At Wildfire, we work closely with brands to guide them through the world of social media, to create an effective presence that really delivers results. But to the uninitiated, managing a public space to share information, engage with customers and increase brand recognition could sound incredibly complicated – or even worse, expensive!

But actually, when you break down the core elements of running an effective social media offering, it’s really quite straightforward and just needs time, planning and a long term commitment to keep up activity.

How do we know this?

One of our long term clients, set-top box manufacturer and digital giant Humax, has recently been recognised by Get Connected magazine as a shining example of how effective Facebook can be to handle consumer engagement correctly. As the columnist George Cole points out, “the best companies are doing what Humax has done, they are embracing the internet’s potential”

Check out our top five tips for using Facebook to engage your customers, or contact our team to find out how we can help you to devise a social media strategy that works for your business.

1. Post regular updates
2. Reply to criticism as well as praise – face things head on
3. Offer exclusive content to your fans – competitions, videos and savings
4. Keep it interesting – less corporate, more inviting
5. Take part in discussions, encourage your Facebook fans to become a community

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Those of you that have read Forrester’s book Groundswell will recognise the process of splitting social media users into different segments depending on their activities. And if you are familiar with traditional PR, you’ll appreciate the process of identifying and targeting ‘influencers’ to effectively get your message out to a wide, but targeted audience.

Well, today, Gartner has made an attempt to meld these two ideas together with the announcement of its User Survey 2010. Gartner suggests that around one fifth of the social media users are ‘key influencers’ that in turn affect the decisions of 74% of the population.

Key influencers: salesmen, connectors and mavens

Gartner defines these influencers as: salesmen, connectors and mavens. The analyst firm also compares these roles very closely to similar roles that exist in an offline environment:

Salesmen have an ability to persuade people to purchase or act in a certain way. While users in this demographic aren’t actually commercial in their actions, they do have the ability to persuade others to take action.

Connectors can be split into two groups: heavy and light. They become the bridging function between two or more groups of people. They have lots of contacts in different niches and even in different social networks and can therefore make important connections between the two.

Mavens are experts in a certain field, giving advice and answering questions. They become almost guru like in the way people flock to them. They therefore become ‘trusted’ sources and can influence and persuade people to purchase in a certain way. Again, as with salesmen, their actions aren’t commercial, but still have an effect on purchasing decisions.

Gartner looked at 4,000 consumers in ten markets and identified six different roles in total. In addition to the three above, the firm also defines users as seekers – the ones asking for information, the self-sufficient – those who prefer to find answers themselves, and the unclassified – those who don’t fit any defined role.

How is this useful?

The key for marketers is to use these user profiles to identify certain influencers and their ‘type’, then create campaigns or content that meets their needs. Salesmen, for example, will need very different resources and content to connectors or mavens and different strategies will work better to inspire and engage with them.

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We’ve been running a series of company-wide social media training sessions for a client of ours this week and it’s been amazing to see how receptive and energised the company’s employees have been.

Too often in PR, and also in marketing, we have a ‘them and us’ attitude. We take briefs from spokespeople and blend them into carefully worded press statements. We take products and give them snazzy slogans and endlines that we then push out to target audiences through advertising or DM.

But social media changes the game. Take these old traditional marketing mindsets into the social arena and you quickly get found out and, at best, ignored. We’ve discussed how, more than ever, agencies (of every creed) that are involved in social media, need to take a more supportive, guiding approach and I’ve seen this very clearly this week.

Moving away from the walled garden approach

Often, when we (as an audience) try and engage with businesses on social media channels, we want direct access to the brand; not a PR agency/manager or official spokesperson. Often, we don’t even want to talk to the CEO or managing director.

In many cases, we want to talk to the guys with the knowledge: the insiders. We want to talk to the product team that is working on the new features or functionality. We want to talk to customer services about our latest order. Or, we want to talk to a straight-talking sales rep that can help with our prospecting enquiries.

The companies that are beginning to excel in social communities are really getting this.

