Social media is finally making sense to you, your organization, or your clients—and while there seems to be this undeniable itch to jump in head-first you know full-well that the powers that be don’t care about your fancy social networks. With that firmly planted in the back of your mind, you are still rapidly piecing together your ideas, charts, and slides to go to bat for why social media is going to change the way you do business. But like any creative pitch, there is more to it than the medium; there is the nuances of the pitch mixed with the hostility that accompanies early adoption. So let’s ditch early adoption, in favor of early achievement.

1) It won’t solve all of your problems—so don’t tell them it will solve all of theirs. Understanding that Facebook or Twitter or any medium for that matter are not silver-bullets to marketing will enable you to speak in the best interests of your organization or client. It is important to root everything in your social media presentations with direct impacts on business. A simple exercise for making sure you are on message is asking repeatedly, ‘How does this impact sales/buying decisions?’ If you have no answer, find one—if it doesn’t have a direct mathematical route to sales, move along. This is not to say that awareness is not a valuable marketing goal, it just might not be right for this audience.

2) Do your homework. Understanding that the majority of the C-Suite did not get there by being early adopters is a critical insight for any marketing manager or agency director. We once worked on marketing a revolutionary software/server combo for a small tech start-up here in Portland—as we looked to create lead-generating activities we realized that their main market, the banking sector, marched to a specific financial drum beat that often governs the C-Suite. A CFO of one of these banking institutions was quoted as saying, ‘We don’t want to be the first to adopt anything, but we don’t want to be the second to implement anything either. Our investors care that we are cutting edge, but still stable.’

Not being perceived as an early adopter but an early achiever is a fine-line to walk. A lot can be written on this topic, but for now let’s keep this simple. Come to all meetings with additional notes, and pre-load your meetings with research that you think will be relevant to your discussions. Be sure to address every question with non-declarative statements—instead utilize statements rooted in experience, research or considerations and provide them with the proper materials. Do your best to show them the work behind the plan.

3) Make your presentation a plan, not a sketch. I find that social media can be a challenging topic for some and even makes some people uncomfortable, so keep your presentation short enough that you can address questions as the arise without being short on time. I tend to cringe at any presentation past 10 slides, and certainly no more than 15 unless requested. At the same time provide at 2 slides that show significant detail into the nuts and bolts of your proposed strategy—the last thing you want them to think is that the meeting they are in is unfounded or conceptual.

4) Provide options for scalability. In my opinion, testing a campaign for scalability is one of the truest tests of any social media effort. Asking yourself, ‘can this effort be scaled?’ is not only a healthy step towards road mapping your efforts, it is also a necessary step in getting buy-in from the higher-ups. So stop thinking about a Twitter campaign, or a flash-in-the-pan interaction. Start thinking about a holistic marketing program that seamlessly integrates social media—that is truly what get their attention.

What are some of your tips? Care to share?

Profiles, lists, pages, badges, mayors. The feature-set of social networks continues to evolve, and it is no surprise that the front-runner continues to be Facebook. Let’s not forget that the once ominous Myspace held the coveted best-known-methods of 2006. What we can learn from this is that even though Facebook is in front in 2010 with features and updates, they are also pushing the pace of updates amongst their competitors. Though LinkedIn might not be a direct competitor to Facebook, the hopes that it will have a sustainable offering amidst the giant implies that LinkedIn must adapt and adopt.

What’s New with LinkedIn? Looking to adopt the vernacular that Twitter lists and Facebook communities/pages has set forth, LinkedIn has pushed out a Company Follow feature where followers can customize the rate, method and type of information they automatically receive about the companies they want to keep track of. This is a great way to keep track of trends in personnel at an organization such as a hiring/firing, as well as understand what kind of interaction a company is having on LinkedIn-connected networks.

What can you do with this feature?

