Social Strategy: 3 Paths to Social ROI

According to eConsultancy, Only 8 percent of companies say they can determine Return on Investment (ROI) from their social media spending (source: Econsultancy).  From their Global CMO study, they find 63% want to measure the ROI of their social investment.  Yet, many social pundits - while giving "lip service" to the concept of ROI, have "surrendered" to the ROI challenge and, have instead, encouraged their followers to simply focus on the "intangible" justifications for a social strategy.  In other words, don't worry about the lack of social ROI, it is intuitive it benefits your organization and that is justification enough.

While these types of articles imply you don't need to really consider or develop the ROI from your social investment, nothing could be further from the truth.  If you consider the "opposite side" of the IBM quote, if 63% of all organizations would like to measure their Social ROI, this means 27% of them can.  That is the direction I used when I started researching my new book - "Social IMC - Social Strategies with Bottom-line ROI".

The fact is there are thousands of companies who are using Social as an integrated part of their marketing mix.  Their social strategies develop very specific KPI's and provide a way to track their social investment from first social contact through to final purchase from the organization.  And these companies are no different than yours.  In developing my book, I looked at B2B and B2C companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100.  I examined for profit and not-for-profit firms, governmental organizations, and organizations across the globe.  From Africa to China, to the Pacific Rim, to Europe to the Americas, companies are designing, developing, deploying, justifying and measuring their social investment with the same precision as their other marketing investments.  The key is not to simply rationalize the fact you don't have ROI today, the key to success is to look at your social investment through a marketing prism.  Start with your high value markets and you can develop strategies which transform your social programs into revenue producing, market share generating assets to your organization.

While my book goes into the strategies in great detail giving you the metrics, methodology, and best-of-breed examples from across the globe, there are three paths you need to consider in re-thinking your social investments from an ROI perspective.  They are:

• Start with your High Value Markets - Man pundits advocate specific site strategies.  Whether it is blogging, building your Facebook presence, Tweeting, building your PInterest presence, etc., they focus on content and engagement, not ROI.  The path to an ROI strategy starts NOT with social networks but with your High Value Markets.  The goal of social strategies with bottom-line impact is to develop strategies which build 1-to-1 relationships with your high value markets.  Using social to build relationships rather than followers is one of the paths to social with measurable, provable bottom-line results.

• Think Multimedia Engagement - If you look at social from a marketing perspective, it is logical that your high value markets are engaging on multiple levels of the social pyramid.  Whether they are consumers or business professionals, they are seeking expertise and information using blogs, websites, social networks, private virtual communities, videos, passion sites and a host of other social options.  For success, you need to understand where your high value markets are congregating, who is at the center of their conversations [the influencers] and where they are congregating.  This will allow you to maximize your impact by engaging them on the levels they "inhabit".  This is where social monitoring comes in.

• Build Relationship Funnels & KPIs - The final path is to begin thinking of your social strategy as a journey rather than a networking site.  To build a business relationship, you need to take your prospects through a process [a relationship or performance funnel] from prospect to customer [and beyond].  While many of these relationships will occur exclusively in social, many can use other marketing channels [sales force, conferences, meetings] to close the sale.  When I work with companies through my consultancy, we start by identifying all of the "steps" from suspect to customer.  Each level is quantified, valued, and then we begin by determining the performance required in each step of the process to be profitable.  Comparing every pair of behaviors in the relationship funnel gives us the KPIs [Key Performance Indicators] we need to manage the ENTIRE process from social contact through to purchase.

In summary, there are thousands of companies across the globe who are implementing highly effective, highly efficient, and highly profitable social marketing programs with their high value & high opportunity markets.  The key is to understand how best to use social as an integral part of your marketing mix.  Today, Social Strategies with Bottom-line ROI is a necessity and you need to know how to design, develop, deploy, measure & justify your social programs for your organization to grow and prosper.

