A few weeks ago, we wrote a post about how cluttered Twitter is. It doesn’t matter any more how many followers you have since your message barely gets seen.

On Tuesday, I read this other post where Niall Harbison from Simply Zesty, wrote about how difficult it is for brands and companies to get exposure on Facebook unless they invest money in ads. Number of fans, again is not enough folks. He ends the post saying “Basically if you want exposure on Facebook now you need to pay. Simple as that. Facebook have done a wonderful job of locking every area of the platform down so as they control most of the ad revenue that flows through it. Even the feed is getting harder to access and with ads coming there this month things will get even harder…”

Companies approaching social media as a mere distribution channel will have to think harder and re-visit their budget for 2012 if they want to see positive results.

So, what could you do?

Here are only four suggestions that will hopefully make your decision a bit easier:

1. Only measure what matters: This means that you will have to rework your objectives and KPIs for your existing social media platforms. For example, if before you where tracking “number of followers” as a key metric on Twitter, it’s time to bring that to the bottom of the list (or even not make it a KPI) and maybe focus on something more useful such as “number of interactions, number or positive mentions, number of sales queries”, you get the idea. If you can demonstrate a growth in these figures, it’ll be easier to make a business case to dedicate more time to specific platforms that impact the bottom line.
2. Scan your audience: Ensure you understand who are your LinkedIn-company-page followers (linkedin.com/company/yourcompanyname/followers) and who is in your email database. Take the time to go through the names and companies. You’re putting all this effort in social media and as a result you’re building a valuable audience. Don’t think of them as just a “bunch of people”. If you take the time to understand who they are you’ll be able to serve them better, avoid spending unnecessary time pushing more messages and also detect any positive or negative trend on the kind of professionals your content is attracting. Investing time in your existing audience pays off, investing time in pushing random messages here and there (noise), doesn’t.
3. Facebook is no longer free: Those companies fast enough to invest in strategic and creative Facebook advertising will be seen and stay ahead of the game. In parallel, you should keep posting everyday and talking to your fans of course.
4. Integrate as much as possible any offline with online actions: This can take a bit more time but if it’s done well, it could deliver very powerful results for your company.
   Complement all current gaps in customer interaction with online interaction. As a result, your customer or prospects will keep you fresh in their heads. For example: write down in detail your sales funnel. Include every single step. Some people know this as the AIDA model (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action). Then, these type of questions should follow: What do we do currently to get a prospect talking to us? What do we do with prospects that are nor ready to buy righ now? Do we communicate / stay in touch with recent customers from the past three months? How and when do we knock on the door again?

In 2012, we will have to  get more creative. Publishing a few messages and having thousands of fans and followers won’t cut it any more. How are you going to make the most of your social media time to avoid the noise?

Here’s the deal: The more people you “follow” the busier your stream gets and the harder it is to digest the information. Only a minority of users know how to use Twitter really well, building a true listening station so you can read specific conversations, avoiding the clutter.
There’s an increasing amount of people using Twitter. The number of people they’re following happens to be increasing as well. The problem: There’s too much noise and people don’t see your message as often as they used to.
Those of you that have been using Twitter for a few years: Do you remember when you published a shortened URL in 2008 or 2009 and tracked the clicks along with response time? Your content would have traveled very far in a matter of seconds and get at least 5 to 10 immediate clicks. Now, you’ll be lucky if you get 1 or 2 clicks in an hour. Don’t take my word for it. Gary Vaynerchuk is going through the same problem…

So, is Twitter a bad tool now?

Twitter is still a powerful, real-time communication tool that can help you connect with customers and prospects. You will perceive the most value when people talk to you (publicly or privately) and you’re able to conduct short conversations.  Publishing doesn’t have the same impact and your content won’t resonate much. Last year, Brian Solis said that the life span of a tweet was one hour. I believe, nowadays, that has probably dropped to one minute possibly.

Conclusion

When you define your customer/community and start working on your social media strategy, do consider Twitter but be very careful on the expectation.
If you’re a big brand or company that has a big portion of the audience on Twitter and/or many mentions already, you may expect to receive immediate interaction and faster results. On the other hand, if you are a small or medium sized business, you may find Twitter a good place to listen to strategic conversations and also have a dedicated real-time channel, available to connect with customers and prospects. However, do not count with a quick, tangible ROI.

How is Twitter working for you currently? Share your story below.

We did a post last year about Foursquare for business networking, but I came across a great video interview with a company that provides feedback on how and why they use this platform.

The Corcoran Group sell multimillion dollar apartments, mainly in New York. Their approach consisted on leaving “tips” for specific locations such as shops, bar, restaurants, etc. Why on earth would a busy, money-making company, be leaving tips on Foursquare?

