The difference between Facebook likes and Google +1 recommendations is that Google’s +1 actually helps the user find what they are looking for rather than just sharing the content with friends. For example, say you are looking for a recipe, when you do your search you might now see a result with a +1 next to it from a friend of yours who is interested in food. If you don’t have a friend who’s interested in food then Google may show you the results with the amount of times the button has been pressed next to it. From the perspective of a site owner this is beneficial as people are more likely to click on the link that has the most +1′s next to it.

As I mentioned earlier in the post, The Google +1 button is just the first step, in coming months Google will extend this even further with the introduction of the + Project:

Google Circles

Circles allows you to break your contacts into separate groups. Google believe that all online relationships are not created equally, there are things that we share with some but not others which is essentially true. You might want to show a select few of your friends the pictures from the night before, however, you wouldn’t want your boss or parents seeing them! Well with Google Circles you can literally break your contacts up just like your friendship circles allowing you to share your information with as many or few people as you want.

Google Sparks

Sparks is essentially a huge RSS feed aggregator – you simply type in your interests and are presented with everything about the subject and of course you can share any of this with the friends that you select.

Google Hangouts

Google describes hangout as the online equivalent of having friends over or meeting them in a bar – its online real time video chat for up to 10 people at a time.

Google + Mobile: Instant Upload

Google created instant upload which will work as a phone app. They believe pictures are meant to be shared and with the new service, your pictures will instantly be uploaded as they are taken to a private album in the cloud. From there you can share the images with whoever you want.

Google Location
Location allows you to add your location to any message or post on the plus network. This is great if you want someone to know where you are.

Huddle

Huddle is a group messaging program that allows you to chat in real time. Google appreciate that plans can change at the last minute but with Huddle you can keep a select circle of contacts up to date.

Access to the Google + Project is currently limited to select users with an official release slated for later in the year.
Do you think this is likely to sway you from Facebook and Twitter or is it just another failing like Google Wave ?

Let us know your thoughts below…

It has been recently reported that only 22% of local businesses say they have actually used Facebook’s Advertising network, nearly two-thirds of those who have used Facebook Ads (64.9%) say they would definitely use the service again. Meanwhile, 65.7% of local businesses say they only use Facebook for general marketing and not for ad’s.

Below is additional research from MerchantCircle’s quarterly Merchant Confidence Index and is based on a survey of 4,942 small, local businesses.

When asked why they would use Facebook Ads again, surveyed local businesses pronounced ease of use (66.5%), followed closely by the flexibility to pause and restart campaigns at will (64.8%).

More than one-half of the surveyed local businesses (53.7%) chose Facebook’s targeted display ad function as a reason for continuing with Facebook Ads and 49.3% said it was good for finding new business customers.

But not every business has found success with Facebook Ads. Among the 35% of local businesses who say they would no longer advertise with Facebook, 69.0% claimed Facebook Ads didn’t help them to find new customers or clients and 34.5% say the ad network was far too expensive to operate.

Digital Marketing Channels

Facebook is the preferred digital channel among local businesses (65.7%), followed by Google (53.3%), LinkedIn (45.7%), Google Places (38.8%), and Twitter (32.1%).

Meanwhile, location-based marketing dropped in the previous quarter: 22% of local businesses say they are now

using Facebook Places to market their business, compared with the 32% who said so in MerchantCircle’s 1Q11 report; similarly, 7.3% are now using Foursquare, compared with 9% in 1Q11.

Local businesses have also been cautious about using top group-buying sites such as Groupon (4.3%) and Living Social (3.6%) for marketing their business through discounted promos.

Group-Buying Marketing Low, but Favorability High

1 in 10 local businesses (9.4%) say they have used a groupon style site within their marketing strategy; of them, 77% admit that they would definately offer a 1 day promotional deal again :

And 8.4% of local businesses plan to use group-buying sites in the next six months.

