Social Media Assessment Workbook

2011 edition
www.vocus.com/social-media-strategy

Social Media Assessment Workbook

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Success in social media doesnt come by chance and it certainly doesnt come over night. It all starts with a plan; and the Vocus Social Media Tool will help you formulate the perfect one. Start with this worksheet. Work through it and identify your goals, find out where your organization currently sits on the social media spectrum, and learn the challenges youll have to overcome and tactics youll have to employ to achieve your objectives and experience consistent success in social media.

Social Media Assessment Workbook

STEP 1
What Do You Want To Accomplish
The first step to any strategic plan is defining specific objectives for what you want to achieve. Defining measureable and targeted objectives is also the only way to win over the social marketing skeptics who control the budget. The best way to accomplish this is to align objectives with metrics traceable back to financials such as ROI and sales conversions. Later in this workbook, you will align these objectives with target audiences and corresponding metrics. This alignment is important because it enables an organization to measure its progress in achieving the objectives and proving ROI whenever practical. Seemingly obvious, this step is often overlooked.

Source: 2011 MarketingSherpa Social Marketing Benchmark Survey

Social Media Assessment Workbook

STEP 1
Part 1: How You Ranked Your Objectives

Social Media Assessment Workbook

STEP 1
Part 2: Good to Know
Winning financial support for social marketing is no different than winning support for any other business initiative you have to prove its value to the organization. Chart: How organizations perceive social media marketing at budget time

Considering that social marketing is at a very early stage in its lifecycle, its outstanding that it received a 7% confidence rating indicating it produces measurable ROI and should be funded liberally. Conservative budget increases by half of all organizations at budget time, based on the promise that social media will eventually produce ROI, demonstrate another vote of confidence in the tactic for the longer term. The 17% of organizations who still believe social media marketing is basically free and should stay that way are destined to get what they pay for.

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STEP 2
Determine Where You Are In the Social Media Lifecycle
1. How often do you gather research about your target audiences, social media use and competition? Sometimes, but not regularly.

2. Do you have a process for defining your social media goals and aligning them with your target audiences and measurement strategies? Um, what?

3. Do you have a process for creating social marketing strategies with a tactical plan of action? No, but I think about doing it.

4. Do you select platforms that fit within social marketing architecture and tactics? What's a "platform"?

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STEP 2
Part 1: See How You Compare
See how you compare with others who took part in the MarketingSherpa survey.

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STEP 3
Understand & Rank Challenges
Knowing the challenges you are likely to face when developing a social media strategy can help your prioritize. Here is how you ranked your challenges.

IMPROVING BRAND AWARENESS OR REPUTATION

INCREASING WEBSITE TRAFFIC THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA INTEGRATION

ACHIEVING OR INCREASING MEASURABLE LEAD GENERATION FROM SOCIAL MARKETING

CONVERTING SOCIAL MEDIA MEMBERS, FOLLOWERS, ETC. INTO PAYING CUSTOMERS

DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE AND METHODICAL SOCIAL MARKETING STRATEGY

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STEP 3
Part 2: How You Stack Up
Here are the challenges you and your peers reported.

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STEP 3
Part 3: Some Things To Consider When Looking At Your Challenges
Why arent audiences engaging? Are you using social media channels for push marketing/PR? Are you sharing information that isnt timely or relevant?

Why cant you convert fans? Are you selling a commodity or an experience?

Why do you have an ineffective social media strategy? Have you completed audience research? Do you understand how your market uses social media channels? Have you tried to align your social media planning with organizational goals and objectives? Why cant you measure ROI? Did you set up proper metrics for each tactic and/or campaign? Do you have analytics set up properly?

Why are you struggling to get budget for social media? Have you educated management internally? Have outside resources been brought in for educational purposes? Are there perceived risk challenges that can be addressed?

Why cant you find solid social media practitioners? Is there a perception that social media is for kids? Are you hiring people who dont have a solid PR or business background?