Matthew Shadbolt, Director of interactive marketing, shares some great insights  (short video at the bottom) but, here are three BIG ones:

• “The idea of how you find a great apartment, has much more to do with what’s around the building or apartment itself, just as much as what’s in the apartment. We call this: going beyond the four walls”.
• “We believe it’s helpful to guide people around the city through the lens of the Corcoran group’s expertise”.
• “Foursquare is a great place for us to share local insights and expertise and transfer what real estate agents have always done but in the mobile space and in a more meaningful and helpful way to our audience”

What I love about this approach is that is focused on helping prospects and customers in line with business objectives, rather than interrupting them with marketing messages. By facilitating the access to deals, they’re presenting themselves as a company that knows the area,  improving their positioning in people’s minds.

Thinking beyond four walls

This post is not just about Foursquare. The idea is that you can see more than your own company in the big picture and work in sync with an ecosystem that will make your brand more powerful than if you’re the only one pulling from the rope.

I can hear already Management asking: “So, what’s the return on investment for every tip, tweet, video we post?”. That’s a valid question, but it’s up to you to broaden their views, painting a bigger, more beneficial picture about how can your company be more successful. It will help to first build a strong purpose to back up any plan. In the case of Corcoran Group, they didn’t start with “we aim at X amount of tips that will return X amount of leads”. There’s nothing wrong in measuring that. It’s better to understand first the “why” behind what you’re doing. Example: “We believe it’s helpful to guide people around the city through the lens of the Corcoran’s group expertise”. Find your angle.
Obviously, as Matthew explains in the video, Foursquare is not a stand-alone tactic but rather one piece within their overall strategy.

Tactics don’t last forever. Twelve months from now, the company might no longer see big value in Foursquare and may move on to another platform. If your problem is time, simply don’t juggle with five platforms at the same time. Start small. Focus on small wins that can demonstrate specific results and you’ll gain trust from the board. Hopefully, time and also resources will be allocated to your social media programme gradually.

What social media ideas have you tried beyond the four walls?

Right there, that’s how good he is. Getting the latest armor will not necessarily make him the best against others. The shield and the sword are simply extensions. They protect him, make him reach farther and win more battles.

Too many professionals see social media tools as this separate thing, as something that will make them magically win business, customers, etc. The equation is pretty simple: if your business, product and service are not good enough, social networks will not revert that for you.

I interviewed John Jantsch, founder of DuctTapeMarketing.com and author of the book, “The Referral Engine”.  He said something similar: “…It does all start with being referable. If you’re not doing something that people want to talk about, no amount of reading my book is probably going to change that“.

Think of a bad book. Even if an effective team of digital marketers make it go around the world through social media, all they’ll be achieving is “reach” but not what matters: good reviews, loads of people talking about it and spreading the word.

I recently thought about some business that came to us via Twitter and LinkedIn. I pictured the entire scene: The lead, that post we published, the relationship we’ve been building throughout time, that coffee we had… and one day the “social media phone” rang. That simply facilitated the entire process, it gave us constant visibility of each other and a platform to stay in touch, that ultimately even became the glorious messenger for the business query. It was the quality of the information, the way a concept was explained, the answer to a question what really closed the deal. Social media was just the facilitator, our extension.

What do you think?

One of the reasons why the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) gives you too many options is because the company is generating intelligence to measure all the different funnels and also because, in most of the cases, they can’t afford everybody to talk to a real person (The goal is to achieve a positive service level with a limited number of representatives while controlling costs). That’s why, as an “alternative” (most of the times useless) the machine would invite you to go to the company website or get a recorded piece of information.

Would it be fair to say that most of the people would love to talk to a human being ASAP when they ring these Sales / Customer service lines? It would be a VERY good start. Then, of course, they would expect to talk to a knowledgeable professional that will help them with the query.

“Your call is important to us” is by now a cliche; something with very low, to no impact at all, but you know that already. If you really mean it though, here are three basic steps:

Start by listening and interpreting data

Use the valuable insights from your IVR and social media monitoring tools. Listen, discover, categorise and tag (label) conversations and topics. This way, you will be able to prioritise answers / acknowledgements to those folks that are more likely to call your hot-line soon (especially on high-call-volume days). You will be able to assess time allocation to specific social media sites if the volume proves to be relevant.

Impact:

• Richer forecasting
• Cost reduction opportunities based on volume of online conversations.
• Reduce the Abandoned-Call-Rate
• Cost reduction per rep: Social sites could be handled remotely.

Capitalise on velocity

Let’s say your call centre holds a total of 100 reps between Sales and Customer Service. A good test would be to have three reps from each division to handle conversations with customers and prospects on on Facebook, Twitter and/or forums. Create a spread sheet and make the team record daily/hourly: numbers of questions answered, topics, suggestions, escalations, etc. On high-call-volume days, you could even have one or two reps from other divisions (e.g. Quality Assurance) to pick up the “social phone”.

