The Reason Social Media Can be Difficult to Sell? It's the Indirect Nature of It, Part III

Guess this could be called Part II 1/2. Or the Need for Benchmarks.

One of the obstacles we're hearing from clients about engaging in social media programs is the lack of metrics.

Paul Gillin, a longtime journalist who has turned himself into a B2B social media guru and has a blog worth reading, was one of the first to point for the need to establish benchmarks -- and has written that several years later, we still lack benchmarks.

Traditional media has several established benchmarks, including circulation and the average time spent reading a magazine or newspaper. While time spent on a page is the basic equivalent to the second metric, it's doesn't provide the same snapshot overall.

In other words, the challenge remains: how can companies determine if they're getting any value from the social media initiatives.

In reading Charlene Li's new book, Open Leadership (disclosure: I received a review copy of the book), I came across another useful quote:

"In the absence of established metrics and benchmarks (for social media) you'll need to create them for yourself."

That's no silver bullet but the point is that companies have to experiment to determine what metrics make the most sense for them. If social media is about engaging with your stakeholders, it is also about the need to test -- and perhaps fail at first -- different approaches to reaching stakeholders.

I know that in the New Normal, getting budget or approval to experiment can be a challenge. Last night I talked with a very smart expert in small businesses, and she expressed concern about social media. But even as social media continues to evolve, it's not a fad that will fade away the way CB Radio did in the '70s.

And I know social media is not the answer for every client or organization. But at the same time, I think organizations should be asking the questions to see how they might benefit from reaching out over a new channel. Once you start doing so, you can start collecting metrics, and start figuring out which ones make sense for you.

The Reason Social Media Can be Difficult to Sell? It's the Indirect Nature of It, Part II

In May, I wrote about the challenges of selling in social media to metric-demanding clients.

One challenge is that some of the metrics are less objective than one might think. Click-through rates are calculated differently so that, depending on which service you use -- bit.ly or Tweetburner -- are vastly different. However they capture data about click-throughs, their results are like apples to oranges. Meanwhile, there are plenty of tools to track how many visitors go to your blog or site, and no two provide the same number. In fact, I've seen data from one site tool that provides different results for the same site.

That, of course, makes selling in social media programs a bit of a challenge.

But in reading Charlene Li's new book, Open Leadership, I came across a useful quote. Li is the founder of the Altimeter Group and a former Yankee Group analyst. According to Li,

"Inevitably they (management) want to know what the return on investment (ROI) is. But this emphasis on ROI is like asking what the value of a deeper, closer relationship is. Although I agree that leadership should rigorously examine the benefits of openess, an undue emphasis on hard ROI does no one any good...

For example, what's the ROI of a handshake? Or think of a lunch you recently had with a colleague or direct report, where you invested time and money to develop a deeper relationship with them. How do you calculate the ROI of an internal business lunch? ...In most cases, more than half of a company's operating expenses are likely to be spent on activities that have an indirect impact on the bottom line. We may not be able to link the ROI of these expenses to direct sales, but we know there's some incremental benefit that makes them worthwhile."

The challenge is getting the right people within the organization to understand that social media is another means by which they can connect to key audiences. Even B2B companies need to consider connecting with their customers because so many of them are using social media anyway.

(Disclosure: I received a review copy of "Open Leadership.")

Is Social Media Only About Popularity? Or is Bloomberg BusinessWeek Wrong About the Need to Be Popular

The current issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek has a cover story on popularity.

The thesis of the article is:

Popularity is not a state of grace. In business, it is treasure hard-won on the battlefields of product development and marketing, then leveraged or squandered or stolen back. Most of the products and ideas showcased here—the stuff we buy, sell, and otherwise consume the most—owe their status in part to aggressive sales tactics, from knocking on doors to strong-arming grocers to gain the best shelf space. In its most potent and permanent form, however, popularity transcends sales pitches, advertising, fads, and maybe even conscious choice.

Yet I found I didn't like the article. True, it was filled with interested factoids about which brands or more popular -- Jif or Skippy, vanilla ice cream vs. chocolate, bananas vs. apples -- but there's not much in the way of useful, actionable lessons from the extended article.

We know that Jif outsells Skippy, than vanilla ice cream is more popular in-home and that Americans buy more white-colored cars than other color (black is the second most popular). But in my reading of the article, there was limited value in knowing which brands, products. etc. are more popular.

We learn that "With nearly a billion dollars in annual sales, Lay's market share dwarfs that of its rivals," but not why so many of us buy so many of Lay's potato chips.

The article seems to suggest in an age of social media, being popular is the end goal. That would be llike living in a perpetual high school environment.

