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5 Social Media Tips for Finding and Engaging Your Target Audience: New Research

March 28, 2012 / Phil Mershon / No comments

Do you know where your customers and prospects spend time online?

Marketers have long relied on market research to determine where to spend their advertising dollars on television, radio and print advertisements.

In the last few years, research organizations have begun providing intelligence on how consumers behave on social networks.

The following article is based on new social media research studies.

These findings will help you better strategize your company’s social efforts to match your customers’ behaviors.

#1: Know Where Your Customers Spend Their Time

Three recent research studies show active Internet users spend anywhere from 16% to nearly 25% of their online time on social networks.

In comScore’s 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report, researchers found that 90% of all U.S. Internet users visited social networking sites in December 2011. Additionally, consumers are spending 1 out of every 6 online minutes on social networks (16.6%). That’s up from less than 15% at the end of 2010.

If trends continue, social networks will soon surpass Internet portals like AOL and Yahoo!

Nielsen recently released the State of the Media: U.S. Digital Consumption Report, Q3-Q4 2011. The study found Internet users spend 21.3% of their time on social networking sites. This report shows a much smaller percentage of time spent on Internet portals like Yahoo!

Note the significant differences between this Nielsen study and comScore's.

PQ Media found the average U.S. Internet user spends around 33 hours per month on the Internet and about 8 of those hours on social media.

These researchers didn’t disclose their methodologies, so we can’t explain why the results differ so dramatically, though I imagine it’s due to how they defined some of their terms. That said, all three reports show an upward trend in the volume and percentage of time spent on social networks.

Key Lesson:

Your online customers are spending significant amounts of time on social networks. While the average person might only spend 15-30 minutes per day, many people spend multiple hours each week. Your strategic marketing plan should include a steady dose of social media along with email and other marketing strategies that reach your target audience.

#2: Find Content That Will Resonate Deeply With Your Audience

The comScore graphic above shows an upward trend in online entertainment consumption. Given the growing numbers of consumers ages 18-34 who watch videos and engage on social networks simultaneously, it is important for marketers to become skilled at engaging in conversations about hot cultural topics seen in the entertainment industry.

Nielsen’s study revealed that owners of mobile devices are increasingly multi-tasking while watching a TV program. While the majority of people check their email, a significant 44% also visit social sites.

Nielsen shows what people do on their mobile devices during a TV program.

The top two sites visited while watching TV are the social sites Facebook and YouTube. This paints an interesting picture of people watching YouTube videos while also watching a TV program. It suggests that people want to be engaged.

Nielsen also revealed the top 10 sites mobile users visit while watching TV.

What if your brand could engage people in conversations about popular TV shows, movies or sporting events while they are watching it? What if your brand became a trusted thought leader on a hot cultural topic?

I’d like to introduce you to someone who did just that. While he stumbled upon this, maybe you could proactively learn from his experience.

Case Study

Meet Cliff Ravenscraft, also known as the Podcast Answer Man. In 2006, Cliff decided to start a podcast about the TV show Lost. He did this as a personal hobby, but quickly discovered the enormous social power of podcasting when he had over 15,000 subscribers after his third episode.

As the Podcast Answer Man, Cliff provides training and assistance to podcasters of all experience levels.

Cliff has learned to match his personal interests in technology, television, books and faith with things that attract his growing audience.

For instance, he started a podcast on the popular young-adult books series, The Hunger Games, which has grown an audience of over 15,000 subscribers. He expects that number to double or triple after the movie is released in late March 2012.

Now that he has built a massive audience listening to his more than 20 weekly podcasts, he can promote the products and services he has for sale. Some of his audience members make purchases, but most keep coming back just because they care about the content he is sharing.

What if you could build a massive audience by tapping into the things you and your target audience both care about? That’s what can happen as you become a student of culture and your audience’s preferences and interests.

TIP: Your employees and friends may be some of your best research assistants in this quest.

#3: Focus on Facebook—It’s Where Consumers Spend Most of Their Online Social Time

We’ve known Facebook is the biggest social media site in terms of monthly active users (last published as 845 million). But comScore’s study shows Facebook dominates in two other ways.

First, Facebook is the premier player among all web properties in terms of time spent—and that means engagement.

Google exceeds Facebook for monthly unique visitors, but Facebook wins the engagement game.

Second, when compared with other social media platforms, Facebook has achieved an even more impressive percentage of mindshare. Facebook captures 14.6% of Internet users’ time compared to a combined 2% for all other social networking sites. Facebook also captures 16% of all page views.

Facebook's level of engagement has progressively exceeded all other social platforms.

The rise of Twitter and LinkedIn as the second and third most visited social networking sites is evidenced by another comScore graphic. Equally revealing are the rapid decline of MySpace and the ascendance of Google+ and Pinterest. (It should be noted that social sites like Twitter and Google+ likely get significant engagement through mobile devices, third-party apps and other forms of content.)

In just 12 months, MySpace fell from second place to fourth and appears on a further decline.

To highlight the engagement issue even more, comScore shows how Facebook keeps the average user onsite for 7 hours each month. Tumblr and Pinterest have also successfully engaged their users by keeping them onsite for more than an hour each.

Tumblr and Pinterest are the only second-tier sites to successfully keep users onsite for more than 60 minutes each month.

A final sign that Facebook is getting more eyeballs comes through comScore’s findings about display advertising.

Facebook ads receive more than twice as many impressions as Yahoo! sites and eight times more than Google sites.

Key Lessons:

If your goal is to engage your customers through social networks, you would be wise to invest in Facebook (and keep your eye on Pinterest, and maybe Tumblr, depending on your demographic);
Even though Facebook’s engagement numbers are impressive, if your customers are spending their time on LinkedIn or Twitter, that’s where you should be;
If you’re buying online ads, consider the power of Facebook’s display network. If you’re looking for ideas on how to increase engagement on Facebook, check out this Facebook article by Jim Belosic.

#4: It’s Time to Take Video Seriously

Americans are watching increasing numbers of videos online. According to comScore, this number has jumped over 43% to 100 million daily views (that’s roughly one-third of the U.S. population watching a video online each day).

growth in total online video content market

More Americans are watching a growing number of videos online.

Of the 43.5 billion videos viewed in December 2011, over half of those were on Google properties (21.9 billion), primarily YouTube.

With the advent of long-form video content online through vendors like Netflix and Hulu, there’s been an increase in how long users will watch a video from 5 minutes to nearly 6 minutes. This may open the door for marketers looking to produce edutainment videos (combining education and entertainment to produce engaging videos that keep people watching).

The way people watch videos is changing with the advent of mobile phones, notebooks and gaming systems. These differences are especially pronounced in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

For example, Nielsen found that someone from the Asia/Pacific region is more than twice as likely to watch a video on a mobile device as a North American. However, a European is half as likely to watch on a mobile device as the average global consumer.

Nielsen found users from the Asia/Pacific region exceed global averages in all four categories of video consumption.

Learn From the Best

Many companies are using video channels well, but many small- and medium-sized businesses have yet to embrace this powerful platform.

I like what Whole Foods has done by creating over 500 videos that have been seen by over 2.8 million people. They provide a wide variety of videos including how-to’s and a funny organic love story series. None of these require professional videography skills. All you need is just a bit of training on how to use YouTube to drive traffic to your website.

Be sure to watch the funny Organic Love Story video from Valentine's Day (already their most popular video after only 3 weeks).

#5: Consider the Role of Mobile

PQ Media found that 100 million U.S. users access the Internet through smartphones, with 60% of those being business end-users. comScore determined that 8% of all Internet traffic comes from mobile devices.

