Andiamo! - Social Media Marketing Blog

What The New Forrester Brand Wave Report Says

Forrester's Brand Wave report just came out. Forrester publishes this report annually, and this year they rated half a dozen select 'enterprise-focused' social media analysis vendors (they decided to call it 'Listening Platforms' this year).

The top 2 highlights?

• Our category is rapidly evolving from a pure metrics-driven environment to one where vendors help deliver actionable consumer insights, especially leveraging consumer sentiment.
• Sentiment analysis and influencer identification are key to understanding conversation impact and customer engagement. Most of the vendors reviewed needed improvement in these areas, if they offered them at all.

Although we were not included in Forrester's report this year, the good news is that at Andiamo Systems, we do provide sentiment analysis as well as influencer rating and identification within our platform. We believe this benefits marketers by allowing them to determine and act on the most impactful and important conversations around their brands and industry.

Are there other areas of social media analysis that you think should be focused on more? Let us know!

Social Media Going Mainstream

To lots of us that are knee-deep in the business, Forrester's recent research about the usage and popularity of social media is probably not surprising, but stats and support are always useful. The company's polling indicates 2008 has marked significant growth for social media, with a decided majority of users now participating.

A consumer poll done in the second quarter of '08 found that 75% of Internet users now participate in some form of social media, up from 56% in 2007. That represents a very healthy 34% year-over-year growth.

Forrester also notes that adoption and usage rates vary by the type of activity. For example, they found large growth in participation among those reading blogs and writing product reviews. "Spectator" rates jumped from 48 percent to 69 percent. Likewise, those identifying themselves as "critics" increased from 25 percent to 37 percent. 

In another sign that social media has gone mainstream, Forrester found the participation gap narrowing among age groups, though younger demographics still rate higher. Forrester found 35-44-year-olds increasingly entered the ranks of critics, joiners and spectators.

So what does this mean for marketers?

• Marketers cannot ignore social media. All other forms of marketing, be it traditional TV or print; interactive; and even search marketing affect social media. A TV ad, for instance, prompts comments on blogs and social networks.
• Utilize social media for your ads. Pemco Insurance does a great job of creating videos and posting them on YouTube, check them out!
• Start a corporate blog and get the conversation going. Here's some benefits from a previous post.
• Respond to and engage with influencers in your industry. Address their concerns and turn them into promoters for your brands.
• Employ social media analysis to measure, quantify and act on what people are saying about you. Some of the benefits include:
  • Reducing time-to-market information for your marketing programs. Pemco is able to get immediate feedback on the videos they post. You can use this real-time information to immediately make improvements to your marketing campaigns.
  • Identifying the biggest influencers of brand perception in your industry. Focus your efforts on the people that can make the biggest impact on your ROI. Engage with them, invite them to be early or beta testers, and harness their voices to build your business.
  • Determining if people like or dislike your brand - and why. Use this information to improve your product and service offerings.
  • Gaining competitive intelligence and use this to improve your sales, product and marketing strategies.

Bottom line, keep your finger on the pulse of consumer sentiment, and you will maximize your Return On Marketing Investment. Start now!

Benefits of business blogging

In my previous post, I listed some reasons on why it makes good sense to start a corporate blog (in response to an Ad Age article recommending against it). Now here's some of the key benefits of blogging for your business:

Improved Search Engine Rankings

Google loves blogs - they are updated frequently and are content-rich. That means Google feeds on blogs, just slurps them up like crazy. This can result in your blog being highly ranked for search terms that you blog about. Hint: make sure to backlink - The more you link back to your corporate domain the better chance you have of getting ranked higher in the search engines. Make sure you link from keywords that are meaningful in your posts. For instance if one of your keywords is "social media analysis" then link back to a page on your site from that keyword!

Get a dialog going

The adage goes, 'people are talking about you whether you listen or not'. So in addition to actively monitoring blogs (there's that backlink example again!) and social networks for conversations about your company, it's important to take control and start a conversation yourself.

So what do you talk about? Well, lets start with what not to talk about - how great your product is, and all other sorts of sales pitches. You will turn people off before you even get a chance to develop a relationship with them. Note: If you do have a good reason to toot your own horn, categorize the post as 'shameless self promotion'.

Talk about: industry trends and news; company events, including upgrades or customer service information; and tips on how your audience can be more successful. And when people comment, address their comments quickly, whether the comment is positive or negative.

Work on establishing your blogging 'voice' and help build your company's personality.

