When I first really became interested in social media, I was working for a marketing and promotions agency as head of their interactive division. This gave our work a particular skew – we were always looking at the performance metrics of our efforts – how could we drive trial, influence people to consider and love our clients’ products – and how do we measure and improve on this over time. And since that time, it has been clear to me that social media really is about promotion – in that industry sense.
And now the GetSatisfaction team have put out an infographic that confirms at least part of this theory – the largest proportion of people surveyed follow brands so they can learn of special offers and deals (36.9% on Facebook and MySpace, 43.5% on Twitter). So if your online strategy doesn’t have a promotional component you’re going to be disappointing much of your audience.
If you have not subscribed to Mike Arauz’s blog, then remedy this quick smart! Dig back through his writing and plunder his brilliant ideas and analysis. I am sure you will find more than one or two things you can use to dazzle your boss or your clients.
But while you are doing this plundering, put your headphones on and listen in on Mike’s great presentation from the Next Conference. It’s the perfect way to round out your week!
As a rule I don’t watch a lot of television. It’s often not challenging enough or emotionally engaging. But last night as I was prepping for a little writing after an already long day, I spotted a number of tweets about a show that sounded compelling.
SBS’ Go Back to Where You Came From takes six ordinary Australians on a reality TV style adventure – living like refugees for 25 days. In this first episode (with two others to run over consecutive nights), the scene is set, participants are eased into the process, hearing the personal, confronting stories of former refugees now living in Australia. Spending three nights living with these families begins the long process of cracking the hard core of prejudice that many of us blithely live with. But how confronting will this get for the participants – and for us the audience?
In true reality TV fashion, events are orchestrated to emotionally and physically test the participants. We often say that truth is stranger than fiction – and it is clear from this first episode that the reality of being a refugee contains more drama, fear, risk and challenge than many of us, cocooned in the comfort of our armchairs, could have imagined. Just when you think that the participants have been pushed to the limit, they are plunged to a deeper level of discomfort.
And while the show itself is brilliant, there’s also some seriously good social media integration around it. You can view the show online (which was perfect for me as I missed the first few minutes). There’s no waiting 24 hours etc. I think there is a problem with viewing via iPad, but the immediate availability of the show allows late-comers to still engage. Brilliant work from SBS.
Now, this is a great way to get your company known. Go-Globe.com – a web design and application development company have produced an infographic that shows what happens on the web every 60 seconds. Take a look. Think about what this means on a practical level. Think about the scale. Then think that everyone of these items is an opportunity for a conversation. That’s what I call the real time web.
There are plenty of articles around that talk about what it takes to get started with social media. Heck, I’ve probably even written a few myself. After all, anyone – with the exception perhaps of Gerry Harvey – knows that the barriers to entry to social media are very low. You need a computer and a connection to the internet. Oh, and maybe an hour or so.
In that hour you will be able to create a blog, a number of profiles, fan pages, accounts and maybe even link them together. But then what?
Well, normally I’d say:
STOP
right
there
Do your research, think through and align your strategy and then proceed. But presuming you’ve jumped in feet first …
That’s when you either start spending some time (and yes, time is money) or you hire a consultant or an agency to help you out. But what are the ballpark figures you need to budget for? Think about:
The profile of your business customers – where they shop (yes, online), where they get their information, how they qualify their decisions and where they rate, compare and review products. In short, what is their digital footprint
What resources/time/people do you have in-house that can “own” your social media project
Decide your level of commitment -are you testing the waters, piloting a concept, building on previous efforts, building a platform for business growth
Write down your top three objectives
Once you have this basic information, Mack Collier has written an excellent article disclosing the type of prices charged for various social media related services. I have summarised the prices here, but added in my view of what you are likely to see here in Australia. These prices are not LARGE AGENCY prices – and are more likely to be found amongst the boutique agencies and individual consultants. Also, the quality and amount of creative design will impact these costs – good design costs good money.
Remember, you get what you pay for (generally) – and be sure to ask for details or references regarding the last three social media projects your consultant/agency has worked on. Be sure to go through and read Mack’s whole article and subscribe to his excellent blog.
Blogging
Range
My view
Full service – launch, content creation, comment moderation management and response
1000-12,000
10,000-25,000
Launch – content creation and launch
1000-8000
5000-10,000
Ghost writing (per article)
$50-$500
$100-$500
Twitter
Full service – launch, content creation and customer interaction
1000-7500
2500-5000
Facebook
Full service – launch, content creation and customer interaction
One post that consistently garners traffic here on my blog is Every Page is a Landing Page. It’s not really a post about marketing, or branding, or strategy. It’s just a post about the most important page on your website – all of them.
So, if every page on your site is important, what does it look like? What story does it tell? Here’s an infographic from the folks at Formstack.
Here’s an interesting presentation on how startups should pitch to investors. There’s nothing earth shattering – but the design is great. But perhaps, the most interesting thing about this presentation is how widely it could be used.
Don’t just think of pitching a new business or startup. Think about your own projects (internal or external). Think about how you need to convince your wife that you should have a shiny new motorbike, or a sports car or a trip to Vegas. Use the same approach with your boss when pitching for a raise.
The same principles apply in all cases. Now just bite the bullet.
