5 Steps CMOs Can Take To Make Social Media Work
Social media is important. CMOs get it. There are plenty of articles that detail how important social media is and many others talking about how unprepared CMOs are to handle it. However, few articles focus on the gap – the space between knowing social media is important and being able to successfully leverage it.
In a discussion with Marco Fregenal, founder of Social Media Guardian, he indicated that “the first thing that happens when the next new technology or channel comes out is that CMOs and CEOs tend to forget the basics. Before social media, it was a 1-to-1 conversation and afterwards it’s just 1-to-many. So…let’s just look at it as another tool, not a silver bullet, and manage it in a similar way that we would the rest of our tools.” In a discussion with Rick Thompson, founder of Brand Periscope, he outlined the following steps that CMOs can take to build a successful program.
Steps to Building a Social Media Program
1. Start with the end in mind and define the objectives/goals/target: What are the business objectives and what role does social media play in helping accomplish those goals? Once defined, what are the specific objectives and goals for the social media program? In addition, how do you measure the impact the social media program has on leads and revenue?
2. Define the Social Media Strategy: Given the defined target and the goals, what choices will you make regarding the channels, content, and categories you will focus on? What will be the balance between original content and curated content selected from other sources? The categories chosen provide the goalpost for the content you will create or source. As an example: Tide could target moms with kids and decide to focus on two of the biggest channels (Twitter, Facebook) with 50% original content and 50% curated content in 6 categories (Clothes, Fashion Trends, Stain Removal, Clothing Problems, Fabric Care, and Household Budgeting).
3. Develop the Content Plan: Now that you have the strategic plan framed up, determine the specific tactics regarding the content. How many messages per channel per day? What are the dayparts? What is the frequency per category? What is the mix between curated and original content? How does an organization develop original content that can interest an audience? “One best practice is to develop an editorial calendar weeks or even months in advance that coincides with important corporate events,” says Greg Matusky, President of Gregory FCA, a large integrated public relations and investor relations firm. “We typically publish the calendar and let it serve as a game plan for what will be published when and who will author each post,” says Matusky.
4. Execute it: Who leads and who participates in the implementation? Do you staff it internally or outsource it? What is the voice of the campaign? How do organizations humanize the message and the messenger?
5. Measure and Enhance: There are several articles dedicated to the topic of measurement. Essentially, the closer you link intermediate metrics (e.g. postings, linked, ingroups, retweets, etc.) to top and bottom line measures (revenue and profit), the better the metrics. However, there are four broad categories of behavior that you can measure:
1) activity – i.e. the number of posts by channel and by category,
2) engagement – i.e. the ability of the activity to get followers engaged (likes, comments, retweets),
3) conversion – i.e. driving traffic to the website, generating leads, and, and
4) performance – i.e. purchase.
Once you determine how the program is performing, you can alter and improve it. According to both Marco and Rick, the challenges that CMOs are struggling with include aligning social media programs with the broader business strategies, developing the content, and monitoring / measuring performance. This doesn’t seem unique at all. These challenges are similar to the challenges that marketing pioneers faced during the early years of TV. And this is Marco’s point, “Understand the nuanced difference, advantages and weaknesses of social media and then approach it from a strategic perspective the same way you would other tools. There are clear differences that need to be considered but at a strategic level, it’s simply one more tool.”
The next post will follow-up with the common social media mistakes and steps CMOs can take to avoid them.
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The Best and Worst Times to Share on Facebook, Twitter
Want your link to get the most traction on Twitter? Post it on a Monday between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. ET.
Link shortening and tracking service bit.ly has released new data on the best and worst times to share links on popular social networks, from Facebook and Twitter to blogging site Tumblr.
The company revealed that posting links to Twitter between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. ET (or 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. PT) will give you the highest click rank, especially on days earlier in the week. Meanwhile, sending a tweet with a link after 8:00 p.m. should be avoided — as should posting links after 3:00 p.m. on Fridays.
The half-life of a link posted to Twitter is about 2.8 hours, according to bit.ly.
However, Facebook’s optimal posting times are slightly different than Twitter. Links sent between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. get the most traction, with Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. being the best time to post on Facebook all week.
