Social Networking Today Blog

Measuring social media marketing

In response to my post, “How to build your Twitter follower number,”  I received a reply from a very clever lady informing me candidly that numbers are not the most important thing and of course she is absolutely right.  It seems that the world has become obsessesed by measurement and certainly when it comes to social media campaigns, everyone wants to know what to expect as far as ROI is concerned. The truth is that when it comes to measuring social media marketing no one yet knows:

• How to measure ROI effectively for this new media
• Whether what they are measuring is relevant or not  and
• How to quantitate the most valauble spin-off of this marketing approach which is, of course, brand buzz

Joel Davies of UTalk Marketing.com claims that, “statistics show that social media (CTR 7%) is twice as effective as email (CTR 3.9%) and 35 times more effective than banners (CTR 0.2%). “  It’s an impressive figure yet even where numerical evidence is not available, there are few that would question the fact that that some multinationals have profited handsomeley from social media camapigns.

Curiously, though, as Oliver Feakins of  WebTalent SEO asserts, some seem stuck in a time-warp still considering it uppermost in importance to, “track server logs, monitor RSS feed subscriptions and count friends on social networking sites.” There is no question that these metrics still hold relevance and they are certainly a place to start when setting a baseline at the start of a social media venture. The real, payback of a social media campaign, though, comes with true engagement of a target audience, a small number of whom, boast an  online presence influential enough to significantly enhance brand web presence through positive word of mouth. The question is, how would one go about measuring that?

Certainly, as far as I’m concerned, its good to buld Twitter follower numbers but I anticipate that they will account for only a small proporton of my readership as my blog matures. In all honesty,  the strategy is not to build numbers for numbers sake but because with a record follower number,  listing in high ranking Twitter business user directories will be guaranteed, with associated backlinks as the prize. Further, whether numbers have any real, direct relevance or not the status  gained from such directory listing, will no doubt, result in elevated site visit numbers. Hence, though some metrics may not be meaningful in themselves,  it is the meaning that the majority of the web community associates with them that can make the difference when choosing whether to ignore them or not.

Like everyone else, some of us who admit it and others that don’t, I am experimenting with measuring social media marketing ROI as I go along.  As I progress, I fully intend to share with you what I discover along the way. Here’s to learning together.

Sandra Charan

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O.K,  so out of the blue, I got an offer on my house and had the need to find a good property conveyancer operating in my vicinity. No, problem I thought. I’ll search for some good online customer reviews and make my choice accordingly. A 15 minute job, you may think. Well actually, no.  As you can see from the screen shot of my Twitter search below, I came up with zilch.

My fruitless results for reviews on property conveyancers in Oxford

Attempting to get my results from Google proved no less useful.  I spent a couple of hours searching out likely candidate sites and then looking for independent reviews on forums or non-associated sites with little success.

It then struck me that businesses are losing out, in a big way, if they miss the opportunity to ask their customers to leave online testimonials or reviews of their product or service. Certainly, speaking for myself, I’m  more suspicious of reviews on the business site, itself, I was looking for reviews on independent review sites or forums.

So what can businesses do to better promote themselves via testimonials on Twitter.  Well, how about a footer on your customer receipt along the lines of, “If you are pleased with the freshening effect of  spring fresh dog wash on your pet and on your home  we would be grateful if you would write a short review at www.petproductreviews.com. Thank You.”

The idea would then be to direct those seraching for reviews on businesses like your own to a review page via a tweet. Since Twitter search, now, only brings up search results from tweets sent up to a month ago, the process would need to be repeated monthly.  A tweet, directing the searcher to the appropriate review page, might read something like this

Review-dog products-www.petproductreviews.com/washingproducts”

OR in the case of the solicitor I was searching for, a tweet which would have worked would have to have listed location and might have read, for example,

“Review-Oxford-Property conveyancer-www.bestconveyancers.com/oxford”

Note that you would have to be prepared for the odd negative review. On the positive side, though, certainly, for me a page of 90% good reviews is enough to persuade me to select the outfit concerned.

Perhaps we should all get into the habit of asking every satisfied customer to leave a real online business review.

