Capture the Conversation Internet Marketing Tag Feed for 'social media strategy'

Facebook Fan Pages and Calculating ROI

Lauren Maynard — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:23:47 -0500

Feelings and Marketing

In an excellent blog post this week, Brian Solis outlined his predictions for the role of a marketer in 2010. Out of eight high-level points, he made four that seemed particularly relevant to the building of strategy in a campaign:

- Listen to and engage customers one to one

- Build relationships and not campaigns

- Create experiences not impressions

- Earn media and not buy it

What he's talking about here is a set of things I hear often. Listening. Engagement. Relationships. Experiences. I'd lump these under "feelings", something that doesn't mesh well with the traditional concept of measurement and ROI.

Measuring Intangibles

Just yesterday, Facebook rolled out some changes to Fan Pages that give a helpful boost to our effort to measure these intangible feelings. Fan Page administrators will now be able to get numbers on impressions for status updates. This means that we can gauge how many people see the information placed on a page through their own news stream; it no longer requires a user to come directly to the page.

Facebook also gives us a handy impressions-to-interactions ratio which shows up as a feedback percentage.

What does this mean?

As astutely noted by our own Wendy Hofstetter, this relatively simple change could have some big impact:

- Reporting numbers on Facebook will be more accurate than the standard "pageviews" statistics previously provided.

- We can more easily compare the return on Facebook versus other more traditional media by calculating a CPM (cost-per-thousand). Most companies use CPM as a way to gauge how expensive their advertising is (that's how TV, outdoor, Radio, Magazines, etc. are purchased).

- We can begin testing what time of day is best for Facebook engagement.

- We can understand what kinds of posts (videos, quotes, etc.) get the most engagement.

Why is this important?

Brian Solis had another point in that list: Look beyond the quantity of friends, page visits, eyeballs, readers, and viewers to measure changes in consumer attitude and intent.

Facebook allows brands to create meaningful interactions with consumers. At Room 214, Facebook allows us to keep our clients' fans updated with relevant information and content that the fans wouldn't necessarily find otherwise. We can solicit feedback, engage in direct conversation and create content that, if worthy, can be shared over and over again by interested parties.

That being said, a bottom line is a bottom line. Our clients need to understand how their money is being used. And we need to continue to interact with consumers in ways that produce repeat engagement, support, sharing, and evangelism. This new feature from Facebook gets us closer to creating relationships that we can quantify. It also helps us better understand what content isn't interesting; we can then refine our strategy and provide our loyal fans with things they'd prefer to hear, see and discuss.

facebook social media strategy brian solis roi room 214

The Conversation Maturity Model: From Listening to Leading in Social Media

Jason Cormier — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:14:15 -0500

My last post revisited the "markets are conversations" principal. I proposed that companies/brands have been joining conversations in their industry, but selling themselves short if not working towards starting them.

As a framework to facilitate this discussion, addressing the progression and value of brands starting conversations, see the Conversation Maturity Model below:

From a social media strategy perspective, you should find this model fits well as part of, or along side, Forrester's POST (People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology) approach or even Room 214's PPLE Social Media Framework.

The Value of Starting Conversations
To keep this blog post digestible, I'll summarize the model by saying the ultimate value of starting conversations is in building and sustaining your brand as a leader.

Leadership, like almost everything that's enabled your company's success, must be earned. Each (maturity) level within the pyramid model is representative of where your brand may be in any given conversation about a product, service, industry, etc.

Of course, this is only a model. Naturally, activities associated within each of these levels are ideally taking place as more of a continuum to your social media / marketing initiatives.

The Conversation Continues
Although the concepts may be simple, there are plenty of reasons brands are not effectively starting conversations -- from incomplete strategies to limitations in technology. There is more to offer here in terms specifics on these limitations - and more importantly, solutions helping companies to address them... but this will need to be for another post. Happy Holidays everyone.

conversation maturity model pple post forrester room 214 social media strategy starting conversations

The PPLE Social Media Framework

Jason Cormier — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:45:58 -0400

How do you make social media systematic? One way is by utilizing a comprehensive framework as part of your planning and execution. At Room 214, we are often asked about our methodology for social media, so the following post is dedicated to just that.

First, I would like to state that we are big fans of Forrester's POST (People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology) approach to social strategy. The components represent a linear model that I'd argue holds true for any online marketing efforts. You can dig deeper into this by reading Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

The Figure below illustrates Forrester's POST approach.

How the POST approach is actually integrated from a social media planning and execution perspective is where our own PPLE (Plan, Pilot, Launch, Extend - pronounced "people") framework becomes relevant (see figure below).

The practices behind PPLE are outlined as follows:

Plan: Addresses six core program elements (Workflow, Marketing Strategy, Content, People, Technology and Data) in the context of research and Forrester's POST methodology. This typically includes technology evaluations, social media monitoring, creative ideation, and development of strategies and tactics.

Pilot: Leverages a limited number of platforms with which to engage the market. Reduces risk, uncovers problems and provides data and feedback - flying "under the radar" to validate efforts prior to launch. This typically includes technology integration and development.

Launch: Uses additional marketing tactics to extend awareness and participation within chosen social networks. Re-aligns with business objectives and earns multidisciplinary team and public support.

Extend: Extends efficiencies and insights to other social networking models, technologies, and customer-specific initiatives.

The PPLE framework offers a proven structure to follow while providing a unique and holistic client preview for social media campaign development and strategy. It is complimentary to Forrester's approach, and helps to facilitate the communications and execution of work, ultimately enabling the value of our company.

Have you seen similar frameworks or methodologies? What does your experience tell you about this kind of asset?

social media strategy social media methodology best practices pple post forrester research charlene li josh bernoff groundswell room 214 jason cormier