socialmedia-canada.com

One of the most prevalent excuses I hear from people not engaged in social media is the lack of provable ROI. Traditional marketers just can’t seem to get their collective heads around how social media can be monotized.

I can understand that. After all there are few metrics that outline exactly what you can expect from a well thought out social media strategy. Traditionalist and marketing execs want to see real numbers from real data that are in direct correlation to the social media campaign that has been executed on your company’s behalf.

Recently a few sites have popped up that promise to track your customer from initial engagement to purchase to determine whether or not your social media is turning eyes into sales. While it’s true that these companies can publish some “real” ROI numbers it’s also defeating the purpose a bit.

Marketing has always been about making money. Social media is more like the kinder, gentler brother of marketing. It’s not about the bottom line and many people miss that mark.

Social media is about providing value. John Wooden, famous UCLA Basketball coach has a great quote: “You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.”

That philosophy should be at the top of your social media strategy. If you’re in it to make money then you’re going to lose the game. No one will engage you if you are not willing to provide them with some value.

It’s a tough nut to swallow for many traditional marketing managers and even tougher for the CFO in the company. After all, these guys are used to pushing the product.

If I had to pick a reason that many social media strategies fail I’d pick this. You’ll fail if you can’t give your customers something they need. You’ll fail if you can’t engage your employees. You’ll fail if your entire company is not onboard with your social media campaign and you’ll fail if you’re not 100% committed to forgetting the traditional role of ROI in your company’s balance sheet.

That said, social media has it’s own ROI. Great news huh? And oddly enough, that ROI often ends up giving those bean-counters exactly what they wanted in the first place.

First, companies that can engage their own employees in the social media campaign find that those employees are more productive, profitable and less likely to leave the company.

When employees are super engaged and happy in their jobs they are less likely to leave. It’s considerably less expensive to keep an employee than to train a new one.

Finally, great employee engagement means that your staff are talking about and “marketing” your products for you. They’re engaged with the public and, hopefully, encouraging people to participate too. Funny enough, that behaviour often leads to…wait for it…SALES!

Yay! We found our traditional ROI in our social media ROI! Crazy world!

You don’t have to take my word for it. Click on the cool graph at the end of this post and see for yourself. Social Cast has done all the work. I’m just reiterating in easy-to-understand words.

Great vid here from the CEO of Social Media Today.

“I have a Facebook page and I know how to set up a Twitter account, I can totes do the social media for the company!”

I shudder when I think about how many companies have delegated their social media campaigns to un-trained Administrative Assistants or low-mid level HR employees.

Most often these individuals were hired to perform a different, traditional role within the company structure but ended up, likely due to some rudimentary knowledge of social media sites, as social media marketing gurus.

The great mis-understanding of the relatively new social media space has left many small to mid-sized companies scrambling to catch up to their competitors.

While more and more upper level executives begin to understand the reach that a social media campaign can give their business few are willing to take the time to research exactly how such a campaign should be run.

How many CEO’s out there have had this conversation?

CEO: “Hey, we really need to get going on this social media stuff!”
HR: “Ok, we’ll get Becky the receptionist to set up a Facebook account and maybe she knows how to do that Twitter stuff too. I’ll ask her.”
CEO: “Great! I expect to see results.”
HR: “What sort of results?”
CEO: “I don’t know but if I don’t see something in 3 months I’m pulling the plug!”
HR: “Ok, sounds fair. I’m on it!”

This is the sort of thing that happens time and time again. A lack of understanding at the upper levels coupled with the notion that social media is something the kids are doing has lead to some serious social media fails.

The best example of a failed SM campaign I can give you is BP. In an effort to “spin” (a traditional marketing term) the massive disaster in the Gulf BP tried to use social media to shore up their shortcomings. However, bad advice or lack of planning had BP trying to use traditional marketing techniques (buying ad space, pushing high-production quality videos) on the public.

Social media is about engagement but none of BP’s media was engage able. They wouldn’t allow comments or questions or any sort of back and forth. They tried to control the message within the social media realm which is simply impossible to do. (i.e. “related videos” that were posted to the right of theirs were all negative ones from others).

BP failed because they failed to work through a proper strategy and left the intensely important social media platform to someone who did not know what they were doing.

So, in the interest of brevity (too late :), I am going to put down the Cliff (Cole’s in Canada) Notes version of things to think about when considering adding a social media campaign to your company’s marketing strategy.

Ready?

