Why social media makes sense for companies

SASKATOON —In the course of a week I talk to a lot of people about social media, most of them corporate types. Often they are keen to use social media for some legitimate business purpose, but they don’t have the arguments or the confidence to convince others of its worth. Making a business case and overcoming objections is part of corporate life. Here are the most common objections I encounter and some possible rebuttals.

1. Our audience isn’t on social media

Variations on this one include social media is only for kids, institutional investors don’t use social media and we don’t sell to consumers so we don’t need to be on there.

Wrong, wrong and wrong.

First of all, statistically speaking almost everyone in North America is on or getting on social networks of one sort or another. Facebook is at or above 500 million users, Twitter has 100 million users, LinkedIn has 75 million users and YouTube is the second-biggest search engine in the world.

Canadian firm Zinc Research reported last year that 80 per cent of Canadians are on the Internet and about 70 per cent of them are on a social network.

Brunswick Research published study results last November indicating 47 per cent of institutional investors read blogs to get investment ideas and research.

Dominic Jones of IRWebReport.com wrote last month: “Fully 20 per cent of institutional investors and sell-side analysts surveyed by the Australasian Investor Relations Association (AIRA) and communications firm Financial & Corporate Relations (FCR) said that information accessed through social media channels had influenced their investment decisions.”

In August the Vancouver Sun quoted stats from Ottawa digital public affairs strategist Mark Blevis pegging MP use of Twitter in the 20 per cent range.

Even if your company doesn’t sell a consumer product, you still sell ideas. Hello? Digital lobbying anyone?

Since the concept of “everyone” is big enough to include your target, I think it’s fair to say you can find who you need to interact with somewhere on the social web, regardless of who you are after.

2. I don’t have time or resources to deal with social media

Good communicators follow the audience. This objection sounds only slightly reasonable because the medium is new. Imagine if someone said to you, “I don’t have time for this phone thing?” It’s ludicrous. A communicator’s goal is to reach the right people with the right messages at the right frequency and at the lowest cost per thousand.

So if they’re on social media and that’s cheaper than a TV ad or your annual report, including this channel is the responsible thing to do. That doesn’t mean you have all the resources you need now, but you can make the case. It’s budget season right now in many corporations. Set aside $60,000 (hint, steal it from that lame video no one was going to watch) and get it going in 2011.

3. People will say mean things about us

They already are, and being silent won’t make that untrue. Provide some balance and an alternative viewpoint or you are conceding defeat to your opponents. Why roll over?

4. IT says it’s a security risk

Like lawyers, some IT managers would prefer you do nothing so as to be risk-free. Don’t open attachments, don’t go to websites, don’t use a thumb drive, never use Wi-Fi, and on and on. Their job is to batten down the hatches and keep the storm outside. Your job is to interact with the outside world.

More progressive IT managers will help you, even encourage you, to use technology, including social media, to achieve business objectives while mitigating risk. Nowadays, if your firewall blocks Facebook, it likely blocks all Facebook-enabled websites, which is rapidly becoming all websites.

It tends to annoy the CEOs when they can’t even get to major news sites, which is what happened to a client of mine. Work with IT to gain access to the tools you need — don’t let the tail wag the dog.

There are always lots of excuses to not do new things. Hopefully the above gives you a few ideas on what to say so you can do new things. When I see Pepsi take $24 million out of the Super Bowl and put it into social media campaigns such as Pepsi Refresh, I think, there’s a company that knows how to maximize impressions, do good and save money all in one shot.

Next year you, too, could be a budget hero with social media, if you start to make the case right now.

By Doug Lacombe, For Postmedia News November 3, 2010

Social media becomes a key method for getting messages out

Oct 03, 2010 (The Leader-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- For as long as there have been elections, candidates have sought followers.

But in this fall's campaign people running for elected office are seeking a new breed of followers -- those who track the candidates' Facebook and Twitter posts.

"There's no question that the use of social media is important to the life of a campaign and a candidate today," said Graeme Zielinski, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. "You run for dogcatcher today, and you use social media. There's no going back." The emergence of social media is a rare point of nonpartisan agreement, as state Republican Party spokesman Andrew Welhouse also stressed the rising importance of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr in modern campaigns.

"It's gotten to the point where if you don't have a presence on social media, you're the odd man out," Welhouse said.

Campaign officials describe social media as a fast, a cheap and an effective new way to get a candidate's message out, to recruit volunteers or even to raise money.

It's the latest in a remarkable series of changes in which candidates have gone from delivering speeches from the backs of trains on whistle-stop tours to typing tweets of 140 characters or less on their mobile phones.

But the more things appear to change in politics, campaign officials say, the more they remain the same.

"The method is different, but the intent is the same: You want to get your message out to voters," Welhouse said.

Making a connection The same questions countless parents have asked their children about all the time they devote to social media also should be applied to politics: What do you get out of it? What's the big attraction? The answer to both questions revolves around finding a new, extremely popular way of connecting with voters, some of whom can't even be reached in traditional ways such as with calls to land-line telephones.

That realization has prompted 3rd Congressional District candidate and GOP state Sen. Dan Kapanke of La Crosse to make frequent posts on Facebook and Twitter during his attempt to unseat seven-term U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, a La Crosse Democrat.

"Dan believes that in today's fast-paced world it is important to reach voters where they are -- and they are on Facebook," said Brian Chatwin, Kapanke's campaign manager.

Zielinski agreed, noting that Democrats recently told supporters via Facebook about an appearance by Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker at UW-Madison.

"We put it on Facebook two hours before the event and got two dozen people there to protest," Zielinski said. "We didn't even have to make phone calls. They just saw it on Facebook. It's a way of mobilizing a population that uses Facebook all the time." Part of the attraction is about style.

"Social media allows us to update and interact with supporters and friends across western Wisconsin in a way that is fun and easy for them," said Kind campaign spokeswoman Leah Hunter. "Through social media outlets, supporters and others who are interested in Ron and his work can easily find information, view event photos and videos, ask questions, comment on activities, and interact with Ron and the campaign in a variety of ways." All the interactive elements available among social media outlets allow supporters to find their own personal way to get involved in the campaign, Hunter said.

"We find that the larger variety of information they have access to, the more involved they get, and the more likely they are to get others involved as well," she added.

Following a leader Perhaps the most eager of these new social media campaigners in northwestern Wisconsin is Sean Duffy, the Republican former Ashland County district attorney who is running against Democratic state Sen. Julie Lassa of Stevens Point in the 7th Congressional District, the seat held for 41 years by the retiring Democrat Dave Obey of Wausau.