Why is your management resistant to sharing information online? Have you developed social media policies? Has key management and personnel been trained in social media best practices?

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STEP 4
Monitoring Target Audiences and Ranking by Social Media Behavior
A huge part of a successful social media strategy is doing the research up front to determine who to monitor, and understand their role within the industry and social media space. Continuing to monitor your target audiences will help you gain a better understanding of the audiences in your social space, and what they are saying about your company, brands and competition. Monitoring will help you establish more defined metrics that are aligned to your public.

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STEP 4
Part 1: What To Monitor A Sample and A Worksheet
Start by creating an inventory of the details, keywords, and people you should be monitoring in the following categories. A sample is below.

Sample
WHAT EX: Industry Experts DETAILS Marketing Social Media PR KEYWORDS /PHRASES Social Media Online Marketing Public Relations Community Relations Earned Marketing Content Marketing Word-of-Mouth Marketing SEO PEOPLE TO WATCH David Meerman Scott Brian Solis Deirdre Breakenridge Scott Stratten Lee Odden Ann Handley Beth Harte

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STEP 4
Part 2: Worksheet
Fill in the following worksheet with the details about the people/groups you are trying to reach, and the topics that interest them.

WHAT

DETAILS

KEYWORDS / PHRASES

PEOPLE TO WATCH

Industry Sectors

Technologies

Companies

Brands

Products

Services

Key issues

Industry experts

Key employees

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STEP 4
Part 3: Good to Know! What to Look for When Monitoring
Social Voice (or strength) Determining the likelihood that your brand or search phrase is being discussed, based on a comparison of how often mentions are made. Sentiment Determining the amount of positive, neutral and negative commentary about your brand or search phrase, or the ratio of positive to negative mentions. Passion A measure of fewer individuals mentioning your brand or search phrase more often as opposed to more individuals mentioning your brand or search phrase fewer times. Unique Authors Number of unique individuals mentioning your brand or search phrase. Social Reach A measure of unique authors divided by the total number of mentions. Top Users Identification and ranking of authors most frequently mentioning your brand or search phrase. Top Keywords Ranking of the keywords used most frequently in searches linking to your brand or search phrase mentions. Content downloads An indicator of subject matter interest, engagement and relevancy. Content sharing How often content is being shared is another key indicator of subject matter interest, engagement and relevancy. Reviews and Recommendations The level of positive, negative or neutral reviews about your brand, products or services is a strong indicator of individual opinion as well as an identifier of potential brand ambassadors.

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Platform Preferences Identifying which social media sites your prospects and customers prefer to use, and how they use them, will tell you which social media platforms to deploy. For example, will the primary social network for your technical prospects be a LinkedIn group or a Facebook brand page? Or does this audience prefer to participate in a privately-branded forum or discussion group?

Audience Segments Segmenting groups and individuals by their social media behavior and influence will help you determine content types and topics most relevant to targeted segments. More on how to segment target audiences appears in a later section.

Source: 2010 MarketingSherpa Social Marketing Benchmark Survey

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STEP 4
Part 4: Vocus Can Help
Vocus can help you reach and influence more buyers across social networks, online and through the media. To show how Vocus software works, we have analyzed news, blog and social media coverage of a major airline company during a strike.

1. Determine who is saying what and where they are saying it

Lets look at the news results, blog coverage and social conversation summaries for our airline. Based on these word clouds, journalists were talking about the impact that the strike had on unions. Bloggers, however, didnt discuss the strike, and across social networks the strike was not particularly prominent. All this data provides an excellent outline on how to address each audience based on what they are interested in.

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2. Find influencers

In our airline example, we see in the pie chart that Twitter is the biggest communication channel for this company at this time (and the channel that was least concerned about the strike). We can also see that Social Forums (blogs, industry forums) are a very active communication channel. These detailed charts highlight which channels are getting the most traffic. Drill down, and you can pinpoint individual tweeters and bloggers to see who you need to follow, engage and watch.

