Social Media Assessment - How to Get Started

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Social Media Assessment

How do you start?

Walter Adamson# @[email protected]

Presented as part of Social Media Tools Week, November 2009

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Contents

How to start a Social Media Assessment• Overview• Rationale• Process flow• Where to start• Approach• Four Quadrant Methodology• Avoiding the Traps• Assessment Plan and Report• Tools• Paradigm Shift

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Overview

Enterprise Social Media AssessmentMethod used by Social Media Academy, developed by Axel Schultze

Top down• Part of a suite of top-down methodologies• Flow from one to the otherBusiness approach• Not about toolsInitial step• Determines path to peoplehttp://xeesm.com/axelschultze http://www.socialmedia-academy.com.au

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Four Quadrant Methodology

• This methodology helps a business to understand its market from a social point of view, including:– customer mapping and field assessment,– brand analysis,– competition analysis and– partners/alliances analysis.

• Uses social media tools• Preparation, review and refinement are key

Case Study – not idle theory

• http://www.slideshare.net/SocialMediaAcademy/social-media-assesment-case-study-citrix-webex

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Fools rush to Tools

We’ll get you on Twitter and Facebook and then see if you can build a supporter base.

• Sound familiar?• Usually in conjunction with a “great idea”• Campaign-mentality

The image, and trade name WoW WoW Wubbzyare the property of Nickelodeon Online.

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Anybody home?

By not researching the social media places and spaces:• Right conversations with the wrong people• Wrong conversations with the right people• Conversations with an empty room

Just because it is hip it doesn’t mean it fits you, Nicole Simon

It’s more than just LISTENING it is knowing WHERE to listen!

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Rationale for Assessment - why

• Media is an arena where people with shared interest and enthusiasm converge around a shared idea- Helge Tennø “Post Digital Marketing 2009”

• You need to find the right arenas• Match the shared interest with your own• Understand how to contribute• Ideally, find the actual people who are most enthusiastic

This is Social Media Assessment – before thinking of tools.

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The “As Is” of strategy

• The Assessment helps to understand the level of Social Engagement of the company/brands

It’s about understanding the socio-economic landscape of:• Customers• Prospects• Partners• Competitorsand our role, or potential role, in it.

This is the “As Is” assessment of normal strategy assessment.

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Process Flow Where does Assessment fit?

StrategyDevelopmentASSESSMENT

You have someunderstanding,

need a strategy.

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Process Flow Where does Assessment fit? You understand enough about social media You have some kind of customer-oriented feedback, ideas You have some idea of resources and how it can be handled You need a strategy (however large or small)

It’s at this point you need to do an Assessment• Map the terrain• Identify the places and spaces that matter• Understand the real environment

Then develop a strategy which is informed and practical and effective.

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Where to start?

Depending on client:• B2B or B2C• How mature in the market?• How active with user base?• Who do they follow?• How widely are products/brands

known?

B2B could be a subset of landscape:• Groups• Majors• Few others

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B2C

Open mindTool important:• efficient• effective• flexible• able to find people

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ScopeDesign to cost• Not usually the way to make a big plan and then cost it, although

might be OK for very large client and project - “cost to design”

• Rather, use a reasonable fee, fit for purpose, and plan the scope to match – “design to cost”

Scope variables:• Balance of attention to the 4 quadrants• Number of keywords and phrases• Cost of analysis tool per unit/day etc• Depth of blog analysis• Depth and quality of tracking of influencers and social graph• Size of company/brands etc - complexity

Refine based on results, may need incremental extra investment

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We are working in the context of the NCP modelThis is the key to success in social media for business:• Networks• Contribution• Participation

We can then set out to:• measure,• model and• tune our social media activities.

Reminder

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ApproachLook for influencers

• Conversations often around problems or needs

• Who are the problem solvers?

• Look for real people with real titles who are having the conversations

• Say 50 of these people

• Narrow down to relevant topics and influencers

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Change your mindset to their need for value:1. What makes them happy?2. What makes them interact?3. Why are they in the place in the social web?4. What is the “gift” giving between members?5. How is the reciprocity working?6. What helps them to get what they want?

