expert insights on social marketing

7/31/2019 Expert Insights on Social Marketing

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Expert Insights on SocialMedia Marketing

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way they cant elsewhere in the context of questions from business professionals.

How do you defend brand reputation in a social media

environment?

How can I gauge which is the best social media channelfor my business?

Is viral marketing worthwhile? How do you measure it?

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Lucan Manz Ass:

3 SELECTED RESPONSES

How do you defend brand reputation ina social media environment?

Answer 1:NANCY BAUER

SENioR PARtNER ANd SVP, FLEiShMAN-hiLLARd iNtL CoMMUNiCAtioNS

There will be negatie reiews as a part of social meia especially if the client has a history an

negatie reputation. It takes time to buil a goo reputation. The client shoul consier taking

the conersation to the positie aspects so there is a balance. Corporate reputat ion is like a bank

account. You nee lots of goo will, goo information an goo stories eposite on a regular

basis so when you hae a negatie story or a bank withrawal, you will hae enough positie

experiences to counteract the negatie ones. It is up to the client to get the right message out an

not let others create the message for them.

Answer 2:NigEL FoRtLAgE

ViCE PRESidENt it & SoCiAL, ghY iNtERNAtioNAL

The short answer is, o they want people talking behin their back or o they want to be part of

the conersation? Either way, if they arent using social meia an people are talking negatiely

about them, they still cant o anything about it.

Remember, social meia is about two-way conersations (goo or ba). The real measure of

success is how they hanle it when its not goo. I suggest taking a look at Altimeter Groups

articles an ow charts on hanling social meia conict, its calle Social Meia Triage.

If they choose not to go online, the conersations will still happen without them an their point of

view wont be part of the conversation, only the negative will be there.

I woul suggest they LISTEN for a while using the free an simple tools that are aailable to

monitor their bran conersation an that way they can make real ecisions, not theoretical

ecisions. Some free tools to LISTEN inclue:

Twitter Search

Google Alerts

Facebook Search

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One of our clients is willing to use social meia to support their consumer creit

actiity, but are concerne about the possible reputational impact on their bran

and if there will be posts negative posts about the business.
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Answer 3:MELiNdA SiMMoNS

BUSiNESS StRAtEgiSt, CoSt-REdUCtioN, SELF-EMPLoYEd

Protecting your brans reputation requires the same measures it always has, but in the age of

social meia you hae to be particularly nimble to stay ahea of the situation, especially if things

start to go south. Assuming you hae alreay built a strong, positie bran reputation, then as

stewars of the bran you must be open to consumer feeback, both positie an negatie. If

you hae a website, Facebook page, an/or Twitter account an allow comments to be poste,

make sure you ont censor the negatie comments or you will lose all creibility []. Take the

opportunity to respon to comments, incluing negatie ones. If you make an appropriate course

correction in response to a particular criticism, say so; that will show that you are listening an also

aluing your customer base.

If there is an especially negatie iewpoint that starts to go iral, make sure you act immeiately.

Ignoring this iewpoint wont make it go away; instea it will spiral out of control an you will look

clueless, arrogant, ismissie, or een worse. Respon promptly; if the criticism is base on

incorrect information, correct it. If it is a ali criticism, take appropriate accountability an action.

Eeryone points to the Tylenol scare of years ago as an example of a company taking what coul

hae been a isastrous situation an completely turning it aroun by making the ifcult an costly

ecision to remoe all proucts from sheles nationwie. In toays worl of social meia, if the

company ha not respone immeiately, the negatie repercussions woul hae been enormous,

but the opportunity to use social meia to inform consumers of the companys actions an create

goowill woul be equally enormous.

In summation, just as in the pre-social meia worl, the important things to keep in min in protect-

ing an enhancing a brans reputation are to be honest an irect, to encourage all feeback

(both positie an negatie), an to respon to that feeback in a prompt an public manner.

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Lucan Manz Ass:

How do you defend brand reputation in a socialmedia environment?
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Mar haley Ass:

How can I gauge which is the best socialmedia channel for my business?I hae just starte a new enironmental consultancy business, which offers

strategic business startup aice to the enironmental sector. I want to exten

my reach to outsie the UK, an ientify target organizations that nee key

enironmental ata an aice.

CEO, ISIS ENvIRONMENTAL LIMITEd


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Answer 1:BARRY hURd

MANAgiNg diRECtoR, 123 SoCiAL MEdiA

First off.... ont inest in a powerful listening platform. You ont know what to listen to yet an

inesting in the wrong platform can set you back thousans of ollars (an waste a tremenous

amount of time.)

In a nutshell you nee to o seeral ifferent things:

1- Ientify market competitors. Map where they are socially.2- Examine prospect companies. Map where they are socially. (Linkein, Facebook, etc)

3- Examine prospect communities, associations, unions, an certication groups.

