Tag: marketing

February 2, 2012

The Big, Bold Benefits of Blogging for Business

A recent eMarketer article told an interesting tale on what marketers are planning for social activity in 2012. Not surprisingly, the majority of respondents marked Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as the top 3 places where they are currently active. After all, these are easily the most talked-about social networks right now, and are poised to continue to be tremendously effective in connecting with customers for the foreseeable future.

Blogs came in at #4 on the list. This shouldn’t be too much of a shock, since blogs are one of the oldest forms of ‘social’ on the list, according to how we define it today. We should take note that every item on this list (with the exception of ‘blogs’ and ‘forums’) are specific ‘sites’, like Twitter and Flickr for example. ‘Blogs’ however is a pretty broad term, and includes innumerable variations across such platforms as Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, Posterous, and more.

What might surprise you, however, is that of all the social options available to marketers, blogs are indicated as the one area that will see the greatest increase in activity in 2012. Why would this be? Shouldn’t blogs be the one area that would see the LEAST amount of growth, since there are other newer shinier social sites popping up all the time? You’d think so, but you’d be wrong.

Businesses must recognize the extensive list of benefits that come as a result of maintaining a relevant and up-to-date blog. Blogs are one of the most effective ways to convey what your brand is REALLY all about. What you talk about, and how you talk about it, gives your readers a very personal insight in to what the culture of your business is. It sheds light on what the core values and beliefs are in your organization by addressing what you stand for, how you view issues facing your customers, and how open your business is to talking about what’s going on behind the logo.

In addition to the obvious ‘branding’ benefits that come with maintaining a blog, there are many other benefits that might not be apparent at first glance. Not the least of which is the boost you can achieve in organic search traffic. You see, it’s most likely that your main website is optimized for a certain collection of keywords. These are typically your brand name, specific product names, and product or service types. However, when writing blog posts you create an entirely new batch of content that answers completely different types of search queries.

While your public website might be optimized for terms or things like ‘computer repair’, or ‘flower arrangements’, your blog posts will start to appear in search results because of specific questions that they answer. For example, if we use the ‘flower arrangements’ product/business type, you might write a blog post about ‘Most Popular Spring Flowers for Weddings’. Now, this blog post would appear in the search results for much more specific questions about that particular topic, like “what kind of flowers should i choose for a spring wedding?”. You’re not just showing up to sell ‘flowers’, you’re showing up to answer a particular call for help.

My experience has shown that searchers who find helpful content as a result of a more specific question, rather than just a product page appearing from a short keyword, are more likely to spend more time on the site READING the material that answers their questions. Through blog posts, you’re not just trying to sell them something; you’re trying to help them learn more about the topics that interest them. The goodwill that occurs through being genuinely helpful goes a long way to building relationships with your readers, so that when they do need to buy, you’re much more likely to be their first choice.

The big bold benefits of blogging for business will come in varying degrees, based on the approach you take. The more you do, the benefits grow exponentially. If you’re simply using it as a press release newsfeed, don’t expect much in terms of results. If you’re using it to reach out, to answer questions, to offer help, and to provide added value for your readers then your hard work will pay off. Let’s just hope that for the sake of readers everywhere that the increase in efforts of businesses in 2012 will be of the more ‘helpful’ variety.

This article originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

Jonathan on Google+

January 16, 2012

Tim Hortons, This is a Mistake – Renaming Hot Cup Sizes

by Jonathan Barrick

This morning on my way in to the office I was informed at my local Tim Hortons that they would be changing the names of ALL of their hot cup sizes. The reason for this change is evidently the introduction of a new 24oz cup size.

What Tim Hortons did would seem somewhat logical to many. Since their previous largest size cup was called the ‘extra large’, they took the new 24oz cup and called THAT the ‘extra large’. Each subsequently smaller cup took the name of the next smaller size. ie: Medium became Small, Large became Medium, and so on.

The thing is…

Tim Hortons is a Canadian institution. It is the morning ritual of millions of Canadians, and is so ingrained in our culture, we snicker when visitors to our country feel compelled to ask what on earth a ‘Double Double’ is.

