Become a Brand Ambassador 

Social Media management for business isn’t always easy.  Often, companies don’t have the resources to devote to a planned-out strategy; one that is current, relevant & competitive.  Businesses know they need to commit to this brand builder (social media), but can’t figure out how to work it into their laundry list of management “to-do’s”. 

Despite the challenges, more and more organizations are figuring out a way to get involved in Social Media.  They understand the value.  It isn’t solely large corporations either.  Companies both small and large are realizing the vehicle’s importance and are putting drivers in place to build their brands and reap the search engine optimization (SEO) benefits. 

Some companies hire part-time employees, others hire college interns.  But the involvement role that always impresses me most is when company executives play a major role in social media management.  From the consumer perspective, management having an active part in social media creates an immediate connection.  Seeing a multi-million dollar corporation CEO reach out to customers makes a bold statement about the company’s values and management philosophy.

How can management be involved?

Because of the viral nature of social media, it is becoming increasingly important to monitor and be active in the channels you establish.  If a customer is unhappy, you should expect that they will let the world know through your corporate Facebook Page or Twitter Profile.  Companies’ (and better yet, executives’) ability to react to discontented consumer issues through Social Media is an excellent brand building and customer service management tactic.  Remember to listen and react to all individuals.  The process will help you to identify happy customers as well—your brand advocates.

Another great way management is getting involved in Social Media is through Twitterchats or “Tweet-Ups”.  For those who are unfamiliar, Twitterchats can be established by any company, at any time.  MoreVisibility’s #mvchat takes place each Thursday from 3:30-4pm (est).  Each week, our management team selects a certain online marketing topic to discuss.  It’s the perfect time for MoreVisibility’s Executive Team to interact with clients, industry enthusiasts, brand followers and prospective clients.  If you would like to read more about Twitterchats, check out our June Newsletter article, “Twitter Parties/Chats: What Are They & How Can They Help My Business?” by our Executive Vice President, Danielle Leitch.   

Where are we seeing the most involvement?   

One of the more popular channels we see C-Level contribution in Social Media is through Twitter.  Because of the immediacy of Twitter, it requires a more intimate involvement.  However, don’t allow this to discourage you from being active as a manager.  The ability to manage Social Media accounts via mobile devices creates an awesome opportunity for even the busiest on-the-go executives. 

Becoming a brand ambassador as a manager is mutually beneficial for the individual and company.  Not only can you position yourself as an industry expert, but you also strengthen the company’s brand in the process.  Lastly, know that all companies can be engaged with Social Media regardless of regulations and internal complications.  Though some industries can be involved more than others, there is always a way to gain visibility if Social Media is managed and utilized correctly. Communicate, train and strategize to be successful. View Social Media as a way to become a brand ambassador.  Look at it as an opportunity to connect, communicate & get real-time feedback from the individuals who matter most—your customers.

Advertising on Facebook has become one of the most successful and popular online advertising options for marketers.  According to eMarketer.com, Facebook ad revenues are expected to reach over 4 billion dollars in 2011 (with 2.2 billion in the United States).  Emarketer.com states, “The company will receive 68% of all social network ad spending worldwide. In the US, it will garner 71% of social network spending and 7.7% of total US online ad spending.” It isn’t a surprise that Facebook has become the apple of the marketer’s eye.

So what are you waiting for?  Although Facebook ads shouldn’t be the entire focus of your marketing plan, you should consider allocating a portion of your budget in this direction.

One of the major reasons to consider investing in Facebook ads is your ability to target specific audiences.  Let’s be honest, most people put their lives on Facebook.  People list (freely) their demographic information, jobs, residence, and interests within their profiles.  As Facebook continues to expand its advertising options, it will allow marketers to get more creative in their marketing strategies and messages. 

One of the newer services available is Facebook’s “Likes & Interests” targeting option.  What exactly does this mean? Simply stated, you are now able to display your ad in front of individuals that have some sort of vested interest in your competitors (or people that have “Liked” a competitor’s company page).  This also means that you are able to advertise to people that identify an interest that may be affiliated with your target audience.

Let’s take a look at the example below to better illustrate how this targeting option is utilized.  Pretend for a moment that you are working for a University in Florida.  Your goal is to advertise your college to the majority looking to go to college in Florida (in this case, we will focus on targeting the U.S, ages 17-25).  Within this target, you’d like to advertise to individuals who have displayed interest in other Florida Universities. 

With the “Likes & Interests” option, you can reach these people by placing names of other higher education institutions in Florida.  This granulates your search and gives you the ability to get in front of a group of people that wasn’t necessarily guaranteed previously.  Most likely, this ad will display to people looking for a Florida college as well as to people who are currently attending a University but may be looking to transfer or continue their education after graduating. 