1. hire a professional Social Media Strategist to help define the goals of the campaign.
2. change your mindset about marketing. Social media marketing is not the same as traditional marketing and should not be treated as such.
3. create guidelines for engagement.
4. engage your entire organization in your campaign. All employees, from the top down, should be engaged in the campaign based on the guidelines you’ve created.
5. make sure you have someone who’s primary purpose is to oversee all aspects of the campaign.
6. use your professional strategist to help you set metrics to gage ROI.

Social media is not some fad diet that is sweeping the internet only to be replaced in a year or two by the next one. It’s here to stay. It’s a powerful tool, when used correctly. Assigning it to someone who is not trained or who is not consistently up-dating their knowledge is a grave mistake that could do more harm than good.

This is not the opening line to a joke. It sounds like a set up but I swear, it’s not.(I’d never put that much pressure on my post! 🙂

Last night was New Year’s Eve. I, lamely, was sitting alone at home nursing a stomach flu and flipping through channels. I happened across Dennis Miller. He’s a funny guy. He’s always given me some bang for my viewing buck. I thought, what the hell, I’ll watch Dennis for a bit.

He’s gotten older since the last time I watched him. I guess I’m not the best of Dennis Miller fans.

While I was watching Dennis told a story about having dinner with Frank Sinatra. While telling the story he digressed into singing Don Rickle’s accolades as well. He managed though to tell a wonderful story that engaged me from beginning to end.

Dennis Miller entertained me.

Arguably Dennis Miller is a “great” comedian. He’s “made it” to use the show biz vernacular and I think he deserves that moniker. He can hold a huge room of people and a huger (bigger, larger, whatever) viewing audience via airwaves.

But why can he do it and others can’t?

The reason is pretty simple. Dennis Miller makes a connection with you, personally. He finds a subject that resonates with you. We can all appreciate how Frank Sinatra, The Chairman of the Board, an iconic figure, would be a once-in-a-lifetime person to meet. We have all known someone that we would lay down in traffic to shake hands with.

Finding that connection and weaving the story to attract your attention is why guys like Dennis Miller, Bill Cosby, Chris Rock are all very, very successful.

They do this with no other goal than to entertain you. You’re the audience. You’re the boss. You’re the one that can make or break them.

If you’ve read any other posts on this blog you’ll see a theme emerging here.

PROVIDE VALUE!

Great comedians provide their audience with value. They make us think or ponder or dream or simply laugh but they do it by making that connection and not expecting anything from us in return.

Businesses in 2011 will learn quickly that if they do not embrace the new, altruistic values of the web, they will fall behind their competition.

The best way to provide that value? A great, well-thought-out social media strategy that includes how you’re going to engage with your clients and customers and your potential clientele.

What are you going to give them that they can’t get anywhere else?

So, if “good” isn’t good enough for your company you need to start thinking about how you’re going to be great. Today.

Since Paul Revere created a media frenzy with his famous ride through the streets of Boston, media in Canada has lagged behind our neighbours to the south.

I mean, how can you compete with a guy who is still famous 200 years later? He was a marketing/pr maverick the likes of which have not been seen since. Hell, even his initials were PR!

There’s no question that the American’s have lead the charge toward social media engagement. Sites like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter were all created in the American PR frenzy and we have ridden on their coat-tails, happily, for years.

Canadians and Canadian companies have long had to sit back and watch as their larger, US counterparts have pulled ahead through the use of marketing tools only available in the States.

Consider, for example, the pull of a Super Bowl commercial as recently as 2 years ago. A 30 second spot during the biggest game on TV cost a bundle but was worth a fortune in media exposure.

The Canadian dollar made such an expenditure a gamble and the commercials didn’t even play on the Canadian stations that carried the games. (unless you were lucky enough to watch a game in a pub that paid to have the US commercials aired)

Examples like this tipped the scales of marketing to the target toward American companies with little recourse for us up here, north of the 49th.

But then something amazing happened! Something that levelled that same playing field practically overnight!

Social Media.

Anyone could join a social media site. Anyone could market to the people who were part of such a site. It was a wonderful meeting of target market meets marketing strategy.

And what did Canadian companies do? They waited.

In fact, by 2008 an estimated 42% of American companies were already engaged in social media as a mainstay of their marketing strategy. Whereas Canadian companies…well I can’t even find a statistic stating how many Canadian companies were using social media in 2008 but it’s a telling sign that in 2010 an estimated 34% had finally begun to see the benefits of a social media campaign.

The American’s have hit 73% as of 2010. More than twice that of their Canadian counterparts.