Among the local businesses who said they would not use group-buying sites again, 42% say that their deals didd not bring them any new customers, 25% stated that the costs where way too high, and 24% say that groupon style sites is are a no win strategy.

Evolution of The Group-Buying Market

Within the rapidly evolving group-buying community, familiarity with well-known brands Facebook and Google may give those brands a long-term advantage over current market leaders Groupon and LivingSocial: 52% of local businesses say such familiarity would lead them to choose Facebook Deals or Google Offers over other competitive offers like Groupon.

Other reasons for choosing Facebook Deals are a bigger audience size (26%) and better local targeting (21%). Those more likely to use Google Offers stated Google’s bigger audience (42%) and Google’s brand reputation (34%).

Mobile Marketing?

Very few local businesses are experimenting with mobile: only 18% of local business owners reported doing any sort of mobile marketing or advertising.

We believe this is down to a lack of understanding as a barrier to mobile marketing strategies: a massive 71% of business owners say they don’t have a clue of how to reach new consumers using mobile marketing.

Not surprisingly, most local businesses say they neither have the funds or time for marketing:

• 61% are spending less than $2,500 a year on their marketing campaign.
• 73% have amde no plans to increase their marketing budgets this year.
• 37% stated lack of time and resources as their main marketing challenge.

About the data: Findings are based on the sixth Merchant Confidence Index survey, fielded online from April 30 to June 6, 2011 among 4,942 local business owners ; 78% of respondents employ fewer than five people.

Firstly, What works perfectly for another business may be a recipe of disaster for your business.
Secondly, a number of internet marketers and SEO professionals pitch themselves as social media experts.

If you are a business pondering over how or why you should work with a social media marketing provider/consultant, consider the following 5 key points before you take the plunge.

1. Business Goals

At the end of the day, you have a business to be run. And no business is successful unless it generates profits. You MUST have crystal clear objectives in mind about your social media campaign before you start working on it. Are you trying to revive your company’s online reputation with social media? Do you want to use social media as an alternative means of customer service? Or is brand-awareness the primary objective of your social media plans. Once you have clear goals, it’s much easier to evaluate and choose a relevant social media marketing provider/consultant for your business needs. An if the social media provider consults you and helps you decide your objectives then your definitely on to a winner as they are likely to know a great deal about branding and business development as well.

Social Media Marketing can help grow your business BUT it’s not all point and click.

2. Resources

Working with a social media marketing provider/consultant helps streamline your social media strategy. However, there’s a cost associated with it. And it’s not just the monetary aspect, there’s a time investment as well. If you are fully committed to social media, a provider/consultant can help you succeed. If you are unsure and adopt half measures, the results will be half as good. Of course, hiring a social media marketing provider saves you valuable time which is better spent on managing your business.

In-house or External?

Will your business benefit from creating an in-house social media marketing team or hiring an external provider/consultant? For starters, I strongly advise working with an external provider/consultant till your in-house team has developed the required expertise, not just about how to operate social media platforms but also how to use them effectively for your business. A provider/consultant makes you aware of the best practices as well as crucial pitfalls that your business should avoid. Working with a “Been there, done that” provider/consultant minimizes risk and also helps groom your in-house social media team,.

Social Media Marketing Skills

I’m often quizzed about what specific social media skills are crucial to be labeled as a social media marketing provider/consultant. While there is no definitive answer to that question, a social media provider/consultant should know how to leverage the leading social networks including Facebook, Twitter and others for boosting your business. They should also have knowledge in Branding, Marketing and Business Development, after all when you think about you want social media marketing to grow your business. One of the key considerations before working with a social media marketing provider/consultant is determining their ability to measure performance or ROI of the planned social media strategy.

Innovation

I strongly believe that social media marketing  thrives on innovation. Just being able to build an impressive Twitter profile or Facebook Fan page or show people how to operate social media networks isn’t equivalent to being a social media provider/consultant. Unless they have a “wow factor” associated with thier social media marketing campaign, it’s  just another member in the crowd. Seek a social media provider/consultant with a proven track record of innovation, it pays!