So its great to see that, given the chance and the freedom, employees are keen and eager to take up the social media baton and run with it.

It takes a brave company (so kudos to our client) to allow employees to do this and it takes a certain degree of planning, strategising and then monitoring (where we are happy to help out), to get this right.

But it is possible and it gives everyone involved a real buzz when it starts to come to fruition…

Follow me on Twitter

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I thought twice about publishing a post about Facebook’s 500 millionth user. On the one hand, it’s a landmark moment for the social media world, so I felt it was worth acknowledging. But, with the world’s media also covering the story, I didn’t want to merely add to the post after post that has already been written on the subject (and will be for weeks to come).

But then I picked up an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal, which raised a slightly different, less positive side to this announcement.

It covers research from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, developed by the University of Michigan’s Business School. This year, the index has included Facebook in its regular consumer satisfaction overview and the results aren’t pretty for the web giant. Facebook came out with one of the lowest rankings of any company: 64 out of a possible 100. That puts Facebook in the bottom 5% of all private sector companies in the US.

Other social sites like Wikipedia and YouTube did considerably better with scores of 77 and 73 respectively.

So, despite these incredible growth figures, is the company in danger of alienating some of its most loyal fans?

To be fair to Facebook, they’ve taken the news on the chin with the company’s spokesman Jonny Thaw saying that although they hadn’t reviewed the methodology in detail, “clearly we have room to improve.” He continues: “Building a simple, useful service is the best way to earn and sustain the trust people put in us. That’s why we spend so much of our time and energy focused on improving the products we offer and introducing new ones. We look forward to the next survey.”

So congratulations to Facebook; I’m sure they won’t be resting on their laurels…

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Anyone who knows me will know I’m partial to (more than) the odd beer at my local pub. But when it closed indefinitely last month, us villagers were quick to up sticks and walk the 20 yards across the road to join the Royal British Legion.

I’ve paid my subs for the year, the membership card sits nicely in my purse and I’ll admit I’ve become a real fan. The beer is flowing (at a much reduced rate), you always get a warm welcome from old Fred behind the bar and they’ve even got a new bowl for the dog so he can join in the proceedings.

It’s a charity I’m very pleased to be supporting, so I was keen to move my new found allegiance online and look for the British Legion on Twitter.

But oh dear.

I checked out @RBLPOPPY and @POPPYSUPPORT . But where was my warm welcome? The cheery banter? The sense of community?

@RBLPOPPY just shows me a list of URLs about how to become a member of the forces, with no updates since the beginning of this year. I don’t want to sign-up to the army, but I do want to know how my support is helping veterans and wouldn’t mind the odd bit of interaction (akin to my little chats with Fred) via Twitter.  No @ replies either (unless you count the one to Cheryl Cole applauding her on a great X Factor show). Crikey.

@POPPYSUPPORT seems better. A greater variety of news and information provided by the team, but I did get the sense I was being bombarded with links rather than getting drawn into a conversation, and it all appears to be focused around the Autumn to link in with Remembrance Day. Surely it would be better to keep me engaged all year round and use loyal followers to draw in even more fans by the time the poppies go on sale next year?

But now I’m starting to feel a bit mean. I really do like the British Legion and what it stands for.

I guess my disappointment stems from knowing that they do offline communities so very well and wishing they would transfer that sentiment to their online presence, and potentially bring a whole new generation of British Legion fans with them.

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The internet is buzzing about a tweet yesterday from Digg CEO Kevin Rose (now taken down from the site) in which he said he’d heard a “huge rumour” that Google was planning to launch a new social network called ‘Google Me’.

Today, Adam D’Angelo, Facebook’s former CTO, has published further details suggesting that Google Me is indeed real and that is getting a lot of focus at Google HQ as the search giant tries again to beat Facebook at its own game (following the less than successful attempt that was Google Buzz):

“Here is what I’ve pieced together from some reliable sources:

• This is not a rumor. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this.
• They realized that Buzz wasn’t enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling it off of Facebook.
• Unlike previous attempts (before Buzz at least), this is a high-priority project within Google.
• They had assumed that Facebook’s growth would slow as it grew, and that Facebook wouldn’t be able to have too much leverage over them, but then it just didn’t stop, and now they are really scared.”