The news isn’t all bad for Canada though. We’re making a run for it now, albeit a bit late. And to be perfectly honest, it’s likely a good thing that more Canadian companies did not run willy-nilly into the social media scene when it first appeared.

In fact, it’s very “Canadian” to sit back and watch everyone else make mistakes before signing on.

(let’s go with that as an overall Canadian strategy shall we?)

There is a lot more to this article but I’m going to publish it in another post because I don’t like to hit 500 words. So, you’ll just have to wait! (ha! 464 words!)

I was reading a wonderful article on Social Media Today today (not redundant because the name of the site is Social Media Today…sheesh) about how social media strategies are necessarily different for every company.

As a Social Media Strategist this isn’t really something new to me but I suspect that there are a lot of companies out there considering jumping into social media who do not have a crystal clear understanding of what is involved.

A company like Ford is going to have a dedicated team of professionals who scour the web and post relevant, useful information, contests, etc. These people sit at a desk all day and do nothing but social media for Ford. Top earners in large, US cities like San Francisco make around $90k/year. (or should according to Social Media Strategist salary surveys) Not a bad take for playing on the net all day.

Large, multi-national companies can afford this sort of saturation of social media. Their strategies are well-written and everyone in the company has to buy into the action plan. Going off-grid on a personal social media sites could mean someone loses their job. i.e. If you work for Ford and go on and on about your awesome new Volvo on your personal Facebook page chances are you’re going to get a more-than-stern talking to by HR and an ad in Craigslist to sell that car.

On the flip side, medium and smaller companies rely on their employees to engage in social media to build the brand. It’s these companies that require a finely tuned social media strategy. It’s so important that everyone is on the same page because the branding of the company becomes the face of the company. If even one of your faces is nasty and mean, no one will want to do business with you.

These smaller companies have to remember that 1 negative or even flippant comment is worth 10 positive ones to the consumer. It really only takes one person saying your company is crappola to send doubt shooting through all your customers heads.

So, how do you avoid ruining your brand when its out there for everyone to comment on and discuss?

Umm, A GREAT SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY! that’s how.

Even if you’re considering, as a small – medium sized company, adding a social media manager to the team, you need to have some serious professional help in developing the road map that manager must follow and promote to the rest of the staff.

Unless you’re willing to shell out $100k/year for someone to create the strategy and administer your social media, you need to get a pro on task BEFORE you jump in.

The most wonderful thing about my career is that when someone makes a suggestion to me about content I can work that notion around in my brain for a bit then relate it back to social media.

Case in point; I was speaking with my 80 year old mother yesterday. I know that 80 sounds kind of old but she is anything but old. I want to say she’s “sharp as a tack” but that’s something people say about old people. She’s just really smart. There, that seems appropriate.

So, my 80 year old mother completely “gets it”. This is probably one of the first tech career things I’ve done that she completely gets and she has been identifying incidents in her own life that she can relate back to what I do. (this gives her great satisfaction)

Yesterday she was suggesting that I teach my clients to make sure they know who they’re selling to. In other words, in marketing-speak, “know your demographic”.

That’s really only half the story though. With social media it’s not enough to know your market. In fact, it’s often tougher to know your online market because many people don’t slot nicely into categories.

I know 18 year olds who like fine wine and 50 year olds that slam Jaegarmeister. Neither of them would fall into their age category for marketing purposes.

So, while knowing your customer is still important I’d say it’s secondary to knowing your business.

If you know exactly what you’re business is, what it represents, what it’s trying to accomplish now and in the future, you will attract the correct demographic through your targeted social media campaign.

The very first thing you do when thinking about how to market online is the write your story. The story is the foundation of all your marketing. It should include who you are, what you do and, most importantly the core value statement for the company. This core value statement will be what you always refer to to keep yourself on track.

For example, if you’re company wants to provide the very best customer service in the online sale of buttons then that needs to be your core value statement.

Once set all activity online and off must relate back to that statement. If a customer asks for a button you don’t have you better walk through fire to find it. If a wholesale customer is dissatisfied you have to find a way to make them happy. The value of your company depends on it.

Traditional business plans are still necessary but, if you’re going to succeed online, you will need to set your philosophy and stick to it. So make sure you do it right the first time….no pressure 🙂

A good social media strategist will help you with this. Don’t try to do it alone, there are rules and conduct that need to be considered. Find someone with similar values and a healthy expertise in social media to help you get started.

Good luck!

There is no doubt that, historically, we Canadians are a cautious lot.