Conclusion

Are you a business planning to work with a social media marketing provider/consultant?
How do you evaluate prospect candidates?
Do you think building an in-house social media team is more effective than hiring external social media providers/consultants?
Please share your opinion by leaving a comment below this post.

The world of digital media branding has rushed up on businesses like a speeding bullet train. As well as many businesses not understanding how to utilise it, the heavy weight corporate companies are now using their financial muscle to hire the best people to develop this new age of communication. It’s not just businesses that have been taken aback by the rise in social media. Just recently Saatchi and Saatchi, the biggest marketing company in the noughties, announced the creation of a digital marketing company. They realise the importance of this fast moving new age of marketing and the need to offer this service!

The biggest and most confusing area in digital marketing is social media and the social networks. So why should you be involved with social media. Well, let’s look at the bigger picture of how to create a brand. Branding is what differentiates a corporate company from a small company and the number one reason many of the corporate companies such as Nike, Apple and Google etc. spend money on marketing. Creating a brand builds trust; many small and medium businesses do not focus on this part of their business and are usually price driven in value. Let’s use the current pound store trend as an example. Soon they became 99p stores, what will be next 97p, then 59p? how about 49p? How long do you think it will be before there is a better Primark?

The point I am trying to make, is if you are a price driven small or medium business with no aspiration to become a brand, sooner or later someone will undercut you and steal your business. Social media is a great way to build brand awareness and communicate your U.S.P (Unique Selling Point). The problem is that its free, so many S.M.E (Small and Medium Enterprises) do not value it. If you haven’t yet started using social media, ask yourself why the big brands are now spending millions to ensure they are connecting to their consumers. Do they know something you don’t?

So what should you do to make sure you are positioned to take part in this digital branding age? Firstly think of it as just another form of marketing. It’s not so scary then! At the least; you should be on Facebook and Twitter.

1. Add this to your yearly marketing calendar (Use Hoot suite to print off your stats and analyse them quarterly to see what is working)
2. If you have staff? Allow them 5 hours a week to manage your social media. (Content is King…Emotional content is golden)
3. Tracking your statistics is vital, many SME’s that I talk to have no idea how many people visit their website and from where. Social media if done correctly will increase this by 10% on average. But if you don’t know your website stats you will quickly say social media doesn’t work!

Free Social Branding Tools

· Twuffer: Store Your Tweets
· Twittwall: If you don’t have a blog this is great.
· Bitly: Another Tool For Tracking

When you attend a creative web solutions workshop, you will be shown how to create strategic content for your social media based around your product, using the chart below. It’s too much for this article but we would be happy to share this with you at one of our branding workshops.

It is know that FBML Facebook Fan Pages has now been depreciated and it is no longer  possible to add the Static FBML application to pages. Static FBML is what many of us have used to create custom Facebook tabs in the past. But have no fear,existing FBML tabs will still continue to work and it will be possible to edit them but you can no longer create new pages using this application. I don’t know how long Static FBML will work before Facebook takes it away completely but i believe they will in a few months once everyone has got used to using the iframe app and developer have produced dynamic ways of using iframe in facebook pages.

So how to you create a fan page using iframes? Read below.

Before we continue you should know that there are currently 2 ways to add iframe app to your facebook fan pages,
1. through facebook developers and
2. through the wildfire iframe app.

The wildfire app is easier to implement but it has some major compatibility issues and you cannot integrate normal html text into this app as it does not allow, align, cell spacing, cell padding, javascript, script or type html attributes which is quite poor. It does however allow you to easily create a landing page for non fans and hide content that only fans will see without having to input any fancy coding like before.