Maybe then the trend will then catch on big-time,  perhaps using a hashtag #review.

p.s  by the way in case I get a stream of communications from likely professionals, I have, now, found and instructed a solicitor.

Cheers

Sandra Charan

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Dr. Vinton G. Cerf, “The Father Of The Internet” and VP, Chief Internet Evangelist for Google shares with OgilvyOne Singapore on how brands can tap into the social media phenomenon.

Credit for video to OgilvyOne Singapore & Google inc.

Thought this one was interesting. Hope you do, too.

Sandra Charan

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What is the latest in mobile internet advertising?  Well, it’s location based advertsing (LBA.) Just imagine you are an advertiser. You are also a member of a social networking site that facilitates users to share their geogpahical location with their friends on the network via updating of real-time location information and/or geo-tagging of uploaded content.

Hi I'm at Duke's Bookstore - Huge anthropology section - I'm in heaven

You have thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of friends on the network and they are all inadvertantly sharing with you, where they are at any time, what they are passionate about with regard to that location and how they rate it. No explanation needed. It’s a marketers paradise. The important word here, though, is inadvertantly.

Several networks exist which now make this scenario an inevitability. These include Pelago and Gypsii. Further, as Philip of Loca Location tells us, “Technology power houses like Google, Microsoft, Nokia, T-Mobile and large social networks like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn are offering location aware features or sharing options. And of course there are services like Brightkite, Yahoo! Fire Eagle or Plazes that are specialized on location sharing.”

In fact, Christine Gallen of ABI Research estimates that, ““Location-based mobile social networking revenues will reach $3.3 billion by 2013…”  There is no way that advertsiers will fail to take advantage of this sure-fire way of building valuable customer profiles enabling delivery of highly targeted ads. There is a fly in the ointment, though, as far as consumers are concerned. Despite the fact that many are comfortable with brands building awareness, delivering information and inspiring loyalty via mobile technologies, many are uncomfortable when it comes to their personal information being collated, in an underhand manner, without their knowledge. At this early stage such privacy issues, in general, have yet to be clearly defined in law. Let’s take the case of the social networker who clicks on the option when uploading a geo-tagged photo, “Allow everyone to see.” Does this imply that sanction has been granted for information related to the upload to be stored in databases by, “everyone?”

In order to ensure consumer trust, there is no doubt that, when it comes to location based advertising, systems will need to be put in place to ensure that information collection, storage and use is opt-in/permission based and that the marketer’s intentions are always transparent as far as the user is concerened.

We are entering a new era in communications, where  fictional events portrayed formerly only in science fiction and drama are now becoming a reality.  Others can now track where we are, what we are doing and what we are saying. The responsibility rests on all of our shoulders to ensure that, “Big Brother,” turns out to be  a friend and not a foe.

Sandra Charan

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When it comes to Twitter, the question on many marketers lips is,

How do I unfollow someone who doesn’t follow me back?

Huitter Mutuality – the only unfollowing tool you'll ever need

…and here’s the reason.  An earlier post, “How to use online social networking to market your business,” described how it is possible to build a highly targeted group of followers for your brand on Twitter. The idea is that, through links, these followers will become fans of a blog or website, which provides highly relevant information, specific to the target niche market.

Now, it seems obvious that the larger your follower group, the larger will be your fanbase and hopefully the better  your sales statistics over time. But herein lies the problem. It’s easy to gain more followers on Twitter. You just follow and expect that many will follow you back. However, Twitter has some unshakeable rules which limit the way in which you can build your fan base. These rules go something like ths:

• You can add up to 2000 followers to your account with no restrictions
• Once you reach 2000 followers you must have a figure for those that follow you within plus or minus 10% of your follower number otherwise your account will freeze.
• You can only increase the number of people you are following by up to 100 per day

It seems relatively easy to abide by these rules.  Firstly,  you choose those you want to follow. Then you wait till many autofollow you back and some others follow you manually. Whichever, you can expect maybe 40-60% of those you follow to follow you back. In order to abide by the Twitter rules described above, you need to balance up the numbers or those you follow will grow too large over time compared to those that are following you.

