Measuring The Impact of Social Media

The attraction of social media is based on its ability to reach an audience with few out of pocket costs.  However, social media does require a financial investment through an employee’s hours and opportunity costs.

As a result, companies need to know how their social media efforts are making an impact on their business.

Part of that impact should be measured by social media activity that was generated by consumers, not your marketing department.  By measuring consumer comments regarding your company, you get a good sense about their interest in your brand – good or bad.

Two new tools can help measure this activity:

BackType lets you monitor what people are saying about your company or your competitors.  Its trend section is under development but will allow you to trend activity.

Addictomatic creates a dashboard of things like flickr, digg, twitter, youtube, blogs and other tools to give you a current picture of what is being said about your brand.

The benefit of social media is bringing you closer to your consumer by understanding what they are saying about you.

BackType and Addictomatic are two tools that help make that goal easier.

The Importance of Timing

November 1, 2009

I went out to get my Sunday paper (yes, I still read the paper) to find it polybagged in an advertisement for Snickers. The bag included a coupon for a bag of Snickers’ Minis.

Does anyone else find it odd that I received a coupon for snack-sized Snickers the morning after my children are waking-up from their Halloween-induced coma?

Return on investment is crucial for your marketing efforts, but some things are out of your control – like natural disasters or a surprise launch of a competitive product at the same time as yours.  However, there are some things you can control –  like timing.

A few years back I participated in Bzz Agent’s word-of-mouth marketing program where they were getting people to try Hershey’s new Take 5 chocolate candy bar.  The problem was they sent me the product in July in Georgia.  The melted glop that remained was not very appetizing.

When I brought this to Bzz Agent’s attention, they stated they had received similar complaints and would rectify the situation.  They did resend the bars – in August.

I can’t imagine Hershey’s received the return they had hoped for based on poor timing on behalf of them and BzzAgent.

Just last month, Toronto’s subway newspaper, the Metro, began running ads promoting their mobile website, suggesting that the website was so riveting it might cause car accidents. Their timing, however, was lousy, since the Toronto government had just passed legislation making it illegal to drive and use a cell phone at the same time.

There are many things not in your control when marketing, but to ensure the best possible return on investment make sure you control what you can.

Do you have any marketing disaster stories caused by poor timing?  Let us know.

Quick Thought

Are you risking long-term growth for a short-term gain?

Companies are taking different approaches to bolstering revenue in these tight economic times: some are providing deep discounts and in turn hurting their profits and brands, while others are charging more to help offset a loss in customers.

The question becomes – what is the long-term effect of these strategies?

Some recent examples:

All major airlines – Delta, American, United, and others – are charging for checked luggage on top of fuel surcharges to make up for years of mismanagement, high fuel costs and a deep recession.

Bank of America recently announced plans to charge annual fees for credit card holders who pay off their balances every month, essentially asking their fiscally responsible customers to pay for the losses from those less so.

Unlike past recessions, the Economist has stated this recession will permanently change our consumption habits. What will be the long-term cost to companies like Bank of America or Delta when they start to lose customers because of their short-term greed?

Before you think of adding an extra fee, think about the true return on investment and whether it’s truly worth it.

The Power Of Being Passive In Social Media

To me, marketing through social media falls into two camps: Active and Passive.

Active is when a company disseminates information through channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs.

Passive is about spending time listening to what consumers are saying about your company, your products, your competitors and your industry via social media.

In their efforts toward active social media marketing, companies post press releases on Facebook, put commercials on YouTube and talk about how great their service is on their company blog.

The greatest challenge, however, is making sure you have a large enough audience to warrant implementing a social media marketing plan. Spending hours on your company’s Facebook page to market to 75 “fans” is not a good use of your time.

Creating a strong passive social media strategy, on the other hand, can provide you endless insight into your audience and help you develop a more strategic active strategy.

Tools like Tweefind, Technorati, BlogSearch, plus searching YouTube and Facebook, can help you find out what is being said about your company in social media.

Passive strategy is also monitoring your competition. Techrigy and Vitrue can provide you a picture of what your competition is doing in social media.

This type of social media monitoring will bring you closer to the consumer.  You see trends being created, identify problem areas and monitor consumer reaction to product changes.

This information allows you to improve your products and will drive your active strategy when, for example, you respond to consumers to help educate them on why you may do certain things.

Passive social media marketing in action:

A client of mine manufactured clay poker chips, so we monitored blogs, forums, etc. and found out people liked the chips, but didn’t like the powdery residue on the chips.  The powder was there to protect the chips during shipping and went away after playing with the chips a few times.  Upon our recommendation, they began including a note in the poker chip case explaining the residue and those comments went away.

If your company wants to develop a social media strategy, start with a passive strategy first.  Figure out what is being said and who’s saying it.  Once you have that knowledge your active strategy will be more compelling and successful.

