Commonsense Approach to Integrating Social Media into Your Marketing Mix

In the course of getting a Social Media strategy up and running for any brand, a myriad of questions will undoubtedly arise.  Many marketers approach the Social Media channel timidly, for fear of making a mistake. 

 

Other marketers assume that since the cost of developing a Facebook page lacks a subscription fee, (Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts are free) that the social media channel is a kind of “throw away” and delegate the responsibility of establishing a social presence to a relatively junior member of their staff, and then just kind of forget about it.

Needless to say, both of these approaches fail to fully leverage the power that is inherent in the social media channel.  The power of the channel is, of course, the traffic.  With so many consumers spending so much time in social media, the traffic generated makes a compelling case that all businesses need to explore the social channel and define how it can work for them.  This isn’t to say that the answer will be apparent immediately, but, like the early days of the World Wide Web, there was a huge learning curve on the design and utilization of websites.  There is similarly a learning curve to leveraging social, and it requires a bit of common sense, and some ongoing attention.

Probably the most logical way to think about the social channel, and perhaps the most straightforward way to use it, is to think about it in the context of other marketing channels that you are using, and design your social activities to synergize with your other activities.  While this approach is logical, companies who employ a junior member of the marketing team to man the social media responsibilities alone, will probably not see adequate thought or effort into making sure each Facebook post, or Tweet has a clear purpose in the context overall marketing communication.

What follows is a set of commonsense rules to Integrating Social Media into your Marketing Mix.

Rule 1.  Align your Social Media editorial calendar with your promotional calendar.    

Most marketers are aware of the need to have a promotional calendar to manage key marketing related activities: media buys, product launches, management of inventory and fulfillment, but many fail to see that Social Media should be in part informed by these promotional activities as well.  Why? Because  the consumer expectation, in the Social Channel, is that there should be some recognition or knowledge from the channel that other activities or promotions are occurring.  Messaging upcoming events to consumers in social provides your most loyal consumers with the opportunity to be on the alert for a key event, and gives them the benefit of knowing about something ahead of less loyal consumers, thus rewarding their loyalty.  The benefit to the marketer is that when the promotional period does arrive, it will be more successful due to the advance messaging directly to those loyal fans and followers.

Rule 2. Establish the goals for the promotion and for the Social Channel.   

For each promotion a marketer typically develops a forecasted outcome of what the promotion will do.  The social channel is really no different.  What is different about social, is that, depending on how long you have been at it, and what tactics you have tried, there may be little baseline from which to gauge what a particular tactic will deliver.  Thus a marketer is in need of careful measurement, both in social, and across the entire online presence.

Rule 3.  Integrate social fully with all of your other marketing strategies.   

This may appear repetitive, but a full integration of social with other marketing strategies means:

• In each email communication to consumers, Highlight your brand’s presence on Facebook, you give a consumer a chance to “Like” you in the email.  

• On the brand’s website remind a consumer to like you on Facebook.  If there are sign up pages for coupons or other information, give a consumer a chance to connect with Facebook from your website.  Give consumers a chance to follow you on Twitter.  Be prepared to engage in a dialogue with them especially if they tweet to your handle directly.
• On your Facebook page and Twitter page, provide your website URL.  If a Facebook post or a Tweet mentions an opportunity or offer at the website, include a link to the appropriate page to facilitate the traffic.
• On print and broadcast campaigns indicate your presence in the social channel with the Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest logos. 
• Include details about website, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. on includes product packaging if possible.
• Consider the value of a You Tube channel for your brand.  Videos provide high engagement and are among the most popular content on the web. 

In summary, a consumer will expect that all of the channels work together, and the messaging, and branding will be consistent no matter where they encounter your brand.  To encourage engagement with a brand, social media is an excellent way to foster loyalty among consumers.

Rule 4.  Read your results routinely, methodically, and comprehensively. 

Every marketer has Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that they read to assess the effectiveness of their tactics.  Success in social media is more than the number of “Likes” or the number of re-tweets.

