Drum roll please, as we launch ourselves into the dog days of summer, and publish our August Ebook for your poolside consumption. This month’s venture, titled “The Future of Analytics”, is going to dig into where measurement stands when it comes to social media. What is the future of social media analytics? Why is it so important, and how can you start making it an important part of your business objectives?

But before we start, let’s try something. Type ‘Social Media Analytics’ into Google and press enter. In about, oh, .15 seconds (that’s point one five!) Google spits out roughly 34,200,000 results. Pretty impressive considering social media engagement itself isn’t universally embraced yet in the business world.

What that number tells you, however, that this is a serious subject. Marketers love numbers. And they want to be able to meet real targets and see concrete ROI. Injecting social media into the mix of traditional marketing is all well and good, until you have nothing save for some Facebook likes and Twitter shares to share with the C-Suite.

The call to arms these days across social media platforms is “What’s the ROI of social media?” One pundit famously responded with “What’s the ROI of your mother?”, his re-versioning of the widely known joke. It made me laugh – out loud, in fact – but also indicates pretty clearly that it is a contentious issue.

In the early days, as social engagement began to catch on, people compared determining the ROI of social media to “….assigning multiple choice scoring to an essay question.” It just wasn’t possible.

Then along came the ability to seriously track and monitor sentiment, deep dive into insights, behavioural patterns, and platform usage, and assign value to shares of voice and conversation, as well as any other anomalies, and voila, “the golden age of social media analytics” was said to be upon us.

Whichever side of the fence you sit on, there’s no denying that social media is now firmly planted in our collective consciences; it has changed the way that brands market and craft plans for campaigns, and how consumers shop and what they expect from corporations.

So, what is the future of social media analytics? In this eBook we take a look at how to standardize metrics in order for the industry to reign it all in. Why collaboration and sharing is an important part of learning best practices and smart ways to tackle to subject. And we discuss mainstream social media metrics (SOV, net promoter score, etc.) as a first step in the process of understanding metrics and ultimately standardizing them.

There’s a ton of takeaway in this month’s eBook, whether you’re a born analyst or number shy. So kick back, send the kids swimming (but keep a close eye on them!), and enjoy the read.

What would Emily Post do? Indeed, anyone versed in the fine arts of proper social etiquette might imagine her spinning in her grave. The American authority on social graces died in 1960, well before the advent of cell phones, the internet and social media. Yet were she alive today, she would certainly have published a ‘new and revised’ social media chapter of her classic guide – Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home. First published in 1922, the tome took the stuffy out of good manners, and was the first such publication meant for the masses. The first edition reflects the etiquette of her generation, when ‘good girls’ went to finishing schools – “Chaperons and Other Conventions” being one chapter title – Post remained hip to the changing tides of progress, and added to later editions with advice on television, telephone, and airplane etiquette. Later retitled Etiquette—the Blue Book of Social Usage, it went through 10 editions and 90 printings before her death.

So what would Emily Post do with this new and rapidly evolving world of social media engagement? The transparency and immediacy of it would certain give her pause, not to mention the sometimes shocking self-publication that today is pretty standard fare – party pics from the weekend or an inappropriate tweet after a night on the town. She may even agree with the theory that these days, YOU are a brand. And your personal and professional brands both need to be protected while engaging online. Mostly, it boils down to common sense, but as Ms. Post discovered, sometimes we all need a refresher course! We hope that this month’s EBook – Social Media Etiquette – Minding Your Manners on the Social Web – is going to shed some light on this subject.

Need insights on what is acceptable behaviour in social spaces like Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and Forums? It’s in here. Curious as to what benefits you will reap by displaying proper social etiquette, or what approaches you should definitely steer clear of? That’s here also. And if you’ve ever wondered if there’s a difference between personal and professional etiquette, we’ll just say one thing – yes, there is, and we’ve got you covered. We also dig deep and explore the three Rs of reward: Reciprocation, Respect and Reliability; as well as the three Ds of possible disaster: Disclosure, Defamation and Discrimination. Of course, this eBook isn’t meant to dictate the only way to behave online. Think of it more as a guide to getting you started in the right direction.

As Emily Post herself once said, “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.”

