The New Community?

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choice2I had an interesting conversation the other day with an industry colleague who used to be a community manager and is now building his own social media training and speaking consultancy. We got into the usual topic of social media and how businesses are still learning to adopt it in their communications programs. We also discussed his past life running online communities for businesses and the differences between managing a purpose-built community and navigating a community like Twitter.

I asked the question, will branded online or topic-specific online communities suffer because of the popularity of general communities such as Twitter and Facebook? For example, will you still participate in communities built around TV shows like LOST, life experiences like motherhood, brands like Kodak, or user communities for products such as Quickbooks or even EMC’s ControlCenter Community? Or has the ability to follow and hold such conversations simultaneously on Twitter taken your attention away from such communities?

Are you more likely to participate in one over the other? Do you get enough of what you need from a brand you admire on their Facebook fan page (ex: Avelle) or Twitter account (ex JetBlue), or will you still join an online community built for their customers? Is there one kind of online community that you prefer over another?

If you have an opinion will you please take our poll and/or leave a comment here with your opinion? Thank you in advance! We’re very interested to see how the future of online communities evolves over the next 6-12 months.

Computerworld takes a look at the value of social media; featuring two PerkettPR clients & their ROI

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rdWhether you call it social media, new media, social marketing or another moniker, the big question remains the same – how do you measure its value? We’ve been able to measure value from day one of jumping into the social marketing world here at PerkettPR, and now we’re thrilled to be helping clients to do the same. Reality Digital and Litle & Co are both featured in a series of articles on Computerworld today regarding the value and ROI they’ve seen with their social media efforts.

In “One Company’s ROI Tally for Social Media,” Reality Digital’s CEO Cynthia Francis says calculating return on investment starts with understanding what you want to accomplish. She includes a breakdown of investment vs return, including:

  • Total investment for social media programs (including technology costs and PR agency hours): roughly $3,000 per month
  • Total sales leads generated in April, May and June: 72
  • Average sales leads per month: 24
  • Average cost per sales lead: $125
  • Lead conversion to sales opportunities: 11.1%
  • Lead conversion to closed deals: 1.4%

Litle&coIn “What’s your Twitter ROI? How to measure social media payoff,” our client John Stevens, director of corporate content and communications at Litle & Co., says the company has seen “six-figure revenue come in because of the connections made through social media.” He discusses the need for firm ROI figures and future decisions around using public sites such as Twitter or building proprietary systems.

What’s your return been on social media investments to-date? Do you expect the ROI to increase, decrease or remain the same in the next 6-12 months? How are you using social media in your business? CMOs and marketers, what kind of help you do plan to enlist for PR, social marketing and advertising in the next year? Please take our survey – it’s only two questions and we’d love to hear from you. Thanks!

Persuasive Picks for the week of 09/14/09

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Why corporate blogging is like selling uncut cocaine
Ok, you got me. This post came out last week. But, how could it not be a pick with an eye-popping title like that. Oh, and our own Fred Han interviewed David Spark a while back as well – in case you missed it.

A need for social media etiquette
So you’ve made that first step into the world of social media and it’s beginning to get exciting. AP business writer Barbara Ortutay shares this post on The Tenessean.com that advises readers to use a little restraint and put more thought into what they share on social networks.

Social media – PR’s new BFF
Do PR and Social Media go together like chocolate and peanut butter? The results of a recent study posted on bizcommunity.com seems to point in that direction. Read on for more.

The 10 Myths of Social Media
This post by Mikal Belicove on the Entrepreneur.com blog reiterates “10 Social Media Myths” by Eric T. Bradlow, co-director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Interactive Media Initiative. Bradlow recently presented these myths to B2B marketing and advertising professionals at the Lift Summit.

Why B2B Companies Have a Distinct Advantage Online
Another great post from Valeria Maltoni that includes additional links to helpful information for B2B’s.

ShopUp Proves Social Media Value to Fashion Retail World

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Over the last year I have sat across many-a-Starbucks table from social media and marketing consultants of all types. I have given advice on job hunting, standing out from the competition and more, and I’ve asked a lot of questions, such as, “What makes you an expert above and beyond the next guy/gal?” A lot of times, the answers were vague.

But one of those times, I sat with Rachel Levy (@bostonmarketer). Rachel has a very interesting story to tell – she recently became the Director of Marketing and Social Media for Second Time Around, a chain of contemporary, designer, consignment clothing & furniture stores. But prior to that, she spent a year off – networking, job hunting and ultimately, with the intelligent use of social media (as well as some tenacity), reinventing herself. (See her recent blog post about this.) In our conversation Rachel stood out – she’s smart, insightful and most of all, she was enthusiastic about finding the right position with the right company.

I’d say she’s found it.

