Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
So you hear the good news that your boss/client wants to get started with a social media strategy. Before you start jumping for joy, does the conversation sound anything like this?
Boss: Let’s get on social media – let’s start with Twitter
You: Why? What’s the objective?
Boss: We’ll think about that later, just do it
If that’s what it sounds like, I can almost guarantee in 6 to 12 months that very person is going to be asking you “so how have we done on Twitter?” and you’re going to say “err but we didn’t specify any goals” and it’s going to be a one way ticket to hell. And you know what? In all likelihood if you’re doing it for the sake of “just doing it”, it’s probably not going to be work you’re going to be proud of anyway.
Instead, the conversation should go something like this:
Boss: Let’s get on social media – let’s start with Twitter
You: Why? What’s the objective?
Boss: I want to use it to improve customer service
You: So we’re going to monitor all mentions of our brand and respond to complaints and rectify them?
Boss: Yes
Replace “Twitter” with “Facebook” or “blog”, replace “improve customer service” with “increase lead generation” or “decrease costs’ and you get the gist.
Ideally it should go even further than this to identify whose time will be allocated to this, how much time and how the initiative will be measured.
You need to do this from the get go. Set the expectation early that social media efforts – while free/cheap – take time. Don’t let your desire to do some social media work/please your boss/please your client get in the way of this. It’ll save you a world of hurt later.
How do you deal with “just do it” requests? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
[image credits: themachobox]
Tags: blog, brand mentions, customer service, decrease costs, facebook, increase lead generation, just do it, leadgen, social media, social media goal, social media objective, social media strategy, themachobox, ticket to hell, twitter
Posted in Poor Practices, social media, social media business | 5 Comments »
Friday, October 9th, 2009
At best, you’ll be as good as them.
Today the BLUE blog is finally going live after about two months of planning and preparation. It was literally handed to me on my first day of work and I was told to make it a reality. I gotta say, it has got to be the hardest blog I’ve ever set up, compared to signing up with Wordpress with a click.
But one thing I really enjoyed about working on the blog was that I was never told to look at company X or firm Y. It was really built on the belief that we’d get it started and it’ll evolve organically as time goes by. And when you aren’t thinking within the “box” that competitors or other firms have set, then you have much more room to grow.
Maybe you notice one competitor is on Facebook and another is on Twitter so you decide to go on both just to “keep up”, when that money could have been spent on paid search or SEO and doubled your conversion rate, but you didn’t because your “competitor wasn’t doing it”.
Where would the iPhone be if Apple looked at the existing competitors in the market at the time? How about the Wii if all Nintendo did was look at what was in existence in the form of the Playstation and the Xbox? How much money would then-presidential candidate Obama have raised if he chose to do it the same, “tried and tested” way every presidential candidate had before him, through fund raising parties intead of going straight to the voters via new media? Where will your company end up if all you’re doing is looking over your shoulder?
I’m not saying scoping out the competition is a waste of time, definitely not. But you’ll have strengths that they won’t have and they’ll have weaknesses that you don’t. So whatever they’re doing may not work for you and vice versa.
Take my limited real world “experience” with a bucket of salt, but give me the choice and I’d choose to cut my own blazing path than be a follower. Innovation is key.
Tags: apple, blog, blue, competitive analysis, facebook, iphone, nintendo, obama, playstation, social media, twitter, wii, wordpress, xbox
Posted in social media, social media business | 4 Comments »
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
In the last 10 days or so, I’ve come to learn a few things about data.
1) Data tells stories
It tells you what people are interested in, what people are talking about, and that can sometimes be a polar opposite from what your brand would like them to talk about. Dorothy, who works at a similarly data-driven company, Brandtology, tells the tale of brand mentions and searches telling the financial sector that they should sit up and pay attention. Everything is data, data, data. If you’re not plugged in, you’re losing out.
2) Data is imperfect
Dorothy and I have said this before on The GennY Podcast. As much as existing web analytics does not report statistics in the depth that people are (unreasonably) demanding, it’s still miles galaxies ahead of “faith based initiatives” as Avinash puts it:
How do you measure the effectiveness of your magazine ad? Now compare that to the data you have from doubleclick. How about measuring the ability of your TV ad to reach the right audience? Compare that with measuring reach through Paid Search (or Affiliate Marketing or …..). Do you think you get better data from Neilsen’s TV panel of between 15k – 30k US residents to represent the diversity of TV content consumption of 200 million tv watching Americans?
There is simply no comparison. So why waste our life trying to get perfect data from our web sites and online marketing campaigns? Why does unsound, incomplete, and faith based data from TV, Magazines, Radio get a pass? Why be so harsh to your web channel? Just because you can collect data here means you won’t do anything because it is imperfect?
Lesson? Give me half-sound data over guesswork any day.