Going back to the goals that you established for social, think about if over a particular promotional period whether the goal was to get likes on the Facebook page, or increase sales, or web traffic. 

If our goal is to get likes on Facebook, presumably the result can be read in the social KPIs, but the drive to get likes may have been in an email campaign.  To understand how the effort worked, we need to look at the email campaign that was facilitating the drive to Facebook, and the increase in likes coincident with the campaign.  

If we are using Twitter to increase sales, we will want to read the number of web visitors who were referred by our Tweets, and made purchases.  So the appropriate metrics here would be re-tweets, and the amount of traffic referred by Twitter.  In other words, since consumers are moving in and out of Facebook and Twitter, and between your website and Google, you need to be more expansive in your view of your KPIs especially when a campaign is in process.  Google Analytics makes it so easy to see these social referrals out of the box as the example report shows below.

Rule 5.  Organize results into a consolidated dashboard.   

It is not productive for every functional area to build a dashboard for the measurement of their own departmental goals.  Marketing is a team effort in the sense that a website, email campaign, social media, and offline efforts may all be handled by different groups.  It may be the case that not all of these groups are even organized under the marketing function.  If all marketing efforts are to be maximized then they must work together.  It is difficult for the efforts to synergize if each person only has visibility into their own component of the marketing communications.  That’s why a consolidated dashboard is a must.    A consolidated dashboard is an effective way for everyone to adopt a common vision for the business.  It shows the folks sending out emails how they influence web traffic, and how Facebook “likes” spike when all of the messaging is going on at the same time.  See the example below for a ficticious marketer of movies.

Rule 6.  Synthesize results and build knowledge.   

This seems really basic, but unfortunately as the new marketing communication strategy, many organizations are operating under the assumption that Social Media should be spontaneous, in-the-moment, unplanned, unfettered by other controls that are put in place for other forms of customer communication.  This is simply not true.  When you begin aligning all trends in a common dashboard, and the social media team begins studying the events that led to last week’s huge spike in likes, shares or retweets, the natural instinct should be to internalize the technique and try to replicate it.  A knowledge base should build to inform ongoing strategies.  This build of the knowledge base should develop into a process that allows for the social media manager to build on successes and expand communication strategies cautiously over time.  

Think of attributing each communication so a database can be built whereby you can assess the time of day, the call to action, the type of post, etc.  So that you can begin to read what your loyal followers are most responsive to.  In addition, begin to understand the cadence so you aren’t boring your fans with the same kinds of posts all the time.  

When you have developed your social media strategies, and are operating it with the care and discipline that is attendant to all other marketing communications, you will be in a position to dive deeper into the consumer relationships and even develop strategies to leverage influencers.  But before you can harness the influencers, make sure you have your infrastructure set up, a good dashboard, and a method to track the response based on the attributes of your communications.

I hope this commonsense approach has been helpful.  I am always happy to assist clients in getting their social campaigns on track.  Please feel free to contact me in the event I can help you.(Rhonda@drakedirect.com).

Rhonda Knehans Drake & Perry D. Drake

Measuring Campaign Attribution...Where Are We?

Today our methodology of assigning campaign attribution is quite flawed. We have typically focused on last touch. According to two new studies by Forrester, agencies are getting more sophisticated and offering more services in this regard. Google and Adobe are also making it easier for us to apply proper campaign attribution. 

What is Attribution Modeling?  

It is realizing that is is not the simple diagram as shown below in Figure 1 which depicts "last touch" attribution modeling.

Figure 1:  Last Touch Attribution

But rather something more complex as that shown in Figure 2 which tries to understand the true customer journey and gives credit where credit is due.

Figure 2:  Linear Attribution Modeling

To do it right, we must give credit where credit is due.  All prior touches must get some percent of the credit.  How much depends on the attribution model you wish to employ.  