Yet Bloomberg BusinessWeek acknowledges in passing that it's not all about being popular. In a separate, online only article, "Popularly Unpopular," Arik Hesseldahl reports makes an important point about popularity: "Why does the most popular social network rank next to last in a customer satisfaction survey?"

In other words, you don't need to be popular or well liked to be necessary.

I know we're all trying to get as many followers as possible on Twitter, the largest number of fans of Facebook, and links to our blogs. But I think if your goal is merely to sit at the cool table in the high school lunch room in the social media cafeteria, you're focusing on the wrong variable.

Let me know what you think. Is my take a popular or unpopular perspective?

The Reason Social Media Can be Difficult to Sell? It's the Indirect Nature of It

I had two separate interactions about social media today. The first was with a client who has been unwilling to commit to social media because he's seen no significant traffic to their blog. The second came from a former client asking about Twitter in particular.

Look, every client has different needs and capabilities when it comes to social media. There are some where it's a natural fit, and others where a social media campaign doesn't make sense.

What makes it a challenge is helping organizations understand why they need to explore social media.

There's not always a direct link from social media engagement to sales.

If nothing else, participating and engaging on social media can help from a search engine optimization (SEO) angle.

Blogging and tweeting can help boost your SEO rankings.

Here's something that I think people miss, according to David Meerman Scott:

That is, when you create something of value, say a YouTube video or a really interesting e-book or a piece of content on the web or post something on an important industry forum -- those are indexed by the search engines. And when the proverbial 62-year-old man who's a purchasing agent at a bricks-and-mortar company would, no, he probably does not read blogs or be on Twitter. But he needs his Google. And he'll go to Google when he needs to buy something, and he'll type in a phrase that he knows is the most important for the thing he wants to buy, and damn if your company doesn't come up No. 1 if you're creating content.That's why (social media) can be important." That is, when you create something of value, say a YouTube video or a really interesting e-book or a piece of content on the web or post something on an important industry forum -- those are indexed by the search engines. And when the proverbial 62-year-old man who's a purchasing agent at a bricks-and-mortar company would, no, he probably does not read blogs or be on Twitter. But he needs his Google. And he'll go to Google when he needs to buy something, and he'll type in a phrase that he knows is the most important for the thing he wants to buy, and damn if your company doesn't come up No. 1 if you're creating content.That's why (social media) can be important." David Meerman Scott

Prediction #9: Social Media Platforms will Survive the Recovery.

Some critics have said that Twitter and Facebook did well during the downturn because people had available time, either because they had less to do or because they had lost their jobs. People will continue to use Twitter, Facebook and other social media services but they might not be updating their pages quite as often. Social media sites will consider rolling out new ways for users to post and engage via multimedia (audio and video).

New York Times Urges Truth in Online, Offline Advertising

Pointing out that marketing to consumer-generated (i.e., blogs) and social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace but not, as yet, Twitter) is expected to grow 20 percent in 2009, up from $1.01 billion in 2008 (which had increased 25% from 2007), the New York Times believes that "a lot of it is paid advertising masquerading as bona fide endorsements by celebrities, well-known bloggers and even ordinary people — honest comment, free from pecuniary considerations."

According to the Times, "In 1968, an F.T.C. advisory demanded that advertorials disclose that they were advertising, not editorial...The rules offline should clearly apply online. This is a matter of principle, not medium, and the new rules are not an excessive burden."

I certainly agree with that.

The Times also urges the FTC to "focus enforcement on the advertising companies," not the bloggers."

The Times also feels that "advertisers are the drivers of this new trend. The onus should be on them to ensure that blogs pitching their stuff warn readers about the commercial motivation of the endorsements."

As a blogger, I'm not sure I totally agree with that last point. I have urged clients to work with credible bloggers, who disclose potential conflicts of interest. But as a PR executive, I know we have little control over bloggers, and would not want to be held responsible for them. That said, we're just providing information or trial software for reviews. We're not engaging in some of the problem issues that the Times rightly cites (such false testimonials).

It's not clear from the Times' editorial whether its editorial board understands how bloggers work.

At the same time, we do provide trial software for product reviews to print reporters. I think there needs to be a disclosure page for tech reviewers to let everyone know their policies. The Journal has a code of conduct that's easily found, but you can check it out here. Kara Swisher, a former Journal reporter who now works for All Things D, posts her ethics policies here. And Walt Mossberg posts his ethics policy below his bio here.

I think more online and offline reporters and bloggers should post codes of conduct. Now, I don't review or endorse products here, but I have posted in my bio that if I do mention clients, I will always disclose that fact. And I do so here and on Twitter.

