Brain Vibe

marketing muses to stay engaged

March 2, 2009 • 7:49 pm 2

Social Media Metrics: ROI or Just Numbers

I’m looking at various ways people are trying to attach social media marketing metrics to ROI.  Some of the insights being provided leave me wondering if we are really measuring ROI or if it is just reach within the online community.

Leading the way on social media metrics is Networked Insights.  Their measures of interactions looks at reading, rating, sharing, linking and inviting is one way to determine impact.  They are coming to be the source of social media metrics as Nielsen is for TV ratings.  They released two grids of information connecting off-line media with social media – one in October looking at TV ratings and social media interactions and the other with Superbowl ads and social media interactions.  If you’ve been tracking, I’m sure you’ve seen these.

I’ll say this, I love the numbers coming from Networked Insights.  It really puts together an easy way to monitor and measure social media.  However, there are a a number things that bother me with how the metrics may be used as well as inherent bias in these numbers.

  1. On TV ratings: Interactions are a measure of topic interest.  Viewership is about a single event.  The program is a catalyst or topic of discussion.
  2. Advertising winners in the the Superbowl ads are more closely related to social trends as opposed to real marketing effectiveness. Winners are associated to key events in people’s lives: jobs, taxes, Valentines Day, need for money.  Many of the losers are for big ticket items that are already hurting.  The only one that stands out is CareerBuilder vs. Monter.com.  The other point is how much social media marketing is available for thes loser brands?
  3. Inclusion of “reading” in the interaction metric is a huge bias.  This is like saying that someone that opened an email is really engaged.  In terms of ROI, there is no value in “reading” unless there is an outcome.  I think this inflates the ROI value of a social media property.
  4. Interactions to rate a program are biased based on the overall bias of social media community.
  5. Interactions as a rating don’t account for the fact that some programs have more emphasis and effort on generating social media buzz and interaction opportunities.
  6. The Social ROI score is great if you are focusing only on the online interaction conversion.  But, the real goal of marketing spend is to convert to purchase.
  7. Each of these reports is focused on lift in a specific point in time.  Real ROI is over the course of a sales cycle.
  8. Are these interaction unique individuals, households, or an overall impersonal and duplicative/exponential number

When leveraging social media metrics such as provided by Networked Insights, it is important to remember the business objective you are trying to attain rather than just the number of impressions and interactions in the online world.  How do you tie these metrics to your business objectives?  Ultimately spend on social media needs to generate a financial gain to the company either directly or indirectly.  Similar to traditional marketing vehicles, we must start to recognize social media interactions as part of the strategy rather than just the strategy.  So, when we do measure, it connects to what we are really trying to accomplish, growing our business.

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February 11, 2009 • 7:58 pm 0

Twitter’s Prehistoric Past Emerges

As a marketer, I love Twitter.  What an amazing little tool.  The concept and then the visual of a singing bird sending “tweets” out to your friends.  It is so…soothing.

Well, my friends, remember that birds are dinosaur decedents.  Thus, Twitter has a tendency to reach back into those prehistoric roots and is out to take a bite out of you.

Go back to the days when phone solicitation got so bad a National Do Not Call list was created.  Then you had privacy rules that regulate email solicitation.  Google and ISPs will block your email communications as spam and your message will never get through.  Marketing can become quite predatory.

I follow various Twitterfeeds because the content and updates are great.  However, no matter how great the sender is, I’m becoming bombarded.  One blog site sent out almost 20 post updates in a day.  It filled up my view so that I could not see anything else that was relevant or I wanted to see.

So, back to etiquette.  It is in your best interest to refine what you tweet and how you tweet.  Why?

  1. Spam may be the favorite food in Hawaii but it is not the favorite food of your reader.
  2. Your message becomes irrelevant simply due to volume.
  3. No one likes people that hold a one-sided conversation.
  4. People will opt out – just like email and phone
  5. You may not have the outlet anymore (or it will be regulated) if you abuse it.

Recommendations:

Twitter feeds have settings that can help manage how often and how much is sent.  Consider daily pushes versus every hour.

You may also want to split your feeds to focus on specific topics.  That way, receivers get a personalized service of information they want.