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3. Understand Tone

Not only do you get insight into whos talking, what they are saying and where they are saying it, but Vocus also provides a quick snapshot of tone positive, negative and neutral. This is a far better indicator of how you are achieving brand awareness, customer satisfaction and sales goals.

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4. Segment and Prioritize

Vocus helps you really narrow in on your audiences. And sometimes you may learn things you didnt realize. For example, this company can now see that their main contributors of positive and negative content are employees (blue bar). They can also see from the pie charts that traditional media is still keeping watch on their industry.

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5. Track

You can track influencers and media to get a detailed history of how they have talked about your company in the past. This screen shot shows the contact information of a journalist and all the stories/tweets he wrote about the company.

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6. Engage

Vocus lets you engage influencers right from your console. Need to tweet to an individual? You can. Need to send an email to a journalist? Weve got you covered. Our record media database of 1.4 million journalists, editors and bloggers includes contact information and editorial opportunities of almost everyone in the business and is kept up to date by a team of researchers (most of whom were reporters themselves).

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7. Activate

Too often with social media, companies do not interact or engage with their audiences. Vocus offers a suite of Facebook applications that allows you to solicit donations, sell services, provide coupons and promotions, showcase services and engage right within your Facebook page.

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STEP 4
Part 5: Segmenting Your Audience
One of the primary benefits of social media for marketing purposes is the viral effect exponentially increasing the reach of the message beyond your immediate audience through conversation and content sharing. Understanding how different segments of your target audience use social media will help you determine the audiences to target and the content most likely to be shared with friends and peers. This model is an example of an effective, yet simple way to segment target audiences by social behavior and influence. The segments are called the Silent Majority, Vocal Minority and Social Authority.

The Silent Majority and Vocal Minority can be characterized as information downloaders and information uploaders, respectively. These opposing roles are important considerations because, in terms of their impact on friends and peers for marketing purposes, the Silent Majority has little influence while the Vocal Minority has a strong influence. The Social Authority is a different breed that often dominates a niche with extraordinary influence. It deserves a one-to-one relationship approach, just as traditional publicists would approach the editors and subject matter experts in mainstream media.
Source: 2010 MarketingSherpa Social Marketing Benchmark Survey

Social Media Assessment Workbook

Sample
Here is a sample of how a financial services organization segmented its audiences.

BRAND/ PRODUCT/ SERVICE MARKETED Financial Services

KEY TARGET AUDIENCE/SOCIAL INFLUENCE LEVEL

WHERE DO WE FIND THEM?

HOW ARE THEY USING SOCIAL MEDIA? WHAT INTERESTS THEM

Asset Managers / Silent Majority Individual Investors / Vocal Minority Financial Advisors/ Social Authority

Facebook, Twitter (Ex: Vanguard) Facebook, Twitter, Forums, Blogs Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Forums, Blogs

Sharing brand information, Lack of conversation, Subject to regulations

Shares relevant and timely information, Engages in conversation around investing, Etc.

Generates content to drive business & SEO, Shares relevant information from Asset Managers, Etc.

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STEP 4
Part 6: Worksheet
Now its your turn. List your key influencers and targets, where to find them and what their key interests are.

BRAND/ PRODUCT/ SERVICE MARKETED

KEY TARGET AUDIENCE/SOCIAL INFLUENCE LEVEL

WHERE DO WE FIND THEM?

HOW ARE THEY USING SOCIAL MEDIA? WHAT INTERESTS THEM?