People are so accustomed to ordering a certain thing at their Tim Hortons, that having to adjust such a strong habit they’ve not changed EVER will likely be a source of frustration. Not only that, but by show of hands, how many people here know exactly what size their family, friends and co-workers drink? WOW! That’s a lot of hands.

Example: You work at a place with a small group of other coffee drinkers. Most of them like Tim’s coffee, and there just so happens to be one located a couple of blocks from your place of business. There’s a morning routine that occurs, without fail, every day. At 10am, you each rock-paper-scissors to see who’s going to make the coffee run. You lose the match, and so you don your coat and hat and venture out in to the world to obtain the mid-morning fix for your crew.

But lo! When you arrive you are greeted with a peculiar situation. None of the sizes match up to the order you’ve been placing every morning for a decade. Tragedy! Do you think your co-workers would want the larger sizes? Or the sizes you’ve been accustomed to consuming? If you use the same names, then you’ve got everyone a bigger cup (at higher cost) than what they really wanted. If you use the new names, you need to process a downsizing conversion in your head for every drink. And each of your co-workers hits the same problem the first time it becomes their turn to make the order under the new system.

This stinks.

Now, I realize this is hardly something to go nuts over. It’s just inconvenient, and doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Here’s what most of us probably would have done:

Adding a new bigger cup size? Hmm…. Well the biggest we have is called the ‘Extra Large’. We could rename every cup in the lineup, thus creating confusion out in the marketplace as to what you’re actually ordering. Or, we could take the one, singular, solitary new cup size and give it a unique name, keeping everything else intact. We could call it the Mega, Jumbo, Super, Max, etc. The list could really be quite long. There’s no shortage of synonyms for ‘big’.

Anyway, that’s my little rant. This new cup addition could have been done in a better, easier to understand, and more seamless way. But now, beginning on Monday January 23rd, LOTS of people will have a morning that’s not what they expect. We’ll adapt, sure, but this is one situation where it was totally and completely unnecessary.

Jonathan on Google+

January 12, 2012

The January Social Checklist – 9 simple things you need to do NOW for 2012

by Jonathan Barrick

2011 was a tremendous year in the world of social communications. We saw the emergence of several new big players in social networks like Google+, Instagram and Pinterest. We also saw massive increases in the use of social by businesses, and a dramatic shift in the way we all interact online.

2012 is undoubtedly poised to continue down this path, and now is the perfect time to make a few simple but powerful tweaks to your online social presence. Here’s a handful of tips that can help you get off to a strong start in 2012!

1 – Consistent profiles

Make sure all of your personal profiles across all the social sites you use are consistent. It should be easy for your Twitter followers to identify you on LinkedIn at a glance, and across all other networks that you participate in. In addition, doing this will also tighten up how you present your personal brand.

2 – Reserve your usernames

You don’t need to use every new social site that starts up, but you never know which ones are going to be huge, so get in early on every site you hear about and register your account. This way you make sure to reserve the same username across all the networks out there, just in case. Again, the key is consistency.

3 – Get the apps

If you don’t have all the apps for all the networks you use, get them now. Easy access to your networks and real-time monitoring are crucial to making sure that you’re not missing anything.

4 – Set up your alerts

Google Alerts, TweetAlarm, and other notification services are extremely valuable to keep you in the know when the conversations turn to you or your company. And don’t forget that you can also use them for any topic that you’re interested in or passionate about. It doesn’t have to be all work all the time.

5 – Link to everywhere from everywhere

You should be able to get to any of your networks easily from your profiles. Some make this easier than others, but at the very least you should make sure that your main ‘hub’ of activity is linked to all your profiles, and all your profiles link to your main hub.

6 – Make a list of ‘Superstars’

We all have a group of individuals that we consider to be the best of the best. If you haven’t already done this, create a special list dedicated solely for those people on your favourite networks so that you can easily browse through the latest stuff posted and shared by your ‘superstars’.