Randy Hlavac is a social and integrated marketing expert.  In 1990, he founded Marketing Synergy, Inc [MSI].   MSI helps business and consumer focused companies define, engage & acquire high value communities using social, web, mobile and integrated marketing technologies.  Using value based predictive systems and marketing databases integrating social and integrated marketing channels, MSI’s clients build profitable, long-term relationships with their most valuable market segments.  Marketing Synergy aids its clients in developing and deploying the marketing database, analytical, and marketing systems necessary to achieve their business goals.

In addition to being the CEO of Marketing Synergy, Randy is also a Lecturer at Northwestern.  He teaches courses on digital, social and mobile marketing.  Randy is a social marketing blogger and his first book – Social IMC – Social Strategies with Bottom-line ROI is available on Amazon.  Randy also writes articles for the Journal of Integrated Marketing, Chicago Association of Direct Marketing and is a frequent guest blogger on social, marketing technologies, and integrated marketing. 

Randy can be reached at RHlavac@SocialIMC.com.  You can also reach Randy on Twitter at @RandyHlavac or on LinkedIn at randyhlavac

Entrepreneurs: Build an Online Social Presence, Go Beyond the Website

As an entrepreneur, you recognize the importance of going to market with a website, yet many entrepreneurs start their businesses with very little plans on how to manage an online social presence.  Online social networks and the exposure within online sources have become an essential component in the visibility of a company’s resources.  As a graduate student in the Northwestern Medill IMC marketing program, I have been researching ways for companies to create an online presence that goes above and beyond the typical company website.  I have found two great articles that articulate specific steps that you need to follow in order to be a successful entrepreneur with a strong social presence.

One of the first steps essential in creating your business' online presence, is to "be social".  According to the article, "Beyond Your Web Site: Nine Ways to Build an Online Presence," by Angela Hribar, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of GlobalSpec, Inc., "To compete effectively, it's necessary to expand and enhance your exposure in the same online sources your customers and prospects use while searching for products and conducting research."  Developing a deep online presence is critical in creating a strong company brand and a message that can relate to your customers.  Creating a more visible and recognizable presence online, beyond a company website, is the way that a company can generate attention about their products and services as well as create maximum visibility about their company.

When establishing an online presence, it is important to surround yourself with other professionals by joining online communities relevant to the products and services of your business.  According to the article, "8 Specific Tactics to Establish and Grow Your Company's Online Presence," by Sandra Morgan, Founder/CEO/Editor in Chief of Kalon Women, "Social media sites can increase your business' visibility, give you an opportunity to present a more personal side to potential customers, drive awareness through social activity and check-ins, and turn casual buyers into true fans."  Entrepreneur's need to connect with other professionals and communities in order to see suggestions for businesses to tap into new markets and to view recommendations on how to create your company's "digital checklist".

After reviewing these articles, I have developed three main action items that you should consider when marketing your business: 

1. Be Social - Establish a basic online presence using social media sites (Google+, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and participate in online discussions.
2. Join Online Communities - Surround yourself with other professionals in your industry by joining online trade associations.  
3. Advertise Online - Become more visible by advertising in e-newsletters and creating banner advertisements on social media sites.

As an entrepreneur, it is important that you keep your company competitive.  Use every tool within your marketing toolkit and every available marketing option online to connect with your high value markets.   

Kari McMullen is a Business Analyst on the Customer Communication Strategy Team for TEKsystems at State Farm Insurance.  She has a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Communications and a Master of Business Administration, both from Bradley University.  She will soon obtain her Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University and intends to pursue a career in Corporate Communications and Marketing Management.

Contact her on Twitter - @karimac23 

LinkedIn – Kari McMullen

CMOs Listen Up! Don’t Leave Active Social Listening Out of the Equation

As a CMO or Brand Manager, it is vital to learn as much as you can about your high value markets.  As a graduate student in Northwestern Medill’s Integrated Marketing Communications program I have been exposed to many cutting edge thought leaders in the industry, and will share my thoughts about why the combination of quantitative data analysis needs to be paired with qualitative social listening to reveal key insights and strategic inspiration for your company.

