Digital Trail

http://bit.ly/SM2Ashes

Who said cricket and statistics don’t mix? I have run a quick SM2 search on references to various phrases associated with the latest cricket battle. Take a look at the results.

We have moved on from the first wave of new and shiny socialised marketing tools and are now looking to apply them against a robust strategy with measurable outcomes. How you monitor your social campaigns – from design through to collating results – absolutely must be underpinned by a consistent framework that knows what it is looking for, what it is trying to change and the measurable outcomes. But how do you get the measure of things? 

When you plan a trip from geographical location A to B, you plan your route; you take into account metrics of distance, time and speed restrictions. It’s just sound planning. When you plan a campaign you will do it with an end goal and some waypoints in mind to guide you on your merry way. This makes sense, and it allows for adjustments mid-campaign. Sometimes elements of a campaign work better than others, so why wouldn’t you divert more resource to the area where you are making gains? These adjustments, however, must be guided by the measurements you are monitoring and not gut feeling.

Please read my full blog post on Alterian’s Engaging Times blog

http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=techforgood-101115151443-phpapp02&rel=0&stripped_title=techforgood&userName=mexicanwave

A highlight from this week’s #TechForGood conference was this presentation by Steve Bridger. It illustrates the need to capture the imagination and interest of those with a passion and to empower them as the strongest advocates for charities and businesses looking to create community and conversation through social media communications. Where there is willing and a natural fit will cause least disruption and maximise the use of limited resources. 

http://aworldoftweets.frogdesign.com/

“More divisive than Marmite itself, The X Factor is the centrepiece of the Autumn TV schedule. Besides the commercials within , the most interesting aspect of the show for me, is the level of conversation it generates online in any given week.

Having run a quick analysis (see chart above) on the volume of conversation across the web, it is soon evident that the amount of noise that is generated is huge when Saturday comes…”

Read the full article on The Social Penguin Blog

Over a posh sausage in the refined surroundings of The Ivy we are treated once more to a tidal wave of insight, case studies and take-home examples of how to use social media to engage an audience. The talks highlighted the applications of social media in charities, frontline public services and politics.

Thanks to Reading Room for putting on another valuable event.

The key points from the morning that struck a chord with me:

•  You can plan a social media campaign to death but be prepared to can aspects of it once the audience(s) get hold of it and make it their own. Also, resource it adequately.
•  What you do with the data you capture as part of a social campaign will define how effective it was beyond the event itself.
• Measuring outcomes beyond increase in followers, mentions and whether Stephen Fry mentioned you is essential and will aid the process of securing internal buy-in.
•  In the eye of the storm, how you react to challenges will impact your success and the values on which you are judged. E.g. #GMP24 intention was to be flippant towards spoof accounts. Tried to shut them down instead of letting them do the work of highlighting the cause behind #GMP24 further.
• Segmentation of email lists can improve open rates (RAF Benevolent fund achieved 67% increase)
• This years General Election was not the social media election that was predicted. Mainstream media, in particular the TV debates, are ‘what won it’.

What did you take home from the event?

Reading:

RAF Benevolent Fund – 1940 Chronicle

Greater Manchester Police Twitter

Charlie Beckett’s take on the event

There are a handful of brands on Twitter and Facebook that fill up their streams with little other than retweets and links to praise about themselves or their products. This is all well and good, a pinch of pride is a useful tool in business, the problem is that the delivery platform isn’t quite right for the act.

A happy testimonial will reinforce the message of a newsletter in an email communication, on a website it will add value to your offering but in your Twitter or Facebook streams, you are preaching to the converted. Fans and followers of you already know that you do things well, that is why they stick their hand up in the form of a follow to identify with you and their connections that they endorse you. Don’t tell them what they already know, be more interesting and offer value in what you say.

By all means, encourage your loyal following to be your advocates and get positive mentions of your brand into their social streams but put the trumpet down before it becomes a bum note in your marketing.

http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=playful2010pawned100924-100928182146-phpapp01&stripped_title=pawned-gamification-and-its-discontents&userName=dings

A thorough examination of gaming and the underlying social and psychological principles of the ‘gamification’ of social media.

Social media monitoring is gaining insight that better informs your business decisions every step of the way from the conversational web.

Here is an interesting fund-raising idea that will immortalise your tweets and dry the dishes, courtesy of We Are What We Do, a social business and charitable foundation.

You  can submit any Tweet and have it embroidered onto a tea towel. “The idea came from mashing up traditional crafts and digital communications”.

The Tweet Towel will give a second wind to that tweet you thought deserved more attention or a tweet that got lost when someone else tweeted a funny picture of a cat or the latest social media findings. 

Image from: We Are What We Do Shop