All of this can be foun by using the inurl: search parameter on Google. This allows you to search

Google on specic URL structures.

Example: inurl:linkein.com Microsoft lists eerything on Linkein.com with the term Microsoft. You

can use longer structures like inurl:linkein.com/groups Microsoft to limit your search to specic top-

ics on a site. This technique works great on Facebook, Twitter, an Linkein.

The best way to start is to write own e of each type of item (competitors, companies, communi-

ties) an create a spreasheet with URL an follower counts for websites, Facebook pages, Twitter

accounts, Linkein proles, an any other top inustry platforms (perhaps a specic community like

this one here on HighTable)

Once you hae that ata, you nee to look at associate keywors an trens online. Google In-

sights for search is a free tool that allows you to see trafc trens oer the past few years (you can

also limit it to country / state).

Once you hae examine the rst three ata points an strategically reiewe the market trens

from Google Insight, you can narrow your focus own to specic types of organizations an people.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
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How can I gauge which is the best social mediachannel for my business?

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Mak Haey Ak:CEO, IsIs EnvIrOnMEntAl lIMItEd

Once you hae locate 5 to 25 of these people, you can typically turn to examining the groups that

frien/follow them. If you n 5 people on Twitter talking about the right subject, you hae a quick list

of 500 to 5,000 followers, who are intereste in those conersations/topics.

Once you hae ientie that list you can specify keywors they are talking about. These keywors

inclue hashtags an common search queries.

Answer 2:MELANiE ZAChARiAdE

SoCiAL MEdiA SALES MANAgER, MELtwAtER gRoUP

The rst step I say is to inest in a powerful listening platform. This way you can listen into an

geo-target conersations that are releant to you an your business. Setup searches for your com-

pany name, enironmental focuse keywors an competitors. This way you can search for thought

leaers in your inustry an enironmental enthusiasts.

Fin out where they are talking, what they are talking about, an who they are. From that ata, you

will know the best platform to engage an start your social meia strategy. Maybe its Twitter or

maybe you want to focus your efforts on Facebook or a blog?

Think of it this way, if you were a coach for a soccer team, you woul want to know as much as pos-

sible about teams you were going up against. What el are you playing on? What are the weather

conitions that ay? What are your teams own strengths an weaknesses? Same goes for social,

know as much as you can before you launch so you hae the best strategy in place.

Answer 3:SERgE MiLMAN

StRAtEgY CoNSULtANt, oPtiRAtE ANd SFo CoNSULtANtS

My recommenation woul be to ene the type of company an specic proles of iniiuals that

you woul like to expose to your serice. You will nee to eelop proles of iniiuals within target

companies that will likely inclue CEOs, vP of Business deelopment, Chief Strategy Ofcers, an

maybe others. Base on the eelope proles, there are plethoras of resources online that will be

helpful in proiing a user oeriew of most social networks.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6


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Mar haley Ass:CEO, ISIS ENvIRONMENTAL LIMITEd

My sense is that you will likely skip the typical suspects such as Facebook an focus ery narrowly

on LinkeIn as well as seeral other networks that are specic to your niche an are specic to the

proles of iniiuals you are attempting to inuence.

You may also want to consier using a blog to share insights an aluable content as a means to

pull in your target auience.

Answer 4:MARtiN CARLSoN

ChiEF ExECUtiVE oFFiCER, CARLSoN MEdiA

Social Meia is shrinking in releance as a marketing factor. If you are trying to reach ertical sec-

tors of the emographic pool it is time consuming an the trackable auience ow to your website is

minimal. It can also be ifcult to pinpoint the source of your website isitors. The sense of urgency

leel in your auience is not quite at your control.

The most prouctie means of communicating your sales message ia the internet is irect e-mailmarketing using the atabases of a professional e-list owner / publisher. This way you can pick the

exact emographic an geographic of the auience you want to hone your message for an sen

it to. A reputable, establishe atabase e-list professional will also offer you full eliery, page open

an click-thru trafc gures. They will also share their click-thru source URL so that you can incorpo-

rate it into your website naigation tracking software.

This way you are basically employing the most rene an effectie use of irect marketing com-

bine with the aantage of full interactiity with your client. No other metho of communication

offers this thoroughness an control. It will also help you buil a truly soli internal CRM atabase for

company source communications.