For more options and dynamic content it is best to use the facebook developers iframe app, as you can add whole html pages straight from your hosting as well as java, jQuery, flash and any other type of coding you can think of

Creating Dynamic Facebook Fan Pages Tab with iframe

1. Make a html, php, flash or other type of web page and then upload the document to you server (make sure all the files sits within the same directory). Instead of pasting the code directly into the Static FBML app, the iframe application will be pulling or streaming if you like the page that sits on your server to Facebook. This page will still need to be the correct Facebook size limit of 520px wide.
2. Go to the Facebook Developers website.
3. Create a new app by clicking on the ‘Set Up New App’ button.
4. Give the new app a name. I recommend naming it what you want the name of the tab to be. Agree to the Terms of Service and click on the ‘Create App’ button.
5. Now for the fun part – the security check with the  annoying unreadable captcha.
6. Next fill in your application profile details.
7. Give your new application a description and upload your own icon or log if you choose to. I recommend at least using the icon because in the list of tabs on your page, your icon will appear rather than the iframe or static fbml icon. This is all we *have* to fill in on the About Tab.
8. The next tab we fill out is VERY important. This is integrating your application into Facebook Fan Pages.
9. Canvas URL – fill out the directory where the file you uploaded is located. This DOES NOT include the name of the file. The URL must have a trailing slash Example:  http://www.creative-websolutions.com/creative-fanpage-template/
10. Canvas Type – select,  iframe.
11. Iframe Size – unless you want ugly scroll bars select auto re-size. Removing the scroll bars completely requires additional steps.
12. Tab Name – this is the name you want your tab to be called, such as Welcome, About, Products, etc. The first time I tested this my tab name was ignored and the name of the Application was used, which is why I recommended naming the application what you want the tab to be called. I’m not sure why this happened or if I did something wrong the first time so if someone can clarify this, please let me know.
13. Tab URL – this is the name of the page file you uploaded. In my example it is index.html
14. The Click on Save Changes.
15. You will now be on the screen with information about your new application. You do not need to submit it to the directory. Actually, you probably don’t want to do this because than anyone could add you custom iframe tab to their page – I don’t know why anyone would want to do this but you just never know.
    
16. Click on the link on the right of the application information page that says ‘Application Profile Page’.
17. You now need to add the application you created to your page. This is like adding any Facebook application, such as Static FBML. Click on the link on the left under the profile image that says ‘Add to My Page’. If you are an admin for multiple pages, you will need to select the correct page to add the new iframe page application to.
    
18. Go to your page and you will see the new tab in the list under the page photo and, if you uploaded your own icon, you will see that next to the name of the new iframe page tab.
19. Click More> Edit at the bottom of the list and you can move the tab higher up the list but it can’t go higher than Wall and Info.
20. You can make this the default landing tab by going to Edit Page > Manage Permissions.

Negatives of New Facebook Fan Pages

1. You will have to make one of these for every custom tab that you want to make – if your Facebook Fan Pages is going to have three custom tabs you will need to make three iframe apps for it.
2. It is my understanding that if you are not logged into Facebook, you will not be able to see a custom tab created with iframe. This is not good for google searches that were locating our custom Facebook Fan Pages tabs. If I am wrong about this, please let me know.
3. I have not yet figured out how to use code similar to visible to connection that is used to hide content from people who haven’t liked the page, if you know how to do this drop a comment for everyone below.

Benefits of New Facebook Fan Pages

1. More code flexibility – pretty much anything that will work on your server will work on your iframe tab. For example, you can see that I added javascript and flash to mine that shows a mini website in effect. You can also add a video with the embed code and don’t have to use the FBML code for video. Other scripts and widgets will work too.
2. You can add your Google analytics tracking code just like you would to any web page!
3. You could make different pages in advance and quickly swap them out by simply changing the Tab URL in the application settings.
4. Other? – You tell me.

You can visit the iframe facebook fan page tab I made here. I made a flash coded html page, which is only 60% finished but you can see the benefits of using iframe application.

If you would like assistance creating iframe tabs or transitioning your current tabs to iframe or would like a flash enable mini website as your facebook  fan pages landing tab, please contact me for prices.