Never Contradict Your Brand

As an exercise boot camp instructor, my guilty pleasure is NBC’s The Biggest Loser.  I appreciate the no-nonsense approach to weight loss:

• Burn More Calories Than You Consume
• Make Good Food Choices and Eat In Small Portions

So I was surprised to find Jillian Michaels – an extremely tough-minded trainer who thrives on reminding her trainees that there are no shortcuts to weight loss – lending her name to sell fat burning and weight loss supplements.
Doing so not only contradicts her brand; it also contradicts the Biggest Loser brand. Not surprising, as companies often contradict their brands.
For years The Home Depot swore it would never have sale prices because they always offered the lowest price.  Even before the economic downturn, they began offering sale prices instead of sticking with brand position as the lowest price provider.
Comcast promotes increased efficiency with the speed of their Internet service.  You can hear this promotional message at least 25 times as you sit on hold waiting to talk with a customer service rep.
A former client of mine wanted to be known for operational efficiency, but regularly invoiced their customers incorrectly.
Your brand is the combination of many things:

• The customer experience with every touch point with your company
• Marketing
• Office/retail space
• Packaging
• Customer reviews
• Web Site/Social Media presence
• Invoicing
• On-Hold Time/Messages
• Guarantees/Return Policies

When managing your brand you need to evaluate your entire operation to make sure your message is communicated consistently. Any contradiction can begin to erode your brand without you even knowing.

Don’t Get Lost In The Words

Too many times great ideas go undiscovered because they are not communicated well.

Think about your web site.  Are you so worried about search engine optimization and loading your content with key words that your company’s point of difference is lost in the words?

I spend a lot of time with clients helping them hone their unique point of difference, only to watch it get lost when they try to communicate it through their web site, blogs, brochures and other forms of communications.

So how do you ensure your ideas are communicated in a way that makes them stand out?

1. Edit – a good idea should be able to stand on its own, so keep copy simple and direct
2. Share – have uninvolved parties who will give you honest feedback read your communications to make sure your point is expressed well
3. Hand-Off – if you are not a strong writer, find someone who is and have them write or at least edit your content

SHAMELESS PLUG:

In an effort to help clients enhance their communications tools, I have expanded M is for Marketing’s services to include editing and writing services.  I call the service Idea Assurance – helping ensure your idea is communicated as you intended.

We are having a new service special in which we will edit 10 pages of web copy for $475.

Clear, concise communication is as important as the idea itself.  Take your time when writing; it will help position your company more effectively.

Happy Birthday

Just a quick update to thank you for your ongoing support as Don’t Stop Marketing.  Market Smarter. celebrates its first birthday.

As I have done every Tuesday for the past year, I will continue to provide you with tools and tips to help you market smarter and grow your business.

If you would like me to cover a specific topic, please comment to this post and let me know.

Thanks again for your support and I look forward to helping you in the future.

Listening To Your Customers – Now Made Easier

This month I was introduced to Techrigy, a new marketing tool that measures your brand’s mentions in social media – blogs, twittter, facebook, message boards, etc.

Why use a tool like this? While you may use social media to proactively market your company, they are also accessible tools for your customers to talk about your company online. Monitoring these mentions can help you understand what is important to your customers, and help you learn from their experiences.

Techrigy will monitor your brand activity online and lets you dissect your data by demographics, sentiment (positive or negative comments), geography, days of the week and other metrics. It also identifies who writes about your brand the most; this can be helpful for marketing and customer service purposes.

It’s important that you know what people are saying about your company. Check out Techrigy. Free and Premium subscriptions are available.

Stop Saving Your Business And Start Building It

Vince Lombardi

This week’s blog entry is a pep talk to all those business owners who are hesitant to invest in growing their businesses.

Flat sales are considered the new up.   You’ve made many cuts and are hesitant to make any more.  You may have experienced layoffs.  You wonder what else is next.

Guess what?  You are not alone.  Your competitors are facing the same uncertainties.

The reality is if you have survived this long, you’ve run a good business.

You probably think your conservative nature has helped you make it to this point. That may be true, but it’s time to make a change.

People are spending money.  They still need products and services, and they are going to buy from companies in which they are aware.

This requires spending money on marketing, product innovation, introducing new services.  As I have mentioned in the past – give people a reason to do business with you instead of your competitor.

By doing this, you are letting people know you are open for business.

-   Email current customers with a loyalty discount offer. (If you sell a product, a subject line of “Free Shipping” increased click-thrus 60.7% versus other subject lines, according to an Internet Retailer study.)

-   Call customers to reconnect with them.

-   If your staff needs work, offer discounted audits or analyses.  Chances are you’ll find something your customers need help with.

Here are 15 companies that started and succeeded during a recession:

• GE
• HP
• Microsoft
• Federal Express
• Clif Bar
• Method
• Hyatt
• Burger King
• iHop
• Jim Henson
• Lexis/Nexis
• CNN
• MTV
• Trader Joes
• Sports Illustrated

Enough with the pep talk.

Stop saving your business and start building it again.

Recession Continues To Breed New Thinking

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Toys R Us announced they are opening 350 temporary stores in traditional shopping malls and other locations to take advantage of the holiday season.   This strategy is borne out of two market changes:

• KB Toys, traditionally a mall-only toy retailer, going out of business
• Sears expanding their toy department to help grab share from the KB Toys deficit

Holiday sales were down 3.4% last year for Toys R Us. Anticipating similar results for the 2009 holiday season, the national toy retailer realized they could not rely on the same approach to reach customers and drive sales.

Toys R Us is leveraging three key areas:

• Inexpensive rents – With retail sales down and retailers going out of business, there is excess capacity in shopping malls.
• Lower pricing – Higher rents were baked into KB Toys’ pricing (so much that they weren’t competitive). Since rents are lower, TRU can keep pricing on par with freestanding stores.
• Convenience – The convenience of a mall location should attract people who are already shopping versus having to go to another location.

Toys R Us stopped looking at their business the same way.

You should to and see where opportunities might exist to change how you do business.  There has never been a better time to do it.