Put yourself on the receiving end of the tweets.  If it is a problem for you, imagine the problem for your customers.

Self Monitor.  Set an example.  vnunet.com posts:

TwitterHawk, a new target marketing provider, said on Saturday that it would curtail its services to try and save Twitter users from spam.

TwitterHawk allows marketers to monitor Twitter posts for keywords and then send users pre-determined advertisements. Twitter users can be targeted according to their location and whether they have contained links or questions in their posts.

Reports this week suggested that Twitter users’ accounts would be infiltrated with spam due to the new service.

In response TwitterHawk owner Chris Duell has restricted advertisers to sending only one message a day per Twitter account, and said that the restrictions on advertisements may be increased again if the service is abused or causes the Twitter community “unwanted problems”.

Keep Twitter away from it’s pterodactyl past so that is can sing like a chickadee.  Don’t drive it to extinction.

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February 9, 2009 • 6:17 pm 0

Social Media Mature or Hype

For 2-3 years the buzz around social media is so heightened that there may not be much more to say, much less be gained  Or, is there?

Marketing Sherpa released it’s findings on barriers to social media adoption.  In December, marketers reported that lack of knowledge and the ability to see ROI from social marketing efforts kept social media from mainstream adoptions.  If social media is so mature, surely adoption rates would be higher.

Barriers to Social Media AdoptionIn a previous post I talked about barriers in B2B due to lack of trust in the medium for personal use, thus translating to lack of trust for business use.  But, I think there may be something more here.  Leveraging social media for marketing is not for the faint at heart.  There are real complexities to creating a customer experience and building relationships.  Companies struggle with this with their own known customers.  Even with emails and reach customer history, it is challenging to engage with relevance and consistency.  Now, try this with a decentralized and dynamic market where you cannot always control the message.

There are certainly ways to try out social media marketing. Nicky Jameson recently provided great 7 Tips to get your feet wet.  But, how do you get your arms around what social media is beyond the buzz and hype?

So, here are some definitions to de-mystify social media.

Social media is…

  1. Another outlet for PR tactics.
  2. A mode to converse with contacts outside of email, events, or your website
  3. A vehicle to hear what you customers think and have to say.
  4. A segmented community with traits that make it easy to align your products and services

ROI is another issue altogether.  It’s the “so what” factor.  With marketing budgets lean and mean, why would you want to take a risk on something that you have no idea it will work? Exactly because you know that other tactics in the social media definition work.  The only issue now is figuring out how to measure it.  But, that isnt’ all that different from any other marketing tactic and PR effort.  You already know how to measure it!

Tips to Align Social Media to Business Outcomes

  1. Compare similarities of traditional actions and outcomes to social media marketing actions.  If you are able to show how press mentions impact business outcomes, you should be able to incorporate blog mentions, re-blogging, etc. into this equation.
  2. Trace social network interactions as they begin to funnel into your lead management processes.  Social media marketing shouldn’t completely stand on its own.  Your social network pages, micro-sites, and other social media assets eventually need strong calls to action to your website and lead generation processes.
  3. Integrate social media marketing tactics with traditional tactics.  If you track emails response then any social media marketing you connect to the email will track.

I’ll pose this on ROI for social media.  Marketing’s responsibility is to drive business strategy and outcomes through market/customer interactions.  The real measure of success is alignment with the C-Suite on what the “return” is on investment.  This may not necessarily be monetary but rather value of marketing’s ability to support business strategy and customer interaction.

  • Can you show through social media that the message you want to get out about your company and position is happening?
  • Do you see a lift in customer interactions through the introduction of social media marketing?
  • Is there a tangible value to social media interactions that is directly/indirectly influencing marketing’s ability to contribute to business outcomes?

Don’t get hung up on the dollar figure.  Investment is as much about reducing customer churn or the marketing adopting your thought leadership position as it is a direct bottom line result.  Your real task is ensure your marketing strategy is aligned to business strategy.  How you get there is through traditional marketing know how and the help and integration of social media marketing.

