Today’s guest post is part two of a two-part series by Alex Adekola. In the series, Alex recaps this year’s Social Fresh Conference in Tampa, Florida. We’re happy to have Alex as a guest author on our blog, and we will continue to support the growing tech community here in our own backyard.
Alex Adekola has been developing websites and engaging in organic search optimization since 2002. He has watched the evolution of web and search, and time and time again has placed companies on the top of Google, increasing their bottom line and carving out a niche for Incept Design in the Tampa Bay area. By focusing only on Google, Incept Design has developed a strong expertise in creating strategies to effectively leverage Google to achieve client objectives.
Day 2
We started out day 2 with Jay Baer from Convince and Convert – Connecting Facebook and Email. This was the best presentation of Social Fresh East 2012. Jay is great presenter, and I would encourage you to check out his Slideshare presentation, as it was very entertaining.
Jay has worked with 29 of the Forturne 500, and he claims there is no such thing as a Facebook or Twitter strategy. Email and Facebook must work together. 58% of people check email in the morning, 11% use Facecbook, 44% of corporate social marketers look at Facebook as a way to get new customers.
We only like things that we have already had experiences with. 84% of the fans of corporate Facebook pages are current or former customers. We like what we like! Facebook helps customers remember you. Email does the same thing. Email is Madonna…Facebook is Lady GaGa….same thing but with a fresh coat of paint.
Areas of Integration
- Email subscribes = Likes
- Unsubscribes = Unlike or Hide
- Opens = Reach
- Click = Engaged Users
- Forward = Share
Measure cross-channel impact assisted conversions using Google Analytics.
Check Out Jays’s Slideshare presentation for more insight on this formula:
.02 per email sent x 10% click rate =.20 cost per click
Promote your social media in your email campaigns. Ask for a Facebook like on your email unsubscribe page.
77% of ecommerce shoppers prefer to log in with social media, and you also get more information with a social login system. Segment email to a socially active email segment.
Promote Facebook threshold deals….more likes we get the more money you save.
Always be testing! Test subject lines in your email campaigns. Make customer’s Facebook posts or comments part of your emails. Think of this tactic as a kin to earned media or a testimonial. Check out slide #39 in his Slideshare presentation for a great example of this tactic.
He also touched on the importance of EdgeRank and how it impacts how many people see your post. If there isn’t a lot of interaction, your content will be pushed down in a person’s feed, or may not show altogether. Crowdbooster offers a way to see when your Twitter users are most active; perhaps this is the best time to send out emails?
Next up Shauna Causey talked about the current hottest website in social media: Pinterest. If you haven’t seen or used Pinterest, check it out; it had over 11 million unique visitors last month. They have achieved this feat faster than any other website. The largest demographic on the website is 25-54 females making 25 – 75k per year with some college(60%) or a degree(19%). Think of Pinterest as a place where women organize and share all of the beautiful things they find on the web. Shaua organized a Pinterest campaign for Nordstrom.
Some reasons businesses should consider Pinterest include: low maintenance for brands, a strong sharing component, and the fostering of aspirational actions around someone’s interest graph. Not to mention the fact that it drives a ton a traffic to websites.
The top uses for Pinterest:
- find and save recipies
- fashion ideas
- inspirational quotes
- news updates
- home ideas
- research and trip planning
- funny photos
- kid photos
Some brand examples of effective Pinterest use include: Whole Foods, Etsy, West Elm, and Lands’ End Canvas.
Check out this free Joomla Pinterest Module you can add to your site.
Jane Quigley talked about the importance of having a social media strategy before anything else. Conducting interviews with senior management, going through a discovery phase and assessing social media readiness. Finally create a scorecard to make your final assessment. Unfortunately, Jane lacked any type of example scorecard for the audience. Lastly, she adds, take advantage of advocates and give them the tools to help promote you. Empower your employees as well.
Adrian Parker, formerly director of Radio Shack’s social media effort, is now heading things up over at Intuit. He spoke about how to elevate from a manager to a coach and become and educator. Community is the currency of social media, with no audience there is no brand.
Compare impressions of social to traditional media to understand efficiency. When you give your team permission to fail, you give them tools to succeed
A social media policy is only to protect the brand from legal and privacy issues.
Leadership is plural; vision is singular; strive for progress over protection.
Chris Penn from What Counts stresses that outcomes are important in his presentation on Performance Based Social Media. Instead of focusing on ROI, go with earnings per lead. He urged attendees to setup Goals in Analytics to see which leads generate the most revenue.
Become a data-driven organization and start with a recipe like a content calendar mentioned earlier. Refine a process and tell a good story, a good story always includes conflict and a state of change.
Lastly he mentioned three traps to avoid: selection bias, measurement bias, and intervention bias. Selection bias looks are how close your sample represents the US population. Measurement bias – basically a Klout score – is irrelevant if a user isn’t going to share your content. Intervention bias: don’t make adjustments to, or intervene with, your strategy or campaign based upon flawed data.
Chris Moody from Red Hat talked about five ways to harness the power of community. Chris was another really great presenter to speak at Social Fresh. He was very concise and engaging.
- Market research – tap into an existing community. Find ways to learn form them.
- Give others a voice, tackle critics or turn them into advocates.
- Get customers involved. Ask one question a month engage with your audience.
- Host collaboration; find ways to make your product better through a community and host that. Freezerburns.com was a great example of a self-hosted niche community.
- Expose the thought leaders in your organization; voice your point of view and innovative ideas.
Rounding out the day was Matthew Knell, the Social Media Director at AOL, speaking to the issue of fragmentation. He started out by stating he felt that Facebook has peaked. Personally, I think it’s more of a plateau than a peak. Interest networks are currently all the rage.
Tumblr had a 130% increase in unique visits from Nov 2010 to Nov 2011. Pinterest jumped 1125% in UVs from May 2011 to Nov 2011. Instagram only took 9 months to reach 150 million photos, and one year to reach 10 million members.
People are the vehicle and content is the engine; you have to be more interesting than ever. The shopping mall is being replaced by the boutique store. Facebook may be overcomplicating the process of marketing on their website. Interest networks have limited paid options. You’re allowed to build your own museum of content. Networks like Pinterest and Tumblr are ideal to curate original content. Be sure to visit Matt’s Slideshare for the complete list of ideas.
Resources:
- socialfresh.com,
- ar.gy/Facebook
- investinSocial.com
- Socialfreshconference.com
- Socialfreshacademy.com
- Hubspot.com
- http://wiki.kenburbary.com/social-meda-monitoring-wiki
- Slideshare.com/socialfresh
- Facebook.com/socialfresh
- Google.com/DFP
- Pagelever.com
- Bufferapp.com
- Twitter Hashtags #ELEVATE #SOCIALFRESH