Social media is all about, well, being social! And what could be more social than a cocktail party? The room’s abuzz, laughter tinkles through the crowd, you grab a Dirty Martini – extra olives please – and begin to mingle. Suddenly, you find yourself in a small pod of people, you introduce yourself, and as expectant (tipsy?) yet friendly faces look to you for a bon mot or some interesting trivia….you freeze. Your brain shuts down and your mouth turns to paste. You’ve broken the golden rule of cocktail party going: always come prepared with some conversation starting statistics or an eye opening, maybe even controversial, tidbit to inject into the mix. Then you remember reading this blog post earlier in the day, and your heart rate begins to return to normal. “Did you know,” you say, as heads lean in to listen “…according to ads from Vogue magazine over the decades, that in 1937 a woman with a 32 inch bust line would have been considered a size 14!?  By 1967, she would have been an 8, and….wait for it…today she is considered a size zero!?” You reflect for a moment on what a size zero even means, as the woman in your group look at each other in acknowledgement, nod their heads and roll their eyes in solidarity, and slug back the dregs of their drinks.

Ready to wear women’s wear is a relatively recent innovation. And almost since it started, companies have been engaging in what the industry calls “vanity sizing” – lowering the sizes of women’s clothing to appeal to consumers’ sense of vanity. Nowadays, while men can pretty easily still buy off the rack “a 32/34 pant, please!” – most women try on ten pairs of jeans to find the one pair that fits. You can be a size 6 at one store and a size 12 at another. The problem is that there is no industry standard.

Social media is a bit like that too, especially when you’re just starting out. There aren’t “industry standards” to guide you as to which social media platform you should or shouldn’t embrace. It is an ever changing beast, with new apps, platforms and startups appearing virtually every day. Some will become the next big thing for awhile, and quietly fade away, while others will become the next big thing…and really be the next big thing! That’s why keeping your finger on the pulse of social media is so important. That said, social media, much like the clothing industry, is not “one size fits all”, and you don’t need to have a company profile or presence on all outlets.

Here are a few suggestions and things to think about when trying to narrow down your social media strategy:

Evaluate and nail down exactly what your company does, and where you will get most return on your company’s social media investment: For example, say you run a small but successful construction company. You specialize in building additions, but you also have an award winning landscaping division whose work deserves to be shown off. Twitter might not be the best outlet for you to invest company time in. You might take a pass at LinkedIn also, save for a company listing in order to share your credentials and trades licenses. Facebook, however, will allow you to reach out to past clients and their contacts, and allow you to showcase photographs and even videos of your work. So will YouTube.

Don’t be afraid to be the big fish in a small pond: Maybe what you do is somewhat niche. You only can afford one employee to ‘manage’ your online social media presence. But, you know exactly where your relatively small client base – and potential client base – ‘hangs out’ online. It’s ok to focus your energies there, and aim to expand your social media strategy in line with your company growth.

Don’t overextend yourself by trying to be all things to all people: You’ve spent valuable time – and money – training your employees and setting up an internal team of social media experts. But if you can’t deliver, if your customer’s tweets are being ignored, your Facebook fan page is stale and outdated, and no one has written a company blog post for weeks – or worse – months, your social media strategy is not working. Social networks are not fun and games (although you can have a lot of fun on them) – they are customer service tools that help you connect with your consumer base on a very personal and up-close level. And those consumers are exceptionally savvy social media users themselves. If you’re so overwhelmed that your company’s online presence starts to smell stale, all the expertly trained staff in the world won’t be able to help you.

Remember this: one size does not fit all. Even if it looks like it might. What works for one company will not necessarily work for you. Try a few things on for size, before you invest in something that just doesn’t fit you or your company culture. Because you can’t return a bad social media ‘purchase’ and get your money back.

What do you think? Agree or disagree? Have you narrowed down exactly what your best fit is when it comes to social media engagement? Have you recovered from a bad purchase, or know someone who has? What lessons came from the experience? As always, we love to hear your comments and feedback.

When it comes to social media success, everyone is looking for the magic elixir. The bad news is there is no magic elixir. However, there are some pretty good examples of what has and hasn’t worked across the social web. That’s right, we’re talking about case studies.

