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SEMINAR: Doing More With Less – Social Media Tips and Trends for 2012

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Foundation CenterWe’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.

2012: The Year of Living Dangerously with Social Media

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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:

  1. Religiously monitor mentions of your company, brand and products on social media.
  2. 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.
  3. Create a plan for engaging and empowering the people who are making positive comments – they are your customer brand evangelists.
  4. 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.

Why It’s NOT Unwise to Outsource Social Media

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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.

Outsourcing Social MediaWe 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?