Silent Majority

Vocal Minority

Social Authority

Social Media Assessment Workbook

STEP 5
Aligning Objectives and Measurement Part 1: Defining targeted and measureable objectives for social marketing purposes
Defining specific objectives for a social marketing initiative is only half the battle. The other half is aligning these objectives with target audiences and corresponding metrics. This alignment is important because it enables an organization to measure its progress in achieving the objectives and proving ROI. In the previous section, we discussed profiling social media audiences to determine which segments you want to target. Now its time to determine what you specifically want from each of these segments. Do you want to increase the number of Vocal Minority members in your user network? Do you want Social Authority bloggers that are covering your industry to be more aware of your products? The metrics you use to track progress in achieving objectives will depend on your unique business. If your company is driven primarily by B2B leads, your metrics should include lead generation, qualification and nurturing factors resulting in success. If your organization is B2C and eCommerce-driven, then website traffic origination, consumer reviews and sales conversions may be your focus. Metrics related to financial objectives like ROI are the most beneficial, but are not always practical to track. While it may be practical to track the ROI of sales conversions on an eCommerce site, tracking more granular metrics, such as how a blog referred customers to the site and contributed to ROI, will require substantially more effort. It would require mapping the cost of blog traffic to the eCommerce site and the resulting revenue. Balancing what is possible with what matters should be considered.
Source: 2010 MarketingSherpa Social Marketing Benchmark Survey

Social Media Assessment Workbook

Objectives Alignment Worksheet Sample

CATEGORY OBJECTIVEWHAT WE WANT TO DO
Promote our brand Monitor our brand Increase awareness Establish us as leaders Engage in communities

TO ACHIEVE WHAT

BY DOING WHAT

WHO TO REACH

WHERE TO FIND THEM

HOW TO MEASURE

Brand Awareness/ Thought Leadership

Improved brand awareness Increase search engine rankings Increase Web traffic Improve brand or product/ service reputation Improve PR

Delivering needed insights and know-how Providing details about our products/ services Identifying, listening to and engaging

Silent Minority Prospects

Twitter Facebook

Increase downloads by... Increase social voice by Increase placement by... Increase sharing by Increase visitors by.... Improve sentiment by Increase top social users by Improve reviews and recommendations by...

Customer Support/ Customer Advocacy

Provide customer support Create customer advocates Other

Improve customer support quality Reduce customer support costs

Monitoring the community Servicing customers that need help Creating customer service channels and establishing response processes Thanking loyal fans Other

Customers

Sales/Lead Generation

Generate interest at all levels of the sales cycle Lead generation Other

Increase lead generation Reduce customer acquisition costs Increase sales revenue

Use social media channels for sales and promotional campaigns Coupon offerings Other

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STEP 5
Part 2: Worksheet
Now its your turn. Complete the worksheet below to align your objectives with your audiences.

CATEGORY

OBJECTIVEWHAT WE WANT TO DO

TO ACHIEVE WHAT

BY DOING WHAT

WHO TO REACH

WHERE TO FIND THEM

HOW TO MEASURE

Brand Awareness/ Thought Leadership

Customer Support/ Customer Advocacy

Sales/Lead Generation

Social Media Assessment Workbook

STEP 5
Part 3: Metrics that Matter
For this process, we are highlighting the four main social media platforms blogs, microblogs, social networks and multimedia / content sharing sites and the metrics that matter in each. Blogs: In terms of measurement, blogs have the advantage of being able to utilize many of the traditional Web analytics. As with a website, code can simply be added to a blog to track visitor traffic, source, behavior and other metrics. However, there are many social media metrics not applicable to traditional websites that provide a more relevant indication of blogging success: Microblogs: While microblogging refers to the practice of blogging with posts of 140 characters or less, microblogs have more in common with social networks than blogs. Like social networks, the value and focus of microblogs is on the network of friends or followers. Metrics are, therefore, often related to social networking: Followers the number of those opting-in to or following a microblog Downstream followers the number of those following the followers Posts referred to as tweets on the most predominant microblog, Twitter Velocity the growth rate of the follower network in a given period Passion the ratio of number of posts to number of followers Comments tracking both the number and sentiment of opinions shared Subscribers growth trends by email or RSS subscription Conversions depending on your specific definition Inbound links an indicator of blog authority SERPs search engine ranking position for key terms on major search engines Blog Authority blog ranking in relation to similar categories on blog directories