With 6,673 fans of his campaign Facebook page and 11,593 Twitter followers, Duffy is on the leading edge -- at least regionally -- of the trend toward social media campaigning.

"People like to follow him, they like to know what he's doing, they like to know what he's saying," campaign spokeswoman Wendy Riemann said.

Last week Duffy released his latest campaign ad to his Facebook "friends" before it aired on TV, giving them the sense of having a degree of exclusive access to the campaign.

"My Facebook friends have been so incredibly supportive and encouraging throughout this race that I wanted to give them the very first look at my new campaign ad that will go on the air tomorrow," Duffy said in a news release.

The new ad already has received more than 24,000 views on YouTube.

Riemann said one of the reasons Duffy has been so successful in building his social media following -- which includes many folks from outside the district -- is that he posts personal information and videos, giving followers a look at the person behind the candidate.

"They see him, and it's like he's talking directly to them," Riemann said. "People love it." Lassa also has an active presence on Facebook, with 1,195 fans, although she hasn't relied on Twitter nearly as much as Duffy.

"Julie's running a grass-roots campaign to shake up Washington across all kinds of different mediums," said Rick Fromberg, Lassa's campaign manager. "Facebook is just one other vehicle by which people can learn about her plans and find out where she is, who she's talking to and what she's doing." Fromberg suggested Duffy, a cast member of the MTV reality show "The Real World: Boston," which aired in 1997, might be more focused on keeping up with other celebrities on Twitter than on telling voters where he stands on the issues.

"The best way to persuade an undecided voter is still to talk to them at their door or on the telephone," Fromberg said. "That way people know who they're talking to and they have an opportunity to have a real conversation about what they care about." Along those lines, some campaign officials acknowledged that limitations on the length of Twitter and Facebook posts could lead to the dumbing down of candidate communication and a new generation of opponents crying, "Where's the beef?" Fromberg, for instance, charged that Duffy's campaign has been defined by brevity and a lack of detailed positions on issues.

"Unfortunately, it seems like Sean Duffy has applied that Twitter 140-character rule to every aspect of his campaign," Fromberg quipped.

Riemann countered that Duffy has been talking with substance about any and every issue in person, at events and on social networks far longer than Lassa, who entered the race in May after Obey announced his retirement.

"I'm not surprised Sen. Lassa has far fewer Facebook friends and Twitter followers compared to Sean, since her campaign spends all their time creating negative attack ads," Riemann said.

While the popularity of using social media in campaigns may indicate that attention spans are growing shorter, the GOP's Welhouse said, they still represent more tools to reach voters.

"If Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are just a new way of getting people connected to campaigns, then I don't see how that's a bad thing. It's an evolution," Welhouse said, pointing out that Twitter wasn't even a part of the state Senate campaign he worked on two years ago.

Terry Moulton, the Chippewa Falls Republican challenging one-term incumbent Democrat Pat Kreitlow of Chippewa Falls in the 23rd Senate District, also has built an impressive Facebook following. With nearly 750 people who have elected to "like" his campaign Facebook page, Moulton is one of the leaders among regional legislative candidates.

"A lot of people follow it, more than you might realize," said Kimber Liedl, Moulton's campaign manager. "It's becoming more and more popular, even among middle-aged people, and thus is something that campaigns are embracing." Old rules still apply Even the biggest fans of using social media acknowledge that these new tools can't replace the traditional pillars of political campaigns: knocking on doors, talking with voters, organizing volunteers, holding fundraisers, putting up yard signs, advertising and encouraging supporters to vote.

"Facebook and Twitter are great ways to stay in touch with voters, but they don't replace direct voter contact," Riemann said. "You still have to shake hands and go door to door." Most important of all, Zielinski emphasized, is having a strong message.

"If you're not doing a good job of messaging, you can have all the bells and whistles in the world, and it won't do any good," he said.

Whether candidates walk door to door or let their fingers do the walking over a keyboard, campaign methods matter less than results.

"Winning elections is the ultimate goal," Zielinski said.

While some studies have shown that the candidate with the most social networking followers won this fall's primaries in almost every case nationwide, Wisconsin analysts aren't convinced the connection will prove that direct in the general election.

"I have yet to see the candidate who wins an election because he has more Twitter followers than his opponent," Welhouse said. "But maybe this will be the first election where part of the research people do before deciding who to vote for will be to call up each candidate's Twitter page and see what they're saying." Lindquist can be reached at 715-833-9209, 800-236-7077 or eric.lindquist@ecpc.com.

Social Media Campaigns With a month to go before the fall election, here is a snapshot of how some west-central Wisconsin candidates are faring in their campaigns to win supporters on the social media website Facebook. (I) denotes incumbent.


U.S. House 3rd District Ron Kind (I), La Crosse, Democrat, 2,193 Facebook friends.

Dan Kapanke, La Crosse, Republican, 1,234 Facebook friends.

7th District Sean Duffy, Ashland, Republican, 6,673 Facebook friends.

Julie Lassa, Stevens Point, Democrat, 1,195 Facebook friends.

State Senate District 23 Terry Moulton, Chippewa Falls, Republican, 738 Facebook friends.

Pat Kreitlow (I), Chippewa Falls, Democrat, 217 Facebook friends.

District 31 Ed Thompson, Tomah, Republican, 870 Facebook friends.

Kathleen Vinehout (I), Alma, Democrat, 175 Facebook friends.

State Assembly District 67 Tom Larson, Colfax, Republican, 76 Facebook friends.

CW King, Chippewa Falls, Democrat, nine Facebook friends.

District 68 Kristen Dexter (I), Eau Claire, Democrat, 185 Facebook friends.

Kathy Bernier, Chippewa Falls, Republican, seven Facebook friends.

District 93 Jeff Smith (I), Eau Claire, Democrat, 216 Facebook friends.

Warren Petryk, Eleva, Republican, 54 Facebook friends.

Social networking 'could boost profits'

Since the advent of the internet and online shopping, engaging with customers is not necessarily a face to face affair - but one expert has claimed Facebook and Twitter could provide the missing link.

Social media consultant Jason Falls said businesses could expect "enhanced awareness, positive sentiment, preference to buy and more that results from the positive interactions [consumers] have with your employees."

He added that it is not matter of letting staff loose on the internet - but one of encouraging their interaction with the industry and potential clients without pushing a hard sell.

These comments come after figures released from Clearswift show that 28 per cent of employees are already expected to use such websites for work purposes.

The same report claimed many companies - over 60 per cent - are using these methods to secure their place in the market by establishing a constant online presence.

Mr Falls pointed out that strict policies and guidelines should be published to ensure the company is represented in a favourable light on social media pages.

Author: Paul Burn

Social media: Is it important?