At the very least keep your network open and relevant—go ahead and follow the organizations that are within your immediate ecosystem and those that are of broader interest as well. On a local level take the time to follow partnered companies, clients, and even competitors; unlike Twitter and Facebook, it is a little harder to figure out who you are following. As a follower, you are only visible when clicking on a company, and then selecting ‘followers’. With that said you shouldn’t be shy as to who you are following—think of it as a Google Alert for networking.

As a potential hiring manager or customer this becomes an invaluable tool because you can see who might have just left an organization. Likewise for companies you are in close ties with, understanding if they are pushing out updates that are of a positive impact will help you understand how healthy your potential business partners are. Have they let go of an entire team recently? Or, are there a slew of new hires or new recommendations that might interest you?

Additional Considerations Take the time to understand that your business is that much more transparent now. Understand who your ‘followers’ list is composed of and how the impact of positive or negative information will effect your professional relationship with those individuals. If you are approaching a lay-off season, understand that looking at that list before hand will enable you to be pro-active about addressing a situation before the bad-press hits. Likewise if you are hiring or getting praise that will be seen by followers, use it as an opportunity to reconnect with that list. Likewise understand that not everyone will take advantage of the list, and be pro-active about keeping them in the loop.

Lastly, invite people to follow your company on LinkedIn. Insert it in an email blast at the very least. 

For quite some time now we have been talking to clients [clients of Quango Interaction Design] about the immidiate impact that the SMB audience can see when utilizing social media channels; prodominantly Facebook. As if 50+% of the online population in the US wasn’t enough to captivate marketing manager imaginations, Facebook has taken it upon itself to push the subject.

SMB Facebook Window Decals!

Back at Quango we are already implimenting social media handles in identity systems because we knew this was right around the corner. The reality is that Facebook is now in the drivers seat and is making a concerted effort to not only expand their reach through better UI ['fan' becomes 'like'] into emerging markets and more topical brand association, it is now looking to arm some of those brands with tools to make it worth their while.

A recent article sent around by a colleague that was written by Ars Technica talks about a Facebook psychological study that based consumer experience on physiological reactions while viewing content. In this article they conclude that Facebook users have a more pleasing experience when diving deeper into profiles, as opposed to just reading the Facebook wall that collates the information from various feeds for them. This study is poingnant because it is hiting home what we have all known about Facebook; we go there to have a closer mode of interaction with people we want to be connected to. The same holds true with the entities that hold profiles, but are not necessarily people.

Simply put it is time for SMB to make a real standardized effort on Facebook. Users are primed and ready for this engagement, and in the end the shoppes that keep their content fresh and on target with their consumers will reap the rewards. Facebook is betting on it, in fact they are shipping out decals to be placed in store-front windows with incentives for doing so. It is not a new strategy. Citysearch has been doing it for years, and people actually found it useful. Now, Facebook will do it and prove that their content deliver method is more scalable.

Tuesday afternoon, Richard Rosen and I continued to prepare for our DMA 2010 Though-Leadership lecture. Working with Richard is fun, to say he knows his stuff when it comes to Direct Marketing is an understatement—and as a Creative Director of Quango Interaction Design, a proven Social Media agency—I find that we often try and tackle subjects over a glass of wine or a mug of coffee, that are far beyond the how-to implementation and BKM’s of marketing.

Even though we feel like we might have hit-gold on how to give Direct Marketers at the DMA Annual a model that ties in their marketing wisdom with the medium of today, what interests us most is the evolution of the Facebook like button, and what it means.

All discussion aside, I love the like button. But what I love more than the feature-set is what it means from a brand stance—Facebook is showing that it is human. Not through the linguistic sense of the word like, but more so from the desire to better its product. Though confident in nature when announcing at the F8 conference all of the features that Facebook would tackle today, it hurries past what it has left behind—yesterday. Become a Fan was so off from a psychological, and an international-sociological approach [not everyone thinks of fans like we do here in the states] it showed users the hand that Facebook was ok with selling-out just a little-bit as big brands jumped onto the fan bandwagon. Facebook admitted it was wrong in a passive, way stating ‘we hope this allows users to associate to more content’. It’s ok Facebook—we like you as more human—making mistakes is good, and making them small rather than large is even better.

