"Analysts love powerpoint!"
Group poll to start things off. Who is here and where are you from, from a social media perspective...
Case studies of companies doing social media right and wrong. Twitter is over capacity, always, not a good reputation for a Web 2.0 company. Companies must approach social media with the same effort of a product program. Requires a plan, strategy, resources, research, etc... all needed for a successful social media program.
Five things to think about for your social media program:
1) Who is in charge? The participants have the control. Marketers need to give it up, or suffer the community backlash.
- What can go wrong? Being too traditional, wrong measurement metrics, use push thinking.
2) Being Prepared.
- Use POST approach. P- people. O- objectives. Five for social computing (listening, talking, energizing (WOM), supporting, embracing - Dell IdeaStorm as an example of a success). S- strategy. Develop a plan, what does success look like? T- technology. Which tools to use. Blogs, Twitter, pick a good vendor last.
- Success depends on the interests of the members first. Give information the community finds valuable.
- What goes wrong? Content is too packaged, not believable. Or no one comes.
3) Dealing with Detractors.
- Have resources ready. Staff, processes, resources, etc.
- 5 types of detractors. Legit complainers, competitor, engaged critic, flamers, and troublemakers (trolls). For trolls, ignore them, or figure out how to expel them from the community.
- Listing of why they make trouble, how to recognize them, and what you should do for each type.
- What goes wrong? Sue, shut them down, disregard, freeze, don't engage.
4) Costs
- Social media programs cost $$$. GM's program cost $240k, but it had a profitable ROI.
- Prepare for costs. Labor, internal education.
- What goes wrong? Run out of steam, cloudy measurement, shuffled resources.
5) Measurement
- Need a different metric for each objective (see above).
- Example of Podtech and energizing. No single plan for
- What goes wrong? Use traditional metrics, forget the qualitative, don't measure anything, and can't improve
Best Practices
- Build internal teams first. Need an evangelist.
-- The Tower. Central person/organization that mandates all social media activities.
-- The Tire. Organization that works on the edges of the company. Not coordinated.
-- The Hub and the Spoke. Best model. Central organization with flexibility at the edges.
- Develop an Internal Air Traffic Tower. Internal resource to listen to marketplace, disperses information, and tracks all activity for measurement.
- Roles
-- Social media strategist. Organizes and supports the program. Internal facing program manager.
-- Community manager. External facing program manager. Customer support, PR, blogger relations, etc.
Recommendations
-- Act more like a host.
-- Power is in the hands of the community.
-- Use POST methodology
Group Challenge: How will you get your company conversation ready internally?
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