Social Networks: As the name implies, social networks are primarily people-focused. However, businesses have learned to adapt the features of social networks for the purposes of marketing. This trend has not gone unnoticed by networks originally intended for personal use, which have transformed their features into commerciallyviable marketing platforms like Facebook Fan Pages. While metrics are sometimes limited by the data social networks decide to share, there is plenty of tracking-worthy information available, including: Community the number of fans, group members, contacts, etc. Demographics profile information on community members Referrals tracking the click stream from networks to content and conversion hubs Discussions tracking both the number and sentiment of group discussions Applications usage of widgets and social media applications by the network community

Social Media Assessment Workbook

Multimedia Content Sharing Sites: This category covers a number of multimedia sharing sites for video, photography, documents, presentations and audio content. These sites aggregate content and enable you to share it without having to rely on IT via links posted on blogs, social networks, email campaigns and other communication channels. When it comes to content sharing, the metrics that matter most are related to the viral impact of content distribution, including: Views the number of content downloads SERPs search engine ranking position for key terms on major search engines Subscribers the number of those opting-in to the multimedia content stream Referrals tracking the click stream from content to conversion

Source: 2011 MarketingSherpa Social Marketing Benchmark Survey

Social Media Assessment Workbook

STEP 6
Finding the Right Tactics Part 1: Dissecting a successful social marketing architecture
The number of social media sites in your social marketing architecture is not important. What is important is that they each have a clearly defined purpose that supports your tactical plan of action. Many of the most successful social marketing architectures have a common structure based on a hub and spoke design. In a hub and spoke design, the sites at the center of the architecture are destination points for content and conversion. The surrounding sites are for building communities, engaging friends, fans and followers, and directing them into the hub of the architecture to obtain content eventually converting them to a lead or customer. The following is a dissection of a very successful social marketing architecture developed by Cisco Systems for their Collaboration solutions.

Example The hub and spoke architecture for Ciscos Collaboration solutions

2010 MarketingSherpa Social Marketing Benchmark Survey

Social Media Assessment Workbook

STEP 6
Part 2: Worksheet: Constructing your social marketing architecture
Define the purpose of platforms and brands selected and roll-out sequence.

Hub Sites

Purpose of Hub Site

Roll-Out

Spoke Sites

Purpose of Spoke Site

Roll-Out

Note: Your hub site does not have to be a web site, it could be a blog or Facebook page.

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STEP 6
Part 3: Sample Sites to Choose From
Website Blog Microblog Social Network Multimedia Sharing Bookmarking / News Community / Forums Partner / Third Party

Social Media Assessment Workbook

STEP 6
Part 4: Worksheet: Constructing your social marketing architecture
Use this worksheet to create a tactical plan of action. Be realistic. Over-communicating is fine unless you have nothing to say, which may contribute to losing fans/followers.

Q1 Tactic / Task Blogging Resource 1 2 3 4 5 6

Week / Frequency 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Microblogging

Social Networking

Multimedia Content Sharing

OTHER

Social Media Assessment Workbook

Resources
How Audience Research Can Help You with Your Traditional Marketing Efforts Your Social Media Fix: 50 Social Media Podcasts How To Develop a Social Media Strategy: A Roadmap for Integration How to Convert Your Facebook Superfans Into Brand Ambassadors 12 Steps To Hiring A Social Media Manager Social Media Time Management: Resource Allocation Answering the Social Phone How to Answer the Social Phone How to Monitor Your Social Media Presence in 10 Minutes a Day Why You Need to Monitor and Measure Your Brand on Social Media 5 Objectives for Social Media Measurement Social Media Planning & Measurement 8 Social Media Metrics You Should Be Measuring Social Media Metrics Superlist: Measurement, ROI, & Key Statistics Resources 10 business blogging best practices Use microblogging to increase productivity How to use social bookmarking to promote your business Top 10 YouTube tips for small businesses How to use YouTube to drive business Are your business bookmarks del.icio.us?

Social Media Assessment Workbook

Resources
Social Media + Multimedia = Social Multimedia