Tell me again—why is being human good? As a social media marketer I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to be authentic. Retracting a feature that has underperformed is the software equivalent of a retracted statement in public relations—they are healthy, and build a better brand.

How does this effect business on Facebook? More important than just making it easier for someone to voice their allegiance to a brand or idea, is the interaction that the like button provides for traffic driving purposes to content-driven sites. For example, take a look at a Quango built Seneca Website—we have launched our new brand [a full top-to-bottom rebrand of the company] in harmony with the roll-out of the Facebook feature availabilities. Not only is the new site dang good looking, but it also allows for users to like any content page on Seneca’s Website. Go ahead, try it out—maybe think about integrating a similar feature on your client’s Webpage.

The obvious merit to this integration is that it will allow your site to be picked up via a heavy content syndicator in Facebook. Just wait until Facebook starts providing analytics on your likes; trust me, it will happen.

Want to know how to put this on your site? If you are using WordPress check out this plugin, otherwise for enterprise customized solutions like the one on Seneca, send me an email for info.

I’m not a gambler, and I certainly do not have a crystal ball. However it is becoming pretty evident that location based social networking will continue to grow. Simply put, a higher degree of mobile device integration by some big players [Google: desktops will be replaced, Intel: showing their hand towards mobile , Apple: the iPhone was successful, what if we made it bigger? ] continues to cater to the demand for continuous connectivity—and more importantly, support for seamless real-time-location interactions.

This is not a new principle—but if we were talking about social networks as a whole, in human-development they would just be entering into adolescence. They are hormonally challenged, seeking an identity, loose with their privacy, frenetic, and awkward—all while having a great deal of potential. To boot, they have a look that they all will be ashamed of in 10 years.

So what does this mean for Foursquare?

Well, this means that Foursquare is positioned to be the most successful of its graduating class—let me tell you why. I’ll be upfront in saying that I’m not convinced any of the location-based networks are ‘doing it right’, but no one knows what ‘right’ really looks like yet. However, let’s analyze some key characteristics that Foursquare has going for them and what will keep the lights on:

1. Foursquare is clean. Back to our adolescent analogy—Foursquare hasn’t made any high-commitment bad visual decisions. If we look at Gowalla we see a hip, stylized interface with cheeky cartoons and badges—it is cool no doubt, but not timeless. Don’t get caught up in mayors vs badges, or buttons vs text; in the end it is about functionality. I could go into a deeper dive as to brand creation, and planning for the future, but it is pretty obvious; Gowalla has planned for today, but not the future—they have tattoos not piercings, in their desire to attract attention today. Not convinced that I am right? Remember a little network called Facebook that came off as vanilla that was battling all of the ‘personality’ that MySpace had?
2. Foursquare is mingling with the ‘adults’ of technology, and connecting on a fraternal level. Call it an initiation or a test run—either way, they are getting to play with some matured companies. This is a sign of a strong biz-dev roadplan messaging themselves as a entity vying for a buyout someday. Check out their deal in the EU with Vodafone, or their integration with tech-giant Intel at events like GDC 2010.
3. We’re adolescents, we’re testing our boundaries. As far as technology goes we have seen social networks dance the fine-line of privacy T’s&C’s. In the end it is breeding a population of users that are ok with pushing the limitations of technology while sacrificing a little privacy…if the incentive is right.
4. Lastly, the concept of check-in’s are already a fading interaction. Similar to downward Twitter trends, only having one type of interaction is a recipe for an early eulogy in social network shelf-life. What we are seeing is other social networks jump into the check-in space like Yelp; imitation is the best form of flattery, right? Regardless there is promise that the earlier stated relationships, coupled with early integration of interaction technology, enable Foursquare to move onto more-and-better interactions to engage their communities.