The “Likes & Interests” option may not be applicable to all industries.  Perhaps you don’t want to advertise to people affiliated with your competitors.  Remember though that you can be creative with identifying your specific targeting keywords.  Your approach may be more indirect (as opposed to such a direct approach in the University example).  Instead of trying to reach individuals who have shown interest in other Florida schools, perhaps you are trying to reach the same age group who have mentioned interest in a sport or geographic interest (such as the beach).  If you are a college in South Florida located near the beach (Florida Atlantic University for example), placing “beach” as a targeting interest may be an interesting way to grab the attention of your target audience.  In this case, you may wish to tailor your ad copy to speak to this audience.  As an example:  “How would you like to spend your study breaks on the beach? Apply to FAU today”.
Facebook has undoubtedly become the front runner in social media paid advertising.  If you know your target audience and are looking for a creative way to reach them, Facebook advertising may be the marketing route for you!

Though there is a ton of buzz surrounding social media for business, not too much of it highlights how to proactively manage and leverage the various networks.  Often times, it isn’t until there is a “slip-up” or lapse in judgment by the individual managing a company’s account that we hear a response as to what should have occurred instead. 

Perhaps you’ve heard about the recent high-profile PR incidents including personal messages being sent from @RedCross or @ChryslerAutos profiles.  If you didn’t hear about those incidents, perhaps the Intern that went on a rampage on the last day of his job, calling Marc Jacobs’ CEO Robert Duffy a “tyrant” rings a bell. 

There are many lessons to be learned from these unfortunate examples.  One of the most important lessons is, choose your social media contributors wisely.  Remember that the individual managing your account is, in essence, a spokesperson of the business.  In some cases, the person actually becomes the face of the company.  LinkedIn is a great example.  The person that manages company groups on behalf of the company works LinkedIn under his or her personal profile. 

On the flip side, having a credible individual act as the face of the company can work to your advantage.  The person that is able to network and recruit a great number of credible followers and is able to engage with others through the platform has great benefits (including possible business/sales opportunities).   

Let’s go back to the importance of being proactive.  As managers, you should always be in tune with the activity on your social media accounts (better yet, be engaged yourself!).  This is important for a few reasons.  Troubleshooting is the first reason.  Without micromanaging, it is important to oversee and be involved with the operation to maintain your brand sentiment.  This way, if a post was inadvertently entered or a message was incorrectly stated, you can fix/remove it before any negativity goes viral.  Secondly, you should always have access to and control your account passwords.  In the event that your social media specialist or marketing manager leaves that company, you will always have the ability to control/manage your accounts (and in this case, change your password). 

As a result of some of the recent mishaps mentioned above, some networks have created safeguards to help prevent these situations from occurring.  Hootsuite in particularly, announced that they have created “Secure Social Profiles” to minimize an accidental mis-send.  The new profiles feature “prevents accidental updates by team members by requiring an additional confirmation step before sending”.  The Secure Profiles feature is available in HootSuite’s Enterprise plan and is designed to help large companies with multiple team members.  As you can see below, the feature is also compatible and available for Smartphone users.   

Social media remains one of the greatest marketing tools available.  A common challenge with managing social media is a lack of time.  Outsourcing these efforts, in some cases, is the best solution to this dilemma.  Selecting an agency that understands your brand, goals, and products is important as they will represent you throughout the social media trenches.  If you choose to hire someone internal to manage your channels, make sure that they are well trained.  The person should understand the business, brand, services/products, as well as the goals of social media efforts.  Remember, consistent effort and engagement can go a long way!

In a recent blog post on leveraging SEO benefits of video, I mentioned how YouTube is an excellent way to drive visitors to your website.  Equally important is allowing individuals to access your YouTube company page through adding a YouTube link/button on your website.  From an SEO perspective, frequently adding fresh content to your channel and properly tagging your videos will allow you to utilize YouTube as an SEO channel.   

Properly “Tagging”? Just remember this: “TDK”…Title, Description, Keywords.
 

1. Title-Make sure that it’s enticing and keyword rich.  Go back to your video and determine the main subject or topic matter in the recording.  The word or short phrase that you decide on should be included in the title.  This is because the search engines weight anything in the title very highly.  Another tip: remember to keep your title to 70 characters or less.
2. Description-Creating a persuasive description and putting it in sentence form are two key items to keep in mind.  While it is best to keep the description around 155 characters, it is more important to make sure that it is compelling, so that individuals will click through to your page.
3. Keywords-Select two or three keywords to be featured as tags. Your keyword or keyword phrase should mirror the main topic of your video and should be included in your title. 

SEO benefits are the greatest payback from coordinated efforts to frequently produce video content and properly tag them.  While it does require resources, mainly time, using YouTube is an inexpensive way to gain brand visibility and rank in search engines for your important keywords.