How important is social media when marketing your small business? CBC News' Diane Buckner recently tackled that subject in her article, Social marketing: Is all that tweeting, facebooking and blogging worth it?

Buckner asks, "considering the heavy workloads so many small business owners carry, is it worth the time and energy required to figure out an effective way to use social media?"

We put the question to our small business bloggers to see how they use social media to spread awareness about their business and how important the strategy is for them.

Kerry Butt and Meg Watson

Let's talk about social media, for a second. The internet is blowing my mind these days. Before the store opened we made sure to start a Facebook page and blog to stir up some hype. Before we even opened, 400 people had joined our Facebook page and requested that we put certain items on hold for them. As soon as a new shipment comes in, I always update Facebook with pictures and sometimes within an hour someone will come in asking for said product because they saw it on our page.

We have a budget of minus-zero for advertising, so the internet is really our only option and we're taking advantage of it. I don't think our store would be as successful without the population's Facebook addiction. In fact, as I write this, my Facebook page is open on another tab and The Sartorialist blog is beside it.

Follow The Future of Frances Watson on Facebook

Neil Jain

What I love about social media is two things: (1) It can level the playing field between me and a large business, and (2) I can rapidly communicate a timely, consistent message to our followers and interact with them. We've had a social media presence from the outset and we utilize Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Sprouter and blogs. Although we don't use these tools every day since they require a time investment, we try to send out information that is useful.

We're still working on our overall marketing strategy including social media but I feel that having an online presence has helped our brand to build credibility and awareness, especially among industry peers and other entrepreneurs. We're still far from using these tools to their full potential including, most importantly, for sales, customer service and as a value-add for our (potential) clients.

Follow Neil on Twitter @moneylifeskills

Shawn Konopinsky

There is no question in my mind that social media is worth the time and effort - assuming it is done right. Social media tools undoubtedly offer an easy way to communicate with a broad reach. What we have seen is that with that comes a tendency to use social media as a soapbox. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but from a professional perspective there is so much more potential if just a little more effort goes into it.

We still have to fight the urge to tweet about things just to get the word out. When we tweet about a recent project we had completed or a client we were going to see we found there to be crickets in the twitter-sphere - no response. What we found is that people aren't as interested in hearing what we have done recently, as they are about things that they can use in their jobs and life. When we provide insights into problems we had and how we solved them, or shared resources and tools that made our lives easier, we found ourselves engaged in a conversation with people. Some of these folks were very influential as far as social media reach goes. The result was that more and more people were sharing or re-tweeting what we had posted, reaching an exponentially greater number of people than we could reach with our 200 followers. Taking a leadership role by sharing something that people can use, or that they care about, builds trust, interest, and a larger following.

Here are some helpful social media posting rules that we follow:

* 90-10 Rule: 90 per cent of what you post should be helpful and benefit your network, while 10 per cent of what you post should directly benefit you.
* Join conversations and talk to people: Targeting messages at people is a sure way to start a dialogue. That also means that followers of the people you are conversing with are more likely to follow you as well.
* Use hashtags and keywords: Advanced users of social media have lists set up where they are following keywords and hashtags (#example). Make your posts visible to people not following you by using the appropriate hashtags.
* Say thanks: When someone says something nice or re-tweets your tweet, say "thank you." People will be more likely to follow you and RT you if you are polite.

Re-posted: Doug Mochrie M.O Social Media

September 29, 2010 3:33 PM
Source: Your Voice

Making the Most of Your Social Media Content

In a recent analysis of social media use by large and small corporations across several sectors we found that less than twenty percent have buttons showing where else they have content. And many of them don't carry a consistent branding and message through their blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds.

If you are not yet vigorously active on Facebook, take another look at what they are up to: depending on whose stats you believe Facebook is either right behind Google nipping at its heels or has already surpassed them in terms of traffic.



And according to WSJ.com they are about to take another leap forward. Their new ‘Like' button is already appearing on sites like Scribd.com. The idea is that other sites will include this button that users can click on to signal their interest in a piece of content and that approval shows up on his or her Facebook page, with a link back to the site. No wonder sites eager for more traffic and better search visibility are rushing to display the button. More than 70 partners have signed up to embed “Like” buttons or other customization widgets on their sites, including ticketing site Fandango.com and CNN.com.

“Facebook is growing up fast and Google had better be on its toes,” says Paul Gillin in his latest newsletter. “Services that choose to partner with Facebook will benefit from immediately adding content from Facebook's 400 million-plus members with minimal effort. They'll also enjoy easier cross-enrollment with the social network.”

Since Facebook is getting so many visitors and driving so much traffic back and forth to websites, it's time to take another look at your Facebook page. What experience are you offering once people get to your page? Why should they become a fan?

Simply putting up a page and not ‘pimping' it as much as you can means you are leaving opportunities on the table. With the new features available, you can have a robust presence that cross-pollinates with your other online content. The Social Media Examiner page is a great example.

Engage

The point of social media is to build relationships and have conversations. You can't do that unless you engage with your followers and fans. It's obvious why an individual would want to do this, but why should a business or an organization do it? More than half of Facebook fans said they are more likely to make a purchase from a brand they follow and 67% of Twitter followers reported the same.

Social Media Audit

If you feel that your social media efforts are not producing stellar results, analyze the activity on your social sites. Just pushing content out is not the way to go. Duplicating that content across all platforms with no human interaction won't get you the results you are after. At the Society for New Communication Research Fellows' meeting at the NewComm Forum this week there was much discussion on this subject. Every company has to be a publisher today in addition to their core business.

April 22, 2010 by Sally Falkow

Online retailers 'could shift to social media advertising'

Internet retailers who send parcels to customers are set to abandon online advertising in favour of social media, it has been suggested.

There has already been a huge shift to embracing social media, with Facebook and Twitter already attracting many brands, said Tim Gibbon, co-founder and editor of the Social Media Portal.

"Some brands are wisely beginning to integrate their social media, online and traditional advertising so that their approach is more seamless," he commented.

"They strive to reach in on their [customers'] level, with areas where they are more relaxed and more likely to resonate with the brand."

Social media is seen as less intrusive and annoying than many other forms of online advertising, Mr Gibbon added.

The use of social media sites will help bring about a "display revolution", Benjamin Faes, Europe, Middle East and Africa head YouTube and display at Google, said at the ad:tech conference, according to a report by the Telegraph.

Re-posted: Doug Mochrie M.O Social Media

Author: Paul Burn
Published on: Wed, 29th Sep, 2010
Source: www.news.myhermes.co.uk/online-retailers-could-shift-to-social-media-advertising-800090227.news

Social media set to become everyday tool, says expert

There is a 'very real possibility' that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter will become essential everyday tools, it has been suggested.