There are many types:

• Last Touch
• First Touch
• Linear
• Decay
• Customized

Assuming we selected the correct attribution model above, there are still many other issues that exist making attribution modeling a challenge and imperfect.  These include:

• Bringing off line and on line marketing efforts together into a single view of the customer journey
• Understanding online behaviors across multiple devices
• Understanding the true impact that online browsing behaviors have on off line purchasing
• Cookie deletion by customers
• Customers surfing in stealth mode 

We must realize that these obstacles will make it impossible to accurately conduct campaign attribution for the foreseeable future.  But that does not mean we can't do better.  We can.  We just need to be realistic as to what we can do and know that it will never be 100%.  Not even 90%.

Download a presentation I recently made at a large agency event this August on this very subject.

  http://www.drakedirect.com/measuring_campaign_attribution.pdf

In this presentation I discuss what Google and Adobe are doing to help us better understand attribution.   I also highlight two totally free white papers from Forrester on their assessment of various agencies doing it right and in comparison to Google and Adobe.  You will not want to miss those. 

Highlights of the presentation includes:

• What campaign attribution is
• Types of attribution models used today and when to use each
• Interactive vs cross channel attribution
• Attribution challenges
• The Google Analytics "Attribution Modeling Tool" and "Playbook"
• How Adobe is helping us better understand attribution with the help of Genesis and Insight including several articles
• "Social Assisted Conversions" in Google Analytics
• Offline complexities
• Case example for a movie club
• Forrester attribution report links and highlights

Many great things happening right now.  Take a look and stay informed and involved.

I hope you enjoy the presentation.

Perry

How Many Impressions Do I Need in Order to Read My Banner Ad Test Results?

"I am getting ready to run a new marketing test against my control and was wondering how many names I should be testing.  Can you tell me?"

I get asked this question all the time from clients and students alike.  My response is always the same.

"Not enough information."

In order to properly answer this question, and it is a very important question, you must be able to tell me two things:

1. What is your current banner ad, direct mail format, or email currently yielding in terms of a response rate or click through rate?  In other words, where are you right now, baseline?
2. And, most importantly, what would the new test need to yield in terms of a response rate, minimum, to be considered a success? 

Notice on point 2, I am not asking you what you want the test response rate to come in at.  I am sure you would want it to be triple where you are now, right?  ;-)  What I am asking you is, at a minimum,what would you need that test response rate to be in order to roll out with the new test.  That is what I need from you.  And, most likely that number will be the break even response rate for the test.

So, in order to answer this question you will need to conduct a break-even analysis.

Lets pretend you are going to be testing a new and more expensive direct mail format where the following assumptions exist:

• The current control format costs you $0.75 per piece fully loaded. 
• The profit per order not taking into consideration the cost of the promotion is $20.
• The current format yields a known 1% response rate.  

Lets also assume the new format you are considering testing will run $0.82 per piece.  Using the "The Plan-alyzer" break-even calculator that I created and provide for free on my website www.confidenttest.com we end up with a break-even response rate of 1.35% (see Figure 1 below).

 Figure 1:  Break-even calculation using www.confidenttest.com

With this data, I now have everything I need in order to help you determine testing quantities.  We will determine the test quantities so that if you get a 1% response rate for the control and you get a 1.35% response rate for the test (what you hope worst case) you will be able to read it with statistical significance.  I know you want to do better than a 1.35%, but I am simply helping you set up the test so you can read the test at break even. 

I simply want to ensure you have tested enough names so that if you just break even on the test you will be able to say yes it is a winner.  If you do better than that, great.  You are covered there also.

So with that said lets go back to "The Plan-alyzer" located at www.confidenttest.com and use the sample size calculator to determine how many names we need to test in order to read the results with significance (see  Figure 2 below).

Figure 2:  Determining the sample sizes for a test and control when concerned

with accurately measuring the difference between response rate using www.confidenttest.com

Based on this calculator, we need to test 7,281 names for the test and 7,281 names for the control.  Doing so will ensure that if you get a 1% response rate for the control and a 1.35% response rate for the test (knowing you want to do better) you will be able to read that difference with statistical significance.

Let talk through a couple of things here.

First of all you will notice that I chose 95% as my level of confidence for this analysis.  That is what I strongly suggest you use as the stake in the ground.  To go below 90% is just too risky.  For more on this see my YouTube video embedded below regarding the steps to selecting your confidence level.  Very important.

