December 21, 2009
Your Social Media State of the Union
By: Amber Naslund
The end of the year is a popular time for reflection, and often times we look big picture to see what the past year has carried with it, and where the future might lead.
While you’re looking at trends and the big stories, though, now is a great time to reflect on your own company and where it stands with immersion and integration of social media. Looking back with an honest eye can help you get a handle on what worked, what didn’t, and how you’d like to sketch out next steps in 2010. Auditing should be as much a part of your business processes as planning.
So gather your team, grab some coffee and bagels, and talk through some of these questions for listening, engaging, and measuring social media.
Listening
1) Are we satisfied with how our listening outposts are set up? Do we feel like we’re getting the data and information we need?
2) What have we heard overall so far? What are the key themes that run through our listening efforts? What are the positives about what we’re hearing, and what do we want to work on?
3) How have we disseminated our listening intelligence through the business? Where could we improve this in the coming year?
4) Where have we focused our listening efforts to date (marketing, branding, PR, customer service)? What other aspects of the business could benefit by more organized listening efforts, and how can we help them integrate it?
5) How can we expand our listening efforts beyond our brand? What about things like industry trends or competitive analysis, and what advantages would those have for us?
Engaging
1) How would we define our engagement and outreach strategy this year on social networks? Was it primarily reactive or proactive? Is that course working for us, and why or why not?
2) What were our goals for participating in social media conversations, and did they change through the year? How?
3) Did this year illustrate the need for social media/engagement guidelines? Or if we already have them, how might we need to update them in the coming year?
4) What did we learn about our community and market’s expectations for things like response time, available information and answers, and what were the topics that came up most?
5) Where might we need to connect internal dots and processes to better flow the information and interactions that come from social media? Are there new/other departments and people we need to involve?
Measurement
1) Are we currently measuring elements of our social media efforts? Which goals do they align with, and what are we tracking?
2) What are we not tracking right now that would help us better understand the impact of our social media programs? What metrics or measurements do we have the capacity to track, and which require new methods?
3) Based on what we’re tracking, what efforts are progressing positively, and how do we define that? Which ones aren’t working as well as we expected, and what will we adjust based on what we’ve measured?
4) How much time are we devoting to measurement proportionally? Does it feel like too much or too little? How can we adjust? Do we have the right tools in hand to do the analysis we need?
5) How are we communicating our learnings from our tracking efforts, and to whom? Is that process working or how do we refine it?
So these are just a handful of ways to look back at 2009 and see where you’ve come, and help chart where you’re headed. You’ve got more, I’m sure, but perhaps these get you thinking.
Ask the hard questions. Ask some that you don’t have answers to, but make it a point to drive toward those answers in the coming year. Think about where you are on the path of social media maturity, and what the next logical steps are based on your available resources, goals, and other priorities.
What else are you looking at to see how your social media programs stacked up this year?
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Personally for me, I feel that I need to engage with people more. Connect with people in both the online and offline worlds. Instead of hiding behind the computer, do a meet & greet. Ask questions instead of retweeting someone else's post. Another is to invite people you want to get to know and do a video chat. Have questions for that person.
Kiel, it's great that you recognize that. The first step to tracking and measuring the impact well is knowing what you're aiming for. And commenting on blogs is a great start.
Amber
I think that when it comes to measurement people are still a bit foggy on what they are measuring and turning that into success. Defined goals help to square away measurement but for many companies, esp the small biz that I work with, they are new to social media and have difficulty in understanding that they cannot measure SM like they did trad adv. Certainly that is my job to help them but I see where this is an area for many companies that is still very gray.
The google live search as well as bing/twitter is making some impact as companies are able to see that they are showing up in searches as opposed to that "Twitter thing". I see that having an impact on getting more businesses to pay more attention to social media as they can see the impact on the search engines.
The discussion definitely needs to be that measurement is not about picking from a list of metrics and crossing your fingers. It’s about defining the goal, and *backing into* the measurements that help you illustrate success or progress toward same. It’s very simple in concept, yet strangely difficult for businesses to do well. It’s a conversation we need to keep having, from many angles, in hopes of bringing some clarity.
On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra: On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra: On the #Radian6 blog today, considering your #SocialMedia state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty (#FF on a Monday? Yes!)