Jennifer L Jacobson, a social media author and director of public relations at Retrevo.com, said that the recent 'explosion' of Facebook adopters shows that social networking is set to become more and more popular.

The expert said that future generations will view such networks as a standard utility like the telephone/cellphone.

'I believe social media adoption will continue to grow, but that these specific areas will be where the largest hurdle lies - in getting those who know about social media to want to engage at a deeper level and increase the frequency with which they use it,' she said.

The comments follow the publication of a BCS report, entitled Why IT Makes You Happy, which showed that social networking and instant messaging provide internet users with the biggest uplift in the 'life satisfaction' among those who have recently been online.

Re-posted: Doug Mochrie M.O Social Media

Source: BCS - Chartered Institute of IT 29/09/2010

Social Media tip of the day! Why it’s better to have a fan page than a group:

It’s less of a commitment to become a fan of a page than to join a group. Yes, either way all your followers have to do is click a button. But this is a big difference in the minds of regular Facebookers. A group is more like an exclusive club, while anyone with minor appreciation for a certain brand might be willing to say they like it. That means followers are more likely to like a brand than join its group page.

Re-posted: Doug Mochrie - M.O Social Media

Source: Alexis Grant - The Socialexis, posted July 1, 2010

Forrester: Social Media Content Creators Down in U.S.

This year, a smaller percentage of U.S. Internet users are contributing to social media sites -- uploading videos, writing blog entries, posting comments to news articles and writing online product reviews -- than in 2009, according to Forrester Research.

This means that companies need to find ways to re-engage those U.S. Internet users who have stopped participating on their social media sites.

"The initial wave of consumers using social technologies in the U.S. has halted. Companies will now need to devise strategies to extend social applications past the early adopters. This means that you need to understand how your consumers use social media," Forrester analyst Jackie Rousseau-Anderson wrote in a blog post on Tuesday about a report she co-authored with Josh Bernoff, titled "A Global Update of Social Technographics."

Social media "creators," which Forrester defines as users who have a blog, upload videos and music and write articles, shrunk from 24 percent of the U.S. online population in 2009 to 23 percent in the second quarter of this year, according to data from the report.

"Critics," those who rate and review products, post comments on others' blogs, participate in discussion forums and collaborate on wikis, dropped from 37 percent to 33 percent.

Likewise, "collectors," Internet users who subscribe to syndicated feeds, tag Web pages and photos and in general organize content for the benefit of other users, fell from 21 percent to 19 percent, Forrester said.

Even "spectators," the folks who read, watch and listen to what the "creators," "critics" and "collectors" post online, dropped from 73 percent to 68 percent, according to Forrester.

To boost social media participation on their sites, companies should revise the online tools they offer for people to post comments, reviews, ratings and the like to make sure they are intuitive and easy to use, as well as offer participants rewards.

The good news is that social-networking sites continue to attract new people to social media, according to the report, for which almost 27,000 U.S. Internet users between the ages of 18 and 88 were polled online.

These social media rookies drove up the ranks of "joiners," who have social-networking profiles and visit social-networking sites, from 51 percent to 59 percent, according to Forrester.

A new category this year is "conversationalists," whom Forrester describes as people who post status updates on social-networking sites and microblogging services such as Twitter. Thirty-one percent of U.S. Internet users fall into this group.

Re-posted: Doug Mochrie M.O Social Media

Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Sep 28, 2010 7:30 pm

Social Media: In-House or Outsourced

Social media is hot, and sometimes it can feel like an arms race across businesses of all sizes to start using social media. There are many caveats and best practices to listening and engaging correctly; although it's still a developing field and best practices are formed every day, there are certain spoken and unspoken rules and approaches. With that said, it's imperative that brands adopt a smart strategy and thoughtful execution of social media. Because social media should be integrated with all groups and silos inside the organization, having an internal social media leader more than makes sense. However, what happens when you don't have the right resources, or don't have enough resources to do something right now?

Last week, I wrote about different end goals of social media: the slow and steady, daily engagement vs. the more time-constrained campaign, aimed at generating buzz. Outsourcing question is a little less complicated with social media campaigns, so let's start with that: it's generally OK for the brand to outsource at least the creative execution of a social media campaign. In some ways, I'd actually encourage that. A good agency that's worth its salt will understand what works in your sector and can help jump start your creative process. Whatever you do, please be judicious in selecting your external partner (do your research, listen to social media word-of-mouth, ask your network). After selecting one, establish visibility into what they do and make sure you are tracking, measuring and course-correcting constantly.

I think it's important to differentiate between different types of daily engagement. Firstly, there is the more high-level inbound and outbound conversation about larger industry, company and product issues. This is the stuff along the lines of "Why are you guys focusing on this market and this feature? Do you plan to offer a mobile app?". These types of conversations, along with proactive discussions with industry analysts, and potential customers and partners, are essentially your lifeline to the world and demonstrate your strategic thinking and thought leadership. I would never recommend outsourcing it. The second type of daily engagement is the more tactical part, including more routine questions and customer support: "Hey, when is your webinar?" or "I lost my password, how do I reset it?" or "I get an error when I connect my database to your system". Because these types of queries will most likely be numerous in volume, and not every organization is set up to handle it, a mix of outsourcing and automation could be appropriate. The big caveats are around the right execution and hiring an contact center partner who can deliver a quality customer experience and is aligned with your goals. Outsourced contact centers are a great way to bridge capacity issues and ramp up quickly as a shorter term solution. In the longer term, I would encourage you to bring your support at least partially in-house.

Even if you are working with an outsourced partner, it is still imperative to at least have internal customer experience leadership in-house, and thought leadership initiatives should always be in-house. Here's is why:

1. Culture: Only you know yourself as well as you do. If your internal culture is strong, every person should know what the company stands for and what its values are. They will also know what your organizational mandate is as far as customer support and how you interact with other people in the social sphere, as well as in traditional channels. It's more difficult to act as a steward of a company if you don't live inside this internal culture, if you aren't privy to internal workings, things you do well, and areas for improvement. There's just a certain level of magic that's there when you are on the inside. I wrote about hiring the right social media person; and to truly be a brand ambassador, I believe you have to be internal.

2. Transparency: Just like you can get more visibility into what others are doing, others can get more visibility into your world when you are internal. Of course, an outsourced agency will share what they are working on, and SCRM tools allow everyone to work from the same customer record. However, the level of transparency is just not the same when you take things external, no matter how you slice it.