Active social listening can yield valuable time sensitive insights leading to strategic inspiration.  According to the article Get More Value Out of Social Media Brand-Chatter by Susan Fournier and Bob Rietveld, it is becoming more common for companies to have their ear to the ground when it comes to social media, but it begs the question: what actually happens from there?  Often times findings may be reviewed, but is ultimately filed away.   Listening social just to say you’re doing it is not going to magically produce any results.  To actively listen is to take in the information, analyze it, and turn it into useful insights.  According to Fournier and Rietveld, “Sometimes the correlations are low between what you think you know and what social listening reveals. But that doesn’t mean you should jettison the listening data; it just means you need to consider both sets of findings simultaneously to decipher the true story.” In addition to being a must-have, social listening is inexpensive, with a high dollar-to-insight ratio.  Now that’s something that should be music to your ears.

Image Source: Sales Force Marketing Cloud

The article The Art of Listening Completely to Social Data by Erick Brethenoux discusses how listening completely to social data is essential to truly understanding your consumers.  According to Brethenoux, “The most crucial step to targeting your marketing efforts is vetting consumer data carefully through marketing analytics technology and a disciplined eye.”  Active social listening can reveal emotional triggers that are the driving force behind consumer behavior, however listening to what makes one single person tick on a given day is not particularly helpful.  Some companies view social listening in this light, and therefore discard it as useless.  However, pairing active social listening with Big Data driven insights to reveal what collectively makes a group tick is huge.  From here, a strategy can be crafted to provide a personalized meaningful experience that really speaks to the consumer. 

After analyzing these two articles and combining this information with insights I have gained from my professional experience and courses at Northwestern, I propose that there are 3 actions you can take to put these strategies to work for you:

• Listen Broadly - Get to work on actively listening to social 24/7, and be prepared to pair your findings with data analysis.  Don’t slack off, don’t fudge your results, and don’t discard what you hear because it does not align with what you had envisioned hearing. 

• Analyze Data – Put Big Data to work for you, but don’t use those findings alone.  Get ready to combine these findings with your social active listening.      

• Take Action – Combining the qualitative results of active social listening plus the quantitative data analysis is a great jump point for you to strategize.  Make the most of your findings by providing a meaningful, personalized experience for your consumer that engages them and drives them to action.

Big Data analysis can help to transform what was once indistinguishable noise into insights.  This is a great start, but don’t kick your shoes off and put your sweatpants on just yet.   Where there is noise, you have to listen up!  Combine your new found filtered insight with active social listening, and you can paint a vivid picture of not just where you are headed, but where you need to go. 

Nikki Ilchert is a Communications Coordinator for RealSource Association of Realtors, a not-for-profit trade organization.  She is currently a Master of Science candidate in the Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University with an emphasis on Digital Marketing and Analytics.  Nikki is the proud mother of 2 rescue dogs, Buddy and Goose, and is currently on track to graduate in June of 2015.   Keep the conversation going with Nikki on Twitter @nikkiilchert or LinkedIn.

Hospitality Operators: Listen in on Social Media to learn who your guests think you are

As a CEO of a hospitality company, you have access to a powerful collection of guest feedback, you just to have to listen in on the conversation. As graduate student at Northwestern University and as a concept and branding consultant for a hospitality consulting firm, I’ve been studying how brands have been using powerful social media tools to better understand their customer’s opinions and feelings.

Social Media is more than a way to engage with your customers.  It is an effective and low-cost way to conduct market research.  Social Media Today offers some great strategic advice in the post: How to use Social Media for Market Research.The real-time nature of social media can cut months off of the process of conducting traditional market research.  Hidden in the chatter are often key learnings about the words your guests are using to describe your brand.  By listening in rather than surveying or leading focus groups, unnoticed trends and patterns can emerge. Most social media sites offer free monitoring tools, but for those companies who want to delve deeper, here is a great round-up also from Social Media Today of 25 Awesome Social Media Tools, some are even free.

