As the world rushes online and accesses the web from their desks and smart phones, managers of businesses and organizations are sitting up and realizing, some to their horror, that this social thing isn’t going away. Neither is this online stuff. The pressure to learn something, add a Facebook page…do something is mounting. Yet most feel like they are already stretched very thin and have little bandwidth to take on what they perceive as an overwhelming task.

So where do you start? At the beginning. (Sorry. It’s true.) The process of adding social media into your marketing and PR mix is like adding any other communications channel in that you follow a process with logical steps:

• Define what you are trying to accomplish (tie into your business or organizational goals)
• Review your existing marketing and PR programs (how does social or online work with your offline and traditional programs?)
• Identify your audience (who are you trying to communicate with or persuade?)
• Evaluate your resources (how much time, personnel and funding do you have? Do you have the support of upper level management?)
• Research to find your audience online (Where are they? What networks are they using and how are they using them?)
• Develop your strategy (make sure to include identification of who is empowered to make decisions regarding any online response to your social activities)
• Establish quantifiable objectives so that you will be able to measure your success
• Train the people who will be working on your social marketing and PR programs
• Implement the programs you have created
• Monitor the social media you are using
• Measure the results of your efforts
• Evaluate (how did the programs help meet your business objectives?)
• Adjust your programs
• Repeat or go back to the beginning and start the process all over again…

Using a logical series of steps will remind you that incorporating social media is not unlike incorporating other communications channels into your marketing mix. However, it brings its own special baggage and you need to be aware of some of the challenges you face.

Listening

You will need to monitor the web for mentions of your company’s name, your employees, your products and services, your competition, your industry and trade organizations–and more. And then you must pay attention to what you learn, because the information may well impact what you are doing, both online and offline. This can be done easily using free monitoring tools like Google Alerts, Twitter Search, or Social Mention or by using some of the many excellent paid monitoring tools including Sysomos, Radian6, and Alterian SM2.

Social Media Policy

Your organization will need to have a social media policy in place if it doesn’t already have one. Your company’s employees are probably all using social media to some degree and may be mentioning your company. You may need to employ your employees to implement and manage your social media and social networking initiatives. In either scenario you have to be able to spell out what is considered acceptable behavior, what information is proprietary and what can be shared. Who is empowered to make decisions or take action on your organization’s behalf? What is the approval process or the chain of command for decision making?

Training and Outsourcing

You may need to train your employees (and you may want to take part in some of the training yourself) in the use of the social media and the social networks that you will be using. You may want to hire outside consultants to help manage your campaigns if your employee base is stretched too thin.

Need Help? Call us.

Does the idea of incorporating social media scare you silly? Do you need help developing a strategy for your social media activities? Or would you like to have your employees trained in using social media for marketing and PR? We can help with all of these things. Give us a call at 419.740.1262 or shoot us an email at info@allenireles.com.

The grumbling is growing. Marketers are getting frustrated that fans seem not to be noticing their Facebook page updates. For some, engagement seems to be lessening since Facebook introduced the Timeline format.

This is anecdotal however. There is little data to support this now. Some surveys show increases in fan engagement. Some, like the study of 3,500 pages, done by Edgerank Checker, conclude that Timeline has had no effect on fan engagement. Since only 2% of fans ever return to a Facebook page after they have “liked” it and Facebook itself states that only an average of 17% of  pages’ fans see its updates in their newstreams, the Timeline format change should have no effect whatsoever.

According to Ederank Checker, both the control group (No Conversion) and the Pages that converted to Timeline experienced nearly identical ratios. Roughly 60% of the Pages analyzed experienced a Decrease, while roughly 40% experienced an increase. Their conclusion? The introduction of the Timeline format had no significant impact fan engagement.

Then why are we hearing these stories?

Something changed. Wait, could it be Timeline? But for profiles?

It was for me. I found the change over to the Timeline profile visually distracting. I started ignoring the news ticker and coming to Facebook only to interact in the few private groups I take part in. There was so much going on and it was so distracting I stopped paying attention to the news stream and only noticed on occasion if a friend’s name popped up.

