Social media ROI: What’s next?

by Mark Cameron ON 16 May 2013

Over the course of this social media ROI series, we have moved from theory and strategy to the practical implementation of a social media plan. We looked at metrics and measurements in Part One, discussed the art of growing your community in Part Two and developed real world guidelines for the different social media platforms in Part Three. The fourth and most recent article in the series examined the utilisation of social media data for lead nurturing and conversion. In this final article, we will look at where social media marketing is heading and discuss why your company should be prepared to capitalise on this rapidly- evolving space.

Before gazing too far ahead, one needs to understand that social media has forever changed the market and, as a result, the advertising industry is in the middle of major disruption. The thematic trend in these types of articles is backed up by an Econsultancy report, which shows that 71% of businesses worldwide are planning on increasing their spend on digital marketing this year.

What’s going on? Why is the marketing industry increasingly going digital? In Part One of this series, I referred to an article titled ‘Marketing is dead’, published on the Harvard Business Review website in August 2012, which can again provide further insight. It cited research showing that 73% of CEOs think that, “CMOs lack business credibility and the ability to generate sufficient business growth,” and 77% of the same CEOs have, “had it with all the talk about brand equity that can’t be linked to actual firm equity or any other recognised financial metric”.

These damning statistics suggest that in the current post-GFC world, the traditional ‘soft’ metrics so often used to justify marketing spend are failing to deliver. Business leaders want each dollar spent on marketing linked directly back to sales figures. The need for accountability is part of the attraction of digital marketing. Every activity can be measured, in real time, down to a single click.

A far more important factor is consumers driving real change in the market, forcing brands to interact in new ways. Social media and the consumption of content through digital channels has now reached near ubiquity. While this will not spell the end of TV, radio and newspapers, digital is capturing an increasingly larger proportion of market share. Today’s consumer is sophisticated. When she wants something, she wants it personalised and she wants it right away.Only the online environment can meet these kinds of demands.

Additionally, businesses are looking to invest in new talents and people experienced in the digital field. The majority of businesses do not have the skills required to keep up with the pace of change. An IBM study, ‘Fast Track to the Future: the 2012 IBM Tech Trends Report’, found that across four technology areas – mobile, business analytics, cloud and social business – only one in 10 organisations had all the skills it needed.

Within each area, roughly one-quarter reported major skill gaps and 60% or more reported moderate to major shortfalls. An integrated approach to digital marketing would address all of these areas, so it makes sense to invest wisely.

With all of this budget upheaval, the one thing we can be sure of is that the marketing industry is undergoing a transformation. When it emerges from this phase it will be permanently altered – and this is a really big deal.

As the famous management author Peter Drucker once said, “Business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation.” Digital communication gives the brands of today the ability to address both of these functions at once. But it is going to take a drastically different approach to digital marketing to do this effectively. Banner ads and landing pages are no longer enough. The future of digital marketing needs to have social media, and the data it generates, at its core.

BUSINESSES ARE LOOKING TO INVEST IN NEW TALENTS AND PEOPLE EXPERIENCED IN THE DIGITAL FIELD. A 2012 IBM STUDY FOUND THAT ACROSS FOUR TECHNOLOGY AREAS, ONLY ONE IN 10 ORGANISATIONS HAD ALL THE SKILLS IT NEEDED.

What will be happening in the next few months? What are the trends that brands need to be aware of? How can we see beyond the complexity of technology and find the opportunity that really exists? You can be sure that any strategy that is not focused on data-utilisation won’t get off the ground. As The New York Times stated in an article titled ‘Marketers celebrate glimmers of recovery’ in 2011: “Data rules… content may be king in media, but, in advertising, it is data.”

While I don’t have a crystal ball, providing commentary on the digital space in publications across the world allows me to take a step back and see how things are evolving. Below is what I see coming.

CONTENT WILL START TO TAKE CENTRE STAGE

Marketing professionals are quickly moving beyond understanding digital and social platforms and are now focusing on how to make their chosen digital communications channels come alive. A recent study by Econsultancy found that only 38% of companies surveyed had a developed content strategy in place, but 90% believed it would come into focus over the next 12 months. In the TV-centric advertising world, the creative firepower of the storyteller for the 30-second spot became the hero. Similarly, the skilful weaver of the digital narrative will be what every brand is looking for.

AGENCIES THAT CAN DEMONSTRATE ROI WILL LEAD THE WAY

The advertising industry is currently going through disruption. One of the major factors driving this change is the huge volumes of unstructured data available. Unlike having a set of predefined fields that fill a database, such as old style CRMs or competition entry forms, unstructured data is conversations, interactions and preferences such as Facebook ‘Likes’ that will be different for each customer.