NOTE: If you’re an admin of the Fan Page you’re using this FBML in, and you’re logged in, you will see the content whether or not you’re actually a fan of the Page. People get confused about this and think the tags aren’t working, seeing either both fan and non-fan content, or one or the other images covering each other.

ALSO NOTE: You no longer need to have the <fb:fbml version=”1.1″> </fb:fbml> tags, as much documentation on the Web specifies.

FINALLY: If you want to copy and paste my code, MAKE SURE you convert all quotes to plain-text (straight up and down) quotes! Otherwise, your code will not work!

How to Show Different Content to Fans and non-Fans – Reveal Tab

<fb:visible-to-connection>
Fans will see this content.
<fb:else>Non-fans will see this content.</fb:else>
</fb:visible-to-connection>

Removing the Space above the Non- Facebook Fan Page Content

The best way to prevent the non-fan content from pushing the fan content down the page, use this method:

Use “position: absolute” CSS which takes the non-fan content out of the document flow (See this article on using the CSS absolute-position element) and positions it relative to its containing element (usually a DIV).

In the following example, I have given the containing DIV the ID “wrapper” and used CSS to style it “position: relative”. Then the non-fans content is in the DIV with the ID “non-fans” and is “position: absolute” and is set to be flush against the left and top margins of the “wrapper” DIV:

The code in the FBML box:

<div id=”wrapper”>
<fb:visible-to-connection>

FANS-ONLY CONTENT

<fb:else><div id=”non-fans”>CONTENT FOR NON-FANS</div>
</fb:else>
</fb:visible-to-connection>
</div>

The CSS:

#wrapper {
width:520px;
margin:0 auto; border:0; padding:0;
position:relative;
}

#non-fans {
width:520px;
position:absolute; top:0; left:0;
}

When using the “position:absolute” in CSS the crucial thing to remember is that the element you’re positioning absolute will be positioned RELATIVE to the element in which it’s contained.

Facebook Fan Page Troubleshooting

If you aren’t having success implementing this code, it is most likely due to one of the issues described below. PLEASE carefully read this post and the troubleshooting tips below before asking questions via the comments.

* IF YOU SEE BOTH FANS-ONLY & NON-FANS CONTENT: To test whether you’ve implemented this feature correctly, you MUST NOT be logged in as an admin for the page you’re adding this to, or you’ll see both the content for fans and for non-fans. The best way to test is to create a user profile for testing and log in as that user. You can then “Like” the page and “un-Like” the page to test the display of content. To “unlike” a page, click on the Wall tab for the page and at the bottom of the left column you’ll see an “Unlike” link. Click that to unlike the page;

* NO “CURLY” OR “FANCY” FORMATTED QUOTES: Your quotes, whether single or double — and ALL your code — MUST be plain-text. If your quotes aren’t straight up and down, then they’re formatted quotes and should be fixed or your code will NOT work;

* MATCHING QUOTES: Make sure quotes around values are both the same, either single or double, but they have to match!

* HEIGHT SETTINGS: My fix for the extra space above the non-fan content uses an example height. Make sure you set the height value and the “margin-top” negative values for your individual case.

* TEST YOUR URLS: If you can’t access the URL for an image or file directly in your browser, it won’t work in your code. Make sure your URLs are correct;

* URLS must be properly formed: After the domain name (“TLD”), URLs are CASE SENSITIVE. They should also contain NO SPACES or, as mentioned above, no specially formatted characters.

Testing your Facebook Fan Page Show/Hide Code

It’s important to remember that if you’re logged in to Facebook as the user who is the Facebook Fan Page admin, you will see both the fans-only and non-fans content.

To properly test your code:

* Set up a new Facebook personal profile, to be used just for testing purposes;
* Log in the Facebook as that new test user and view your Page;
* If you see the “Like” button at the top, then you’re not yet a fan (duh!);
* Assuming you’re not yet a fan, you should see the content of <fb:else>;
* Click the “Like” button; you should then see the fans-only content and the non-fan content will be invisible;

If you need to do tweaking to the code and re-testing, you’ll have to log out as the test user and log back in as the admin to edit the Static FBML.

