This is the last in a series of four posts on how small businesses develop and implement a social media campaign.  Now that your social media program is running it’s time to measure it’s effectiveness.  You’ll want to examine your program just like you would a traditional marketing campaign.

A goal of social media program is to reach your target market on the social web.  You’ll want to measure periodically (weekly, monthly) and track growth rate as a percentage of the aggregate totals.

Blog: Use Google Analytics to measure the number of visitors who viewed your posts during this time period.  Also measure the number of subscribers, and comments on your posts.

Facebook: Track the total number of fans for your brand page. In addition, review the number of people who liked your page during a specified period of time or during a promotion and those who commented on or liked your posts to identify the potential monthly Facebook reach.  Review your statistics using Facebook Insights.

Twitter: document the number of followers and the number of followers for those who retweeted your message to determine the monthly potential reach. A great free tool to use for Twitter measurement is TweetReach.

YouTube: Measure the number of views for videos and the total number of subscribers.

Monitoring the reach of your social media program will allow you to  measure its effectiveness.  Adjust your focus based on your findings.

Anyone know of other tools that can help with measurement?

David Hargreaves, CEO of Beyond, presented at Wednesday’s Social Media Camp in NYC.  His presentation on the Art of Listening included recent trends, as well as tactics and tools brands can leverage to analyze social media and web analytics data to increase customer engagement and increase traffic to websites, blogs, and other company social media channels.  He presented two client case studies (Zevia and Sybase) that illustrated how listening and data analysis can really influence your social media campaigns.

David’s presentation was very effective because he was able to distill down the complex concept of “listening” and illustrate how companies can use the data they mine from their research.

Essentially the steps include listening to the conversation that’s taking place away from your branded properties in forums, deal and review sites, etc., identifying the key influencers and communities and the content that they care about, researching search engine key words, looking at your web analytics to understand which sites your visitors are coming from, and investing to create the content that the community is searching for.

The most compelling realization for me was how keyword research should inform and shape your content creation strategy.  David recommends getting an understanding of what people are searching for, and then identifying and focusing on relevant keywords that aren’t  highly competitive.  Using these keywords in your content will drive traffic to your site, and could ultimately result in an increase in online sales.

These are great techniques that we’ll be incorporating for our clients in the future.

Connect with David on Twitter  @DavidHargreaves.

This fall, Yammer released the latest version of its product, which brings it ever closer to a combination of Twitter and Facebook for business.  Yammer has expanded to include applications like links, polls, chats and events, and companies that are using this product say it fosters better communication and growth of relationships between co-workers.

Unlike Twitter, which is used for broadcasting messages to the public, Yammer is used for private communication within organizations or between organizational members and pre-designated groups, making it an example of enterprise social software.

Access to a Yammer network is determined by a user’s internet domain, so only those with appropriate email addresses may join their respective networks.

According to TechCrunch, the service is being used by more than one million users and 80,000 companies worldwide (that includes 80% of the Fortune 500). And Yammer is doubling revenue every quarter. A quote on the Yammer website from one of their customers says, “It’s helped drive innovation and build community”, “we’re finding new value in the tool every day.”

The price point for Yammer is great for small businesses – $5 per month per user, with discounts available to non-profit organizations.   It is definitely something to investigate if you’re interested in enterprise social networking.

This is the third in a series of four posts, which describe how businesses can get started in social media.  In part one of this series we defined the goals for the social media campaign.  Part two covered the process of creating a social media marketing plan.  In this post we’ll establish our social presence and get started communicating with existing and potential customers.

Get started using social media.

I’ll focus on Facebook, Twitter and a blog as these are the most common social media platforms for businesses just getting started in social media.

1)   Facebook – set up a company page not a personal profile for your business.  You’ll need a personal profile to login to Facebook.  Once you’re logged in click on the link in the lower left CREATE A PAGE FOR MY BUSINESS.  Fill in all the information to create the “Official Page.”

2)   Twitter – set up a Twitter account for business.  You may want to have multiple accounts based on how you want to use Twitter (e.g., customer service, communication, PR, etc.)

3)   Blog – The most popular providers include LiveJournal, Blogger, WordPress.com, Xanga and Webs. These sites are pre-made with templates and push-button publishing that don’t require much technical know-how.  If you want the blog design to match that of your website, you’ll need a designer and programmer to do that for you.

4)   Integrate – Set-up your Facebook page so that any blog posts automatically replicate onto your FB page and any posts to Facebook automatically propagate to Twitter.  That will allow you to post once to your blog and the content will automatically replicate on all your social profiles.  (See my post on next week on how to do this.)

5)   Post – Get started posting content that is relevant to your customers.  Keep to a regular schedule for posting so your readers will know what to expect.

6)   Announce – Add the Facebook and Twitter icons, and add a link to your blog to your website.  Send an email to your customer/prospect list announcing your social presence.  Spread the word as widely as possible.

Follow these simple steps to get your business up and running.  In the next and final post in this series I will cover how you measure your progress, and will provide some strategies for ensuring your success.

This according to Marc Pritchard, global marketing and chief branding officer for Proctor & Gamble, speaking at the recent conference of the Association of National Advertisers held in Orlando, Florida.

Social Media is fueling the success of advertising.

P&G, the world’s largest marketer by spending, says the success of recent advertising campaigns has been fueled by its acceptance in social media.  Pritchard cited examples such as video clips on YouTube that had been viewed 140 million times.  He said they used consumer opinions on Facebook and Twitter to determine which commercials to run during the Winter Olympics in February.

