Social Media ROI: Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in Your Organization

by Olivier Blanchard

Overview

“Blanchard is demanding. He won’t allow you to flip through this book, nod your head, and leave. If you’re in, you’re going to have to invest to get your rewards.”

—Chris Brogan, president of Human Business Works

“Social media isn’t inexpensive; it’s different expensive. The human effort required to do it right is significant, and not knowing precisely how social media helps your business and how to gauge that progress is a dereliction of duty. In Social Media ROI, Blanchard provides the missing playbook for sensible, sustainable, profitable social communication. It’s about time.”

—Jay Baer, coauthor of The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social

“Social Media ROI gets down to the heart of the matter: How will social communications positively impact my organizational goals? Olivier takes us through a journey starting from the start, creating a strategy to achieve objectives, and in turn, the means to measure return on investment. If you want to get serious about online communications, you can’t go wrong with Social Media ROI.”

—Geoff Livingston, author of Welcome to the Fifth Estate and Now Is Gone

“Olivier explains the intricacies of building a social media-influenced company for every layman to understand. It is important to understand reach, attention, and influence for social media ROI. This is the book to help with that understanding.”

—Kyle Lacy, principal at MindFrame (yourmindframe.com) and author of Branding Yourself

“Ladies and gentlemen, the social media code has officially been cracked. In Social Media ROI, Blanchard reveals how companies can apply the massive power of social media to achieve equally massive results. Incredibly practical, yet supremely enjoyable, this book offers a clear roadmap to growing your revenue in the dizzying world of tweets and retweets, likes and shares, connections and comments.”

—Sally Hogshead, author of Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation

“If you know Olivier, you know he goes beyond the bullshit. He ‘gets it.’ This book will put you in the mindset to successfully plan and achieve real business objectives with social media. It’s a hard fact that good business decisions depend on real results. Olivier avoids the fluff with clear-cut ideas that will help you produce results.”

—Brandon Prebynski, social media strategist

Use Social and Viral Technologies to Supercharge Your Customer Service!

Use this book to bring true business discipline to your social media program and align with your organization’s goals. Top branding and marketing expert Olivier Blanchard brings together new best practices for strategy, planning, execution, measurement, analysis, and optimization. You will learn how to define the financial and nonfinancial business impacts you are aiming for—and achieve them. Social Media ROI delivers practical solutions for everything from structuring programs to attracting followers, defining metrics to managing crises. Whether you are in a startup or a global enterprise, this book will help you gain more value from every dime you invest in social media.

You’ll learn how to:

• Align social communications with broader business goals and functions
• Plan for effective performance measurement
• Establish clarity of vision, purpose, and execution
• Implement guidelines and operations for effectively managing social media
• Get started by “listening before talking”
• Integrate social media into long-term marketing programs, short-term campaigns, and brand initiatives
• Use social media to deliver real-time, optimized customer support
• Leverage mobility and the “on-the-fly” social media culture
• Measure FRY (Frequency, Reach, and Yield)

Includes a foreword by Brian Solis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780789747419
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	02/22/2011
Series:	Que Biz-Tech
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Olivier Blanchard is a brand strategist with 15 years of B-to-B and B-to-C marketing management experience ranging from manufacturing and distribution to new media and consumer goods. He manages BrandBuilder Marketing, a brand consulting and marketing management firm that helps companies combine traditional and new/social media, and the Red Chair Group, which delivers executive social media training worldwide.When he isn’t writing, speaking, or consulting, he can be found on his blog at www.thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/thebrandbuilder. An avid triathlete, photographer, and travel junkie, Olivier lives in South Carolina with his wife, two children, and their roving pack of wild Chihuahuas.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Brian Solis

Part I: SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT 1

Chapter 1: Creating the Social Company 3

Evolution, Human Nature, and the Inevitable Socialization of Business 4

Moving Beyond Channels: Social Media vs. Social Communications 7

Why Social Media Matters to Business 7

Influence and Media: Lateral vs.Vertical Forces 9

Chapter 2: Aligning Social Media to Business Goals 13

Social Media’s Value to the Organization 14

Differentiating Between Strategy and Tactics 15

Differentiating Between Goals and Targets 15

Tying a Social Media Program to Business Objectives 16

How to Create a Roadmap by Turning Goals into Targets 17

The Top Five Business Functions That Can Be Easily Enhanced by a Social Media Program 18

Sales 18

Customer Support 20

Human Resources 22

Public Relations 23

Business Intelligence 24

Social Media for Nonprofits 24

Outcomes 24

Member Support 25

Human Resources 25

Public Relations 26

Member Loyalty 26

Chapter 3: Planning for Performance Measurement 29

Tools, Methodologies, and Purpose 30

Selecting Adequate Social Media Measurement Software for Your Program 30

Key Performance Indicator (KPI) 32

Social Media and Sales Measurement: F.R.Y. 35

Chapter 4: Establishing Clarity of Vision, Purpose, and Execution 41

Getting Top-Down and Bottom-Up Buy-In Throughout the Organization 42

Change Management, Social Media Style 48

Myth Number 1: Social Media Is a Waste of Time 49

Myth Number 2: Social Media Is Complicated 49

Myth Number 3: Anyone Can Do That Job 50

Myth Number 4: Social Media Is the Shiny New Thing. Two Years from Now, That Bubble Will Burst 50