We hope you enjoy the EBook Social Media Etiquette – Minding Your Manners on the Social Web. We would love your thoughts and comments on this issue.

Well, it’s hard to believe that June is already here, and we all know what that means – another EBook! This month, with
“Getting the Competitive Edge with Social Media”, we’re going to dive into what some might call “competitive intelligence gathering”. It’s been going on for thousands of years – in fact, it can be traced as far back as the China silk monopoly. The earliest surviving references to silk history and production place it in China, and for nearly 3 millennia, they held that secret close to their chests. So close, in fact, that travelers caught trying to smuggle eggs, cocoons or silkworms out of the country were executed.

But have no fear, thankfully those days are far behind us. And nowadays, aside from the myriad free web based analytics tools out there, a company would be remiss not to explore just how much information can be gleaned through the use of social media.

This real time, current information allows you to make definitive, today-based decisions about where your company is heading, and how to best directly compete in your marketplace. This EBook will ask you to ask yourself some important questions, such as:

• What departments will be directly affected by information about our competitors?
• Will you be using this information immediately? During the next quarter? Long term?
• How much of this information will have an effect on your choices? 20%? 50%? 80%? 100%?
• Would you be willing to change your original plans if the information you gained went against them?

It will also lay out step by step ways you can analyze and use this information to find out what others in your marketplace are getting up to. And, it will illustrate the hows and whys of turning that information inwards, in order to take an honest look at how YOU are doing in relation to your competitors.

Seeing the bigger picture will help you to plan strategically for your company’s growth and product development. And this EBook – “Getting the Competitive Edge with Social Media” – will send you forward with clear vision. We hope you enjoy it!

Wow, what a crazy couple of months it’s been! March and almost all of April have blown by at an alarming rate, and with bad weather to boot! But we haven’t forgotten about our eBooks, and now that Social 2011 has been put to bed, we’re hoping that our newest publication helps to brighten what has otherwise been a roaring lion of a spring (for most of us, anyhow).

If your daffodils haven’t sprouted yet and your tulips are a few weeks behind, rest assured that there’s one thing that is still growing in leaps and bounds – social media. And if the prospect of embracing a solid social media strategy/campaign for your corporation seems daunting, we are here to assure you that it isn’t.

In this ebook, called Training Your Company for Social Media, we take your hand and guide you through a step by step training outline that will help you prepare your employees, whatever the number, to dive into social media.

We’ll explain and explore:

• The specific reasons why training everyone in social media use is so important
• The preparatory steps you need to take during your program planning phase
• A loose framework to plan your training course programming
• Internal hurdles and considerations
• Ongoing education and post-training resource planning

While creating a social media training program for your organization is no walk in the park, it doesn’t have to be an exercise in back breaking, either. With the right information in hand, you can create a solid training program that gets your basic-level employees feeling comfortable and your advanced-level employees ready to use their social networking skills on your company’s behalf.

So put these tips into practice and before you know it another great rite of spring will have come and gone. The training wheels will be off, and you and your employees will be riding down the social media road confidently and securely (just make sure you wear a helmet!).

Did you think we were going to leave you eBook-less this month? Hardly! We just put some extra time into January’s eBook, and invited social media analytics expert Chuck Hemann into the fold to help us wrangle our thoughts around the concept of online influence.

This month’s eBook gives you an in-depth look at the definition of influence, how influence changes in the online space, how to measure it, and how to work the process of influencer identification and outreach into your current social media processes.

Chuck was kind enough to share some of his incredible knowledge about which metrics are valuable for identifying online influence in this eBook, and Radian6 Community Team members Lauren Vargas and Teresa Basich rounded out the discussion with the wordy bits about the definition of influence and how to make the most of it.

Some other meaty bits you’ll find in this eBook include:

- The four components that make up influence
- The difference between popularity and influence and why that matters
- Why it’s important to use quantitative and qualitative metrics in measuring influence
- Where automation falls into the mix of influencer identification and outreach
- The three big buckets of online influence metrics

Of course there’s much more than those delicious pieces, so feel free to download this eBook and take a read through. THEN come back and leave us your thoughts. We’ll be reviewing some of the concepts and tenets in this eBook on the Radian6 blog throughout January, too, so come on over and share your thoughts with us.