Last night I attended #ShopUp, a shopping event that Rachel planned to help raise awareness of Boston’s Second Time Around (the company has 21 shops in cities around the U.S.). Now, I’m a rabid fashion fan and involved in the industry as a Board Advisor to New York City’s Style Coalition, but last night I wasn’t paying attention to the fashion. I was paying attention to the social marketing of this event – Rachel did an amazing job.

I sat down with Rachel today to ask her about the event. I was so impressed with it, I wanted to share it as a great case study in how social marketing can help any business – when done well. I’ve heard a lot of people claim social media expertise – but anyone can pull off tactics like running a Twitter account. Integrating them into an overall strategy is a different story.

PPR: What was your overall strategy for #ShopUp?

RL: Mainly, I wanted to spread the word about who we are and what we do – specifically, create regional awareness for the Boston store through word of mouth. A specific part of that goal was to get people to interact with the product. Having a party and getting them into the store was the best way to do that. Consignment shopping is a different experience than shopping for new retail – I wanted people to experience it first hand. Lastly, while this event was held in Boston, I also wanted to use it to create national awareness for our 20 other stores – creating curiosity for shoppers to find out about the store near them.

PPR: What was the event?

RL: ShopUp was an evening of shopping and schmoozing. We encouraged shoppers to come by for appetizers and drinks, a little shopping and, in honor of New York Fashion Week, a fashion show. Held at our store, we provided shoppers with 20% off during the event, and handed out 10% off coupons for future shopping. We also encouraged shoppers to bring in any designer clothes to consign that evening.

Christine Perkett (@missusP), Michael Durwin (mdurwin), Carissa O'Brien (@carissao)

Christine Perkett (@missusP), Michael Durwin (mdurwin), Carissa O'Brien (@carissao)

PPR: How did you use social media to promote and run ShopUp?

RL: Pre-event promotion included a community contest through Twitter, where our followers nominated the models for the fashion show part of the evening. We created the hashtag #ShopUp for easy tracking of the conversations taking place around nominations and the event itself. Once we had nominees, we had people vote for the four models who would be in the show. This process proved to be very viral – people were really interested because they had a part in creating the show. We also posted news about the event on Facebook. During the event, we had guests vote for the best outfit and model – again, via Twitter. The model who received the most votes for a specific outfit got to take the clothes home. To share the event with those outside of Boston, we streamed live video through UStream, Twittered during the event (using TweetDeck and CoTweet) and we’ll be featuring a compilation video of the entire evening on YouTube. Our photos are also up on Flickr, and many people sent TwitPics during the event as well. Lastly, today we issued a post-event survey through a BostonTweetUp twtpoll.

The runway (photo by Pamela Rosenthal)

The runway (photo by Pamela Rosenthal)

PPR: What was the ROI? Did you reach your goals?

RL: Oh yes! About 75 people attended the event and our sales were positively impacted. We experienced a positive return on our investment in regards to revenue vs expenses as well. Although I don’t yet have figures to share around the specific number of impressions driven by the event, I can say that we drove new business – 50 percent of the people who attended had never shopped here before… but either did last night or intend to return, I’m sure. (PPR: Rachel incorporated a smart strategy to ask attendees two questions at the registration table; 1) Have you shopped with us before and 2) Can we add you to our mailing list?)

Congratulations to Rachel and Second Time Around on a terrific event – and to the lucky model/winner (Manolo Blahnik shoes, Escada sweater, jeans & accessories!), Carissa O’Brien.


Persuasive Picks for the week of 09/07/09

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techcrunch_punked.jpgYeah OK, So Facebook Punk’d Us
Facebook’s PR team gets some fun revenge on TechCrunch by pulling a fast one on Arrington & Company by subtly revealing a new “feature.”

Gaffe by Tweet: Top 10 Social-Media Slip-Ups Musicians, movie stars, professional athletes and now, even politicians are flocking to Twitter. Some use it well. Some don’t. Newsweek shares 10 slip-ups from the political camp.

Social Media for B2B
Socialnomics author, Erik Qualman gives some insight and advice to B2B companies looking to wrangle their social media strategies… by reviewing the way B2C’s have been doing it.

The new PR: Nimble Twitter responses make grass roots easy (or hard)
Sarah Gilbert shares a few stories showing the importance of listening, responding and acting quickly to customer comments on social media channels.

How Customer Support Organizations Must Evolve
Along the same lines of the previous pick, Jeremiah Owyang expands on how customer service organizations must evolve and adapt to survive the rapid changes in customer communication. Slides from Jeremiah’s recent presentation on the topic are included in the post.

Are You Invaluable?

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Yesterday’s Boston Globe reported that the jobless plight continues: “5 million Americans have been out of work for more than six months, a record number that forecasts a slow, difficult recovery and a long period of high unemployment, according to Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies.”

If you are fortunate enough to have a job or a healthy customer list, are you making yourself invaluable to your employer? To your customers? Are you striving to do everything possible to move prospects from viewing your company or products as a “nice to have” to a “must have”? Are you doing everything possible to ensure your name never appears on the “short list” when management has to think about cost cutting? If not, why not?

