The buzz is heard all around, top news channels are reporting it, hundreds of thousands of blogs are blogging about it, newspapers are writing feverishly about its effects, and seemingly every major international media source is throwing the phrase “social media” around. Everyone’s concerned and everyone’s engaging.

And now after 5 years of hearing about the benefits of engaging in social media we’re finally starting to see positive numbers indicating what we’ve all been waiting for, the solid proof that social media strategies can bring (more) financial success.

So, for the few skeptics that are left out there, a not so surprising report has just been released by a joint venture between Altimeter and Wetpaint. The report details the depth of engagement by top brands in social media and the ROI they’ve seen since integrating. Quoting the Altimeter Blog

“But even more interesting is that we also looked at the financial performance of the brands, grouping the companies with the greatest depth and breadth into a group called “Social Media Mavens”. These Mavens on average grew 18% in revenues over the last 12 months, compared to the least engaged companies who on average saw a decline of 6% in revenue during the same period. The same holds true for two other financial metrics, gross margin and net profit.”

And they took their research a step further observing in detail the “engagement best practices of four companies: Starbucks, Dell, SAP, and Toyota. Some of the key findings include:

• Emphasize quality, not just quantity. Engagement is more than just setting up a blog and letting viewers post comments; it’s more than just having a Facebook profile and having others write on your wall. It’s also about keeping your blog content fresh and replying to comments; it’s building your friends network and updating your profile status. Don’t just check the box; engage with your customer audience.
• To scale engagement, make social media part of everyone’s job.The best practice interviews have a common theme — social media is no longer the responsibility of a few people in the organization. Instead, it’s important for everyone across the organization to engage with customers in the channels that make sense — a few minutes each day spent by every employee adds up to a wealth of customer touch points.
• Doing it all may not be for you — but you must do something.The optimal social media marketing strategy will depend on a variety of factors, including your industry. If your most valuable customers do not depend on or trust social media as a communication medium, or if your organization is resistant to engagement in some channels, you will have to start smaller and slower. But start you must, or risk falling far behind other brands, not only in your industry, but across your customers’ general online experience.
• Find your sweet spot. Engagement can’t be skin-deep, nor is it a campaign that can be turned on and off. True engagement means full engagement in the channels where you choose to invest. Thus, choose carefully and advocate strongly to acquire the resources and support you will need to succeed. If you are resource-constrained, it is better to be consistent and participate in fewer channels than to spread yourself too thin.”

So there you have it, the first breaths of proven success from in-depth integration into social media, now I’m not the type to rejoice in others errors, but quite frankly…

We Told You So.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The Re Agency

One of the biggest concerns of many PR reps and Marketers when making the addition or transition from traditional media to new media is lack of message and feedback control.

This is a natural fear in a business where control is thought to be the success of media strategies.

However Social Media being the rebel that he is, is proving all of us wrong.

Again.

In the beginning TwitterTwitter was viewed as a rather useless ego stroking mechanisim for those average and not so average joes to transmit brief messages about everything they did, literally every second of the day i.e.

@exampleoftwitter Good morning evry1, breakfast, brush teeth, then work -sigh-

140 characters of … nothing.

However this once seemingly useless microblogging site has become the biggest arena for consumer complaints, reassurances, suggestions, and bottled up consumer anger ever witnessed.

As an example I’ve been seeing a growing trend in companies such as JetBlue Airways transform negativity in customer feedback to productivity, by listening carefully and participating in the online conversation going on in Twitter.

Through the use of their twitter account @JetBlue has managed to create an unprecedented relationship with their consumers. They’ve created a system where they encourage JetBlue customers to participate in queries, suggestions and even give complaints.

The result is a genuine conversation between company and customer.

Lets use the example of Tony Wagner. Who found out he wasn’t seated next to his wife and daughter of Two years on their Memorial Day weekend flight, obviously upset by the seating arrangements he immediately contacted customer service who redirected him to take his concern to the gate. Mr. Wagner decided to tweet about his issue not really expecting any resolution

“@jetblue Advice to get both parents and 2 yr old seated next to each other on flight later today? Right now only one parent. Full flight.”

19 minutes later JetBlue responded, offering to help through the direct message feature allowing them to correspond privately:

“@tonywagner Please follow us so we may DM!”

After their short exchange, JetBlue flagged his tickets as a priority concern.

The company jumped at the chance to redeem the customer and move the conversation to a personal preface where the brand would not be damaged but rather enhanced for their quickly responsive customer service.  By veering this possible complaint to a productive resolution they have earned a story in the New York Times about their excellent service and are now regarded as innovators in the Social Network forefront.

This case exemplifies that perhaps control is simply out of reach now, and as professionals we have to accept,  embrace, and simply go with it.

So, for once.. lose control and just listen.

Sheila

Social Media Communications Specialist @ The RE Agency