The forward thinking companies are now firmly focused on generating conversion-focused insights out of unstructured social media data.

BRAND DATA PLATFORMS WILL COME INTO FOCUS

In mid-January, Nike quietly released a framework for developers to connect to its Nike+ platform. For those of you who don’t know, Nike+ lets you put sensors in your shoes and track how you are using your trainers.

In doing this, Nike has managed to build a data platform that extends its connection with its customers for the whole life of the trainers, creating much deeper relationships and new opportunities to sell product. With the release of the new developer framework, Nike is making a transition from active clothing product brand to active technology brand. It wants to effectively own the active lifestyle data space.

COMPANY INTERNAL INVESTMENT WILL INCREASE SIGNIFICANTLY

Not so long ago the terms ‘community manager’ and ‘social data analyst’ didn’t exist. Now every major brand is investing in resources with titles like these. Companies have learned, some the hard way, that community building is not only important, but requires well-developed skills.

BRANDS WILL WORK OUT HOW TO USE FACEBOOK

Most businesses have been lost when it comes to Facebook. There has been a lot of hype, many mistakes and the occasional spectacular success. The lessons from this experimentation have been learned and brands are looking to drive real business results from the communities they have invested in. There is no one ‘Facebook formula’, but there is a right way for each brand.

It is not only the brands who have been learning. Facebook itself has been trying to get its offering to businesses right. This year, we’ll see the social media giant step up its game and offer a range of enterprise- oriented tools and training to help brands realise the potential of the platform.

MARKETERS WILL BEGIN TO THINK ABOUT ‘CLOSING THE LOOP’

It’s interesting to look at the spectrum of data available from a marketing perspective. Facebook knows what people are doing, Google knows what people want, companies like Amazon know what people are buying and brand platforms like Nike+ will make it possible to know how product is used. Pulling all of that information together will be extremely powerful for marketers. Better products and services, combined with more relevant communications, equals happier customers who spend more.

Each of these developments illustrates the importance of making social media marketing techniques more accessible to the business community. It is far too easy to get lost in conversations about the technology in an industry that is moving at breakneck speed.

The technology is important, but it will only ever be a method for delivering a brand story. Storytelling is in our cultural DNA. Great stories capture the imagination and help us relate to the underlying message. For your business, compelling storytelling is essential for one simple reason – people do not really care about brands. It’s easy to forget that the business you live and breathe is not as interesting to your market as it is to you. And real customer loyalty is difficult to maintain. Developing a good story helps to make your brand interesting and attractive. The story about the business’ origins, for example, can help to put a human face on your brand.

Social media gives you the ability to tell stories in a new way. While no technology can help you construct a narrative, knowing how to use each platform correctly helps you be more effective in its telling. Finding out what sort of content your audience will engage with can be tested, and refined, quickly through social media. It’s then a matter of utilising social media data to refine and personalise your story.

There is no magic bullet when it comes to social media ROI. Of course you need to know how to use the tools, but what is more important is how you use them to engage your market. Invest in engaging your audience, and they will return the favour.

Get your story right and the world is yours for the taking

by Mark Cameron ON 29 April 2013

Social media platforms have become a must-have in the modern marketer’s kit bag. Recently we’ve seen the focus rightly shifting away from technology to techniques required for a successful strategy. A strategic social media plan will address any number of metrics and activities depending on the business objectives. However, one thing every good plan will have is a strategic approach to content marketing. Optimising your content for each platform to ensure the best message reaches your target audience is essential, but that’s only half the story. The biggest challenge for the digital marketer is to develop a creative way to tell the brand story.

Creativity in storytelling has always been important. The viral nature of digital communications means the success of that creativity is obvious, and measurable. Successes stand out, and failures vanish into white noise. While there is no magic formula for developing a creative direction, it is vital for business leaders to understand why it is needed.

Storytelling is in our cultural DNA. Great stories capture the imagination and help us relate to the underlying message. For your business, compelling storytelling is essential for one simple reason: people do not really care about brand. It’s easy to forget that the business you live and breath is not as interesting to your market as it is to you. And real customer loyalty is difficult to maintain. Developing a good story helps to make your brand interesting and attractive. The story about the business origins, for example, can help to put a human face on your brand. The story of Facebook starting out in a coffee-fuelled Harvard dorm room has helped turn Mark Zuckerberg, and the Facebook brand, into something resembling legend.

Social media gives you the ability to tell stories in a new way. While no technology can help you construct a narrative, knowing how to use each platform correctly helps you be more effective in its telling. Finding out what sort of content your audience will engage with doesn’t need to take a long time. Experimentation should be seen as an essential part of the process. If the content doesn’t resonate with your market, keep trying. Don’t make the mistake of blaming the platform. Find out how the platform works best for your brand story.