So you may well ask, “How do I unfollow someone who doesn’t follow me back?” since clearly these are the folks you want to drop from your account. Well, I started off using a series of web tools to achieve this aim. Every night after my day job was over, I’d make use of the fabulous tool, Twitter Karma, which identfies:

1. All the people you are following
2. Those that you follow but that don’t follow you back
3. Those that follow you but that you don’t follow back

This amazing tool then allows you to select category 2 (above) and bulk delete all these people. I used this tool with delight until my Twitter follower number reached just over 6000. Then a problem arose. Originally,  it would take maybe 15 mins max for Twitter Karma to log into my Twitter account.  However, suddenly, as my account grew larger, it would take ever longer periods of time, till finally, it wasn’t logging in at all. I cannot stress to you the degree of frustration that I felt, as a result of this, as exhausted from my day job, I waited endlessly through the evening and as it turned out fruitlessly to achieve my aim. In the end I turned to other tools  discovered through Google Search but these stopped working too, in the same way.  I ended up nearly pulling all my hair out.

However, over the past week things have looked up.  In short, I have found my saviour. It is a tool called Huitter Mutuality and it allows you to log into your Twitter acc0unt, usually instantly, and to bulk delete those who are not following you back. I, personally have found it much easier to use than other tools, many of which require manual deletion of indiviual Tweeters one by one and multiple clicking to get to each deletion page.  Huitter Mutuality has saved me a minimum of one hour every evening. “I love you Huitter Mutuality.” So now you no longer need to ask the question, “How do I unfollow someone who doesn’t follow me back?” Let me tell you, this tool is on the money. I hope ths tip helps you build your Twitter community speedily and effortlessly.

Sandra Charan

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Using online social networks for Business

Are you using online social networking to market your product or service? If you aren’t, then you may be losing out big-time. Here are some of the reasons why social networks offer an unrivalled opportunity to source and influence potential business clientele and convert them into fans.

1. Most significantly, many social networking sites such as Twitter enable follower/friend selection via search. Hence, selection can be made for those who are most likely to be interested in the relevant product or service. For example, using the Twitter advanced search tool,  a personal trainer based in Oxford, UK would be able to select for those, who live locally to themselves plus those who are tweeting about losing weight (for example search terms might be  e.g., “need to lose weight”  or “want to start keeping fit.”  Additonally selections might be made for gender and popularity i.e how many followers does the person have or level of activity on Twitter i.e. how many updates has this person made.  For the approach to work, naturally the idea is that once you follow or befriend someone that they will reciprocate. Inevitably, a good proportion do.
2. Highly targeted selection of followeres/friends provides an excellent framework for niche marketing i.e pitching to a narrow market that is already highly likely to be favourably predisposed to the product of service you offer. With such simple, yet accurate targeting and all for free, is it any wonder so many are now using social networking to market
3. Social Networks such as Twitter and Facebook allow users to use links when communicating with online buddies. These links can be used to redirect followers to a blog or website where information is made available which is specific to the relevant niche market.  If that information proves invaluable, then the reader will not want to miss out on any further tips which might be coming their way. They may then take a step towards becoming a fan by subscribing to an RSS feed or Newsletter, especially if the sign-up link is prominently displayed on the webpage. Hey presto! Guess what this means? Yup, that’s it, they will keep coming back to see what’s on offer
4. Then there’s the personal touch. Intimate brand/consumer relationships can be forged via social networks since questions about the product or service which are directly relevant to the questioner can be asked via Facebook or Twitter communicatons or blog comments. It goes without saying that prompt, useful return communication will likely convert questioners into fans.
5. Lastly, those who are fans and have already benefited immensely from their association with the blog/website will be especially suggestible when it comes to getting involved in activities which are designed to channel them toward a  product or service. Such activities might include, for example,  live teleseminars where lots of useful info is supplied and the product or service is offered, perhaps at a reduced rate for a time limited period. Of course, the product needs to be the best there is out there on the market, for as long as this is the case, fans are going to want to keep coming back for product update after product update. Who can argue that this simple method is not a winning game? So, if you are not yet using online social networking to market, now is always a good time to start!

Sandra Charan

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Figure 1

What is Engagement Marketing?

The cornerstone of online engagement marketing is the building of mutually beneficial interactive relationships between brands and consumers.

