At the Ad Age Digital Conference recently, Google announced some significant changes to the way online advertising is measured. Google introduced the Brand Activate Initiative that is designed to grow the online advertising industry by applying metrics similar to those used in television.
One media agency, however, believes that Google is taking “a step back” with this move. Dick Reed, the CEO of Just Media, spoke with WebProNews and told us that Google’s action regarding Active GRP (Gross Rating Point) was hard to accept. According to him, digital has made much more progress in analytics than TV has.
While Just Media supports Google’s Active View solution, which means advertisers will only pay for viewed impressions, Frauke Cast, the company’s head of analytics, believes that Google should have made the decision with the industry. In other words, instead of Google making this move on its own, both Cast and Reed think that the search and advertising giant should have worked with agencies, publishers, and others in the industry before it took action.
As they explained, Google and DoubleClick should lead the industry but not without the industry on board with them.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on May 10th, 2012. Comment. 
A recent survey by Awareness provides insights into the challenges and opportunities for social media marketing in businesses.
The survey asked CMOs, marketing managers, and social media managers from corporations about their plans for social media marketing in 2012 and social media marketing challenges they face.
Challenge 1 – Not Enough Resources
Money and people reflect major challenges to social media marketing success to the corporations. Most firms dedicated between 1 and 3 people to their social media marketing efforts. A bigger problem is a lack of money dedicated to social media marketing.
Nearly 60% of firm don’t spend ANYTHING on social media !
And, only 14% spend more than $ 30,000 on their social media marketing efforts. And this reflects spending on firms from less than $ 1 million in revenue to over $ 100 million. This, despite the fact even the smallest firms in the survey likely spend $ 50,000+ on traditional advertising and the largest firm probably send $ 1 million+, according to Entrepreneur.
Of course, I’m not sure I believe this — it may be an artifact of who they got to respond. My mid-sized corporate clients are spending between $ 30,000-$ 45,000 for social media.
Challenge 2 – Assessing ROI
Of course, part of the problem getting enough resources to effectively run your social media marketing campaign is firms don’t feel they can adequately assess the return they get from their investment in social media.
This creates a CHICKEN AND EGG ARGUMENT. Firms won’t invest in social media until they see results, but they won’t get good results until they increase their investment in social media.
A bigger social media marketing challenge is firms do social media marketing wrong because they’ve not invested in using agencies or consultants who KNOW how to do social media marketing RIGHT. Firms afraid to spend the money it takes to do social media marketing right, use their failure to achieve desired results as proof that social media marketing expenditures are not valid.
Firms try to assess ROI, but they’re really not sure how to do it. Sometimes, they borrow tools from traditional advertising, like reach. Hence, they measure increases in fans, followers, etc.
Others assess ROI with measures of engagement, such as mentions.
The social media marketing challenge is that it takes a certain amount of effort (and money) to rise about the increasing level of noise in social platforms. Few firms surveyed spent enough to reach this minimum level.
Challenge 3 – Increasing Social Media Marketing
Most firms surveyed agreed their not dedicating enough resources to their social media marketing efforts. And most hope to fix that in 2012. Here’s what they said:
Challenge 4 – Concentrating on Only the Top 3
Firms concentrate their limited resources primarily on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Certainly, the user numbers make this attractive and spending a small budget across lots of social sites makes little sense. But, firms are missing the most impactful marketing platforms — blogs, YouTube, and mobile.
While respondents aren’t doing much to increase their mobile efforts (which I think is a huge mistake), their number 1 priority in 2012 is blogging. And YouTube will make a bigger splash in 2012, too.
That’s because firms recognize the impact of fresh content on their websites both from an SEO perspective and in terms of creating engagement.
Your Turn
- What are your plans for 2012?
- How many people and how much money will you spend on social media marketing in 2012?
- How much do you think your competitors are spending?
- Can you afford to ignore social media marketing as a cornerstone of your marketing efforts in 2012.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jan 4th, 2012.
1. Create a Social Media Corporate Governance Team.
2012 should be the year in which business gets serious about social media governance, integrating social business into corporate culture.Your social media governance team should reflect a cross section of your organization and it should become a center of excellence for your business.
