Social media in its truest form is word-of-mouth communication – people influencing others within their social sphere and sharing experiences about companies and brands. With social spheres now numbering in the thousands, social media is a communication stream CEOs cannot ignore. It is a fundamental change in the way people communicate, so like it or not, it is essential that companies learn to use this powerful voice as a business driver and brand reputation builder.

Four years ago, at the beginning of the social media frenzy, in a large lecture hall at Ohio University, a professor challenged all first-year journalism students to turn off their electronic lives for 24-hours. The room filled with gasps, rants and whispers: “How am I going to meet up with my friends?” “How am I going to check my e-mail?” “Wait. No computer, cell phone, television or music? What am I suppose to do in the mean time?”

You might think this is hilarious or catastrophic. Every student in the classroom was speechless and believed it was against the university policy. The professor challenged the students to focus on their coursework, develop relationships with their peers and read books.

For 24-hours students challenged themselves to avoid on-line distractions while doing their homework. Ah the life of a student, so difficult without electronics… but can you imagine your job without electronics today? What about doing your job today as it was 20-years ago?

For starters let’s think about what we have: e-mail, fast computers, media databases, Twitter, Facebook, and Wi-Fi. We’re living in a digital revolution. Compare that to 20-years ago when the internet and e-mail wasn’t available.

Working in a media related field was difficult. To send out a press release, it had to be mailed. Gathering contacts for a client required a phone book and a large rolodex. To edit film, stations used non-linear editing booths (although, to be fair, some stations still use it today). To type a document, dust off the typewriter and don’t mess up.

Work was clearly done differently before the advent of the internet and Web. 2.0 applications. Now we can use Twitter and other social media sites to pitch releases or use blogs to communicate with our audiences. Facebook and websites are now used as on-line storefronts selling products directly to consumers.

Digital media started a revolution and took our careers and lifestyle to a whole new level. Schools aren’t teaching the same basics anymore. Many classes are focused around the Internet; others on social media. The digital revolution changed the way we work and created new job opportunities.

How has your field of work changed over the past 20 years? We’d love to hear from you and even help get you moving in the digital revolution as well.

Investing time and money in social media marketing is hard to justify especially if you’re concerned about ROI. Social media, as part of your overall marketing efforts, can help increase awareness and recognition for your company, decrease customer service costs, increase sales, and make your company more credible in the eyes of your customers.

Regardless of the benefits, unless you see improved ROI, it may be difficult to justify dollars and time spent on social media. Calculating ROI on social media can be as simple as tracking visitors, bounce rates, and number of fans. Or if you’ve been involved with social media for awhile and have grasped a good understanding of your customer base, you can track changes in sales and costs involved with customer service.

Before you can begin evaluating whether or not your social media efforts are effective, you need to make sure you’re using the right tools. If most of your customers are using Linked In and you’re using Twitter instead, tracking user data and sales changes will be useless for your company.

Establishing measurable goals using the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely) method is the first step in measuring the effectiveness of social media. Using the SMART method will ensure that you are setting the right goals and guarantee you can measure them. It’s also beneficial to make sure your goals will match a measurable outcome and you know what data you will use to measure those goals.

If you have a well-defined social media strategy and measurable objectives, you will be able to gather data on your users and measure KPIs. Data such as number of fans or followers, website visitors, click-throughs, retweets, bookmarks, likes, comments, time spent on landing pages and the like will provide useful demographic information about your visitors. Overtime, you’ll not only have more information about your customers, but have a better understanding of their level of engagement and the depth of their visit. This information will allow you to establish better customer service programs and/or sales programs, develop more effective landing pages, push products that better meet your target customers’ needs, and qualify leads.

Eventually the data you gather will allow you to determine if there is a corollary in sales or business expenditures. Although you can start mining data immediately, it’s best to wait till your social media efforts are more mature before you start calculating ROI. Before you start out in social media, make sure you have baseline data on sales and costs involved with customer service data, assuming that is the information you will use to calculate your ROI. After a six to 12 month period, you can overlay this information with current sales and support costs to determine ROI.
Results in social media will vary from company to company as each organization will have an entirely different set of goals. To be successful in social media and see an ROI, you need to make sure you’ve established measurable goals specific to your company. Comparing the results of your social media efforts to another company will not prove to be beneficial and will provide you with no real results. If you’re not seeing results after a year, it’s probably time to rethink your social media strategy. The data you’ve gathered in the meantime will allow you to improve your efforts in social media.