The time spent on social networks through mobile devices is relatively low (around 5%), but the numbers are still significant. For example, Facebook found that 423 million unique visitors accessed their site in December 2011 through mobile devices.

Nielsen compared how men and women differ in how they access social networking sites. Aside from the obvious choice of computers, mobile phones take second place with women being 10% more likely to access social sites on their phones.

The impact of gender on how users access social sites.

Mobile devices are changing the landscape of retail sales. Shoppers can compare prices, read reviews and get real-time opinions from their friends through social media channels all while on their smartphones. Smart marketers will take this into account when creating content and finding ways to engage customers.

Key Lessons:

Be sure your website is mobile-optimized;
Create content that is easy to consume and respond to via mobile devices (shorter responses are better);
If your audience is business-oriented or located in the Asia/Pacific region, make sure to develop a mobile strategy.

Now it’s Your Turn

What do you think? How does this research inform or inspire your social media plans for the next quarter? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Category: cliff ravenscraft, comscore, facebook ads, facebook research, Facebook statistics, linkedin research, Market Research, mobile research, mobile statistics, Nielsen, Online Video, phil mershon, podcast answer man, pqmedia, Research, Smart Phones, Social Media Marketing, social media research, Social Media Statistics, Social Networking Sites, Target Audience, twitter research, whole foods market /

5 Social Media Marketing Trends: New Research

February 29, 2012 / Phil Mershon / No comments

Are you being asked to prove the value of social media for your business?

Do you struggle to accurately measure the return on investment (ROI) of your social media marketing?

You’re not alone. Several new research studies reveal that marketing managers are under increased pressure to show measurable results from their social media efforts.

But these same managers indicate that measuring the returns is one of their top two challenges for 2012.

See how your experience compares to others in the industry.

#1: The Benefits Derived from Social Media are Increasing

In a survey of 700 marketers from all over the globe, Wildfire App discovered that nearly all marketers find value from social media and that 75% of marketers plan to increase their media spending in 2012.

The top two benefits highlighted by these marketers are increased brand awareness and the ability to engage in dialogue directly with their customers. This compares similarly to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report where we found 88% of marketers also indicated increased exposure to be the number-one benefit of social media marketing.

Wildfire App also found that social media brought increased sales and reduced spending.

Small businesses have reached a tipping point in social media use where only 10% of small businesses surveyed in the Ad-ology 2012 Marketing Forecast said they would not use social media marketing in 2012. That’s down from 24% in 2011 and 39% in 2010.

Key Questions:

As you look at these results, where has your business benefited the most from social media?
How do you know that’s true?

#2: More Businesses are Investing in Social Media

Borrell Associates found that small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) will double their social media advertising budget in 2012. That’s up to an estimated $2 billion in the U.S. alone.

Borrell found that social media marketing ranks third in online advertising spending.

Awareness Networks found in their State of Social Media Marketing study that 70% of businesses plan to expand their social media presence, while half of marketers intend to improve their social media management practices and tools.

Content marketing is also important to marketers.

Although businesses are increasing their investment in social media, they are more reluctant to put large advertising budgets toward it. Awareness found that 75% of businesses spend $10,000 or less, with most businesses solely investing people’s time toward the effort.

Here's how much businesses are spending on social marketing.

Even with people being the primary resource dedicated to social media, most businesses are only employing a small staff for their social efforts, with nearly three-fourths of businesses using 3 or fewer employees.

Number of dedicated social marketing employees within companies.

With limited budgets and staffs, it’s no wonder that marketers found resources to be their number-one challenge to their social media efforts.

Top challenges faced by social media marketers (reported by all levels within the company).

Key Questions:

Have you moved past the experimentation stage with social media marketing?
What value are you seeing from advertising?

#3: Measuring ROI is One of the Top Challenges Faced by Marketers

Awareness found that marketers from companies of all sizes, experience levels and positions shared the same struggle in accurately measuring the ROI for social media marketing. As a result, nearly half of the surveyed marketers are not purposefully measuring their social efforts.

By the end of 2012, Awareness expects four out of five companies will be actively measuring their ROI for social media marketing.

This compares similarly to research conducted by Altimeter Group of big brands using social media. They found that a vast majority of brands don’t have a thoughtful social media measurement system in place.

Few companies have a consistent measurement framework in place—including over half of enterprises with an "advanced" social media capability.

So What are Companies Measuring? What is Working?

Awareness found most businesses know how to track their social presence and traffic, but the confidence declines when measuring lead generations and sales.

What metrics do you use for your business?

Key Resources:Do you have a thoughtful measurement system in place for your business? If not, here are some suggested resources for developing a measurement framework for your social efforts:

A series of white papers from HootSuite on measuring social media ROI, co-authored by Nichole Kelly.
An article Nichole Kelly wrote for Social Media Examiner on 8 metrics your business should consider.
A review of Altimeter’s measurement framework I wrote.

#4: Marketing Agencies View the Value of Social Media Marketing Differently

As an interesting contrast to a company’s perception of social media’s value, Marketing Sherpa surveyed marketing agencies to understand how they calculate the value of social media for their clients.

The survey found that social media clearly helps search results for many businesses, but the largest majority of companies benefit from posting content on their company blog. This is especially helpful when integrated with social sharing buttons.

This survey perhaps clarifies why many businesses are reluctant to invest their advertising dollars on social sites. Marketing agencies see the least value derived from advertisements.

Advertising is the least effective social strategy, according to marketing agencies.

Key Questions:

Have you incorporated social sharing buttons throughout your website?
What is your content sharing plan for 2012?
Have you given social advertising long enough to truly test it?
How does your experience with advertising compare to these marketing agencies?

#5: An Integrated Social Media Plan Leads to Greater Financial Results

Insites Consulting conducted some new research with over 400 senior-level marketing managers in the U.S. and U.K. They learned some fascinating things about social media adoption rates, but here we focus on their integration findings.

Significantly less than half of the enterprises surveyed have fully integrated social media into their business processes (or are even in process of doing so), 43% of U.S. firms and 34% of U.K. firms responded.

A full 57% of U.K. businesses are just getting started or are evaluating the effectiveness of social media strategies, compared to 43% of U.S. firms.

Most surveyed businesses have started using social media.

Smaller enterprises have achieved lower levels of integration. (NOTE: this study was conducted with brands large enough to employ the services of a marketing agency like Insites Consulting.)

Notice there is little difference between B2B and B2C.

The key observation made by Insites is that firms that have integrated social media into their regular business operations are seeing significantly greater financial results than those that have not.

Key Takeaway:If you’ve determined how your business can best benefit from social media marketing, integrate it fully into your business operations. It may be time to stop dabbling and see social as a serious business strategy.

Now It’s Your Turn

How does your experience compare to these studies? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Category: advertising budget, brand awareness, phil mershon, Research, Return On Investment, social medea results, social media budget, social media investment, Social Media Marketing, social media measurement, social media research, social media roi, social media spending, social media studies, social media trends, social media value /

9 Small Business Social Media Success Stories

January 18, 2012 / Phil Mershon / No comments

Are you curious what small businesses are doing to achieve success with social media marketing? Look no further.

This article highlights nine small businesses of various sizes and industries that have transformed their online presence with innovative social media marketing practices.

You’re guaranteed to find inspiration for your social media marketing efforts here.

These tactics will work for just about any business—from solopreneur to multi-employee manufacturer. So let’s dive in!

#1: JarvieDigital Photography

Scott Jarvie takes world-class wedding and nature photographs and he has trained a number of photographers using his unique methods. He’s even had a photographic method named after him: The Jarvie Window.