Social media silos do not work.
A social media governance team should bring together diverse talent, including marketing, customer service, IT, legal, and human relations, to share in learning, establish best practices, and create benchmarks for excellence, while humanizing your brand and driving business results.
2. Establish/Update A Social Media Policy.
If your organization doesn’t have a social media policy, you are courting disaster as you are inviting even a single employee to have the power to redefine your brand in one inadvertent or ill-conceived post.If, on the other hand, your organization was an early adopter of social media (or at least an early adopter of a social media policy!), it is likely time to update your social media policy. In the past year, the National Labor Relations Board has rendered over a hundred decisions touching on the topic of employee use of social media, with many of the Board’s actions prompted by overly broad social media policies. The law is finally catching up to the implications and technologies of social media. Your social media policy should reflect those changes and clarifications. An abundance of social media policies exists online. Be mindful that some of the policies you may find online may also be in need of updating or just plain wrong. You need to invest in getting your policy right and the proper policy for your organization may vary immensely depending on they type of organization you are and the degree of existing regulatory guidelines you must follow.
3. Create a Social Media Playbook
Unlike your social media policy, which establishes the rules and limits of social media engagement, a social media playbook should be more of “how-to” book for your employees, a reference that provides examples of what should and should not be done on social networks. Social network profile templates providing suggestions on how to best project a professional and consistent brand image should be included.
4. Establish a Social Media Communications Crisis Management Plan.
Along the way, your business will invariably have a crisis that will require it to muster its social media resources. Prepare for the crisis before it happens. This should include creating a response chart of who within your organization would be tasked with what and how they would be contacted, as most crises seem to happen after 5:00 p.m. or on a weekend. Have round-tables to identify the events most likely to trigger a communications crisis within your organization and then do some training exercises to run through how you charts and policies would work.If you are a larger organizations, you likely already have crisis communications plans – they need to include social.Knowing the mechanics of what to do if an employee has sent a mistweet from a corporate Twitter account (hint: don’t ignore it!) or what to do if your social network account has been hijacked by a spammer, are some of the scenarios you should review.
Be sure to cover this topic in both your social media playbook.
5. Take the Time to Learn the FTC’s Social Media Disclosure Guidelines.
In 2009, the Federal Trade Commission, which characterizes itself as “the nation’s consumer protection agency”, updated its endorsement guidelines to include social media, addressing the disclosure requirement for sponsored bloggers and those that sponsor them, along with a series of . Most marketers have never read them. Put them on your reading list! (When the FTC’s social media guidelines first came out in 2009, I blogged about about them: they haven’t changed. New FTC Rules: Business and Bloggers Beware) Succinctly, contrary to a large body of writing on the subject, disclosure “tabs”, “buttons”, “links”, and static profile disclosures do not suffice to satisfy the FTC’s social media disclosure requirements. (Disclosures are required within the context of the social conversation.)
6. Provide Your Employees with Social Media Training.
Most of your employees are using social media throughout the day, regardless of what your social media policy may say to the contrary. Get over it. Instead, give your employees the social media training they deserve so that when they are using social media their time spent there will become an asset to your business rather than a ticking bomb.
7. Create a Social Media Decision Tree.
Just as call center employees are often provided with a decision tree to help them to quickly answer a myriad of questions, a social media decision tree should also be established to help employees understand the dynamics of responding on behalf of a brand in social media. The U.S. Air Force even developed a social media decision tree that the pharmaceutical Pfizer later used as the basis for its own. Social media governance should aim to simplify social media participation for employees, while still relying on the good sense of employees to personalize the social conversation. A decision tree will also add to brand consistency.
8. Streamline Access to Compliance and Legal for Social Media.
Social media engagement is all about “real-time” conversation. It doesn’t mean a brand needs to give an instant response to every post or tweet, but it does mean that your company should strive to answer questions quickly — you can get added time by letting your community know that you have heard a question or complaint and that are looking into it, but whatever procedures need to be followed to provide a response must be time efficient. Having a way to get answers from compliance or legal requires a new approach that dedicates a greater appreciation for the time sensitivity of responding to social network inquiries or comments. Work on a way to accomplish this.