7 – Register for key events

Don’t wait until the last minute to sign up for those events that you really want to attend. Register now, and make the commitment. The last thing you want is to miss out on an event that could be a great opportunity to learn and network with other awesome people.

8 – Plan out your essential reading

Check your ‘Superstars’ list for any upcoming books they may be authoring, or anything they may recommend that suits you, and make sure you add them to your reading list for the year. This also counts for blogs that you may stumble across as well. Make sure to keep your list up-to-date as you go!

9 – Choose your key metrics

Identify a handful of metrics that you will track throughout the year that will give you ACTIONABLE information you can use to improve. Everything you do has an impact, but being able to identify WHAT that impact was, and what it means for your brand or business is the key to making positive changes and adjustments as you go.

There you have it! A few simple tips that anyone can use. Hopefully you found at least one or two things here that can help you in 2012, and beyond!

This article originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

Jonathan on Google+

December 29, 2011

For Auld Lang Syne – 5 Resolutions to Help Make Social Media Better

by Jonathan Barrick

Forget those stereotypical resolutions like losing weight, learning ballroom dance, joining a book club, or taking up piano lessons. This year you can make a real difference by choosing one of these simple, easy-to-follow resolutions that will make unicorns dance, kittens smile, and rainbows shoot out of your ears.

1 – I will never send a Twitter Auto-DM from this moment forward.

The auto-DM was a bad idea from day 1. People still do it. If you’re one of them, then this is the resolution for you!

2 – I will not do anything for the sole reason of ‘raising my Klout score’.

Doing stuff to raise your Klout score only benefits you. There are hundreds of other more worthwhile things you can do to benefit your entire community. Do those instead.

3 – I will not unfollow people simply because they didn’t follow me back.

Really? If you only followed someone because you hoped they’d reciprocate, what are you really trying to accomplish? Follow because you WANT to, and BE followed because THEY wanted to.

4 – I will include a personal message on every invitation to connect on LinkedIn.

Where do I know you from? Why do you want to connect with me? Who ARE you? Blind LinkedIn invites are a really quick way to get the recipient familiar with the location of the ‘Decline’ button.

5 – I will not be ‘too busy’ for my community.

Did someone ask you a question? Answer. Did someone comment on your blog? Respond. Did someone ask for your opinion? Reply. Do you want your community to think you are awesome? Then BE AWESOME.

‘We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for Auld Lang Syne.’ Happy New Year to you all!

Jonathan on Google+

December 14, 2011

Retrospect – My 5 Favourite Personal Blog Posts from 2011

by Jonathan Barrick

2011 has been a fascinating year for Marketers, and for me especially. Businesses everywhere are opening their eyes to the inescapable truth that social communications are now essential for success, and with this change comes a tremendous shift in the way businesses conduct themselves and communicate with their communities. Looking at the usage stats, this is hardly surprising.

Social communications are altering the way we do everything. Facebook, as the largest social network, has ingrained itself in to the daily life of virtually everyone in North America, in one form or another. Even if you personally don’t have an account (which seems highly unlikely), everyone around you does. We are ALL impacted in some way by social communications, and to deny it is simply naive. It’s changed the way we keep in touch with those in our lives. It’s changed how we express happiness and how we make our outrage known. It’s changed how we think about our personal privacy, and what our rights are.

It’s changed our culture.

Throughout the year, I’ve stumbled across hundreds of excellent insights written by hundreds of brilliant people. I thought about scouring my Twitter archive and digging up a handful of the most potent articles from the year, but I quickly realized that this would be a nearly impossible task. There’s simply too much good stuff to sort through. So, I thought I’d just go through my own stuff and choose a handful of my favourite articles that were no doubt inspired by all that great stuff. It’s an easy compromise, I suppose, but I’m ok with that.

So, here’s a short list of some of my own personal blog posts that I’m proud of this year. They’re not necessarily the most ‘commented on’, or the ‘most shared’ posts I wrote, but they’re the ones that really resonated with me when I wrote them. I hope you enjoy them!