The Jarvie Window has generated interest in Scott's photography around the world.

As a photographer, you would expect Scott to have exceptional photos on his site, and he does. But he uses them on both Facebook and Google+ to create personal engagement and promote his products and services. In fact, Scott has developed different engagement strategies for each platform.

On Scott's personal Google+ profile, he is highly engaged through sharing resources and commenting.

On his Google+ business page, Scott features his photo services.

While Scott is a premium photographer and trainer, he demonstrates his expertise and generosity to photographers worldwide through sharing resources on his website and through his social sites.

Scott not only shares valuable resources, he also promotes the work of his students—a great way to show social love.

Key Takeaways

Differentiate your social strategies on your personal profile(s) from your business pages.
Freely share resources with your fans as a way to grow your fan base and your perceived expertise.

#2: The Prospecting Expert: A Consultant

Steve Kloyda founded The Prospecting Expert, a business-to-business consulting firm that helps salespeople with their prospecting skills. He has developed a powerful social presence through the use of video and podcasts.

Steve provides valuable content through a regular podcast show and video channel. Notice also the use of social sharing buttons.

One thing Steve understands is branding. Through the use of his photo and logo, he has created a consistent look and feel across all of his social channels.

Steve's brand is instantly recognizable. Notice also the friendly picture—important when your face is your brand.

One ninja trick executed by Steve is the creation of an iPhone app for distributing his content. While it could cost from hundreds to several thousands of dollars, the marketing benefit of having your content delivered straight to your users’ mobile devices could be invaluable.

Let your customers directly access your content on their mobile devices with a customized app.

Key Takeaways

Start a podcast or video show for delivering your content.
Keep your branding consistent across all of your social platforms.
Develop an app for delivering content to your mobile customers.

#3: Coconut Bliss: An Ice Cream Company

Coconut Bliss is an organic dessert company based in Eugene, Oregon. Their products have become widely popular due to their social media practices.

Coconut Bliss conveys a fun, social brand through rotating photos on their home page.

Technorati discovered in their 2011 State of the Blogosphere report that bloggers use photos more than any other type of media (80% use photos, around 50% use videos and many fewer for all other formats). Coconut Bliss makes an effective use of fun and friendly pictures to show customers eating their dessert products.

Coconut Bliss integrates photos across social platforms.

Coconut Bliss makes an effective use of promotions to engage their fans. In this year’s Veggie Awards, they were able to partner with VegNews to offer a unique prize to Coconut Bliss fans while also getting partnership in a much larger promotion to all readers of VegNews. Two smart strategies: contests and partnerships.

Key Takeaways

Invest in a decent camera and learn how to take captivating pictures.
Integrate photos across all of your social platforms.
Make strategic use of contests and partnerships to grow your fan base.

#4: JamaicansMusic: An Online Music Channel

Casey Hibbard highlighted JamaicansMusic in a Social Media Examiner post, but they have some unique social practices worth emulating. After all, they have achieved astronomical growth through smart social media practices—1.5 million new fans in 4 months!

When visiting the JamaicansMusic website, one instantly gets the feeling that this is a social company. In fact, there are three different places on their home page to connect socially.

Make it easy to connect socially, especially if there are multiple offers on your home page.

By providing contests, free music, games and other valuable resources, JamaicansMusic has given their Facebook fans lots of reasons to revisit their page—and tell their friends about it.

When playing this creative songwriting game, JamaicansMusic offers fans more ways to connect socially.

Key Takeaways

Provide fans multiple reasons for returning to your site by offering games, contests and valuable content.
Give visitors lots of opportunities to connect socially.

#5: SEOMoz: A Software Company

SEOMoz is a search engine optimization and social monitoring service provider. One thing that distinguishes their site is the use of gaming mechanics to spur participation from their writers and site members. Each post, comment and Like generates points that help distinguish the experts from the crowd.

Gaming mechanics encourage site members to actively participate if they want to rank well against their peers.

Not only does SEOMoz invite social engagement on the first visit, they also use social proof to earn the trust of visitors. See the recognizable brands in the image below.

If you've done business with name-recognizable companies, ask if you can tell others. It provides significant social proof for your business.

Key Takeaways

Build gaming mechanics into your site to increase social behaviors (Liking, commenting, posting). It will increase engagement and the SEO benefits are huge.
Remember the important benefits of social proof.

#6: Ana White: Carpenter

Ana White is a carpenter billing herself as a “homemaker” who has a website to empower women to do carpentry projects. With over 51,000 Facebook fans, Ana has created a massive following among women (and quite a few men) who love her easy-to-follow blueprints for do-it-yourself furniture projects.

Ana's Facebook page has over 51,000 fans. Her fans post tips and projects here frequently.

Since late 2009, Ana has been publishing free how-to guides for furniture. She also asks her fans to post pictures of their success stories—the very thing people love to do (talk about themselves). As a result, she has a very popular site where most of the posting comes from fans. Very smart!

Ana's fans love to post pictures of their successful home projects.

Notice all the social sharing options Ana makes available at the end of the post above. She makes it easy to share with friends.

Ana has also created a very engaged community on her Facebook page that complements, but is distinct from, her blog.

Remarkably, she doesn’t post that often—she doesn’t have to. While she comments on at least half of the posts, her fans are busy posting and answering questions for each other.

Key Takeaways

Create a community where users can talk about themselves.
Empower your fans to share their experiences with other users.
Have clear strategies for your blog and Facebook page.

#7: EasyLunchboxes

Kelly Lester founded EasyLunchboxes out of a personal desire to find healthy ways to package food she sent with her children to school. As a solopreneur, she has found unusual success due to her wise social practices and great social branding.

Her blog presents a clean, compelling look into her company. On her website, Kelly has integrated multiple opportunities to connect socially and to subscribe to her newsletter.

In addition to inviting social connections, Kelly has positioned herself uniquely as the "Singing CEO," a title that will be easily remembered.

An important piece of social real estate is the Facebook welcome tab. Kelly makes good use of this space by keeping her brand exciting, telling visitors what to expect from her page and promising valuable content.

Your welcome tab should give visitors a sense of what to expect on your page.

Kelly has created a focused plan to market through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and her blog. She delivers unique content on each channel and integrates them with each other—all while maintaining her personal life as a mom and actress.

With her acting background, Kelly has distinguished her YouTube channel by creating her own TV series. This includes over 150 videos where she has even given her audience a chance to share videos of why they like EasyLunchboxes.

If you or someone you know has an acting flair, think about creating your own video series.

Key Takeaways

Take full advantage of Facebook’s welcome tab to let potential fans know who you are and why they should Like your page.
Differentiate your social strategies to match the platform and your skill set(s)—think outside the box if you have some unique talents available like acting or singing.
Take the time to get your visual branding right.

#8: Social Media Explorer: An Agency and Online Service

Social Media Explorer is a business-to-business education and information products company focused on social media and digital marketing.

On their home page, Social Media Explorer has taken advantage of Intent, a Twitter plugin. This allows a user to see if he or she already follows this business.

What is seen before following Jason Falls' Twitter account

What users see if they are following Jason Falls.

As a blog, Social Media Explorer features numerous guest authors. To show social love to these authors, Jason Falls and Aaron Marshall have prominently highlighted the social profiles of each of their authors. This allows readers to quickly connect with the experts and enables the authors to expand their influence.

Each Social Media Explorer author receives prominent recognition for their articles and an easy way for readers to find them on various social platforms.

Key Takeaways

Make it easy for site visitors to follow you.
Show appropriate social love to your guest authors by featuring their social profiles prominently.