Links posted after 8:00 p.m. and before 8:00 a.m. on Facebook also don’t get the most clicks. Similar to Twitter, bit.ly recommends not posting the links you want to go viral during the weekend.
“While traffic starts to increase around 9:00 a.m., one would be wise to wait to post until 11am,” bit.ly said in a blog post on its site. “Traffic from Facebook fades after 4:00 p.m.”
Meanwhile, Tumblr has a much different usage pattern than Facebook and Twitter. It’s suggested to wait until at least 4:00 p.m. ET. to post important content, and posts that go up after 7:00 p.m. get the most clicks during a 24-hour period.
It’s also suggested that Friday evenings are a key time to post on Tumblr — a time bit.ly recommends avoiding on Facebook and Twitter.
Bit.ly traffic from Tumblr peaks between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, with similar traffic on Sunday, according to the study.
“It’s easy to see that just like your neighborhood restaurants, each social network has its own culture and behavior patterns,” bit.ly noted in the blog post. “By understanding the simple characteristics of each social network, you can publish your content at exactly the right time for it to reach the maximum number of people.”
Do you notice a difference in engagement when posting at different times? Let us know in the comments what works best for you.
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8 Professional Tumblr Themes for Your Small Business
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Unfortunately, when it comes to your small businesswebsite, image is everything. How you present your company on the digital sphere is important, and as we’ve learned recently, people are searching for the word “Tumblr” moreso than “blog.”
More and more brands have migrated to Tumblr. The micro-blogging site has become a more serious platform for brands — whether it’s to show brand character, offer a peek behind the scenes, like we do here at Mashable or just to keep customers up-to-date on the latest from their storefront.
Some may feel slightly overwhelmed at the thought of juggling so many social media sites — why add a Tumblr to the mix?
First, you should know that it can be done. Tumblr recently made sharing to Facebook easier by integrating with Timeline. That’s a helpful step in your social media management’s direction. Tumblr has carved a niche for itself in embracing a more graphic and design-oriented aesthetic, which is a plus for your company if you’re looking to distinguish yourself in a more meaningful way than you can through a generic Facebook Page.
You should also keep in mind that there are more than 50 million blogs on Tumblr. That is a lot of people who could be looking at your site.
The best place to start is simply setting up a Tumblr — or maybe you already have one. After that, selecting a theme will help your site stand apart and look more professional. The great thing is you don’t necessarily need to spend a ton on a graphic designer or purchase a premium theme, although both of these options most certainly have their perks.
Don’t have the budget or the patience for a custom theme? Here are plenty of great free themes to choose from in Tumblr’s theme garden. Try to go with one that works with your brand and the utility goals of the blog. For example, if you’re looking to inform customers about what’s happening within the company, you’d be better off with a classic blog format. However, if you’re looking for something more visual, a pin-board style theme might be a better option.
Still feeling a little in over your head? We’ve round up eight classic, professional themes for your small business on Tumblr so you can become cutting edge with a simple or bold design.
What theme do you use for your professional blog? Let us know in the comments below.
5 Socially Conscious Startups You Need to Know Right Now
In our social entrepreneurship series, The World at Work,Mashable interviews the faces behind the startups and projects that are working to make a global impact.
By harnessing the power of the web and digital technology, these companies have offered resources to women-founded startups, funded socially conscious ideas and used competition to inspire innovation. And one has applied agricultural science to help tech companies lessen their carbon footprint. While the companies are diverse, they share a common thread: a passionate leader who’s devoted to improving lives and the world at large.
Here’s a roundup of featured projects from the last week, including exclusive video interviews with the founders of these innovative startups. To read more and watch the videos, click through to the full story, and follow the series to learn about more breakthrough companies.
1. NewME
Big Idea: NewME Accelerator guides and mentors minorities and women — two groups underrepresented in the tech space — by working to lower industry’s barrier to entry.
Why It’s Working: Today’s tech industry is comprised of only 25% women, and a paltry 1.5% African-Americans make up Silicon Valley’s tech workforce. NewME’s 12-week immersion programs nurture startup founders’ ideas, foster discussion, encourage co-working and offer mentorship from some of the industry’s most prominent leaders. Each program concludes with a “demo day,” during which NewME participants present their ideas and products to influential tech attendees.
