Social Media is starting to go from the "NEW" way of promoting "THE" way to promote your brand.
Yes, you are right it's not the only way but, if you are not on board yet wiht you business....then what are you waiting for?
Here are some stats that can help you form the right goals this year to finally join the rest of the world.
If you are already using social media then please share whether your goals are in line with these numbers or if you have a different idea.... Study Reveals Top 6 Social Media Goals for 2011 |
 In 2010, many businesses laid their social media foundations. In 2011, many wonder what social media marketers will tackle as their top priorities.
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Jeremiah Owyang, industry analyst and Altimeter Group partner who focuses on customer strategy, recently delivered the keynote Social Business Forecast: 2011 The Year of Integration. He offered some extremely valuable survey results, insights and advice for businesses looking to expand their social media plans in 2011. |
Question: What internal social strategy objectives will you focus most on in 2011? |
As you can see from the graph above, "Creating ROI Measurements" was top of mind for almost half (48.3%) of those surveyed. Not so closely behind was "Internal Education and Training" (37.3%). |
Question: What external social strategy objectives will you focus most on in 2011? |
The graph above shows "Website Integration" as the #1 priority for 46.7% of respondents. This is an important objective because social integration with your website allows readers to stay on your site longer. This also encourages social sharing and community in a location (your website) that you have more control over (versus external social channels like Facebook and Twitter). |
Question: What measurements are most important to evaluating the success of your program? |
From the above graph, it's obvious that social strategists have their eye on engagement for 2011, with over 65.5% stating that retweets, comments and likes are top of mind when it comes to measuring social success. Interestingly, product revenue was much lower on the list, coming in at only 21.8%. |
get ahead in social media in 2011? |
#1: Hire Correctly and Properly Train to Scale |
Look for solid experience and seek out the early technology adopters, as they tend to have a finger on the pulse of industry trends and behaviors. |
#2: Integrate Social Media on Your Corporate Website and Then Aggregate and Curate |
Start off with sharing, move toward integrating the brand with the social channels |
#3: Invest in Advertising That Leverages the Social Graph |
Focus on clear metrics and make sure to tie the ads back to the social graph, |
#4: Build an Unpaid Army of Advocates to Get Your Customers to Do the Work for You |
Invest in advocacy programs because you can scale them more easily than most other social programs. |
Here are the 5 phases of scalability for an advocacy program: |
| Internal readiness
Identify advocates
Build relationships
Put advocates first
Foster growth |
#5: Invest in Scalable Systems |
Altimeter Tip: 1:1 dialogue does not scale. The two systems to help you scale are social customer relationship management (SCRM), which connects the social web to your customer database, and social media management systems (SMMS) such as Co-Tweet. |
#6: Learn to Measure Using the ROI Pyramid |
Which one do you currently have in your company?
How effective is it working and can adding one of the other options be something you can use?
Share your thoughts....  Sadly there’s no magic rubric for deciding whether an in-house social media workforce, a social media consultant, or an agency will best be able to meet your particular business needs. Like almost every business decision, it depends on your business’s goals, budget and particular situation.