3. Collaboration: Because social media is not a silo and internal collaboration is key, an internal person is naturally going to have an easier time working with the right people in the organization. Access to the right department heads is also going to be key, and is simply easier when done internally. All organizations, especially the larger ones, have their own cultural and communication norms, and even office politics, observing which will is also inherently easier by an "insider". We can all debate the importance of flat organizations and seamless collaboration, and whereas we are moving in that direction with SCRM programs and social business and collaboration tools, we are far from the ideal. Also, internal cultural Idiosyncrasies will always exist, no matter what tool or process you enact.

4. Support from the C-suite: right along with #1, it's key, especially in large organizations to have support of the C-suite, in order to do social media on a meaningful scale. Of course, many companies have started grassroots programs that blossomed into full-scale social media initiatives. Yes, that's a great place you can start -- if you have social media savvy folks, they can certainly start providing support in social channels, blogging, creating content, developing a set of social media guidelines. Once you start, you should be tracking your success, because that's what's going to garner you the executive support you need for a full-scale operation. It's easier to start from the inside, get buy-in and grow vs. getting buy-in to outsource. There's simply more transparency, and the C-suite just may feel better that they know what's going on. Their concerns and fears may be calmed knowing that they can have access to internal social media resources at all times. Once you pilot an internal program, get buy-in, you can then lobby to augment your efforts with support outsourcing (excluding customer experience leadership).

5. Building a future: having an internal social media and customer experience leadership means that you can also get others energized from the inside, and you can make plans to grow your social media team over time. You should plan to do this; however, as you consider growth plans, make sure that you are not creating a social media silo. Rather, you should make social a part of everything you do and not leave it up to your social team to be the only social voices for your company.

Finding the right social media leader is difficult and time-consuming. Of course, many companies are lucky to have social media leaders sprout up from the inside. But what do you do when you really need to bring in an external hire, for one reason or another? If you are in a situation where no one internally feels comfortable about his / her social media "chops" or no one has the extra resources to dedicate to it, it's OK to ask for external guidance. Recruit a social media strategy company that can help you create a social media strategy, even if it's just for the next 3-6 months.

However, you should use them as guides, social media "sherpas" of sorts, while you also get someone internal to collaborate with the agency.

Have you ever had to make an in-house or outsourced decision? Let us know how it went, what worked, what didn't. What are some success factors?

Re posted by Doug Mochrie M.O Social Media

Image by Matt Hamm

September 25, 2010 by Maria Ogneva

BMO Report: Majority of Canadian Businesses Using Social Media "Digg" It

Three-Quarters of Business Owners(1) Using Social Media Say it has Benefited Their Business - 30 per cent Use it to Gather Ideas/Suggestions from Other People - Business Productivity Gets Boost from Interactive Idea Generation and Innovation - BMO Economics

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Sep 27, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Editors Note: There is an audio podcast available with this Press Release.

One of the world's hottest technology developments in the last decade is winning top marks from business owners who use it, according to a new BMO survey conducted by Harris/Decima.

Social media uses web technologies to create interaction online and promote dialogue among users. Innovative forms include social networking sites, podcasting, video sharing, and social bookmarking sites such as Digg, presenting opportunities for businesses to engage and target customers.

The report findings show 75 per cent of Canadian business owners using social media say it has a positive impact for their company. The survey also reveals its value goes beyond entrepreneurs just selling products, with one-third using social media to solicit ideas for their business.

"Businesses continue to ramp up their social media presence and the high number that see a positive effect bodes well for its ongoing importance," said Cathy Pin, Vice President, Commercial Banking, BMO Bank of Montreal. "When it comes to sharing ideas, promoting company brand as well as products, social media has proven to be a method of choice for Canadian business owners."

The findings reveal some of the ways social media is used:

-- 30 per cent use it to gather ideas/suggestions from other people;
-- 30 per cent use it to promote their brand/reputation;
-- 20 per cent use it to sell a product.





"Innovation plays a major role in driving productivity, including innovations in communication and information," said Douglas Porter, Deputy Chief Economist, BMO Capital Markets. "The importance of such innovations cannot be underestimated, given the direct link between productivity gains and improving standards of living."

The Harris/Decima telephone poll was conducted from May 3rd to 19th, 2010 and is based on a sample of 427 Canadian businesses with between 50 and 499 employees and revenues between $5M and $75M annually. -Results have been weighted against the known universe for such Canadian businesses.- A sample size of 427 garners results that are accurate within +/-4.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

To listen to the audio podcast, please visit the following link: http://file.marketwire.com/release/BMOPodcasts2.m4a.

(1) In this release, "Businesses" refer to those that employ between 50-499 employees and have revenues between $5M and $75M annually.

SOURCE: BMO Bank of Montreal
Sept. 27, 2010

Why Your Company Should Have a Facebook Page (Not a Profile)

The need to leverage social media for business is a no-brainer at this point, but a company's effectiveness on Facebook can be hampered if the account isn't set up properly.

Here are four reasons why your business should be set up as a Page, rather than a standard profile.

Facebook Says So

According to Facebook's terms of service, "Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name, while Pages allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook." If your business' profile gets shut down by Facebook for violating this rule, your friends list will vanish with it.

Pages Offer Analytics and Like Widgets

Two really crucial advantages of administering a Page are user analytics and easily-embeddable Like buttons and widgets.



With the recently overhauled Facebook Insights, you can view all kinds of useful data about user activity on your page, including how many likes and comments you received each day, demographic break-downs and much more. This data can be really useful for understanding the characteristics of your customer base, and knowing which wall posts get the best reaction. This data is not available to individual profiles.
Another thing profiles don't offer is the means to embed a Like button and other Open Graph plugins into your own site. This is a major setback for businesses hoping to grow their audience on Facebook.

Pages Can Have Unlimited Fans.

On Facebook, individual profiles are limited to 5,000 friends, whereas Pages can have unlimited fans (or likes). Once your profile friend list reaches 5,000, Facebook will encourage you to set up a Page, but doesn't offer a tool to convert your profile to a Page. For that, you're on your own.

Converting a Profile to a Page is a Nightmare

If you already set up your business on Facebook with a profile, converting "friends" to "fans" is no simple process. The only way to switch them over is to politely ask the friends to do it themselves. This can be accomplished either via status update or by sending them all a message explaining the change and linking them to your new Page.
A third option would be to use Facebook's formal Page recommendation tool to suggest that friends Like your new page. However, this option doesn't give you the opportunity to type a custom message explaining why you're asking them to do it.

When converting friends to fans, it's important to clearly articulate to users why you're asking them to like your business, because in their mind they're already connected to it via Facebook and shouldn't need to take any further action. You'll need to include a concise and friendly note to your users explaining that you're switching from a profile to a Page to better serve them and ask them to click the like button to stay connected.