#9: Orabrush: A Dental Product

After years of failed attempts to market his innovative tongue brush, Dr. Bob Wagstaff decided to give YouTube a try. Spending only $500, he created his first video. In less than 3 years that video has been seen more than 16 million times and helped to generate over $1.6 million in sales and contracts with Wal-Mart and CVS Pharmacies.

While you can’t guarantee a video will go viral like this, there are some lessons to be learned:

Talk about something that people care about—in this case, bad breath.
Keep your video short—Dr. Bob’s video was only 2 minutes long.
Embed your video on your home page.
Grab people’s attention in the first 5 seconds—with some minor editing, this video incorporates quick, edgy statements that pull the viewer into wanting to hear the solution.
Offer something for free—your first Orabrush is free, if you’ve watched the video.

Here are more tips on video marketing.

Orabrush embedded their popular video on their home page, while answering a problem that concerns many people: bad breath.

Some other best practices used on Orabrush’s website: They made it easy for users to tell their stories with video clips. They also prominently feature quotes from the traditional press on their page. Finally, they make their YouTube channel prominent, because this has been a key to their success.

Let individuals and the press sing your praises through videos and quotes on your website.

Finally, Orabrush understands the importance of keeping customers on their website, so they integrated Facebook onto their site.

Integrate Facebook to keep fans on your website.

Key Takeaways

If you have a great product or service, don’t give up on your dream. Instead, think about how social media might help you get your ideas in front of your ideal customers.
Follow best practices for creating quality videos.
Make use of fan and video reviews on your page.

These nine small businesses have many more things to teach other small businesses everywhere, but they aren’t the only ones.

What do you think? What have you learned that you’d like to share? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Category: ana white, branding, cocnut bliss, community, easy lunch boxes, facebook welcome tab, Gaming, jamaican music, jarvie digital photography, Orabrush, phil mershon, photo marketing, prospecting expert, Reviews, seomoz, small business, social branding, social engagement, social media explorer, Social Media Marketing, social media promotion, Social Proof, social website, strategy, Video Marketing, visual branding /

Win Free Tickets to Small Biz Success Summit 2012

January 13, 2012 / Phil Mershon / No comments

**UPDATE: We have announced our two winners. The winner of the comment/blog portion of the contest, receiving two tickets to Small Biz Success Summit is Paulette Salvia, read her comment here.

The winner of the Twitter contest is Ali Goldfield. Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest. We look forward to seeing you all at the Summit.**

Want to win a free ticket to the largest online social media marketing event for small businesses?

Social Media Examiner has secured some of the top names in the industry to bring you Small Biz Success Summit.

And we’ve come up with a fun way to get you involved.

First, what is this event?

Small Biz Success Summit 2012 is a large online conference dedicated to helping small businesses master social media marketing.

More than 800 small businesses have already signed up—people just like you.

Twenty-eight of the world’s most respected small business social media marketing experts will share their strategies with you.

Hear from John Jantsch (author, Duct Tape Marketing), Anita Campbell (founder, Small Business Trends), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner and author, Launch), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Jesse Stay (author, Google+ for Dummies), Hollis Thomases (author, Twitter Marketing), David Siteman Garland (founder, “The Rise to the Top” and author, Smarter, Faster, Cheaper), Joe Pulizzi (founder, Content Marketing Institute and co-author, Get Content, Get Customers), Brian Clark (founder, Copyblogger Media), Lee Odden (founder, TopRank Online Marketing), Ramon Ray (founder, Small Biz Technology and author, Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses) and Lewis Howes (co-author, LinkedWorking)—just to mention a few.

Presentation topics include developing a social media strategy, finding and engaging your target audience, selling with social media, measuring success, Facebook marketing, Google+ marketing, blogging techniques, LinkedIn marketing, Twitter marketing and video marketing (just to mention a few!). Check out all the sessions.

At last summer’s summit, 99% of attendees said they’d recommend the event to a friend and attend again.

How can you win tickets?

We have three free tickets to the summit, valued at $597 each, plus the opportunity to be promoted to more than 125,000 of your peers! And remember, this is an online conference—so no travel is required to participate.

Two ways to win:

There are three tickets up for grabs and two ways to win:

#1: Twitter entry

Simply click the button on the right or tweet what you see below for a chance to win one ticket:

I want to win a ticket to Small Biz Success Summit http://bit.ly/WinSBSS12 via @smexaminer #winSBSS12

You can tweet up to two times per day. Each tweet is an entry to win. We’ll randomly draw the winner of a free ticket. All tweets must have the #winSBSS12 hashtag included.

#2: Written entry

This winner gets two tickets PLUS a mention in the Social Media Examiner Newsletter (125,000+ subscribers)!

Simply write why we should award you the free tickets in the comments box below (scroll down).

The judges (Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner and John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing) will select the winning entry. Their decisions are subjective and final.

What you need to know:

You can enter to win either or both prizes.
Tweets must contain #winSBSS12.
The deadline is Friday, January 20, and the winners will be announced shortly thereafter.
If you’ve already purchased a ticket, no worries. If you win, we’ll either give you a full refund or you can give your spare ticket to someone you really like.
No purchase is necessary to win.

We look forward to seeing your comments and tweets. Good luck!

Category: free ticket, michael stelzner, phil mershon, Reviews, small biz success summit, social media contest, social media event, ticket, winsbss12 /

Finalists: Top 10 Social Media Blogs 2012

January 9, 2012 / Cindy King / No comments

We received over 570 nominations for our third-annual Top 10 Social Media Blogs contest (the blogosphere’s biggest contest for social media blogs).

The list of 20 finalists is pretty impressive! Take a look for yourself below.

The Judges: Our judges include Andy Sernovitz (author, Word of Mouth Marketing & CEO, SocialMedia.org), Rick Calvert (CEO, BlogWorld) and Michael Stelzner (CEO, Social Media Examiner & author, Launch). They are currently finishing up their reviews of these sites.

Here are the finalists (in alphabetical order):

How We’ll Pick the Winners

#1: Initial Qualification: A blog must have a strong social media focus and must have been nominated multiple times by multiple individuals. If someone nominated more than one blog, only the first nomination was counted.

#2: Final Winner Selection

Quality of posts: Our judges will examine and score the quality of posts on each blog. Educational and discussion-spurring posts are more valuable than self-promoting posts (55% of decision).
Frequency of posts: Blogs that feature multiple posts per week will score higher. This is a sign of the blogger’s commitment to blogging (15%).
Reader involvement: Blogs that have regular comments from readers are another sign of a healthy blog. In addition, the numbers of nominations for a specific blog play a part in this (15%).
Blog ranking: The number of other blogs that link to the nominated blog shows the value of the content (15%). We’ll use accepted third-party blog ranking systems for this portion of the score.

Congratulations to the finalists! We’ll announce the winners here soon!

What do you think about these blogs? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Category: blog contest, bundle post, digital brand marketing education, heidi cohen, hubze, inburbs, jeff bullas, jeff korhan, marketing tech blog, media first, mt media tapper, my social agency, phil mershon, pushing social, Reviews, social media blog, social mouths, social strand media, spiderworking, splashmedia, the inbound marketing spot, the sales lion, top 10 blog, top blog, top social media blog, viralblog /

7 Reasons to Rethink Your Blogging Strategy: New Research

December 22, 2011 / Phil Mershon / No comments

Is your business working with bloggers?

Do you blog?

This article examines new research that shows blogging is here to stay.

Like many social media tools, blogs have seen a steady increase in numbers and influence over the last several years.

Note the growth charted by Invesp. On Dec. 2, 2011, that number was 178,637,835 (according to BlogPulse).

