Social IRL Blog

Top Ten Social Media Links and Resources and Upcoming Social Media Events

February 12, 2013 by Ben Smith Leave a Comment

Top Ten We’re pleased to share our latest “Top Ten” social media links and resources.

Scroll down for upcoming events Social: IRL is hosting or supporting.

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Top Ten Links:

1. Digital Trends Impacting the PR Industry in 2013 - Metrics, mobile, data mining, socialized customer service, and more. Valuable insights from Citi’s Frank Eliason. READ MORE

2. The Oreo Superbowl Tweet: Why it Worked - We’re all very familiar with the Twitter success Oreo had during the Superbowl. In this post, “The Brand Builder” Olivier Blanchard discusses four interwoven reasons that made the success possible – velocity, relevance, wit and execution. READ MORE

3. Forget About Social Media for a Moment. What’s Your Mobile Strategy? - Who on your team is thinking about designing mobile experiences? How is mobile tied to the overall digital strategy? How is social and mobile complementing your web strategy? More importantly, how are people connecting or attempting to connect with you and how would they define the experience? Brian Solis poses important questions on whether your web & mobile strategies meet the needs & expectations of your connected customers. READ MORE

4. How to Post Instagram Photos to a Facebook Page - If you’re a Page Administrator, sharing Instagram photos to your Facebook Page rather than your personal profile is easy, but an often overlooked feature. This quick tip shows you how to set Instagram to share with any of your Pages. READ MORE

BONUS: Pinterest Quick Tip - Instantly discover everything pinned from your site. READ MORE

5. The Social Business Textbook: A Valuable New Resource for Social Communications Professionals - While social continues to grow and change, there are foundational concepts and best practices that all social practitioners should know and understand. Spredfast created this comprehensive 45 page textbook to be a resource that helps bring members of growing social teams up to speed and serves as the go-to primer on the main elements of social programs for those already in the industry. In addition to providing a strategic discussion of each social topic, they include models to visualize each concept, action items to make concepts practicable, and brand examples to show each element in action. READ MORE

6. What is Your 2013 Content Marketing Strategy? - Edelman’s Michael Brito discusses “The Creative Newsroom” and why your content marketing strategy should help evolve your brand into thinking more like a media company. READ MORE

7. Social Media’s Impact on the Food Industry - It’s hard to imagine an area of human experience more innately social than food. We choose food collectively, eat it collectively, and then talk about it obsessively. During the month of February, Pivot Conference are exploring the impact of social media on the food industry, with key brands such as Coca Cola, Tropicana, and McDonalds sharing their views on how social has impacted their customer outreach, product development, even how they operate their businesses. READ MORE

8. Ten Qualities of an Effective Community Manager - Being a quality community manager goes beyond having the knowledge and background to use social networks. Here are 10 qualities an effective community manager should possess, according to professionals who work within social media and community today. READ MORE

Bonus: A Collection of Community Management Advice - Marketwire and The Community Manager asked community managers about what they do, how they do it, and where they see the future of community management going. They received more than 600 responses and compiled the top thoughts, tips and advice into this eBook. READ MORE

9. Find Your Marketing North Star With Social Media Monitoring - Marketers are continually challenged with finding ways to measure their social media programs and digital marketing campaigns. A key challenge – business metrics are financial, while web metrics are NOT. The trick is to correlate the two in a meaningful way. READ MORE

10. Social Business and Strategy Insights from Altimeter Group’s Charlene Li and Brian Solis (Video interviews)

Full video of the interview Social: IRL conducted with Altimeter Group analyst and Engage! and The End of Business as Usual author, Brian Solis, during the January SMCKC breakfast. In its entirety, the conversation runs for close to an hour, during which time Brian shares many valuable social business insights, as well as more personal insights and backstory. VIEW VIDEO

Interview with Altimeter Group founder and Open Leadership and Groundswell author, Charlene Li, during the recent #Expion13 Social Business Summit. Charlene shares valuable social business insights and discusses social media strategy vs. tactics, the importance of listening as a foundation for social activity, and ROI vs. business impacts. VIEW VIDEO

Bonus “Smart Social” Insights from #Expion13 - Visit Expion’s blog for a copy of Charlene’s presentation and insights from many other speakers and attendees. READ MORE

Don’t miss our weekly giveaway of free copies of Brian Solis’ brand new book, What’s the Future of Business. Details and entry on our Facebook Page.