Whichever approach you take, there's no guarantee that each and every one of your friends will end up clicking on your Page's like button, and repeatedly following up to remind them to do so can annoy users.

At some point, you'll have to decide if you're going to delete the original profile, keep it semi-hidden via privacy settings or just let it sit there. Maintaining two different presences on Facebook can be confusing for your users, and thanks to Facebook's friend recommendation feature, your long-abandoned profile will continue to pop up when friends of friends log in, and the requests will keep rolling in.

By John Paul Titlow | July 15, 2010 11:00 PM

Getting the most out of social media

Study shows Facebook gets more hits than Google

Temptations are distracting, and distractions are tempting.

Enter any Southeast Missouri State University computer lab and it's easy to see the process in action.

While some students are prepping projects and polishing papers, others are spellbound by social media.

Facebook and Twitter often win the ratings war over resourceful search engines.

In fact, new research released by comScore, Inc. found that web users spend more time on Facebook than Google.

Last week a Pennsylvania university sought to remedy this.

For one week, 800 students at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology were barred from using any social media websites while on campus. The week-long ban wasn't about limiting student rights; it was an experiment in academic productivity.

Obviously, any student with Facebook fever and a smartphone can circumvent such an inconvenience, especially a technology student.

So the question remains: Does social media distract academia?

The answer: Maybe, according to an Ohio State University study.

Though small, only 219 students were polled, the OSU study showed Facebook frequenters spent less time studying and reported lower GPAs than their non-Facebooking counterparts.

However, these statistics only measure time and ignore usage. Clearly users will spend less time on Google, a search engine designed to move quickly from point A to point B, than Facebook, a designed time-consumer.

But Facebook offers more than Farmville and pictures of a future hangover.

If used responsibly, Facebook and other social media can enhance not distract from the academic experience.

Social media started as a party among friends, but its content evolved, allowing universities to log on and hone the power of instant connections.

Southeast utilizes Twitter and more than 15 official Facebook accounts to keep students connected to the university.

Add that number to the litany of student organizations also conveying content through social media and Southeast is a communal fraternity everyone can join without displaying Greek symbols on our wardrobes.

Wondering what Student Government is up to? Follow them on Twitter.

Interested in the latest Redhawk sporting news? You'll find it on Facebook. Got a complaint about an opinion you read in The Arrow?

You can write a letter to the editor, or you can air your grievance via social media.

By using social media to reach its student body a university can raise awareness of campus issues and increase student involvement.

Education isn't cheap.

We should take advantage of every outlet we have to increase the quality of our investment, especially a free one.

Michale D. Johnson
Issue date: 9/23/10

Powersport Market Trends

What are companies such as Nike, Wendys, Toyota, Jeep, Target, Gatorade, Verizon Wireless, Axe, Paul Mitchell, Nerf, Ball Park Franks, Playstation, Dickies up to?

Companies across the world are re-developing their marketing and branding strategies to directly target the Action Sports industry - specifically Motocross, Skateboarding, BMX, and Snowboarding. The companies listed above are just the tip of the iceberg.

Why Action Sports?

Recent studies have shown that over 25% of the North American population age is between 10 and 24; this cohort has a significant buying power estimated at more than $250 billion dollars. Studies have shown that using action sports marketing through establish events can infiltrate manufacturer products into the lifestyles of the generation Y and Z demographic 19% stronger than partnerships with mainstream sports.

Similar to social media growth, Action Sports growth and expansion is rapidly increasing and has been for over 10 years now. Action sports are growing at a rate of 9% per year for participation and 23% a year for event and athlete knowledge and recognition. These results and increased impressions are resulting in a direct increase of product sales, as companies target the generation Y and Z market place.

Why is this important?

As the generation Y and Z demographic grows older and reproduces, all resources point in the direction that the children of these generations will participate and recognize action sports events and athletes further growing and increasing the marketing and brand structures for all companies.

What’s In and Out with Action Sports Trends?

In - Growing event attendance, television coverage, web presence and video clips - American based "Dew Tour" is broadcast on NBC, MTV and USA Network, as well as distributed worldwide, in over 100 different countries!

Out - Magazines - "Syndication and subscription is down on action sports magazines. Newsstand sales are tanking. Action sports brands are afraid of the shift but corporate companies are not. For having the enthralling sought after “risk taker” image, most of the action sports brands haven’t lived up to it and instead continue to play it safe sticking to what they know; print advertising. One person who really gets it in this industry is Tony Hawk. Everyone needs to start from ground zero and a newbie intern won’t cut it. Sorry. Would you hire an intern to be your lead media buyer for television and billboard ads? No. It’s the same thing, different medium. Time to ride into a new type of branding. Be humble and understand it’s a new world." Quote by Espree Devora (Co-Founder at Women in Action Sports Organization) (Action Sports (Extreme Sports) & Youth Market Connoisseur)

Where is Canada in this?

Canada is just beginning to follow the trend of utilizing what the action sports culture has to offers in regards to the wide open possibilities of sport marketing and brand in which the USA has been doing since 2007. Is your company ready to jump in the Action Sports Market?

Doug Mochrie
M.O Social Media

Originally Published by Mark Perrin - MPI Sport Management

Facebook's Ads Work Pretty Well

When Social Ads Collide With Stated Interests, Awareness Goes Up

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- It pays to have fans on Facebook if you want your ads to work there too, according to the first public study to come out of the collaboration of Nielsen Co. and Facebook.

Ads that included mentions of friends who were brand fans saw an increase in recall of 16%, and 30% when the ads coincided with a similar mention in users' news feeds.

The study of more than 800,000 Facebook users and ads from 14 brands in a variety of categories shows a marked increase in ad recall, awareness and purchase intent when home-page ads on the social network mention friends of users who've become fans of the brand in the ad.

The impact on awareness and recall is even more pronounced when a home-page ad coincides with what Facebook and Nielsen term "organic" social advocacy, i.e. an item in a user's news feed indicating a friend has become a fan of a brand.

In short, so-called earned media generated when people mention or advocate brands makes the paid media considerably more effective, according to the study. Nielsen and Facebook plan to discuss results of the study in a session at Ad:Tech in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Increased recall

Facebook-home-page ads on average generated a 10% increase in ad recall, a 4% increase in brand awareness and a 2% increase in purchase intent among users who saw them compared with a control group with similar demographics or characteristics who didn't.

But the increase in recall jumped to 16% when ads included mentions of friends who were brand fans, and 30% when the ads coincided with a similar mention in users' news feeds. Brand awareness saw similar bumps: up 2% from just a home-page ad, 8% with a "social ad" bearing mentions of friends who were brand fans and up 13% when a home-page ad appeared along with a mention of friends who were brand fans in the users' news feeds.

