TransMedia Digital Tipping Point for Small Business Owners.. NOW.

We have arrived at a TRANSMEDIA DIGITAL TIPPING POINT (*) (***),   I love that phrase.   
(i) Business owners are ready, (ii) clients are ready, and (iii) technologies are ready.  These three important elements have aligned allowing for this Tipping Point! Our imaginations will make or break us.   Much of what we're about to do in 2012 will be through uncharted territory, but, the smart business team will test new online methods while using traditional ROIs to determine how they should be spending their time and money.  

The technologies/elements which have aligned to enable this Transmedia Digital Tipping Point include: 

• bandwidth
• geo-location technology
• RFID (radio frequency identification)
• social commerce
• smart phones
• online databases
• measurement & management tools
• search engines
• stable social media platforms
• continual creation of new Apps (combining the above)

I worked at Bell Canada back in the 80s,when digital technology was first introduced to large businesses.  Once video conferencing was available, in the 90s, it cost $100,000 to implement in each location, now we can use Skype, for FREE, to achieve the same outcome!  Without the overhead of specialized facilities and highly technical full-time staff to run this technology we are able to achieve more at this Digital Tipping Point! 

The technology is now not only aligned, but even as important, it’s affordable to small business owners.  

Another key point, is that Social Media efforts are now measurable & manageable.  Being an engineer, I don't suggest doing anything which can't be  measured.   With new and improved social media measures & management in place now, (including tools like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Grader, combined with Analytic tools), you can indeed manage and see the IMPACT of your efforts and continue only those which actually have the outcome you desire.  .

You must be able to manage and measure what is important to your business.  Look at this brilliant photo to see what happens every 60 seconds on the web (*****).  If you cannot manage or measure what's important, you WILL be sucked up by the noise!

Affordable Geo-location applications, like Foursquare, when used effectively,  help both retain and attract new clients.  Imagine that you are a company whose target market is male. So, lets say you are a Sports Bar.   Your Sports Bar can set up an account, with various Foursquare partner software tools, to "watch" who checks into venues you decide to monitor in your local area.  You might choose to monitor the local Hockey Arena.  The exciting part is that these tools help convert their clients into YOUR clients! HOW? These tools can be set up to send those who are checking into the Hockey Arena coupons from YOUR Sports Bar.  Very effective.  As always, you have to be careful NOT to spam, but to actually send out value to your target clients.  (The question of privacy and opting-in arise here, but, that's for another blog.)

The link below you to an excellent website, sharing how RFID and media are currently being used on ski hills; capturing individuals' runs, times, and photos, distributing them through Social Media.   It's an exciting and powerful example I urge you to check out.  Click on the short video on this website to see their example.  http://www.epicmix.com/en.aspx 

If you would like to brand your own Facebook Landing Page, easily and inexpensively, there are APPs for that!  As a part of this Digital Tipping Point, new Apps have and will continue to hit the market for small business owners. Involver and Faceitpages are excellent examples of tools to use to create your Facebook Landing Page Apps.   Apps give you the control to change your content yourself as needed, simply and without expensive fees.  More important than a static Landing Page, is adding something to your Facebook Page which will encourage people to interact with your Page.   Some excellent Facebook APPs  include Video and Photo contests.  Why are these good ideas?  Every-time someone enters your contest you get more content for your Facebook Page, and all of the friends of those who enter your contest might see that they've entered your contest, which in turn helps you extend your reach out to all of their friends.  "World of Mouth!" Software programs exist to create, manage and brand your own contests, these include the two mentioned earlier as well as Wildfire.   The key is to extend your current marketing distribution plan to creatively include these Social Media applications.  Indeed, a marketing plan which integrates Social Media to strengthen your current business model.  

