Our Dangerous Addiction to Social Media Case Studies
The two most important words in social media should be “so what?” As Tom Webster eloquently put it in his recent Blogworld keynote, when research wears the cloak of content marketing, it’s a recipe for the incurious to pull a fast one on the masses, disguising pointless data as gospel. Tom was referring to data-dredging […]
The 4 Types of Content Metrics That Matter
In a post last week, I talked about turning your content marketing upside down and focusing first on what behaviors you want your content consumers to perform. Once you’ve done that and created content that you think will drive the desired actions, you can start measuring the efficacy of your content program. Content cannot be […]
A Hammer Isn’t a House – Don’t Confuse Tools with Metrics
Last week I spoke about The NOW Revolution at a dinner for 50 or so social media and email marketers, all employed by major corporations based in NYC. It was a great time. Steaks were eaten. Wine drank. Books signed. Interesting conversation participated in. What struck me most, however, was a chat I had with […]
Social Media Measurement – A 6 Step Process
Can you measure social media? Of course you can. But social media measurement is not always easy. For a full and very specific account of how to measure social media in your company, pick up a copy of The Now Revolution, or Social Media ROI (by Olivier Blanchard). However, here are the basics to consider, […]
Don’t Ignore Social Media’s Research Value
Co-written with Kyle Mensing, an economics grad with a creative bent who is trying to merge business and social. Our intrinsic understanding of opportunity cost is what defines us as people. Our preference of city to country, work to play, beer to wine, restaurant to home cooking, video games to books, television to the outdoors, […]
6 Critically Undervalued Social Media Success Metrics
People who say social media isn’t measurable aren’t looking very hard. The truth is that there are at least 25 viable metrics you can use to evaluate the success of your social media efforts. The challenge isn’t measurability, it’s knowing which measures are meaningful. Here are the 6 critically undervalued social media success metrics. Daily […]
How Size Matters in the Social Media ROI Debate
Guest post by Simon Gornick, a content consultant specializing in short form slogans, and owner of The Tagline Machine. ROI in social media is a luxury. And the only brands that can accept that are likely to be big ones with multi-platform marketing budgets. The larger the brand, the more likely they are to use […]
6 Timely Tips for Twitter Success
New research from Sysomos shows that 92.4% of all retweets happen within the first hour after the tweet has been sent. This demonstrates that Twitter users are not browsing the public stream (or even their own lists) to find and interact with tweets from earlier in the day. Consequently, WHEN you send your tweets has […]
Is Our Addiction to ROI Killing Social Media?
Guest post by Matt Ridings, founder of MSR Consulting, a Digital Relationship Marketing Agency in St. Louis. He’s @techguerilla on Twitter. I had an interesting phone call with a prospective client. I didn’t know him, and hadn’t worked with his (large) company. He was looking for a social media vendor, and was referred to me […]
Do You Have the Guts to Expect Social Media Failure
The fastest way to get your company to be on the social media sidelines is to get your company involved in social media. There’s a huge gap between the perception of social media as an instant, free, can’t miss marketing opportunity and the reality of social media as a long-term, time-intensive customer loyalty and brand […]
Social Media is the Servant of Strategy, Not the Master
Guest post by Mike Cassidy, a non-profit Senior Executive Director specializing in membership development, engagement and retention. His ramblings can be found at www.membershipjedi.com This post is a compilation of ideas born out of Jay’s post “Why You’re the Key to Social Media Success” in which he succinctly describes one of the biggest obstacles facing […]
The More Things Change, The More Things Change
Social media hates the status quo the way Kobe hates Shaq. The way Donovan McNabb hates T.O. The way Lindsey Lohan hates non-alcoholic beverages. Just when you think you have some modicum of a handle on this industry, new developments come along and shake up your head like a snow globe. The good news is […]
Are You Suffering From Premature Calculation?
Originally, he was called Machaca. Two problems arose. First, very few people (even here in Arizona) knew what Machaca meant, so we were constantly having to explain it. Second, he just didn’t “seem” like a Machaca. So, in a flash of four year-old inspiration, my son switched our dog’s name to “Cheeto”, and it fit […]
Are You Slow Enough to Succeed in Social Media?
Does this sound familiar? Within 12 months of its invention, 1,200 companies entered the radio “business” in some form or fashion. So said Malcolm Gladwell in a stirring speech given Monday to the AAA Annual Meeting in Scottsdale. In his own, story-filled way, he emphasized the point that we are in a period of unusual […]
Social Media’s Internal Impact – An Interview with Phil Simon
How does social media impact your internal organization? I’m delighted to have had the chance to interview technology consultant and author Phil Simon about how technology and social media adoption is changing companies. (Check out Phil’s blog too) Your new book The Next Wave of Technologies deals with how organizations can adopt and adapt to […]
A Social Media Scoreboard That Works
Clearly, there’s no shortage of data and possible social media success metrics. Advanced social media analytics and ROI calculations often require tying together disparate systems, and looking for causation (or at least correlation) between social media success and business outcome. At the most granular, day-to-day level, this necessitates visiting your various outposts and your social […]