The idea is that the engagement of users in activities realted to their passions and interests is likely to breed positive brand association and brand loyalty.

Furthermore, giving users a platform to make their own contributions to brand development or to critique the brand, honestly, gives them a sense of brand ownership and conveys the message that what they say matters (Figure 1.)

Below are listed some approaches that have been used in engagement marketing:

* Co-creation of a product

* Submission of user generated content for campaigns

* Online reviewing of a trialled product

* Participation in surveys or polls

* Submissions to competitions

* Participation in games related to the brand

Modern Engagement marketing is in its infancy but here’s a brief rundown of two successful, sample marketing case studies:

The “World’s Worst War” Campaign

This took place in 2007 in Tokyo, Japan and used the strategy of encouraging brand loyalty in fans by aligning them with either one of two snacks, “Tyrant Habanero Burning Hell Hot” or “Satan Jorquia Bazooka Deadly Hot.” Via mobile phone alerts, participants were invited to dual, at the ungodly hour of 4AM in the morning, on behalf of their assigned snack in a virtual game entitled, the “World’s Worst War.”  In 2008, Hakuhodo, the ad agency responsible for the campaign, won the Yellow Pencil award at the annual D&AD advertising awards ceremony where for the first time mobile ads were recognized. The super video below conveys the magic of the campaign better than words ever could.

The Jones Soda Approach

Engaging consumers in product packaging design by involving them in co-creation is the tactic that was chosen by Jones Soda. Visit their website and you will discover that you will be able to customize your soda labels by uploading your own photo or that of a relative or friend. Any other appropriate photo is also acceptable and you must also pen and submit the quote that you would like printed on the final product. Jones soda will then print up the labels affix them to the bottles and deliver your order to you. How’s that for personalisation? No need to persuade you, I’m sure, how great this would be at parties or for special occasions such as birthdays or weddings or as Jones soda suggest, for corporate events.

How does Social Networking fit in to all this?

Naturally, conversations are where online relationships begin and this is why social networking sites are ideal portals for initiating relationships with those who may latter become campaign participants. However, conversation, in itself, is not enough to render an engagement marketing campaign successful. As the terminology suggests it is the engagement which arises from this conversation which is crucial, for if not fully engaged participants are likely to lose interest and find stimulation elsewhere.

The challenge for the engagement marketer is to first identify participants who will demonstrate sufficient levels of interest and loyalty and to subsequently maintain their interest levels over the long-term. Reporting on strategies that have been used to successfully achieve this will be an ongoing topic area of this blog. Stay tuned.

Sandra Charan

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It seems that Nokia have come up with, “a plan so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a fox.” How many of you have noticed the reference to Gravity (see Figure 1) flashing up recently as one of the Twitter homepage ads?

Figure 1

Gravity is a Twitter client for Nokia mobile phones running  the S60 operating system. Promoted as the first SV60 Twitter friendly application, it is compatible with many of the Nokia eseries phones.

Significantly, though, Nokia is just about to realease it’s latest N series flagship, the N97. Descrbed by Nokia as being the ultimate social networking mobile, it has an always open built in application for Facebook (see Video below) and what is termed a So-Lo (social location) feature which enables automatic social network sharing of real-time location plus  tracking and geo-tagging of photos and videos.

As the video above tells us the N97 is also compatible with the running of MySpace and LinkedIn. So, with the installation of Gravity, the N97 arguably comes closer to being one of the most fully Social Network friendly mobiles on the market.

The link from the Twitter homepage ad (Figure 1) leads to the mobileways.de site which promotes applications for the s60 platform. It lists Gravity features as follows:

• Compatible with Twitter and Laconica
• All functions available on your S60 phone: tweet, reply, DM, follow & unfollow, create favourites, search, auto-update and many more …
• Tabbed view of your Timeline, Replies, Messages, Friends, …
• Configurable Audio Alerts for Timeline/Replies/DM’s & Searches
• Setup and use as many accounts as you want at the same time
• Group support for creating custom tabs with user-defined filters
• Twitter-Search section with multiple search tabs and Twitter Trends
• Post pictures to MobyPicture, TwitPic, TwitGoo & Posterous
• Preview pictures from MobyPicture, TwitPic or TwitGoo
• Open URLs from any Tweet
• Kinetic scrolling on S60v5 ( Nokia 5800 and Nokia N97 )
• Theme support on S60v3 ( fixed dark and bright theme )
• Full-Screen mode on S60v3
• Built-in auto-update function and beta access for testing the latest features