Number of Blogs Grows

14 million blogs were added since July 2011 (as of 12/2/2011).

If people are adding nearly 3 million blogs per month, surely this is a tool worth understanding and maximizing. That is the conclusion Technorati reached in their 2011 State of the Blogosphere Report.

In this report, bloggers fall into one of five categories:

Hobbyist—Someone who blogs for fun and doesn’t report any income from blogging (this represents 60% of the study).
Professional Part-time—These people typically blog to supplement their income and blog about personal musings or technology (approximately 9% of respondents).
Professional Full-time—These individuals make their living by blogging, but typically work freelance (approximately 9% of respondents).
Corporate—Corporate bloggers blog full-time as part of their job or are contracted to blog full-time for a company (8% of respondents).
Entrepreneur—Entrepreneurs blog for a company or organization they own (13% of respondents).

***Please note that Technorati’s data is heavily skewed by the presence of 60% hobbyist bloggers—people who blog as a way to express themselves or influence their community, but don’t seek to make money. I will focus on results from the 40% of bloggers who have a business objective with their blogging.

#1: Bloggers are young, educated and experienced

Bloggers come from all over the world and span the age range. But with that diversity come some commonalities worth noting. (Go here to see all the statistical comparisons made by Technorati.)

Nearly 60% of bloggers are between the ages of 25 and 44.

Most business bloggers are ages 25-44, but nearly 50% of entrepreneurs are over 45.

Most bloggers are highly educated, with almost 30% having college degrees and an additional 50% who have started or completed a graduate degree.

Bloggers are highly educated.

Most bloggers have been blogging for at least 2 years.

A vast majority of bloggers has at least 2 years of blogging experience, with a significant 20% carrying 6 years or more experience.

The average number of blogs managed by each respondent is three, up from two in 2010.

Business bloggers now manage three blogs on average.

40% of bloggers spend more than 3 hours a week working on their blog.

60% of entrepreneurs spend 1 to 5 hours blogging weekly.

A majority of bloggers updates their blog at least two to three times per week.

Over 50% of bloggers post at least two to three times per week.

Key Takeaways:

Most business bloggers post at least two to three times per week. If you’re not posting that often, you’re missing out on some great search engine optimization value. Read this article on the importance of this;
A majority of bloggers have been at this for at least 2 years.

So, if you haven’t started, why not start now? See this article by Marcus Sheridan for some reasons to get started.

#2: Bloggers help brands

Technorati found that a surprising one-third of bloggers have work experience in traditional media as journalists and in other capacities. They also found that consumers are increasingly putting their trust in blogs versus traditional media.

This reflects a major shift in marketing for brands of all sizes. Brands must become friendly with bloggers. If 40% of all blogs are business-oriented, that means there are around 72 million business blogs. Many of these represent an opportunity for you to foster mutually beneficial relationships with bloggers.

Not convinced? Check this out: 65% of bloggers follow brands on social media and most bloggers write regularly about the brands they follow.

A significant majority of bloggers uses social media to follow brands.

A vast majority of bloggers blogs regularly about the brands they follow.

Key Questions:

Do you know the bloggers who follow your brand?
Are you connecting with them? What are they saying about your business?
How can you help them achieve their goals while helping spread the word about your products, services and special offers?
Have you considered developing a brand advocacy program with some of these bloggers?

#3: A growing number of consumers trust blogs

As expected, consumers receive their information primarily through friends, whether in real life or on social media. Of all social media platforms, consumers trust information they receive through blogs more than Facebook or Twitter.

Consumers are almost as likely to look to blogs for information as they are magazines and newspapers.

Consumers have the lowest level of trust in a brand's social media sites.

Consumers are almost as likely to share information they find on a blog as from a newspaper or magazine.

Consumers are more likely to share information found on a blog than from a brand on other social media sites.

Consumers are most likely to share information they find on blogs through email and Facebook with Twitter being the third most likely.

Email and Facebook are the most likely way consumers will share blog posts.

Key Questions:

Are you making it easy for your followers to share your posts?
Are you focused on becoming a trustworthy resource for your fans?
Because blog posts have a longer shelf life than Facebook or Twitter, are you spending adequate time creating content worth viewing in 6 months or 2 years?

#4: Bloggers depend increasingly on social media

(see stats here).

Bloggers get their inspiration and insights from social media.

Bloggers spend 10-12 hours weekly on social media sites, with 14% spending at least 21 hours. Additionally, bloggers spend another 8 hours weekly reading other blogs.

Most bloggers spend at least 10 hours a week on social media sites.

Bloggers “like” Facebook.

Over 90% of bloggers use Facebook and at least 65% of non-corporate professional bloggers have a Facebook page for their blog.

The primary way bloggers use Facebook is to promote their blog, but a significant 61% of entrepreneurs also use Facebook to market their business.

Entrepreneurs are nearly as likely to use Facebook to market their business as they are to promote their blog.

Twitter is very important for bloggers.

Over 80% of bloggers use Twitter and all professional bloggers have at least 1000 followers.

All business bloggers have 1000 Twitter followers on average. Note that full-time professionals and corporate bloggers have more followers than accounts they follow.

Around 80% of bloggers use Twitter to promote their blog.

The most common use of Twitter is to promote a blog.

Bloggers are early adopters of Google+.

This is one of the first studies I’ve seen on Google+ adoption. Over 60% of all surveyed bloggers have a Google+ account, but few had established a page.

Here are some of the ways bloggers use Google+:

Bloggers use Google+ for bringing interesting links to light, even more than promoting their own blog.

Bloggers have a diverse social media toolkit.

Not surprisingly, LinkedIn and YouTube are the top social media platforms used by bloggers. At least 30% of professional bloggers also make use of StumbleUpon, Delicious and Digg.

LinkedIn is the most commonly used social networking platform for business bloggers after Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

The most effective social tools for driving traffic are Facebook and Twitter, with LinkedIn being a distant third.

Facebook and Twitter lead the pack in effectiveness for driving traffic to blogs.

Key Takeaways:

Bloggers look to Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic to their blogs. Do you? Here are 19 tips on how to do that from Denise Wakeman;
Many pro bloggers have at least 1000 followers on Twitter. Here are 17 tips from social media pros on how to maximize your Twitter marketing.

#5: Bloggers use multimedia

Around 90% of bloggers use some form of media in their posts, with photos being the most popular.

Videos are also widely used by almost 50% of all bloggers.

Photos are the most popular media type. Notice how audio is much less utilized.

#6: Bloggers are earning money through their blogs

While only 14% of bloggers earn a salary through blogging, bloggers are increasingly finding ways to earn money through advertising and brand partnerships. If you’re interested in knowing how bloggers approach revenue and advertising, see these interesting results.

#7: Bloggers are increasing their activities

Professional bloggers are generally increasing their blogging activity since they started blogging.

Professional full-time bloggers are significantly increasing their blogging activities.

How about you? Do your 2012 business plans include blogging? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Category: bloggers, blogging, blogging data, blogging experience, blogging statistics, blogosphere report, brand advocacy, phil mershon, professional blogging, Research, social media growth, social media research, Social Media Statistics, technorati study /

7 Reasons to Rethink Your Blogging Strategy: New Research

December 22, 2011 / Phil Mershon / No comments

Is your business working with bloggers?

Do you blog?

This article examines new research that shows blogging is here to stay.

Like many social media tools, blogs have seen a steady increase in numbers and influence over the last several years.

Note the growth charted by Invesp. On Dec. 2, 2011, that number was 178,637,835 (according to BlogPulse).

Number of Blogs Grows

14 million blogs were added since July 2011 (as of 12/2/2011).