The takeaway for small and medium size businesses is this:  you need to get comfortable with social media and begin the process of integrating it into your overall marketing strategy. You may not be able to immediately measure the ROI of social media, however, investing now will increase the likelihood of success in the future.

It’s no longer optional, and consumers expect you to have a social presence.

This is the second in a series of four posts, which describe how businesses can get started in social media.   If you approach your foray into social media the way that you would any new initiative for your business, you’ll find it’s fairly straightforward to get up and running.

In part one of this series we defined the goals for the social media campaign – increasing sales, brand engagement or simply more “fans” or “followers.”  Once you’ve clarified what you want to accomplish, the next step is to define the steps to get you there.  In this post I’ll walk you through process of creating a social media marketing plan.

The social media marketing plan is really a project plan – a series of tasks and timeframes – that you will follow.  I’m a big fan of lists and use them in all aspects of my life.  Think of the plan as a to-do list the end result of which is a strong and sensible social media presence that will allow you to accomplish the goals you laid out in step one.

To get started, gather all the existing information that is relevant to and would influence you plan.  This information would consist of:

• All components of your existing traditional marketing campaign (print, email, etc.) – key messages, target market, dates for any marketing milestones, etc.
• All components of your sales or public relations activities – dates, location, target market, etc.
• All components of your existing internet marketing campaign (if any) – key words, ad text, demographics, dates, etc.
• Any other important dates, such as, industry-specific conferences, seminars, etc. that you will participate in.

Next you’ll create a six or twelve-month calendar that shows the marketing/sales/PR activities already planned and you’ll integrate the social media tasks.   Initially you’ll need to set-up your social media profiles and establish your baseline analytics so you can measure success.  The next social media tasks will be to create content and posts that support and augment your existing activities, and set you on the path to accomplish your goals.

Sample Social Media Marketing Plan

Once you’ve organized all your activities in one document, you’ll be able to visualize social media as a natural part of how you grow your business.

In the next post I’ll provide specifics on how to implement this plan.

I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who has a developed a plan that is similar or different to this one.  I’m always looking to leverage best practices from our readers.

Findings in a recent report indicate that social networking continued to grow over the past year.  The report, based on Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® data from more than 275,000 consumers in Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America, examines how consumers are engaging with social technologies.

According to the report, the number of people who joined social networks increased by 8 percent in North America, 11 percent in Europe and 18 percent in China.

However, the number of people who created social content did not increase. Says Jacqueline Anderson, Forrester Research Consumer Insights Analyst, “one-­third of online consumers in the US regularly watch user-generated videos on sites like YouTube.  But, only 10 percent of US online consumers upload videos they’ve created to public sites.”

Awareness of the trends uncovered in Forrester’s research provide insights that help businesses determine how consumers may select and purchase products and services.   Businesses should potentially decide to focus less on driving user generated content, and more on creating fresh and interesting content for their customers.

You can read more about this report at www.Forrester.com

It’s been said that if you’re not leveraging social media these days, you’re not really on the internet.  This is the first in a series of four posts in which I will provide details on how small businesses can get started using social media.  It’s easier than you think.

Step 1 – Define Your Goals – What do you hope to accomplish?

As with any new business initiative, it’s important to know what you want to accomplish before you start.  “Social media” is an umbrella term for lots of different web platforms and social networking sites.  It can be overwhelming and difficult to determine exactly what’s best for your business. To narrow your focus, first clearly articulate what your business objectives are and that will naturally help you decide how to proceed.

Building and maintaining a Facebook page or Twitter account without a clear strategy is just wasted time.  Businesses that find success are those with clear objectives.  For small businesses, reasonable objectives could be:

1)    Build up your fan base (Fans are people who “Like” you on Facebook or “Follow” you on Twitter.)  Why would a small business want to have “fans”?  The reason is that you can send out messages to your fans with a click of a button and it propagates to their own pages.  You have a direct link to this group.  This can be very powerful and efficient way to communicate.  And the good news is that it’s two-way communication.  Your “fans” can send you messages or comment on things you’ve posted.  You’re truly having a one-on-one conversation with your fans.

2)    Increase Sales – Establishing a social media presence gives you yet another way to reach potential customers.  There are 500 MILLION people on Facebook alone, and some of those people are your customers or potential customers.  Not having a presence is turning your back on a potentially huge market.

3)    Build Brand Engagement – This is an extension of the first item.  Having a social media presence gives you the opportunity to communicate directly with your customers.  You should use this opportunity to build engagement and loyalty to your brand.  Offer your fans incentives (discounts, coupons, etc.), request feedback on new products ideas, and recognize loyal customers. This will make your customers feel appreciated and special.

There are obviously many business objectives, but hopefully the list above will help get you thinking about just some of the possibilities.

In future posts, I’ll describe the Steps 2 through 4.  Stayed Tuned!

Are you an owner of a small business using social media?  Let us know how you’ve made it work for you.

Social media is about customer relationships and not really about technology at all.  Read this great article to learn about the 4 Cs of social media – community, content, conversation and conversion – and how central they are to social media success.    http://socialmediasonar.com/the-4-cs-of-social-media

Have a look at how far social media’s come over the last five years, a slew of interesting facts and some great business lessons from the most successful small biz tech startups of our day.  Here is the link for the article:   http://mashable.com/2010/07/25/social-media-resources-list/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Google+Reader