How Companies Respond to Social Media

A really on point post from Dave Fleet. These are the five ways in which companies typically respond to social media.

http://davefleet.com/2009/06/five-levels-social-media-responses/

B2B Marketing

Forrester and MarketingProfs conducted a survey of B2B marketers to see what’s working and where they were spending money during the economic downturn. The report itself costs $279, but they disclosed some of the findings in this press release.

Key findings in the report include:
• 47% of B2B marketers plan to increase spending on company websites and search marketing this year.
• 42% plan on increasing expenditures on podcasting or online video.
• 36% will increase their budgets for discussion forums, social networks and communities.
• 31% say they will actually decrease their budget for online display ads.

Twitter Research

Some really great data in here from Harvard about behavior patterns and Twitter.

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/06/new_twitter_research_men_follo.html

Campbell's and Hunger

This is a really good case study about how to incorporate social networking into a philanthropic effort. Campbell's has launched the Help Hunger Disappear campaign in Canada and associated with that campaign is a Web site that incorporates social networking technologies.

http://www.helphungerdisappear.com/index.html

Comcast and Customer Service

One of the questions we are going to continue to encounter as we engage clients on social media is ROI. How do we demonstrate that the money we put into it didn't just go down the drain? Customer satisfaction is certainly one appropriate metric to consider, and in this case with Comcast, their Twitter efforts directly contributed to an improved customer satisfaction score.

HOWS THAT FOR ROI?

The Future of Twitter

I thought this was an interesting interview with one of the founders of Twitter on how the company plans to make money going forward. One of the most commonly held beliefs is that Twitter will begin selling ads like other popular social networks have. After reading his statements that sure doesn't seem to be the case here.

Reputation Risk and Social Media

There are some really fascinating stats in here about how employers and employees view social
networks. The study found that 60% of business executives feel that they have a right to monitor what their employees are saying through social networks, while 53% of employees disagreed.

http://www.csrwire.com/press/press_release/26972-Deloitte-s-2009-Ethics-Workplace-Survey-Examines-the-Reputation-Risk-Implications-of-Social-Networks

Blogger Outreach

This is an important article to read as blogger outreach has become another weapon in the D&E arsenal of late.

http://www.conversationagent.com/2009/05/blogger-outreach-its-not-your-program-its-their-content.html

There Is No Social Media Department

Geoff Livingston (The Buzz Bin guy) has a great post today arguing there is no such thing as a social media department. His feeling (one that I agree with actually) is that every "department" has the capability to do social media. Granted, there will be people who become good at it, but that doesn't mean other departments cannot adopt it too.

By the way, it will be interesting to see how this blog changes (if at all). Geoff's firm was bought by CRT/tanaka.

Social Media Isn't for Everybody

When you make statements like that you sometimes have to duck. There are those who feel that social media is appropriate for everybody. Guess what? It isn't! If your stakeholders are not taking part in online conversations what makes you think joining one of them yourself will bring them there? What this article also says (thanks to Lisa Zone for sharing!) is that the listening phase of social media is critical. Again, I agree 1,000%.

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=135605

How do you define a social media expert?

The term "social media expert" has a negative conotation, particularly among the people who are quite obviously experts. There were three posts on the topic of social media experts this week, and I'd encourage you to check out all three:

Lisa Hoffmann - she had always been against using the term social media expert because it is difficult to be an expert on an industry that is moving so quickly. However, her post the other day argued that because she (and others) were unwilling to take the mantle that it had been taken over by people who were far from experts.

Mack Collier - his points are similar to Lisa's, though he does take some consultants to task for relying solely on a lengthly client list as a demonstration of expertise.

Beth Harte - she could be considered a social media expert, but doesn't want to take that title because her feeling is that once you become an expert you stop learning. (not sure I agree with her argument, but it's worth reading anyway)

Persistence: The Key to Social Media Strategy

It seems as if there have been a lot of posts on social media strategy lately, and this is no exception. David Finch argues, rightly I think, that building a "community" is not something you can pull off in a day.

Guarding your Online Reputation

One of the misconceptions of social media (at least in my opinion) is that joining Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the like is the only way you can participate in the process. Quite the contrary. Listening to your customers (if they are talking to each other through social networks) can be just as useful for companies, particularly from a online reputation managment perspective. Check out this example from Fortune Small Business that demonstrates just that.

The Power of Twitter Continues!

It's always cool to see examples of how companies used a social network, like Twitter, to reach and engage their customers. Check out this USA Today story

Who Makes up the Facebook Community

These are just some interesting stats on the makeup of Facebook users worldwide from Matt Dickman. Check them out when you have a chance.

Will PR Agencies Represent Communities and Not Brands?

It's an interesting question to consider from Jeremiah Owyang at Forrester. Jeremiah's point is that firms will discontinue representing brands, but more likely be bringing communities to brands.

Think before you post

This post from Jason Falls highlights one important thing about social media - think before you post! Is the information you are sharing appropriate for a broader audience? Am I OK with this information being available forever? Will it embarrass me or the company I work for?

Four Faces of Social Media

I'm actually not a really big fan of this post, but I'm sharing it with you so that you can see how puritanical the social media "elite" are. Beth Harte outlines the four different "faces" of social media. Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive, but her tone toward the agency and SEO gang seems a little negative.

The Social Media Process

I liked this post from David Finch (via the blog of Jason Falls) about how companies can embrace the social media process. The process according to David:

1. Monitor conversations
2. Create content that you'll give away
3. Fish where the fish are
4. Engage in the conversation
5. Track and analyze results

Is job security keeping us from being ourselves online?

There has been so much written recently about transparency, and (lack of) poor judgment in social media lately, and this post is no different. David's point is particularly worth considering - are people changing who they are on social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook for fear that they may put their jobs in jeopardy?