You’d be forgiven for feeling a bit of deja vu coming on, but if anyone could rival Facebook, then surely you’d put your money on Google…

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By now, everyone knows that Twitter is about more than just follower count.  Yes, it’s still one of the first impressions you get when you load a profile and this won’t change soon but ultimately, when it comes to followers, it’s more about quality than quantity.

Simply put, without an interested and involved audience, its difficult to generate the interactions and relationships that prove the platform’s value.

With this in mind, it recently occurred to me that maybe there’s a different way to think of follower count.  What if we considered it the same way that businesses track revenue versus profit?

Revenues

In such a scenario, total number of followers becomes your total revenue.  That is to say, it should give some idea of the volume or scale of the operation you’re dealing with.

Whether because of high quality content, a regular thirty tweets a day or simply splashing out on a nefarious auto-follow service, the person running the account has clearly invested time in their Twitter profile.

Before we get into the details, it’s worth emphasizing that revenues are important.

It’s very rare that an account with only fifty followers is in its optimum position of influence.  Generally, this is instead a sign that either the content isn’t adding enough value or the user is missing opportunities to interact within wider discussions to extend their reach.

The economies of scale that come with a large group of followers are one of the key factors to maximize the return on your invested time with Twitter.  After all, you’re still inputting the same 140 characters but getting a bigger bang for your buck.

However, this is where the idea of profit comes in.

Profits

If you’ve a thousand followers but they’re largely spammers and charlatans tweeting about “red hot iPad deals” and SEO marketing, the value is going to be minimal.  If instead, they’re an interactive and relevant cross-section of stakeholders in your market, interests or products, it’s a different case altogether.

While Twitter makes it hard to work this “profitability” out for others’ follower counts, it’s a valuable distinction to bear in mind when cultivating your own community of interested users.  By all means, accept the more spurious followers into your community but be realistic about whether there are 500 people genuinely fascinated by the string of press releases that you’re putting out there.

This shift in perspective helps you assess which tweets and techniques are bringing in the right crowd.  It can be hard work finding and defining the character of your account; especially for B2B brands but this feedback is a good indicator of your success.

Ultimately, you need followers who will gain something from the relationship with your account and (if you’ll forgive the tautology) the best way to do so is make sure you’re giving them some value.  The patterns of profit as we have defined it should match up quite neatly with the degree to which you’re enhancing their social media experience.

In conclusion, it’s worth bearing in mind that if you’re looking at a situation of high revenue but low profits, it might be time to consider reworking your Twitter ‘business plan’ … or face inevitable bankruptcy.

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Two studies out this week point to the fact that B2B businesses are not only using social media more in their marketing strategies, but they are experiencing impressive returns as a result.

Research by LeadForce1 finds that social media accounts for 15% of referral traffic to B2B sites with a social media presence. The analysis of where this traffic comes from is even more interesting, with LinkedIn being the top referrer with 27.1% of traffic to B2B sites, followed by Wikipedia (16.8%), Reddit (18.4%), Dzone (13.0). Twitter accounts for only 9.5% of and Facebook just 6.9%.

Some of the slightly strange referrers here cast a few doubts on the legitimacy of this research. But if true, the relatively low referrers from Twitter and Facebook perhaps confirm the suggestion that B2B marketers are unsure or wary about how to use these more consumer-focused networks for business.

Elsewhere, a survey by Digital Marketing Agency White Horse finds B2B marketers are keeping pace with their B2C counterparts in the adoption of social media, but wide acceptance hinges on executive support. The research indicates that B2B social media usage is gaining on B2C: 86% of B2B marketers are using social media, compared to 82% of B2C. However, the degree of engagement varies significantly: 52% of B2C marketers are engaged in daily social media marketing, compared to only 32% of B2B marketers.