ApproachThink Customer/Partner

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Review the ecosystem of the challenge/need:• sentiment• positive/negative• trends• issues• conversation threads

But ultimately you are looking for people:• get a people list together around the topics they discuss

ApproachLook for challenges and topics

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Quadrant MethodologyCustomer Landscape• Identifying relevant places and spaces by searching for your

existing, previous or future customers in person

• Look for people you know (first, last name)

• Or look of networks of relevant people

• Or look them up in LinkedIn by title

BUT LOOK FOR PEOPLE

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Customer LandscapeExampleLet’s say Hungry Jack’s (Burger King in the US)

Keywords, things customers will be discussing:• hamburger(s)• burger• cheeseburger• aussieburger• brekky• hash brown• muffin• fries• onion rings• nuggetsWHO are they?

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Customer LandscapeCustomer as PeopleLOOKING FOR PEOPLE

• Identifying our customers’ challenges, topics excitement and frustrations the issues and sentiment – based on the people you find from the keywords you define.

• Identifying the influencers• Creating a factual analysis

• Identifying opportunities and threats

• Make some initial suggestions

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Customer LandscapeExampleHungry Jack’s:

• 22,000+ Facebook Fans !!

• Pick those who comment and also with pictures loaded into Fan page

• Hungry Jack’s Blog registrations - pick from those

• Then either random selection, or by further research on Facebook a defined demographic selection

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Quadrant MethodologyBrand Assessment• Identifying the places and spaces where the brand is discussed• Brand reflection, sentiment around the brand and “brand team”• Creating a factual analysis• Identifying opportunities and threats SWOT• Key individuals and key influencers re brand

How is our brand and team being represented?

Based on products or services what are the specific conversations

• Make some initial suggestions

• Note: brand side focuses on specific discussions about the brand not about other products and issues

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Brand LandscapeExample Keywords (Hungry Jack’s)People• Jack Cowan (Founder of Hungry Jacks in Australia)Marketing slogans and messages:• hungry jacks burgers• flame grilled burgers• fast food hamburgerHungry Jack's brands and trade marks• "burgers are better at Hungry Jack's"• whopper• whopper Jr• bacon deluxe• chicken tendercrispBusiness and franchise• hungry jack's franchise• hamburger franchise

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Partner LandscapePartner Assessment• Identifying the places and spaces where the partners are present• Identifying the partners topics and their second degree ecosystem

(the partner’s customers). Those discussions and sentiments.• Identifying the key individuals per partners and main influencers

(teams and individuals)• Creating a factual analysis• Identifying opportunities and threats

• Some initial suggestions

• Tips: partners have their own life, place yourselves in their value chain and risk/reward sales outlook

• But partners are laggards in most industries (Drucker) - real estate devastated but most active in social media now, also travel agents going through similar cycle.

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Partner LandscapeExample Hungry Jack’sKeywords to find partners and key people in the distribution chain

Franchisees• Locations: Sydney Airport, Toorak, Mornington, Flemington, etc etc

Shopping Mall and Venue Owners/Operators• Westfield, Centro, Macquarie, Telstra Dome

Keywords• fast food outlet• hamburger store• flame grilled fast food• Burger King

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Partner LandscapeExample - BlackmoresKeywords:• blackmores buy• blackmores "where to buy"• blackmores homeopaths retail distribution outlets naturopaths• blackmores prefer• blackmores chemist• blackmores coles OR woolworths• cenovis buy• natures way buy• golden life buy

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Partner LandscapeExample - BlackmoresStart with a qualified search (ScoutLabs)

few results e.g. 37 blog posts over 6 months

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Partner LandscapeExample - BlackmoresFew comments (6)

Some tweets

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Partner LandscapeExample - BlackmoresSimpler (unqualified) search (Techrigy SM2) – 23 results

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Partner LandscapeExample - BlackmoresThemes for this search “blackmores+buy: seemed reasonable:

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Partner LandscapeExample - BlackmoresForums, for this search, contained most activity:

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Partner LandscapeExample - BlackmoresSentimentMost was the Agency promoting itself – going for the awards!

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Partner LandscapeExample - BlackmoresSearch again!This is difficult as not many mentions of Blackmores let alone Partners!Try this qualified search• “Blackmores AND buy AND NOT (music OR band OR guitar OR ritchie)”

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Partner LandscapeExample - BlackmoresOpen tools may have an answer!