Secondly, what if you come back and say you cannot afford to test a total of 14,562 names and can only afford to test about 5,000 per panel.  What do you do?

Well, if that is the case, I then suggest you go back to the sample size calculator and play with the difference you can detect until you resulting get sample sizes of 5,000 each (I call this a "what if" analysis).  Doing so, for this example, I have honed in on needing a a response rate difference of .43% or .0043 before you can detect significance (see Figure 3 below).

Figure 3: What-if analysis using the sample size calculator using www.confidenttest.com

So now the question I pose to you is: "Can you tolerate this much error?"  Because if you cannot, then there is no need to conduct the test.

This is important, so let me rephrase.

If you can only test 5,000 per panel and you get a 1% for the control and a 1.35% for the test (which is break even) you will not be able to tell you boss that the test won.  You will need to see a response rate of 1.43% for the test before you could declare the test a winner.  So the question is, do you think the test has the capability of yielding this high of a response rate.

• If you answer no then I will suggest you pass on the test, because why test something if you will not be able to test enough names to read the results with significance.

• If you answer yes, then I will ask you why you did not tell me that before.  Because testing the 7,281 names per panel would have been testing more than you really needed to read this test.

Test design and analysis is my passion.  If you find yourself in need of help establishing or evaluating your marketing campaigns or tests, do not hesitate to call on Drake Direct.

But first, check out all my other testing videos on my Test Design and Analysis YouTube Video Channel


Enjoy!
Perry

Why Universities Must Incorporate Data Analytics in Their Curriculums

I was recently invited by Adobe to conduct a educational webinar on why it is imperative for universities to bring data analytics to the forefront of their marketing curriculums.

When they asked me back in January of this year if I would be interested in talking about this topic to various university faculty and administrators, I jumped at the chance.  After all, I had insight into what was happening out there in the job market and how NYU has become a leader in preparing students for the digital data revolution.

So with that said, I pulled together some slides and went into sales mode.  I created a compelling case for why we must teach our students to embrace data and all it can bring to bear on our marketing decisions.

In this presentation, I revealed (and quite passionately, I might add):

• What companies have been doing over the past two years to gain a 360 degree view of their customers
• What software they are using to do so (SAS, SPSS, Sitecatalyst, Radian6, etc.)
• How and why roles are becoming much less siloed than in the past and what that means for new hires
• How analytic tools are becoming much more user friendly for marketers, making it easier for them to embrace the data
• An IBM study of more than 1,700 CMO's discussing their concerns with the lack to properly trained marketers in the use of data
• Other studies showing the same
• The trends on indeed.com showing how the use of the word "analytics" in any form is increasing in frequency.

I then went on to discuss some of the major challenges we are facing today as marketers and yet to be determined solutions such as:

• Issues of inappropriate campaign attribution (first touch vs last touch)
• Siloed data and the problems caused by it
• How we are still not able to properly measure the ROI of our social programs
• How to deploy proper A/B and multivariate testing
• The challenges of defining appropriate KPI's

In summary, let me just say that universities must incorporate these new digital data analytics topics in their various marketing and MBA programs or else they will risk becoming irrelevant, and quickly so.  

To get more detail about all of these challenges mentioned above, view my presentations in pdf file form: http://www.drakedirect.com/Adobe-Educational-Series-Data-Revolution.pdf

To view my live presentation click here:  https://seminars.adobeconnect.com/_a227210/p55rklmh93y/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal

Perry

Seriously, You Can't Blame Facebook!

Ok guys. I am really tired of all the stories popping up these past couple of days trying to dog poor Facebook because of our inability to prove the value of this vast platform from a marketing perspective. Yes, maybe Facebook needs to add a consulting arm to help marketers maximize the benefits of what they have to offer like Google does for paid search (and I am sure they will in due time), but that doesn't mean we can blame them for our lack of marketing strategy.