While telling a story may sound fun, if the narrative is not converting interest into sales, then it’s virtually meaningless. So before you start storytelling listen carefully to your audience. Find out where their desires intersect with your brand. Then focus the content around that – tell a story that says, ‘I can help’. Help them join the dots and the business results will follow.

Social media has eroded the barriers for any brand to tell its story. Dollar Shave Club in the US, which went from virtually nothing to an international brand with just one YouTube video, showed us all that if you get it right the world is yours for the taking.

Honda’s low-budget social media innovation

by Mark Cameron ON 15 April 2013

As major brands expand their social media budgets their marketers’ sights are moving to the new and innovative uses which are offered by less well known social media platforms. The rapid growth of Pinterest has attracted many of these marketers attention. There have been many interesting cases of Pinterest being used effectively but few stand out like Honda’s recent approach.

Pinterest was the breakaway social media platform of 2012. It is essentially an image scrapbook online. Pinterest users ‘pin’ images they find online, then categorise and share them. Like all social media platforms, Pinterest offers brands an effective communication medium – provided they think through how it will be used. Honda understood that many people are spending large amounts of time on Pinterest, to the point of developing a ‘pinning habit’, and that formed the insight needed to launch their campaign.

Honda’s new CR-V has a ‘get out and live life’ brand personality. The target audience for the CR-V comprise young people on the verge of reaching one of life’s big milestones such as getting married and having children. This group have grown up with social media and are now planning all of their big adventures online. Many of them are using Pinterest.

Honda began their campaign by simply identifying Pinterest users with high follower counts and connecting with them. They then offered these users a challenge – take a 24 hour break from Pinterest and Honda would give them $500 each to spend on making one of their pinned images come to life. Honda called it taking a #Pintermission.

Honda set up individual boards within its profile and uploaded personalised images. Honda allowed the users they had contacted permission to add image content to these walls so they could upload their photos once their ‘Pintermission’ challenge was complete. Honda also asked the same targeted users to create their own Pintermission titled boards and make Honda a collaborator. This tactic gave Honda exposure to many more followers and a much broader reach.

Honda also created promotional posters that were easily sharable through Pinterest.

This may appear a complicated approach but they clearly got the formula right. Over 4.6 million individuals were exposed to the #Pintermission boards. The campaign gathered more than 5000 repins and almost 2000 likes. By usual metrics this is not a lot of direct interactions. But more than 16 million media impressions were garnered from the campaign. And the buzz extended well beyond the boards of Pinterest as conversations moved organically to Twitter and Facebook.

This kind of platform and content experimentation, together with audience engagement testing, will be something we see much more of over the next few months. There are a multitude of social media platforms on which companies’ audiences are sharing and communicating.

Trying out what works for each audience group is a necessary step in of the process of finding where your market is connecting online. That is perhaps the most important lesson from the Honda campaign.

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Round up your Posse to change the way you search

by Mark Cameron ON 2 April 2013

South by Southwest, or SXSW as it has come to be known, is a mecca for those involved in the tech start-up scene. The March SXSW festival is held each year in Austin, Texas and it has been the launching pad for mobile apps and social media platforms that have now become household names. This year an Australian social media platform that is changing the way that people search for, and interact with, real-world stores, cafes and bars is launching it’s latest offering for iPhone users.

Posse is a platform that has been gaining serious traction in the Australian market. But unlike other social media platforms that are trying to be everything to everybody Posse is squarely aimed at the female market. Founded by Rebekah Campbell backed by prominent Silicon Valley investors, Posse.com started life as a lifestyle site that encourages people to share their favourite shops, meeting places, gyms, bookshops, and watering holes with their network of friends. In short it is a highly efficient recommendation engine.

It’s not the the basic functionality of the platform that makes Posse unique. Where Posse differs from other players in the ‘qualified search’ market is in the experience. It’s interface is illustrative and inviting. The language it uses is playful and friendly. It is focused on helping businesses develop deep relationships with consumers, not overloading users with ‘special offers’.

A less mechanical design has struck a cord, especially with women. 74% of the user database is female and on average they are highly engaged and socially connected and willing to share. Users of Posse create and name their own virtual streets and fill them with their favourite places in cities around the world. Similar to building your own town with only the shops you love. This approach is generating behaviours that even the tech big guns would love to duplicate. 71% of users to recommend five or more places – a feat that has so far alluded Facebook and Google. When it comes to social media it seems men are from Mars and woman are from Venus after all.

