able of contentsWhat Is social media?Systemic Effects of Social Medias Social Media Strategically Relevant?s Social media relevant relative?Where
What and who?oes Where When What matterDCome after WhatHow Much does "How Cost?he cost of how6790233Where Do you find How?How do you learn how?Why Use Social Media?16rom Advertising to"Convert-isingWhat Is Convert-ising?Do You have social media directions?About the authorsCopyright 2009 All Rights Reserved Social Media Directions
SOCIAL MEDIAWhat Is social Media?to define social media and howto measure its roget askedThat is socialPerception shingmedia?" from every clientMoth oson engage with Everywhere I lookvideos presentations whitepapers and even boooffer their spin on the definition of social mediaSince all this social stuff is fairly new and evolving, definitions change So do peoplesperception of what it is After reading hearing and watching everyones definitionthought about their perspectives Then I thought about whether these perspectiveseffectively tell the story Having something of a simple mind myself, I thought I'd try andcondense the definitions down to something I hope is useful for everyoneSocial Media Is what?hen you breakown"social media is communications
Communicationsnothing new, except now the power of communicating has exploded with theparticipation of hundreds of millions of people engaging in dialog one-to-one toyou havent noticed, there are over 200 million blogs, millions of You Tubevideo biof individuals connectingall these people doing Communicatingow Are We Communicating?Sociaphon ply accelerated communications Before people andstitutions relied on phones emlevision, radio, marketing material and advertisingto communicate Now they all rely on this process called social media SociaYet the old process of communicating has shifted to a process that provides reacchess, and affinity and enriched collaboration efforts By the way, it is alh no delays Pluse marketstaneously How are we communicating InstantaneouslySimply stated, social media is a communication process that is revolnication; which, by the way, happens to be everthingCopyright 2009 All Rights Reserved Social Media Directions
he process of social media involvese use of technolo2 Identifying and provid3 Distribution of conversations to appropriate and relevant markets4 Methods and messages that create pull and engagemet5 Building and sustaining an audience of listeners(a k a relationships6 Continually feeding the audience with conversational currency; value they canuseaking Money from CommunicationBesides the fact that everyone's trying to define"social media" it seems that everyoneants a formula to defiROL, as well The simple answer to Rol is a question Calou create any kind of return on anything without communicating? The answer isO
Thus, the way you get an roi from social media is to learn how to communicatemore effectively, efficiently, relationally and in human(not advertising or marketing)Before you ask about what social media is or what the rosk yourshave measured the value of communications previously Your answer is likely"wenever have been able toe difference today is now you can measure the efficiency and effectiveness ofommunications down to specifics like whom, what, when and its value is, moment byoment Communications is the essence of any economy Like a bank, the higher therrency is driven by the relevancyconversations aconversations by the market of people communicatingn that訐fterest you are earning value created by the interest from people The value createdegins with a relationship with the"market of interest "(The market of interest includespeople whom have an affinity and interest in your conversation ) Convertingonversations to money is the end result of effectively and efficiently managingthe process of communicating value to an audienceSystemic Effects of Social MediaA systemic effect is when an outsideuence changes the entire system A system is thecollective processes that enable a business tomarket Market transactions come in the form ofcommunications whice end create a financiaCopyright 2009 All Rights Reserved Social Media DirectionsPage 2
ansaction, which is the fuel for every businessany"system"the effectiveness of the connected processes aimed at end objectivesransactions, and when the results dont come managers look for"reasonswhy u/tsdetermines the value of the final outcomes most businesses focus on outcome resSystem outcomes can be influenced by numerous factors such asthat attracts the2 Cost of goods increases and shrinking margins3 Employee turnover which fuels inconsistency and wasteng aue5 Market shifts that you are unaware of and don 't understandhe #1 influence that is threaded through all five examples above iscommunicationsf you'reto the market of conversations, you are missing strategicntelligence that could forewarn you of the five factors listed above- plus many otherWhen Connections within the System Disconnectvery business relies on the efficient and effective flow of information When the flowormation slows down or breaks then the cost increases due to delays defects anbreakdowns