Survey Results: How Do CMOs Feel They're Doing With Digital Marketing

During every new business meeting, clients ask about our experience with social media. Three years ago, only the occasional new business prospect asked that question. Today. we get worried if we don't get asked that question.

Yet despite being asked that question by every prospective client, there's often far less interest in actually conducting a digital marketing or social media marketing program, no matter what term you use.

I've anecdotally validated this by talking with colleagues at other agencies: When it comes to actually developing and implementing an integrated communications plan, many clients prefer to focus their PR/communications resources on traditional media. That happens even when, going into the presentations, the client has said that social media is important to them.

So I was interested when I came across a Heidrick & Struggles study that "found that the majority of senior marketing executives believe their companies are behind the curve when it comes to digital marketing."

Results from the Digital Marketing Standard: Executive Perspectives on Digital Marketing included:

• 60% said their companies “were behind the curve.
• 33% felt they hired/acquired or developed the internal talent to handle digital marketing – which means that two-thirds do not feel they have the right internal talent.

The main challenges to embracing digital marketing included:

• Legacy issues from an analog age.
• Bricks-and-mortar mentality.
• Lack of available resources to move quickly into the digital age.
  

Since Heidrick & Struggles is a recruiting company, its survey focused on hiring and developing the right talent. Which is why, a key insight for them was this: The problem for some companies is that the right hires will feel that digital marketing is perceived as 2nd place behind traditional marketing.

We've seen that, too. That social media is a lessor priority for some clients. Why?

According to a BrandWeek article summarized by G. Robert Bishop, a recruiter specializing in marketing hires, on his blog, The Marketing Recruiter:

“On a more granular level, the respondents rated marketing ROI, Web behavioral analyses and CRM as the most important parts of their digital marketing mix. Not many marketers thought that they were good at those functions at this point. Only 18 percent said they were “very satisfied” with their ROI analysis, only 13 percent said the same of their CRM program and 19 percent were happy with their search engine optimization.”

The need to benchmark digital marketing efforts is critical. In cleaning up my office the other day, I found lots of articles from 2006 about social media -- but things have changed so much since then that the articles were like faded 1960s color photos: more color than black-and-white photos but pale color representation by today's standards. The only point still relevant from one article I tossed into recycling: the need to develop metrics.

Three years -- and many social media paradigms later -- the challenge still facing CMOs remains this:

• Determining how to use social media/digital marketing to reach their customers.
• Developing ROI and other metrics to justify their digital marketing programs.

I'd say that's why CMOs feel like they're behind the curve.

Let me know what you think. You can also check out excellent summaries of a couple of articles about CMOs and digital marketing at Bishiops' blog, "CMOs And Digital Marketing Disconnect."

Paul Gillin Offers Social Media Case Studies

Paul Gillen, who has transformed himself from a journalist to a social media guru, has some advice for B2B companies in BtoBOnline magazine. His "Tap into social communities: 5 tips for marketers seeking to connect with prospective customers online" doesn't provide new ideas. But it does provide come interesting mini-case studies -- and that can be useful when talking with clients or others who might be reluctant to jump into social media.

Lead generation continues to be a big issue for many clients, and Gillin does provide a good case study of using social media to generate leads.

It's worth reading.

How Many 10 Commandments of Social Media Do You Need?

Recently Carrie Yatman, a PR specialist in San Francisco, asked an interesting question on LinkedIn:

"Would any of these be in your own 10 Commandments of Social Media...or Top 10 Tips List?"

• Fast Company 10 Commandments: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/lon-safko/ten-commandments-social-media/ten-commandments-social-media/

• Maccabee Group 10 Commandments: http://www.maccabeegroup.com/images/CommandmentsSocialMedia.jpg

• Wordymouth.com Blog: http://wordymouth.com/2009/05/13/the-ten-commandments-of-social-media-engagement/

• Kyle Lacy's Blog: http://kylelacy.com/the-10-commandments-to-understanding-social-media/

Check 'em out. Actually, each of those 10 Commandments offer some valuable guidelines.

40 Commandments seems like a lot, yet they don't cover everything.

Which is a key point: that social media isn't a commodity the way a press release can be. One organization's social media experience will probably be different from the next, due to different needs, different set of audiences, different brand values, etc.

A decade ago, a press release was the standard tool. But because social media is new and evolving quickly and because we don't have a standard set of benchmarks across clients, each organization will need to explore social media, determine what works for them, and then continue to gain experience.

What's also interesting is, as with the real 10 Commandments, organizations have to make a leap of faith to social media before it pays off.