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But it’s a big job. Jamie Turner, the coauthor of How To Make Money with Social Media recommends that businesses contribute no less than 25% of one full-time employee’s time to social media efforts. There are, however, benefits to making this time investment. |
“People inside can move quicker and always have their finger on the pulse of the company, which makes it easier for them to respond [on social media],” Turner says. |
There isn’t really a narrow definition of “social media consultant.” Some have niche specialties and can help a company’s in-house team accomplish a specific social media task. Some help companies put an overall strategy in place and then leave the execution up to the company. And others are more like off-site community managers who execute the social media tasks for the company for an undetermined amount of time. |
One advantage most consultants have over agencies is that they’re less expensive. “Typically you can pay [a consultant up to] $300 to $500 an hour,” says Jason Keath, the founder of social media education business Social Fresh. “If you put that same person inside of an agency, you’re adding a lot of overhead; you’re adding the corporate structure on top of it that has to be paid for as well.” Also on the cost front, consultants often require smaller time commitments than agencies. |
Companies that plan to start their own in-house teams also may benefit from a consultant approach. Social media consultant Mirna Bard sees herself as an educator. |
A consultant can help develop a social media strategy in line with your business objectives and play a role in teaching your in-house team how to execute it. |
“Since we also execute for our clients, we have a good understanding of what’s realistic,” he says. “If we suggest things, chances are we’re also going to have to implement them.” |
Another argument for using an agency is the wide range of experience that they generally have. In-house teams are typically isolated within their own companies and industries. Agencies have experience across multiple industries and may be able to spot a good idea that an in-house team would miss. |
“Social media changes so rapidly that when you work with an agency, they’re typically more on the cutting edge of what’s coming down the pike because they’ve got 100 people out there looking around at the new stuff and thinking about the new stuff and sitting in meetings saying ‘hey, have you heard this new use of Foursquare ( )?’ ” explains Turner. |
Most companies use some combination of the above three approaches. Turner says he often sees companies who have an in-house person “on the front line” who runs accounts and answers questions via social media, but turn to consultant or agencies for high-level social media strategy. |
I love using foursquare in my marketing strategies for local businesses....There is so much you can do with them. I have run many contest and used great promotions with it. Email me and I will be happy to share my foursquare strategy.. URL: www.inc.com
Great article with some helpful tips. If you can do 10 minutes a day for 30 days you will notice a huge difference in your business and its branding. I challenge you to do 30 minutes and let me know how it goes...do you accept the Dare? How To Manage Your Social Media Marketing In 10 Minutes Daily |
The truth is, most marketers simply don’t have the time to use all of these tools on a daily basis. |
#1: Take One Platform Bite at a Time |
| Pick one and get that platform up and running before you jump to the next. |
| They’re waiting for you to respond. |
Even though this might seem like a drag, the reality is that it’s an opportunity for you to create an excellent experience and add to your company’s narrative. If you can make a difference with just one reply, then you’re golden. |
#3: Reach Out And Help People |
| reach out and lend a hand to people who don’t expect it |
If you’re worried about doing too much at once, then use a service like Social Oomph to schedule your replies. There’s nothing wrong with scheduling an authentic tweet, especially if it prevents the appearance of spam. |
Each of these three steps is important, and each will help you rock the social media universe. The key really is to focus on one or two actions per day, and leave the rest for tomorrow. |
If i had a nickel for every time I.....oh sorry got stuck in a time warp for a second.
Here is a great article i found that also has some classic time warp excuses.
Are you stuck in a time warp ??
Still giving reason like this because your not sure where to start? 4 Reasons You Should Avoid Social Media |
 Can ANY company or organization afford NOT to be involved in social media? It’s a fair question and one may argue that it’s a CRITICAL question!
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| Let’s take another look at these concerns. |
If social media is just a fad, then it’s managed to dupe an impressive collection of heavy hitters. |
According to a recent study of 100 of the largest companies in the Fortune 500 list, 79% use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or corporate blogs for communication. Companies as diverse as Sony, Target, Ford Motor Company and Starbucks are all employing some type of social media. |
| Hmmm. . . . maybe they’re on to something? |
If you can type (with 10 fingers or fewer) and click, you can use social media. |
| There are many applications out there to make your experience “friendly |
#3. It’s a Digital Black Hole |
Simply stated, social media does not HAVE to be a “digital black hole.” Just because it CAN be a waste of time does not mean that it HAS to be! |
| #4. We’re Already Too Busy |
The Opportunity For Branding Is Extraordinary! |
The amount of time the global public is spending on social networks has tripled in the past year. That’s quite an audience, is it not? There’s unlikely a better venue out there to ply your trade these days. The Internet itself is a goldmine of resources to educate you on the effective use of these new applications. |
Check out the tips below from Inc. magazine...
Add a little research to your topic of choice, a little SEO (search engine optimization) and bammm a perfect recipe for a good blog people will follow!
