Entries Tagged 'Social Media' ↓

Now that I’ve had the pleasure, and sometimes pain, of digesting RFPs and RFIs from dozens of companies seeking partners for their social media monitoring and intelligence programs, I feel ready to offer some insights and tips on how to develop a strong proposal for your organization.

One of the interesting trends over the past year is how fast companies went from calling for a quick demo and proposal to issuing formal RFPs - a real validation of the increasing importance of this new stream of data. Brands are anxious to get closer to their customers and are finding social media is one of the best ways to do so. With that in mind, here’s a handful of items to consider when developing your first social media RFP.

• Understand Your Needs: Think through what you want to learn from consumers who share information about your brand, products, services, industry and competitors. There is a huge difference if you just want to monitor mentions of your brand to keep an eye on potentially hot issues vs. the need for indepth strategic insights that could impact customer service and product development.
• Identify Your Team: Will your social media intelligence team have staff from one division or from several different internal groups? This is particularly important if you’re a big company or agency. It’s likely the VP of Corporate Communications, the Chief Marketing Officer, the Director of Market Research, and the head of Customer Relations are going to look at the data in very different ways, so it’s important to articulate that in your proposal.
• Data Depth: Give some thought to the importance of the depth of data coverage you’d like. Despite the sales pitches you’ll hear, there are big differences in how much of the social media landscape providers cover. For instance, do you want all blogs, newsgroups, message boards, mainstream media, video-sharing sites, etc., and both original authored content as well as follow-up comments? It’s important to outline data coverage that match your company’s specific needs. In some industries, messages boards may be more important than blogs. If you want to identify top authors then you’d want to be sure you target vendors that include that type of data. The more detailed you get the better.
• Frequency and Access: Does your staff need to see the data hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly? Do you want to access the information on-demand at your desktop or mobile phone or want it spoon feed throughout your organization in a variety of printed formats? It’s likely that’ll depend on the different members of your social media team. Again, the more you think this through upfront, the easier the decision process will be later on.
• Speed and Analysis: Some companies need unfiltered posts without any analysis and they want to see them as fast as possible, while other brands can wait a few hours to receive an entire threaded discussion from start to finish that has been fully analyzed to provide thoughtful insights. Balancing the need between speed and analysis is another consideration.
• Actionable Insights: Do you want to just monitor and measure consumer perceptions, or are you getting your company prepared to start participating more actively in online communities? Once you’ve figured out your strategy in this area, it may lead you down a few different decision paths and impact the structure of your RFP. The same goes for whether you are looking for additional value-added consulting services or just a technology provider.

If you consider some of these tips it should help you save time and more easily identify the right group of social media providers to consider. Keep in mind, however, that there are no silver bullets in this emerging industry just yet. There are dozens of companies like ours that provide a dizzying array of different products and services, so reducing your time to find the right fit for your company should also be a priority.

Mike Spataro

A new study published by the Society for New Communications Research has found that social media is rapidly becoming a core channel for companies to position their brands, products and services. In addition to some interesting findings and stats, the report includes an array of informative case studies from brands and organizations, such as Quicken Loans, American Red Cross, The Mayo Clinic and others.

The study, which focused on what it calls ’social media power users,’ found that PR and corporate communications professionals are increasingly relying on a wide variety of new tools and technologies to reach audiences. Having spent years in PR myself, this is welcome news for an industry that has been criticized at times for its slow adoption of new media.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents indicated that social media is becoming more valuable to their marketing activities, while 27% went as far to say that social media is now a core element of their communications strategy. Surprisingly, search engine rankings and Web site traffic were among the top responses for measuring the effectiveness of social media on brand building.

The study, which can be downloaded for free, was conducted by an impressive team of SNCR fellows - Joseph Carrabis, John Cass, Paul Gillin, Richard Nacht and Greg Peverill-Conti.

Mike Spataro

It’s funny how new ideas and ways of doing business can sometimes take shape in companies. Contrary to popular belief, not all innovation comes from the research lab or executive management suite. Oh those guys usually get credit for it, but sometimes real change starts with a single person or small team of people buried deep within an organization.

A good example of this is when some former colleagues of mine at another company banded together in the early 90’s on their own time to create the company’s first Web site. No executive strategic vision. No corporate budget. They refused to wait around for management to tell them the Web was going to be something special. They just saw the future and literally jump started this Fortune 500 brand into the Internet Age.

I see a very similar trend in many companies today when it comes to social media.

In at least half of the companies I’ve met over the past two years, the initiative for social media is being driven by what I call Social Media Champions (SMCs). These people are forward-thinking individuals who have a knack for spotting important trends before their colleagues and bosses. Not all of them know exactly why it is important, but they just know it is. They don’t have fancy social media jobs or titles, but they are real corporate change artists who have a true understanding of how new technologies can impact the companies they work for.

For SMCs - just like early Web pioneers - adapting new ways of doing business seem so obvious to them, but they are often frustrated because others can’t see the world the same way they see it.

SMCs can work anywhere in a company. In just the past few weeks, I’ve met one who works in the purchasing department for a mid-size pharmaceutical brand, another in the IT department for a major food manufacturer, and yet another in the legal department for a consumer electronics company.