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February 9, 2009 • 3:30 pm 1

China Government’s Role in Social Media

Recognizing culture when leveraging social media marketing in China is more than just how the Chinese interact and their cultural norms.  China is still a communist country and the goverment plays a role in how people communicate as well as what they can say.  Early last month, China issues a list of web portals, including Google, which provide access to vulgar content.  Sites were asked to sweep out “yellow” (offensive) content.  However, vulgar is not just related to obscentities.  It appears that some bloggers are caught up in the sweep due to dissenting views, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

The WSJ writes:

“Gluttonous Suckling Pig is back.

internet_cs_20090109065443.jpg

Sensitive eyes: China’s online obscenity sweep doesn’t snare just pornographers, some bloggers believe. (Photo by Reuters)

The pseudonymous blogger known for political satire was one of the main attractions of Bullog.cn, a Chinese Web portal seen as welcoming to dissenting views. But the blogger was one of two who were pulled last month from Bullog, which was later closed as part of Beijing’s anti-vulgarity Internet sweep. Some China blogosphere watchers believe the real reason was the number of Bullog members who signed last December’s pro-democracy Charter 08.”

Each year China conducts these types of cleansing efforts.  The focus has primarily been on internet content, and bloggers are affected.  But, social media is beyond blogging and can be contained in micro venues of social network pages, comments, and Twitter.  As social media continues to pervade in China, it goes to reason that the government is looking at these outlets as well.  It may only be a matter of time before it focuses attention here.

Cultural sensitivity needs to be considered not just in the context of those you are trying to communicate and connect to, but also government regulations and perceptions.  This is also true in the US even considering our freedom of speech laws and regulations.  Profanity is regulated.  Access to adult content is regulated.  Advertising of adult tabacoo and alchohol is regulated.  In China, it is acceptable to have a broader regulation of communications.  So, you have to work within these guidelines.

The goal of marketing is to build relationships with your customers and get your message across.  Work within the norms and laws of China.  Afterall, if you don’t, your marketing effort is not received, may even be blocked, and then what did you accomplish?  It is not hard to avoid these pitfalls.  Walking through Shanghai, marketing messages and billboard messages are not all that different from walking through any major city.  It appears that to succeed, it is better to assimillate rather than become rogue.  Take the risk of leveraging social media marketing in China, but be cognizant of how you deliver the message.

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February 1, 2009 • 3:49 pm 0

iPhone App Love

I love my iPhone applications.  All the ones I use are free.  I use them to manage my to-do’s, check the weather, watch the stock market (it feels like downhill skiing), and of course play games.  My friends are using them and we compare notes, test drive them on each other’s iPhones, and basically act like our kids with their Ninetendo DS.  I don’t even think about the fact that these little free widgets are marketing tools.

The concept of linking entertainment with advertising is not new.  TV, radio, the web, all are based on this model.  However, there is something about the way advertising is integrating with the iPhone apps that is slick, meaningful, and mostly innocuous.  I also have a feeling that in some instances, it is highly effective compared to other visual advertising.

I play this game called Word Warp.  6 jumbled letters, 2 minutes to guess all the words they make.  I can advance if I guess a word with all 6 letters.  Addicting.  In between every other level or so an ad will come up.  At first they were static billboard types.  Now, they are getting dynamic.  These segments can even be used as polls.  They last under 5 seconds and you can easily skip out of them.  Kind of like the flash pop-ups on websites.  HP has put together a Fergie (duchess not rock star) ad showing how the laptop manages her media.

5 Things That Make a Great iPhone App Ad

  1. Short
  2. Entertaining
  3. Doesn’t overwhelm you or your user experience
  4. Visual quality has staying power
  5. It is viral

There is one more thing that I like about the iPhone app ads compared to other social media/Web2.0 advertising.  I think you can reach a larger portion of the over 35 crowd.  Considering the price point of the iPhone and the way it is starting to infiltrate and be supported by corporate IT departments, it is a fair contender against the Blackberry.  Other social media is still very much fixed to the under 35 crowd making some advertising, especially B2B difficult in this space.

Check the apps out and tell me what you think.  Would you,  are you using it for advertising?  If you have the iPhone, take a look at Word Warp to get an idea about the ads placement.  At the very least, play the game.  I love it!

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