Social media marketing is deeply rooted in word of mouth. As social media folks (ie. gurus, specialists, slackjaws) we focus on a specific channel, but our end goal is the same: get people talking about our brands and our clients.

As we explain in the video above, effective WOM marketing follows five key principles:

• Credible – Honest and Authentic
• Respectful – Transparent and trustworthy behavior
• Social - Listening to, participating in, responding to and encouraging conversations
• Measurable - The ability to define, monitor and evaluate a program’s success
• Repeatable – The ability to deliver on these principles over and over again

If you like what you see in the video above, you can grab some free presentation slides, and information downloads below. It’s something visual and fun to include in your next presentation about WOM marketing.

WOMM Presentation Resources:

• Download principles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• Download the Information Sheet
• Download the Powerpoint slides

“Getting into social” is now a mandatory part of the marketing program at most firms, but it’s frequently an execution, not a strategy. Would you ever send out a generic mailer to 100,000 with just your logo and company description to “generate awareness”? No. The act of creating a social presence must be tied directly back to your measurable business goals for the year. Check out this tutorial on aligning business goals with social objectives and write your own down. A few sample goals:

• Increase product penetration by X %
• Drive foot traffic in-store
• Increase customer service ratings

And a few sample objectives. Remember that objectives are NOT (!!!) executions:.

• Drive brand awareness among new customers
• Encourage brand loyalty and increase retention among existing customers
• Solve customer service issues
• Highlight and encourage positive product reviews

2. Have the right tools.

There are hundreds of social media tools out there, and it’s easy to be talked into using most any of them. If you come to the table armed with clear objectives for your entry into social media, and an explanation of how those goals fit into your measurable business goals, then you start to understand what services you need from the tools.

Example: In sample objectives above, normal sentiment analysis won’t help you solve customer service issues because you won’t know what’s driving negative sentiment. You will need something that can analyze and group complaints and themes, so you would instead look for a tool that is able to parse common themes in language, like Crimson Hexagon, Netbase, or Collective Intellect.

3. Understand the Output

Before you contract with a tool, ask the provider for help with building a report that maps back to your business goals and social media objectives. Work with your account rep to understand how you can take different outputs or reports from the tool and build them into a larger report that is relevant to key stakeholders, which may include other departments and those in the C-Suite. You may realize you are asking for more than the tool can provide, or that you are in for more work on your end than you initially bargained for.

Our Method

At Room 214, we are tool agnostic. We use a lot of different tools, and understand that as of yet, we cannot get everything we need from just one provider. It is important to have a deep understanding on your own needs before looking to contract with a tool. This is the best way to avoid having unrealistic expectations and get the most bang for your buck.

Yesterday, Facebook continued to make their platform more business friendly with the announcement of a new feature, “Tell Your Fans”. Within the Marketing tab of the Page Manager (to get here, simply click “Edit Page” below a page’s profile picture), page administrators can now use existing email contacts to build their Facebook following two different ways. The first option is to upload a file that contains an existing email list. The second option is to input your existing email address and allow Facebook to import your contacts.

Once either of these actions is completed, Facebook will take the following steps to invite your email contacts to join your page:

1. If an email address is linked with a Facebook account that is not already associated with your Page, Facebook will send the account a recommendation to “Like” your page. These recommendations are comparable to existing Recommended Pages modules that appear on the right side of users home screens.

2. If an email address is not linked with a Facebook account, an email is sent suggesting that they join Facebook in order to “like” your page.

While this feature will be sure to add another spark to the privacy debate already swirling around Facebook, it ultimately allows Page administrators to market directly to those already associated with their brand–for FREE.

Where did it come from?

This is not the first time this technology has been used for social media marketing. Thriving B2B companies like FlowTown and Rapleaf have been offering similar consumer information services for years. Both allow marketers to import an email list and identify demographics of the audience in addition to what social media accounts the emails are associated with. You can then email all members of the list that are already on Facebook and invite them to join your page.

“Tell Your Fans” is notably different in a couple key ways. First, Facebook differentiates between those who are already associated with your page and those who aren’t. While the accuracy and effectiveness of this feature is currently in question, in a perfect world it will make sure you do not unnecessarily reach out to existing members of your community. Second, and most important, “Tell Your Fans” lets you recommend your page within Facebook. This makes your page one click away as opposed to making users manually find your page. One would think this convenience will increase the number of the people who take the time to “like” your page.