2. Movember
Big Idea: For “Movember” every November, men around the world grow a mustache — a “Mo” — to raise funds and awareness for men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer. The global campaign is driven largely by social media, online awareness platforms and a mobile app.
Why It’s Working: “We as men don’t feel comfortable talking about our health,” says Garone, explaining why he and a few friends launched Movember in 2004. For the 30 days in November, men are asked to grow a “Mo” — the oft-awkward facial hair “generates so much conversation” that it raises awareness and millions of dollars for men’s health. At launch in 2004, social networks were minimal, but the rise of the social web has led to a snowball effect online. Movember dominates social media chatter during November, and mentions of “prostate cancer” and “getting checked” increase, suggesting that Movember does in fact mobilize men to see a doctor. Aside from encouraging men to be proactive about their health, the 2011 Movember campaign raised more than $120 million for men’s health research.
Read the full story and see the video here.
3. ChallengePost
Big Idea: ChallengePost powers open development contests for everyone from New York City to The Royal Canadian Mint.
Why It’s Working: ChallengePost was an idea hatched by its CEO, Brandon Kessler, after discovering a blog post that promised $100 to anyone who made a program that would run Windows on a Mac (at the time, Apple didn’t make this easy). Other frustrated Mac users added to the prize money until the pool was up to $14,000. After the New York Timeshad run a story about it, a programmer submitted a successful solution after just three days. So Kessler decided to make “an eBay around collaborative problem solving.”
4. Collaborative Fund
Big Idea: Collaborative Fund provides angel or seed funding to companies that are not only creative, but also are aiming to move the world forward in meaningful ways.
Why It’s Working: Skillshare. TaskRabbit. Kickstarter.Codeacademy. What do all of these startups have in common? Aside from their popularity, all of these companies have received an investment by the Collaborative Fund, which makes a huge impact by funding companies working towards change.
5. Ecovative EcoCradle Mushroom Packaging
Big Idea: Ecovative EcoCradle Mushroom Packaging is replacing polystyrene packaging with a compostable alternative made from agricultural waste and bio materials.
Why It’s Working: Ecovative’s disruptive technology could make a huge impact on the amount of polystyrene packaging that ends up in landfill. Plus, it won’t cost businesses any more money to adopt it at scale. Dell is currently running a high-volume pilot scheme with Ecovative to supply the Dell PowerEdge R710 server multipacks safely encased in packaging that has been grown, rather than manufactured, and other big brands, like Puma, are also getting in on the action.
What do you think of the efforts of these startups and foundations? Let us know in the comments below.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, selimaksan, Hiob
This article originally published at Mashable Tech here.
Beyond The Daily Deal: Groupon’s 170M Deals And 33M Users; Aims To Be ‘The OS For Local Commerce’
Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason today posted a letter to shareholders with some updated figures on how the company is doing, and a more specific outline of what Groupon plans to do to to move beyond daily deals: ”To become the operating system for local commerce.”
The move is a significant one as Groupon attempts to shore up investor confidence amidst a series of accounting issues, and the fact that some believe interest in the basic service of daily deals is beginning to wane.
It also underscores some of the challenges Groupon still faces as a company. Mason notes that at the moment there are “10 million geo-located subscribers engaging with Groupon every month who have yet to make a purchase.”
“Though the six months since our IPO have been rocky to say the least, the fundamentals of our business have continued to improve,” wrote Mason in the letter.
Mason’s letter today (on Groupon’s blog and also filed with the SEC), is a long one, and here are some of the highlights.
First he took investors through some of its milestone usage figures:
- The company has now sold 170 million Groupons to date and counts 33 million active customers and 250,000 merchants in 48 countries.
- In 2011, $2 billion in business sent to “Main Street” small merchants.
- Also in 2011, 11 new products launched, including a several that take the company away from the daily deals format Groupon Goods, Getaways, Rewards, Now!, and Scheduler.
- 11 acquisitions, including several in the mobile space in the year.