Dictionary.com defines a case study as:

the act or an instance of analyzing one or more particular cases or case histories with a view to making generalizations.

Who doesn’t love a good case study? As tempting as it would be to give you a nice, long, laundry list of case studies and take the easy way out, that certainly wouldn’t be doing you any justice in the long run. Don’t get me wrong though, we’ll give you a few tasty morsels to help you get your creative juices flowing.

Generalizations

Did you notice the mention of the word “generalizations” in that case study definition? Generalizations can be an issue. If you’re looking to create a campaign that will take things to the next level or you’re planning your social media strategy based on someone else’s case study, keep those generalizations in mind.  In other words, case studies, as helpful as they can be, should not be followed literally. Why? Because more often than not, much of the information that went into building that case study is not shared. It’s also important to remember that every company has different corporate cultures and business practices which will, without a doubt, affect the outcome of a case study. Noted? Perfect. Let’s move forward.

Give Me The Goodies

We promised to give you some examples that would spark your creative sides. Imagine growing your community 944% – in a day! Clairol, the hair product company did exactly that. They grew their Facebook following by 944% in just one day. The company created a campaign to support the launch of their Nice ‘n Easy Color Blend Foam and gave away 100,000 new bottles over four days. In their case they used a combination of a well-conceived giveaway and blogger outreach. The result was 255,000 new fans. Clairol was smart, in order to keep fans engaged they created a series of how-to videos, featuring product reviews and ratings by users, and they linked to tips from their own hair color experts.

Intuit’s user-community for its TurboTax product is a passionate one; so much so, that the folks at Intuit decided to create a top-notch user feedback community called the Inner Circle. After six years, the Inner Circle has more than 25,000 members and has become an integral part of the TurboTax product updating and improvement plan.

CBS had their eye on the cherished Thursday night block and wanted to breathe new life into their network. They introduced The Big Bang Theory and needed to get 20-somethings to watch it. In 2008, The Big Bang Theory made their presence known at the pop-culture conference Comic-Con. People began to notice and sought out the cast and crew across social networks. The show’s producer Bill Prady and some of the actors from the show had a presence on Twitter. Prady’s feed gave fans an insider’s view. Prady & Co. pinpointed their target audience and built on fans’ passions. In turn, the show soared from a Neilsen rating of 59 in 2008 to a rating of 12 in 2010 due to their social media efforts.

Now imagine what you can do!

Be The Expert

Instead of following your favorite case study examples to the T, consider documenting your own experiences – both good and bad. This is important for several reasons. For one, it is the perfect way to create more resources for your own internal training. You will want to look back on the progress you’ve made, what has worked best for your organization and what did not. Also, if you share what you learn, you will create a wealth of invaluable information that will help you expand your community and create lasting connections. Continue to do this over time and your organization will be well on its way to being looked upon as the thought leader in your industry.

Have you given any thought to creating your own social media case studies? What, if anything, has been holding you back and what information can we provide to help you on your way to becoming a social media success story?

Man, what a topic! Measuring the impact of your community on your business can sometimes be a tricky beast to tame. Each community is different, and each business may have a different purpose for measuring their community.  Before you can truly begin to measure the impact of your community, a few items need to be defined and agreed upon by your internal stakeholders.

Define Community Success

Defining what your definition of community success means is the first step in measuring your community impact. How you measure community impact largely depends on how you want to define what a “successful” community means for your business. For some, having a large community is important, while others may see a small but tight-knit community as the most valuable to their business. Some communities will come together around support and training topics, while others may center themselves around your philanthropic and local community projects. The definitions of success for these communities may vary greatly, so it’s important to have a solid definition of what you consider to be a successful community.

Combining Metrics

Chances are, there are metrics and KPIs in place across all departments of your business. Metrics like leads generated, sales closed, support calls answered, inquiries received, and number of website visitors within a set timeframe are all commonly-measured metrics, and ones that can be used to help measure your community impact. In our support and training case, support calls answered or tickets opened/closed may be two metrics that you can include to give a bigger picture of how your community is impacting your business. For our philanthropic community, inquiries received and website visitor metrics may be more appropriate to include in your measurement reports.

