Social media: 5 questions marketing executives need to ask.
No matter what your current involvement in social media, your consumers are already talking about you online. If you’re not involved in the conversation, you’re not shaping it to your advantage.
As a marketing leader, here are five questions you may want to ask:
1. How do we get involved in the conversation? First, you need to know what’s being said about you. Setting up tools to monitor the conversation is easy, but you’ll need to use the most relevant keywords – for you and the competition – to get to exactly what’s being said, by whom, and why.
Here are some easy links where you can search for your brand:
2. Are we set up to be responsive to consumer needs? Social media is about individuals talking. Consumers don’t like an anonymous brand voice or PR-speak. Have you identified the right people in your organization – or partner agencies – to speak on behalf of the company? Are you speaking with one voice? And try not to let legal review get in the way of being responsive. If your competition is more agile, they’ll win.
Here’s a good example of one company’s approach:
Coca-Cola Social Media Principles
3. Are we trying different approaches to find which work best? Do you have a formal test-and-learn program? Are you entering conversations in channels like Facebook, YouTube or Twitter? Are you trying a variety of context-appropriate tactics, like daily wall posting to your Facebook Fan Page? How about developing a targeted community like American Express OPEN Forum? How’s this for creativity: HR Block is encouraging retweeting of links via Twitter during tax season. Digital is fast-paced and ever changing. To keep up with your customers, you need to test new sites and programs.
4. Are we maximizing metrics? Digital reporting has become extremely robust. You can now track browsers, shoppers and buyers at every point along the buying continuum. What are you learning about your customers’ habits and needs? How often are they participating and in what numbers? Are you sharing your successes company-wide so other teams can benefit? For example, the folks in product development might benefit from up-to-date feedback. Your publicity people might want to capitalize on positive conversations – and blunt the impact of negatives ones.
5. Are we optimizing all our programs based on these analytics? Using a cost-efficient tool such as Google Analytics or WebTrends on all your social media properties will produce a deep pool of information on the two most important things to know: where the traffic is coming from, and what people are doing once they arrive. Continue to fund what’s driving people to your programs. Find out what they’re up to once they have arrived.
We want to hear from you about how you’re using social media to your advantage.
Our thanks to JUXT Interactive, our friends in the Field who contributed to this month’s FieldNotes. JUXT Interactive is a George P. Johnson company.
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