1 – The Twitterized Classroom

This article looks at how I attempted to use social communications to enhance the learning in a college classroom setting. Social media is stereotypically looked at as nothing more than a pervasive distraction by teachers, but I think the results of this might surprise you!

2 – Social Strategies for Uncommon Businesses

This article was written for all those companies who look at Social Media and think “I get how it works for Starbucks, but what am I supposed to do for MY business??” There’s a lot of different options and approaches, so this is intended to help you choose where to begin.

3 – Powerful Brand Experiences – The Story of Two Coffee Shops

I get a bit nostalgic in this one. I look at how brand-building goes beyond a logo or Pantone colour and consists of a complete sensory experience. My own experiences with two fantastic coffee shops illustrate just how strong these connections can be.

4 – 3 Lessons About Social Media Learned From Transformers

This one was fun. Inspiration can be drawn from anywhere, and therefore anything can be turned in to an analogy. Here I take a few anecdotes from the classic ‘good robots vs. evil robots’ battle for the universe that helped define my childhood.

5 – Getting a Head-Start Through LinkedIn

Historically, your career began on graduation day. Now? It begins the moment you set foot on campus for the first time. The connections you make, the activities you participate in, the internships you take, and the faculty you impress are all part of building your ‘personal brand’.

Well, there you have it! 2011 was a tremendous year in marketing, and I foresee 2012 being even better! This ‘social’ roller coaster hasn’t even crested the first hill yet, and I’m pretty sure we’re in for one heck of a ride next year!

Jonathan on Google+

December 5, 2011

The Twitterized Classroom – Bringing ‘social’ in to the curriculum.

by Jonathan Barrick

I recently taught a Marketing Strategies class at my alma mater, Georgian College, for their Snow Resort Operations program. I was tasked with injecting more life in to the curriculum and making sure that students got as much exposure to the current state of marketing as possible. Hence, a great deal of time was spent discussing the applications and, more importantly, the implications of social communications for business. It was at this time that an idea was formulated to bring social media in to the classroom. Not just in discussion or in a slideshow, but in real-time and with student participation.

I made it clear at the beginning of the course that usage of social communications during class would not only be accepted, but actively encouraged. I wanted them to feel comfortable with the fact that if they hear something that resonates with them: Share it. Post it to your wall, Tweet it, whatever. There are a few reasons I encourage them to do this:

1 – It reinforces their learning: If they feel the desire to share something, it’s far more likely that they’ll remember it.

2 – It’s permamently archived: Once you put something out there, it’s there forever.

3 – It’s easily searchable: Whether they need to find the info again to study from, or a friend/classmate wants to use it as a reference, it’s easily findable.

4 – It helps them start to build up their personal brand: By sharing the stuff that they agree with, disagree with, or have an opinion about, they begin to showcase what their business personality is. The more they share, the easier and more clear it is for others to know what you’re all about.

The second step I took to incorporate “social” in to the class material was to co-ordinate a special event with @samfiorella and the team at @senseimarketing who manage the #bizforum weekly Twitter chat. I proposed a ‘special edition’ of the #bizforum chat that would occur during class hours and would focus on topics relevant to Social Media usage in the tourism/recreation industry.

This concept of conducting a live Twitter chat during class with some of the top business minds in Social Media provided several benefits for everyone involved:

a) The students got to see what Twitter (and all types of Social Communications for business) was REALLY capable of, and it broke through the typical stereotypes associated with it

b) They got to interact with some of the most vibrant business professionals on the specific topic they were studying at that time

c) The Twitter participants got to discuss a topic that had not been previously discussed in any #bizforum chat

d) #bizforum and the team at @senseimarketing built up some great goodwill with the students, the college, and the Twitter community

Here’s a screencap of the Hashtracking report gathered at the conclusion of the in-class #bizforum Twitter chat:

Overall, the inclusion of a live Twitter chat in to the class curriculum was a tremendous success. It gave the class a newfound appreciation for just how powerful these new communications tools can be. It gave them an opportunity to directly communicate with and learn from dozens of experienced business professionals. It gave them real-time feedback on what’s happening in the Tourism industry TODAY – not just when the text book was written.

