Use an agile approach when developing internal networks

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Research by Econsultancy suggests that centralised internal networks, processes and tools don’t always have a long shelf life. Global agency Ogilvy set up centralised knowledge management system with some initial success, but this was eventually replaced by team-level adaption of ad hoc solutions.

It is important to be agile when developing new processes and tools, particularly when cultural practices may need to change – try a number of approaches and move on quickly when one doesn’t work. Learn quickly and adapt.

Catherine Glover, Director of Social@Ogilvy says: “I do not think that it has anything to do with technology. I think it has more to do with investing in a knowledge management infrastructure to support the way that we share work, and the way that we work together.” “I think that as an organization it is hard to [create a centralised structure] unless you have an advocate and a leader driving it.”

Read an interview with Catherine here: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/9222-interview-catherine-glover-director-of-social-ogilvy-on-best-practice-knowledge-management-in-the-social-age

How many fans should we have on our Facebook page?

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One of the first questions any marketer will ask in the first stages of setting up a business Facebook page is ‘how many fans should we have?’ or ‘how many fans do we need?’

This is a more complicated question than you might think and it’s not just a numbers game. Competitor fan pages offer a wealth of insight for any brand and it is easy to get distracted by the number of fans a competitor has and use this benchmark as the sole measure of success.

However, it’s difficult to see the tactics they employed to get those fans – and how much money they spent to get them. High fan numbers don’t necessarily mean a brand has a large and loyal following.

Advertising for fans

Some campaigns are less about true brand popularity and more about the budget a company puts behind pushing a page via Facebook ads.

75% of Facebook fans have signed up with pages after invitations or ads from brands (DDB Worldwide and Opinionway Research in September 2010). If this is the route you are going down, the benchmark amount of fans you ‘should’ have can most accurately be calculated using estimated CPC’s and conversion rates.

Buying fans

Something to be avoided, this less scrupulous technique uses third party companies to buy a set number of fans. The dangers here are twofold, firstly,  the fans often aren’t real people, just fake or automated accounts and secondly, even if they are real you are ultimately buying someone who isn’t interested in your brand. It’s a quick win and it will make your account ‘appear’ more popular in the short term – but ultimately, it’s a meaningless ‘big’ number.

Targeting is key

Targeting is key to growing real fans. You may get more get more fans quickly and cheaply by blanket targeting everybody but ideally, you want to attract your target market. Promote your page via your existing communication channels and if you are utilising advertising be very specific with your demographic criteria and interest selection.

All about the engagement

Rather than focusing on the numbers alone, your resources are better invested developing a meaningful relationship with the ‘true’ fans you do have. Providing them with great content will ultimately increase your interaction rates, and therefore the reach of your page allowing for organic growth. You are also more likely to identify your brand advocates who will happily share your content with their network.

The benefits to the marketer of having a thriving community of fans and advocates are countless. Instead of sifting through spam, irrelevant posts and comments you can learn about your customers and what they think about your brand, conduct real time customer service and most importantly develop a long term relationship with the people who matter.

So how many fans should we have on our facebook page? Simply however many want to be there.

5 dangers of not having a social media presence

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Many businesses realise the benefits of social technologies but many are still watching from side of stage, waiting for the right time to make their entrance.

Perhaps they are fearful of getting it wrong or simply don’t think they need a social web presence.

As with all marketing initiatives, there’s no point adopting a social media presence just for the sake of it, but there are dangers in holding back online:

1. You’re missing the opportunity to extend your Customer Service

Customer service IS social. In spite of all the jargon and bluster it is simply a conversation between a company and its customers.

If you’re not socially active, you are missing the opportunity to lead that conversation. Don’t put your company at risk by not being there if someone has a complaint – or recommendation.

You can stop bad comments in their tracks and amplify good comments – but only if you’re listening. Someone, somewhere is discussing your brand, don’t be afraid – get involved and participate.

2. You are losing out on sales and leads

The stats around consumers researching their purchase decision online are significant.

The sales cycle now has an additional step – we call it the “validate my decision” step, where a prospective customer reaches out to listen to what others are saying about their chosen purchase.

It’s why all the major online retail outlets now feature review sections. If you play no part in curating the conversation about your brand within social media then you are losing out on sales.

3. You’re not just missing out on young consumers!

Social media might be relatively young, but it’s a common mistake to assume that only the young are using it.

