Size Matters...

 

As we enter this final week of blog posts, we are charged with answering the storied question, “does size really matter?” Well, when it comes to the scope and levels of engagement of social media, it sure does. Key in improving your presence on the web is having a true grasp of your current presence and how to improve it through some optimization tools.

Search Engine Marketing

Well, if we are following all of the new rules of PR and marketing, we are building a strong search engine marketing program. “You started with your buyer personas, then you built your content especially for these buyers….Then you delivered the content in the online forms they prefer….[the content] will be indexed by the search engines, and that’s it” (Scott, 2015, p. 395). Essentially, everything we post is catalogued and indexed, so that the most relevant materials are the first to appear in the search engine results.

How do I get to the top of the results?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The art and science of ensuring that the words and phrases on your site, blog, and other online content are found and given the highest ranking natural result (Scott, 2015, p. 396). If your brand is clearly differentiated, and your content specific and focused, your result may naturally be high. Factors like your URL, placement of certain words within your content, metadata, and inbound links all contribute to placing your content high in the rankings.



While certain firms exist that offer to increase your ranking as a part of their professional service, buyer beware that some of these firms overcomplicate the concept to make a fast dollar. If a better understanding of what content should be delivered to get your brand to the top is all that is needed to improve your ranking, why expend the cost?


Also, avoid deleting old content. Leads from many search engine hits come from older posts. Unless that content no longer reflects the values or vision of the company, it can be used to continue to drive people to your current site.

 

What doesn’t work? 

Broad keywords. A new restaurant trying to generate a buzz on social media might consider food as a keyword. As pertinent as it may seem, that term results in over four billion results – not very helpful. Tailor your keywords so the buyers are driven to the content they actually want to find. Instead of food, consider Hudson Valley Farm to Table Italian Restaurant or Poughkeepsie organic trattoria. Create separate search engine marketing programs for the innumerable specific search terms people might search for. When it fits a specific need, you rise to the top.



Poor Landing Pages. A landing page is a place to publish targeted content to the buyer persona you are trying to market to. You need to build landing pages that have specific content to enlighten and inform the people who just clicked over to your site from the search engine. Here are some guidelines to ensure you create successful landing pages (Scott, 2015, pp. 402-403):

• ·         Make the content short and graphics simple
• ·         Create the page with your company’s look, feel, and tone.
• ·         Write from the buyers point of view.
• ·         A landing page is communications and advertising
• ·         Provide a quote from a happy customer
• ·         Make the landing page a self-contained unit
• ·         Make the call to action clear and easy to respond to
• ·         Use multiple calls to action
• ·         Ask only necessary information
• ·         Follow up!

 

Measuring Your Scope

There are a number of services that allow you to measure your web presence. Understanding these analytics, or metrics, with provide insight in how to craft posts that will engage consumers to your brand in thoughtful and considerate ways. At a minimum, brands should be evaluating following/reach, page views generated, and sentiment (Turner, 2013).

Following, or reach, is a great metric for a basic understanding of how well your message is being delivered. From the number of followers your brand has on a social media channel, to the number of people engaged in a particular post, this provides a baseline for which your brand can use to determine its scope of influence.

Page views generated, is a metric used to determine how well your followers are reading your posts that drive customers to your website or landing pages. Creative and unique content that drives readers to visit your page for more information creates for a very successful component to your marketing program.

Sentiment speaks to the quality of how your brand is received. Are the posts and engagements positive or negative in nature? Do followers have an emotional response? Are posts liked? While this might be a difficult and more time-consuming metric to evaluate, understanding the quality and sentiment regarding your brand will help market a message that is delivered in a way that is more personal to the customer.

A number of services exist to measure these analytics. Mention, LikeAlyzer, and Social Crawlytics are web based services that evaluate your presence on social media platforms (Cleary, 2013). Google Analytics is another tool that assists with compiling data on site performance and reach. Additionally, Marketing Automation software such as Marketo, LeadLife and Act-On (affiliate links) gives a history for every visitor to your page, allowing you to track both where they came from and where else they have been looking. These software platforms can even generate reports specifically concerning your social media marketing and lead generation campaigns (Turner, 2013).