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Mar haley Ass:CEO, ISIS ENvIRONMENTAL LIMITEd

Answer 5:VANESSA diMAURo

CEo, LEAdER NEtwoRkS

With all ue respect, while email list marketing is a useful arrow in the marketers quier, it oes not

replace or eliminate the nee to use a multi-channel strategy - especially when it comes to retail

markets. Social is not going away or reucing in its impact or utility - in fact retailers an consumers

use of social meia is riing a powerful market shift. If you were to look at the traitional retail chan-

nel, consumers are the last in the chain - they get the goos an serices for sale after they hae

been ene an create. The best practice goal is not to communicate your sales message as

you escribe below but to engage the consumer to accelerate the retail business process for better

proucts, in higher eman ia faster spee to market.

Now, through largely the interplay of the social experience, say retailers are leeraging the

consumers in the early stages of the alue chain - from prouct enition, to eman generation.

Through online communities, buyers are now able to gie ieas an feeback to the companies

about what they want an nee to buy! For example, Starbucks create the My Iea site to gather

ieas from their customers an in six months they receie oer 1,000 ocumente ieas an haeimplemente oer 100 of them. That is a new role for the consumer-retailer relationship that benets

all- consumers get what they want an the retailers spee up their R&d channels enormously.
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Alejanr Rruez Ass:


Is viral marketing worthwhile? How doyou measure it?

Answer 1:ALAN CohEN

ViCE PRESidENt, MARkEtiNg, dtS, iNC.

viral marketing can be benecial or negatie epening on what goes iral. The fact is many high

olume brans an companies cant conclusiely link reenue to the amount of social or iral

mentions, iewers, or likes an therefore it is somewhat in the same ain as is print meia which

is that it is somewhat measurable as far as impressions but the net gain of those impressions is

not measurable an thus it gets put into the bran aertising bucket (translation expense) as

oppose to reenue generating promotional bucket that typically can be tracke to reenue. So to

sum this up, iral an social marketing is currently about seeing the platform in hopes of a large

crop growing in the future that bear fruit. What is measurable is the olume. What is not measur-able is the reenue coming from the olume. Stuios will tell you there is no irect correlation from

the number of FB comments, likes, an fans on a lms homepage to box ofce reenue or a Tv

shows ratings. I shoul a that unfortunately I o beliee that if something goes iral, which is

perceie as negatie, the effect can certainly be measure in reenue because bran aocates

will abanon the bran or prouct quickly.

So is it worthwhile? The question is can you affor to not buil the platform an risk that this may

all be a fa? The next question is can you buil your social/iral platform cost effectiely an test

what works; the answer is yes, absolutely. Walk before you run an know what works best for

your brand and or product because it will not be congruent across industries, brands or products.

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during 2010 big corporations spent about $2,100 million USd on marketing insie

the social networks, none of them hae a clear way to measure the impact or the

return on inestment.

BUSINESS ANALYST, NOKIA SIEMENS NETWORKS
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Alejanr Rruez Ass:

Is viral marketing worthwhile? How do youmeasure it?

Answer 2:BRYAN MELMEd

iNSightS MANAgER, tRiBAL FUSioN

Big risk, big rewar. Going iral is the marketing equialent of shooting the moon in cars. I

woul only recommen it with consumer proucts that are highly tangible or interactie an espe-

cially in cases where the bran is istresse or where the message has grown stale. Ol Spice is

a perfect example.

I woul ifferentiate iral marketing from social marketing. viral is when your consumers olun-

teer to relay your message to others, who in turn o the same, an in the process reach grows

exponentially. With social marketing you might hae self-proclaime bran ambassaors but the

message oesnt catch in the same way.

When iral marketing is successful the numbers become so oerwhelming it is har to miss.

The trick is to measure the failures. Een a campaign that fails to go iral has some impact, an

can be compare against other efforts using the usual metrics of cost, reach, bran lift, an user

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BUSINESS ANALYST, NOKIA SIEMENS NETWORKS

Answer 3:ALEx MARkoV

Is it worthwhile? I think it epens. It is just one of those things that is high risk, yet high rewar.

If it was a matter of simply builing creaties, I say absolutely. Howeer, in orer to get the free

marketing an chatter from your own isitors, you nee a compelling an resonating message:

something that blows eerything else out of the water. Otherwise it will blen into our aily lies

unnotice. That is where the true cost is effectie iral marketing is an iteratie process, which

makes it expensie. Een dai Ogily sai in his book that while he ha create thousans ofas, only about 20 of them were the big winners.

As far as measurement, there are tons of tools out there that help. In my experience, Ie been

known to use a irectional measurement approach - look at the inicators an go from there. One

example is to buil a regression analysis report that helps to correlate (or not correlate) goals to

user actions (ex: clicks, reiews, social meia interactions, etc.).

This ocument contains eite content from HighTable. The opinions expresse on HighTable are the opinions of the iniiuals who poste them an o not represent the opinions of Gerson

Lehrman Group, Inc. All content containe in this ocument is goerne by the HighTable (www.HighTable.com) Terms of Use.
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