Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

Is Social Marketing Replacing Content Marketing – or Enhancing It?

Posted in Content Marketing, Focus.com, Social Media Marketing by Chris Selland on January 30th, 2012
 

Interesting post by David Strom on ReadWriteWeb this past weekend – Blogging Declines Across the Inc. 500. As stated in the UMass Dartmouth study behind the headline:

Fifty percent of the 2010 Inc. 500 had a corporate blog, up from 45% in 2009 and 39% in 2008. In this new 2011 study, the use of blogging dropped to 37%.

Yet despite the drop in blogging, other Social channels are picking up the slack.

This was the first year that executives were asked if their company plans to increase their investment in social media. While 25% said they would keep their social media budget the same, the other 71% plan to increase their investment and only 1 company (4%) plan to decrease their investment.

There is clearly a shift going on around the focus of corporate marketing efforts. Personally I believe that the decline in corporate blogging is in part due to so many corporate bloggers having emphasized ‘tactics and quantity’ over ‘content and quality’ these past few years. Those organizations that blogged half-heartedly, churning out a multitude of uninspired & uninteresting posts in an effort to ‘get something out there’, have since discovered that their readers’ lack of commitment matched their own. We discussed this during a recent Focus Roundtable and the discussion continued on afterward.

It’s gratifying to see how clearly attention is shifting toward Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but in our view these social initiatives should be complementing, not replacing, corporate blogging efforts. There is no better way to promote and drive quality traffic to your blog than an effective social strategy, while at the same time well-written blog posts provide the anchor content for effective social campaigns and engaged customers, communities and audiences.

Content (or as many including our friends at Hubspot like to call it Inbound) Marketing remains highly effective and can and should be a key part of your marketing mix. Integrating your Social initiatives with your blog can enhance the success of both – and that is a strategy we endorse wholeheartedly and enthusiastically.

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Posted in Content Marketing, Focus.com, Social Media Marketing | View Comments

Terametric Friday: Top Stories in Social Media

Posted in Social Media Analytics, Top Stories, Twitter Marketing, Twitter ROI by Kim Cole on August 26th, 2011
 

Welcome to Friday, August 26, 2011, edition of “Top Stories in Social Media ROI.” This is Terametric’s series where we keep you updated on the critical evolution of marketing Return on Investment in the Social Media Channel. Our top stories for today feature articles about Twitter:

Twitter Facts And Figures

200 million. One billion. 450,000. 88%. 5pm.

What do all of these figures have in common? They’re all key stats from the world of Twitter, and this infographic from marketing and design agency Touch is packed full of all the latest Twitter data.

Twitter Marketing At Its Best: A Mid-Air Tweet Earns Man A Steak At The Airport

While you’re undoubtedly get better results by phoning the proper authorities if you find yourself right in the thick of a serious situation, this new infographic from the American Red Cross suggests that people are increasingly turning to social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook for updates and help during emergency situations.

Twitter Just Got the Respect it Deserves

If you’re one to check your analytics on a daily basis you may have noticed a pretty sharp increase in referrals from Twitter’s “t.co” domains.  Here’s why…

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Posted in Social Media Analytics, Top Stories, Twitter Marketing, Twitter ROI | View Comments

Terametric Friday: Top Stories in Social Media

Posted in Social Media Marketing, Social Media Metrics, Social Media ROI, Top Stories, Twitter ROI by Kim Cole on August 19th, 2011
 

Welcome to Friday, August 19, 2011, edition of “Top Stories in Social Media ROI.” This is Terametric’s series where we keep you updated on the critical evolution of marketing Return on Investment in the Social Media Channel. Our top stories for today feature an eclectic mix of social media marketing tips focusing on how using Twitter can positively influence your marketing ROI:

 

Measuring Social Influence

If you want to get a reaction from a public relations or social media pro, ask them about influence. You are sure to get answers from each end of the spectrum. Some will say influence is misconstrued as “popular.” Others believe that follower numbers measure influence.