Benchmarking

Before you go wild and crazy with measuring community impact, define the metrics you’ll use and set benchmarks for each of those metrics.  Look at the metrics you’re going to tie in from your current measurement practices, and then look at the metrics that you’ll be introducing as new success metrics for your community.  Three big measurement areas are; cost savings, leads, conversions and sales, and awareness, attention and reach. We cover these in our March eBook in case you’d like to dig deeper.

Once you have your metrics defined, set your benchmarks and make sure everyone on your team is clear what they are. Start measuring your community impact from there.

Set SMART Goals

SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely goals are hands-down the best, yet often hardest, to set. For each metric you want to measure, look at your benchmark and come up with SMART goals which you will use to measure against as time progresses. Are you looking for a 5% increase in inquiries received that reference your community and philanthropic projects throughout the year? Perhaps you’re looking to reduce call center costs by enabling your customers to reach out online, or help each other by sharing learnings and solutions to commonly-occurring questions or problems. Whatever your goals are, make sure they have parameters and timelines.

Tying it all Together

So far you’ve created your definition of what a successful community looks like to your business, discovered which departments your community impacts, looked at how they currently measure success, lined up your measurement plan to tie in with those metrics, set a base level through benchmarking, and created SMART community goals.

Great, now what?

Put your measurement plan into action. Take time, whether it’s weekly or monthly, to sit aside and review both your metrics and goals, as well as the metrics your business already measures.

If your community ties in closely with your customer service department, look at how many cases opened/closed took place within the time period you’re measuring.  Did your community come to the rescue of a fellow member and help them solve something with minimal/no involvement from your customer support team? If so, look at what the value of a customer support rep is for an hour, or a day, and show how much money your community just helped you save.

If part of your successful community includes lead generation, look at how many leads generated are directly attributed to your community. Did a member recommend you to a colleague? Are there notes in your CRM indicating the source of a lead? Do you have these segmented and tracked in your monitoring solution? Did any leads that came from your community close this month? Leads generated and sales closed are wonderful numbers to show how your community is helping to grow your business.

When measuring your community impact it’s important to tie together your existing metrics and measurement practices with the ones you’re establishing that focus exclusively on your community. The goal is to get a big picture of how your community ties in with your business and helps you achieve your goals, NOT to show how great your community is in a silo.

There are many ways of measuring community impact, and this blog post doesn’t cover them all! Share your stories in the comments.

Community – a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists (usually prec. by the): the business community; the community of scholars.

There are a lot of opinions floating around about how to define an online community, but a much smaller amount of chatter online about how to find it.

Online communities aren’t necessarily fenced in by the boundaries of a website, a message board, or a blog.  Communities can exist across multiple sites and time zones, making the act of finding a community seem akin to trying to pin down a cloud.

The difficulty for many organizations begins right there, with that first step of finding their community. After all, how does one go about finding something that is amorphous and constantly evolving?

Search – For many, the process of finding their community starts with a basic Google or Social Mention search to uncover websites, forums and blogs dedicated to their topic of interest.

Facebook – Facebook Fan Pages are a great way to find like-minded people who are already talking about a topic a company may be interested in.  Plus, it’s easy to jump right into the conversation.

Twitter – Twitter has quickly become the go-to network for companies, people, and news organizations alike.  A basic search can reveal a plethora of talk about a subject, and perhaps a few hashtags or users to get in contact with or follow. Much the same as Facebook, Twitter makes it easy to jump into the conversation.

Water Cooler – Don’t overlook the power of the water cooler! If organizations already know people interested in their products or passions, they should start by asking them where they go online to connect with like-minded people – they may have some great information to share.

We just released an eBook about this topic (and more). You can download it here.

Do you have tips to share about how to find your community? I’m interested in hearing what has worked for you, so share them in the comments!

We’ve got some more exciting news as the Radian6 community team continues to grow. This time, we’re more than delighted to welcome Katie Morse as Radian6′s newest community manager.

If you’ve interacted with Katie at all – you can find her on Twitter at @misskatiemo – you know she’s nothing short of fiercely energetic and smart. She’s spent the last several years in communications and marketing roles in the telco industry and most recently with Ripple6, so she’s well versed in the world of online communications. She’s also an avid music lover and has long participated in music communities across the web, and her blog offers up some great discussion on the impact that the internet and social web have had on the music industry.