Despite incentives of mayor status, badges, giveaways and what-not I will end on this: the brand promise of a social network, the professional posture of who you play with that enables for expansion into more offerings, and the adolescent-timing of social networks as a whole make Foursquare a contender.

While reading mashable.com this morning I stumbled across an article by Shiv Singh, the VP and Global Social Media Lead for Razorfish—a reputable agency of which I have watched evolve over the years. What Shiv brings to our attention is an algorithm which he champions as the SIM Score.

It is no mystery that clients are demanding, and should continue to demand, more and more detailed analytics into their social media endeavors. I have been saying it to my clients and readers as much as possible—the days of friends and followers were limited, frenetic, and are now nonsensical.  With that said, I first applaud Shiv for taking a crack at the indexing of influence on social media. Shiv uses simple math, and in my opinion simple is best for communicating business objectives.

Here is where it falls short though:

If we look at Shiv’s formula, the Net Sentiment of the Brand quickly loses its value when incorporating the Neutral Conversations metric at its face value. Simply put an agency like Razorfish is paid to push ‘neutral’ conversations across many mediums—it is called PR. If you think that PR isn’t being pushed on social networks, then you might as well buy into this formula.

You see, the sentiment of a brand cannot be measured by the fiscal investment of that said brand. We cannot buy our customer’s sentiment. If we include Neutral Conversations in our formula for sentiment, we have in fact purchased our sentiment through impressions. Or done what a good PR agency is hired to do, and that is muffle the negative sentiments—thus skewing our data.

So if you truly do want to see the true sentiment of the brand. Simply divide the Positive Sentiment by the Total Amount of Conversations. Don’t stop at sentiment though, consider deeper analytics such as degrees of connection and depth of conversations. Additionally, try not to make business statements based upon singular metrics…it just causes trouble. 

In recent news, Foursquare has gone global, allowing for users to check-in from anywhere in the world, at any business. As GPS based social networks are poised to be the hottest expansion [in my opinion] in 2010 it is only right that small businesses understand what a little social-media elbow-grease can do for them.

Wait…what the hell is this? Good question. Think of foursquare as the best addition to social media for small businesses that is out there. Simply put a user interacts with foursquare in this simple sequence of events, we will use a coffee shop for the example:

1. I walk into said coffee shop and order a tall coffee, black.
2. While the barista gets my coffee poured I pull out my iPhone and load up Foursquare. I do this because:
   • I’m a product of technology. It occupies my time while I am bored.
   • I love staying connected to friends and I routinely, like many people, check my Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare from my phone.
3. I click the nifty ‘Check-In’ button. This allows Foursquare to use GPS to figure out where I am. Once I confirm that I am at the said coffee shop I have the option to tell all of my Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare friends that I am currently at that shop. This benefits me because:
   • If I were in a more crowded place, or even nearby a friend checking in, they could potentially be notified that I am there and connect with me.
   • I am again, a product of technology. On top of that I am also a product of gaming and capitalism, so I like ‘rewards’.
4. As stated, I love rewards so the next step is handled on the Foursquare side. My check-in is now counted towards my total check-ins, daily stats and even achievements such as the holy grail of Foursquare—the Mayor of a location.

Mayor? What does that have to do with my biz? Well if you are like the thousands of other businesses out there, repeat customers are a really really good thing. If you think about the 4 step model above what we are doing is encouraging people to repeat their favorite locations, and better yet, tell their friends. Word of mouth marketing is now segueing into real time social media. The excellent thing about Foursquare is that their system keeps track of who is checking in, how often, and all of their achievements.

The Mayor status changes hands as quickly as the activity in your business. Every time a user checks in, points are applied to their username based upon the business location they are checking in with. The person with the most check-in points is the mayor. Simple concept. If you want to be the mayor of a place that already has a mayor, check in more than them. Check ins are done in a way to prevent tampering.

