I’ve been very excited to see the new features LinkedIn is rolling out for companies. For a long time, they were missing the social media boat in so many ways in an effort to stay true to it’s business networking and job search roots. In the past year, they’ve made strides at creating a more social hub for members, and now their latest features aim to increase value to marketers and brands. But my question is: why have they been so slow on the uptake?
While I’m not complaining about their latest changes for the better, I think there are still major missed opportunities:
- Make company pages more dynamic: We have apps for profiles, why not apps for company pages? As LinkedIn continues to build and roll out new features for company pages, they should think about ways to make them more dynamic and spotlight content such as videos, presentations and upcoming events.
- Pay as much attention to event pages as they are to companies and individual profiles: Not much has been done to change the way event pages work on LinkedIn. Perhaps this has to do with a lack of traffic to those pages – members just don’t use them as much as other areas of the website. However, therein lies an opportunity to make them more interactive and valuable to event organizers, marketers and event attendees alike. Ways this could be done include embedded videos, Twitter streams, links to event social outposts, and even discussions from a related event group on LinkedIn. Also, why not allow event page admins to send messages to those who have RSVP’d – with the ability to segment by who’s attending and who’s interested, industry, even title.
Perhaps with LinkedIn’s new Certified Developer Program we’ll begin to see changes like these come down the pike. What do you think and what do you want to see on LinkedIn?
We’re excited to be giving a seminar on Tuesday, November 1 from 10am-12pm entitled Doing More With Less: Social Media Tips and Trends for 2012, taking place at the Foundation Center-Washington, DC!
Promoting your organization and mobilizing your members can be daunting, especially with a limited budget. But it doesn’t have to be that way – social media provides organizations with opportunities to do more with less and make the most of marketing dollars. Presented in partnership with the Foundation Center, the seminar will examine some of the upcoming social media trends and provide you with tips, tricks and tools to help you develop and deliver your 2012 plan.
UPDATE Oct. 22
The morning seminar from 10am-12pm is full, but due to popular demand an afternoon seminar has been added! Register here for the overflow session from 1pm-3pm.
Why are companies and organizations still so afraid of social media?
They seem to understand why they should be using social media – they’ve been presented with all the business cases, case studies and marketing plans to prove its worth. Now there seems to be a major aversion to actually diving in and utilizing
social media in the best possible way for the brand – not as a broadcast channel, but as an engagement channel. Now that they’re on social media, they really have no idea what to do with it.
Here are my responses to the two biggest fears I’ve heard:
What if it doesn’t work?
You could say that about any marketing your company does. Has that stopped you from launching that email campaign? How about print campaigns? While the cost of social media isn’t free, it can certainly cost you a heckuva lot less than some of the other marketing you do – so if fear of a direct mail campaign not working didn’t stop you from spending bucketloads of precious marketing budget on it, then why is this same fear stopping you from launching your social media effort?
Perhaps it’s more of a fear of the unknown – something that’s experimental and new versus tried and true. I read a really interesting article in The Conversation on CIPR about PR’s schizophrenic attitude to creativity. Andrew Smith cited recent research from Cornell University that points up key reasons why there’s a general bias against creativity:
- Creative ideas are by definition novel, and novelty can trigger feelings of uncertainty that make most people uncomfortable.
- People dismiss creative ideas in favor of ideas that are purely practical — tried and true.
- Objective evidence shoring up the validity of a creative proposal does not motivate people to accept it.
So the business case for social media may have been made, but actually implementing new and creative ideas for using it presents a roadblock for many people. It’s understandably difficult for us as humans to do things outside of our comfort zone; but if we were always afraid of something not working, nothing would ever get done. For companies to succeed in social media, they have to step outside of what is safe. Don’t be afraid to try something new – if it doesn’t work, learn from it and try something different.
What if someone says something bad?
Leslie White wrote a great post over at the SocialFishing Blog that addressed this very fear. A lack of control is what drives it – many companies and organizations feel that they have to steer the message in a very calculated way, all the time. They feel like social media will give people a platform to say anything they want about the brand, and they can’t control that. NEWSFLASH: those conversations are already happening, but you’ve been too wrapped up in your “message” to see it. Sure, there are negative things being said; but guess what – there are positive things being said too. By your customers and members.