Working out the Kinks

As the feature was just launched on Wednesday, there appear to be serious issues surrounding its effectiveness and functionality. After analyzing the tool, Inside Facebook has found that any Google email address prompts the error, “Everyone on this list is already associated with your page.” Other initial complaints from page administrators include email notifications are not being received, friend requests are being sent from members of the imported contact lists, and emails are being sent from an “unknown sender”. As they have in the past, I suspect Facebook will value this feedback and resolve these flaws in a timely manner.

Capture the Conversation

Have you tried the “Tell Your Fans” tool? How much value do you think it holds for social media marketers? Comment below and join the conversation.

I opened Facebook this morning and as 10,000 others did in the last hour, saw and clicked on the talking mint. I was kicked over to a “Like us” landing page and clicked the like button.

I then agreed to install the mentos coupon app (and let it have access to my friends and profile information). After that, I was sent out of Facebook to SmartSource coupons which for security and fraud prevention wanted to run / install a java apple, promising coupons afterward.

Coupons may or may not print. Around this point I began to remember the portion of behavioral economist Dan Ariely’s ‘Predictably Irrational‘ that dealt with the lengths people are willing to go to for “Free.” “Free” is like a bug zapper for consumers. You may know better, but it’s not likely you’ll be able to stop yourself. These free Mentos were becoming more and more of a bother. I flipped back to Mentos Facebook wall to see how excited everyone else was about their free mentos…

The Mentos page admin seems to be on top of the situation, changing the profile picture over to a text explanation of the expiration date (there was also confusion about the coupons expiring yesterday instead of a month from now.) While writing this post, 10,000 more users have “liked” Mentos. How far would you go for free candy?

Perhaps We Are The Others

Key takeaway here? They don’t care. I have a lot of friends in education, consulting, finance and various non-profit work and, thus, I have very few friends who interact with social media for business purposes. What I’ve found is that, while these people may have updated their privacy settings in the last few months (as have the majority of users), they are largely unconcerned. While they may check Facebook multiple times a day, they see the service as a positive fun-only experience. Those of us in marketing, social media, and tech see it as a something much greater and, therefore, believe that changes in privacy have far more impact on our own lives.

Case and point: My social media self's finely-tuned privacy settings.

Check out the stats from this poll on people’s opinions on internet privacy. It showed that people were neatly divided, with 45.96% feeling the right to privacy should be absolute and 42.28% thinking that privacy is our responsibility, not our right. I would love to take a similar poll and break it down by profession, and then perhaps by hours spent on social media tools.

In The Words of Garth Algar, “We Fear Change”

David Armano, via the Harvard Business Review blog, points out that Facebook isn’t about privacy anyway; it’s about agility. The site was created to rapidly adapt and always entice, and it does that well. Quit Facebook Day was a failure, partially driven by the fact that it was on a national holiday, but partially because a majority of people can’t be bothered. Facebook works for them. As it is our job in social media and marketing to scrutinize Facebook’s every move, these changes create a flurry of posts, Tweets and heated debate. For everyone else? Facebook changes, a few people complain, we all adapt, the change becomes a part of our life, the cycle starts over. And really, let’s be honest: how else would you know when to send birthday ecards?

I don’t want to downplay the importance maintaining a transparent privacy policy; I think Facebook has learned their lesson on that one. However, I do think it’s worth remembering the view of life from outside the social media bubble, how fast Facebook evolves, and how quick we are to forgive and forget.

Three Common Reasons for Social Media

In our experience at Room 214 we typically see three major reasons organizations dive into social media:

1. Product Development/Feedback
2. Sales/Marketing/Brand
3. Customer Service

Each one of those “reasons” requires its own cast of characters to “own” the process. In addition – each carries unique key performance indicators to measure the health and success of the project. Because function-specific business goals, community value and KPI’s are all different – it’s critical for anyone heading social media efforts in a particular channel to have a clear understanding of the impact measures.

Know Thyself

To steal from Farmer Ted ask: “Who Am I?” In a recent webinar delivered by the Altimeter Group about developing a social strategy one key point was to consider how your company will run things. Will it be Organic, like a Microsoft, where it’s loose and open? Centralized like Starbucks, where it’s controlled by one department? Coordinated like HP, where all departments are participatory but guided by strategy and rules?

