I read with interest Michael’s Stelzner’s recent global survey[1] on how marketers are using social media and it’s clear that a lot can happen in the twelve months since his 2010 survey. I’m noticing that as the number of seminars and webinars on social media proliferate, businesses are starting to realise the benefits of social media. The survey shows how marketers[2] are finding use of social media has improved search engine rankings, web traffic and subscribers and what struck me was the 77% of marketers planning to increase their use of video.

 

I’m of the firm belief that social media is culture changing[3], so how will the rise of video in business change things? If any of you were at the London Barclays Next Steps to Boosting Business Online seminar last week you will have watched Josh Spear sharing the P.Diddy YouTube video which had to taken down. The learning was that there is a certain culture to the use of You Tube and if you disobey the rules you can end up being parodied. This happened when YouTube user Lisa Nova created her own version of the P.Diddy video[4] and has now become a US comedy star with 1.9 million views of her YouTube video.  

 

So what are the pitfalls and bear traps to watch out for? Sounds obvious but don’t put anything in your video that overstates what you do as someone will catch you out and post a comment that might embarrass or do a “Lisa Nova!” Think carefully about the needs of your target audience and don’t get too product centric. A colleague recently sent me a video he had prepared which spoke about all the features of their product but not enough about the applications and benefits it could have for certain key customers. The more you relate the video to your customers’ specific needs and their industry, the better. Humour is a great entertainer and some people enjoy video where they can interact. If you’re not one of the 16million viewers that have seen the “Shoot the bear video”[5] watch it now as it shows how brands like Tippex used video to interact with their customers.

 

If your remember the old adage that a picture speaks a thousand words well a video speaks even more and as Malcolm Gladwell points out in his book Blink[6] we often make a decision about someone within the first few seconds of meeting them. As we all know human chemistry is important and video can help to capture some of that chemistry and can be used to great effect and save recruiters and those seeking the right business partners a lot of time. Video is also a great way to demonstrate your service or skills. You can now feature video in your Linkedin personal and company profiles to make them stand out from your competitors.

 

Many people are now realising that having a good ranking on Linkedin for keywords is as important as on Google and other search engines as this channel now attracts more than 100 million users. Equally for those in the travel industry your ranking on third party sites such as Trip Advisor is really important and video can help to differentiate your property or business from your competitors.

 

Having your customers do the video for you is the ultimate in word of mouth marketing as it is so much more trusted. The more we hear their words the more we trust. So if you have a bit of time over the holidays have a good think about the type of video that could add value to your customers and help your target audiences to better understand what you do. Think about any pain points that they have and how video could make life so much easier. If you do a trawl of YouTube you may already find videos to address those pain points as I recently discovered when trying to figure out how to put the sim card in my new iphone. I found a very useful video with more than 250,000 views from others who were equally puzzled about how to do it.

 

I mentioned in my recent blog some of the Google Panda update changes in the US which were rolled out globally on the 11^th April[7] and are already affecting UK sites so it’s worth checking your analytics to see if your site has changed its Google rankings. There have been some major winners and losers and you can see the impacts in the Accuracast news site[8] dated 19 April 2011. It shows that article sites, price comparison and business directories have been most adversely affected and any sites that have dropped from page 1 or 2 of Google will see major changes in traffic, given that many users do not click on other pages.

 

Do share how you get on with your analytics and what you learn by using video in your business and if it changes your company culture.

 

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For some time I have been musing over why so many people are afraid of social media and why it sometimes takes a while to get clients to agree to proceed with a social media plan. I think those companies that are still dithering about whether to dip their toe into the water would do best to first set up some monitoring of the conversations that are already happening about their brand or industry. There are plenty of tools out there that can help you with this and they vary in cost from the free Google Alerts tool to the more costly solutions from the likes of Viral Heat or Radian6 available on a monthly plan or Scoutlabs and Meltwater to name but a few which charge on an annual basis.

 

The most important thing is to get started on your social media planning and if you think you’ll never find the time to do it then find someone that can help you. I met with a colleague recently who runs her own business and realised that she is too busy working “in” and not “on” her business. Pearls of wisdom from Tim Ferriss[1] and Michael Gerber[2] could help her with that challenge. She is unlikely to free herself up to take the first important steps any time soon. However I reckon that she will eventually look back and wonder why she spent so much time answering enquiries when she could have enabled all her customers to help each other and see her responses - if she had used social media.

 

I was talking to the owner of another business recently who was telling me how he set his marketing person to set up their Facebook and Twitter pages but when they were launched they did not attract any traffic so they quickly dispensed with their marketing person.

 

So what do all these stories share in common? The key thing to note is that using social media has to fit with your overall business objectives and it will shape the way for the new world order which is coming your way. Doing nothing is not an option unless you want your competitors to be much further on the learning curve. I hasten to add that you should not launch a social channel just because your competitors have one.