Katie is another example of successful connections through social media; I’m pretty sure she and I met first on Twitter, and over the last couple of years we’ve connected at offline events – from tweetups to conferences – and through other online channels. She’s got some great perspectives about how social media is changing business and communication as we know it.

At Radian6, Katie will be helping us continue to build and serve our online community, with a specific focus on our corporate customers and their needs. She’ll be teaming up with me, Lauren Vargas, and Ali Lee to not only communicate with all of you and help create helpful content, but our entire team will be working together this year to build out a dedicated Radian6 community for our users, and the social media community at large (more news on that in future months).

Katie shared some of her thoughts about joining Radian6 over here, so please drop by and leave her a note of support. And please join me in welcoming Katie to the Radian6 team. We’re delighted to have her aboard. Exciting times ahead!

Thanks to everyone for the great turnout at our Engaged Brand Twebinar today with Chuck Hemann from Dix & Eaton. The audience participation was so awesome; we had plenty of great, thought-provoking questions for our speed round.

Chuck shared so much fantastic information it was hard to keep up. He started with his brilliantly simple 4 step process for a Social Media campaign:

1. Listen
2. Create a strategy based on what you learned from listening
3. Engage the community
4. Measure the response

He said that “If you don’t listen and benchmark to begin with, it’s hard to measure the success of your Social Media program.”

He also shared the list of blogs he keeps in his RSS feed. Plus, he had some great nuggets of wisdom, such as “Engage people where they live, not where you live.” And “The conversation about you and your brand are going to be happening whether you participate or not.”

To hear more great nuggets from Chuck please download the Dix & Eaton podcast from BlogTalkRadio. And be sure to follow Chuck on Twitter at @chuckhemann so you don’t miss out on anything new he might have to say.

Thank you all for listening and participating. Here’s a few of the interesting tweets that occurred during the Twebinar:

TWEET FROM: LZONE
Like @chuckhemann, I agree that SM works best when it becomes a part of a company’s culture and doesn’t just reside in one dept. #radian6

TWEET FROM: CSLEDZIK
@lzone @alexiaharris Makes sense to start slow as Chuck said. Even listening ahead of time can help you be proactive. #radian6

TWEET FROM: ALEXIAHARRIS
@chuckhemann I read the blogs you suggested. I guess I’m on track #radian6

TWEET FROM: SONNYGILL
Ding ding. @chuckhemann touches on shaping corporate culture to be ready for SM within the business #radian6

TWEET FROM: GOKTGO
“The corporate culture has 2 b ready 4 social media…they have 2 b willing 2 collaborate w customers more than just push products” #radian6

______________________________________________________________________________

EDIT: We thought we’d add Chuck’s great list of social media blogs for all of those who’d like to check them out.

Aaron Strout: http://blog.stroutmeister.com/
Amber Naslund: http://altitudebranding.com/
Dave Fleet: http://davefleet.com/
David Griner: http://www.thesocialpath.com/
David Mullen: http://www.davidwmullen.com/
Don Bartholomew: http://metricsman.wordpress.com/
Geoff Livingston: http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/
Jason Falls: http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/
Katie Paine: http://kdpaine.blogs.com/
Olivier Blanchard: http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com/
Radian6: http://www.radian6.com/blog/

Most of us have heard some version of “Social Media/Twitter is like a Cocktail Party” and while this is hardly a new meme, a party is not a party is not a party and social media is not community – even though it may share many of the same characteristics.  To me it is like saying a cocktail party is not a dinner party – most people would agree.  I like both as an individual but one represents my circle of acquaintances and the other represents people with whom I have more intimate relationships. For business, that is very similar to a marketing funnel – and depending on what type of business you are in, one may be more important than the other. In particular, if you are marketing to businesses rather than individuals, the deeper relationships engendered by “dinner parties” are critical to your marketing efforts.