“Because we’ve made the process of recommending places fun, we learn a lot about what places are popular amongst different social groups. This means if you try searching for ‘great coffee’, ‘cocktails’ or ‘hairdresser’ Posse can show you the favourite places of your friends, friends of friends and so on. People put a lot of effort into selecting the best places to put on their virtual streets so the recommendations you’ll find on Posse are quite special.” says Rebecca Campbell. She goes on to say, “It’s unlocked a transformational shift in how people search. When looking for somewhere to go most people want a friend’s recommendation.” and Posse serves these recommendations up in a highly personal and entertaining way.

Since launching in beta in July last year, the Posse site has experienced more than 70,000 searches. The platform is now ready to move to mobile devices and make the leap to the USA. It seems this is just the start of another great story.

Why are marketing budgets going digital?

by Mark Cameron ON 25 March 2013

The way marketing budgets are being spent has changed a lot recently. Recent issues of marketing and advertising trade magazines are consistently highlighting that the advertising industry is in the midst of major disruption. The thematic trend in these types articles are backed up by an Econsultancy report which shows that 71% of businesses world-wide are planning on increasing their spend on digital marketing this year.

So what’s going on? Why is the marketing industry increasingly going digital?

The article ‘Marketing is dead‘ published on the Harvard Business Review website in August last year provides some insight. It cites research showing that 73% of CEOs think that “CMOs lack business credibility and the ability to generate sufficient business growth” and 77% of the same CEOs have “had it with all the talk about brand equity that can’t be linked to actual firm equity or any other recognised financial metric.” These damning statistics suggest that in the current post-GFC world the traditional ‘soft’ metrics so often used to justify marketing spend are failing to deliver. Business leaders want each dollar spent on marketing to be linked back to sales figures. Business leaders are attracted to digital marketing, and social media as these channels excel in these areas. Every activity can be measured, in real time, down to a single click.

Another, far more important factor is that the consumer is driving real change in the market, forcing brands to interact in new ways. Social media and the consumption of content through digital channels have now reached near ubiquity. While this will not spell the end of TV, radio and newspapers, digital is capturing an increasingly larger proportion of market share. Furthermore today’s consumer is sophisticated. When she wants something, she wants it personalised, and she wants it right away. Only the online environment can meet these kinds of demands.

The final part of the puzzle is that businesses simply do not have the skills required to keep up with the pace of change and are looking to invest. A 2012 IBM study, ‘Fast track to the future, The 2012 IBM Tech Trends Report‘, found that across the four technology areas it explored – mobile, business analytics, cloud and social business – only one in ten organisations had all the skills it needed. Within each area, roughly one-quarter reported major skill gaps and 60% or more reported moderate to major shortfalls. An integrated approach digital marketing would address all of these areas so it makes sense to invest wisely.

With all of this budget upheaval the one thing that can be guaranteed is that the marketing industry is going through a major disruption. When it emerges from this phase it will permanently altered – and this is a really big deal. As the famous management author Peter Drucker said, “Business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation.”

Social ROI part 4: Designing a conversion strategy

by Mark Cameron ON 19 March 2013

In this instalment of our series on measuring the return on your social media marketing efforts, Mark Cameron discusses how to use the data you have collected to design a conversion strategy and ensure that social activity is aligned with customer and business needs. In case you missed them, you can still catch up with Parts One, Two and Three, before Mark wraps up the series in Marketing‘s April-May issue on sale next month.

Over the course of this series on social media ROI, we have summarised many aspects of social media marketing and brand management. In this instalment, we will be looking at what to do once you are running campaigns and collecting data. Specifically, we’ll be exploring how to extract insights out of your data and then how to effectively apply those insights. In other words, this article is all about social media conversion.

Conversion activity doesn’t exist in isolation, so before we dive into the details, we need to go back and summarise the progression of this series.

We started our journey by looking at how to define success and the techniques for measuring social media activity. We discussed a variety of techniques for designing metrics that get beyond the near meaningless numbers that many social media analytics tools can generate. There is no ‘right way’ to build a metrics framework, as it must be tailored and aligned to the business needs of the brand in question. However, having a handle on the options from the outset is essential.

After measurement, we examined the subject of influence. The concept of identifying influencers, such as celebrities, and recruiting them for marketing campaigns is far from a new idea. The difference with taking the approach on social networks is that anyone can be a potential influencer. As Malcolm Gladwell said in his book The Tipping Point, “There are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them.” Social media gives you the ability to look for influencers, see popular topics and identify where people who may influence your brand are located. This is all key information that is needed to turn influencers into brand advocates.

At this stage in our journey we looked at how to grow your audience. Many brands have social profiles, but the success of those profiles can vary. Often the reason for poor performance is that the brand doesn’t clearly state the purpose of the Facebook page or Twitter account. People join a social profile if they see value in doing so. If a person joins a page with the intention of it being a customer service channel, but gets only marketing messages, then the value proposition is rapidly eroded.