(Image, market research/shutterstock)

Once you know what guests are saying, it’s time for some soul-searching.  Are they saying what you want them to say? Perhaps an even more difficult question is – what is your brand, really?  Branding Strategy Insider has some great insights in the post Measuring the Strength of Brand Identity.  In every industry, but especially in hospitality where trendy offerings come and go seemingly every week, it's important that leaders to go to a deeper level and outline with and for their teams the the unique characteristics that define how they create value in the world. As the author states, "Identity provides the seeds of differentiation."

Based on these two articles, here are the action items I would recommend you consider:

• Listen to the online conversation. Take note of both the problem areas and consistently positive comments.  Too often sites like Yelp are viewed by operators as a place to read about bad experiences, but the things people love about you are even more important to understand so you can give them more of what they want and amplify those positive sentiments  across marketing channels.
• Conduct a brand audit or concept clarity review.  Discuss key differentiators, core values and each touch point to define what your promise to guests should be versus what it is today.
• Join the online conversation  Develop a Cross-Channel Communications Road Map to further monitor your guests to ensure that you are effectively and consistently communicating your brand at each opportunity.

Often times day-to-day operational concerns can distract from this kind of high-level, strategic thinking and these kinds of conversations arise from desperation rather than inspiration.  This doesn’t have to be the case and regular monitoring cross–checked against an agreed upon concept offering can be just the preventative care the doctor ordered.

Candace MacDonald is a hospitality marketer and concept consultant, experienced at translating creative vision into marketing programs that build brands and generate revenue.  She has worked for hotels, restaurant operators, celebrity chefs, wineries, and a major food & wine festival.  She is a candidate for a Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. Follow her @comacdonald.

Adidas: How (Not) to Manage the Unexpected

Courtesy of Facebook.com/DerrickRose

Better safe, than sorry.

It’s a lesson we've all been told growing up. Whether it’s packing that extra sweater, or checking to see if you locked the door, it’s a way of thinking many of us have adopted in our everyday lives.

In the unpredictable world of sports marketing, it's a phrase to live by. 

Now, being safe doesn't necessarily mean sticking to tradition or being conservative. It just means it’s important to have all your bases covered; or rather, to always be prepared for the unexpected.

Adidas knows this all too well.

It happened in April of 2012. Just two months after signing Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose to a 14-year, $250 million dollar contract, he tore his ACL and would be sidelined for at least 9-12 months.

Other sporting goods manufacturers would have shelved Rose and shifted focus on to a different athlete. I mean, really, how can you sell a branded shoe if the athlete is injured?

But in the rubble, Adidas saw an opportunity.

Enter:  “The Return of Derrick Rose.”

#TheReturn (as it's known on social media) was a 6-video web series that chronicled Rose's rehabilitation process. The digital campaign stretched over a four month period and emphasized Rose's hunger and determination to come back.

Since the campaign launched last August, the series has been viewed 7 million times on YouTube, the number of Twitter followers for @adidashoops has increased by 100 percent and discussions about Adidas on Facebook have gone up by 200 percent.  

How did Adidas manage to accomplish this? They covered their bases.

Insight: Adidas listened to what people were saying online before reacting. It’s a simple, yet effective practice brands neglect when things go array. The outpouring of support for Rose on social media was the inspiration behind the campaign.

Social Media: If you want to address an issue in a timely fashion, look no further than social media. Adidas ditched  traditional media outlets like TV and print, and went digital. Social platforms like YouTube and Twitter enabled Adidas to connect with its consumers directly. This resulted in a stronger online brand presence for Adidas. 