9. Share Regular Updates on Social Media Best Practices.
As social media continues to evolve, so should your best practices and your sharing of information about those best practices. Being attentive to and sharing updated guidance from regulatory agencies should be part of your updates. (This is a task best assigned to your governance team with special input from legal.)
10. Monitor, Assess and Audit Your Social Media Activities.
Even with the best social media policies and training, your company’s social networking activities should be monitored and assessed for excellence. This doesn’t mean that every tweet has to be a masterpiece, but that online social networking engagement is consistent with the brand and contributing to the building of trust, transparency and brand advocates.
It is worth noting that many of the FTC’s social media-related settlements have included mandatory outside audits of social networking activities. Bringing an independent audit into the mix is good idea to help keep monitoring of social business activities as accurate as possible.
BONUS: Cleary Define Who Owns Company-Related Social Network Accounts.
One of the legal hot potatoes of 2011, the dastardly debate of who really owns your Twitter account or your LinkedIn contacts, etc., etc., is set to be formally answered in 2011.
Without taking away the suspense of any impending court decision, ownership of a social media account is subject of debate and litigation if it is not clearly defined and agreed upon between employers and employees or business partners. Dispel the ambiguity and legal uncertainty: make a written agreement that covers the issue.A written agreement outlining what is to happen with a social media account opened or operated for a business purpose by an employee or business partner on behalf of a business is something that should be expressly defined. Why? Because most now recognize that social media accounts have a business value and, left undefined, issues of ownership are likely to arise when business partners or employees part ways.
What social media compliance issues do you find most challenging?
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Jan 3rd, 2012.
Smart marketing puts your message right in front of your audience. With millions of people participating in social media each day, using social media platforms to market your business can be a smart move. If you’re warming up to the idea of social media and see it as a legitimate strategy, a logical step is to embrace it and find a team member or a trusted outsourcing provider to build up your social presence.
But before you sign over your social presence to an outside provider, it’s important to ask whether social media should be outsourced and, if so, how it should be outsourced to maximize benefits and minimize risks.
The Benefits of Outsourced Social Media
Like other types of outsourcing, social media outsourcing can save your company time and energy. Your business efforts are always more successful when they are closely linked with your core competency. For example, if your business specializes in virtual office services your employees and managing staff will have expertise in remote working, virtual office technology and all of the other components that go with working “in the cloud.”
Unless your company specializes in online marketing, social media skills aren’t part of your core competency. Your time and the time of your employees will be better spent on other projects. Outsourcing to a social strategy consultant or service can help you keep your presence consistent and your social presence running smoothly.
Using an outside vendor for social media can help your organization gain unique insight into the social process. With frequent platform updates and new measurements of success being introduced on what seems like a constant basis, it’s important that your company stays on top of its game. An outside vendor who specializes in this form of marketing can be a critical key in your social success. They can help you stay competitive and learn to stand out from the crowd with unique updates and engagement tools,
The Risks of Outsourcing
Despite all of these benefits to outsourced social media, the process isn’t without its risks.
The path to effective social usage for corporations has been littered with faux pas and missteps that have made many companies regret starting a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn account. Chrysler’s account was a victim of a bad tweet in March and Nikon’s Facebook page underwent a fair bit of backlash in September, among many other examples of corporate social gone wrong.
In Chrysler’s case, an employee of the social media firm posted a profanity laden update on the official Chrysler Twitter account. The tweet was made in haste by a hired social media “expert” who either forgot they were logged into their client’s account or made the post in a moment of bad judgment.
Nikon’s social media agency made the mistake of implying that a photographer is only as good as their equipment. This is something that every real photographer knows is not the case, and the Facebook post received a lot of negative response from the Nikon fanpage community and photography blogosphere in general.
The lack of professionalism shown in the Chrysler case and lack of knowledge about a market in the Nikon case are two very real risks of outsourcing social media. But there are ways to minimize the risks and still reap the benefits.