Last year we found out that just creating a really nice Facebook Landing Page or a Twitter Background could be a big waste of money, if that's all you did! WHY!?  Only 12% of those who LIKE your Facebook Page or Follow you on Twitter EVER go back to your actual Facebook Landing Page or your Twitter Landing Page.  So, be warned, just because you've paid hundreds of dollars to brand your social media landing pages, doesn't mean anyone will see it or your Posts.  Build it, and they will come, is NOT how it works, instead seek to get your audience to interact with your Posts by asking them click on Like, Share or ReTweet.  

It's all about engagement. 

Most people who LIKE or Follow your businesses are as of a result of someone they already trust engaging with your Post or Tweet.  It’s like a YAWN, it’s catchy! They see their Friends YAWNing, or in this case LIKing or Retweeting one of your Posts, it becomes 78% more likely that they’ll pay attention to your Post vs an unsolicited ad.  Getting attention alone is fine, but, what you really want is for them to click on a LINK you’ve provided with the intent of converting followers  into clients, that’s the KEY! That term "WORLD OF MOUTH" is so important here.  Note: They LIKE or FOLLOW you because of something they have seen their friends Liking or Retweeting, or one of your offers, or your website. They rarely set out to find your Facebook Page or your Twitter Profile; so, paying BIG bucks to have your Facebook  Landing Page designed, especially before you've figured out what it is that your target market wants to hear from you is just a cash grab from web designers.   This year it's all about getting people to LIKE or RETWEET your information so all their friends will see it.  Then it’s up to you to have engaging sincere links to hook your new followers or clients! Make it COUNT!

On a closing note, we cannot ignore business models like Groupon.  Groupon,  is in the category of Social Commerce,  also defined as online collective buying power!  These models  are becoming very effective  at attracting new clients.  Very exciting, but, please use with caution , make sure whatever collective discount you are offering does not bankrupt you!

BACKGROUND...
Small business owners are ready to integrate Social Media into their daily business processes and take it to the next level; mainly to GROW their businesses through Social Media marketing efforts focused on retaining and attracting new clients.

Although I believe in saving the planet (after all, we do drive and camp in a VW Bus when we can), and I believe in helping those less fortunate than ourselves; we know that the majority of  business owners are focused on growing  their businesses  and supporting their families.    Social Media is not just "a nice to have" anymore, it's a "must have" to succeed in keeping existing and attracting new clients.

Over the past few years, small business owners were not jumping on the Social Media band wagon.  Instead, they were smart enough to wait and see if Social Media was indeed here to stay.  The outcome has been that only  33%(****) of small business owners have set it up or tried taking advantage of Social Media's power.  I've pointed people to this short funny video to help share this point Social Media Intern.

Resources:

(*) http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/11/12/is-social-media-creating-a-digital-tipping-point/

(**) http://socialmediab2b.com/2011/12/b2b-social-media-predictions-for-2012/

(***) http://socialmediatoday.com/johnserpa/414660/social-media-and-2012
(****) http://socialmediatoday.com/jay-osterholm/399256/social-media-must-have-small-business-owners
(*****) http://www.socialnomics.net/2011/12/28/infographic-every-60-seconds-on-the-web/ 

Managing Your Organization's Social Media Effectively!

Social Media Model for Communities & Enterprises

After interviewing a number of successful communities and enterprises of various sizes, I found similarities in the effective Social Media Model being followed. This Social Media Model which could be embraced to position your organization for a successful implementation and, more importantly, a way to effectively sustain and continuously improve your social media efforts.

Explore the Bruce, of Bruce County Ontario, grew their followers the first year, on Facebook, from 0 to 6,000 using this model.  They have since doubled on both Facebok & Twitter.


The Social Media Model consists of three elements: the Strategy, the Roles and the Schedule:

(i) SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES, GOALS AND MEASURES

The Social Media Strategy has two levels: First, for the entire organization, which is driven by the organization’s communications department, helping to support the overall marketing plan. Second, which complements and supports the overall marketing plan are the appropriate individual departments within the organization. First the overall organizational Strategy, Goals and Measures are outlined, then, then appropriate individual departments can create their supporting strategies and goals.