So, no, you can’t control the conversation on social media; but, as Leslie White puts it, “social media gives us many ways to try to influence it.” Instead of ignoring negativity or avoiding social media completely, there are steps you can take to influence the conversation:
- Religiously monitor mentions of your company, brand and products on social media.
- Create a plan of action for dealing with negative comments, based on what you’ve monitored (and for funneling those comments to appropriate channels). Here’s an oldie (but still goodie) blog post I wrote a few years ago on dealing with negative feedback in a positive way.
- Create a plan for engaging and empowering the people who are making positive comments – they are your customer brand evangelists.
- Use everything you’ve found to make improvements – negative feedback is still good feedback.
Let’s make 2012 the year of living “dangerously” – stop being afraid of social media and start thinking of how it can work for you, not against you.
I don’t want this to be the “9/11 Edition” of What We’re Reading, but I just wanted to share with you two posts I’ve read that I thought were interesting and insightful. I highly recommend sharing these with your communities as well.
- 9/11 and the Promise of Community from Inkling Media – with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 coming up this weekend, I can’t help but think to myself how close we as a nation grew in the aftermath of those events, as well as what it might have been like if social media like Twitter and Facebook were around then. It would’ve unfolded in a much different way. Ken was in NYC when it happened, and has his own story about the community effect he witnessed.
- 9/11/01: Where Were You? from the Feeding America Blog – we’re all thinking about this (many have been ever since it happened). Feeding America has put together this touching and introspective collection of memories from its national office staff.
And for something a bit more lighthearted, a video of the Freddie Mercury Google Doodle celebrating what would’ve been his 65th birthday – we here at Tuvel are definitely fans!
There, I said it. And not just because I work for an agency. I believe that it can be done in a managed, streamlined and authentic way – a way that works well and is successful for the brands that choose to outsource social media.
The latest opinion trend I’ve been seeing with regards to social media marketing is whether or not it should be outsourced. Particularly, the aspect of social media community building and management – i.e. an agency tweeting on behalf of its brand client. I’ve read posts from those who are for it (such as this one from Jeremiah Owyang) and against it (such as this one from Ken Mueller).
Outsourcing, in general, is a topic of controversy. When corporations talk about outsourcing, it many times results in jobs being lost to a third-party company (especially companies in emerging markets) in order to save on labor costs. But that’s not what I’m here to defend.
We at Tuvel have worked with clients who, under a variety of circumstances, require help with their social media marketing and community-building efforts. Some don’t have internal resources to handle it on their own, others don’t have adequate knowledge on where to begin. In either case, they either want to handle it internally and need consultation, or want us to handle it for them – and we’ll help them in either case. However, in neither case are they looking to replace their own employees with us.
The general consensus against outsourcing social media is that it’s unauthentic, is more prone to mistakes and opens the brand up to backlash. I’m of the opinion that there is nothing wrong with outsourcing social media marketing and community building/management to an agency, if it’s managed properly. Yes, there’s always that caveat. After reading this SocialFish guest post from Maggie McGary, online community & social media manager for the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, I explained this caveat in my comment:
If an association for whatever reason decides to outsource community management, then they still need to be prepared to manage the high-level strategy and the agency that implements it. Just because you’re outsourcing doesn’t mean you don’t have to deal with it anymore. This is the only way to ensure the success of the agency’s efforts (and your own success).
This is why we work closely with each and every one of our clients to establish clear communication plans and strategic processes, whether editorial, customer service, reporting or brand representation. Everything we do is in line with our clients’ goals and strategies, and we have regular meetings and status calls to discuss plans of action. We, in essence, become a part of their team. We also maintain transparency throughout the process and let people know who they’re talking to without sacrificing voice and authenticity.
This is how snafus are avoided. Mistakes happen, but don’t be fooled into believing that they only happen with a third-party at the helm – they can happen internally too.
I’ve made my position clear – what’s yours?