Connect with Social: IRL - While many of you are connected with us on Facebook and Twitter, you can also find us on Pinterest and Google+, and join our Facebook Groups for Nonprofits and for Kansas Educators.

Upcoming Social Media Events:

State of Now / 140 Conference – Des Moines, IA: Social: IRL is pleased to be a sponsor of the 2013 State of Now Conference in Des Moines. Local organizer Deb Brown will be announcing details soon. Meantime, save the date – Thursday, April 18.

Links include content identified as being from our sponsors Spredfast, Expion, and Spiral16. We are grateful to these sponsors for their support and enjoy sharing content and webinar opportunities they provide which we consider to be valuable to the Social: IRL community.

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: Events, Guide, Newsletter, Research, Resource

Find Your Marketing North Star With Social Media Monitoring

February 11, 2013 by Ben Smith Leave a Comment

Guest post by Eric Melin, Manager Marketing & Communications at Social: IRL sponsor, Spiral16.

Marketers are continually challenged with finding ways to measure their social media programs and digital marketing campaigns.

There are a ton of different metrics out there, but the most important thing that marketers and analysts can do is find that critical correlation between the right metrics that comes together to tell the story — that “north star,” as it were, that will guide your strategy and action going forward.

An article I ran across on Time’s Swampland blog about politics and the economy spells this out even more clearly. It’s called The Most Important Chart in American Politics, and it’s above. The chart identifies the single most crucial piece of President Obama’s 20012 re-election campaign: his political north star.

There are three lines mapped out across a timeline of the last two decades:

“The first two lines — productivity and per capita gross domestic product — are rising. This is the unmistakable American success story, the one reflected in record corporate profits, growing wealth accumulation and the unmatched efficiency of this country’s economy. The third line tracks median household income, as measured by the U.S. Census. It shows the story of frustration and stagnation that so many Americans long ago accepted as a reality.”

It is crystal clear when looking at the chart that the third line diverged from the first two after the year 2000. You could fill up a book debating the causes of that divergence, but the end result is an unmistakable political takeaway: “Much of the U.S. stopped feeling the benefits of a growing national economy.”

How does this apply to social media monitoring?

Business metrics are financial, while web metrics are NOT. The trick is to correlate the two in a meaningful way — like the “political north star” chart above. READ MORE

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: Guest-Post, Marketing, Monitoring, Sponsor

Text-to-Give: Is There a Better Option for Mobile Fundraising?

February 5, 2013 by Ben Smith 2 Comments

Guest post by Dale Knoop, CEO of Social: IRL sponsor RAZ Mobile, a Kansas City-based startup that helps non-profit causes, campaigns, and candidates better engage a new generation of supporters via the power of mobile and social media. The post is published in response to attendee questions submitted during the course of Social: IRL’s ongoing nonprofits workshop series.

We’ve seen the terrible pictures and videos on TV and the Internet when a natural disaster strikes. It’s at times like this that millions of caring individuals respond to the call to action to donate to the victims of these tragedies via their mobile phones. They text a keyword such as “Sandy” or “Haiti” to a short code such as 90909. A $5 or $10 donation is then billed to them via their mobile carrier bill. This so-called text-to-give tool is a great vehicle for fundraising but it has many limitations that make it a less-than-favorable option or, in a majority of cases, completely off-limits.

Let’s run through a few of the biggest limitations of text-to-give as a mobile donor engagement and fundraising solution.

Not open to everyone:

Text-to-give is not open for nonprofits that have less than $500,000 in annual revenues, because the carriers have set this as their rule for who can use text-to-give. Most charities operate on far less than $500,000 per year.

Donations are limited in dollar amount:

The carriers cap donations at a low amount in case their subscribers don’t pay their bill, since this is how the money gets collected from a text-to-give donor. I understand their economics but if I want to give more through my mobile phone I should be allowed to. In effect, the wireless carriers are setting limits on a transaction between a caring donor and those in need.

No donor information is shared:

Other than the donor’s mobile number, nonprofits that use text-to-give don’t get any information about the donor, such as name, street address and email address. Text-to-give doesn’t help nonprofits build and grow a base of supporters. Instead, it treats donors like ATMs, which is precisely the reason many donors stop giving.