Emotional Appeal: In order for a brand to succeed in managing the unexpected, it has to know what strengths to play up. Adidas understood Rose’s appeal and used the campaign to highlight everything fans love about him.

When the campaign came to a close six months ago, Adidas was lauded for their ability to turn a nightmare situation into marketing gold.

But those critics may now be rethinking their stance.   

See, what Adidas failed to recognize is that managing the unexpected is an active evaluation of the situation. Just because a campaign ends, it doesn't mean you're home free.

The problem now is that Rose has still not come back.

Under normal circumstances, an athlete's decision to sit out would not be problem. But #TheReturn created such a hype, that it led fans to believe that Rose was in a position to come back sooner, rather than later. And after being teased with this thought for months by Adidas, fans are not taking this outcome well.  

Here's the bottom line: If Adidas ever plans to sell another Derrick Rose shoe in the future, it needs to do some major damage control. Waiting any longer to respond or ignoring the issue completely will tarnish its brand image. 

Adidas had the right idea with #TheReturn, but the message behind the campaign needs to be reworked going forward. And to do so, Adidas needs to go back to the basics:

Listen: Adidas needs to once again listen to what is being said about before they can act accordingly.   

Be realistic: Rose may be an extremely gifted basketball player, but he’s still human. Recovering from a serious injury like an ACL tear requires patience and even when he does return, it will take Rose a while before he plays at an MVP level again. Embrace this fact. Take the theatrics down a notch and give fans the chance to see the situation clearly.

Stay true to Adidas: Adidas is all about helping athletes perform their best. So instead of looking to expedite the rehab process on camera, Adidas needs to show that it genuinely cares about the well-being of its athletes and consumers. Recovery is not a race, but rather a process. The sooner Adidas accepts this, the better chance it will have in reconnecting with its consumers.

Stay true to Derrick Rose: As the brand behind Rose, Adidas is doing him a major disservice by letting him get most of the bad rap for his decision not come back yet. After all, would Rose even be facing this much criticism had #TheReturn not created the expectation that he is coming back soon?

Developing an advertising campaign around an injured athlete is risky business, but companies have found a way to make it work. For example, when LA Lakers guard Kobe Bryant went down with an injury last month, Nike released an ad paying homage to him. It was a simple, yet powerful print ad that even caught Bryant off guard.

Regardless of how Adidas chooses to address the "is he coming back-or is he not" soap opera that has become of Rose's life, it's imperative every possible is accounted for.  

Parisa Durrani is a student in the Masters of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University. She's passionate about all things NBA and can be found on Twitter @ParisaDurrani 

Brand Managers - Drive Passion Using Your Brand Essence

Brand Managers are perennially in search of ways to not only maintain their standing with their customers, but increase excitement and strengthen passion for their products.  I have found articles reiterating the importance of allowing insight gained from your customers to drive innovation; ideas introduced to me as a graduate student at Northwestern University's Medill IMC program.

In the beauty world, there is the tale of two entities. There are the main industry titans and the newcomers garnering lots of buzz with their unique perspective yet both are fighting to attract customers, old and new. The most important action for each is to build desire, a thought expressed by Revlon’s CMO Julia Goldin.  This desire for the newest shades, trends and products helps your brand remain relevant. This is the charge for your brand; build, create and sustain desire.

After listening to your customer, the next and most crucial step is what you do with what you've discovered.  Translate this newfound information into customer-friendly innovation improving the customer experience with the products as done by cosmetic titan, L'Oreal.

How do we create this elusive desire?  The aforementioned articles and my studies in IMC have guided me towards these three items to implement and achieve your desired results. Listen to what your customers are saying and uncover what they are not able to express directly.  This can be done in several ways but none more important than engaging via social media, which provides a unique opportunity to learn more about the ways customers interact and use your product.  Capitalize by listening to your brand community on sites where they interact with each other most; the major social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Read comments left on YouTube video tutorials and gain a deeper understanding never before accessible.  Respond accordingly to customers needs and employ cutting-edge technology to create their desired iterations of products helping you retain and attract them.