For many small businesses this is a godsend for shoe-string marketing. You as a small business owner can now see your customers, their loyalty, and if you are smart ante up the reward for repeat business.

The Basic Social Media Geek Foursquare Contest Without overly amping Foursquare anymore, I will give you a quick structure to effectively implement a Foursquare marketing effort for your small business.

1. Print up small signs, to be posted by cash registers and on doors. These signs should show the Foursquare logo with a good call to action like ‘Don’t forget to Check-In on Foursquare!’
2. Add to this sign your offering for participating. In this model I recommend picking a ACME Mayor’s Day [if your shop is named Barista, call it Barista Mayor's Day] that will happen on the same day of each month. On this day, whoever is the mayor, gets treated like royalty. What that means to you and your business is up to you. If we continue along the coffee shop analogy, royalty definitely means a picture of their mug on the corkboard, a free coffee and pastry for them and their guest to be redeemed at their convenience.So to add this to your previous sign made in step one, the text for this coffee shop would beDon’t forget to check-in on Foursquare! Barista Mayor’s Day winners get free coffee and pastries on us for you and your guests. Ask us for more details!
3. Train all of your employees to know this model in and out. Tell them they cannot win, because obviously they can check in every time they go to work. And ensure that they will tell each customer about the Foursquare Mayor’s Day rewards program. Get yourself on Foursquare as part of the training and understand where your business lives on this network so that you can view who the current mayor is.
4. This might take a few months to get off the ground. Don’t fret, the Foursquare movement is really picking up, so invest in being an early adopter for this social media stock. Keep at it, and leverage the other benefits of having visibility into your repeat customers networks.
5. Register and update your business listing and offering on Foursquare’s Business Sign up and on Yelp.com. Foursquare ties in to this site, which provides reviews and business information.

Remember to understand your customers. Figure out what the best incentive is to get them to want to be the mayor of your fine establishment. Lastly, if your customers are on Twitter or other social networks, make sure you publicize the interaction appropriately! Good luck!

ROI is quite possibly the most abused term in marketing. It was just a matter of time before white papers, articles, and ROI evangelists hit social media without the pedigrees of a seasoned CMO or CFO to set them straight. Furthermore to frame this short write-up, ROI is a valuable tool for the measurement of a business investment, but has failed marketeers for decades just the same.

Let’s take a quick refresher on why ROI fails:

• ROI is often used as a catalyst and  justification for a business endeavor. To simplify, think of ROI as the leather seats in a luxury SUV, or even the premium brand emblem on the hood. ROI is the promise on which marketing gathers budget. ROI is a forecast for which a marketing manager will buy into a project. Rarely is it realistic because most everytime it is based upon team negotiations as to what success NEEDS to look like for upper management.

• ROI is almost always developed solely by marketing, production, or sales. By this point the whole mathematical purity of ROI is lost. Having a disconnect between marketing, sales, and production is nothing abnormal in industries such as the high-tech industry. If we look at any tech company for example: A marketeer will never be fully informed as to how many billions of dollars went into the creation of a processor, and how that impacts the mandated ROI of their marketing efforts. Nor will they be able to predict what value that processor has to bear on the market simply by launching.

Likewise the ROI goal for a campaign that runs in paralell to this launch will suffer because it cannot not show a direct impact. I can say though that failing to interact, in my opinion will most certainly create a lack of a sales pipeline for future products.

• Lastly, social media is always changing. When a medium continues to change, the positions and services that produce the medium bears a price at which the market will bear due to its flurry of fascination and fear of being left behind, not at which will make a product profitable. Because of this situation, at this current point in time, measuring ROI will fail for the majority of Social Media campaigns. The widgets are unpredictable in price.

Ok…so what can we measure?

What I am urging my clients to measure is a Return on Interaction. Come back for an in depth talk on how this impacts my clients as they launch campaigns internationally.