At the end of the day, a goal for every marketer is to ensure that their brand message is delivered to the greatest number of their target audience with each post. Posts that differentiate your brand, optimizing your brand in search engines, and then measuring the success of your engagement on social media are key to enhancing your brand equity and market share. So, when it comes to the success of your social media, size matters.

 

Discussion items:

1.  According to HubSpot, here are examples of some very successful company landing pages.

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/landing-page-examples-list#sm.0000n4lv9wrc5ej5tqa1jr18u0sk4   

How well does your company use its landing page(s) to draw customers to your brand? What are the strengths and weaknesses in its page(s)?

2.  Are there any other important metrics that should be used in the evaluation of the success of a social media marketing program, and why and how should they be obtained?

References:
Cleary, I. (2013, January 9). 3 Analytic Tools to Improve Your Social Media Performance: Social Media Examiner. Retrieved from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-analytic-tools-to-improve-your-social-media-performance/

Mineo, G. (2016, June 15). 16 of the Best Landing Page Design Examples You Need to See in 2017. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/landing-page-examples-list#sm.0000n4lv9wrc5ej5tqa1jr18u0sk4

Scott, D. M. (2015). The new rules of marketing and PR: how to use social media, online video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, and viral marketing to reach buyers directly. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Turner, J. (2013, November 17). An In-Depth Guide on Calculating the ROI of a Social Media Campaign. Retrieved from http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2013/11/17/in-depth-guide-calculating-social-media-roi/

My English Is Not So Good...

There’s a certain irony here – I work for an institution that teaches best practices for social media engagement, but does not have a social media policy for its employees and representatives.   Many times, our academic offices and clubs are asked to engage in social media to promote events and reach out to potential students, but there is no policy in place that speaks to what type of media should be posted, and appropriate methods of engagement.  

As a manager for the social media of the Marist Music Program, I often get asked (sometimes by our campus social media managers), why aren’t I posting examples of the students in action?  Wouldn’t it be great to be able to show the world all the great things that happen on the stage – wouldn’t it be a great recruitment tool?  

Unfortunately, it would be illegal to post such media-rich engagements.   Many institutions must pay for the permission to video their performances …rights and royalties, etc.  Even audio recordings which can be embedded in social media and blog posts, require permission for recording if it is outside of archival purpose.   Certain exemptions exist for media in public domain, but it leaves us limited in how we can show the world our product.   So we have to get a little creative with visual design...

Sample of Facebook Event Cover Photo (Facebook, 2016)

If I were to make the mistake and post an item that violated copyright law, the College could potentially be fined, fined a considerable amount.   If a set of best practices were distributed to those charged with cultivating social media on our campus, that included what can and cannot be posted by an agent of the College, much of the liability that comes along with the creative process in creating posts with be assuaged. 

In terms of my own social media, I have always been a bit of a nihilist – realizing worst case scenarios have always scared me (as with my luck, they always seem to find me).   Despite meeting Twitter’s password security recommendations, I managed to have my account compromised.   It was very subtle, and had I not have noticed the change to my profile description, I may never have known about it. 

Twitter Profile Description, @mikeynaps (Twitter, 2013)

While it was true, I was in my 30s and from Poughkeepsie, NY.  The rest of the information was false.  I reported the issue to Twitter, and they notified me that while my account was clearly compromised, the issue was not with their security safeguards, but with one of the apps I had connected to my account.   Lesson learned – as we are all charged with the convenience of integrating our social media accounts, we must also be vigilant about the permissions we allow to access our accounts.  

I see those fun posts on Facebook all the time – quizzes and game requests.  After my experience with Twitter, my stomach twists a little each time one show up on my timeline.   Granted, I have still allowed permissions for myself, so I might not be the best example – but I still review each request or permission for access, and not blindly click accept.   McAfee said it pretty clearly, “Think twice about applications that request permission to access your data. You would be allowing an unknown party to send you email, post to your wall, and access your information at any time, regardless of whether you’re using the application” (Siciliano, 2011).   

Siciliano, R. (2016, October 28). 15 Social Media Security Tips. Retrieved February 22, 2017, from https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/consumer/family-safety/15-social-media-security-tips/

 

Siciliano, R. (2011, July 13). 15 Social Media Security Tips. Retrieved February 22, 2017, from https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/consumer/family-safety/15-social-media-security-tips/

Making the Golden Rule Work...