In this report, bloggers fall into one of five categories:

Hobbyist—Someone who blogs for fun and doesn’t report any income from blogging (this represents 60% of the study).
Professional Part-time—These people typically blog to supplement their income and blog about personal musings or technology (approximately 9% of respondents).
Professional Full-time—These individuals make their living by blogging, but typically work freelance (approximately 9% of respondents).
Corporate—Corporate bloggers blog full-time as part of their job or are contracted to blog full-time for a company (8% of respondents).
Entrepreneur—Entrepreneurs blog for a company or organization they own (13% of respondents).

#1: Bloggers are young, educated and experienced

Bloggers come from all over the world and span the age range. But with that diversity come some commonalities worth noting. (Go here to see all the statistical comparisons made by Technorati.)

Nearly 60% of bloggers are between the ages of 25 and 44.

Most business bloggers are ages 25-44, but nearly 50% of entrepreneurs are over 45.

Most bloggers are highly educated, with almost 30% having college degrees and an additional 50% who have started or completed a graduate degree.

Bloggers are highly educated.

Most bloggers have been blogging for at least 2 years.

A vast majority of bloggers has at least 2 years of blogging experience, with a significant 20% carrying 6 years or more experience.

The average number of blogs managed by each respondent is three, up from two in 2010.

Business bloggers now manage three blogs on average.

40% of bloggers spend more than 3 hours a week working on their blog.

60% of entrepreneurs spend 1 to 5 hours blogging weekly.

A majority of bloggers updates their blog at least two to three times per week.

Over 50% of bloggers post at least two to three times per week.

Key Takeaways:

Most business bloggers post at least two to three times per week. If you’re not posting that often, you’re missing out on some great search engine optimization value. Read this article on the importance of this;
A majority of bloggers have been at this for at least 2 years.

So, if you haven’t started, why not start now? See this article by Marcus Sheridan for some reasons to get started.

#2: Bloggers help brands

Not convinced? Check this out: 65% of bloggers follow brands on social media and most bloggers write regularly about the brands they follow.

A significant majority of bloggers uses social media to follow brands.

A vast majority of bloggers blogs regularly about the brands they follow.

Key Questions:

Do you know the bloggers who follow your brand?
Are you connecting with them? What are they saying about your business?
How can you help them achieve their goals while helping spread the word about your products, services and special offers?
Have you considered developing a brand advocacy program with some of these bloggers?

#3: A growing number of consumers trust blogs

Consumers are almost as likely to look to blogs for information as they are magazines and newspapers.

Consumers have the lowest level of trust in a brand's social media sites.

Consumers are almost as likely to share information they find on a blog as from a newspaper or magazine.

Consumers are more likely to share information found on a blog than from a brand on other social media sites.

Consumers are most likely to share information they find on blogs through email and Facebook with Twitter being the third most likely.

Email and Facebook are the most likely way consumers will share blog posts.

Key Questions:

Are you making it easy for your followers to share your posts?
Are you focused on becoming a trustworthy resource for your fans?
Because blog posts have a longer shelf life than Facebook or Twitter, are you spending adequate time creating content worth viewing in 6 months or 2 years?

#4: Bloggers depend increasingly on social media

(see stats here).

Bloggers get their inspiration and insights from social media.

Bloggers spend 10-12 hours weekly on social media sites, with 14% spending at least 21 hours. Additionally, bloggers spend another 8 hours weekly reading other blogs.

Most bloggers spend at least 10 hours a week on social media sites.

Bloggers “like” Facebook.

Over 90% of bloggers use Facebook and at least 65% of non-corporate professional bloggers have a Facebook page for their blog.

The primary way bloggers use Facebook is to promote their blog, but a significant 61% of entrepreneurs also use Facebook to market their business.

Entrepreneurs are nearly as likely to use Facebook to market their business as they are to promote their blog.

Twitter is very important for bloggers.

Over 80% of bloggers use Twitter and all professional bloggers have at least 1000 followers.

All business bloggers have 1000 Twitter followers on average. Note that full-time professionals and corporate bloggers have more followers than accounts they follow.

Around 80% of bloggers use Twitter to promote their blog.

The most common use of Twitter is to promote a blog.

Bloggers are early adopters of Google+.

This is one of the first studies I’ve seen on Google+ adoption. Over 60% of all surveyed bloggers have a Google+ account, but few had established a page.

Here are some of the ways bloggers use Google+:

Bloggers use Google+ for bringing interesting links to light, even more than promoting their own blog.

Bloggers have a diverse social media toolkit.

Not surprisingly, LinkedIn and YouTube are the top social media platforms used by bloggers. At least 30% of professional bloggers also make use of StumbleUpon, Delicious and Digg.

LinkedIn is the most commonly used social networking platform for business bloggers after Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

The most effective social tools for driving traffic are Facebook and Twitter, with LinkedIn being a distant third.

Facebook and Twitter lead the pack in effectiveness for driving traffic to blogs.

Key Takeaways:

Bloggers look to Facebook and Twitter to drive traffic to their blogs. Do you? Here are 19 tips on how to do that from Denise Wakeman;
Many pro bloggers have at least 1000 followers on Twitter. Here are 17 tips from social media pros on how to maximize your Twitter marketing.

#5: Bloggers use multimedia

Around 90% of bloggers use some form of media in their posts, with photos being the most popular.

Videos are also widely used by almost 50% of all bloggers.

Photos are the most popular media type. Notice how audio is much less utilized.

#6: Bloggers are earning money through their blogs

#7: Bloggers are increasing their activities

Professional bloggers are generally increasing their blogging activity since they started blogging.

Professional full-time bloggers are significantly increasing their blogging activities.

How about you? Do your 2012 business plans include blogging? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

26 Promising Social Media Stats for Small Businesses

November 8, 2011 / Phil Mershon / No comments

Is your small business “all in” with social media? New research shows incredible opportunity for small businesses.

Keep reading to discover why social media is changing small business for the better.

Six months ago, I highlighted many benefits of social media for small business, but several new research articles add urgency to this message.

Swiftly Changing Landscape

Social media marketing is a rapidly changing environment, as we all know. But the good news is that your customers are embracing social media as a normal part of their lives. Even the over-50 population is adapting at staggering rates.

The following 26 stats should impress upon you the importance of developing a social media strategy for your business.

#1: There are now more than 800 million active Facebook users, with over 200 million added in 2011. Notice the growth trend traced by Ben Foster.

Facebook is growing rapidly. Which side of the wave are you on?

Nielsen found the following in their 3Q 2011 Social Media Report:

#2: Over 80% of all Americans use a social network.

#3: Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other U.S.website.

#4: Approximately 40% of social media users access their accounts through mobile devices.

#5: Nearly 23% of online time is spent on social networks.

#6: Facebook is the top destination among social networks and blogs:

Nielsen found U.S.users spend nearly 10x more time on Facebook than Twitter or LinkedIn.

#7: Social media users are more active and influential offline:

Social media users are more active offline and have greater influence than their peers (Nielsen).

Key Takeaways:

Be sure you empower your online fans to be offline advocates;
Given the growing number of mobile social media users, consider how to best engage your mobile customers when you craft your posts for Facebook and LinkedIn (e.g., requiring shorter responses will get higher engagement).

What Does Facebook Say About its Users?

At Facebook’s recent F8 Developer Conference, Facebook shared the following statistics:

#8: More than half of Facebook users log in every day – that’s more than 400 million people.

#9: The average user has 130 friends and is connected to 80 pages, events and groups.

#10: There are 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, etc…).

#11: Facebook hosts over 7 million apps, and over 20 million apps are downloaded each day.