It is important for brands to focus obsessively on the needs of their customers and align their social channels to these needs. Avoid setting up a Facebook page that offers a little bit of everything (customer service, marketing, corporate communication and branding, for example), but does none of them very well.

One way to ensure that a social channel remains focused is to develop a content plan and engagement framework. An engagement framework is essentially a model that details how your brand should engage with your audience and, importantly, what to do if something goes wrong. It also looks at the different platforms your brand is participating in and what they are designed for, allowing you to optimise the content for each of them.

The content plan is less about managing the conversation, and more about what the brand will be saying. What topics will you focus on? Which channels will have which pieces of content? What will the mix of text, video and images look like? Who is responsible for putting it live? Like anything in the business world, sticking to a well-designed plan is a recipe for success.

The most recent stop in our social media ROI journey was looking at getting social media apps up and running. Apps, like Facebook apps for example, provide benefits that simply engaging with your audience does not. They allow you to collect vast quantities of data (such as demographics, contact information and behavioural trends) that can be used to inform future campaigns and contact your customers directly. It is important not to ask for too much data at once when you promote an app to your market. It may be tempting to do so, but the drop-off rate is roughly 10% for each field you ask for. Try staging the process instead, offering up another value proposition at each stage.

That brings us up-to-date with the journey as a whole, so we can now move on to discuss how we use the data that we have collected to design a conversion strategy.

Converting social media engagement is not a matter of simply putting the data collected into an email list and spamming the hell out of your audience. As you may expect, that is the fastest way to undermine all of the hard work that has gone into your activity so far. Email may be a part of the picture, but so may SMS, landing pages, mobile apps, search marketing and messages via social networks. Conversion is less about an individual channels and much more about a personalised and targeted multi-channel, or omni-channel, approach.

In a study called ‘Multichannel Consumer Research’ published in 2011 by Monash University’s Australian Centre for Retail Studies, the research showed that Australians aged between 18 and 44 were increasingly being influenced by brand messages from a wide variety of channels. In fact, the more channels the consumer interacted with, the more they were likely to spend. The study also revealed that the market is now consulting an ever-increasing number of channels for important purchases.

This change in online behaviour points to the way in which consumers’ mindsets are evolving. Not so long ago, consumers knew what wanted when they went online. They already had a good idea of what they were looking for; they searched for products or services and made purchase decisions quickly. Now people take much more time browsing online, discussing what they have found and looking for referrals. With consumers moving more of their

browsing and product discovery time online, it become possible, and necessary, to focus on personalised communications. Most people don’t like being marketed to. Trust in advertising messages is currently way down and generic messages are increasingly getting ignored. Showing that you have spent time creating a message that is as relevant to the individual as possible creates cut-through.

While this may sound like a huge undertaking, it’s actually not all that difficult. It is possible to automatically segment your database, design messages for each channel and use dynamic content to customise the experience all through one interface. Tools like ExactTarget, for example, one software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketing automation suite, are designed to do just that.

All of what has been discussed in this series is based on the model my company has designed called ‘People to Purchase’. While the social web and the technology associated with digital marketing can be complex, generating success relies on keeping things simple. This framework is designed to do just that (see diagram ):

grow and engage: build awareness by any means necessary and have a social data collection point,
analysis and insights: use the data to develop insights, build segments and work out how to communicate effectively, and
action and conversion: develop the conversion pathway that delights the audience and produces success.

There is no magic bullet in marketing. To really see a return on your social media effort, it needs to be part of a much broader digital marketing strategy. In isolation you may get an engaged audience, more efficient customer service and positive brand mentions. But when it is part of a much bigger strategic approach, it can easily be tied back to dollars – and, ultimately, this is what every brand is looking for.

In case you missed them, you can still catch up with Parts One, Two and Three, before Mark wraps up the series in Marketing‘s April-May issue, on sale next month.

Social ROI part 3: Keeping your audience engaged

by Mark Cameron ON 21 February 2013

So now that you know how to define ROI in social media and how to grow your audience, this month Mark Cameron looks at how to engage an audience on the various social platforms and the trick to extracting valuable information from users. And in case you missed them, you can still catch up on Parts One and Two.

In the first article in this social media ROI series we outlined how to define the return on investment through social media, while in the second article we discussed growing an audience using a variety of strategies and tactics and how to define a digital value proposition. In this article, we will examine what is involved in engaging an audience, how to use this engagement to obtain data, and what you can do with that data once you have it.