Last week, the N97 was made available for pre-order and it has an estimated June release date. Set as the phone which will establish Nokia firmly as a leader in the mobile social networking arena, it was cunning indeed of Nokia to place the add with maximum visibility on the Twitter homepage directly below  user follower/following number, at precisely this consumer interest critical time. I don’t know about you guys but this is certainly the first place I look when I log into Twitter.  The general feedback from Tweets by those testing out pre-release versions of the N97 is that Gravity performs impressively on the device. It will be interesting to see whether  this positive Word of Mouth in conjunction with the intuitive placing of the Twitter homepage ad will propel Gravity to number 1 position in the list of Twitter clients for mobile phones. Time will tell.

Sandra Charan

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The chips are down, the gauntlet has been thrown and the gamble is on. All throughout the Geekworld  folks are asking the question? Is Twitter attempting to usurp Google? Recent developments might well lead folks to suspect so.  On May 6th CNET reported a scoop from Santosh Jayaram, former Manager of Search Quality operations for Google who recently defected to Twitter. The big news is the imminent evolution of the Twitter search function. Most importantly, future search indexing will not be limited to the Tweet text itself but will also incorporate the links within Tweets. This, in effect will make Twitter a content search engine. Though, as MG Siegler from TechCrunch explains, “Twitter Search isn’t meant to replace Google, that’d be dumb. At this point, no one is going to beat Google at its own game.” Instead, Siegler contends that, “Twitter Search is meant to be a different kind of powerful search engine in its own right. A smaller, potentially curated, real-time search engine.”

The story, however, doesn’t end there. It seems that Twitter high command has decreed that one of the most significant changes in search function will be the introduction of a grading system that allows for selection of quality content via search. The criteria for grading have yet to be confirmed. One can only suspect that they may be related to:

* Number of Retweets

* Number of followers

* Number of updates

Perhaps following on from this development, the new Twitter mantra ought to be,

All Tweeters are equal but some Tweeters are more equal than others.

Undoubtedly, most will welcome this sifting of valuable information from the huge bulk of daily Twitter contributions. However, other recent developments have not been so kindly received. Last week in the post, “How to view your conversations in Twitter,” I mentioned that there were rumours that because Twitter has recently experienced serious site overload, a decision had been made that Twitter search will only allow search back for 28 days.

I have just visited the Twitter search facility and, indeed, found that any advanced search incorporating a date over 28 days from the today date gives a, “No results,” message. This is an irritation and seriously limits information gathering from the Twitter database. Might it be reasonable to suspect that since Twitter is about to rehaul its entire search framework, that the change might be temporary? After all, it is common knowledge that Twitter cannot continue to expand at its current rate unless it increases capacity dramatically. Surely such infrastructure developments are currently well underway? Let’s hope so.

As for the question, “Is Twitter attempting to usurp Google?” Well, considering Twitter’s phenomenal and sudden explosive growth over the past year, perhaps those dreamers who believe that David can triumph over Goliath, are not quite so deluded.  Indeed, for such “David,” enthusiasts, keen to champion the under dog the answer may well be, “Yes, but not quite yet.”

Sandra Charan

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NOTES RELATING TO THE VIDEO

Destination URL   http://search.twitter.com/advanced

You can arrive at this URL, as well by:

• Going to the Twitter homepage- http://twitter.com/
• Clicking, “search,” (page footer menu)
• Clicking, “advanced search.”

Note that Molly’s Tweets and conversations as well as all Tweets mentioning Molly will be brought up by entering @mollyblock as the search term. Naturally you can use the method to view others’ conversations as well as your own.

Hope this proves useful.

Sandra Charan

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IMPORTANT - Since I first drafted this post a few days ago, I have heard rumours that because Twitter has recently experienced serious site overload, a decision has been made that Twitter search will only allow search back for 28 days. This might have huge implications for those of us who use Twitter. I will do some research and get back to you on this.