Don’t Outsource Your Voice, Outsource Your Process
Social media outsourcing can still be very beneficial and help your company save time, remain creative and stay competitive. Rather than handing your entire social process off to an outside firm, you can seek out a social consultant or company that will get your company set up, train your employees and offer ongoing support as your social business needs expand.
A social media expert can show your employees how to utilize these channels in an appropriate way. Your employees know about your business and your field. They are invested in the success of your company and are less likely to make mistakes with regard to professionalism or lack of industry knowledge.
By using an outside vendor for social media training and support (rather than outsourcing updates), you can maintain control over your profiles while still reaping the benefits of utilizing an outsourced resource that has expert level knowledge.
What do you think about the benefits and risks of an outsourced social presence?
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Dec 28th, 2011.
Is your Facebook fan page supercharged and utilizing its full marketing super powers? Maybe you’ve gotten so bombarded with “social media best practices,” you’ve taken a break from your Facebook efforts altogether. We don’t blame you, (although we don’t encourage that anti “social” media behavior), but your business can’t afford not to use this flourishing marketing platform. So stop your Facebook frenzy, press the pause button on your optimization overload, and tune into our 5 simple ways to optimize, or rather, help people find your Facebook business page and become avid fans.
1. An Optimized Profile Picture
A profile picture is worth a thousand Facebook posts. It is your presence to the Facebook community and your “face” in all posts and interactions with fans. In order to optimize your picture to its full potential, keep it streamline with your company website logo and any other platforms you have online (LinkedIn, Twitter and blog). Your business profile picture can also be the perfect opportunity to capture three important features: business logo, what your business does, and a call to action.
For our /excelamktg profile picture, we include our branded “mktg” logo on top (which we use as our thumbnail), what our business does in the center, and a call to action at the bottom (we encourage fans to “learn more about /excelamktg!”).
Tip: Remember to keep your profile picture aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Avoid packing in too much imagery and/or wording, as it could be distracting and appear spammy. The masterminds at our excela creative department designed our logo.
2. Custom Photo Row
Your photo row consists of 5 pictures that appear under your page name. These photos will randomly change position each time the profile is refreshed, or a picture added. Many businesses leave their row at random, but when you have the capability to get creative, wouldn’t you? By doing so, your photo row can turn into a great way to keep your branding consistent, professional and streamline.
Tip: Choose 5 photos that will make sense no matter what order they appear. For our client Erica Anenberg’s photo row, we highlight various styles of her popular Twosome™ rings:
3. Appropriate Featured Likes
Facebook pages have the option of choosing 5-featured pages that your brand “likes” and essentially, associates with. These pages appear as thumbnails under your “Featured Likes” column. Normally, these thumbnails randomly list in any order, but in your settings you can set these Featured Likes to 5 pages that will always appear. Customizing your Featured Likes is a quick and easy way to showcase what type of business you are, what kind of message you want to emulate and it gives a custom touch to your Facebook page. After all, you are who you associate with, right? Well, your fans will look at you that way.
For our client Face Place, we chose to include celebrities who embody the type of image Face Place desires, and type of audience they like to attract:
4. Vanity URL
Your vanity URL is your virtual nametag. It will determine the success of how search-friendly you are as a business. With over 800 million ACTIVE users (not counting total pages), you need to be specific to rise above the noise. You want to ensure that your Facebook isn’t, “facebook.com/kjhdsfg123424,” but rather, a URL that is search-engine friendly like, “http://www.facebook.com/sunsettower.” To create your vanity URL, simply click on your page’s “Account Setting” in the top right hand corner and enter your desired Facebook “username” in the box provided.
There are truly endless possibilities to customize your business fan page (FBML, apps, etc.), and while these might seem like daunting tasks, they are a necessity in our social world. We are here to elevate your small business and get you on your way to Optimization Om.
What will be the first change you make to your Facebook page? Visit /excelamktg for further customized Facebook ideas, designs and insider tips for optimizing your Social Media.
Be sure to check out our Social Media on a Budget web series. Each week, our panel of experts will take a closer look into the social media hot topic of the week.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Dec 28th, 2011.