Let's get real. Facebook is a new platform for most marketers. Many are still trying to figure out how it fits into their existing marketing strategy, and many are not doing a great job at it. Many still think Facebook marketing is a job for interns or a part-time gig for the programmer.

Here is the lowdown: Facebook is not a channel. It is a medium. The primary goal of any company should be to use it to aide the brands efforts in increasing brand awareness, highlighting and supporting programming, enhancing advertising, etc. This must be done in such a way as to build the brands fan base and extend reach as far as possible. Once built, the brand can promote special deals, contests, etc. within this community that are aimed at exciting that base and keeping them wanting more. But you cannot do the latter alone.

Your Facebook efforts must also be coordinated with existing marketing programs. For a company to think utilizing Facebook is about having a part-time employee post things like "I Love Chevy" on any given day or add a picture of a Vintage Camaro is missing the point. And missing a great opportunity.

When deciding to create a Facebook page, there are questions that must be addressed or your efforts will fail. These must be kept in mind at all times:

1. Why would someone like my brand, what is in it for them?
2. Why would someone continue to be a fan down the road, why would they stay a fan? 
3. What can I do to turn a fan into an advocate? 

Facebook is a platform that you use to wrap around all your other marketing efforts to help enhance their success. If done correctly, you can create a community that will thrive and will begin to take care of itself, much like Sephora (with corporate assistance of course).

Regarding advertising on Facebook: Someone released a study today of all days saying 44% of people would never click on a Facebook ad  ( www.emarketingandcommerce.com ).  Please realize that I can cite another study from 2009 based on real, not surveyed data that says 84% of people would never click on a Google banner ad (www.econsultancy.com ).

Yes, the click-through rates for Facebook ads are about half that of Google. But when you think about how precisely a company can target its Google ads, that is actually not too bad. You may have to test a bit harder to get your desired results on Facebook. So what.  Think of the potential!  A good marketer is not afraid of that.  Also, do not forget exposure is a good thing. Studies abound that show the benefits of brand exposure, and now tools are becoming available which will will allow us to properly assess the true social value:

• Comscore Social Essentials (http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/7/comScore_Social_Essentials)
• Google and Sitecatalyst Social Attribution (http://mashable.com/2012/03/28/google-adobe-social-media/) 

I cannot image you do not agree with me on this.

Perry

GM and Ford - Do Either Really Know How to Take Advantage of the Facebook Platform?

Yesterday was certainly interesting day to be a digital marketer!


When I woke up yesterday and checked the news, I saw the piece about GM pulling their Facebook Ads whereas Ford was, as Ad Age said, "Stepping on the Gas."  When I first saw it, I didn't think too much about it. Many brands do not understand that advertising on Facebook requires a new set of rules and that it operates in a different part of the marketing funnel.  This is just not a problem within GM. It is a broader issue that affects many companies.

 As the day wore on, however, more and more of my contacts were asking me personally what I thought. I saw that the news media was putting more and more attention on this decision and curiously timed announcement by GM.

I myself wanted to understand the motivation behind this decision a bit better, so I researched GM's agency of record to see if any insights could be gained from the team that was supporting their social activity. From an Adweek article dated December 20, 2011, I found out that GM cut their Social Media agency, Big Fuel (http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/big-fuel-cut-gms-social-aor-137213).  Coincidentally, this occurred as the Publicis Groupe had just acquired a 51% stake in the agency.  Both Publicis and Big Fuel had GM as a client.  Was the release of Big Fuel a sign that the company did not understand Social Media? Was it a sign that it was disenchanted with Facebook at that time?  Was it perhaps a money saving tactic?  Apparently as of this date or shortly thereafter, the social media functions were reassigned. Big Fuel has other Fortune 100 clients who are satisfied.



Just as interesting as GM saying yesterday that they were pulling their advertising dollars from Facebook was that Ford said they would be upping their investment and have been quite happy with results to date on Facebook.  This obviously begs a comparison between the two organizations and how they are using their presence in Facebook to engage with consumers.