Purchase intent was 2% higher among viewers of home-page ads vs. nonviewers, but got a four-times-bigger bump, up 8% either from social ads or when ads appeared alongside organic mentions of the brand in the news feed.

Earned and paid media

One major takeaway from the research is that paid and earned media work together in ways that could have implications well beyond Facebook, said Jon Gibbs, VP-media analytics at Nielsen. "The market has been talking very much about how to buy paid media and earn earned media, but there's been very little attention to the types of hybrid impressions and hybrid experience that blends these two," Mr. Gibbs said.

While Facebook's social ads present a fairly unique way of blending the paid and earned impressions, Mr. Gibbs noted that it's not a totally isolated example. He cited rich-media vendors that allow for Twitter feeds, social commentary or other kinds of consumer input within their ads. But he said having specific friends linked to a brand, as Facebook does, appears to have more impact than just incorporating social commentary broadly.

The recall levels for home-page ads on Facebook appear "slightly higher than standard norms we've done on other projects," Mr. Gibbs said. "What we've seen in both social ads and organic [mentions] are much higher than we've seen in other campaigns along these lines."

Results 'unremarkable'

Rex Briggs, CEO of the analytics firm Marketing Evolution, which has conducted numerous online advertising effectiveness studies, called results for Facebook's regular home-page ads "unremarkable and in line with banner ads [generally]," but he added that the results for social ads and the impact of organic mentions make for "a really interesting story."

Nielsen appeared to employ a good methodology used since the first online ad effectiveness studies in the mid 1990s, Mr. Briggs said.

"It does what Facebook wanted to do, which is legitimize the advertising and business model of Facebook," he said. "What it doesn't do is give the cross-media understanding of how does this piece fit into overall marketing plans."

What Facebook also hasn't done, he said, is open its doors and data to a variety of research companies as others, such as Microsoft, Yahoo or AOL have done. That its internal data remain largely under wraps, and its template for creating fan pages remains relatively limited compared to what marketers can do with their own sites or other networks may also be limiting revenue for Facebook, he said.

Paid media cheaper

In all, Nielsen projects around 18 million Facebook users saw ads measured as part of the study, of which around a million also saw organic mentions of their friends in social ads. Roughly another million saw organic mentions of the brands featured in the study without seeing the ads.

Based on those numbers, it's still a lot easier -- if not necessarily cheaper -- to buy scale on Facebook than earn it by winning fans. It's also an indication to Mr. Gibbs that marketers need to focus on winning Facebook fans over the long haul if they want to improve their odds of success when advertising there.

Of the 18 million users exposed to the ads, only around 130,000, or less than 1%, "engaged" with them by clicking on them. But around 40,000, or around 4%, of users who saw organic mentions of their friends become brand fans clicked on those news items. The higher click-through on organic impressions is another indication of the power of earned media on Facebook, Mr. Gibbs said.

"I do think it requires a level of ongoing investment in social media," Mr. Gibbs said, as opposed to a series of short-term projects. He also said marketers who have large e-mail databases should probably be encouraging consumers in e-mail programs to join their Facebook pages.

Mr. Gibbs said he doesn't believe Facebook's plans to move from "become a fan" to the more click-prone "like" as a means of joining brand pages would have much impact on the numbers in the study. And he believes, though it wasn't part of the survey, that users by now have been exposed to enough of Facebook's social ads to realize that when they become fans of a brand, they may also become endorsers in that brand's Facebook ads.

The Nielsen BrandLift polls used to survey Facebook users was a "lightweight" poll, generally with only two questions, aimed at maximizing response rates.

Nielsen didn't incorporate actual purchases, as opposed to purchase intent, "because this is the first generation of this research," Mr. Gibbs said. "We wanted to stick to branding because it's language the market is very comfortable with. In next generations, I would assume we will start incorporating offline purchase and other transactional data as part of the analysis."

by Jack Neff
First Published: April 19, 2010

You're Using Social Media. But Just Who Is Overseeing It All?

With Marketing, Sales, R&D and Customer-Service Reps Involved, the Task Is to Get Everyone Working Together

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Social media is undoubtedly shaking up the digital landscape, but it looks to be shaking up the corporate suite as well.
As brands try to foster loyalty with Facebook pages, show innovation on blogs and address customer concerns on Twitter, social media is threading its way through the marketing and sales, research and development, customer-service departments and more. All of which gives rise to the question: Just whose job is it anyway?

SCOTT MONTY: Global-digital and multimedia-communications director is involved with Ford's marketing department.

Answer: everyone's -- so it's important to get all those disciplines working together.

Take Ford Motor Co. for example. The automaker saw $2.7 billion in profit for 2009 -- a huge turnaround from a record loss the prior year -- and it smartly used social media to help disassociate it from the bankruptcies and bailouts of its rivals. But that required breaking with custom at Ford and pooling the resources of marketing and corporate communications.

"We've been living this for the past year," said Scott Kelly, Ford's digital-marketing manager. "Historically, we had very little interaction with public affairs, but ever since the congressional bailout for the other two automakers, we needed to combine marketing and public-affairs forces to get the right message out around Ford so we didn't get dragged down by GM and Chrysler."

Gettin in early

In late 2008, Ford brought together the teams from what was then called public affairs (now corporate communications) and marketing to plan all efforts simultaneously. That means Ford's Global Digital and Multimedia Communications Director Scott Monty is now involved in marketing's launch-planning meetings. "In the past, public affairs were brought in at the end," said Alex Hultgren, Ford's digital-media manager. Now, Mr. Kelly said, "I talk to people in public affairs daily, where it used to be monthly."

Ford's social-media efforts include FordStory.com, which went from a political advocacy site when the automaker appeared before Congress in 2008 to a social-media hub today. The automaker also launched the Fiesta Movement last spring, in which Ford lent out 100 cars, along with gas and insurance, to YouTube bloggers for free. The Fiesta videos attracted 3.5 million views and won 38% awareness among 16- to 24-year-olds last fall. As of today, Ford reports that the campaign has computed to 6,000 reserved cars -- months before Fiesta goes on sale this summer.

Sometimes it's also about dragging non-marketing types into social-media meetings. "Our client contact has stayed the same, but now new people are in the room, like from R&D or merchandising," said Ketchum's Jonathan Bellinger, VP-social-media strategy. "Whether or not they've been volunteered, we've been asking for those people because it's not necessarily the marketing people that audiences are most interested in."