Establish you & your company as industry experts

Establish Yourself as an Expert - Whenever our PR folks get a request from a publication about a topic to write about, they consult the blog first to see if there's anything already there. This proves to be a great time saver. If they do find something, they forward the blog post to the publication writer. In some cases that's all the publication needs for a reference, in others it's used as an example of the types of topics we can be interviewed, quoted and published on.

Remember as well that most journalists go online and visit blogs as a way to find interesting and insightful people to interview!

Manage your reputation 

Hey, no business can anticipate a potentially reputation-damaging experience. They can happen. So you need to manage your reputation online. Remember Dell Hell, the Kryptonite lock fiasco, or the Snickers anti-gay backlash? Well, those are big 'uns. But even more minor reputation issues can gain momentum quickly, especially if you give people the silent treatment. So make sure to address any type of negative sentiment about your brand, especially if it was caused by a product or service issue, and proactively post a response and resolution on your corporate blog. It let's people know you are aware and care, plus your post may be the first one that comes up in Google when someone searches. That means any negative posts get pushed down in the search results!

One more very important thing, try to blog regularly since the search engines favor timely posts. I'd recommend no less than 2x a month. Write down topics you want to blog about as soon as you think about them (they don't have to be this long) then sit down and start typing. Get ahead of the game and do 3-4 at once! And now it's time to heed my own advice in that area :)

From the DNC - Social Media's Role in Politics

So outside of the Pepsi Center, which as I mentioned yesterday has NO WiFi, even after spending 7 weeks 24x7 prepping it for the DNC, today I found out where the real action is. And, at least during the daytime it's not at the Pepsi Center, its at the Blogger's Tent, a 2-story canvas structure near the DNC registration area. And there's no lack of WiFi bandwidth at this place! They have something called an OC-192 circuit, which organizers say could connect 220,000 homes to the internet! There are more wireless portals here than in the entire Denver Airport. And the big tent is the groovy place to be - the Huffington Post is even sponsoring an 'oasis' where bloggers and other social media types can get hand massages and facials! Plus...free beer. No wonder getting into the tent is almost a tougher ticket than the DNC itself.

The tent's main sponsors are Google & YouTube and Digg, and with all the buzz, excitement and activity here it's a real indication of the popularity and power of social media in politics, and represents the beginning of a shift from mainstream media domination to a more of a shared environment where you can choose from hundreds if not thousands of channels to get your information from. There's still alot to figure out, but we're getting there!

Blogging @ the DNC (or...trying to)

So, I'm at the DNC all week in Denver. You'll probable agree that social media is playing a huge role in politics, and will continue to play a larger role in accelerating the flow of candid and insightful information at a pace traditional media can never match. Social media reveals the true personalities and character of political figures like nothing else.

Here I am at the Pepsi Center, listening to Gov. David Robinson of NY. I just did a quick interview with the 'Rednecks for Obama'. Drinking all the experiences in. And wanting to blog about it. But guess what? There's no WiFi at this place! Except maybe at one special 'bloggers tent'. Astounding!

Hey DNC walk the walk. Represent the new generation of politics and all that comes with it and let us loudmouths report live on what's going on! Luckily I just borrowed a USB wireless card from someone for long enough to post this! When I get back to my hotel room I'll try to do another update or two while I'm here, it is a very exciting event!

Consumers' Increasing Use of Online Reviews

More people are wiring online reviews and expressing their opinions on blogs, review sites and social networks. And a recent study confirms that more people are using these continually updated and refreshed comments to help then decide what to buy.

According to Opinion Research Corporation, 61% of respondents stated that they had referred to online reviews, blogs and other venues before making a buying decision. And of those respondents, 80% said that the research helped them make a better, more well-informed purchase.

What are the most popular categories researched prior to purchase?

These are major consumer categories, so if any of you sell products or services in these areas, know this: your target consumers are listening to and trusting other people's opinions more than your ads.

One category I saw missing is software. We have several software clients, both SaaS and enterprise, that experience substantial buzz and conversation online about their brands.

So what to do? Start a blog. Blog more often (I am guilty of breaking this rule). And listen and act on word of mouth and social media conversations about your industry and your specific brand. Start by finding and responding to particularly important comments and threads about you. If it's negative, determine the resolution and reply quickly and honestly. If it's positive, respond with a thanks and maybe a special offer just for the readers of that venue! People love to know you take the time to listen and act on their opinions. It will win you customers!

Check Out 'Search Engine Marketing Journal'

We all know how powerful search engine marketing (SEM) is to drive brand awareness and more importantly leads and sales. A significant amount of Andiamo Systems' marketing budget is allocated to Google Adwords and to a lesser extent Yahoo! and MSN.

