The 4 Keys to Social Media

Jason Cormier — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:02:28 -0400

This has been somewhat of an anecdotal piece to many of our conversations about social media lately - so I'm sharing it. Given the countless layers of social media, it should be understood these keys are in the context of research, planning and measurement (not tactics).

Of course, many of our prospects and clients want to shoot straight for the tactics. Part of our responsibility is backing them out to the bigger picture of what the objectives are. Strategy follows, and only then are the tactics (and technology) addressed.

As practitioners we casually speak about listening, learning and engaging. The first two keys are specific to listening.

Here is Room 214's take on it:

1. KEY Words: Those again? Yes. Keywords are not just for SEO and search marketing. In fact, most of today's leading online business intelligence and social media monitoring tools are providing value initially based on keyword search queries. Even basic keyword analysis can go a long way.

2. KEY Topics: Beyond keywords, are key topics or emerging themes. Knowing what your share of voice is in terms of percentage of conversations about your brand (vs. your competitors or partners) has its place - but understanding common themes or topics in those conversations adds a whole new level of insight with respect to priority of messaging, response, etc.

3. KEY Performance Indicators: If you have an idea in terms of what success looks like against your objectives, then key performance indicators should be established to provide a means of measurement.

I realize we could get into an entirely separate discussion around score cards, Net Promoter and ROI here - but the point is to establish some form of measurement related to response. Might sound like common sense, but it's an often forgotten element.

4. KEY Influencers: This is where the gold is with respect to a great deal of action that can follow from the initial data (listening) collected. Social media is little more than word of mouth marketing on the Internet. Unlike traditional word of mouth, however, identifying influential people and web properties essentially enables the priority of who gets the word first.

When you consider these keys, which one do you think is most relevant to you? What parallels do you see with what might be considered traditional marketing and public relations?

Note: Thanks to nerdapproved.com for the image.

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Capture the Conversation Internet Marketing Tag Feed for 'key influencers'

The 4 Keys to Social Media