Good Stuff RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra: On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/JeffreyJKingman" rel="nofollow">@JeffreyJKingman: Good Stuff RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra:On the Radian6 blog, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
Personally for me, I feel that I need to engage with people more. Connect with people in both the online and offline worlds. Instead of hiding behind the computer, do a meet & greet. Ask questions instead of retweeting someone else’s post. Another is to invite people you want to get to know and do a video chat. Have questions for that person.
Kiel, it’s great that you recognize that. The first step to tracking and measuring the impact well is knowing what you’re aiming for. And commenting on blogs is a great start.
Personally for me, I feel that I need to engage with people more. Connect with people in both the online and offline worlds. Instead of hiding behind the computer, do a meet & greet. Ask questions instead of retweeting someone else’s post. Another is to invite people you want to get to know and do a video chat. Have questions for that person.
Kiel, it’s great that you recognize that. The first step to tracking and measuring the impact well is knowing what you’re aiming for. And commenting on blogs is a great start.
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra: On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
Amber
I think that when it comes to measurement people are still a bit foggy on what they are measuring and turning that into success. Defined goals help to square away measurement but for many companies, esp the small biz that I work with, they are new to social media and have difficulty in understanding that they cannot measure SM like they did trad adv. Certainly that is my job to help them but I see where this is an area for many companies that is still very gray.
The google live search as well as bing/twitter is making some impact as companies are able to see that they are showing up in searches as opposed to that “Twitter thing”. I see that having an impact on getting more businesses to pay more attention to social media as they can see the impact on the search engines.
The discussion definitely needs to be that measurement is not about picking from a list of metrics and crossing your fingers. It’s about defining the goal, and *backing into* the measurements that help you illustrate success or progress toward same. It’s very simple in concept, yet strangely difficult for businesses to do well. It’s a conversation we need to keep having, from many angles, in hopes of bringing some clarity.
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra: On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty (great article)
And another worthwhile <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra RT: Considering your year-end social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra: On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
I’m sure it’s no coincidence that listening was the first review topic. In my experiences with social media, people are always trying to “push” information out, rarely taking the time to “pull”. The social part of social media seems to be fading. Think about the ratio of how many times you’ve replied to a Twitter follower compared to how many times you’ve tweeted.
Great post Amber. Thanks.
I want to join on Kiel’s comment about that I feel the need to engage more with people. Time management is very important and how I will allocate my time to social media in 1010 is going to be key to achieve my goals. Look forward to listen and to engage.
I want to join on Kiel’s comment about that I feel the need to engage more with people. Time management is very important and how I will allocate my time to social media in 1010 is going to be key to achieve my goals. Look forward to listen and to engage.
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra
On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra
On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
Good thinking from <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra: On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra: On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra: On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/AmberCadabra" rel="nofollow">@AmberCadabra: On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/Ambercadabra" rel="nofollow">@Ambercadabra On the Radian6 blog today, considering your social media state of the union: http://bit.ly/8YeJty
Your Social Media State of the Union by <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/ambercadabra" rel="nofollow">@ambercadabra http://tinyurl.com/yzo2ry9
<a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/ambercadabra" rel="nofollow">@ambercadabra has been blogging like a hurricane this week! http://bit.ly/5btbJe and http://tinyurl.com/yzo2ry9 and http://bit.ly/6OWKCD
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/chrisramsey" rel="nofollow">@chrisramsey: Your Social Media State of the Union by <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/ambercadabra" rel="nofollow">@ambercadabra http://tinyurl.com/yzo2ry9
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/johnlovett" rel="nofollow">@johnlovett: RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/chrisramsey" rel="nofollow">@chrisramsey: Your Social Media State of the Union by <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/ambercadabra" rel="nofollow">@ambercadabra http://tinyurl.com/yzo2ry9
Amber comments helpful again, with engagement coming up as theme again, I love commenting on other people blogs that one great step as suggested by her. Also again it is the outcome not the tools if were looking for another theme (tools versus talk) which includes measurement and listening.
(Communication is a state of grace)
DaraBell
Amber comments helpful again, with engagement coming up as theme again, I love commenting on other people blogs that one great step as suggested by her. Also again it is the outcome not the tools if were looking for another theme (tools versus talk) which includes measurement and listening.
(Communication is a state of grace)
DaraBell
RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/johnlovett" rel="nofollow">@johnlovett: RT <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/chrisramsey" rel="nofollow">@chrisramsey: Your Social Media State of the Union by <a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/ambercadabra" rel="nofollow">@ambercadabra http://tinyurl.com/yzo2ry9 ^W