Meanwhile, Mason’s description of the next phase for Groupon is light on the specifics of what it will do, but essentially, the plan is for the the company to integrate those acquisitions and more in an attempt to create a platform for local commerce — which Mason says is a multi-trillion-dollar business.
“Today, Groupon is a marketing tool that connects consumers and merchants. Tomorrow, we aim to move upstream and serve as the entry point for local transactions,” he writes.
Mason notes that there have been several key achievements already in its plan to develop a platform. Among them, he says the company is continuing to hone its personalization algorithm. (His example is the area of SmartDeals in Chicago, which he says have a 50 percent higher purchase rate than emails sent without them — and if that means less offers for vajazzles for me, well then that’s awesome news.)
Mason says that Groupon is now rolling out SmartDeals outside of the U.S., with a broad rollout planned by the end of 2012.
Mobile is another area where Groupon is going large — not just in terms of acquisitions. That’s because apparently, according to Mason, the average Groupon mobile user spends more than 50 percent more than those who are not using mobile.
He notes that last month (April) nearly 30 percent of North American transactions were completed on mobile devices — although that doesn’t seem like much of an improvement than four months ago when it was 25 percent.
Mason doesn’t go into detail on this here, but Groupon has, among other acquisitions, bought companies that bring it closer to the point of sale so we may well see the company offering more services here and trying to be more active in the mobile payments space.
Mason also noted that its non-daily deal service — Groupon Now — has recently passed the 1.5 million items purchased mark. That’s a fair distance still from Amazon and other companies that are more established in straight e-commerce, but it’s a start.
Groupon Rewards, the company’s loyalty program, has now signed up about 30 percent of all eligible daily deal merchants.
And the company’s booking management service, Groupon Scheduler, is in the process of being upgraded, Mason says, with plans to offer “a fully automated yield management system for every local business.”
He notes: “Scheduler embodies our intent to provide every mom and pop store with powerful technology solutions that were once reserved for sophisticated corporations with multimillion-dollar budgets.”
“The company has seen revenues grow by 415 percent over 2010 to $1.6 billion in 2011, noted Mason, with its operating margin still showing the company at a loss — but significantly less so than before: it’s now at -14 percent for the full year compared to -134 percent a year ago. In terms of earns per share that loss is down to $0.12 compared to $0.48 a year ago.
Article by TechChurch Found Here
The Government Would Like You to Write a ‘Social Media Will’
By some estimates, nearly a half a million people with Facebook accounts passed away last year, leaving family and friends to navigate what to do with those pages. Leave the account open? Shut it down entirely? Convert it to an official Facebook memorial page? What would you want for your own Facebook profile? And forget Facebook, what do you want tobecome of your email account?
If you want any say in such matters, you might want to consider creating a social-media will, as the US government is now recommending as part of its advice on estate planning. Asper their blog:
If you have social media profiles set up online, you should create a statement of how you would like your online identity to be handled. Just like a traditional will helps your survivors handle your physical belongings, a social media will spells out how you want your online identity to be handled.
Like with a traditional will, you’ll need to appoint someone you trust as an online executor. This person will be responsible for closing your email addresses, social media profiles, and blogs after you are deceased.
Sounds good, but legally it’s tricky territory. As Naomi Cahn, a professor of law at George Washington University, explained to me, “Formal wills become public. So you need to be careful what you put in a will, because anyone in the world could have access to it.” Instead, you might want to consider establishing a trust or just an informal agreement with information about your passwords and how you would like your accounts to be handled.
A further complication is that people’s social-media and other online accounts are not static, nor are their passwords. Cahn says that the average person has 25 password-protected accounts and types about eight passwords a day. Most people will likely not be able to keep their “social-media wills” up to date on that many accounts.
Planning for the care of your online trail post-mortem presents different issues than planning for money and physical objects. In part this is because our legal regimes and social norms are less solidified in these areas, and, in part because they are actually different animals: A Facebook account can become a participatory memorial that many friends and family can return to over the years, in a way that’s not true of your physical belongings. But despite their differences — or, perhaps, because of them — they each require their own plans for after you go.
This article originally published at The Atlantic here.