TIP: Open, say, Firefox and be logged in there as the page admin, and do your testing in a different browser (Internet Explorer or Safari) logged in as the test user. Then you can just switch between browsers to edit and test.

To “Unlike” a Facebook Fan Page you’ve Liked, click on the Wall tab and scroll down to the last links in the left column and you’ll see the “Unlike” link:

LinkedIn Releases a Share Button: Content publishers now have another social media share button to add to their blogs and websites—and it allows direct sharing to LinkedIn profiles and groups.  The new LinkedIn Share button will be appreciated by publishers who want to get more visibility via LinkedIn. Check out our implementation at the bottom of this post.

LinkedIn Share buttons make it easy for your readers to share your content with their contacts on LinkedIn.

Groupon Announces Groupon Stores and Deal Feed for Businesses: Groupon used to provide one deal a day. But this changes with new Groupon Stores. Now businesses can create and launch their own deals whenever they want, much like the equivalent of a merchant’s physical storefront. (Groupon has also been in the news this week because of a possible buyout by Google.)

Groupon Stores and the Deal Feed create more sales opportunities for businesses.

Facebook Makes Page Promotions Easier for Small Businesses: Unless you were already spending $10,000 monthly with social media giant Facebook ads, running Facebook promotions was a challenge.  Fortunately, Facebook has dropped its preapproval and minimum spend requirements.  And all you need to do now is simply follow Facebook’s promotions guidelines.

HootSuite Reaches One Million Users: HootSuite was launched  two years ago and now has one million users.  Check out the infographic below to see how people use the tool. Let us know in the comments how you use HootSuite.

HootSuite published an infographic showing usage across channels. Click through to see the full image.

Richard Branson Launches Project, an iPad-Only Magazine: Project is “the first global magazine app for creative people about creative people.” Do you think this is the future of publishing?

Here are two other new social media tools worth a look:

Research.ly: New Tool for Marketers: This new tool from PeopleBrowsr claims to be “the world’s most advanced search platform for Twitter allowing people to explore their social Interest Graph by seeing the 1% of relevant tweets, find people with related interest and engage with them directly.”  With Research.ly you can see in real time what’s being said, who’s saying it, break it down by gender or location and even see how the people having that conversation are related.

Jumo: New Platform to Connect People With Nonprofits and Charitable Organizations: This is the latest project of Chris Hughes, one of the founders of Facebook and the chief digital organizer behind Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, so it’s worth checking out.

And here’s one more item you may have missed:

LinkedIn Offers New Moderation Tools for LinkedIn Groups: LinkedIn group managers now have a new set of moderation tools for more granular control over moderation within groups.  This makes it easier to control spam and ultimately creates a better user experience.

What social media news caught your interest? What do you think about these announcements? Please share your Social Media comments below.

• Facebook Connect: Facebook connect WordPress plug-in makes it easy for you to bring Facebook to your blog. If the guys at Tech Crunch use FB Connect, there is no reason you shouldn’t!

• Facebook Photos: Show your Facebook photos right on your blog without too much fuss.

• Wordbook: post your blogs to your Facebook wall.

• Facebook Dashboard Widget: brings Facebook data right to your WordPress blog.

• Socialize Me!: add your blog posts to Facebook and other social networking sites.

• StatusPress: Facebook updates on your blog.

• Fotobook: show your Facebook photos on WordPress.

• Friend Bookmarklet: detect Facebook users on your blog.

• WP Facebox: display your Facebook images using Facebox.

• Add To Facebook: allow others to add your posts to Facebook.

• Social Profiles: Social Profiles allows you to add social network profile links to the comments of your users.

• Facelook: Display a Facebook Badge in your sidebar.

• Wassup: track your visitors like a pro.

• Facebook Status Widget: show your Facebook status on your blog.