We are quite happy to watch as everyone else jumps, head first, into the newest fad or craze and we smuggly sit back and assess the hell out of every situation before throwing our hat into the ring.

We’ve always been like this. Think about the World Wars. We didn’t forge ahead, we held back and waited to be asked politely would we care to join in.

It’s not very Canadian to lead the charge.

Perhaps that’s why so many Canadian companies have not yet realized the great power that social media could have on their marketing.

Think about this; a company’s online presence does not often advertise where they are located. The internet has become the great equalizer for Canadian company’s competing in the US. (and elsewhere)

Tapping that massive American market has never been easier for the polite, honest, hard-working Canadians. When one marries the Canadian work ethic with an exceptional social media campaign it’s a slam dunk that the Canadian will pull ahead.

If you’re skeptical I have one word that will change your mind. Are you ready? It’s going to change the way Canadians feel about social media forever so maybe you should sit down…please (Canadian eh?)

Humanizing.

Yep, every article you read on the uses of social media to grow your business will put “humanize the company” at the very top of the social media marketing strategy.

The entire point of Facebook is to put a human face on a corporate identity. That’s why big business like Nike and Coke and Victoria’s Secret (though maybe they’re not putting a “face” to the company 😉 use Facebook to reach out to their fans.

Sure they use the site for promotions and give-aways but by interacting (responding to posts etc) with their customers, these companies add a human element to their marketing.

It’s no longer good enough to put out a great ad and wait to see what will happen. Interaction, engagement, humanization and content are what people are looking for now and if you’re company is not providing value to the people you’re supposed to be selling to, another company will.

So Canada. It’s time to get your act together. It’s pretty well established that Social Media is not a fad. It’s a way to connect on that oh-so-Canadian level. Personally.

If you want to know more about how to create a fantastic Social Media Campaign please contact us. We have free info on this site and tons of really cool, secret stuff that you’ll have to pay for 🙂 But rest assured, when you contact us, a Canadian company, we’ll be polite and you’ll get a real human response!

What a concept!

I was having a conversation with a young woman the other day and, as conversations often do, it turned to Facebook. She casually mentioned that she uses Facebook as Google now.

It took a second for the words to sink in but then I thought “wow, that’s bloody brilliant!”.

In fact, I think it’s a great marketing strategy. Business, regardless of their size, now have to be on Facebook because that is the first place many young people are doing to search.

Rather than opening a new browser window or tab 20-somethings are, true to form, taking the path of least resistance by simply typing a business name into the search bar in FB.

It’s not a flawless system by any means. Facebook requires you to type the name in exactly as it appears on the page which doesn’t leave much room for the spelling-challenged like yours truly. However, if a business can be found easily on FB then what’s all that SEO marketing money going out the door for?

As this starts to catch on I believe that Facebook will begin to adapt their search parameters to meet the needs of the users. I’d hate to predict that Google will be used less (they’re one of my favourite companies ever!) but one has to make allowances for the notion that Facebook is becoming a one-stop-shop for a particular demographic.

Think of it this way; if Facebook becomes google-esque for searching then users will be able to search, email, chat, post, watch, learn and play all on one website!

Wow, Bill Gates must just be freaking out at this accidental outcome.

They may have to change the name though. Facebook really isn’t going to cover it. How about something like Face-domination?

What do you think?

Elephant Stew

1 Elephant (medium size)
2 Rabbits (optional size)
8 Pecks of salt & pepper to taste.
15 barrels of brown gravy.

Cut Elephant into small, bite-sized pieces. This will take approximately 2 months.
Reserve trunk to store the pieces.
Add enough gravy to cover.
Cook over a kerosene fire – about 4 weeks at 465 degrees.

Serves 3,800 people.

If more guests are expected, two more Rabbits may be added BUT do this only if necessary – most people do not like to find a hare in their stew!

________

Many years ago, when I first moved out on my own (or actually moved in with my boyfriend) my mom put together an box filled with index cards of some of my favourite recipes.

I glanced at the recipes, picking up one or two and filing them away in my memory for when I’d need them.

I’m a good cook (thanks to my mom) so I didn’t use recipes much. I rarely needed to dig through the box.

So it wasn’t until many, many years later that I found my mom’s recipe for Elephant Stew and nearly peed my pants with laughter.

I can just see my mom, at her kitchen table, writing out recipe after recipe to help out her youngest daughter. She would have been sad to see me move out but happy I was embarking on my next, great adventure.

Thanks mom, I shared your recipe in the hopes that others will be able to feed their larger dinner parties with it.