Social Media in the classroom doesn’t have to be the distraction that it is currently perceived to be. It can be an amazing enhancement to the learning environment, PROVIDED the instructor and institution chooses to use it as such. Of course, HOW you use social in the classroom is entirely dependent on a series of factors such as the nature of the topic, the students’ comfort level with social communications, and of course the existing school policies.

That being said, it is crucial that educators come to terms with the fact that social communications are not going away. Learning effective ways to engage in these channels early in the education process of the next generation of business professionals will be a major advantage once they enter the post-college world. I’d encourage all educators to consider the potential benefits of incorporating social communications in to the classroom in whatever capacity makes sense for their institution.

Special thanks to @samfiorella, @senseimarketing, and everyone who participated in the special edition #bizforum chat we conducted!

#bizforum regularly occurs every Wednesday evening at 8pm EST

This post originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

Jonathan on Google+

November 23, 2011

19 Signs Your Social Media Approach Might Suck

by Jonathan Barrick

You’ve seen them out there. You’ve shaken your head in disbelief. You’ve vowed never ever to be like them. And yet, every now and then, even for just a brief fleeting moment, we all have done at least ONE of these things that drive us nuts when we see other people do them. So sit back, sip your coffee, go through this list, have a laugh, and hopefully you’re not guilty of too many of them. Enjoy!

1 – Your profiles are empty.

Equivalent to: Showing up at a cocktail party wearing a fencing suit. Faceless, and with no distinguishing markings, nobody has any idea who you are, or why you’re there.

2 – Everything is linked and synchronized.

Equivalent to: Your telephone ringing all of your friends every time you make a call. Not everyone wants the same information, at the same time. Treat your social networks the same way.

3 – Everything is automated.

Equivalent to: Being a robot. You’re not a robot, are you?

4 – There are comments on your Facebook wall from weeks ago with no responses from you.

Equivalent to: Leaving halfway through a conversation with no warning. “Hey, where’d you go?”

5 – You follow people, then unfollow if they don’t follow back, then follow them again, then unfollow if they don’t follow back, Ad Nauseam.

Equivalent to: That little dog Chester from Looney Tunes who just wants to be tough Spike’s friend SOOOOOO BAD, he can’t event stand himself. “We’re friends, aren’t we Spike? Huh? Huh? Aren’t we? Aren’t we? I like Spike because he’s so big and strong. Yeah.”

6 – Your blog hasn’t been updated in a year.

Equivalent to: A one night stand. This relationship meant nothing to you, and I’ve moved on.

7 – YOU TYPE EVERYTHING IN ALL-CAPS AND USE MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!

Equivalent to: Shouting. All the time. About everything. Stop it. You’re hurting my ears and upsetting the kittens.

8 – #you #are #mired #in #hashtag #hell

Equivalent to: There’s no real-word equivalent to this phenomenon. If you talked like this in real life, you’d be beaten regularly.

9 – Your Facebook page loads to a splash landing graphic instead of your wall.

Equivalent to: Shoving a flyer in the face of every friend who stops by your house for a visit. Classy.

10 – 90% of your tweets preach engagement, but you let countless mentions go by unanswered.

Equivalent to: Do as I say, not as I do. We can all be guilty of this from time to time, but it’s a terrible idea to build your empire on it.

11 – Your LinkedIn page is a barren wasteland.

Equivalent to: Not updating your resume since 2001. Seriously? You haven’t done anything worth talking about in the last decade?

12 – Your profile picture is you, only from 30 years ago.

Equivalent to: I’m just as cool, hip, and trendy as I was in college. Also, that leather tie kicks ass.

13 – You announce your Klout score every time it goes up a notch.

Equivalent to: That guy on the golf course driving range who shouts ‘Did you SEE THAT!?!’ every time he hits one farther than 100 yards.

14 – All you can think of when asked about ‘good social media examples’ is your own stuff.