• Google sponsored ads may be the best pointer to get channel partner names and keywords on which people might search

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Quadrant MethodologyCompetitor Assessment• Identifying the places and spaces the competition is active• Identifying the competitor’s partners activities• Identifying the competitors customers activity, discussion and

sentiments• Identifying the influencer of the competitors teams and those of their

partners• Creating a factual analysis• Identifying opportunities and threats

• Some initial suggestions• Facts leading to a competitive threat analysis

• Note: competition's customer is of most interest• competitor's partners of most interest - who, company names, and

who is promoter of this relationship

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Competition LandscapeExample Hungry Jack’sKeywords related to competitors• Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC• McDonalds• Red Rooster• Oporto (chicken)Keywords:• flame grilled burger• cheese burger• chicken burger• bacon burger• fast food burger

Tone - competitors

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Quadrant MethodologySummary• You almost always find customer conversations• Partners can be a challenge in a distributed model• The example showed this difficulty

– Not to show the problems but to show that this may happen to you– Thinking through new partner and distribution models is challenging

Remember that the initial suggestions should relate to the NCP model:• Networks• Contribution• ParticipationSolving this question• How do we optimise the path to advocacy through N-C-P?

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Contents - you are here!

How to start a Social Media Assessment• Overview• Rationale• Process flow• Where to start• Approach• Four Quadrant Methodology• Avoiding the Traps • Assessment Plan and Report• Tools• Paradigm Shift

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Avoiding the Traps

• Don’t get distracted by traffic counts – these are not conversations• Traffic can be driven, conversations can’t• Think AUDIENCE not traffic• Be careful with search terms – think how people would discuss• It’s not a numbers game• Demographics not really relevant to social conversations• We need to focus on conversations and the topics and who the

people are and who are the influencers• Explore the most influential spaces

Make the results create a solution!

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SummaryThe Assessment PlanNot the Assessment but the PlanAIM: to find the topical aspects of our ecosystem which are important to

our business• names + customer/company• keywords which are relevant to you• competitors• preparation for search/tools• customers/brands/partners/competitors• why names and rationale and keywords• find conversations around coffee shops etc "Peets"• find influencers• Name as many people and refer to as many facts as possible• Prepare initial thoughts and suggestions

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The Assessment Report• Executive Introduction• The companies social media

landscape• Identifying the places and

spaces• Identifying the issues and

sentiment• Identifying the influencer• Factual analysis (explanations

and screenshots)• Opportunities and threats• Suggestions• The brand representation• Identifying the brand reflection• Identifying the brand sentiment• Identifying the brand presence

• Factual analysis (explanations and screenshots)

• Opportunities and threats• Suggestion• The partner landscape• Factual analysis (explanations

and screenshots)• Opportunities and threats• Suggestions• The competition• Factual analysis (explanations

and screenshots)• Summary

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ToolsFree Toolswww.samepoint.comwww.collecta.com Good but not same ability to track peoplee.g.

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ToolsPaid Tools• Paid tools do extensive analysis• It takes time to learn to use them e.g. Radian6 is quite complicated“Share of Voice” example

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ReviewRationale - ROILet’s recap, because Assessments are often skipped: • As Jacob Morgan said yesterday in his keynote on ROI

The goal is not to “get” an ROI, but to optimise your ROI by directing your spending to

where you get the greatest return

• Assessment tells you where is the best place to build your house• And, the orientation – the Feng Shui of social media

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Paradigm Shift• In the old model we introduced something new to our customer base

• NOW, this is the other way around

• The customers are introducing us to their way

The assessment is the foundation

• sales, support, service, HR, product development

The assessment gives us the answers as to how to do this better

The instincts of the past are now overridden by real input

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StrategyNext stepBased upon 6 core elements:• Goals• Mission• Benefits• Actions• Programs• Reporting

Bring your stakeholders into the process:• Including customers!• From the start!

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Consulting TipKick Off – Proof of the Pudding• For C-level and others who are skeptical about social media, • Assessment is great way to present factual evidence• Free one hour discussion (collect keywords) and review to find what

is being said and where

• This should get you a start as almost always you find surprises, often “bad” ones

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Contact

Walter [email protected]@g2mhttp://xeesm.com/walter

Slides at:http://slideshare.net/adamson

Blog set up for discussion:http://walteradamson.com

Thanks to my colleague Rick Special @zemlak for some of the images used.