I’ve never been in an earthquake before, and I had no clue what was going on when it hit yesterday. When I did, my first instinct was not to stand in the nearest doorway (what I should’ve done, in case it was worse than it turned out to be) – it was to start tweeting about it.
In fact, it was the first instinct of many, many others. Seconds after it happened, I saw tweets from people in DC, New York, Ohio – it was how I found out just how far-reaching the quake was. I went to CNN, and they were still reporting events in Libya as breaking news. I heard from a few of my followers that I was the first person in their stream to tweet about the earthquake.
I checked Facebook and saw all the tremor chatter there – this only minutes after it happened. We were all sharing information and our experiences in real time, long before mainstream media picked up on it.
This may be old news to you, but social media once again serves as the hub of activity and updates during an emergency. So think about how powerful it can be during a non-emergency – a conference or a fundraising campaign. Word-of-mouth matters, and social media is the tool that can help you spread the word.
If you manage social media outposts for your business or organization, then no doubt you’ve heard the word “engagement” numerous times. It isn’t enough for people to simply follow or like you, the goal is for them to interact and participate in a way that keeps them engaged with your brand. But because we’re talking about “social” media, we have to consider and accept that different people are social in different ways. Not everyone will engage in the same way, but you can help them to increase their levels of participation so they are more engaged with your brand in a meaningful way.
How engaged is your social media community? There are 5 levels of increasing engagement we’ve identified through our social media research and campaign work, which will help you to segment your community members:
- Level 1: Observing – watching the conversation from a far & simply “lurking” to decide if it’s interesting/valuable enough to join.
- Level 2: Following – following the brand in some way, i.e. following on Twitter or Liking on Facebook.
- Level 3: Engaging – interacting in a limited fashion, such as clicking through to read your content, viewing a video, or Liking a wall post.
- Level 4: Endorsing – actively sharing your content with others, i.e. retweeting, sharing via Facebook, etc.
- Level 5: Contributing – actively participating in the conversation and interacting with your brand, i.e. tweeting to your brand, posting on your Facebook wall, or commenting on a blog post.
Notice that the circles in the graphic get smaller as the level increases. This means that the number of people decreases as they become more and more engaged with your brand through social media. This is to be expected, and those Level 4 and 5 folks are the ones you should ultimately focus on building relationships with – they are your brand advocates. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t pay attention to the people in Levels 1-3, because there are steps you can take to move them up the ladder and convert them to Endorsers and Contributors.
What are those steps? Stay tuned…that’s another blog post!
- How the London riots showed us two sides of social networking from Ars Technica: The London riots are the latest in a series of uprisings in recent years where social media sites like Twitter have been the main hubs of activity – from organization and mobilization to as-it-happens news. Those of us who use these tools as part of our jobs are so used to our own one-sided viewpoints of social media and how Twitter and Facebook can be used; but the riots reveal the much darker side. To the point that the British PM David Cameron is considering blocking Twitter and Facebook in the UK.
Before I continue with this week’s reading list, I want to ask you to post your thoughts in the comments below on social media’s role in the London riots – do you think blocking Twitter and Facebook is the answer?
Now, back to our regularly-scheduled reading list:
- Klout Shares 6 Secrets Of Twitter Hashtag Chats from AllTwitter: Thinking of hosting your own Twitter chat? Klout offers some useful tips to help you get started.
- 64% of Small Businesses Think Social Media is Unnecessary [STUDY] from Mashable: This is an interesting report, but I’m baffled how it distinguishes word of mouth marketing (which 50% say they can’t do without) from social media (which apparently small businesses don’t have so much of a need for). Things that make you go…”Really?”
- StumbleUpon Launches Program to Help Nonprofits from AdAge: Is it me, or have we not heard much about StumbleUpon lately? They seem to have gotten lost in the social networking jungle. But having used their Paid Discovery platform in the past, I definitely like what they’re doing for nonprofits with a new Stumbling for Good program.
We’ve also been reading about privacy issues in social networks (when aren’t there privacy issues?) – here are a couple of articles to help you:
- Facebook stole every contact and phone number in your phone – here’s how to undo the damage from BGR
- A Box You Want to Uncheck on LinkedIn from Connection Agent
Have a great weekend!