#12: Around 75% of Facebook users are outside of North America with accounts available in 70 languages.

Key Takeaway:

The previous five statistics show the strong competition for eyeballs. A critical success factor for getting seen is consistency. There is a cumulative effect to your social efforts. The next stat highlights this.

#13: Comscore released a study earlier this year that showed how business brands that post at least once every day will reach 22% of their fans in a given week.

Comscore shows the impact of consistently posting to Facebook.

How Are People Using Social Media?

Experian recently released their 2011 Social Media Consumer Report. The following trends help paint a picture of how people are using social media.

#14: Experian estimates that 91% of online American adults (approx. 129 million) access some form of social media each month.

#15: And get this: 98% of 18- to 24-year-olds access social accounts monthly.

#16: This confirms their stat that college towns log on to Facebook the most.

#17: The average Facebook user spends 20 minutes on his or her account during each visit.

Note that Facebook users spend nearly twice as much time on the platform as Twitter users. The jury is still out on Google+, as data hasn't been accumulated to show the effect of the public release.

#18: A majority of Facebook users log in 3-4 times per week.

Notice that Twitter users are nearly as likely to login once per week as they are three to four times per week.

#19: One out of 5 social network users is likely to visit another social site after leaving one.

After visiting a social network, 45% of users will visit another social site, a multimedia site like YouTube or use a search engine.

Key Takeaways:

If college students are part of your target market, be sure to find them on Facebook;
Because many customers show a tendency to stay on social media sites, find ways to keep them engaged.

Small Businesses Moving Toward Social Media

So what are business leaders doing in light of the obvious shift toward social media in online behavior?

Zoomerang interviewed 1,180 small- to mid-sized business (SMB) decision-makers and 500 consumers in September to release this study in an attempt to answer that question.

#20: The 3 most important reasons small businesses leverage social media are:

Connecting with customers
Visibility
Self-promotion

81% of small business leaders use social media to get in front of customers and find new customers.

#21: 44% of SMB decision-makers use social media.

This graphic highlights how important it is to integrate social media with your website, email and direct mail efforts.

#22: Of those SMB decision-makers who use social media, 86% use Facebook vs. 41% LinkedIn and 33% Twitter:

Small- and medium-sized businesses are investing the most effort in Facebook.

Takeaway:

Be sure to integrate your social media efforts with your website and mail efforts (online and offline).

Small Businesses Getting Results Without Spending Much

Social media is good for business, not just relationships. Mediabistro published an infographic produced by Crowdspring that reveals the following findings:

#23: 50% of small business owners reported gaining new customers through social media – most notably through Facebook and LinkedIn.

#24: 51% of Facebook users and 64% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from the brands they follow.

Twitter fans are more likely to buy from a brand they follow (Crowdspring).

#25: Small businesses don’t have to spend much to get results: Zoomerang found that nearly 60% of all small business decision-makers spend less than $100 on social media and 74% of businesses don’t employ anyone to manage their social media marketing.

Small business owners can get results without spending a lot of cash.

More Good News for Small Businesses

#26: Ning has found it only takes 20 people to create meaningful many-to-many interactions and bring an online community to a significant level of activity. That’s something almost any business can achieve.

Key Takeaway:

Don’t use the excuses of having a limited budget or a small fan base to prevent you from broadening and deepening your social efforts.

How to Bring It All Together

There are numerous conclusions to draw from these statistics. Clearly, small businesses are increasingly leaning on social media to grow their businesses. Many of your customers are using social media almost every day. The opportunities to connect directly with your customers are unprecedented, but so is the competition.

How Your Small Business Could Improve Its Social Media Efforts

Social Media Examiner has brought together 25 small business owners who are pros at social media to teach other small business owners how to capitalize on the tremendous opportunities available in social media.

How? In its new summit—Small Biz Success Summit!

Speakers like John Jantsch, Anita Campbell, Mike Stelzner and Mari Smith will teach sessions in the month of February at Small Biz Success Summit 2012. Click here to learn more.

What do you think? How do these statistics compare to your experiences? If you’re a small business, I’d love to hear your success story here. Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Category: facebook stats, facebook users, Mobile Users, phil mershon, Research, small business, social media research, social media stats, social media strategy, social media studies, social media use, social network /

6 Ways to Measure Your Social Media Results

October 19, 2011 / Phil Mershon / No comments

How much time are you spending on social media? Can you tell if it’s helping sales?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a framework for measuring the impact of your social media efforts?

That’s where Susan Etlinger’s new research for the Altimeter Group comes into play. Susan did qualitative research with 60 social media marketers and vendors to understand how businesses currently measure their social media performance.

Her goal: to develop a framework for tying social media performance to business goals.

NOTE: Because Susan’s original research targeted enterprise-level companies, I interviewed her to add some small business insights. The following comments combine results of the research and that interview.

Start with your strategic goals

Business owners who see great social media success tie their technology choices to their strategic goals. The following graphic shows the importance of a thoughtful process when designing your social media plan.

Make sure to start with your business goals when choosing your tools and measures.

Etlinger advises all businesses follow this process, but particularly small businesses that have limited resources and less tolerance for missteps.

Spend ample time thinking through your vision of success so you can select the right metrics. This means getting specific about your business objectives and strategies before thinking through social objectives. Then you can organize your staff (or your personal time if you’re a solopreneur) around those metrics. Only then are you ready to select the best technologies (including which social platforms and measurement tools to use).

Once you’ve established your goals, then you’re ready to consider Altimeter’s Social Media Measurement Compass. The points of this compass identify six major business goals that social media can help influence.

Your challenge: determine your goal and then think deeply about how you will measure whether you’re achieving that goal.

These six categories will help you think through the business objectives of your measurements.

The Six Points of the Compass

#1: Brand Health

Do you know how people are talking about your service, your products or customer experience? Big brands spend lots of money managing their brand image, but small businesses also need to be aware of customers’ perceptions.

How are people talking about your service, products and selections?

Etlinger noted that people have no problem complaining directly to big brands, but might feel more reserved about criticizing a small business owner to his or her face.

Social media monitoring can help you hear what people are telling their friends, but might not be willing to tell you directly.

Beware that you can never hear the whole social media conversation about your brand. There are at least two reasons: 1) Twitter is capturing such large volumes that you can only hear about 5% of the conversation; 2) Privacy settings on Facebook prohibit non-friends from hearing many conversations.

These two factors make it critical to find ways to validate what people are saying. Small business owners may find it challenging to hear critiques, but put on your tough skin and ask some customers (in person and online).

To unveil how social media listening can help you understand your brand health, Etlinger’s research discovered the following themes (in the graphic below) as critical for your social media listening.

Notice the insights to be gained and how to measure your listening results to find these indicators of health. (I will not reproduce each matrix for the following measures, but you can see them in her article here.)

Allow these questions and thoughts to force you deeper into your measurement practices.

#2: Marketing Optimization

Social media listening can help you fine-tune your marketing efforts to better find your target audience. For many businesses, Google Analytics might be the best tool.

Your goal is to determine what terms people are searching and from what sites they are coming to your site. Some of the things to optimize are campaigns, content, channels, timing and influencers.

It’s important to realize that people share differently on different social channels. While not strictly a social media platform, Yelp provides a good example. People wanting to position themselves as food critics are likely to be far more critical on Yelp than they might be on Twitter or Facebook.

#3: Revenue Generation

This measure may be less relevant if you don’t have an online store; however, all businesses want to know if social media is driving sales.

Generally, social media shouldn’t be expected to directly lead to increased sales. Instead, it can generate leads and conversions. If you think about revenue as a relationship and not just a transaction, as suggested by Richard Binhammer of Dell, then you’ll see that social media can have a tremendous influence on the long-term relationship.