3) Data Surprises
One of the data related posts I read early on came from Avinash, telling us how gun websites and car rental sites can be platforms for targeting older men who have performed searches on Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian. I took a long time reconciling that fact. And maybe at some level I still haven’t. It’s going to be one of those things I need to do, test and see the results to believe. But I do believe data doesn’t lie – but it will surprise.
Does data have a place right now?
Frankly, I’m of the personal opinion that a data-driven, results/strategy-focused mentality has yet to be the norm in organisations. It’s not always going to be this way. Sooner rather than later, people are going to tire of experimenting with the “shiny new object” and wonder just how much traction their Facebook, blog, email, search, Twitter efforts are getting for them, which they need to invest more money in and which need to go.
And the only thing that will deliver those results, is data.
Tags: affiliate marketing, avinash kaushik, blog, brand mentions, brandtology, data, data tells stories, data trends, data-driven, dorothypoon, email, facebook, faith based initiatives, genny podcast, nielsen, paid search, results focused, ROI, Search, SEO, strategy focused, tv ad, twitter, web analytics
Posted in Marketing, social media, social media business | 6 Comments »
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
Whale Sharks
Last week I got a Facebook message to sign an online petition against bringing in whale sharks as part of the Marine Life Park at the integrated resort by Resorts World Sentosa. For non-Singaporeans, Sentosa is an entertainment island that is a huge tourist attraction. Apparently whale sharks just don’t live well in captivity, and people are showing concern by signing this petition which apparently has over 4,000 people to date.
By the end of the week, an email reply was sent out (understandably it was a mass email because they were replying to more than 3,000 people) stating that they are listening to the concerns, but the whale sharks were part of the initial proposal years ago, and they are “bound to deliver the integrity of the bid”, which I guess is understandable. On top of that, they referred everyone in the mailing list to their website (which has a full copy of the letter) to keep up to date with developments with the whale sharks.
I personally think this is a pretty good move, but is it enough? Given that the petition was executed online, and that at least some of us got involved via Facebook, it suggests that the audience involved is at the very least, internet-savvy. While Resorts World Sentosa has chosen the right medium to engage (email and a website), I do wonder if other alternatives could enhance this.
If they have to bring in the whale sharks because of the proposal, the next best thing would be to continually assure the public that they are well looked after, right? So how about:
A blog with regular updates on steps taken to give first priority to the whale sharks’ welfare
A YouTube channel to visually show how they are taken of, with interviews with different people (the care givers, audiences, management etc) to talk about the different ways in which they are taking care of the whale sharks
A Facebook group to interact with concerned people and serve as a point to upload pictures, links etc and keep everyone informed
Basically, do everything possible to create a “Whale Shark Welfare” media channel that would be impossible to miss and that could really help their public image. Will they? Why wouldn’t they?
I think it’d work. What about you?
Tags: blog, facebook message, integrated resort, marine life park, resorts world sentosa, whale shark petition, whale shark welfare, whale sharks captivity, youtube
Posted in Singapore, community, social media | 6 Comments »
Monday, March 17th, 2008
If you use social media in any way (blog/podcast/use Youtube/use Flickr/use Facebook/etc), come for Social Media Breakfast: Singapore next Saturday, 29th of March 2008!
This is a little experiment that Derrick Kwa (from Adventures in Social Media #1) thought of doing, and was generous enough to invite me along for the ride. The objective of the breakfast is simply to meet like-minded people who are into the social media scene, expand your network and of course have fun. It doesn’t matter whether you’re interested in social media from a business standpoint or a social standpoint, everyone’s invited because you never know who you’d meet!
Currently Derrick and I have two rules:
- Everyone’s equal. When it comes to Social Media Breakfast, there’s no difference if you’re a CEO or a student. Everyone has something of value to contribute and everyone should be treated that way
- Law of Two Feet applies. If a particular conversation or discussion is not getting you what you want, feel free to move on.
Both are nods to PodCamp rules and we’re sure they’re not hard to follow!
Finally, we will be borrowing an idea from Jeff Pulver regarding personal tagging. I’ll let the man explain it himself:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U1TfAJoVlo]
The venue we’re looking at is either going to be TCC at SMU or Frujch. Either way it will be in the SMU area, so it’s pretty convenient. Also, because it’s our first time trying this out there are no sponsors involved, so you have to pay for your own breakfast and we hope that’s not too big a problem! We’ll clarify the final date and time within the week.
So if you’re coming, leave me a comment or drop me an email: uniquefrequencyATgmailDOTcom or message me on Twitter and we’ll see you on the 29th!
Tags: adventures in social media, blog, derrick kwa, facebook, flickr, frujch, jeff pulver, like-minded people, personal tagging, podcamp, podcast, Singapore, SMU, social media, social media breakfast, twitter, youtube
Posted in Fun, SMU, Singapore, social media, social media breakfast | 24 Comments »
