How are you measuring the success of social media? This question remains contentious to say the least. This infographic shares some insight into just how the "R" in ROI can be interpreted. We hope it helps!
We also have a post from earlier in year on the goals and challenges of social media marketing which may also help you in defining the best way to group objectives for social media.
If you haven't seen this Altimeter report, then take a look, it's the best free in-depth report on creating a framework for developing a social media ROI measurement system.
A Framework for Social Analytics …
ToBeSocial tools enable you to benchmark your campaigns against competitors
Value/Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: ToBeTracker
We like this simple, free tool which enables you to visualise the growth history of fans of Facebook pages. This example shows how you can see the growth rates of campaigns once registered on the system. Data is extract direct from Facebook Insights using the Facebook API to extract data.
Note: this campaign no longer live, but is still seeing growth.
Marketing implications of this tracking tool
This is a simple tool that can help benchmark what is working for your competitors. You can browse different categories of companies or compare 3 or 4 pages - handy for presentations.…
The anatomy of a fan
A genuinely useful infographic from Moontoast (they create e-commerce software for Facebook pages). This graphic reminds us on the how to market to those different levels of engaged users - all fans are not the same!
…
An introduction to business use of social media for marketing
Talk to a non devotee about social media and they will still tell you that it's either a tool for geeks or for students that have nothing better to do than share what they had for breakfast. Although many of us eat, sleep and breathe social media marketing, I still talk to many businesses who don't believe and aren't active in social media marketing.
But as usage of tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus and Twitter continue to escalate, even laggard-like companies are belatedly starting to think about getting a slice of the action. In this post I'll show approaches you can try to convince your colleagues, clients or even friends that social media investment pays.
Here's a taster, when I’m faced with a room full of social media sceptics one of the first things I do is show this video:
…
I’m finding the news aggregator Summify interesting and useful
Value: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Summify News Aggregation Service
I’ve been using Summify for the last couple of weeks as a way of keeping up-to-date with the latest conversations on the social networks. I’m letting you know about it since I’ve found it quite handy since:
Just 5 stories - delivered by Email once a day - helps counter information overload :)
Relevant stories are shared by people I'm connected to who I trust
Often turns up an interesting story or piece of advice I’ve missed elsewhere
Looks good but more important learns through what you click on
Summify have a post here explaining how it works. They say:
The Summify algorithms use dozens of signals, but in general news that has been shared, liked and retweeted a lot by your friends is considered more important. However, not all of your friends are equal…
A major Facebook update to privacy and sharing settings also phases out Places
Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Facebook blog announcement
Most sites have reported this update as a response by Facebook to Google+. It’s true that Facebook has surfaced features to make it easier to share with a custom group of friends (sound similar to G+ Circles?):
What we found most interesting in this update was this quote: We are phasing out the mobile-only Places feature. Settings associated with it are also being phased out or removed. (You can read more about how location works and settings affected here.
So Facebook is killing off the Places sub-brand, but the functionality seems to be continuing as a more integrated and less memorable “Share where you are”.
It’s now a much more subtle feature, but once switched on will show all your locations until…
Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: The Next Web
Last week Twitter quietly changed it’s method of linking from tweets through to sites. It didn’t post it to its main blog but it was reported by The Next Web - see link above - thanks Dan Barker for alerting me to this. However, the Next Web didn’t go into the details of how this could affect your analytics, which is what we’re alerting you to here.
What this means in practice is that if you are active in Twitter you will see a sharp increase in referrals from T.co domains which is what we’ve seen:
Note that the traffic using other shortened URLs such as bit.ly or Ow.ly, which is a big…
This is a great question to ask since it's easy to get lost in the accumulation of Likes and Follows. I'm not sure of how actionable this info-graphic is though it useful to ask the question.
A few observations:
10% less of the youngest demographic in Facebook
Facebook perceived to be the place to 'friend a brand' - this being an indicator of loyalty
Facebook influences buying decision
Yet isn't Twitter a more useful tool for knowledge sharing and so relationship building?
What are your experiences - which of these two networks provides a better means of connection to your audience?
…
Why do Twitter users follow brands?
Value: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Econsultancy Twitter Best Practice Guide
New research from Toluna and Econsultancy of 4,000 UK and US respondents has shown that over a quarter of consumers now have a Twitter account with 52% of these following brands and companies on Twitter, illustrating the potential of the channel for business.
What are Twitter users looking for when following a brand? This chart shows that many are on the lookout for deals, but it’s not just about the deals with other content also of interest. Some will simply follow to prove they are a fan of the brand.
The importance of Twitter as a feedback channel is also shown with around a quarter saying they will use Twitter for feedback:
Only a quarter (26%) of consumers have complained on Twitter, while over half…
“Listening and Engaging in the Digital Marketing Age” - a report, from Forrester.
The full report from Forrester, commissioned by Dell, is available to read and download from Dell's micro-site, which is here, the up-shot is that companies that launch listening and digital engagement initiatives are rewarded with improved customer satisfaction scores, loyalty and brand metrics.
Only 50% of companies surveyed (US sample) feel that social media is a core function in their business, however they do feel that their efforts are serious despite only 6% of companies saying that their social media functions are very integrated in the business.
“Listening and responding to customers is so basic and fundamental. The emergence of social media elevates how companies can act on the feedback they get from customers,” (Karen Quintos, senior vice president and Chief Marketing Officer at Dell)
We've read and summarised the…