The earlier articles have primarily focused on Facebook, but it’s worth knowing how to plan for each of the platforms available. They all have strengths and weaknesses. Here is a quick rundown:

Facebook: over 55% of the Australian population is now on Facebook, and they view it as personal. For communication to work, it needs to talk to the audience at a personal level. Find ways of expressing the area of overlap between your brand and the lives of the audience members. Graphics and photographs tend to work well and using the segmentation tools that the platform provides is highly recommended.

Twitter is great for customer engagement, but you’ll waste time and money if you just post links to your web-site or to items for sale. Twitter is about providing value, and building trust in the process. Engage in conversations, post links that are truly valuable and you can build a community. Spam and you will build nothing.

Google Plus has had a technical, male-oriented slant for some time, but that is beginning to change. It is growing quickly. Take advantage of this to build your reputation and position your brand as a thought leader by utilising Hangouts.

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, after Google. Some brands have managed to launch well-crafted videos that taking a very short time to reach millions. But ‘going viral’ is not easy. Plan to use YouTube videos in targeted ways to engage your audience. It is very effective, but don’t expect miracles.

Pinterest, the ‘breakout’ social platform of 2012, is essentially an image scrapbook online. Like other platforms, it can be effective as long as you think through how it will be used. If you are selling something that lends itself to imagery, then it is really worth considering.

Of all the platforms, Facebook has the most long-term strategic potential if used properly. That’s because you can obtain user data, called Facebook Permissions. The type of data that can be collected ranges from basic demographic information to information that can make up more of a psychographic profile (e.g. the groups a user belongs to, or their interests). These data points can generate deep insights.

All of this data can help you create segments and be used for direct marketing efforts such as email marketing. The most common way to obtain Facebook Permissions data is through a customised Facebook app. To be successful, you really have to think carefully about what you are asking for and what you are offering in return.

Rather than using ‘cookie-cutter’ Facebook apps, like competitions, a far better approach is to devise a strategic approach that looks at where the user’s life intersects with your brand, and develop an interesting way of expressing that through software. This type of project requires a larger investment, but it will have longevity and, if thought through correctly, will demonstrate value that will induce your audience to engage. Remember that your audience doesn’t like to give away personal information, so make the offer compelling!

Getting the art of data collection and utilisation right can be extremely beneficial for your brand. But even though your audience members have provided you with their data, it does not mean they have given you permission to spam their email inboxes. You need to keep up the process of demonstrating value and use creatively the data you generate.

That means designing a conversion strategy. And this is what we will look at in the next part in the series.

In case you missed them, you can still catch up with Parts One and Two, before going on with Part Four.

What the brands that ‘get it’ will be doing this year

by Mark Cameron ON 18 February 2013

Now that January has come to a close it’s time for marketers in our part of the world to get focused on making 2013 a resounding success. So what are the marketing and communications trends that will be at the forefront this year? A safe bet is any strategy that is not data-utilisation-focused probably won’t get off the ground. As The New York Times stated in an article called ‘Marketers Celebrate Glimmers of Recovery’ in 2011, “Data rules… content may be king in media, but in advertising, it is data”. Here are my predictions for the next twelve months.

Companies that can demonstrate ROI will lead the way

The advertising industry is currently going through major disruption. One of the major factors driving this change is the huge volumes of unstructured data available. Unlike having a set of predefined fields that fill a database, such as old style CRMs or competition entry forms, unstructured data is conversations, interactions, and preferences such as Facebook Likes that will be different for each customer.

While many advertisers are still caught up in trying to work out the “engagement” formula – how to get people to engage with content online – the forward thinking companies are now firmly focused on generating conversion-focused insights out of unstructured social media data. The companies that can effectively connect the dots between engagement, data, and conversion will dominate this space.

Brand data platforms will come into focus

In mid-January Nike quietly released a framework for developers to connect to their Nike+ platform. For those of you who don’t know, Nike+ lets you put sensors in your shoes and track how you are using your trainers – how long you run and how fast you run is recorded, and you can share it on Facebook.

By doing this Nike+ have managed to build a data platform that lets them extend their connection with their customers for the whole life of the trainers, creating much deeper relationships – and new opportunities to sell product. With the release of the new developer framework Nike are making a transition from active clothing product brand to active technology brand. They want to effectively own the active lifestyle data space.

Other brands will be trying to do the same thing this year. They will want to develop their own platform for customer relationship growth.

Marketers will begin to think about ‘closing the loop’

It’s interesting to look at the spectrum of data available from a marketing perspective. Facebook knows what people are doing, Google knows what people want, companies like Amazon know what people are buying and brand platforms like Nike+ will make it possible to know how that product is used. Pulling all of that information together will be extremely powerful for marketers. Better products and services combined with more relevant communications equals happier customers who spend more.

