One prediction for 2011

There are lots of predictions for the new year as we come closer to the end of 2010.  So I thought I would through my hat in the prognosticators ring. Social Media has landed in an “age of strategy”.

There has been a lot of talk lately about how social media is growing up. Those of us who declare ourselves to be social media strategists have been eyeing the horizon of 2011.

Social media is growing up and requires grown-up social media strategists.  It won't be appropriate in 2011 to take social media strategy advice from your 16-year old nephew who set up your Facebook fan page. Solution: If social media is your job, invest in professional development or hire help. Social media has arrived and organisations can no longer afford to invest time, people and resources in it willy-nilly. Social media needs to part of an integrated media strategy, and pronto.

There has been a delay in post and I apologies for that, we have been working on a new blog format, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Something which frustrates me with face book advertisements is trying to evaluate the analytics, and i thought you may be having the same frustrations so here is a quick definition of some of the term you will come accross.

Date: The date on which the activity reported in the row of the report took place. Please note that monthly reports will be dated on the first of each month and weekly reports will be dated on the Sunday that marks the beginning of the week.

Ad/Campaign Name: The name of the ad/campaign reported in the row.

Ad/Campaign ID: The unique ID number of the ad/campaign reported in the row.

Total Impressions: The total number of times the ad referenced was shown has been shown on the site.

Total Clicks: The total number of clicks on the ads tracked by that row in the report.

Total CTR: CTR stands for click through rate. The CTR for an ad is calculated as the number of clicks the ad received divided by the number of impressions (times the ad was shown on the site) in the given time period.

Total Average CPC (US$): The average cost per click in US dollars for the given row.

Total Average CPM (US$): The average cost per thousand impressions in US dollars for the given row.

Total Spent (US$): The total cost in US dollars for the given row.

Unique Impressions: The number of people who viewed the ad(s) tracked by the given row of the report.

Unique Clicks: The number of people who clicked on the ad(s) tracked by the given row of the report.

Unique CTR: The unique click through rate. The unique CTR is calculated as the number of unique clicks the ad(s) received divided by the number of unique ad impressions.

Total Social Impressions: The total number of views (impressions) for ads with social actions attached to them for the given row. Not all ads have social actions attached to them.

Total Social Clicks: The number of clicks on ads with social actions attached to them for the given row. Not all ads have social actions attached to them.

Total Social CTR: The click through rate for ads with social actions attached to them. It is calculated as the number of “social clicks” divided by the total number of “social impressions”.

Unique Social Impressions: The number of people who viewed ads with social actions attached to them for the given row of the report.

Unique Social Clicks: The number of people who clicked on ads with social actions attached to them for the given row.

Unique Social CTR: The unique click through rate for ads with social actions attached to them. It is calculated as the number of “unique social clicks” divided by the number of “unique social impressions”.

Who’s that Girl? Image and Social Media

I had to share this research with you all from the Girl Scout Research Institute.

Despite popular perception, social networks are not necessarily a “girl’s best friend.”
• A vast majority of girls use Facebook (91%) and MySpace (28%) regularly. Thirty-eight percent
have a Twitter account, and girls average eight tweets per day.
• However, the vast majority of girls prefer face-to-face communication. Ninety-two percent would
give up all of their social networking friends if it meant keeping their best friend.

On social networks, a girl’s image is not always what it seems.
• Seventy-four percent of girls agree that “most girls my age use social networking sites to make
themselves look cooler than they really are.” Forty-one percent admit that this describes them.
• When thinking about themselves, most girls claim they portray a more well-rounded image
in person than they do online.
o In person, girls say they come across as smart (82%), fun (82%), funny (80%), kind (76%),
a good influence (59%), outgoing (55%), cool (55%), and social/confident (51% each).
o The most frequent words girls use to describe how they come across based solely
on their online profile are fun (54%), funny (52%), and social (48%).
• Girls downplay several positive characteristics of themselves online, most prominently their
smartness, kindness, and efforts to be a good influence.
• Girls who have low self-esteem are more likely to admit that their social networking image
doesn’t match their in-person image (33% vs. 18% of girls with high self-esteem).
• Girls with low self-esteem are more likely than girls with high self-esteem to claim that the image
they portray on social networks is sexy (22% vs. 14%) and crazy (35% vs. 28%).

Girls have good intentions when it comes to safe social networking behavior, but don’t
always act on them.
• The vast majority of girls (85%) have talked with their parents about safe social networking
behavior, yet 50% admit they are not always as careful as they should be.
• Fifty-nine percent of girls think they have complete control over what happens with the videos,
photos, and other information they post online.
• The average girls boasts 351 friends, but 54% of girls are social networking friends with someone
they have never actually met in person.
• Many girls are concerned that they won’t get accepted into their college of choice (42%), will miss
a job opportunity (40%), will get in trouble with parents/teachers (40%), or will have friends/family
lose respect for them (39%) because of their social networking content.
Girls’ emotional safety and reputations are at risk online.
• Sixty-eight percent of girls have had a negative experience on a social networking site, such as having
someone gossip about them or being bullied.
• Almost half (46%) think that social networking often creates jealousy among friends. Forty percent
admit to losing respect for a friend because of something she/he posted on a social network.