Impact:

• Reduce number of inbound calls while improving Service Level.
• Improve Average Call Handling Time (ACHT).
• Improve customer satisfaction rate.
• Social proof. Brand awareness generator.

Build a powerful lead generation channel

With all the information provided by the IVR, social media tools and feedback collected from the representatives, break down the data by topics, then by month and year.
On one side you will know what the hot topics are (you may create a “top 10 customers’ questions” document). These are topics that a big percentage of your reps are repeating daily, affecting handling-time and number of calls taken. If this content goes online, publicly available 24/7, it  will help your customers and prospects to find answers easily and reduce frustration. On the other hand you will visualise how the topics vary according to a specific month or season. This will allow you to create more powerful content ahead of the game for certain periods of the year! Great content = Lead generation

Impact:

• Increase leads and revenue.
• Get found by more prospects.
• Grow a steady community around your brand.

These are just three broad examples.  What’s your experience? Have you tried something similar in a contact centre?

Here are the 5 facts that surprised me the most. But before I continue, a couple of caveats:

a) Dan claims that his assumptions are based on correlation and not causation.

b) These discoveries not necessarily go against best practice , they simply aim to prove what works and what doesn’t in terms of reach.

5 interesting claims:

1. Engaging in the conversation doesn’t result in more reach, sharing interesting content does (links). Dan run an experiment confirming that accounts with under 1000 followers are more conversational while accounts with more than 1000 followers tend to share more links. He also got admin access to important Facebook accounts, confirming that loads of commenting didn’t result in more views but sharing loads of interesting links did. I assume this has to do with people re-sharing interesting links and this gaining more visibility in Facebook compared to the visibility that one’s own commenting gets towards your network.
2. More blog commenting does not translate into more views or visits.  Again, another experiment analysing popular blogs from an admin perspective and finding no correlation. This one is a dubious one in my opinion, especially in relation to the commenting system the blog uses. For instance, if using Disqus or Intense-debate, which allow users to identify themselves with their Facebook account, their comments gain visibility in their Facebook stream too. Commenting system aside, I’m also not sure in statistics terms what level of sampling would be needed and how many assumptions should be made to reach something like this. It’s good to consider it anyway.
3. Taking advantage of “information voids” is effective: Dan suggests that researching unanswered questions and producing content to tackle them work. It sounds obvious, but how many of us do it? Do you have a Twitter column open with your typical industry keyword and a question mark so you can serve people?
   
4. Friday’s and weekends can be good days to publish:  This is another logical one but not everyone takes advantage. It’s simple, during weekends people receive less email and streams are less cluttered, therefore you can typically have more visibility (please don’t discontinue your work-day efforts though!)
5. Social proof and novelty are different (my favourite one): Dan ran an experiment with 2 given blog posts, altering the “tweet button” and running an A/B test. In one version the tweet button was fixed to show zero tweets. In the other version it showed 776. Dan (and I) would have assumed that the one showing more social proof would be shared the most but it is actually the contrary. What one needs to understand is that social proof is good for mitigating risk (you choose the restaurant full of people over the empty one to reduce the chances of an awful dinner). Once you understand this, you need to combine it with “why people share things”, which is partly because they want to be seen as a reference/ authority. So using a tweet button has probably not much to do with risk and more with our egos. Bottom line: When it comes to sharing, nobody wants to be 777th person breaking the news. You could argue that this is valid for breaking-news-content and not for more perennial content and you would probably be right. My takeaway is that we need to experiment more with sneak-previews to a privileged segment, if we want to maximise the chances of our content being shared. We also need to offer social proof in more clearer risk scenarios (e.g. email subscribing), where phrases like “1000 people can’t be wrong” may mean a lot to our visitors. 
   

This is just my selection of interesting facts. You can grab Dan’s latest book here, which is free for Kindle users for a limited time. I’m nearly half way through it and I’m liking it, even if I don’t agree with some statements. But that’s the way it should be right? Regardless, I think the book makes a tremendous effort in moving away from a lot of rhetorical industry talk, which is something anyone with a bit of “social media saturation” requires

Have a look at the full presentation below and please share your thoughts.

From last Friday until today (almost five days) our social media monitoring software pulled 346,229 mentions (and counting) about the “Googlerola” deal. Let’s take a look at some insights:

Where did conversations take place?

This should be no surprise to most of you. Twitter dominated the scene with over 81% of the mentions.

Can Google+ kill Twitter? No way, unless Google introduces a game-changing move.

How did the trend in conversations look like?