One thing is for sure is that 2013 is going to be the year that marketing data makes a big impact – and the brands that get this will be the brands that succeed.

Preparing for public life: getting executives ready for social media

by Mark Cameron ON 7 February 2013

Social media matured as a communication channel last year. With an ever-larger percentage of the population signing up to social platforms business leaders are increasingly taking notice. A recent Australian Financial Review article reported that Australian executives are now joining the world of social media to retain control of their brands. Interviewed in that article was an advisor to Wesfarmers and a man whose advice I respect, Andrew Twaits, who stated: “You really need to get involved to some extent yourself, to understand the benefits of how it might apply to your business”. With that in mind let’s look at how a business leader can prepare for life in the social web.

Know what to expect. It is important to set realistic expectations when setting up an account to connect with the public. Just because it’s there doesn’t necessarily mean that people will automatically pay attention. Developing an engaged audience takes time and commitment. Factor this in, because if effort to develop and grow your social presence is seen as a waste of time then undoubtedly the account will be ignored before an audience has had time to engage. This can cause your brand harm.

Unique insights are sought after. As a digital advisor I have heard the phrase ‘I don’t use Twitter as I don’t have anything interesting to say’ more time than I care to count. The fact of the matter is we all have a unique perspective on the world. Business leaders, in particular, have insights and experiences many people are keen to hear about. Use this to your advantage, keep your eye out for developments that your audience would like to know your opinion on, and plan your updates around it. Position yourself as a thought leader.

Be genuine. Social media gives you a chance to let people see you as you really are. There is no need to be afraid of this as long as you are careful about what you write. People actually want to hear what you have to say and get to know the ‘digital you’.

Take deep breaths. While it is important to be genuine and say what you think, this should never be confused with using your social media account as a platform to vent. Demonstrate leadership online as you would in the office and avoid being reactionary and overly emotional – and don’t get caught up in arguments. The general rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t announce it at a networking function you shouldn’t put it online.

Forget the legal department. As a business leader you have the best interests of your brand at heart. It may help to have a discussion with a legal representative who understands social media before you start you account, but you don’t need to get comments and updates cleared. It would slow you down and end up making you sound like a robot.

The long-term benefits of ‘getting involved yourself’ and developing a strong social media network will be far reaching and surprising – just spend the time thinking it through first.

Content is still king – but what does it mean, specifically?

by Mark Cameron ON 31 January 2013

Developing a social media marketing strategy that works for your organisation takes creativity, careful planning and time. A good social media strategy is a long-term plan that should be designed to build value for your brand, and ultimately generate sales. The planning stage alone can be a sizeable investment so it would be disastrous to ignore the engine of social media: the content.

Content, and how it connects to social media and search engine optimisation objectives, should be at the core of a sustainable digital marketing strategy. However, simply creating quality content alone is not enough. The planning and distribution of that content must be built into the strategy from the outset.

The latest research from search engine optimisation (SEO) specialists suggests that content creation is far more effective than producing white papers. So what does ‘content’ mean exactly? It is a very broad term when it comes to socially enabled marketing and includes: articles, guides and work sheets, blog posts, videos and social media updates. But not all content is created equal. From a SEO perspective articles, blog posts and social media updates are the most effective form of content. Gaining high search volumes without engaging your audience mean that opportunities will be lost so the other forms of content such as video and images need to be used in a strategic manner.

All indicators of how content is judged by search engines like Google point to an increased importance of social media influence. In fact, one in five social media messages have a link to another piece of content embedded in them. The popularity of those links produces a human layer of intelligence to search results. This intelligence is important to tap into if we are ever to filter through the more than 27 million pieces of content created each day.

Even though it may seem like a massive task to produce content that gets noticed, the truth is it matters as far as conversions are concerned. 52% of consumers say that blogs have had a positive impact on their purchase decisions, while 61% of consumers have stated that they would be more likely to purchase from a website with custom content. The lesson to be taken from this is that spending the time to develop great content builds trust.

So what are some guidelines for developing a content strategy? Content creation is about long term interest so learn to repurpose well researched content in a number of ways: blogs, articles, infographics, ebooks and videos. If you are using video, embed it in posts with a punchy sentence or two to make the whole piece more shareable. Develop a content style, or voice, that is shareable – injecting humour where appropriate tends to help.

Importantly, think about how you can incentivise social sharing behaviour. Discounts, competitions, access to additional high-value content or exclusive access to parts of a website can all be offers that encourage people to share what you have created. It’s a fast way to see a return on all your hard work.