Ford and Twitter Talk Keys to Marketing to Millennials

But when it comes to Twitter, millennials are over-indexing. Twitter’s director of sales marketing, Shane Steele, citing third-party research, said 55% of the Twitter audience is made up of millennials, compared to 40% of the rest of the internet. Ford has worked with Twitter to reach the social-media savvy set for years, having had a strong presence on Twitter since July 2008.

Twitter users are more likely to impact your brand than any other social network

Now, more than ever, is the time for brands and companies to begin understanding how the chaotic and real-time world of Twitter can massively influence the ways in which consumers perceive them.

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Posted in Social Media Marketing, Social Media Metrics, Social Media ROI, Top Stories, Twitter ROI | View Comments

Signal, Noise & Optimizer for Twitter

Posted in Big Data, Early Access program, Optimizer for Twitter, Social Intelligence, Twitter Marketing by Chris Selland on August 11th, 2011
 

There’s a terrific post on John Battelle’s blog entitled Twitter and the Ultimate Algorithm: Signal Over Noise (With Major Business Model Implications).

I find Twitter to be one of the most interesting companies in our industry, and not simply because of its meteoric growth, celebrity usage, founder drama, or mind-blowing financings. To me what makes Twitter fascinating is the data the company sits atop, and the dramatic tension of whether the company can figure out how to leverage that data in a way that will insure it a place in the pantheon of long-term winners – companies like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook.

We share that fascination and, practically every day, speak to marketers who are struggling with balancing the opportunity and problem with Twitter.

  • Opportunity – an ever-increasing number of my customers, competitors & key influencers are initiating & participating in conversations on Twitter that I should be paying attention to and engaging in.
  • Problem – those customers, influencers & conversations are increasingly difficult to find, and I simply don’t have the time or resources to sift through all the noise to do so.

This is exactly the problem we built Optimizer for Twitter to solve. We designed our platform to help marketers sift through the haystack and find the ‘needles’ of importance and insight, while minimizing the time and resources needed to do so.

Battelle states:

In short, it’s a really, really, really hard problem. But it’s a terribly exciting one.

We couldn’t agree more.

We are wrapping up our Private Early Access program this month and will be accepting applicants for our V1 product which will be released on September 7. We will also soon be announcing an exciting program for any qualified customers who apply for a 30-day trial prior to our September 7 launch date, and any company who requests a trial prior to that date will be eligible.*

So if you haven’t already done so, request a trial today – and start focusing your marketing efforts on the signal, not the noise.

*Trials will be provisioned as they are approved by Terametric, for qualified customers and partners, beginning on September 7, 2011.

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Posted in Big Data, Early Access program, Optimizer for Twitter, Social Intelligence, Twitter Marketing | View Comments

Terametric Friday: Top Stories in Social Media

Posted in Social Media Analytics, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Metrics, Social Media ROI, Top Stories, Twitter ROI by Kim Cole on July 29th, 2011
 

Welcome to Friday, July 29, 2011, edition of “Top Stories in Social Media ROI.” This is Terametric’s series where we keep you updated on the critical evolution of marketing Return on Investment in the Social Media Channel. Our top stories for today feature social media metrics and a great article about using Twitter to boost social media ROI.  I particularly enjoyed the post from Social Media Examiner and the interview from Wells-Fargo and how they use Twitter and Twitter metrics to improve customer satisfaction.

 

The Greatest Social Media Campaign In The World: This Is Just A Tribute

 The question remains though on how to measure the success of a social media campaign and verify its “greatness”. First, there appears to be two common themes surrounding those that are struggling with measurement – they lack a strategy with clear objectives and/or do not properly define the metrics for success.

 Politics, Twitter & the Lessons for Marketers

As marketers struggle with the best ways to use social media and measure their impact, two recent political experiments with Twitter offer some insights.

How Wells Fargo Tracks Twitter Interactions

Kimarie shares how Wells Fargo uses Twitter to improve customer support. You’ll also discover how she documents Twitter interactions to monitor customer sentiment and uses the data to develop a business case for social media investment.

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Posted in Social Media Analytics, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Metrics, Social Media ROI, Top Stories, Twitter ROI | View Comments

Has Twitter Still Got IT?

Posted in Social Media Analytics, Twitter Marketing, Twitter ROI by Kim Cole on July 19th, 2011
 

With Google + recently added to the social media fray is Twitter going to fall out of favor?  I really don’t think so.  Have you noticed that Twitter reaches many aspects of our daily lives?  Popular TV programs like Survivor and Grey’s Anatomy incorporate live Twitter chats when their shows air.  Even the Simpson’s mention Tweeting in several of the more recent episodes.  Most of the big retailers have the Twitter Follow button  and there are songs that include Twitter in their lyrics.  Heck, there’s even a whole song about being on Twitter called (what else?), The Twitter Song by Gabe Bondoc.   In fact, Edison Research tells us that 92 % of American’s are familiar with Twitter.

So for now, at least, Twitter has become intertwined in our lives.    Twitter had 600K new sign-ups just last week on its 5th birthday, and with 350 billion tweets a day (Google + only delivers about 1 billion items a day) it’s hard to ignore Twitter.

So what does this mean for businesses today?  You need to continue to include Twitter as part of the marketing strategy.  I think sometimes Twitter is over looked.  But with 20 million active Twitter users, you can have a very powerful voice.  

Optimizing your message will strengthen your brand and improve your ROI.  I was reading the Social Examiner today and they reported on some new research that shows Twitter brings new leads to your website.  In fact, businesses with over 1,000 followers saw 6 times more website traffic than businesses with 25 or fewer followers and 5 times as many leads.

It’s hard to stay active in all the social media channels today, but the evidence shows that Twitter definitely pays dividends.  Twitter is one of the major venues in social media and missing the opportunities that Twitter offers could cost you valuable website traffic and leads.

We’d love to hear if you’re using Twitter, and any success stories you can share!  If you’re looking for ways to optimize your Twitter marketing, click here for more information.

Thanks for reading!

@KimberlyACole

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Posted in Social Media Analytics, Twitter Marketing, Twitter ROI | View Comments

Does Social CRM Really Matter? A Quick Look at Yesterday’s IBM Infoboom Twitter Chat

Posted in Social CRM, Social Media ROI, Twitter Marketing, Twitter ROI, Uncategorized by Kristen Johnson on June 22nd, 2011
 

The June 21, 2011 IMB Infoboom, featuring Chris Selland, our VP of Sales & Marketing here at Terametric, focused on the importance of Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM). The chat began by defining SCRM and differentiating it from traditional CRM, which is a term that has been around for many years. There is a lot of controversy over what exactly the topic of SCRM is comprised of.

SCRM is different because it includes an additional “social” component that deals with direct customer interactions involving details about their social circles to help provide further insights that yield additional business value. Chris defines Social CRM as simply, “the intersection of where your CRM strategy intersects with your Social strategy.”  It involves the ability to interact with your social customers to achieve success, which derives from the ability to “go where your customers are, [and] understand their needs.”

Chris shares his knowledge of best practices for success with SCRM. Here is a quick overview of some of the key points that were made:

  • Go where your customers are, understand their needs.
  • When it comes to achieving success, focus on metrics that are both customer-related and measurable, such as loyalty, profitability, retention and satisfaction.
  • The integration of social technologies with your CRM platform and customer data is necessary.
  • By focusing on these customer-related metrics, continued testing and measuring is imperative so that you can continue to enhance your social strategy over time.
  • When it comes to “selling” a customer, listen and understand a customer’s problem, interact, and respond – that’s ’selling’ – and there’s no reason that shouldn’t be part of social strategy
  • The “S” in SCRM will probably go away eventually and the ‘Social’ will become part of the core CRM because social is already simply part of the fabric for how we work with customers

…and that is just the beginning! If you missed the Twitter chat yesterday, don’t fret, you can get caught up on ALL the action by reviewing the full transcript here: Does Social CRM Really Matter?

If you enjoyed this chat, then please join us next Tuesday, June 28th at 1PM EST for our first very own #TwitterROI Twitter Chat featuring Kevin Palmer, Senior Director of Online Marketing for the Clymb. We will be focusing on the Drivers of Twitter ROI. RSVP today! We hope to see you there!!!

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Posted in Social CRM, Social Media ROI, Twitter Marketing, Twitter ROI, Uncategorized | View Comments

Chris Selland Says Terametric is the Next Big Thing

Posted in Social Media Metrics, Strategy and Analysis, Twitter ROI, Wendy Troupe's Perspectives by Wendy Troupe on April 4th, 2011
 

According to Chris Selland, Terametric is the “next big thing.”  Who’s Chris Selland?  He just joined Terametric as Vice President of Sales and Marketing.  I sat down with Chris for a Q&A on Twitter marketing, Twitter metrics, and yes, why Terametric – and why you should care.

WT: What’s your interest in Twitter?

CS: I’m a huge advocate of social networking in general and Twitter in particular.  As witnessed by the events of these past few months, Twitter has had a massive impact on not just the world of business but the world beyond.  Yet, I am firmly convinced we are only at the leading edge of that transformation.

WT: What is the biggest challenge people have with Twitter today?

CS: Despite Twitter’s massive growth and promise, using it effectively and in a manner that provides measurable business value remains a significant challenge for many organizations. As  former Forrester analyst Augie Ray said in a post entitled, ‘The Next Big Thing is…’ this past week:

Just as SAP and Rackspace did for the Web, the hot companies of the next decade will be the ones that make social media manageable for the enterprise.

WT: Social media tools are hot.  The marketing is emerging quickly and it’s getting quite loud.  What’s does Terametric bring that’s different from what’s available today?

CS: Harnessing Twitter’s growth and potential – and making it manageable – requires organizations to extract & analyze fast-moving and highly-relevant information from the Twitter stream – and to then develop and deploy proactive strategies to leverage that information into action. This is exactly what Terametric’s Optimizer for Twitter platform is designed to provide.

WT:  Tell us a little about yourself.

CS: I’m a technology business development and marketing executive with deep domain expertise in the areas of alliance strategies, corporate development/M&A, content and CRM strategy.  I spent many years as a technology industry analyst at the Yankee Group, Reservoir Partners, and Aberdeen Group.  In addition to my role with Terametric, I’m a Focus research expert in the areas of sales, marketing and customer service.  I frequently blog at SiliconANGLE and StockTwitsTech.

WT:  Chris, welcome aboard!  Things are going to get exciting!

– Wendy

@wendytroupe
@terametric

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Posted in Social Media Metrics, Strategy and Analysis, Twitter ROI, Wendy Troupe's Perspectives | View Comments

Gaining Influence Through Twitter

Posted in Social Media Analytics, Social Media ROI, Twitter ROI by Kim Cole on March 16th, 2011
 

At Terametric, we’re all about the ROI of social media, as you probably know if you follow us on Twitter.  As experts in social media analytics, we’re constantly engaged in the conversations that center around social media ROI. 

This week MarketingProfs posted a great blog focused on Global Fortune 100 companies [FG100] and social media. It reports on research that finds Twitter is the emerging leader of social platforms among the world’s largest corporations.  In fact, 77% of the FG100 companies have a Twitter account, while 61% have a Facebook page, according to a report by Burson-Marsteller. 

 

And these larger companies are starting to understand that Twitter is a great platform to interact with people, rather than simply broadcasting messages as we do in more traditional marketing media.