There are a few characteristics of a good dinner party that make it special and different:

• The food and wine are typically more elaborate and sophisticated
• Your attention is focused on a small set of guests all evening
• The music is mellow to allow for in-depth conversations
• Guests are introduced to other people they are likely to enjoy meeting
• The host or hostess mixes things up, ensures the conversation keeps moving, and draws out their guests
• The host put out their best dinnerware

Done well, the host of a dinner party makes their guests feel welcome, comfortable, interesting, and desirable. It is a pretty good ‘tool’ for establishing closer relationships with people and making them want to stay friends with you.

What can businesses learn? Sure, throw a lot of cocktail parties (i.e. use social media tools), you have to get your name out and chat with the crowd… but make sure you also throw some fabulous dinner parties – or get invited to them – because those are the events that allow you to have a richer conversation. Niche communities are where people will trust each other, participate in deeper conversations about their needs, and really get to know you. Setting up a community to serve the same purpose as a dinner party requires:

• An appealing location (even if that location is virtual) that encourages conversation and connections
• Good content that will encourage the conversations you want the group to have
• A community manager who facilitates introductions, highlights content, and keeps the conversation going
• Participation of experts and thought leaders that people want to meet
• Something special that members can’t get anywhere else

You can throw the dinner party, which may cost more but you get to decide who gets invited, or you can work on being a sought-after guest – someone that helps hosts provide good content and/or energy. But beware: It is all to easy to provide an appealing location, invite people over and assume they will form a tight knit community. But think about throwing a dinner party, having people come over and then spending the evening in another room – maybe yelling out to them every once in a while. Awkward, no? People would chit chat a little but the conversation would be stilted because there they are, sitting in your living room… waiting for you and the food, eventually leaving in disappointment and annoyance.

Communities are a phenomenal way of developing relationships with prospects and customers… but don’t think they will effortlessly develop. Want to understand them a little better? Go home and plan a dinner party.

About Rachel

Rachel Happe (@rhappe) is a Co-Founder and Principal at The Community
Roundtable and has over fifteen years of experience working with emerging technologies including enterprise social networking, ecommerce, and enterprise software applications. Prior to The Community Roundtable, Rachel served as a product executive at Mzinga,
Bitpass, & IDe.  In addition, as a technology analyst, Rachel initiated IDC’s enterprise social software practice where she wrote groundbreaking research including The Power and Passion of Organic Communities: How Technology Can Be Used to Increase Discovery, Engagement, and Productivity;  The Social Enterprise: How Social Networking Changes Everything; and U.S. Social Networking Application 2008-2012 Forecast: Enterprise Social Networking Takes Hold. Rachel started her business career at PRTM as a Business Analyst focused on helping technology companies understand and improve their product development operations. She writes at The Social Organization.

If you missed yesterday’s Twebinar with Brad Dancer from the National Geographic Channel, you’ll want to download the podcast to listen to later.

Brad shared some great insights with us about how the NatGeo Channel is embracing the consumer-generated media revolution,why social media and their community are important to them, and his take on the future of broadcast media in general.

I only wish we’d had another hour with Brad (maybe sometime soon) because it’s so obvious that he’s passionate about what he does – he’s been with the channel since it launched – and he has a level-headed but enthusiastic viewpoint about the impact of social media on the traditional media world.

So take a listen while you’re working today. It’s well worth the 45 minutes or so. And we’d love to hear your thoughts and insights on the topic, too.

Stay tuned for details on our next Twebinar with GE on August 5th, detailing their TweetSquad team and how they’re using Twitter to get the word out about GE innovations. More to come!

For businesses outside the tech space, social media can sometimes be a tough sell. It’s one part evangelism, two parts patience, and a good dose of determination and creativity.

This week’s Engaged Brand Podcast features George Smith, social media specialist for Crocs – those crazy and fun shoes that have legions of raving fans (and almost as many people that think they’re silly looking). George is an army of one, working tirelessly to demonstrate the valuable and game-changing nature of social media to tap communities and brand evangelists.

We talk with George about how he’s making the case for social media inside his company, what he thinks the future holds, and how he’s created a social media presence for Crocs that’s changing the way they connect with their customers.

So if you can spare about 45 minutes, download the Crocs podcast, and learn a thing or two from someone in the trenches.

Have an idea for someone you’d like to hear from on The Engaged Brand? Is it you? Let us know.