There are 800 million users of Facebook, predicted to be one billion at some point in 2012. Over 200 million of those are over the age of 35+

Social media is here to stay and it’s for everyone, being used across all age profiles.

http://www.kenburbary.com/2011/03/facebook-demographics-revisited-2011-statistics-2/Ken Burbary

4. You’re not in charge of your reputation

Because of the speed of online conversation, if you miss the opportunity to react if someone is complaining, the sound of your silence is deafening.

An effective social media strategy or reputation management strategy helps manage problems before they flare up.

5. You’re ignoring your customers’ great ideas

One of the greatest merits of Social Media is that you can now gather feedback by listening to your online audience. It’s like one huge, open focus group, if you’re willing to take advantage that is.

In addition a strong social media presence can strengthen you’re overall marketing, allowing you to track customer lifecycles and provide insight into customer profiles. Many companies are using techniques to find advocates and foster loyalty and build long-term relationships.

Become a social media success story

Social media on it’s own is not the big picture. It should form part of your entire marketing and customer service strategy. Nor does your entrance to social media need to be “big”. Many of the success stories are from organisations that had a clear strategy, aligned to business objectives and supported by an individual or a core team.

 

 

FT.com continues to generate revenue from online content – case study

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While many publishers are still struggling to create a model to generate revenue from content online, The FT are continuing to increase profits through digital subscriptions for content.

“At the FT Group, the changes we have made to the business model and mix mean we are well placed to grow even in tough markets for print circulation and advertising,” says a news release from The Financial Times. “We expect digital subscriptions, now the engine of the FT Group’s growth, to continue to build steadily.”

FT Online Product Management Director Mary Beth Christie commented at the conference Paywall Strategies 2011: “Like the best systems, ours is simple. It gives users freedom of choice to consume media between the paper, the tablet and mobile. We allow our users complete freedom to read our content as they wish.”

This approach has culminated in more than 230,000 paying subscriptions for the FT/FT.com and 3.7 million registered online users.

Christie says the “majority are individual subscribers, not corporate”. She also added that “The goldmine is not paying for content, the goldmine is building greater reader engagement over time.”

Key features of the business/marketing model

  • Registered users can sign up and get 8 articles for free a month, though payment is required for further access.
  • Mobile platforms are a growing demographic — about 22 percent of all traffic to FT.com is from a mobile device and account for about 15 percent of new subscriptions.
  • The home page with the lastest headlines if open to view without registration generating search results.
  •  A wide range of content including blogs and podcasts is freely available without registration, generating search results and allowing journalists to engage in social media.
  • Current deal ‘Try the Financial Times for 4 weeks for just £1. Then continue your subscription from just £5.19 a week

Get more people talking about your brand on Facebook

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The Häagen-Dazs Facebook pageIf you’ve got a Facebook page for your business, you need to know who your brand advocates are.

Why? Because unless you do, you’ll find it hard to grow your community, increase engagement with your brand or successfully convert Facebook engagement into increased sales.

Knowing and analysing your advocates in Facebook allows you to:

1. Generate increased word-of-mouth about your brand and campaigns

Understand what makes your advocates tick and you’ll understand how to get them talking about you, your brand and your campaigns more often. Do this and you’ll increase the positive ‘word of mouth’ about your brand and campaigns.

2. Generate an increase in conversions/entries to campaigns

Who entered your last promotion/competition or campaign? Was there a pattern in the types of people that engaged with certain campaigns? Profile your advocates, tailor your upcoming marketing activity to ensure further campaigns are exponentially more successful, generating increased conversions and entries.

3. Build a sustainable community for the long-term requiring less input from your brand team

Know your advocates and deliver content of value to them. This way, you’ll create a self-sustaining community who will engage not just with your brand, but with each other through your brand. The result? A sustainable community requiring less input from your brand team.

4. Invoke advocates to help manage reputation and customer service

A sustained community of advocates means you have more brand ambassadors socially interacting online on your behalf. This extends your reach in terms of managing your reputation who can also help to manage your reputation, in turn supporting your team in delivering excellent customer service.

5. Gather insight from your biggest fans

Your biggest fans talk about you and your brand. What they think, feel, like and dislike matters to you. Take the time to get to know them and what makes them tick and feed this back in to your R&D efforts and marketing strategy. Your fans are vital to your business, so don’t waste this resource at your fingertips.

6. Create an advocate management programme

There’s no point understanding your fans and advocates without a programme to manage them. Document and plan the management and growth of your advocates and your brand will truly grow and succeed on the social web.