Interestingly, among B2B marketers, 46% cited “perceived irrelevance” as an obstacle to internal approval, compared to only 12% for B2C marketers.

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Fascinating to read statistics from Hitwise today revealing that, for the first time, visits to social networks by UK web users surpassed visits to search engines.

Hitwise reports that, during May, social networks accounted for 11.88% of UK web visits and search engines accounted for 11.33%. This represents the first ever month that social networks have been more ‘popular’ than search engines in the UK.

A gateway to the web?

Robin Goad, Research Director for Hitwise, suggests that social networks are quickly become gateways to the web: “although social networks and search engines perform different functions, they both act as gateways to the wider Internet. This data perfectly illustrates the key role that social media now plays in so much online behavior.”

There is a strong consensus that as we move towards a more ‘semantic’ view of the web, we will start to use our expanded ‘social graph’ and social connections to act as our guide to the internet, rather than relying on search engines. We trust our friends, so why not increasingly use them for finding information and content online.

But can social networks drive ROI for brands?

Of course, the Hitwise research doesn’t tell us about ‘what’ users were using social networks for, only that usage is increasing.

Covering the stats on Techcrunch, Steve O’Hear proclaims: “But can social media marketing really overcome the issue of intent? Too often, ads on YouTube and Facebook work like traditional advertising, forcing themselves onto people and interrupting the conversation or getting in the way of the content. Not only is it an issue of obtrusiveness but that advertising is out of kilter with the user’s self interest.”

His focus is on advertising, which is perhaps a shortsighted view of the potential of social media marketing. Of course if brands ‘force’ themselves on visitors as they do in traditional advertising, PPC or other forms of ‘push’ marketing, they will find little success on social networks. But ‘push’ marketing isn’t the only answer.

Despite this ‘intent’ argument, it’s still hard to ignore the potential of social media. Goad again: “the majority of online marketing spend is currently diverted towards search, and this is likely to remain the case in the short to medium term. Many marketers and brand owners have yet to grasp the full potential of social media marketing, but spending on the channel will increase as more proven success stories emerge.”

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Forrester’s Sean Corcoran has a really interesting blog post looking at the role agencies have to play in a social media world. He makes a valid point about how different types of agencies (e.g. PR, advertising, WOM etc.) have different skills etc. they can bring to the social media table.

But, it is the second part of his post that is the most revealing and also challenging for PR agencies:

“Yet the reality is while many of these agencies are helping their clients with strategy and even organizational structure, they’re mainly playing a support role. Why? Because most marketers want to have the conversations directly with their customers. They don’t want a middle man either talking for them or adding another layer of people to the communication process. As one social marketer recently told us, their agency acts as their arms and legs, ears and eyes, sometimes their brain but NEVER their mouth. Only employees are allowed to talk to their customers. And while some companies, usually ones with limited resources (like some in the B2B space), do allow their agencies to speak on their behalf, we have found it is becoming very uncommon (we’ll have data on this soon). ”

It is an opinion and viewpoint that we have been mulling over and debating at Wildfire recently. Debby wrote a blog post last month which sums this up well:

“…ultimately we believe it is our responsibility to equip clients with the training, skills and confidence to help them find an authentic voice and engage in the conversation themselves over time…

“We understand that this isn’t going to happen overnight, and there will always be a need for agencies to provide the manpower to run campaigns when internal resources aren’t available.  But on the whole, we think it’s better that we guide [our clients] through the social media maze and assist you in building relationships directly with [their] audiences, rather than continue to act as another wall between [them] and [their]  customers.”

This is a big shift for many PR agencies, used to playing a very tactical day-to-day role in the life of their clients. Moving to a more strategic, supportive role will be hard for many.

It will be tough for many brands too as, rather than simply outsourcing a PR function, there is now a direct challenge to get their hands dirty and ‘muck in’.

This ‘hand-in-hand’ partner role is one we’ve always advocated and is one we’ll continue to evangelise about as it becomes more and more relevant.

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