• Lifestream: show your social media updates on your blog.

• WP Greet Box: greet different welcome messages to folks from different social communities.

• WPBook: integrate WordPress with your Facebook account.

• Social Homes: proudly display Facebook and other social media favicons on your blog.

• PrefPass Universal Login and Registration: allow your users to log on using their Facebook info.

• Facebook Posted Items: fetch your posted items from Facebook and show them on your blog.

• Publish To Facebook: Publishes posts, pages or both to your Facebook Mini-Feed directly from WordPress.

• Facebook Share Preview: add meta-data to your media files.

• DandyID Services: display your Facebook information on your WordPress blog.

• QuailPress: another plug-in that allows your users to share your posts on their Facebook accounts.

• Fresh From FriendFeed and Twitter: post unique content to your blog from Friendfeed and Twitter. Connect your Facebook account to this plug-in and you are all set.

Did I miss anything?

P.S. please link if you like

You  may notice that this checklist isn’t that concerned with SEO. Don’t take that to mean Search Engine Optimization isn’t to be heavily considered with a social media marketing effort.  At the same time, not all social media efforts need to be SEO focused.

Social Media Organization

Assess the human resources and internal political situation

• Who is your executive sponsor?
• How will other key staff benefit from social media adoption and how will it best be shared in the organization?
• What does your phase 1 & 2 social media team look like?
• Who is already involved with social media activities in the organization?
• Who are your assets and who are your liabilities?

Listening

Establish an ongoing listening program

• Brand centric concepts like company name, products, services, executives.
• Customer centric concepts like informal references to brand, products, services and topics of interest to their needs.
• Prospects – what kinds of questions are prospective customers asking online?
• Competitors – monitor competing company social participation for comparison and for opportunity.

Considerations:
• Software – Social media monitoring, publishing, dashboard management, promotion, analytics/tracking and measurement.
• People – Is there a social media manager or community manage? If not, who will manage the listening effort?
• Workflow & effect on other departments – When listening efforts uncover customer service issues, sales opportunities, recruiting or media opportunities, are appropriate departments aware they will be involved?

Social Media Goals

Define objectives according to business goals

• Customer engagement – Listening and learning from customers also involves interaction. What social media guidelines have been defined for employee interactions on the social web? How will you know such engagement activity is successful?
• Uncover sales opportunity – Determine baseline measurements for prospecting conversations and set goals based on potential.
• Customer service – Can social participation help improve customer service?  Will there be staff to monitor social channels and empowered to solve problems there?

Considerations:
• Benchmarks – Goal setting will take some exploration and benchmark measurements need to start somewhere. Evolve and revisit.
• KPIs – What are the proxies to success? Mentions, links, traffic, interactions, retweets, fans, friends, followers? Trend them, don’t just take snapshots.
• Measurement – Determine what you can reasonably measure and against what standard? Social media data can overwhelm, so be sure you can filter what’s meaningful out of the noise.
• Reporting – Figure out what the folks upstairs are most motivated by and give it to them. Use reporting to close the feedback loop with community managers and customer facing staff so they can see the social media effect of their efforts.

Social Media Audience

Understand the people you’re trying to reach

• Develop personas based on what you already know as well as the information collected from social media listening and direct engagement.
• Identify preferences for information discovery, consumption and sharing.

Considerations:
• Needs – What are the information and engagement needs of the people you’re trying to connect with?
• Preferred channels – Where do your customers spend time and what are the strongest influences?
• Media types – Understanding whether there’s a preferred media type can be very effective for engagement and encouraging sharing. Video is popular, but not always appropriate. Images, text and rich media
• Social behaviors – Do customers create, share, curate or lurk? Do they behave differently on different social channels?
• Methods of communicating preferences are pretty important. Sending a Tweet might be ok with some people, while others prefer a private message or email.