See how all your online marketing works together

by Mark Cameron ON 25 January 2013

John Wanamaker, one of advertising’s early pioneers and often described as the father of modern advertising, famously said: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Wanamaker died in 1922, well before the internet and social media started to change the game. The rapid adoption of this technology in recent years has created much more focus on delivering tangible results. Wanamaker would be amazed by the level of measurement and accountability that can be generated online. But are we seeing the whole picture, and the right numbers?

At first glance accurately attributing which online marketing initiative is resulting in conversions doesn’t seem all that difficult a task. People either choose to click on a marketing message or they don’t. The messages that get interacted with are the ones that work. This is why search marketing has become the powerhouse it has.

However, to get a full picture of return on investment, it is necessary to think through other scenarios. For example a Facebook ad can trigger a search activity leading to a site visit where finally the consumer interacts with a banner ad that has been placed through ‘re-marketing’ (targeted ads on other sites based on your search patterns). In this case how does one assign credit? Is it the Facebook ad? A search message? The re-marketing message? It can get complicated very quickly.

In truth it’s the whole journey that is important and this is where cross-channel analytics come into play. Cross-channel analytic tools are used to understand and optimise the journey that your customers take through multiple digital touch-points. You can understand where people came from before they took the final conversion action, and this means you can work out how to shorten that path. These are the kinds of tools that US brands like Macy’s, Gap and Netflix are now using to help them manage their online sales funnels.

As the online marketing space continues to evolve the range of places that a marketer can spend their budget is growing exponentially. Nobody wants to throw good money after bad so getting a good handle on analytics is vital. Better information allows better decisions. Decisions that can create important competitive advantages.

John Wanamaker had a vision for a world where it was possible to understand the value of every marketing touchpoint. Somehow I don’t think he could have imagined just how complicated it would become to fulfil that vision. It is fortunate that there are clever people out there developing ways to help tame this complexity and give marketers the tools and insights they need.

Social ROI part 2: Growing you social audience

by Mark Cameron ON 3 December 2012

In the second instalment of this five-part series on measuring return on investment of your social media efforts, Mark Cameron looks at an important step in the process: building an audience (and how to deal with the inevitable trolls). In case you missed it, catch up with Part One here.

The first article in this social media ROI series discussed how to develop metrics for social media activity and measure whether you are achieving successful outcomes. This second article looks at how to grow your audience.

Social media marketing can be very effective if the strategy is sound and the execution is well managed. But that is not enough. There are now over a billion Facebook users worldwide and over 55% of the Australian population now has a Facebook account. That doesn’t mean they will all ‘like’ your page. Growing your social media following takes time and effort. Having a lot of followers on Facebook doesn’t necessarily translate into sales either, but it is a very important step along the conversion journey. There are a number of now well-defined principles for ensuring you effectively engage your audience and, by doing so, see it grow.

It’s not about you

The key to developing a high quality community is understanding that your audience is your most valuable asset. Yes, they have connected with you to find out more about your brand – but for the brand to remain relevant it needs to fit into people’s lives. The saying ‘the customer is always right’ is especially true in social media. Your brand is entering social media to engage with your audience. If you simply talk about yourself or try to sell, sell, sell, you’ll end up like looking like the boring guy at the party.

Inclusion

It is important to make your audience feel respected and tell them they are part of something that’s fun. The audience members are not ‘fans’ – they have influence.

Everyone wants to belong to something fun and exciting. So make it that way.

Invite conversation

Some brands have been slow to adopt social media. They have been afraid that their audience may express negative views. The problem with that perspective is that, by failing to provide your customers a forum to have their say, you are, in effect, censoring them. This is not a great idea if you want to build relationships and grow your customer base. You are much better off inviting conversation and dealing with negative opinions openly and honestly.

Be clear on the rules

Engaging with your audience doesn’t mean that you have to put up with the inevitable trouble makers that online media seems to successfully attract. In your brand community, irrespective of the social media platform you are using, it pays to be up front and clear about what is acceptable and what is not. If you have to remove a comment, let everyone, including the person who wrote it, know why you took it down.

Use apps

If you are not using apps on your Facebook page you are missing out on a big opportunity to generate value. The ‘Big Data’ that apps can generate is really the start of the conversion process and a key determinant of the ROI. We’ll discuss this point in more detail in the next article in this series.

Develop a content plan

Growing your social media audience requires that you to publish content. Approaching this in an ad hoc way is a formula for failure. There is nothing worse than seeing the Facebook page of a brand that has been ignored because a clear plan was not in place. In the end, growing your audience really boils down to common sense, proper planning, clear strategy, good execution and the willingness to spend some time and money. But the really clever part comes next – once you step back, look at the data that you have collected from your audience and work out how to use it to generate sales. That’s for my next article.

In case you missed it, you can catch up with Part One here, or continue to Part Three, ‘Keeping your audience engaged‘.