It’s hot…damn hot. And while you may not be able to avoid going outside, at least we can provide you with some insightful posts to keep you inside and in the A/C a little longer. Hey, if you keep reading you might even get some free JELL-O Pudding out of it!
- Research: 2/3 of CMOs Prefer Working With Smaller Firms from PRNewser: If you’re shopping for a marketing firm, take note of this research – it illustrates the value that smaller shops can bring in the form of client service and intimate partnerships.
- The 9 Creative Uses for Google+ Hangouts You Didn’t Think Of from Business Insider: We haven’t tried Hangouts yet, but thanks to this article we can definitely see the potential!
- Google+ Tips: Where to Begin and How to Share Content Quickly While Mobile from HuffPost Tech: For those just getting started with Google+, our friend Chris Rauschnot shares his tips for success – both at your desk and on the go.
- How to Incorporate Influencers Into Content Marketing from Content Marketing Institute: Outreach is just one part of influencer marketing. This post from Amanda Maksymiw of Openview Venture Partners provides some tips for integrating influencer and content marketing to build your content program.
- What Klout is Really Good For… from Never Stop Marketing: Speaking of influencers, the takeaway here is that community trumps influence.
- HOW TO: Utilize Social Data More Effectively from Mashable: If you’re only using the data mined from social media to measure the success of your efforts, you’re not leveraging it in the best way. This post from Nate Elliot of Forrester Research talks about why.
And now, some fun stuff (as if social media wasn’t enough fun):
- JELL-O Offers Free Pudding to World’s Saddest Tweeters from SocialTimes: With all the economic woe in the world right now, it’s easy to get a little depressed. But JELL-O wants to help turn those frowns upside-down by giving free pudding to people tweeting with frowny emoticons (
). Now if only the U.S. government could pay its debt in pudding… - Alex Trebek Chases Suspected Burglar, Inspiring Awful ‘Jeopardy!’ Jokes from NYTimes.com: IBM’s Watson may have beat the Jeopardy Grand Champion, but let’s see it do this.
And remember how hot we said it was? Here in DC, it was actually hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk:
Today I came across a resource site called Think with Google, containing digital marketing information, trends and insights and recently launched by (one guess)…Google. I excitedly dove into the wealth of information it provided, starting with Word of Mouth under its Think Insights section, thinking of the treasure trove of research, articles and posts about WOM, social media, digital marcomm. What I got was a treasure trove of Google-centric research about how search (Google) is the #1 spark of WOM conversations, how search (Google) is more likely to result in a purchase, and how search (yes, you guessed it) far outpaces social media sites as a resource driving WOM conversations.
No, I’m not surprised about this, for 2 reasons:
- It makes sense that search drives most WOM conversations, since that is the one place people will go to find information about a company or product. No, they don’t go to Twitter or Facebook, they go to search. Search has been around for ages in Internet years, far longer than social media, and it’s ingrained into our brains to go straight to Google (or your search engine of choice) to research a potential purchase.
- Why should I be surprised that a digital publication called “Think with Google” wouldn’t be Google-centric? It’s like Oprah’s O Magazine – she’s on the cover of every issue.
So the takeaway here is that companies should be focused on search marketing when it comes to generating WOM conversations, right? Well, yes – but the reason why I’m writing this is because I don’t want people to discount social media and its role in the WOM landscape. Search is, always has been and always will be an extremely important (if not THE most important) part of any online marketing strategy; but everything else you do online feeds into that.
- Information shared through social media sites is included in search results (take a look at the Discussions tab the next time you search on Google).
- The Twitter-to-Google firehose may be off, but retweets still impact how content is indexed on Google.
- Sharing through Google+ will most certainly have a greater impact on search over time.
- Social sharing impacts the creation of content that is then indexed in search results.
- Building a strong social media network increases the likelihood that your content will be shared, therefore impacting how it’s indexed in search.
- Relationships built through social media can lead to outside content-creation or linkbuilding opportunities.
So don’t think about how search is more likely to impact WOM conversations than social media, think about how your social media efforts impact your search marketing efforts to drive WOM conversations.