The upside to social networking includes better relationships and connections to causes
girls care about.
• Fifty-six percent of girls agree that social networks help them feel closer and more connected to their
friends. Thirty percent think that social networks have increased the quality of their relationships.
• Fifty-two percent have gotten involved in a cause they care about through a social network.

Findings come from a nationwide online study with 1,026 girls ages 14–17 that fielded in June 2010. Respondents were required to have
a social networking profile to participate. The study was conducted in conjunction with TRU. For more information, please visit
www.girlscouts.org/research.

I would love to know your thoughts.

Social media real estate

Are you taking advantage of all the free social media real estate available to you? If used and used wisely it can made the difference between a successful campaign and a dud. By social media real estate I mean anywhere you can brand yourself or your business as part of you profile. For example the profile pic on your facebook business page allows you to have a long vertical jpeg which can be designed like something you would have traditionally used in print media. Design something which will entice your audience go like your page, they need to be given a reason to click the like button.

Don't put up a profile pic of your backyard, that confuses the audience. Have something up there that visually communicates the message you want them to receive in a split second. If you need to get it professionally done, a good designer can do something like that in less than an hour and as there is no printing it won't cost too much but worth every cent. Your return on investment will be worth it!

Considering a Social Media Consultant?

Any company, small or large, should staff itself with the people it needs to manage ordinary operations, allowing for normal growth. Carrying a bigger payroll, just in case of emergencies, is wasteful, ineffective, and costly.

That's why everyone has met situations in which there is a need for someone with a particular skill or field of expertise, but no one like that is on staff.  What can you do to meet the extraordinary? That's where an industrial consultant can prove his or her worth.

Both you and your company can benefit by becoming more familiar with the use of consulting services, so that you can be even more cost-effective and competitive in the future.

Consultants can be very useful as a "third arm" for managers. They are there when you need them, gone when you don't. They can provide needed domain expertise, a qualified team, objectivity, knowledge of the latest tools and methodologies, and wisdom. Their job is to deal with your problem when you don't have the resources to do it yourself.

The task of communicating effectively for someone who can't get the right message across on their own has been a booming industry since the beginning of time. Famous people “write” books using ghost writers, big brands use ad agencies to design their image across the board, and everyone has a PR Agency or Talent Agent to help promote their skills and services. Why should social media be any different? If a business hires me to handle their social media efforts, why is it different from them hiring a full time employee? It's not, if I do my job well. In fact, it's better, if I do my job well.

Social media only works effectively when built on transparency and honesty, which for me poses a conflict of interest when posting social media content for another business.  So is there room for outsourcing if it handled correctly? My short answer is: “yes”. My long answer is: “it's a necessity for some.”

What translates in face to face charm by inflection of voice, giant white smiles, and lots of showmanship does not necessarily translate in content through social media. Someone whose sole purpose is to close the deal does not always have the tools to converse with the community without accidentally attempting to sell something by force of habit. The need to just chat and listen is there, but the ability is not [always].

If you can’t find time for social media, don’t pass the task off to the first employee who knocks on your door. Social media is no place for the inexperienced. Consider consulting with a social media specialist to get strategic advice, or even outsource your campaign altogether. It’s your brand, so you’ll stay involved, keeping an eye on the message, suggesting topics, articles and industry trends, because no one knows your business better than you. But the specialist can make it all come together beautifully.

There's a lot of smoke and mirrors in the space at the moment, with everyone jumping on the social media bandwagon, but many 'experts' lack the understanding that POMO Creative has proved time and again.  That POMO’s strategic knowledge and ability to generate business-changing insights mean we are an integral part of, many businesses strategic growth in this area."

It all goes back to the common business advice given across the board. “Delegate what you don't do well or don't want to do. So you can focus on what you are passionate about.” What do you outsource that saves you time, energy, and money, while improving your business?

Tim Ferris, the author of "Four Hour Work Week" sent this to me and i wanted to share this with you all.

"I am not a poet. Furthermore, I almost never “get” poetry, as sad as that sounds. This prose, however, immediately hit me (it was visceral) as relevant and valuable enough to share. It’s from Naomi’s short collection, Words Under Words, which is now the only book of poetry I’ve ever purchased of my own free will.

I hope you’ll pass this along to those in your life who may need it.

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend."

Writing comments on your Facebook Business Page

Before you start writing any comments on your Facebook Business Page,  clarify your thinking. In social media marketing it is important to give your readers a context and a structure which guides them to the conclusion you want them to reach. 

The following three points will help you in the planning process, which is vital to successful writing in the social media marketing world.

 

Purpose

Why are you writing this?
Your purpose might be to explain, recommend, persuade, motivate, request, report findings. Would your writing be the same for each purpose?

Understanding your purpose will determine your choices about the structure and format of your comment, and language style.

Audience

Who is going to read your document?
In our marketing strategies, we know who our ideal client is, and have developed a mental image to focus our thinking.  The same applies when we write in social media - picture your reader actually reading this document. Think about their needs and what will appeal to them.

Message

We've all developed our elevator pitch or tag line: the same applies to writing within social media. Knowing exactly what your message is for each comment will give you a clear direction, and help you cut out the waffle.