It’s important for companies to not only recognize SMCs, but also seek them out. Here’s a few indicators that you have a SMC among your staff.

• they are always trying out new technologies and applications - on their own time no less;
• they are happy to show others how to use the Web to improve efficiencies;
• they are highly connected and their “online rolodex” is far bigger than the one of their desk;
• they don’t get discouraged when others criticize them for getting excited about “the next big fad;” and,
• they know how to impact change in a company in a very positive way.

Mike Spataro

There’s been volumes written about why and how companies should get involved in social media, so I thought it might be useful to share some surefire signs that your company is NOT ready for social media. So here goes:

• Management Indifference: If you spend more time trying to convince your bosses that social media is worth the time, effort and investment than actually implementing ideas, then it’s better to find another place that suits your beliefs and skills.
• No Strategy Needed: While there is no doubt some of the early trailblazing brands in social media didn’t sit around writing strategic plans prior to launching initiatives, those success stories are more the exception than the rule. Real thinking and planning is required for long-term success.
• It’s a Fad: If that’s a phrase you’ve heard in the hallways around your office coupled with eye rolls, it’s usually not a good sign. People resistant to change and new ways of doing business often peg everything new - from mobile marketing to the iPhone - as a passing fad. The term ’social media’ will pass, but not the underlying fundamental change driving consumer collaboration across the Web.
• Outsource It: If there is a strong belief within your company that your advertising or PR agencies can handle social media without any involvement by your management or people, then you’re clearly not ready for this world.
• No Bad News: If a brand would prefer not to hear about what’s wrong with its products and services, then it’s certainly not a good candidate for social media. In other words - let’s not listen to our customers if we really don’t have to.
• Relationship to Sales: I have been in meetings where brand managers have said that they will not assign any man hours or any marketing budget to social media until it can be linked directly back to a product sale. I think they are the same guys who have been counting Web site clicks since the mid-90s.
• No Technology Needed: OK, I may be a bit bias on this one because we provide a software solution, but if your company thinks it can sift through the millions of blogs and new posts and comments every day with a couple of interns and a spreadsheet, then I would question how serious you really are about social media.
• Afraid of Failure:  If your boss expects that everything is going to go smoothly from the moment you get started, you’re in for a rough time. This is still very much a trial and error business and good brands and marketers know they are going to take some lumps along the way. That’s just part of the innovation roadmap.

Mike Spataro

As I enter my third year working for a social media company, I thought this might be a good time to reflect back on a few of the things what I’ve learned since joining VT two years ago this month, and what I see as some of big trends on the horizon.

Luckily I’ve been able to work with some of the world’s biggest brands as they ramp-up their social media strategies and operations, making the past 24 months a challenging but fun time to be in this part of the Internet industry. So here goes…

• Monitoring to Intelligence: There is no doubt companies serious about social media are more interested in business intelligence than just monitoring. If you want to know who is really understands social media, look at the brands that not only get involved in communities but take what they learn and have a systematic approach to integrate that intelligence across their organizations.
• Content Coverage and Quality: With the rapid expansion of new sources and the growth of communities in so many new places on the Web, brands have to be obsessed with the scope of coverage and the filtering of data into actionable insights. The old days of ignoring single voices is long over and most companies today want a comprehensive way to stay on top of new sources around the world. Smart companies already know who their top targets are, but they want to sleep at night knowing they have as much of the Web covered as possible.
• Dynamic vs. Static: The explosion of interest in blogs and other forms of social media by corporate America is based on the increasing need to have information available nearly as fast as it appears online. Not long ago companies were content with weekly, and even monthly, reports - but not anymore. The need for real-time, dynamic data is the primary reason marketing and communications executives are now wrestling with their colleagues in market research over social media budgets.
• Social Media is Hard Work: Some companies underestimate what it takes to integrate social media into their organizations. What looks easy on the surface - connecting with audiences online - is actually very hard to implement for many brands. Money is definitely moving to this discipline, but many companies still don’t have the hang of it in terms of strategy, people and organizational resources just yet.
• ROI Model: It’s still a hung jury on the best way to integrate social media insights into existing market research, brand marketing, communications and customer service from an ROI perspective. Half the people I’ve talked to say it’s a new paradigm and should not ever be lumped with existing ways of measuring success, and the other half say if the industry can’t slot social media into traditional marketing metrics it’s not going anywhere. In my mind, they are both right to a degree.
• Internal Ownership: It’s going to take a few more years before everyone figures out that social media crosses all functions within a company, very similar to what we went through 13 years ago when companies were trying to decide who “owned” the corporate Web site. Same thing here. The most savvy brands have everyone from marketing to communications to market research to legal involved. The number of seats at the table is definitely increasing.
• Go Global: Companies are dipping their toe in the water here in the U.S., but increasingly demanding a global solution because they already know where this is all headed. Brands are going to continue to kick the tires of different providers until they find one that meets their needs and it better have a global solution to win.

I hope the next two years are just as much fun.

Mike Spataro