And increasingly, the realization of the tight connection between SEM and social media is becoming more obvious. For some brands and industries there are as many first page search engine results that are from blogs, forums and social networks as there are from traditional mainstream media. That's largely because search engines eat blogs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They are updated frequently, have lots of content and are typically well-formatted for easy SE crawling. So you need to make sure you have an understanding of how SEM can affect your business.

Which leads me to the Search Engine Marketing Journal (SEMJ). SEMJ is the first printed journal dedicated to the advancement of search engine marketing. What? A print pub about online marketing? Yep. Don't worry, they also have a great website. It is unique in that it is a peer-reviewed journal where anyone is free to contribute. All papers are screen by a team of editors (disclosure: I am Senior Editor) to ensure that the quality is top-notch, relevant and actionable for businesspeople to use.

These guys are leveraging the power of user-generated content to bring continually updated, and fresh information, always showing a unique perspective. Check them out!

Another Example of Blogger's Commercial Impact

Even with all the buzz out there about blogs, social networks and the like most companies still haven't taken action by either starting a corporate blog or at least listening and responding to comments and discussions on blogs and social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

But that's definitely starting to change. Businesses are realizing the potent power of Word of Mouth and its ability to shape consumer perception and purchase intent.

Take the recent Dunkin' Donuts example. Most of you probably heard about the Rachel Ray advertisement, and the uproar the ad caused by the scarf she wore. Appears the black & white paisley patterned scarf resembles a Muslim keffiyeh. Many, mostly conservative, bloggers were insulted, and made their feelings known by posting negative comments about Dunkin's choice of apparel.

The management at Dunkin realized this is a potential harm to their reputation and brand equity and took immediate action:

1) They responded to at least the most influential bloggers with the following message:

"In the ad that you reference, Rachael is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design that was purchased at a U.S. retail store," the company responded to bloggers. "It was selected by the stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, given the possibility of misperception, we will no longer use the commercial."

2) They did what they promised and pulled the ad. And that's not cheap! This ad was part of a $40MM national broadcast, print and online campaign.

Now, whether you agree with the uproar over the ad, or fell it was an incredible over-reaction or mis-understanding of the keffiyeh and Arab culture is irrelevant here. The point is, the power of consumers over brands is irrefutable, and smart companies like Dunkin' monitor social media and take action!

All a-Twitter

So I was speaking at a conference a week ago, and EVERYONE was either talking about Twitter and/or Twittering during the show. I have had a Twitter profile for a long time, but rarely use it. It just seemed like yet another low-utility site that turns into a time-suck to keep up with. But I am re-considering.

If you don't know what Twitter is, it can be described as easy collaborative communication or 'micro-blogging'. It reminds me of many-to-many SMS (the Short Message Service that is what text messaging is for mobile phones). By that I mean most people 'tweet' in short bursts, 140 characters or less, about what they're doing, where they are and increasingly what they like and dislike about brands.

Twitter claims about 1 million accounts, and a recent count showed Twitter getting about 1.2 million monthly U.S. visitors (this is only visits to the website, and does not include users on mobile, via other applications, etc.)

That pales in comparison to giants like Facebook, but the numbers are strong and growing. And more companies like JetBlue are getting in the picture and connecting with potential customers there.

Why? If you target early adopters, affluent, or even people in the social media world, many of them are here. Create a profile and check it out!

Tablet Hotels - Great Social Media Ideas

If you haven't used Tablet Hotels to find and book a hotel room yet, give 'em a try! I got hooked on these guys several years ago after finding them on Google. They are a broker of sorts and and only suggest hotels that really believe in. They have a good (and growing) global coverage, great write-ups and photo galleries and helpful categories, for instance: Style: 'Cutting Edge' Atmosphere: Lively, and so on. Really helps you pinpoint a great place for your stay.

Their service is excellent, but what I like best about them is their social media marketing.

• They always follow-up with a survey after your stay,
• Invite you to share your opinions
• Include a 'Share with a Friend' on each email they send
• They Twitter, and do a pretty good job of having relevant information posted (see an upcoming post for good/bad uses of Twitter)
• and they just launched a Facebook application called the "Global Nomad Challenge"

This is a clever little contest where you guess the location of a hotel based on a photo. Participants have a chance to win free stays in hotels and other prizes. It's still early-on, but they are generating consumer engagement, brand-building and awareness and pretty much kicking Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity's butt in terms of interactive, social media marketing. And it's gonna win them business. None of these tactics is particularly difficult to execute, so pick an opportunity that makes most sense for your business and go for it!

And please share any experiences you have!