The success for a social media program increases significantly when the structure matches the culture – in the beginning that is. As the organizations ingests social media into its culture it will change things – but to begin with – know who you are. Natural leaders will emerge.

Structure Your Team Based on the Golden Rule: You Respond To It – You Own It
The rule is if you respond to an online conversation you own it. For that reason you don’t want PR people responding to a customer service issue because more than likely they don’t have the authority, or resources, to drive resolution. If you’re not driving resolution with customer service issues you’re doing more harm than good.

Conversely you don’t want a product developer in charge of creating a response to an attack (justified or not) on the brand.
Know the conversations happening around your brand and make sure the right people are there to own it.

Ensuring a Common Thread

We do believe Corporate Communications should have intimate knowledge of the organization’s social media activities. Reason: a disturbance in the force requires a quick and professional response. The organization does not want the 24-year old tasked with community management on Facebook stoking consumer ire because they didn’t keep their cool.

Competent Sounding Board

Even if the Corp Com team gets pulled in there needs to be an individual(s) acting as a competent sounding board to provide insight into the rules and structure of the community. This keeps from crafting a response strategy that unintentionally throws fuel on the fire.

So Who Owns It?

Answer the questions:

• What’s your reason for getting into social media?
• How will you measure success?
• What’s your corporate culture?
• What are people saying?
• Who’s got the budget?
• Who’s got the time, energy and willingness to do it right?

Envelope Please
And the answer is: It Depends

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.

- Dr. Suess

….glad you asked though.

Fear of the Social

We constantly hear from people who think that getting into the world of social media is a terrifying leap from the traditional media they are used to. It doesn’t have to be scary when you slowly integrate what you are currently doing with a bit of the online world. And remember, trying this doesn’t mean the commitment to a million-dollar media buy.

I’d like to highlight some campaigns that have caught my attention by doing a great job of integrating social media with print, radio, TV, or websites.

Beginner

I noticed a Toyota Sienna commercial last week that finished not with their website, but with their youtube site. What’s great about this is it drives consumers to a site that is the consumer’s, not Toyota’s, “safe zone”, making it feel much more comfortable.

Intermediate

Using navy.mil as the jumping off point, the Navy utilizes various social media resources, including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, RSS feeds, podcasts and Flickr. These resources allow them to effectively manage and communicate with multiple constituent groups, a process that could be confusing and nightmarish to manage given that their constituents range from enlisted men to the media to worried mothers. Specific organizations have specific social media accounts, so if you need to find information about your friend in Amphibious Force Seventh Fleet, you can easily find the fleet’s feeds here.

Expert

Old Navy, who has been using mannequins as a central focus of their traditional media campaigns, started the Supermodelquin Search, which solicits a significant amount of interaction from users, both offline and online:

• Users take photos of themselves and upload them to a website
• The best pictures bubble to the top through user voting
• Users can share what they like through easy share buttons on each page
• The campaign has been neatly integrated with the existing Old Navy Facebook page
• 7 of their modelquins have Twitter accounts, where they share amusing information, push the contest, and promote the brand

So. Any good (or bad) examples that you can think of?

However, Facebook musician pages leave a lot to be desired for those promoting their music within the world’s largest social network.  The Facebook music player is either tucked away in the box tab or it is halfway down the page in the side bar.  Even worse, the fans who actually look hard enough to find the music player are unable to share the songs with their own friends.

RootMusic is working to make Facebook pages more musician friendly withBandPages.  Their simple tool creates a tab for your Facebook page where your fans can hear your music while they interact with the page. BandPages also pull in your Twitter stream and offer a functioning Facebook wall, along with providing a shareable music player.

The process of setting up a BandPage incredibly quick and easy. Any band with a Facebook page can head to RootMusic.com and have a functioning Facebook BandPage in about five minutes.  One of the really nice features is the music playerpowered by SoundCloud. It gives your fans the ability share your music with their friends on Facebook or a number of other sites. The music player even expands the functionality for musicians by giving them the option to offer free song downloads.

One big criticism of BandPages is that the music player is still tucked away in a tab. However, this is more of a critique of Facebook music pages themselves.  The best way to direct traffic to your tab is to make your BandPage tab the landing page for all non-fans (Once again RootMusic has made it very easy to do this).

Musician pages on Facebook may not be substantially improved until Facebook decides to do a major overhaul. In the mean time, a BandPage is one of the easiest and fastest ways to customize your musician page and expand it’s functionality.