Some important things to understand are the impact of social media on: 1) purchase behavior, 2) search results and 3) customer loyalty.

If you have a physical store, make sure you have tracking systems in place for each channel.

You might try campaigns on Facebook, Twitter and Groupon and see what drives repeat business the best. Groupon is likely to attract deal-seekers who might become new customers, whereas your fans on Facebook and Twitter might find themselves more deeply connected after experiencing one of your “Facebook only” deals.

Test the hypothesis and run your own numbers. Results will vary widely based on your business type and fan base.

#4: Operational Savings

Social media can provide opportunities for hard and soft savings to your business. As customers become brand advocates, your brand reach will extend without significant expenses.

Additionally, social platforms can become far less expensive places for handling customer service. That depends on whether you have someone who can be dedicated to listening to online conversations in real time.

One smart practice is to forge relationships with fans who have strong social media influence. These people can become your advocates and even help with customer service. If they’ve already shown a willingness to speak on your behalf, find ways to feed them information.

#5: Customer Experience

Etlinger’s research discovered a direct correlation between social media and customer experience that translated into improved brand health, increased revenue and cost savings.

An example not cited in the report comes from Kraft Foods. The social media listening team discovered a trend on words like “cut,” “blood” and “salad dressing.” Those aren’t words you want associated with food, so the team dug deeper to discover that customers were cutting themselves when opening a newly designed salad dressing bottle.

The problem was easily solved, but wouldn’t have been discovered without social media. The injuries weren’t serious enough to require emergency room treatment. It was merely an inconvenience, so customers didn’t call the 1-800 number. Instead they told their friends on social media and forgot about it. Because you don’t usually buy salad dressing very often, this problem could’ve gone undetected for months.

#6: Innovation

As highlighted by Etlinger, Starbucks and Proctor & Gamble have found ways to crowdsource ideas through their innovative sites MyStarbucksIdeas.com and pgconnect.com. Not everyone can resource their own social media innovation site, but all businesses can find ways to listen to their customers for insights into product and service improvements.

For example, Twitter can give you insights into what people want. Follow statements such as, “I like,” “I wish” or “I hate.” If you heard, “I wish Charlie’s hadn’t discontinued the chicken cordon bleu,” you would have some great intelligence.

Alternatively, you could even start a conversation on Facebook asking your customers for ideas on new products, services or promotions. Maybe you could even host an “Idea Wednesday” where you spend an hour on your Facebook page looking for creative ideas.

Finding the Right Tools

There are many measurement tools available, and quite a few are free or very inexpensive. In addition to Google Analytics, here are some worth checking out:

Simply Measured has created two tools that work well together.

Export.ly helps you analyze your Facebook fan page, Twitter audience and more through downloading customizable Excel spreadsheets.

With Export.ly, you can export data from Twitter, Facebook and email into an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file.

RowFeeder is an inexpensive way to monitor what people are saying about your brand.

With RowFeeder, you can track your brand name; Twitter handle; the hashtag for a specific campaign, event or promotion; or general topics of interest.

If you want to figure out how often your tweets are being shared and by whom, check out TweetReach.

TweetReach analyzes the tweets that match your search.

Edelman has developed two tools called TweetLevel and BlogLevel that measure the level of influence, popularity, engagement and trust on your Twitter account and blog. These can be good indicators of the health of your social media efforts. Edelman also provides helpful tips on how to improve in each of these areas.

You can use TweetLevel to find "important" people within a specific context and start conversations with them.

BlogLevel is a purpose-built tool for PR and marketing to help ensure brands use blogs effectively.

To Learn More

Susan Etlinger has shared more detailed information about the report in the following webinar created for CoreMetrics.

Key takeaways:

Tie your measurement program to key business objectives.
Understand the key terms to follow for your business.
Find tools that will give you the results you seek without breaking your budget.
Understand that revenue is not a transaction, but a relationship. Treat your customers like people and understand how your online actions are affecting those relationships.
Find ways to get your customers involved through customer service, brand advocacy and idea generation.

What are your thoughts? How do you measure your social media efforts? How do these ideas help you align your business goals with your social measures? Leave your comments and questions in the box below.

Category: altimeter, bloglevel, brand advocate, business goal, business objectives, customer experience, customer perception, exportly, google analytics, phil mershon, Research, row feeder, social media measurement, social media monitoring, social media objective, social media performance, social media plan, social media research, tweet reach, tweetlevel /

6 Ways to Measure Your Social Media Results

October 19, 2011 / Phil Mershon / No comments

How much time are you spending on social media? Can you tell if it’s helping sales?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a framework for measuring the impact of your social media efforts?

Her goal: to develop a framework for tying social media performance to business goals.

Start with your strategic goals

Make sure to start with your business goals when choosing your tools and measures.

Etlinger advises all businesses follow this process, but particularly small businesses that have limited resources and less tolerance for missteps.

Your challenge: determine your goal and then think deeply about how you will measure whether you’re achieving that goal.

These six categories will help you think through the business objectives of your measurements.

The Six Points of the Compass

#1: Brand Health

How are people talking about your service, products and selections?

Etlinger noted that people have no problem complaining directly to big brands, but might feel more reserved about criticizing a small business owner to his or her face.

Social media monitoring can help you hear what people are telling their friends, but might not be willing to tell you directly.

Allow these questions and thoughts to force you deeper into your measurement practices.

#2: Marketing Optimization

Social media listening can help you fine-tune your marketing efforts to better find your target audience. For many businesses, Google Analytics might be the best tool.

#3: Revenue Generation

This measure may be less relevant if you don’t have an online store; however, all businesses want to know if social media is driving sales.

Some important things to understand are the impact of social media on: 1) purchase behavior, 2) search results and 3) customer loyalty.

If you have a physical store, make sure you have tracking systems in place for each channel.

Test the hypothesis and run your own numbers. Results will vary widely based on your business type and fan base.

#4: Operational Savings

Social media can provide opportunities for hard and soft savings to your business. As customers become brand advocates, your brand reach will extend without significant expenses.

#5: Customer Experience

Etlinger’s research discovered a direct correlation between social media and customer experience that translated into improved brand health, increased revenue and cost savings.

#6: Innovation

Finding the Right Tools

There are many measurement tools available, and quite a few are free or very inexpensive. In addition to Google Analytics, here are some worth checking out:

Simply Measured has created two tools that work well together.

Export.ly helps you analyze your Facebook fan page, Twitter audience and more through downloading customizable Excel spreadsheets.

With Export.ly, you can export data from Twitter, Facebook and email into an Excel spreadsheet or CSV file.

RowFeeder is an inexpensive way to monitor what people are saying about your brand.

With RowFeeder, you can track your brand name; Twitter handle; the hashtag for a specific campaign, event or promotion; or general topics of interest.

If you want to figure out how often your tweets are being shared and by whom, check out TweetReach.

TweetReach analyzes the tweets that match your search.

You can use TweetLevel to find "important" people within a specific context and start conversations with them.

BlogLevel is a purpose-built tool for PR and marketing to help ensure brands use blogs effectively.

To Learn More

Susan Etlinger has shared more detailed information about the report in the following webinar created for CoreMetrics.

Key takeaways:

Tie your measurement program to key business objectives.
Understand the key terms to follow for your business.
Find tools that will give you the results you seek without breaking your budget.
Understand that revenue is not a transaction, but a relationship. Treat your customers like people and understand how your online actions are affecting those relationships.
Find ways to get your customers involved through customer service, brand advocacy and idea generation.

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