Equivalent to: “Everyone is stupid except me.” – Homer Simpson

15 – You never check or use Social Media on your mobile device.

Equivalent to: Putting a pie in the oven, and then leaving the house for three hours. No, you don’t need to stare at it until it’s done, but you need to check on it regularly so it doesn’t burn. Nobody likes burnt pie.

16 – When a new social network rolls around, your default response is ‘That’s stupid.”

Equivalent to: Look at that idiot, Henry Ford. Everyone knows the REAL money is in horse diapers.

17 – You use different names/handles, different descriptions, and different vanity URLs on each social media channel.

Equivalent to: Multiple-personality disorder. Seriously, which one ARE you?

18 – You change your profile picture on an hourly basis.

Equivalent to: Constantly changing clothes and hairstyles. It’s annoying, and no one can figure out why you’re doing it.

19 – You flat-out beg for followers, likes, and retweets.

Equivalent to: Ooooh! Ooooh! Pick me! Pick me! Pleeeeaaaaassse?!?

Can you think of any to add to this list that I’ve missed? Let’s hear ‘em!

Jonathan on Google+

November 7, 2011

Social Strategies for Uncommon Businesses

by Jonathan Barrick

Finding the right path for your company in the world of social media isn’t as hard as you might think.

Some companies have a very clear, obvious path in social media. Starbucks and Coca Cola, for example, had massive existing communities of fans who flocked to their social media platforms with very little prodding. For other companies, especially those in industries that are more obscure and less high-profile to the public, their path can lie hidden from view like the lost city of Machu Picchu. But just like that lost city was found back in 1911, the path can indeed be discovered for any business, even those that the general public has never heard of.

Regardless of what company you work for, what industry you are in, or what product or service you sell, there are several steps that you can use to uncover your path to success in social communications. It just won’t end up being the same as the path someone else takes.

We may not all use social communications in the same way, and that’s part of the beauty of these new platforms. Social communications are what you make of them, and by trying to ‘copy’ what another is doing instead of finding your company’s own unique approach, you’re really missing out on the true power of these new tools. The real power comes from unlocking the special knowledge and skills that are inherent in your company, and using those to your advantage to give your community something they can’t get anywhere else.

In an email exchange with one of my Twitter friends, @pegfitzpatrick, we discussed how B2B companies who participate in essential, albeit somewhat less public-facing industries, could participate in social communications in a way that provides real ROI and competitive advantage.

To give you an idea of what I mean by ‘less public-facing’ industries: Peg is the Director of Marketing at a multinational company that produces a variety of chemicals used in the dry cleaning industry. I am the Marketing Manager at a company that produces paint finishing equipment for the automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing sectors. Neither of these is what you’d call a ‘high-profile’ public-facing industry, yet we’ve both seen significant beneficial impact from social communication activities.

There are a few simple steps that any company in any industry can use to build a thriving social media presence. Here they are:

1 – Identify what’s already happening out there: Before you begin, it’s wise to scan the landscape for any clues that already exist to determine how you should proceed. Using tools like Social Mention, you can scan the web for any mentions of keywords, brand names, or product names from your company or others in your industry. By determining where the conversations are happening, what people are saying, and who they’re saying it to, you can begin to figure out how you should be communicating with them, and where.

2 – Determine the inherent social value in your organization: There are three things that create an incentive to follow a company in social media. I like to call them the Three E’s:

   •   Education – ex: Teach them something new, helpful advice, tips & tricks, etc.
   •   Entertainment – ex: Make them laugh or think ‘WOW, that is cool!’
   •   Exclusives – ex: Give special offers they can’t get through any other channel.

If you’re able to provide all three, there will be no stopping you. But you need to provide at least one of them. Think about your company, think about the expertise your company has, think about the people in your company, the personality of your company, and the nature of your customers. Use these to determine which of these categories best suits your resources.