It’s that time again. Time to reflect on another year gone by, look at what we’ve improved and what could use improvement, and prep for the upcoming year. The reflective process is a natural part of life and a requisite for business, and we’d like to help you along with that process with our December eBook.

In it, we’ve included nine major “rules” for social media use that have developed over this last year, which are grouped into the categories of listening, measurement, and engagement (so you get three “rules” per category).

Why the quotation marks around “rules”? The applicability of any rule is always relative to a situation, and there’s a slight chance that one of these rules won’t be appropriate for your work with social media (we’re talking really slight chance here). We believe these will all apply, though, and hope that they inspire you to review your current social media programs to make sure you’re employing some (if not all) of them.

The rules in this eBook are fairly timeless and broad reaching, but we’ve provided some solid ideas and recommendations to help you apply them directly to your social media efforts.

As 2010 comes to a close, set aside enough time to thoroughly review all you’ve done with social media this year and prep yourself for the year ahead. As fast moving as this space is, and with the ground the concept social business is poised to cover, it’s essential we all hit the ground of 2011 running.

Successful corporate blogging walks a fine line between art and science. On one side of the coin, a corporate blog needs to communicate clearly to a wide variety of readers, and reach them on a deep enough emotional level that they’re motivated to act. On the other side, it needs to be crafted and carefully maintained to positively impact a business’ bottom line, which requires a bit of science and analysis.

Those of you who’ve started and/or are maintaining a corporate blog understand the effort it takes to make that blog work for your company, but those of you who are just beginning to explore the idea of launching a business blog might be totally overwhelmed at the thought.

If you’ve wanted to start blogging for your business, or already are and aren’t seeing the results you want, the ebook we’ve put together for November is a great resource to help get you on track.

In this ebook we cover everything from figuring out exactly why you (or your superiors) want to start a corporate blog to handling some of the challenges you might face after it’s up and running. And yes, there’s a whole section dedicated to setting goals and objectives and selecting the right metrics to properly measure your blog’s progress.

And while we’re on the subject, you’ll be seeing some changes from us on the blogging front throughout November. We’re not going to spill all the beans here, but you can expect more content from us that covers a wider array of topics surrounding social media use.

We’re looking forward to bringing you more and better, and we hope you are, too. And if you’re in need of some help on the blog front, download November’s ebook and give us a holler. We’d be happy to chat.

A strategy is only as good as its execution. No, really. If you’ve come around here a few times before, you’ve probably noticed that we’re huge proponents of social media strategy development, program planning, and regular reassessment and tweaking of those things. But none of that matters if you can’t actually execute on the plans you’ve made. And, despite what you hear out there on the Internet, truly successful social media listening, measurement, and engagement takes time and resources; the good stuff is neither free nor easy.

So, in October, we’re heeding the message of this post’s first line and sharing all sorts of information with you about how to actually move from planning to doing. And we’re starting with the October eBook.

Since summer is so fresh in everyone’s mind, why not take one more quick trip before the warm weather disappears for the year and travel down the route of social media execution? Following the analogy of the great summer family road trip, in this eBook we take you through all the steps you need to do this social media thing, all the pit stops you’ll need to account for and unexpected flat tires you can’t plan for, to get you set up for success.

And throughout October we’ll be giving you practical information that clarifies what it takes to execute a social media program, what sorts of resource assessments you’ll need to do to map properly to your plans, guidelines and recommendations for ensuring employee engagement aligns with your vision, and much more. We’ll get grittier than that, of course, but we can’t give away the farm here.

Come back as needed in October and take in all you can about what it takes to act on the social media plan you’ve developed. And if you’ve got questions, we want to hear them. Share your concerns in the comments of our posts or send us an email and let us know in detail what you’d like to know more about. We’ll answer as best we can, and hopefully equip you with some great tips and tactics for getting your social media program up and running. Cheers to October!

1.    Ignore Your Customers

If you are looking to frustrate customers before they even pick up the phone then this might be appropriate. Conveying the image of an organisation seemingly plugged in but then ignoring requests or questions from customers in social media does not help your cause. If you don’t plan on communicating with your customers via Facebook, then is a Page really necessary? Likewise, if you don’t think Twitter would be of use to your business don’t pretend to use it.