The obvious spike in conversations happened on the very 15th (135 thousand) with most of the mentions neutral (spreading the news). I would have guessed that the deal would have generated more than one big spike.

The topic is pretty much dying out in terms of mentions after 48 hours. Maybe, it means that in general, people don’t really know what to expect.

Where did the news resonate?

The US is naturally number one. However did you imagine Brazil and Japan in 3th and 5th place? Looks like Canada has reacted to the news within the past 24 hours (Based on difference in mentions from last week)

What relevant keywords are showing around the topic?

Without digging into sentiment analysis, we can see on the conversation cloud that there’s no presence of negative keywords (at least for now).

What do people think?

Mashable published this Poll yesterday. The results support the tag cloud above.

What’s your opinion about the Google-Motorola deal? Is it a waste of cash or a valuable strategic move for Google?

Here’s the BIG question (and problem) with the “saviour campaign” approach: Who is manning the front desk while we work on the next campaign?

There’s nothing wrong with marketing campaigns. They must be part of our strategy. However, all we’re doing is engaging our brand in a series of microcycles that reach their peak but then crash without building up brand equity neither endurance in the long term.

The secret lies on staying very focused on your listening stations and connecting with your community of customers and prospects… all the time, and not just in-between campaigns.
There are several ways to know how well you’re doing. For example, comparing month-to-month the number of queries from people, the number of answers delivered by your department and others (IT, Sales, Customer Service). You can track those indicators per day or if it’s too busy, I would suggest even to break it down by the hour to get a better perspective about the busiest times and proactively request back-up, as it would normally happen in an inbound call centre.

Being available to your community all the time (“Business as usual”) is perceived as more valuable than showing up only when you have something to sell. The best example is the Old Spice campaign. Many said it was one of the most successful social media campaigns because it was creative and delivered ROI. As Gary Vaynerchuk geniously pinpointed later: “Have you paid attention to the Twitter activity from the Old Spice account after the party was over?” Their official posts reduced dramatically. That was a clear indication of how much Old Spice cared more about the campaign itself than people.

The goal would be to build blocks that elevate us, reaching more people every time we launch a new campaign. The only way to do this,  is by genuinely engaging in conversations with our community while we plan the next campaign.

Every time, the Twitter or  Facebook “phone” rings, be there to help: Deliver valuable information, acknowledge relevant comments, answer questions, feature followers. If you want to achieve endurance you must earn people’s trust along the way.

Remember, it’s showtime 24/7 now. You can’t just go on stage only to increase sales, people will notice

Even though this activity could certainly take time, depending on the level of listening that you need for your brand, there’s a very simple way to get started, building a platform in which you can keep track of all important conversations. All this can be done in less than ten minutes!

I made this short video on how you can customise Hootsuite.com to make it work for you as a true listening station, ensuring that the main part of your monitoring activity gets done in one spot

The video below will show you:

• Customization tactics
• How to add a social network, stream and tab
• How to filter conversations

Do you have any other listening tip on Hootsuite or suggestion? Leave a comment below.

In Japan, you can hire spouses, best men, relatives, friends, colleagues, boyfriends and girlfriends for parties and public appearances…

How many brands and companies are taking tempting shortcuts to stuff their email database with thousands of irrelevant people, get more Twitter followers and/or increase by thousands their Facebook fans?

What all the examples above have in common is the key phrase “optical illusion” and that they only have impact on once-off events.

Let’s say you are working on developing a sustainable social media strategy to present to your CEO and one of the goals reads: Acquiring 10,000 Facebook fans…

What’s the purpose?

Every time I ask that question, very few professionals are able to answer it specifically. The majority would provide a general answer that consists on “increasing sales and revenue”.

The confusion

If we go back to the specific “goal” of 10K fans mentioned above, it would look like the idea is to increase reach (In your head: reach = traffic, visits, unique visits, impressions, clicks through, revenue). Yet, when I ask what the purpose in this case, the answer I’m given is about sales and not reach. Stay with me.

Translation

Does your company want 10,000 new Facebook fans or 10,000 net new customers acquired through Facebook and/or other platforms? Maybe, you’re simply looking at a target of just 200 more transactions for Q4.

The idea is to use social media as a platform to support your existing business objectives. Coming up with all these amount of followers and fans as main goal will:

• Deviate you from your core company goals
• Tempt you to go for shortcuts to inflate those fans/followers to justify your social media programme
• Frustrate you: Building a community with people that don’t care about your brand and will never buy your products and services, will simply not improve anything at all.

The point is not to avoid fan targets. The point is to first respond to the main objectives and then work out secondary targets (like fan acquisition) from there.

Have you gone through any similar experience when working out your strategy? Please share your thoughts and experiences below