I  took a look at the Ford and the GM Facebook pages.  I noted the "Likes" and the "Talking about" metrics, as well as their treatment of their Facebook page cover photo.  Here is what I found:

Page	Cover Page Photo	Likes	Talking about	Percent Talking
Chevrolet	Montage many nostalgia pictures included	1.216 Million	20,000	1.64%
Chevy Camaro	Camaro Wheel	2.849 Million	30,000	1.05%
Ford Motor Company	Dearborn, MI headquarters	1.503 Million	27,000	1.80%
Ford Mustang	Car shot with a man	4.048 Million	54,600	1.35%

Cars have traditionally been marketed in a way that is supposed to raise your blood pressure and get your heart pounding.  I felt this immediately when I saw the picture of the Mustang in the Facebook Mustang page cover photo -- I had to have that car.
 

 Ford Mustang Facebook Page

By comparison, the Chevy Camaro Facebook page cover photo puzzled me, and I was left wondering what was their intention in showing me a picture of a wheel. The Chevrolet Facebook page, in particular, seems to have more appeal for those interested in car restoration.

Chevy Camaro Facebook Page

So, what is going on here? Clearly a case could be made that for both Ford and GM, there is room to do more with Facebook. However, there is a larger failure on the part of GM to construct a cohesive brand strategy with Facebook. In engaging with consumers, they have given up leadership of the dialogue on their Chevrolet page. I formed this opinion when I observed on their Facebook page that the content on the Chevrolet Facebook page is largely supplied by consumers who want to share their nostalgic photos of restored or well preserved old Chevys. That is very nice indeed, and it serves a purpose to maintain brand loyalty and support current owners, but it does not sell new cars.        

To continue the comparison between Ford and GM, I moved from Facebook to their websites.  GM is very Flash heavy, and, as a point of fact, the pages cannot load in an iOS mobile device.

 GM Website on Mobile device (flash not loading)

I wonder, did the executives of GM in their very busy lives, not become aware of how Americans are using mobile devices more and more, and that their website is essentially not consumable by individuals who have a mobile device?  This is more than a little lapse. Since half of all phones sold now are smart phones, all of the individuals who have smart phones will not be able to consume the site while surfing with their phone...ok you see where I am going.  Ford on the other hand loads perfectly on my iPad.

 Ford Website on Mobile device

To build on the point of the websites and message integration, one tactic I have observed from GM is their mobile ad campaign.  I have found that on my Android device I have been served flash-based ads for Chevrolet.  The mobile ads are thematically similar to those run on TV with the cast of characters at the dealership. (Reminds me of "Office" at a car dealership).  These commercials and the characters represented in them could be leveraged to engage with consumers in social media. (It would not be possible to serve the ads on an iOS device because they utilize flash.)

Ford similarly has spokesperson, Mike Rowe of America's Dirtiest Jobs fame.  Mike is always authentic in the commercials and adding him to the social media posts might add another dimension for consumers to interact with the brand.  This is an opportunity for Ford.   

Americans have a unique and strong bond with their cars.  Automobiles are  intertwined into the fabric of our culture.  How is it possible that a major Automotive Manufacturer has to publicly state that they are pulling money from Facebook?  The case is clear that Ford and GM could both do a lot more to leverage Facebook, so I think this announcement by GM has more to do with the disarray in their own marketing strategy and less to do with Facebook.  Ford has a solid advertising strategy and can work towards integrating social media strategies into their already solid marketing.  GM may be looking at a larger overhaul of their marketing strategy (their digital strategy in particular needs some work), and online and offline messages should be made to work together. If GM made the announcement of a pull out of Facebook advertising to bide time while they got their digital ducks in a row, well, then who's stock would take a hit?