If you are not sure of what might work then listen first. Understand what is being said throughout social media; an integral part of any social media implementation plan and strategy. Find out exactly what your customers are saying, where and to whom, understand which avenues of social media would provide added value to both your company and your stakeholders. Once you have tracked this, make sure the knowledge gained is shared throughout your customer services department in order to focus your efforts.

2.    Pretend to Answer Questions

The only thing worse than not responding to your customers is to confuse them even further. Ensure that what you say counts, especially on Twitter. Make those 140 characters work for you even if this means taking five minutes to draft your tweet. If the problem is more complex then make sure you steer the conversation offline to the phone or email in order to provide the additional assistance necessary.

A lot of businesses deal with queries raised through social media by referring them to their website which more often than not does not resolve the problem. What customers are seeking is for someone to solve their query. If the only route to doing so is to jump from channel to channel then this does not usually lead to customer satisfaction but rather to customer frustration.

3.    Don’t Cooperate or Communicate

If you are using a social media channel to complement your customer service strategy make sure that you are connected to the wider business. This can mean using an appropriate CRM system, having a social media policy and ensuring that you have your social media channels included in your customer service objectives. You will find that handovers will run a lot more smoothly if social media is seen as part of the business and not an aside.

In some instances you may need to hand over a query to a more specialised department, but if they are not aware of the social media funnel this may drop off the radar. Alternatively, if there is no agreed system for logging enquiries, customers will find themselves needing to explain the same problem over and over. Therefore, getting the necessary buy in, understanding and having a clear process of communication will save your business considerable time.

4.    Never Escalate Problems

Don’t assume that because the query has come though social media—a channel only you might be responsible for—that you always know the answer. The end objectives of any customer service should be to resolve your client’s problem. While a community manager, often the first one to come across a query, should be well versed in all that concerns the business, they may not always know the answer, or the problem might be severe enough to demand the involvement of a senior manager. To this end it is essential that a proper escalation process is communicated and included in any social media policy.

5.    Don’t Be Proactive

Your customers might not always know where to find you, so take a proactive step to assist your customers. Monitor what is being said in order to provide the assistance necessary when appropriate. Contrary to what has recently been in the news, we have noticed that customers who are provided assistance even when not explicitly contacting a company tend to appreciate this approach. In addition to picking up mentions and questions, having a listening strategy and tool will go a long way to providing key metrics around engagement success, campaign sentiment, or product issues, as well as understanding where within the various social media channels customers are most prominent. All this helps to focus your customer service.

6.    Don’t Personalise

Our earlier post this month showed that adding a personal touch when communicating through social media has a positive effect. While customers might find it easier to communicate via the internet this does not necessarily mean that they don’t want to talk to a real person. Adding a name to a bio conveys the idea that a query or problem is being taken seriously and is being dealt with. Also, doing so will ensure that your representatives are accountable and part of the wider business.

What experiences have you had with customer service in social media? Good, bad, feel free to share.

For all that social media is all the talk of the business town these days, the B2B sector seems to be having a tough time making sense of – or seeing the value of – these channels. Are they really useful for the B2B world? All we see is B2C success, are there cases of B2B social media success out there? How do we make social media work for us?

We offer a resounding “Yes!” as answer to those first questions, and as for that last one, well, that’s the question we’ll be working to answer for you throughout September. This month we’ll be offering up as many tips, concepts, anecdotes, and examples to help you start connecting the dots between your B2B company and social media.

And to support our social-media-for-B2B endeavors, we’ve written up quite the eBook that faces head-on the argument that states social media only fits the B2C business dynamic. We don’t agree with that statement, and we’ve taken the liberty of laying out exactly why we don’t agree, as well as providing some concrete examples of goal and objective setting and strategy development for you B2Bers to refer to.

We hope you’ll be on our side by the time September 30^th rolls around. Social media in its purest form is communication, and communication keeps business moving, no matter how it’s facilitated. We’ll do our best to round out the social-med-for-B2B discussion for you, so please jump in and share your thoughts on this topic, and if you’ve got any questions for us, you know what to do (leave us your questions in the comments section, that’s what you do).