All nonprofits should seek to become the favorite cause of their supporters. Studies have shown the path to becoming a favorite involves educating them and sharing information with them on your work rather than simply asking for money all the time.

This is impossible if you don’t know who gave to you using text-to-give.

High cost:

Text-to-give can be very expensive for those nonprofits that meet the carrier rules for who can use it. Keywords like “Sandy” or “Haiti” can cost a few hundred dollars each month. The carrier and the aggregators can take a sizable chunk of the donation and you may face per message fees as well.

In disaster situations where text-to-give is used, the carriers have agreed that they won’t charge their normal per donation fee. But if you’re not a disaster and simply trying to keep a food pantry stocked, the carrier and the aggregator will take their normal cut.

A long wait for your money:

Since text-to-give relies on people paying their wireless bill, it can take 90-120 days for you to see the money donated to you through text-to-give.

There are also stories from nonprofits that have used text-to-give that suggest actual fulfillment rates can be in the single digits. For example, if 100 people donate to you with text-to-give you may see less than 10 donations actually be delivered to you.

In many instances, when people see the name of a charge on their bill that isn’t the name of the cause they donated to, they ask the carrier to remove that charge.

No fast set-up:

Depending on how you proceed with text-to-give it can take months to get going. There are other solutions that can have you up and engaging and fundraising in a day.

In summary:

There are superior solutions for mobile donor interaction and fundraising that don’t have the many impactful limitations of text-to-give.

According to a January 2012 Pew Internet report, completing an online credit card form is virtually the same in appeal as text-to-give. Donors will make donations by entering their credit card information into their mobile phones.

As with any solution the pros and cons must be weighed. In the case of text-to-give my suggestion is to ensure your nonprofit focuses on creating a great mobile experience and let donors give as much as they want without the wireless carriers in the middle. Your supporters will reward you with higher engagement and that in turn leads to higher fundraising potential.

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: Fund-Raising, mobile, Nonprofits

The Social Business Textbook: A Valuable New Resource for Social Communications Professionals

February 4, 2013 by Ben Smith Leave a Comment

Today, we share a guest post by Jordan Slabaugh, Director of Social Media at Social: IRL sponsor, Spredfast. We are grateful to Spredfast and each of our sponsors for their support, and enjoy sharing valuable resources they provide, such as this Social Business Textbook. While social continues to grow and change, there are foundational concepts and best practices that all social practitioners should know and understand. Spredfast created this comprehensive 45 page textbook to be a resource that helps bring members of growing social teams up to speed and the go-to primer on the main elements of social programs for those already in the industry. In addition to providing a strategic discussion of each social topic, they include models to visualize each concept, brand action items to make concepts practicable, and brand examples to show each element in action.

The world of social communications is exhilarating. As consumers, social media offers us the ability to connect with brands, products, and topics we care most about. And for brands, social media has blown open the proverbial company doors to meet the communication expectations of these consumers, leaving seemingly endless opportunities to connect with, engage, and delight social customers.

In a rapidly evolving communication space, social professionals have had to become scholars of sorts, studying up on social business practices with one-off resources and examples. But now that social business is an established field, we at Spredfast saw the need for a foundational resource to serve as a primary guide for members of ever-increasing social teams, and an expansion of the fundamentals for those of us already in the field. And with that, we’re excited to introduce the Social Business Textbook.

For some social brands, identifying the keys to social business success can feel like gumshoeing it in a complicated mystery novel. But what if these practices were presented in familiar terms, like primary school subjects, to make them more relatable? We set out to standardize social concepts to help brands get back to basics.

What made it into the syllabus?

History [Social Listening]: Concerted listening efforts focused on the people, conversations, and relevant activity about your brand to yield valuable insights to understand past events, inform current decisions, and improve future outcomes.

Government [Social Organization & Governance]: Combatting brand anarchy by defining internal structure and ensuring the right rules and guidance are in place to protect both the brand itself and the people behind the social activity.

Music [Orchestration]: Orchestrating multiple people having multiple conversations across multiple social media accounts and networks on behalf of your brand with planned workflows, approval paths, and coordinated content distribution.

Math [Measurement]: Embracing the measurement of social media metrics to perform goal-oriented analysis of social program performance.