 

Already we have seen the raft of group buying sites like Groupon and Living Social which are galvinising consumers to group together to garner the best deals. This has even started to affect the car industry as groups gather together to negotiate sizeable vehicle discounts. Social media gives consumers a powerful, collective voice which cannot be ignored. Hotel groups ignore poor customer ratings on review sites such as Trip Advisor at their peril.

 

Engagement is the magic word which needs to drive our future communications plans with our key audiences. Unfortunately some PR companies are playing at doing social media with disastrous consequences. I have witnessed Facebook pages which either blatently promote the PR company that developed them or were launched as a marketing campaign which wither and quickly die as the initial hoopla on launch dissipates. Many of these sites fail to grasp the real meaning of social media as a channel for two way conversations and become ghost towns or a one way diatribe of press releases and sales messages, posted in quick, boring succession.

 

So how do we grow the “social” culture which will enable our social channels to flourish and bloom? Here are some quick pointers:

 

1. Firstly we need to make sure we find the right skills to engage our key audiences. This means more listening and often we’ll find those skills in our customer service teams.

 

2. Secondly it means thinking hard about things we can do for our customers and audiences that will add value to their lives – this means finding those that can write engaging copy to involve them.

 

3. Thirdly we need to start with a core team that understands social media and is not afraid to use it. Find the enthusiasts and let them show the rest of the core team how to use these channels. You cannot launch Facebook if your company bans all employees from using it.

 

4. Fourthly take a hard look at your customer service culture in your company and address its weak spots before launching social media. If your service desk is shrouded in secrecy and takes a month to get a response to a customer complaint – look at fixing your response times as part of your social media planning.

 

Social media makes many things about your business transparent and unless you are ready to respond openly to scrutiny of your operations, it’s best to get the building blocks in place first so you know how social media posts will change your core processes.

 

Social media is an excellent way to get very quick customer feedback on how you are doing and how you can improve. If this feedback is embraced and acted upon, it can be invaluable. However your company culture has to integrate your social channels into your operations or your efforts will mirror the Twitter and Facebook graveyards I’ve already alluded to. 

 

 

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Some of you may already be aware that there is a fundamental shift about to happen in the UK in the way that Google is going to be ranking websites in the future. It’s known as the “Farmer” or “Panda” update as it is targeting low quality websites called “content farms”. Google’s engineers did a recent Wired[1] interview about it as it could have a big impact on how your website is ranked in the search engines if it suffers from any of the issues shown below.

 

These Google changes have already been rolled out in the US (since 24 February, 2011) where some websites have seen traffic fall by half. It has affected about 12% of search results with low value content. This useful report from Wordtracker[2] shows what you can do to see if your site will be affected when it comes to the US. Google are saying that you should let them know if your site has high quality content but has still been affected. To summarise the key things to check are:

 

-         if your site has copied content from other sites,

-         high bounce rates,

-         adverts that are not relevant to keywords used

-         low % of return visitors

-         low visit times

-         over use of any key search terms.

 

These are things that we should be checking anyway on Google Analytics and other monitoring tools but shows how quality content is going to be king and that those companies that have not started their social media roll out plans are those most likely to be overtaken in natural search by those that have. The numbers of fans and followers and popular ranking of your content is going to be become more important as readers want these indicators to guide them to the best quality content. We have seen a recent massive explosion in user generated content and rankings from readers help us to make more sense of it.

 

Those sites that have implemented “social sign ins” where the web visitor has been invited to “like” or “tweet” something on their web page is going to be more important. Those US companies that have embraced social as a way of business such as www.zappos.com and others are the ones that have seen the most meteoric growth in retail sectors such as clothing and shoes by integrating “like” and “tweet” into every product in their shopping carts. It’s interesting that they come top in the natural search rankings whereas many other similar brands are paying for their adverts in Google. Over time this will make a big difference to your bottom line and provide a real competitive advantage.

 

I’ve blogged recently about the recent influx of sites such as Klout, PeerIndex and Quora that are all about scoring the “influence” of individuals and companies on the internet. Quora is a Q&A site which is perfect for those individuals that want to showcase their knowledge and raise their online profile. It’s a kind of “rarified Wikipedia for early adopters”. I can see more of these type of sites developing social graphs and looking at how this might help with the creation of powerful virtual buying groups. Already Google has enabled users to add a Quora profile to their Google Profile which can already help your natural search engine rankings.

 

The most well known of business networking sites such as Linkedin are now adding more applications to their platform to improve user’s understanding of how key individuals are connected to help them. This helps to win new opportunities and can boost our word of mouth marketing. I recently received unprompted a few work opportunities and a link showing me where there was a connection to that company in my network which is very powerful.

 

Check your site carefully to make sure you have minimised the danger of the Google changes coming soon and take a hard look at your content plans and engagement with your key audiences. I keep harping on about engagement and good content but they are now even more likely than ever to influence the future online success of your business.

 

 

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