This, in turn, results in time being robbed away from actual productivitynformation flows through communications and those that communicate rely on thecommunications drive the cost up and performance downEveryone knows what happens when a business doesn 't communicate(omunicates the wrong thing)business that we have bought from, only to be put on hold for more than 1 minute Therwhen(if? )we finally get a real person on the line often they are rude, indifferent andse provide no resolution to what we are seeking These results are representativeof a"sySocial Media' s Systemic EffectSocial media is and will continue to create systemic chaWhy? Because it is a new system of communications that connects people, customersuppliers, employees and entire markets The effect is disruptive, instantaneous andwaits for no one The impact of this new system of communications changes everythingside out What you thougelevant to your business becomes irrelevant What you thought was importantbecomes unimportant What you used to define as"your business" gets redefinedCopyright 2009 All Rights Reserved Social Media DirectionsPage 3
Don't believe any of this?ust sit and watch as markets get redefined, disrupted oldisplaced by the influence of communications created by and for the bmarket In other words, the people who consume that which you ve tried forever toWhen communications shift, it changes everything because everything is tied tounicationsIs Social Media Strategically Relevant?Adwhether social media is a strategy, a tactic or justanother set of promising toolsOur perspective drives our actions, attitudes andelevance of importance to our lives our business andhan tactical relevance Finding things like tools has less relevance and thus does net thought of as"strategically important Unless things are of strategic importancethey will not get top management attention and support it will be delegated downIs Social Media of Strategic Relevance?n a Business Week article titled" The Overlooked side of social Media" theCorporate Executive Board saidMost companies are embracing social media-but too many are wasting theirMore than 70% of companies are already using social media; many are planningto increase their spending on social media across the coming years
Whether forlearning from customers, building their brands or a range of other hoped-foroutcomes, companies are clearly diving inUnfortunately, few have thought very hard about managing these initiatives In asources to socialefforts with very little process behind them The result? A hounrelated initiatives wheels re-invented and resources wastedThe Corporate Executive Board has found that the best companies recognizeat social media are just another set of prInderstood, mastered, and used efficiently as they jouney into the space Thatjourney hasCopyright 2009 All Rights Reserved Social Media DirectionsPage 4
Discovery: At this stage, the organization is just find
ing out about the potentes(and risks) of social media for its purposes and making initial forays TheExperimentation As an organization does more with social media, theportance of earning efficiently becomes urgent These bodies should deing agenda for the firm's efforts, using each initiative todeliberately increase the institutional knowledge of social media useAdoption: While few companies currently find themselves in this stage, thoseat do loosen their managerial posture, moving away from oversight towardsupportThe short story: Social media isn't a fad about to fade away it's a good idea forour organization to learn how to use it to your advantage The best compwill learn faster and get more out of social media by aggressively managing theiJust Another Set of promising Tools?ly humble opinion the Corporate Executive Board quoted above is misleading CEOsbg that social media are just another set of promising tools Corporatexecutive board influences what and how ceos think and this statement discounts thestrategic importance of social mediaa tool is something you give to people to use for whatever purpose a tactic is anintiative aimed at producing a resulta strategy is the science or art of combiningemploying the means of beating competition in planning and directing organizationalefforts aimed at winning markets Communications is the means of deploying soundSocial media is a system of communications What and how you communicatsuppliers, employees and markets is the science and art of using social media If youeploy the system of social media without first considering the strategic implications andto all stakeholders the " tooy hurt your overall strategy In other wordsas the Corporate Executive Board states "Most companies are embracing socialmedia-but too many are wasting their efforts through sloppy managementcommunications is not of strategic relevance to reaching our goals In case you unn? oidering the strategic importance of social media is like sayilknow, what, how and whom you communicate with as well as the effectiveness andfficiency of your communications have serious strategic implications Dont believe it?Ask yourself how many strategies have failed because of a failure tocommunicate effectively and efficiently More than you can imagine!Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved Social Media DirectionsPage 5