English [Creating Social Content:] Creating and curating great content for social media distribution to increase engagement and action, and conversing with customers in ways that create value for your network and drive business outcomes.

Social Studies [Segmentation and Targeting Social Audiences]: Segmenting audiences based on demographic and technographic data provided by social networks and targeting tailored messages to individual segments.

Student Council [Social Engagement & Community]: Creating meaningful experiences on social channels that engage audiences, inspire action, and build brand awareness and loyalty.

Chemistry [Paid/Owned/Earned]: Combining owned assets with earned audience interactions and paid advertising to optimize social efforts and business impact.

“Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.” - Edmund Burke

The most insightful and applicable textbooks don’t just present concepts and theories – they show them in action. You may understand as a brand that engagement increases loyalty, but what does that look like? And who can you learn from? From the successful social initiatives of brands like REI and its engaging “REI 1440 Project” campaign to the stellar mathematical measurement efforts AT&T has implemented, the Social Business Textbook takes strategy and highlights what it looks like in practice.

“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” – Isaac Newton

A glance at any scholarly work will show multiple sources, citations, and perspectives of subject matter experts. With so many great minds leading discussion and research around social media innovation and success, we realized that hearing from people like David Armano, Jeremiah Owyang, Jay Baer, Michael Brito, Ann Handley, Chuck Hemann, Brian Solis and Rebecca Lieb in their own words provides powerful support to concepts presented in Textbook. We sought out some of the most insightful thoughts and guidance published by our favorite thought leaders and included them in the Social Business Textbook to provide additional perspective from leading scholars of social.

“A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.” - Khalil Gibran

While putting together Textbook, we asked: “what are words without action?” Combining the strategy behind imperative social business subjects with real world applications, each chapter presents actionable steps for brands to begin, mature, or optimize their social programs.

From our classroom to yours, we hope the Social Business Textbook will help kickstart [or grow] great social activities in your organization.

Click here to download your free copy of the Social Business Textbook.

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: Guide, Marketing, Research, Resource, Social-Business, Sponsor

A Collection Of Community Management Advice

January 28, 2013 by Ben Smith Leave a Comment

To commemorate Community Manager Appreciation Day on January 28, 2013, Marketwire and The Community Manager asked community managers about what they do, how they do it, and where they see the future of community management going. They received more than 600 responses and compiled the top thoughts, tips and advice into the eBook embedded below – a great resource full of valuable insights from a dedicated group of professionals, responsible for serving customers and defining brand experiences daily from the frontlines of digital engagement.

A Collection Of Community Management Advice from Marketwire

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: Community Manager, Guide, Resource

Win a free copy of the soon-to-be-published book by Brian Solis: What’s The Future of Business

January 27, 2013 by Ben Smith Leave a Comment

Rethink your business model to incorporate the power of “user” experiences.

Brian Solis is a principal analyst at Altimeter Group, and is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Brian has studied and influenced the effects of emerging media on business, marketing, publishing, and culture. His book Engage! is regarded as the industry reference guide to building and measuring success in the social web. His most recent book, The End Of Business As Usual, looked at the changing consumer landscape, it’s impact on business & what companies can do to adapt & lead.

Publishing on March 11, Brian’s new book What’s the Future of Business will galvanize a new movement that aligns the tenets of user experience with the vision of innovative leadership to improve business performance, engagement, and relationships for a new generation of consumerism. It will provide an overview of real-world experiences versus “user” experiences in relation to products, services, mobile, social media, and commerce, among others. This new book:

Explains why experience is everything and how the future of business will come down to shared experiences.
Aligns the tenets of user experience with the concepts of innovative leadership to improve business performance and engagement and to motivate readers to rethink business models and customer and employee relationships.
Motivates readers to rethink business models, products and services, marketing, and customer and employee relationships with desired experiences in mind.

To mark the publication of Brian’s new book, Social: IRL is giving away a free copy of What’s The Future of Business, each Friday from now until March 8.

Learn more and enter to win at Facebook.com/socialirl.

You can also catch our recent video interview of Brian Solis for SMCKC, which features valuable social business insights and personal backstory

Filed Under: Social IRL Blog Tagged With: Brian-Solis, Contest, Social-Business

Text-to-Give: Is There a Better Option for Mobile Fundraising?

A Collection Of Community Management Advice

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