Social Media Strategy

Document the plan for reaching goals and for being a more social organization

• Content – Decide what socially distributed content you can commit to. Decide how content created as a result of social interactions and sharing can be leveraged for marketing online.
• Engagement – Will customer engagement via social channels be a phased approach or will you “launch” a campaign and maintain? Decide whether to lead or react to information streams picked up via social media monitoring and participation in social communities.
• Vision & communication – Develop your vision for what the company and brand stands for in the context of the social web. How will that be communicated? What social media guidelines are in place regarding messaging for employees and social media teams?

Considerations:
• React or Lead – Listening solely to gain information that guides social activities is very different that taking a stand and leading customers to social channels. Most corporate social media marketing is a mix but leadership on the social web is lacking overall amongst brands and is therefore a stark opportunity.
• Content – Allocate resources for content creation guided by a social editorial schedule.
• Community engagement – Hire or train a community manager? Develop social media guidelines for employees.
• Reporting/dashboard – Social media monitoring tools that can trend high level data provide priceless feedback for executives.

Tactics/Tools

Commit to social media channels and tools

• Social networks  - Identify appropriate social networks and participate. Create training materials internally for employees along with guidelines for commenting, sharing, etc.
• Blogging – There are rare instances when companies shouldn’t have a blog of some kind.  Blogs can effectively serve as a hub for social participation in multiple channels.
• Media sharing – Make it easy for content to be shared amongst social news, bookmarking, networks and Twitter.
• Microcontent – Leverage Twitter messaging right along with any other content promoted via social channels.

Considerations:
• Which social networks – Social media monitoring and first hand participation will provide insight into which social networks make the most sense for growing networks and reaching customers.
• Fan page or group? According to purpose a Facebook fan page or group should be created. Fan pages are best for companies and group pages tend to work best for special interest groups or associations.
• Coordination between social channels – Most companies operate social activities in silos and do not coordinate. Working together, message distribution and reach can be amplified significantly, if content is coordinated between channels.

Measurement

Define measurement tools, metrics & reporting

• Tools - Measurement for a large organization using one tool isn’t practical, despite what software vendors will tell you. The best tool might not be “the best tool” for your company when ease of use and implementation means broader adoption compared to something that’s best in class.
• Account for testing – Companies that have not implemented formal social participation would do well to create accounts for testing and training purposes. These accounts may or may not reflect the brand. This gives an opportunity for training before launching more explicit programs.
• Identify success metrics – How will you know your social media efforts are successful? Identify metrics that are meaningful to reaching your business goals as well as outcomes.
• Adjustable goals – Understand that while you set initial goals, when the “rubber hits the road” most companies find there is a need to adjust objectives as they come to better understand the nature of social participation amongst their customer base.
• What does ROI mean to you? A return on investment with social media marketing means different things to different companies. It’s not all about increasing revenue, although it should never be understated how important being able to associate efforts to business outcomes is. Lowering costs are just as valuable as increasing top of the funnel leads and sales.
• Reporting formats & distribution – From dashboards to executive level summaries, it’s important to create report formats that are meaningful to the different stakeholders in your organization.

Considerations:
• Levels of organizational reporting – With a small company, reporting is pretty straightforward, but with large or complex organizations, decisions need to be made as to whether reporting is segmented for specific business units, divisions or even departments. That adds extra workload so be ready to make the case.
• Centralized and distributed – Companies that operate their social media initiatives all from corporate tend to focus on aggregated reporting for the business overall. When social media is a function of different business entities within the company, reporting is specific to those areas but must also be rolled up to an executive summary for management.
• Software – There are a wide variety of social media monitoring software to choose from as well as software for the management of social media assets, promotion and analytics.  Choose wisely, be open to testing and understand that while you might want the best in class, if it can’t be implemented in a practical way across your organization, you might need to go with something that you can actually use, right now.
• Human analysis & management – As with web analytics, social media analytics reaps the biggest rewards when there is an analytics specialist to “make sense” of the data. While such an expense might not seem likely at the start, it’s something that should be planned for as the social media program gains momentum.

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