I wonder if others have had similar reactions? An eye tracking study by SimpleUsability showed that Timeline brand page users actually find some of the new elements confusing. Brand pages don’t differ much from Timeline profiles visually. Lots of different things to look at. I wonder if other fans are feeling overwhelmed and inundated by the noise and clutter?

SimpleUsability MD Guy Redwood said it “is clear that the average user doesn’t fully understand the new layout, or interact with it in the way intended. This will likely change over time, but as the mechanics of obtaining ‘Likes’ has become more difficult for brands, they now need to drive engagement more than ever. Page editors no longer have the ability to set targeted landing tabs or applications for non-fans. In the past you could direct people onto a particular tab to encourage likes or interaction with a promotion.”

If this is true, it gets harder to use Facebook effectively as a marketing tool. Everyone agrees that the key to successful marketing on Facebook is to update with content that resonates with your fans. And to use Facebook ad campaigns to stay in front of your audience. Author and social media consultant, Brian Carter emphatically maintains that Facebook ad campaigns work–and work well– to build Facebook fan bases and keep Facebook fans aware of brand pages. His book, “The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money With Facebook”, provides a thorough grounding in using Facebook for marketing and includes instruction in building and deploying effective Facebook ad campaigns.

However, Facebook ad clickthroughs are half the industry standard, which means that these same fans you are trying to stay in front of may not respond to the ads you are posting. To get their attention.

So what are marketers to do?

Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

One way to break through the clutter is to use imagery and video. Content moves through the social web at lightening speed but imagery grabs our attention and we can’t help but notice a compelling picture. As human beings we are drawn to other human faces (advertiser have known this for eons.) Video reaches right out and grabs us by the throat and can hold us rapt. In a study by emarketer, 60% of respondents said they would watch video previous to reading text on the same webpage. Video and imagery build subconscious connections.

Jennifer Strauss Windrum, who founded and manages the WTF (Where’s The Funding For) Lung Cancer and SMAC! (Sock Monkeys Against Cancer) Facebook pages, finds creating more visual content has helped maintain her Facebook fan interaction, although she has seen a definite decrease in response since the implementation of the Timeline format.

Julie Pippert, founder and director of Artful Media Group, confides that her secret weapon is to approach the Facebook pages she manages like Pinterest boards. She shares short punchy updates with vibrant images more frequently than longer text updates. Pippert manages to keep fan interaction going but says that it is a constant struggle.

As Miranda Miller, of Search Engine Watch, says, “You’re going to read a lot of conflicting data, ‘fact,’ and opinion. There is no magic formula. The only way to discover what works for your business is to try, test, tweak, rinse and repeat.”

Do you need help understanding how Facebook fits into your marketing? Give us a call at 419.740.1262 or shoot us an email at info@allenmireles.com. We can help.

This post first appeared on the V3im.com blog on April 10, 2012

We’ve talked about the benefits of using LinkedIn as a tool for networking and developing new business leads. Using the LinkedIn Answers section is an effective way to build your reputation as an expert in your industry. Answering a few questions every day can become just another part of your daily routine—once you know what to do.

In case you’ve missed it, LinkedIn Answers is a Q&A forum in which members share business information. The Answers section allows you to answer questions from other users to demonstrate your experience, knowledge and ability. Answers are rated, and you can earn a “Best Answer” designation for your response. Your avatar is posted beside your answer, and can lead viewers of your answer back to your profile where they can learn more about you and your professional experience.

Unfortunately, many of us get busy. We forget to visit the site or check the Answers section with any regularity. What if there was a way to access those questions and post answers quickly and easily? Oh, but there is! You can sign up for the RSS feeds for your area of expertise and send them to your RSS reader. It’s like the easy button. All you need do is check your reader every day or so, scroll through the Answers topics that fit your expertise and spend a few moments answering the questions that fit. If you can manage to do this as a part of your regular daily routine, so much the better.