Even if you believe that you are in a comfortable place with your job or customers, you should be striving to do everything possible to be seen as invaluable. Invaluable means it would hurt to lose you and – as much as one can be –  that you are irreplaceable. As an employee, you should especially drive to be irreplaceable because with the job market as it is, there are plenty of available workers who will line up to fill your shoes should they become vacant.

A few esy ways to become invaluable:

  • Don’t do what’s asked. Do more without having to be asked.
  • Go beyond the obvious. Attending a networking event? Reading a book? Joining a webinar? How can you bring lessons, leads or other value back to your organization or to your clients?
  • Pay attention to the competition (even if it’s not “your” job). Whether it’s another vendor or an industry colleague, know what they’re doing. Then strive to do more, better. Make suggestions to management to keep the entire company ahead of the curve.
  • Be visible. Visit your clients, ask your boss to lunch, send one new idea a day to your managers.
  • Don’t miss a brainstorm. In fact, suggest them yourself. And speak up during every single one. (Meetings, too!)
  • Be selfless. While it’s hard to think of others during a time when “personal branding” is all the rage, don’t forget about your existing employer or customers. Be sure that your efforts can be seen as mutually beneficial – to both you and your organization (or clients/customers).
  • Forget about your job description. Or at least don’t stay within its boundaries. Offer to take on new projects, grab assignments normally reserved for others when you see staff shortages, etc.
  • Improve, innovate, inspire. The recession can be tough on everyone – including your boss. While it can be hard to stay positive and upbeat, doing so will help you to stand out as a leader. A negative, controversial attitude will only make the situation worse – and it will be remembered. But working hard to improve everything you do, innovate in the way you do things, and inspiring others to do better will help you to be invaluable now – and well into the future.

What’s your advice for becoming invaluable?

Persuasive Picks for the week of 08/31/09

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You Should Stop Sleeping With Your LaptopWhy You Should Stop Sleeping With Your Laptop
B.L. Ochman lends some sound advice to the current generation of web-workers in this entertaining post that serves as a wake up call to unplug and get a life!

Are you a social media addict?
Following along with a similar topic to my first pick, Scott Kleinberg from the ChicagoNow’s Redeye blog shares five fun signs that you might be a social media addict.

A Framework for Branding Through Social Media
Jordan Julien suggests five methods of communicating with your online communities to better map out your social media strategies.

7 Reasons Social Media Is A No-Brainer For Passionate B2C Brands
B2C brands that are still hesitant to make the plunge into social media might benefit from Adam Singer’s seven reasons to jump in sooner rather than later.

Using Classic PR Techniques To Support Brands In Social Networks
Marty Weintraub shares seven existing PR channels that can be leveraged to help feed information into a social media presence on a regular basis.

The Anatomy of a Social Media Professional – and Why You Need One

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I recently spoke at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce breakfast where I discussed the need for a dedicated social media manager to help strategize, launch and manage a social media program.

Since many of the attendees were from smaller companies, I stressed that any business – big or small – could benefit from implementing some form of social media strategy into their organization. An example I used to help make my point was to compare Starbucks with the Crème Brulee cart in San Francisco. Both businesses are using Twitter and seeing great results to drive business to their location, but one is a multi-national chain and the other is a small food cart roaming around San Francisco. They couldn’t be more different, yet they are using the same tools to connect and engage with their loyal fans.

If you don’t think you need help managing your social media efforts, you might want to take a closer look at the time investment required to ensure it’s done well. Sure, some of you may be able to manage it all while also running your business, but to do it right, it needs to be more than an afterthought – and most executives just don’t have the bandwidth to focus on doing both jobs effectively at the same time.

You also aren’t likely to have the time to “be everywhere” – listening, engaging, responding – but a dedicated social media professional can do this for you. Consistency is crucial to ensure results. A dedicated focus on social media efforts = a quicker time to value.

You also don’t want to have a “Nelson” moment by not paying attention to your brand online. Some examples I used during the Chamber Breakfast included Domino’s Pizza and United Airlines to show the difference between a brand listening and responding immediately (Domino’s) and another that chose to ignore for more than a year (United).

So, what should you look for in a social media professional? We asked David Meerman Scott this question while attending SXSW Interactive earlier this year. You can check out the video here, but I summed it up with this intricate graphic I call “The Anatomy of a Social Media Professional.”

As David also pointed out in his interview with us, when you are seeking help with your social media efforts, it’s important that you do your homework and make sure whoever you hire has the qualifications needed to get the job done. If they aren’t out there practicing what they preach, or if they can’t point to any ROI as a result of their efforts, than you might want to keep searching.

What do you think? Do you think a dedicated social media professional is necessary in business? What qualities do you think a social media professional should have – did we miss anything in our anatomy slide? We would love to get your thoughts in the comment section below.