3 – Choose a small handful of channels first, then expand: Every social media channel uses a different format. Some are similar, but there are always differences. Based on where your existing communities are, and what kind of content your organization is best suited to sharing, choose the channel that best fits with these two factors. Once you’ve determined this primary channel, choose one or two ‘complementary’ channels that tie in to it. The idea is to keep things simple to avoid being spread too thin, but to also begin building communities in a variety of locations to connect with different kinds of influencers.

4 – Share as often as you can, but do it CONSISTENTLY: Your community will quickly become accustomed to the pace with which you share content. If you start posting blog posts every week, tweeting 20 times a day, and posting a new gallery of images to Facebook every few days, you have to make sure you have the resources to maintain that stream of content. It’s far better to start out at a walking pace and build up to a jog than it is to go full-speed out of the gate. This is a marathon, not a sprint. By being regular and consistent with your content, you develop a routine with your communities. If they know when to expect new stuff, they’ll check back far more regularly than if it’s inconsistent and hard to predict.

5 – Identify who possesses the social skill set in your organization: All too often, companies focus too much on the ‘what’ and the ‘where’ of social media and not enough on the ‘who’. Just like it is essential to identify who your community is, it is also necessary to identify the best person(s) inside your organization to interact with those communities. Social media success hinges on the personality of the people participating in it, so take a good long look at the people you have and figure out who the most ‘social’ among them is. Remember that this person will become the face of your brand in the social space, so choose someone who’s dedicated, professional, knowledgeable, and most importantly WANTS to do this. Their desire to connect with the community is just as important as their technical knowledge.

In summary, what you do should be determined by the nature of your company and the nature of your customers. Don’t try to copy someone elses approach. Every company has strength, and a personality that can be highlighted by social communications. it is that personality that helps you effectively build your community. The direction that you need to take is already set before you. You just need to travel down that path one step at a time.

This article originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

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Jonathan on Google+

September 8, 2011

Social Media ROI – A Book Review

by Jonathan Barrick

You can only go on for so long with a social communications program in a business before you absolutely need to quantify the results of your actions.

If not because your CEO or CFO is demanding it, then at least to prove to yourself that what you’re doing is actually accomplishing something. And by ‘something’, I don’t mean ‘making you feel good’. I mean some kind of tangible benefit that you wouldn’t otherwise have.

This topic is a divisive one in the world of social media. There are many who say that trying to calculate ROI of social activities is like trying to calculate the ROI of your best friend, or your mother. Others still cling to the classic ROI calculations of traditional media: impressions, clicks, views, etc. Neither of these approaches is going to get you very far in social media. The first approach simply ignores the fundamentals of being in business at all, and the second gives you a mountain of raw data with absolutely no context.

Say hello to Olivier Blanchard. AKA: @thebrandbuilder

He’s authored an unrelenting book that will not let you get away without realizing that the measures of Social Media go far beyond ‘Likes’ and ‘Follows’, and that YES, IT DOES have a measurable impact on the bottom line of a business. In this book, Blanchard leaves no area of social communications ROI untouched, and beautifully illustrates how every business function can benefit from these new channels, not just Marketing.

By taking a ‘company-wide’ approach instead of walling it up inside one particular business function, Blanchard shows how the returns a business can achieve as a result of social communications grow exponentially as it becomes more ingrained in to the entirety of the organization.

Social Media ROI isn’t a ‘preachy’ book. It’s overflowing with usable examples and gets right to the ‘meat’ of how to look at the effects of your actions. By the end of it, you will easily be able to say ‘By doing THIS, we hope to achieve THAT, and will measure it by looking at what happens to X, Y and Z’. The approaches outlined in this book will allow you to pull the data you need to show anyone in an organization how they can or have benefited from certain social media activities, whether it be your marketing intern or your CEO.

I’d highly recommend anyone involved in social communications to give this book a read. It will allow you to formulate cohesive approaches to measuring the effects of your actions, analyze the data you obtain, and present it in context to those people which it matters most. A great book!

Buy the book.

More from Olivier Blanchard.

NOTE: My copy of Social Media ROI was purchased, and this review was not solicited in any way.

This article originally written for http://crowdshifter.com

Jonathan on Google+