I learned this trick from Jason Falls of Social Media Explorer last year. It’s effortless and takes only minutes to set up. Want to get started? Here’s how:

How To Set Up A LinkedIn Answers RSS Feed

1. Log in to your Linkedin account and go to the Answers section. (For those of you who are new to Linkedin, the Answers section is found by clicking on More at the top of the page).

Locate a topic that fits your industry and expertise and browse the open questions listed. Scroll down the page until you find the RSS button on the right side of the page. Sign up for the Answers topic feed using your preferred RSS feeder. I use Google Reader.

2. Create a folder in your reader for your LinkedIn Answers feeds. You can subscribe to as many categories as you like. Then train yourself to open your reader every day, scroll through the feeds and answer the questions that resonate. Two important points: often the people who ask the questions you answer will follow up with you. Make sure you respond. The communications could develop into new business leads for you. And it’s a good idea not to answer unless you can add value to the conversation.

You’ve heard the saying, “people buy from people they know, like and trust,” right? It’s true. It’s also true that people like to do business with those who are known as industry leaders or who demonstrate a high level of expertise. You can be both. Check the RSS feed. Browse the questions users are posting on LinkedIn. Offer your expertise and even your assistance. Start developing those new business relationships and enjoy the leads you generate along the way.

Do you need help figuring out how to use Linkedin or where it fits in your organization’s marketing strategy? Give us a call at 419.740.1262. We’ll be happy to help you get started.

Lead image via milos milosevic via Creative Commons

Dell continues to deliver on the promises it has made to its customers and to #DellCAP members. I write this one day after receiving a new Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook to review, so bear this in mind as you read. I am currently happily and busily working on both a MacPro and an older Dell XPS so I will be interested to see how the XPS 13 Ultrabook performs.

Why me? And what’s #DellCAP?

In June of 2010 I was invited to become part of Dell’s inaugural Customer Advisory Panel (DellCAP) and flown in to Austin for a two-day panel. The meetings were divided into two groups: the first were the unhappy customers, the second were the evangelists. The meetings were productive working sessions and most of us left feeling that our input had been heard. We were skeptical that things would change, but hopeful.

Last year we were invited back to Austin for an update. We had the opportunity to see how our suggestions had been implemented and to preview some of the new directions in marketing and social media and to learn about new products. We also had an impromptu meeting with Michael Dell himself. I was impressed with him. I enjoyed hearing him answer questions off-the-cuff and talk about future directions for the company.

We were taken on a tour of social media listening command center, which is where I lost my heart. I found it exciting and inspiring to see the larger example of what can be done when a company of Dell’s size embraces social media and integrates it into the fabric of its operations. We had a chance, again, to provide input and to ask Dell to continue to use us, to allow us to help them continue to improve the products and services. They promised they would do so. And, they are doing exactly that.

Since the first DellCAP panels, the company has expanded its efforts to meet with customers and really listen to the feedback. They have taken the Dell CAP days to Germany and China. This newest outreach, on behalf of a specific product, is a change. One that I am delighted to help with.

I am not a geek (more of a geek-wannabe) and so what I see in a computer will differ from what many of the others reviewing this product will discuss. However, I live and breathe with my laptop by my side and am representative of a particular market segment (yep, women of a certain age, that’s us) and I am very sensitive to the marketing aspects of this exercise.

2011 DellCAP participants Ed Tittel, Claire Celsi, Allen Mireles and Michelle Brigman., courtesy of Dell

Imagine, really listening to customers and making changes based on their input? Incredible concept (I say that only partly sarcastically) and a demonstration of what can be done in today’s uber-connected world.

Creating a fan-centric company, as Dell is in the process of doing, is a solid example of what social business can look like.

What fun! Stay tuned for further updates. I only unpacked the little beauty last night and it sits beside me gleaming in silver splendor. Thank you Dell for this opportunity. I look forward to exploring the Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook.