Social Media in 2014 (without tears or incremental hair loss)

Editor's Notes

• #29: Business in 2014 is about connecting and building relationshipsSocial media has also created the need for customer service teams to get social. More and more consumers are taking to social media to air their grievances instead of calling customer support. In fact, 42% of customers who reach out to brands via social media expect a response in less than 60 minutes.  It’s also been reported, however, that 80% of customer service inquiries posted on social media go unanswered.
• #30: Relationships in real life require listening skills – cocktail party analogy
• #36: You have to be able to visualize the end state to be able to determine if your tactics are getting you where you want to go.Envision how your relationships with customers will change if you are successful:How will you engage with them?How will you respond to negative reviews?How will you help advocates be more influential?How will you measure success?
• #37: Create buyer personas – understand your customer and determine what problems they are trying to solve, what they need most, what info they are searching forAnalyze their buyer’s journey – their path from getting info to becoming a customerIdentify your buying cycle and map your content accordinglyInfographic: Image containing graphics and text including statistics about a certain subject, presented in a creative way so people can easily understand the messageSet up an editorial calendar!!!!!You can curate others’ content if it’s helpful to your audience and you give appropriate credit.
• #39: http://mashable.com/2013/12/30/marketers-facebook-rules/Top considerations and whyFBTwitterG+YouTubeTumblrInstagramVinePinterestThe social sites that are really behind your referral traffic [study] (Brafton)Published on October 17, 2013by Brafton EditorialMarketers know social media content brings people to their brands’ sites, but they may not know which networks are actually driving the majority of clicks. A new report from Shareaholic reveals which sites are the true sources of traffic (Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter) and which have still room to grow into traffic generating platforms (Google+).The study examined the referral traffic of 200,000 publishers over the span of 13 months. The findings illustrate the top social traffic drivers for the average company, including a mix of mid- to large-sized B2Cmarketers. Facebook for referral traffic.Facebook was by and far the best network for driving referral traffic to brands’ web content, accounting for 8.1 percent of all visits on average between September 2013 and September 2012.Facebook was by and far the best network for driving referral traffic to brands’ web content – 8.1 percent of visits on average.The figures are even more impressive considering the social network was responsible for over 10 percent of visits in September 2013, marking a 58.8 percent leap from the 6.5 percent it provided the previous September. This explains why nine out of 10 companies include Facebook in their social marketing plans.Pinterest and Twitter pick up steamPinterest took a (relatively) distant second, driving 3.2 percent of visits year-over-year. In September 2013, it provided businesses with 3.68 percent of visits, a 66.5 percent lift from the amount noted in September 2012 (2.2 percent). Twitter followed with 1.2 percent of referral traffic on average during the reporting period, with 1.2 percent of visits in September 2013.These numbers might seem low given the popularity of these networks, but they seem impressive when compared with totals coming from Google+. The search engine owned network provided brands with just 0.6 percent of referral traffic on average throughout the year – and that was an improvement. In September 2012, the network drove around 0.4 percent of traffic to company pages.Traffic not only benchmark to considerMarketers shouldn’t necessarily be discouraged by these figures. It’s important to see the bigger picture of how each network provides unique value-adds. More, every business has a unique online demographic and different brands will have varying success on individual networks. This makes it necessary to have strong content analytics that consider the most valuable referral sources for an individual website.For instance, Google+ may not be an immense traffic aggregator as of yet, but individual companies may find it delivers highly convertible audiences or drives unparalleled SEO benefits. Studies have shown spiders crawl digital content shared on G+ within six seconds and then re-crawl it every time it’s shared. This rapid response can help sites get credit for their content sooner, which can mean faster appearance in SERPs.
• #40: http://mashable.com/2013/12/30/marketers-facebook-rules/Top considerations and whyFBTwitterG+YouTubeTumblrInstagramVinePinterestThe social sites that are really behind your referral traffic [study] (Brafton)Published on October 17, 2013by Brafton EditorialMarketers know social media content brings people to their brands’ sites, but they may not know which networks are actually driving the majority of clicks. A new report from Shareaholic reveals which sites are the true sources of traffic (Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter) and which have still room to grow into traffic generating platforms (Google+).The study examined the referral traffic of 200,000 publishers over the span of 13 months. The findings illustrate the top social traffic drivers for the average company, including a mix of mid- to large-sized B2Cmarketers. Facebook for referral traffic.Facebook was by and far the best network for driving referral traffic to brands’ web content, accounting for 8.1 percent of all visits on average between September 2013 and September 2012.Facebook was by and far the best network for driving referral traffic to brands’ web content – 8.1 percent of visits on average.The figures are even more impressive considering the social network was responsible for over 10 percent of visits in September 2013, marking a 58.8 percent leap from the 6.5 percent it provided the previous September. This explains why nine out of 10 companies include Facebook in their social marketing plans.Pinterest and Twitter pick up steamPinterest took a (relatively) distant second, driving 3.2 percent of visits year-over-year. In September 2013, it provided businesses with 3.68 percent of visits, a 66.5 percent lift from the amount noted in September 2012 (2.2 percent). Twitter followed with 1.2 percent of referral traffic on average during the reporting period, with 1.2 percent of visits in September 2013.These numbers might seem low given the popularity of these networks, but they seem impressive when compared with totals coming from Google+. The search engine owned network provided brands with just 0.6 percent of referral traffic on average throughout the year – and that was an improvement. In September 2012, the network drove around 0.4 percent of traffic to company pages.Traffic not only benchmark to considerMarketers shouldn’t necessarily be discouraged by these figures. It’s important to see the bigger picture of how each network provides unique value-adds. More, every business has a unique online demographic and different brands will have varying success on individual networks. This makes it necessary to have strong content analytics that consider the most valuable referral sources for an individual website.For instance, Google+ may not be an immense traffic aggregator as of yet, but individual companies may find it delivers highly convertible audiences or drives unparalleled SEO benefits. Studies have shown spiders crawl digital content shared on G+ within six seconds and then re-crawl it every time it’s shared. This rapid response can help sites get credit for their content sooner, which can mean faster appearance in SERPs.
• #42: ReviewsContests
• #45: Customer service
• #46: Services and recommendations
• #47: HiringGroups for networking
• #50: Helpful, sharable and entertaining content
• #53: Helpful videos
• #57: Tumblr – skews younger -Happy customers, events, promotions
• #61: Ask for reviews