How to Build a Loyal Blog Following |
A blog can be an effective tool to grow your business, but not if no one’s reading it. Find out how to cultivate a tribe of dedicated readers. |
| It's no secret that blogging can be a great way to expand your business, reach out to new customers, and form a closer dialogue with existing ones. |
Building a Loyal Blog Following: Be Interesting |
At the root of a good blog is good writing. No matter how many other tools you use to drive traffic, readers will keep coming back for one reason: they're interested in what you have to say. So your first step to building your tribe of followers should be focusing on delivering engaging, high-quality content on the topic you've chosen to write about, and people will find their way to it. |
| "You have to have a topic; it's a contract with your reader so they know what to expect from you," says Penelope Trunk, founder of web-based startup Brazen Careerist |
Building a Loyal Blog Following: Be Consistent |
| Writing a post people want to read takes time, but try not to take too long. It's important to update your blog regularly and predictably, with at least two posts a week. Make it a habit. "If people view it as a habit, they will visit," Godin says. |
| Building a Loyal Blog Following: Be Involved in the Conversation |
| A great blog should be a real, engaging conversation on an interesting new idea or opinion of a topic of common interest. As the writer of a blog post, you start that conversation. Starting the conversation isn't enough, however. Playing an active role in the discussion happening about each blog post is essential, so you're not "creating a black hole at the bottom of the page," as Perelman puts it. |
Building a Loyal Blog Following: Participate in Different Contexts |
| The conversation started by a blog post often transcends the comments section. So, meet people where they are. These days, they're on social media, at sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Digg. Those sites give your content exposure in different contexts and can help build your credibility, Walker says. |
Building a Loyal Blog Following: Promote Yourself |
| In order to build ourselves a name, a little self-promotion never hurts. One of the best ways to do that is to tap into that community of blogs on your topic. After posting a thoughtful comment on the content of other bloggers, include a link to your own blog. Another way to drive repeat traffic is to offer to guest post on those blogs that have a similar readership to yours. Read more at www.inc.com |
The problem isn't going away anytime soon...this is something we should really pay attention to. It is only going to get worse... URL: www.fastcompany.com
So many people ask "what is the ROI (Return on Investment) when it comes to social media?"....How can I track it? And my favorite " I have so many fans but no buzz, why is it not working?"
Here are some good points to take your social media buzz to another level. How to Measure Social Media Marketing Performance |
A recent study by Ketchum and Nielsen shows the number-one activity of social media users (online or offline) is reading blogs – even above TV! |
#1: Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Measure Against Them |
| Expanded Reach to New Audiences |
| For example, the impact of a consumer seeing a friend recommend a brand as a result of a social program is much greater than seeing a static ad from the brand. |
Influencer Sharing Behavior |
| Influencers (a.k.a. customers advocating for your brand) are essential to maximizing the viral impact of your social media programs |
| Understanding who your influencers are within your customer base and tracking their sharing behavior are critical to optimizing program performance. |
| Conversions and Monetization |
| Every social program must be associated with a call to action. |
| Too often, social purists take a passive approach to program execution. The call to action need not be a sale. In fact, it could be motivating users to generate content to be added to a brand’s online community. |
#2: Create Predictable Results With Targeting |
| marketers need to understand that all customers are not created equal on the social web, and the number of fans and followers the brand has is not the critical data point. |
#3: Foster Viral Sharing With Incentives |
| Marketers need to build bi-directional incentives into social programs. This means they reward the influencer for inviting friends to participate in a brand’s program and then reward the influencer’s friends for acting on the viral invitation. |
| There’s been real innovation in the last year around social media marketing and many leading brands have taken advantage of the wave. In order for it to continue, marketers must introduce a program-level discipline to their social marketing effortsRead more at www.socialmediaexaminer.com |
These 5 tips hold true to any industry...this book looks like a lot of fun...just put in my audible.com order for it...will keep you guys posted. URL: jobs.aol.com
Great ideas on using four square to engage your target audience and have them become a part of your brand....I love the customer service aspect especially! URL: mashable.com
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