I attended the Social Fresh seminar yesterday, hence no blog post. I had been looking forward to it, and it didn't disappoint.
Amber Naslund from Radian6 was a commanding keynote speaker, and she cleverly "chopped up" her topic, “Zombie Fighting, Handling the Social Media Questions That Just Won’t Die." into bits that were understandable to a newbie and entertaining to someone who's been in the social media business for a few years. What I liked most is that even though she's leading a team, she admits that she's still learning like the rest of us are. Other memorable speakers include Jason Gertzen from Sprint, Jason Falls from SocialMediaExplorer.com and Jenna Petroff from Hardees.
A common thread throughout the conference was that you have to find the right fit or mix of social media tools/strategy for your company. What fits Hardee's might not fit a healthcare organization. It's really a trial-and-error situation, and you have to be able to really understand your audience, listen to them, analyze the data, and switch things up when they're not working. And what I mean by not working is, you aren't having conversations with your customers/community. You're not giving them what they want, what speaks to them.
Another common thread was ROI - specifically, upper management asking for ROI prior to campaign's completion. ROI and analytics are important, but building and maintaining the community ranks higher.
Something I learned long ago when I helped companies build websites was to start off with a basic set of questions - what is your purpose for the website? Who do you want to reach? With social media, the question is, what are your success metrics? My answer won't match Kellogs - there answer might be a certain number of sales per quarter. Mine, right now, is building a community that activates with us. Activation can be commenting on a facebook post, or attending one of our events, or contacting our appointment line after they've read a blog post about Crohn's Disease and are seeking a physician/diagnosis.
So if anyone is out there listening, the best thing you can do for your company's social media efforts is to ask yourself that question - what are your success metrics?
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I was at the conference too, and like you, thought it was great!
ReplyDeleteROI was a big topic, but I loved what Jay Baer said about thinking it in terms of Return on Objectives, and not just in terms of staight dollar signs. Everyone has different objectives going in to social media, or any marketing for that matter, and it might not always relate to money made.
I think social media as a long term avenue to increase loyalty and a sense of community is where it is unique. Can you do that with a coupon or a direct mail piece? Or an email? What about a billboard? Maybe. But I think social media gives us the unique opportunity to really connect with customers better than those other mediums.
-Danielle, Atomicdust