming Group | www.Brainzooming.com 11