Check out a few BandPages in the wild:
OONA
Con Brio
BATTLEHOOCH

J Slider, CEO of RootMusic, was nice enough to answer some questions for me in a quick interview:

Interview with J Slider, CEO of RootMusic

Q: Can you give me some background information on yourself and RootMusic?

Answer: We are made up at the intersection where music and tech folks meet.We have a great time working on RootMusic and have in depth experience in our respected fields. As musicians, band managers, venue managers we were frustrated with the lack of good clearly organized tools that were available for the music community. So now we are building them, and always keeping an open ear to ways the music community would like to see things improved.

Q: How many musicians are currently using BandPages and how long have BandPages been available?

Answer: There are right around 100 currently using BandPages and we really just opened it up to the public a few days ago. We had about 15 bands helping us test it out before we opened it up to the public.

Q: How can you offer BandPages for free?

Answer: Well first off this is a very basic need that every musician should be able to afford. That is to represent yourself well on the biggest social network where your grandma, next door neighbor and fans all are. Instead of making them come to your site go to your fans. We have many things already in the works for the future that will be affordably priced , but this is a basic version that everyone should be able to have it they want it.

Q: What are you looking to provide for musicians with BandPages?

Answer: A place that is informative and clean for musicians to represent themselves on the biggest social network. It provides a way to bring all your Facebook tab’s,Facebook Wall, music player and more into one easy to use page. One of our users said “Myspace musicians welcome to Facebook”

Q: Why is there a need for your tool?

Answer: Because every single musician/fan we have talked to has asked for it. To this point we have not heard anyone say…”eh thats not really a good idea” so we figured there’s a pretty big need.

Q: What do BandPages do better than any other Facebook tool for musicians?

Answer: There are a lot of apps out there that were built to do one thing to help musicians. BandPage brings together many of those tools onto one page. Where it makes it easy for new fans and current fans to check out your band. We also keep the music playing so it is more likely for your fans to read your bio, look at your shows etc, because they are free to move around as the music is playing. There is much more to come and things we plan to make better and more useful, can’t wait to share those with you!

Q: Most of a Facebook page’s activity happens within a user’s newsfeed. How can a BandPage help a musician utilize his/her fans to spread content virally?

Answer: Oh you just wait, its gonna be pretty sweet! Currently when you use the wall on BandPages it’s the same as your regular wall, so it posts to your news feed like it normally would.

Q: Tracks uploaded on a BandPage go to the RootMusic SoundCloud account. Why did RootMusic choose to use SoundCloud within BandPages?

Answer: SoundCloud is the best music player we have seen, if you have other suggestions, we are all ears! They have a great reputation a mature api, built in sharing functions,stable, and the public already trusts them.

Q: Are there any new features in the pipeline for BandPages?

Answer: Yes! We will be around for a while and you will see new features coming out in the next few months. We are currently building them for you as we speak! And again we want to hear the public opinion as to what you would like to see. So if you have any suggestions about what features to add let us know. At the end of the day we build what the people ask for.

Q: Are there any new features in the pipeline for BandPages?

Answer: Yes! We will be around for a while and you will see new features coming out in the next few months. We are currently building them for you as we speak! And again we want to hear the public opinion as to what you would like to see. So if you have any suggestions about what features to add let us know. At the end of the day we build what the people ask for.

Velocity of Conversation

1. Old-school measurement for ROI: What is really a “lead?” People want to apply same measures to social media. Traditional measures are being applied to social media marketing when so many other aspects of business simply don’t. Example: What’s the ROI of the receptionist, or even the accounting department for that matter?
2. We can measure how many people are exposed to our ideas, downloaded our YouTube video, etc. but these are very different measurements compared to traditional ROI measurements.
3. David states that ultimately, the ROI argument is used as an excuse based in fear. Many companies are simply afraid of social media.
4. David’s new book, World Wide Rave: How ideas spread and why people talk about you and your company. The first step in the formula for success is very counter-intuitive to marketers: Nobody cares about your products except you. To create something that has potential to spread, you can’t talk about these things. As soon as your product is brought into the equation, nobody cares.
5. Key take-away: Doing lots of activities in online marketing as opposed to one or just a few, should be the expectation when it comes to increasing your chances of success.

Notes: You can check out David’s blog at WebInkNow.com. I really enjoyed this interview, and am looking forward to reading his new book.