Southwest Airlines, for example, has tapped some flight-crew members to blog for Nuts for Southwest, which aggregates photos and videos. The blog also addresses news stories, such as the one that erupted recently when film director Kevin Smith tweeted that the airline kicked him off a plane because he was too fat. The blog is primarily a brand and PR tool, but customer service is also brought in and given a social-media bullhorn.

"If your goal is customer care, you need people inside [the company] that can take action and do something about it," said Sarah Hofstetter, senior VP-emerging media and client strategy for 360i.

Best Buy has made this model famous with Twelpforce, its customer service handle on Twitter. The retailer's employees sign up to field customer tweets and respond to service questions or requests for recommendations. Any employee can sign up, but all are subject to company-wide protocol and guidelines. Best Buy did not respond to multiple calls and e-mails for comment.

That's not to say marketers can navigate social media without agencies. Digital and PR agencies are vying for ever-increasing social-media budgets.
Agencies needed?

"In 2010, we start to see funded conversations," said 360i's Ms. Hofstetter. "Instead of funding a particular campaign, they are funding an investment in an ongoing conversation with consumers. That's a big shift." And that change isn't expected to slow anytime soon. Forrester Research forecasts social-media budgets will on average grow 34% yearly from 2009 to 2014 -- faster than other kinds of digital advertising.

Ford's Mr. Kelly doesn't see social media as something for PR and digital shops to fight over, since both types of agencies bring different skills to the table. "We consider it one budget," he said. "It doesn't matter if it's a marketing or public-affairs budget."

Ford has been less susceptible to the tug of war between digital and PR agencies for social media because its agency, Team Detroit, houses multiple shops under one roof. The WPP collective, dedicated entirely to the automaker, houses agencies spanning media, PR and creative. For Ford, creative and digital are responsible for building content for social-media channels (like apps for Facebook), while PR keeps up social page day-to-day management of things like posting events and responding to customers.

Ford has also looked to small social-media boutiques like New York-based Undercurrent for programs such as those for Fiesta. Social-only shops are the newest breed in the agency landscape and are proliferating rapidly. In January, Austin-based Powered acquired Joseph Jaffe's agency Crayon for strategy; events agency Drillteam; and Facebook-focused StepChange to create a full-service social-media agency with a national footprint.

"We're always going to start with our agency of record," said Ford's Mr. Hultgren. "We may look at a boutique agency to manage a piece of social media. Boutique agencies can be singularly focused on something. But if we want a pure focus on some social-media task, we want a boutique to focus on a pilot. Once we've proven out that model, we'll hand off to Team Detroit to integrate."

But while it's clear that social media has helped change perception of Ford, the biggest test is whether it sells cars. "Social media can fall anywhere in the range of the selling cycle," said Mr. Monty. "In our case it's on the broader end: awareness and perception. It's more of a branding tool than a sales tool. But on the local level, where the dealer gets involved, that's where it get can work for lead generation and CRM."


Three marketing models for social media

A look at how Ford, Kodak and Best Buy run their programs

CENTRALIZED

The social-media department functions at a senior level, reporting to the CMO or CEO, and is responsible for all social-media activation for the brand. "We work with a lot of clients that have appointed one person," said Ketchum's Jonathan Bellinger, VP-social media strategy. "It's nice to have a celebrity; it puts a human face on a company. You can achieve that by having one person being the public face both externally and internally, but it can get distracting because it becomes about those people."

Dangers: Having a social-media head means departments outside that person's scope might not benefit from efforts in the medium. For example, is customer care being considered if social media is centralized under marketing? This model doesn't necessarily take into consideration social media's influence on the entire business.

Essential roles: The social-media lead.

Marketers with this model: Ford. Scott Monty, global digital and multimedia communications director, joined the automaker from social boutique Crayon and has been a visible proponent of social media for the brand. Mr. Monty operates within the corporate-communications department, which reports directly into Ford's CEO.

DISTRIBUTED

In this setup, no one person technically owns social media. Instead, all employees from customer care, marketing, media and beyond are represent the brand and work social media into their roles. This is often implemented through training and encouraging social media use across an organization.

Dangers: If there's no standardized practice, social media can veer a brand off-message. For example, Jet Blue Senior VP-Marketing Marty St. George brought Twitter into the agency-of-record pitch process -- tweeting the news of the search to see how many agencies were digitally savvy enough to find it there. "That experiment is over -- and not to be repeated!" he tweeted after his tweet blew up into media coverage. Without a leader, learning about new social technology or sites then also falls on individuals.

Essential roles: Senior leadership that champions social media; training and internal communications around social-media policy is necessary.

Marketers with this model: Best Buy is decentralized because everyone in the organization has a role in social media, as Twelpforce demonstrates. Any employee can sign up to respond to customer queries on Twitter. The retailer does, however, have protocol and guidelines in place for tweets, and it has social-media experts in marketing. Last summer, CMO Barry Judge crowd-sourced a job description for a senior manager-emerging media marketing. Brands like IBM, Intel and Kodak have published social-media policies.

COMBINATION

This involves centralized best practices and decentralized execution. A brand maintains a committee of social-media stakeholders to work up its position and voice, which it disseminates to the company at large. From there, each discipline is left to incorporate social media into its individual executions.
Dangers: How do you hold departments accountable to a research council? Also, when a social-media program goes sour, who ends up as the fall guy, those who built the social-media strategy, or those who implemented it?

Essential roles: A team of social-media experts plucked from various departments.

Marketers with this model: Ketchum's Mr. Bellinger cites his client Kodak as a company that's found a good balance. It employs Jenny Cisney, chief blogger, in marketing, but she's tasked with steering the company's social-media presence rather than own it entirely. Kodak has published online its social-media policy for employees within a guidebook for marketers looking for lessons in social media. Starting in 2005, IBM used a wiki to crowd-source guidelines for a company blog and has asked employees to collective revise the rules for new forms of social media. Those efforts ultimately feed back to IBM's social-media head Adam Christensen, who most recently spearheaded the company's Smarter Planet blog.

by Kunur Patel
First Published: February 22, 2010

Social Media is no more a buzzword today! It has become an integral part of our everyday lives today.

Social Media is no more a buzzword today! It has become an integral part of our everyday lives today. Given the rate at which Social Media is spreading today, marketers can no more ignore this revolutionary medium. Whether you are interested in hiring new talent, improving your customer service, generating new leads & sales or building an Online Community, Social Media Marketing can be your answer!

Managing the flow of information of a brand, a product or a service on a Social Media Channel is the biggest challenge that is coming across organizations today. Customers’ decision making, nowadays, is largely impacted by Social Media, even if it is just Noodles that they eat or a laptop they use. Due to which, it has become need of hour for all the marketers to follow what, where and how they are being talked about.

Social media is all about your engagement and participation with your customers.