If your organization is small, then one level for your entire organization is needed. Keep it simple. An example of a small organization that is doing it right is The Market Hall in Peterborough, Ontario. Their goal is to increase “butts in seats”, therefore, everything they Post and measure is aimed to support that effort.

A larger organization, such as with a regional county structure, would have an overall Marketing Strategy driven by Communications, each department with individual strategies − departments like Economic Development, Tourism, Emergency Services, Transportation and Recycling & Waste Management. Each having their individual Marketing and Social Media Strategies, and goals supporting the County’s overall goals.

Example of Tourism goals within a county are often increasing reservations, overnight stays, and increasing awareness of their specific targeted tourism segments. These Tourism goals are measured by increasing reservations, and the download of materials on specific targeted tourism visitors guides.

Examples of Economic Development goals within a county structure are often direct measures tied to increasing investment and prosperity of the local area. Examples of goals could be decreasing the number of trade shows attended while increasing investment enquiries which were initiated through the website.

Recycling & Waste Management goals often are in the area of increasing the efficiencies of communications to the residents. These goals have direct measures like, the number of times a resident downloads or clicks on the recycling schedule increasing, while the number of calls into the call center about the recycling schedule decreasing.

Information technology plays a key roll in the strategy, as they help these departments put tools in place to measure the impact of their efforts, and therefore enabling the departments to continually improve their efforts to meet their goals.

(ii) SOCIAL MEDIA ROLES

In smaller organizations, the first two roles are the same person. In larger organizations, there is a structure which has evolved with multiple people helping sustain the social media effort. The first role is a Contributor; they write the content. The second role is the Social Media Coordinator; they coordinate the Social Media Schedule. In some organizations, there is an overall Social Media Coordinator for the entire organization as well as individual Social Media Coordinators in individual departments.

The successful organizations, small and large, have also learned how to leverage Ambassadors through their community and sometimes globally. Ambassadors are Social Media ‘Giants’ who act as your organizations’ trusted distribution channel. The Ambassador is key to success. As these Ambassadors are trusted, it’s wise that you use their influence to “Share” or “Re-tweet” your message.

Role Summary

Your Organization’s Staff Contributors

• Subject matter experts; able to write; familiar with the social networking platforms.

• Departments assign one or more employees with specific mandates or passions to be contributors


Social Media Coordinator – Your Organization’s staff or you can outsource this position

• Shares the strategy and protocols with the contributors,

• Creates the annual social media schedule

• Keeps everyone on track to the monthly schedule

Community Ambassador − Social Media ‘Giants’

• Distributors of the information throughout their social networking community.

• Social Media ‘giants’ in the community or in communities you want visitors from.

• Not generally your employees

• Some communities where engaging youth groups as their Ambassadors

• Subject-matter experts; able to write; familiar with the social networking platforms

• Associations

IT plays an important role here as well as they often must ‘open’ access to these Social Media Co-ordinators and Contributors to external programs that other employees might not have access to. There is training, hardware and software requirements that are likely needed. The Social Media Coordinator or Contributor who is expected to take videos and photos out and about at events will need data plans and appropriate mobile devices to accomplish their tasks. The Information Technology departments of larger organizations need to be a part of the planning and implementation of this effort.

CONTRIBUTORS

Each department with a reason to expand their Marketing Efforts through social media should appoint one or more appropriate Contributors. Contributors are typically subject-matter experts; employees with specific mandates or passions. Individual organizations need to determine if their Contributors are going to give their materials to the Social Media Co-ordinator to post for them, or post it themselves. This will determine the amount of access and effort needed on the Contributor’s side.

Who: Hand-chosen Staff Contributors within each appropriate Department, and extension of their current role

What are they contributing: Promote their current goals and to meet their departmental strategies

Why are they contributing: To deliver on their departmental overall mandate

Criteria: Excellent communication skills and trained on what and how to say

Measures of Success of their departmental mandate. Examples of measures:

• Increasing quality followers

• Bookings – online reservations

• Measuring engagement of sectors

• Clicking on the links back to sections of website

• Downloading PDFs

• Increasing number of visitors and overnight stays

• Decreasing calls to call center while increase website views

Amount of effort required by contributors varies based upon if they are posting or routing it to the Social Media Co-ordinator.