You don’t have to read too many text messages, Twitter or Facebook updates to see why many people blame social media for the decline in people’s writing skills. Does spelling and grammar matter on the Internet?

Many people in our industry will say “yes” if not argue that social media can teach you how to be a better writer.

Twitter and Social Media Sites

On Twitter, you’re given 140 characters to spit out a message. This means you have to be brief, succinct and get right to the point. With today’s short attention spans, writers need to cut out the fluff, be brief and get straight to the point. Twitter allows you to do this. It’s also a fun way to play with words to ensure you’re writing your message clearly and succinctly. What if your message can’t fit within the 140-character limit? Don’t worry, it’s OK to use abbreviations, acronyms and shortened words in order to get your message across. In the world of social networking it’s OK. However, for college essays, newsletters, and resumes, for example, it’s not OK.

Beyond Social Media

Sloppy writing can be detrimental to your reputation and your personal brand. Regardless of whether you are on social media sites, writing business plans, e-mails, articles or personal blog posts, it’s important to make sure your spelling and grammar are accurate. Avoid using abbreviations and shortened words as if you were writing a quick text message. Good writing skills will always matter and we need to be conscious of it whenever we are communicating through formal or informal communication.

Try to test your grammar in the following sentences:

1. Dropping 5 percent in the third quarter, our gross revenues are in trouble, according to the CEO.
2. Just between you and me, this new design is a marketing nightmare
3. None of the reports is ready to be mailed.

Answers:

1. What dropped? The CEO? No, gross revenues. When a sentence starts with an “ing” word, it should refer to the subject of the sentence.
2. Between is a preposition. It takes the objective case. Just as you would say between us, not between we, you should also, by the same logic, say between you and me.
3. Because the word “none” is singular, the verb “is” must also be singular.

The first in a series of Marketing Prose podcasts: Does Social Media Have a Place in Your Business?

Does Social Media Have a Place in Your Business?

It is not easy to know the best way to integrate social media into your marketing strategy, or if it is right for you. According to a recent report from Forbes, more than half of executives under 40 are actively engaged in social media. In addition, another study released by Forrester Research indicated 91 percent of B2B decision makers are taking part in social media. Does social media have a place in your business?

Over the last year, corporate America has proven that social media isn’t just for teenagers. More and more professionals and businesses are finding new ways of using social media tools and understanding the online conversation.

Social media is hitting a tipping point of mass-adoption. It is a global change that is occurring with the emergence of $300 desktop computers, free access to high-speed Internet and the explosion of mobile technology.

From twitter and Facebook to Digg and del.icio.us, companies of all sizes and industries are quickly realizing the value of social media. While it is easy to jump in and join the party, a social media strategy must be clearly defined to align and integrate with other marketing campaigns and platforms. Like any marketing campaign, determining goals and objectives upfront will ensure the greatest ROI/ROO. While there are many potential benefits to using social media—from enhanced customer service and creating affinity to driving Web site traffic and tracking competitive awareness—it is important to incorporate your social media campaign with your overall marketing strategy.

Social media is about dialogue—a conversation of sorts. It is important to first find the audience most relevant to your company and listen to the conversations that are taking place before you begin to participate in the conversation. Equally as important is ensuring your social media message and tone are aligned with your brand.

A brief overview of three of the most popular social media networks for small business:

LinkedIn

More than 30 million people use LinkedIn today. The site is widely-regarded as one of the more well-known social networking platforms for white-collar professionals. LinkedIn is a great place to fi nd leads and contacts and is an especially useful tool for business-to-business marketing.

Twitter

Users are continuing to flock to this microblogging site to answer the question, “What are you doing?” in just 140 characters. Twitter is a great platform for sharing quick bursts of company or industry information and to listen to customers, among other benefits.

Facebook

Overall, 45% of Facebook’s 45.3 million active users in the US are now 26 years old or older and nearly a quarter of all Facebook users are over 35—quite a change from Facebook’s roots as a social networking tool for college students just a few years ago! Facebook can allow your customers to connect with your product on a personal level and can even allow a customer.