When I was in my teens I found myself with pockets of friends. There would be those kids that lived close to my home – the boys I would surf, fish and hang out with. There were the smart, nerdy kids who I shared classes with. And there were some cool kids who would play guitar in the playground or were good at sport.
When I moved towns to attend university, these groups of friends fragmented even further. I had work friends, university friends and people I did drama with. I was living a patchwork, finding my way. Connecting.
I noticed my level of contentedness directly related to my place within my group of friends. Over time, I shifted, as perhaps we all do, to the centre of connected webs – investing time and energy in those places where my investment matches the investment of others.
Now, I am not saying this was conscious, but it was certainly a fact.
These days I see this most clearly demonstrated in the social networks. With social networking, we like to say that we are drawn to “like minds”. However, what we are actually looking at are clusters – not of “mind” or thinking, but clusters of behaviour. What causes this? As Nicholas Christakis points out in this TED Talk, there are three conclusions:
Induction – where my actions see a type of contagion or spreading within those strong ties within our personal network
Homphily – where our ties are based on our obvious similarities
Confounding – where the similarities in our behaviour are the subject of something other than the obvious
Where this gets interesting is where you look at “happiness”. It seems that when you map the clusters of happy and unhappy people, the happiest can be found in well-connected social networks, while the unhappiest are found on the fringes. Now, we knew this instinctively, right? But where it becomes fascinating is when we look at the role of the individual within network creation. Based on Nicholas’ research, 46% of the variations in an individual’s social network is genetic. Sure, some are born shy and others, extroverted, but some of us choose to CREATE a network of ties – we choose to place ourselves on the edge or in the centre of a network. This in turn determines our experience AS SOCIAL CREATURES.
In my own worlds, I gradually began weaving different social groups together. It was a risk – for me. But what I found was that all sorts of goodness arose from the connecting of these networks. There were unexpected alliances and new friendships. But there were also plenty of learnings:
Social shifts – people move in and out of groups, become active, cool off and re-engage. Sometimes they leave the group, the location or move beyond the reason the group came together. This is natural.
Community needs orchestration – in multi-group networks, the person who connects the groups MUST initiate and orchestrate engagement. You have to give people a reason to engage with each other.
It’s not dating – you aren’t trying to match-make people. You’re looking to align passions, not individuals. Find affinity first.
But what does this mean for brands?
We need to think through this in the same way. Think about the people behind your brand – the marketing directors, the agency, the brand managers and so on. Find their passion points. Allow them to express these within their social networks. It’s about finding the connection point into a network – not shouting at a bunch of disinterested online participants. And the strange thing is, do this right and you’ll make people happy. And isn’t that the whole point of what you do?
Back in 2008, Joe Pulizzi started looking in-depth at blogs that focused on content marketing. He found 81 blogs – and the Junta 42 were the viewed as the leaders in what was then an emerging field.
Two years on and the field has exploded, with almost 400 blogs being tracked as part of the Junta 42 list. This growth mirrors not only the interest in content marketing and social media, but the general explosion in blogging as a method of communication.
Each of the blogs in the Junta42 are ranked based on a number of factors, explained as follows:
The number of posts in last quarter that pertained to a content marketing topic. Those posting on 3 or more days per week received the highest number of points.
Substantiveness of Posts. Here we worked to weed out posts that fell short of adding value to the collective body of knowledge about content marketing. For example, blogs that simply linked to other blogs or articles without adding new information, perspectives or ideas to the commentary received lower scores than did blogs that consistently delivered unique ideas, thoughtful insights, deep coverage, rich media and the like – you know, high-value content – to the community.
Google PageRank. (All blogs were checked on the same day.)
Previous Ranking.
The latest version of the Junta 42 provides a handy reference to some of the leading content marketing blogs – a very useful resource for those marketers working with social media as part of their strategy. The August 2010 top 42 content marketing blogs are:
Some years ago, when I first started blogging, I loved the way that people would creatively think through what it would mean to contribute to a global community. Often this involved the creation of lists – like Mack Collier’s collection of relative unknown bloggers – the z-list, or Todd Andrlik’s Power 150 which eventually transformed into the AdAge Power150. I’d even class Ann Handley’s clever curation of MarketingProfs daily fix bloggers in the same way.
In the world of strategic/creative planners, a number of people have been continuously building and engaging their professional communities. Iqbal Mohammed has been regularly publishing his Plannersphere lists for years, and Neil Perkin provides a valuable conversation point (and light competition) around the “post of the month”, complete with voting. In a more complicated twist on community building, Rob Campbell challenges the veterans, the wannabes and the up-and-comers with his Advertising Planning School of the Web assignments, veering between scorn and applause depending on what’s submitted and it’s quality.
These examples stand out as beacons – not just because they have been doing this work consistently, but because they are generous. They are inclusive. They stand out because much of what we now see on the web is based on one-up-man-ship. It’s like a pissing match between row after row of intellectual dwarfs. And it’s a shame, because it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s a shame because we are all impoverished by it.
So, it is with some joy I came across Heather LeFevre’s Planner Survey for 2010. It covers the industry from top to tail – sharing details of salaries, roles, locations and so on. It captures what planners think of their jobs, why they stay, why they go – and who they think is doing the best work. It also lists a bunch of people who the community rate – not because they are famous, but because they get on with the challenge of producing good work. Check it out.