• Attending events, posting live from the events (text, photo, interviews, videos)

• Editing photos

• Editing videos

• Uploading photos

• Uploading videos

• Posting, Tweeting

SOCIAL MEDIA CO-ORDINATOR

Organizational Social Media Co-ordinator:

The organizational overall Social Media Co-ordinator shares the strategy and protocols with each of the departmental Social Media Co-ordinators. They create the annual social media schedule. They also train the departmental social media co-ordinators as needed to manage their department’s schedule and contributors.

Departmental Social Media Co-ordinator:

The departmental Social Media Co-ordinator shares the strategy and protocols with each of their departmental Contributors. They create their department’s annual social media schedule and keep their department’s contributors on track to the monthly schedule.

Who: Your Organizational Staff

What are they contributing: Ensuring the implementation of the Social Media Strategy & Action Plan.

Why are they contributing: To deliver on the mandate

Criteria: Expert on all social media platforms; training contributors and others on what to say and how to say it. Creating, sharing & monitoring the protocols

Measure of Success of Mandate

• Successful implementing and keeping contributors and ambassadors on track

• Amount of effort required

• Attending events, posting live from events (text, photo, interviews, videos)

• Editing photos

• Editing videos

• Uploading photos

• Uploading videos

• Posting, Tweeting

• Recruiting followers and managing the Incentive Program

• Ongoing self training

• Ongoing training of others internal contributors & external ambassadors

• Facebook Ads & Google Ads

• Tracking efforts to success

• Monitoring of Posts via live alerts

• Listening online & replying

COMMUNITY AMBASSADOR − SOCIAL MEDIA ‘GIANTS’

The Social Media Co-ordinator searches online for these Giants. Each department might have their own set of Ambassadors. Some might overlap. The Ambassador takes the message and often just Shares it or Retweets it to their own network.

The Social Media Ambassador is the most important element when focusing on growing your followers.  Without the effective use of relevant Ambassadors, your growth is slow.  Relevant Ambassadors are those with LARGE followers of people who are also your target market. People trust those they already follow, therefore asking your Ambassadors to retweet or share is KEY! Invite them to your events, given them excuses to talk about you.

Who: Social Media ‘Giants’ have many quality followers. They can be individuals with large followers, Business Associations, Media, Local Celebrities, Sports Groups, Vacations spots.

What are they contributing: Share or Retweet & using consistent Keywords if there are commenting on your behalf.

Why are they contributing: Passion & Sense of Pride, drive our mandate, driving their own business

Criteria:

Measures of Success of mandate

• Increasing numbers of retweets & sharing

• Increasing use of your selected keywords by Ambassadors

• Increasing number of quality visitors to your website from the Ambassadors’ efforts

Amount of effort requires

• Retweeting and Sharing

• Uploading posts, photos, videos from events

• High School, going to events, tourism, i.e. posting things around town

(iii) SOCIAL MEDIA SCHEDULE

The final step, after the above roles are identified, is to create a Social Media Schedule which highlights the efforts and measures to be tracked. This becomes your Social Media Strategy Plan and Schedule. This can be developed initially for one department and then rolled out for the entire organization, or better yet, for the Organization as a whole, and then for individual appropriate Departments.

It can be modified for various departments depending on the level of social media engagement. A dedicated social media coordinator can oversee efforts of implementing this for entire organization, with mini social media coordinators in various departments if needed.

The Social Media Plan and Goals needs to be automated so alerts and reminders are sent to the contributors and coordinators. So, using the calendar system your organizations is already using is often the best approach, therefore avoiding a stand alone system.

The Plan, before being entered into your organization’s calendar has the following fields. This is an example of an organization who uses their Facebook Business Page as the main distribution channel, and it automatically updates Twitter.

To download the white paper, on this topic, click on www.sofieandreou.com