Myth Number 5: I Am Going to Have to Change the Way I Work 51

Laying the Groundwork for Integrationand Management 52

Part II: SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM INTEGRATION 55

Chapter 5: Understanding How Social Media Plugs into the Organization 57

Creating Structure: Your First Social Media Process Mapping Draft 58

Understanding the Four Phases of Social Media Adoption 59

Phase One: Test Adoption 59

Phase Two: Focused Adoption 60

Phase Three: Operational Adoption .60

Phase Four: Operational Integration 61

Genesis vs. Pirate Ships: Social Media Integration Models 62

From Skunkworks to Full Deployment of a Social Media Structure 64

Centralized vs. Decentralized Social Media Management Models .67

Chapter 6: The People Principle 71

Hiring, Training, and Certifying for Social Media Activity 72

Hiring a Social Media Director (Strategic Role) 72

Hiring for Tactical Social Media Roles 76

HR and Social Media: The Need for Social Media Policies, Guidelines, and Training 78

The Value of Internal Certifications 81

Chapter 7: Establishing Social Media Guidelines for the Organization 83

Guidelines, Policies, and Purpose 84

1. The Employee Social Media Bill of Rights 85

2. Internal Social Media Usage Guidelines 86

3. External Social Media Usage Guidelines 87

4. Employment Disclosure Guidelines 89

5. Anti-Defamation Guidelines 90

6. Social Media Confidentiality and Nondisclosure (NDA) Guidelines 91

7. Official vs. Personal Communications Guidelines 91

8. The Employee Digital Citizenship Contract 92

9. Training Resources 93

10. Social Media Guidelines for Agency Partners, Contractors, and External Representatives 94

Chapter 8: Laying the Operational Groundwork for Effective Social Media Management 95

Establishing a Social Media Program’s Organizational Structure: Leadership and Reporting 96

Establishing a Social Media Program’s Organizational Structure: Cross-Functional Collaboration 100

Basic Technical Requirements 103

Chapter 9: The New Rules of Brand Communications in the Age of Social Media 113

Social Media’s General Impact on Brand Communications 114

Transparency, Opacity, Confidentiality, and Disclosure 119

Confidentiality and Data Protection in the Age of Social Media 122

Part III: SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM MANAGEMENT 125

Chapter 10: Listening Before Talking 127

Business Intelligence and Search 128

The Power of Real-Time Situational Awareness 130

New Avenues of Market Research: From “I Don’t Know” to “Let’s Find Out” 133

Chapter 11: Social Media and Digital Brand Management 135

Introduction to the New Paradigm in Digital Brand Management 136

Community Management 137

Marketing 140

Advertising 143

Product Management 144

Digital 145

Corporate Communications and PR 146

Online Reputation Management 151

Crisis Management 152

Putting It All Together 156

Chapter 12: Real-Time Digital Support: Fixing Customer Service Once and for All 157

The Superhero Principle 160

The Basic Social Media Customer Service Model 162

The New Digital Concierge Service and Customer Service 3.0 166

Digital Conflict Resolution 168

From Risk to Opportunity: Turning Anger on Its Head and Other Considerations 171

Chapter 13: Social Media Program Management—Putting It All Together 173

Social Media Management: In-House, Outsourced, or Somewhere in Between? 174

Monitoring and Measurement 176

Campaign Management 176

Eleven Key Best Practices for Social Media Program Management 179

Staying Focused on Business Objectives: How Marketing Campaigns Should Fit into Your Social Media Program 183

Final Thoughts on Social Media Program Management 188

IV SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM MEASUREMENT 191

Chapter 14: Creating a Measurement Practice for Social Media Programs 193

Before the How, the Why: Keeping an Eye on Objectives and Targets 194

A Word of Caution Regarding Measurement in the Social Media Space 195

The Cornerstones of Your Measurement Practice: Monitoring, Measurement, Analysis, and Reporting 195

Monitoring 196

Measurement 196

Analysis 196

Reporting 197

Best Practices for Performance Measurement 197

Maintain a List of Everything You Can Measure 198

Maintain a List of Everything You Must Measure 200

Stay Current on the Best Measurement Tools 202

Ensure the Neutrality of the Employee(s) Tasked with the Measurement of Your Social Media Program 203

Tie Everything You Measure to Business Objectives 203

Test, Measure, Learn, Adapt, Repeat 203

Building Velocity and Specificity into Your Social Media Measurement Practice 204

Chapter 15: ROI and Other Social Media Outcomes 207

ROI and Business Justification 208

Financial Outcomes vs. Nonfinancial Outcomes and a Word About Conversions 210

What ROI Is and Isn’t 215

Tying Social Media to the P&L 220

Tying Nonfinancial Outcomes to Social Media Performance 223

Step 1: Establish a Baseline 227

Step 2: Create Activity Timelines 227

Step 3: Monitor the Volume of Mentions 228

Step 4: Measure Transactional Precursors 230

Step 5: Look at Transactional Data 231

Step 6: Overlay All Your Data (Steps 1—5) onto a Single Timeline 233

Step 7: Look for Patterns 233

Step 8: Prove and Disprove Relationships 235

Chapter 16: F.R.Y. (Frequency, Reach, and Yield) and Social Media 239

The Importance of Finding the Right Words in the Language of Business 240

Financial vs. Nonfinancial Aspects of Frequency 243

Financial vs. Nonfinancial Aspects of Reach 248

The Financial Value of Yield 253

Chapter 17: Social Media Program Analysis and Reporting 257

Shattering the Vacuum: The Need for Collaborative Analysis 258

Best Practices in Data Reporting for Social Media 260

Lateral Reporting 260

Vertical Reporting 262

Program Validation by the Numbers 268

Looking at Performance Data as Actionable Intelligence 271

Afterword 277

Index 281