While recent hot topics have centered around mobile and social media in the interactive marketing industry recently, there are a few marketing tools that have received less attention that are worth mentioning.  One of these is the use of video.   Videos are unique as they can be used on your company site, on YouTube, and through email marketing.  All of these opportunities allow you to drive viewers to your website, ultimately improving your chance of converting a prospect into a client.  Video has proven helpful for boosting conversions and can be a relatively inexpensive marketing tool.  

According to a Nielson report released in August 2010, 70% of global online users watch video.  Knowing that statistic, why not try it out? If your company is using video, you may have noticed that your videos show up in Google search results.  This is because Google actually puts video production into its search placement algorithm.  Frequently adding new video content to the channel will strengthen your rankings in natural search results.

If you are considering video as a marketing tool, here are five useful tips for a successful campaign:

1. Keep your videos short.  According to Visible Measures, users tend to drop off after viewing 10-60 seconds of a video.  In fact, 20% of viewers drop-off after ten seconds of video and 44% drop-off after 60 seconds.
2. Optimize your video players.  Increasing the video player and adding action buttons (“Play” or “Click to View”) may increase view-through-rates.
3. Make sure people can find your video.  To increase the likelihood of your video being discovered, submit a video sitemap to the search engines and leverage other channels to feature it as well.  Using YouTube and Facebook can help drive viewers back to your website.
4. Don’t forget about mobile.  With the increase of mobile users, many viewers will try to view videos over a small screen.  Therefore, ensure your videos are accessible from mobile devices.
5. Video content can be educational.  Introducing new services or products through video is a great way to get the word out.  Demos and “How-To’s” can give your company credibility, as people will look to use as a resource.

According to a recent article by eMarketer, “US marketers will spend $3.08 billion to advertise on social networking sites this year. Spending will be up 55% over the $1.99 billion advertisers devoted to social networks in 2010 and will rise by a further 27.7% next year to reach nearly $4 billion.”  Amazingly enough, spending in social media is $1 billion dollars greater than what was projected back in August 2010 (a mention that I made in a previous blog post).  What’s the disparity?  One word.  Facebook; the biggest player in the field.

Often times, businesses seek guidance in trying to formulate a “magic number” to set aside for online advertising.  While there isn’t an easy way to project this number, one thing to consider including in future budgets is paid advertising in social media networks.  According to the same study done by eMarketer, “Social network advertising is to account for 10.8% of the online market.” 

With the increasing number of people participating in these social channels, coupled with the amount of time spent throughout a day (either personally or for business), this data actually begins making a lot of sense.  People are spending more and more time on social media.  Paid advertising through these networks enables businesses to get in front of their viewers, hypothetically, all day long.  If you would like additional insights, check out this recent article from BusinessNewsDaily on 5 Ways Businesses Will Use Social Media in 2011. 

Understanding the benefit of the social media channels can greatly impact your ability to gain new customers and increase ROI in 2011. As a side note, always remember that it’s never too late.  If social media advertising isn’t within your budget for this year, begin with what you can afford. Creating social media accounts for business, if you haven’t already, is the first step in gaining a presence in the space.  Including social media accounts onto your website will help with your SEO rankings.  Lastly, always find a way to measure progress.  Quantitative data in social media channels through analytics, will allow you to understand which efforts are successful.  Use this data as a guide to making optimal business and marketing decisions for the future.

With the rise in use for social media for business, there is a great amount of discussion around how organizations quantify its success.  Is it through the number of followers, likes, mentions, or retweets…?  Although you may have not seen a direct correlation between user engagement and revenue in the past, social media has truly become a force to reckon with.  Companies are now adding lead generation forms to their social media company pages and are actively collecting prospects’ contact information through their regular “social media-only” promotions.

Aside from collecting actual measureable leads, analytics is very useful in understanding the value of social media. Over time, social media outlets have rolled out analytics data within their platforms to help companies start to quantify their investment in social media. Facebook for instance, has “Insights” available as their form of analytics, viewable only to administrators of the company page. Admins are able to select a date range to view the number of “likes” and “post views” within the desired timeframe.  This data, previously only collected by individuals manually, is now readily available. 

LinkedIn, now allows you to view statistics on different companies’ growth, number of employees (on LinkedIn), job function composition, etc.. In the future, I anticipate that all social media outlets will launch some sort of analytics for their users.  It will be interesting to see the additional analytics tools that are added and the value added as a result.

Although these tools will most definitely help businesses get insight on the success of their pages, I would definitely suggest accessing Google Analytics data to get a better understanding of the amount of “referring traffic” being driven to your company website.  You can also track the number of leads as a result of that traffic.