In the cosmetics world with infinite possibilities for self-described "beauty junkies" companies are faced with the daunting task of differentiating their brand from competitors. Using the above actions will help your brand achieve the distinguishing qualities that build desire to draw your customer in and keep them coming back for more.

Jaclyn Bivins

@jaclynbivins

Jaclyn Bivins hails from Chicago, Illinois and is a graduate student at Northwestern University in Medill's Integrated Marketing Communications program. After graduation, she hopes to work in brand management and marketing strategy in the cosmetics and beauty industry. 

Web Analytics Revolution: from Quantity to Quality

Are you struggling with which web analytics software you should use to measure your new website? Forget about it. They are all the same. As a marketer, what you really should think about is what to measure and how to best take actions from those measures. As a graduate student in the Northwestern Medill IMC program, we have studied web analytics and how they can be used to improve your business. And we have some tips to help you turn data into qualitative information.

                                        Picture Source: http://www.gabblet.com/web-analytics-service.aspx

Ron Person, Director of Analytics for Sitecore, said in his great great article Why Engagement Analytics Trump All Others that “we should be measuring marketing quality.”So far, most web analytics are measuring marketing quantity such as visits and clicks. However, to predict consumer behaviors and determine the gaps, marketers should focus more on marketing quality rather than quantity. The quality here refers to engagement, which is mainly measured by conversion rate right now. However, conversion rate may not be a good indicator of engagement since different behaviors require different levels of engagement. For example, an email address and a complete registration certainly require different levels of commitment from consumers. Even if they share the same conversion rate, they would not have the same level of engagement.

Ron introduced a simple method to measure engagement. He assigns different engagement values to different transaction points based on the communication, trust, and commitment required. The values will be accumulated. For example, clicking on a web page has a value of 5; e-mail signing up is 10; registration is 25. Then if a person clicks and signs up, he will have an engagement value of 15. In this way, marketers will be able to calculate the value of each visit rather than only the number of visits. More importantly, they can even compare the value to their other marketing efforts across different platforms and even with competitors. With this simple method, marketers will be able to avoid wasting their marketing budget on those ineffective marketing events.

The method above sounds simple and effective. However, to actually measure engagement, here are a few steps you need to go through.

1. Map out the customer purchase funnel. Purchase funnels vary from business to business. To map out the specific funnel for your specific business, you need to observe what your customers are doing on your website. You can simply use a website monitoring tool to help you track each movement your customers make. Carefully analyze those movements. Find out all the turning points where the traffic decreases significantly. Each turning point will become each stage in your funnel.
2. Categorize funnel stages. Although traditional Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA) model may no longer accurately reflect how consumers actually behave, it is still a good indicator for determining engagement levels. Categorizing each funnel stage into AIDA will help you easily assign engagement values later. For example, browsing the website belongs to Awareness while requesting for more information goes to Interest.
3. Assign engagement values. After categorizing the stages, You now only need to evaluate the engagement levels of the four categories and assign each category an engagement value rather than assigning every funnel stage. In this way, you do not have to re-assign engagement values for different purchase funnels. The engagement values can be determined once and for all.
4. Measure the quality of each visit. After you assign engagement values, you will be able to add up the value of each funnel stage a customer goes through. A higher value stands for a better visit quality. This is a much more effective way to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaign than merely monitoring the traffic. Additionally, you will be able to compare the effectiveness of one market event with your other marketing events.

Simply follow the above steps; you will be able to measure quality and make a huge difference. The earlier you take action, the more money you will save on your marketing campaign.

Yiqiong "Jessica" Xu is a graduate student at Northwestern University's Medill School. She studies Integrated Marketing Communication and concentrates in Direct & Interactive Marketing and Marketing Analytics. Follow her on Twitter(@xuyiqiong) and LinkedIn(Yiqiong Xu).