Is Social Media Relevant Relative?The power of sociacommunicate content that is both relevant andrelative to a specific audienceWhat Is relevant Relative?et's start with deftderstandactivitiesearing upon or connected with the matter in hand; pertinent to your marketsomething having or standing in, some relation to something elseconnection to4 having reference or regard; relevant to your markets interestsocial media activities we must think about relevant issues and relative audiences wewant to reach If we dont, then all we're doing is pushing out mass media that isntelevant and relative to our audience Sounds like a lot of people on twitter and in massWhere What and who?order to maximize the use of social media, one must first think about where what andwho
Where, what and who are relevant to understanding the dynamics of your marketand how to create attention, attraction and an affinity to you instead of your competitorsA few details toWhere"is an indication of location location is an indication of marketpresence Market presence is where you want to be otherwise you'll end upthe wrong market So where is your market? How cathem? Getting answers to these two questions takes knowledge of sociatechnology that will save you time and make you more productive Where is verycation of interest Once you found where your market is thelthe next step is to understand what is the markets interest? "Interest isreflected by traffic, readers and propagation of content that is in context to theCopyright 2009 All Rights Reserved Social Media Directions
market s interest Knowing what is of interest to your market enables you to thinkbout what topics, conversations etc you should create that pulls the marketyou and away from them your competitio3Who"includes the people you want to influence Influence is and always wirt of any effectivmass media rather about"social media" To understand social media readAgain, What is Social Media? and hopefully this puts social media into contextthat is relevant and relative to "howyou reach people and influence them withrelevant and relative contentWhere, What and who are just the beginning stages of laying out an effective socialmedia strategy Finding the answers requires thinking, use of the right technology anthe skills to do both However, once you gain the where, what and who knowledge(which is David Bullock,'s expertise) then you have to focus on the why, how and when(what I focus on) Unless you learn how to be relevant and relative you are likely tobecome irrelevant and not relativee, When What matterSocial technology provides an abundance of data
Thedata provides information, which can create knowledge ifproperly applied to gaining new knowledge Newowledge can create new results if we apply theoriesbased on the knowledge gainedSus to engamarkets Markets representeople seeking something someone or some value thahelps them learn to achieve new results The technology enables us to watch wherepeople are coming from, when they are coming, and what they consume Given thisformation we can gain knowledge as to where pefound our conversation whenhey found it and what specific communications drew them to us By assessing thewhere, when and what we can apply knowledge to improve our communications andngage a larger audience Engaging a larger audience is an indicator of value, in termsof conversational currencyWhere do thnd Your conversationDistributing youpecific markets is important because ife in the wrong market of conversations, you are not likely to create interest orinity to markets that matter Finding where your desired markets are engaged is theirst step to"pulling"them to your conversation I study my data daily Do you?Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved Social Media Directions
When Do They Engage?ormation that can leadyou to understanding where and when markets are seeking what Knowing this helpsyou formulate improved content that can pull more people to your conversation, thusncreasing the size of an audience, which increases relevant reachhat Drew Them To you?Whatdicator of interest and findability An audienceerested in what you communicate provides you with opportunity to add value towhat an audience may be seeking to find if they can find youAdding vadience is the basis of establishing a relatiknowledge Knowledge shared is an attraction, which creates an affinity, andbsequently a larger audience Why? Because one person in the audience has similaraffinity to others who are likely seeking the same knowledgeKnowledge shared is valuable because it helps others gain something they didnprevious have but were seekingBesides "Where, When and what the question of "How"Matters mostdo anything well Knowing something that you didn 't previously know requires thecananything is the most important knowledge to acquire, before yoacquisition of new knowledge New knowledge doesn't come from past experiencerather it comes frolrelationship based on value sought and louno ey seek is the means for establishing arom both Providing people with knowledge theRegardless of what bufind youwhen they find you and what draws theyou is vital to fordistributing more value that will draw them back
Pushing yourself into where peoplere at when you want to isn't what "pulls"people to you Rather it "pushes"themGaining new knowledge from the data and information afforded to you can help youlearn new knowledge that will pull your market to you Eventually your audience justransactions come from conversations that demonstrate and add value Social mediaaffords you the reach and the data to learn, from information, on how to apply newknowledge What matters more than where, when and what is how Get it? We wiCopyright 2009 All Rights Reserved Social Media DirectionsPage 8