As time goes by, I realize that as a consumer I am not doing my due diligence to use social media to my advantage in gaining information about some of the brands I have supported through my activity as a consumer or potential customer.   So when posed with the question, which brands do you engage in that follow the golden rule, I found a good deal of difficulty in trying to identify at least one brand that I have consistently engaged to adequately respond.  I generally engage with corporate brands when I feel like they have wronged me, and look for a public acknowledgement that would solicit a response for resolution.   As storied on my Twitter feed, Verizon Wireless has been engaged the most.  

Then I realized that there is one brand that I have been engaging for years, and it may not be a traditional business, but it certainly needs to follow the golden rule to remain successful.   The brand is Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity.   Truth be told, I have a history with the organization.  I was an active member through my undergraduate life, currently advise a chapter, was the former chairperson of their Alumni Association, and currently sit as a regional governor for 42 chapters in the Northeast US.   However familiar I am, I make the conscious effort to use their social media platforms, mostly Facebook, to provide feedback to the organization as well as share their activities to active members, potential members, and music educators within my sphere of influence on social media.  

Defining the audience is fairly simple, Kappa Kappa Psi seeks to engage active members of chapters throughout the country.   However, their scope is broadening.   By promoting programs like the National Intercollegiate Band, which is open to all college/university band members – not just members of the fraternity – the organization is actually marketing to schools without chapters in an effort to expand its reach.   What was originally thought of as a narrow target, is actually much broader than what is originally seen.  

The social media posts for the organization generally ask for user engagement – this speaks to both making the posts not about the brand, but the consumer as well as knowing your target audience.   Posts like, “what is your chapter doing to celebrate our National Month of Musicianship?” or “are you looking to apply for our National Scholarship Programs?” lead the student to respond to the question with their activity, publicly share that post with their social circles, or ask questions if they are unfamiliar with the program.  For alumni or advisors, the push is made to share these posts so that your home chapter may engage with the post and then essentially, the program that is being referenced.   The posts are never celebrating the brand itself, but recognizing and honoring those that engage back with the brand.   It seems that celebrating student and chapter successes drive the media plan moving forward.  

As a former administrator on their social media accounts, I also saw the influx of messages that poured into our accounts after posts regarding our press releases or program announcements.  In recent years, the organization had to revoke a charter for a chapter because they were found in violation of our hazing policy.  Well, when word went public, so did the outcry.  People flooded our social media accounts looking for answers, wanting full disclosure about the events – asking for names and trying to place blame.   As an organization whose primary aim is to enhance student life through active participation, it was clear that responses to name names would not be in the best interest of the organization, nor could we protect the privacy of students involved in the investigation.   It should be noted that the events of the investigation never rose to a criminal level, it was still important that the organization protect the privacy of all involved as well as speak to the anti-hazing policies within the organization.    The official statement closed with, “Chartered in 1919, the Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity promotes the advancement of college and university bands through dedicated service and support to bands; comprehensive education; leadership opportunities; and recognition; for the benefit of its members and society. We remain committed to the advancement of college bands, and our thousands of members at more than 200 colleges and universities will continue to strive for the highest and work for greater bands on their own campuses and nationwide” (kkpsi.org, 2015).

I think the key in an organization’s success is not just living by the Golden Rule in social media situations, but to also ensure that the organization’s culture engages is internal stakeholders as well as external audiences in a manner that supports the brand message and attitude in a positive manner.   For instance, should Kappa Kappa Psi only responded to the charter revocation that spoke only in a way of a punitive message to that university, the general public may believe that hazing is a value at the core of the organization.   “Being transparent doesn’t mean you have to share everything about your organization, but the more honest insight you provide, the better” (Kerpen, p. 121, 2015).  By reinforcing the ideals of the organization’s value set and mission statement, the public can see how that chapter was the exception – not the rule. 

References:

Kappa Kappa Psi. (2015, March 5). Statement Concerning The Omega Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi. Retrieved from https://www.kkpsi.org/omega-chapter/

Kerpen, D. (2015). Likeable social media: how to delight your customers, create an irresistible brand, and be amazing on facebook, twitter, linkedin, instagram, pinterest, and more. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.