These conversations are at the heart of the ROI of social media, and a steppingstone to build your brand’s influence through evangelists, and ultimately result in solid return on the time invested in Social Media.

Case in point: Both my personal Twitter feed (@kimberlyacole) and Terametric’s (@terametric) feed focus strongly on measuring ROI. Our tweets caught the attention of Keith Dawson, Senior Editor, The CMO Site.  Since Keith is also focused on sharing best practices for The CMO Site, he contacted me and we chatted. Our chat resulted in his blog post entitled “Emerging Tools Look to Measure ROI” where he talks about our passion for measuring ROI.

These connections take time and effort, but they are really exciting when they develop and help to build your brand’s influence.  And as your brand gains momentum, you will see positive ROI.

Please connect with us on Twitter and share your stories on how you’ve gained influence and ROI through Social Media, I’d love to hear them! ~ Kim

@KimberlyACole

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Posted in Social Media Analytics, Social Media ROI, Twitter ROI | View Comments

Twitter measurement tools: Can we get serious? Like really serious?

Posted in Twitter ROI by Taariq Lewis on February 1st, 2011
 

It’s time to take the gloves off and get very real about what it takes to execute quality Social Media metrics that is actionable and usable for marketing, advertising, and public relations executive struggling to understand and optimize the impact of their owned media performance.

Aren’t you tired of talking about the mysterious “score” that everyone knows, but no one truly understands? Unfortunately, most social media metrics tools are black boxes. Neither you nor I can tell exactly how they work to determine Twitter marketing and other Social Media ROI or effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. I argue that this unclear approach to measurement is not only unscientific, because it’s untestable, but it’s worth much less than advertised. As such, I’m putting a challenge down to all the Social Media metric firms. Come clean and come open! Why should your customers be left in the dark?

A simple way to measure the quality of your Twitter measurement and analytics tool is to ask this question: When measuring Twitter marketing effectiveness, does your current Social Media measurement tool capture all the tweeting activity of all your Twitter followers and all your competitors and their followers? If it does capture follower activity, how much activity will it measure? Is the sample size scientifically robust?

Below is a simple table from a Terametric Optimizer for Twitter extraction of a sample Small, Medium, Business (SMB’s) company Twitter Handles and the number of data points needed to calculate a baseline measurement of Twitter influence and marketing impact during a marketing campaign.

The table below consists of the Twitter universe of a successful services company. It has 3 Twitter handles and 3 of the company’s biggest competitors.

If our marketing manager is measuring the effectiveness of her campaign, she needs to track the following in real-time:

1) The impact of her tweeting campaign across her community of Twitter followers and her friends on Twitter.

2) The impact of her competitor tweets across their community of Twitter followers and their friends during her campaign.

Why? Well, who cares if she tweets just to her friends and customers in a highly competitive market where your competitors are gaining your customer attention as well? How scientific is that? I mean, really? Our marketing manager needs to know how well she is doing, daily, and how well her industry is doing to influence her market. Is your Twitter measurement product only asking you for you for just your Twitter handle or only one Twitter handler at a time? Do you see how incomplete your Twitter marketing picture is and how you’re paying for that tool in precious time and budget, as well?

To collect the full and holistic view of her Twitter marketing campaign and industry, our marketing manager needs to analyze no less than 51,000 tweets, measured across 34,112 handles, each day for the period of her campaign. Why? Because she wants a robust measurement of her activity and the most robust population sample of her industry. She wants as complete and as scientific an approach as possible. She also wants to know how her competitors are winning clicks and RTs so she can take advantage of their best practices to increase her conversions and marketing ROI. She’s serious. Really.

Are you still plugging away one Twitter handle at a time into your favorite Twitter measurement tool? Does your tool vendor actually come clean and tell you how they make their measurements or are you supposed to just trust that their dataset is sufficient? Share with us what’s missing and how Twitter measurement tools need to be better for you, today. Or better, why don’t you register for a limited-invite, Free Trial, today?

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