So to recap,  

• 5/16/2012  GM officially announced today they were pulling their advertising on Facebook.  
• 12/20/2011 GM released their Social Media agency in December 2011 (who was running their Social Media campaigns since December?)
• Chevrolet has a Facebook page which seems to be largely driven by nostalgia and content which figures prominently cars and trucks from yesteryear, which have stood the test of time.
• Chevrolet and Chevy Camaro do not employ their Facebook cover photos for heart pounding car pictures.  Chevrolet has a nostalgia montage, and Chevy Camaro has a wheel.
• GM has a website heavy in flash.  It will not load on a mobile device.
• Ford and Ford Mustang have cover photos showing the Corporate Headquarters and a full view of the Mustang, respectively.
• Ford and Ford Mustang's engagement metrics are a bit higher than Chevrolet and Chevy Camaro.

Perhaps Ford is positioned a bit better because the Company is named Ford, and the brand name for the Cars is also Ford.  Perhaps it is a bit harder for GM because they have more brands to manage and lack the strong umbrella brand identity to organize their marques under.  But a complete pullout of advertising seems a bit drastic, unless you don't understand it anyway.  

Success on Facebook requires:

• Defining the strategic purpose of this medium (I do not want to call it a channel).  Is this medium an acquisition or retention focused medium?
• Defining the nature of your relationship to the consumers.  Are you a cheerleader, advisor, curator, friend, etc.?
• Establishing the narrative, what is the message you want to convey to your fans?  Can you structure your message to work with your other channels?  "Hard sells" do not work well in social media.
• Paying attention to this medium, monitoring the dialogue and commenting appropriately.   
• Establishing in advance Key Performance Indicators that will identify the effectiveness of the strategy. (If your not measuring it you're not managing it!)

Given the keys to success on Facebook, it is rather predictable that GM bailed out.  They lack a strategic focus for this medium, the relationship is more defined by the consumers than by GM, the consumers also lack a narrative from GM. GM also lacks an understanding of using the images and timeline to their brand's advantage.  I cannot speak to the monitoring or the KPI measurement, but if they dropped their social agency, it is probably not being measured.  Given the shambles of their social strategy why do I care if they pulled their budget from Facebook?  As a marketer I am glad that they are now "out" of Facebook ads, since the inventory of ads will be freed up a bit for those Marketers who can see the path of how Facebook ads work with the other components of their digital strategy.

And in five years, if we think back on this day, we may see it in the context of the knowledge that we build and the best practices that will no doubt be in place for Social Media.  In five years it will be hard to understand how a major corporation made such a move to pull out.

I would love to know if you agree.  Let me know.

Rhonda Knehans Drake

Beer, Sex and Social Media

On May 9th, Rhonda and I attended the first annual Social Media Benchmark conference (www.benchmark-nyc.com) in NYC.

It was a unique conference of a smaller scale that focused on the measurement of social media marketing. Loved it. I found out about it from a student of mine, Katie Krum, who tweeted about the event. Thank you, Katie.

What was my main learning? My main learning is that we are still not measuring or even trying to measure the ROI of our social media marketing campaigns. And to be honest with you, I am not sure why. It is quite disappointing.

When I ask one presenter (to remain nameless) after his presentation why this might be, he said that it is too difficult to bring all the pieces together.

Infinity presented and had no mention of ROI

Unicef presented and had no mention of ROI.

Anheuser Busch presented and had no mention of ROI.

Every company spoke about its great outreach, messaging, and fun and creative campaigns, but none of them mentioned a real assessment of ROI.

Both Rhonda and I were shocked by this. I would have thought we are past the point of enjoying the sandbox without having to justify our playtime with hard numbers. Come on, guys. We can do better than this. For example, to create a nonprofit outreach in the social space for a specific cause, I am sure we can at the very least examine the lift in donations pre versus post campaign. Right?

As a matter of fact, I am about to come out with some very cool social media ROI calculators that should help in this regard. But until then, companies need to try a bit harder.

What were the highlights of the conference? Hearing Cindy Gallop (“make love not porn”) and Jon Steinberg of Buzzfeed (formerly of Google) speak. They were amazing...even though Cindy made me, as a male, feel like a heel.

But the best part was that I was able to get 6 of my Masters students from NYU volunteer gigs at the event so they could attend for free. They manned the registration desk and took on other responsibilities that allowed them to network with all the great people there. I hope they all land great jobs.

All in all a great day!

Perry