Three As’s of Social Media Measurement

This biggest question any Social Media practitioner can ask of themselves is how are we being received online? Who is checking us out? Do they ‘like’ us? Why do they like us? And how can we get more people to… well….like us?

What I've learnt from this week is that social media monitoring is one of the most important tools that every company should invest their time and funding.

So let’s break it down to the three As of monitoring. No I’m not talking AAA (or more familiarly CAA)

I’m talking about:

•       Attention: The volume of interest in your social media practices through measuring traffic.

How much attention do they pay to your social media efforts? Which groups are paying attention the most?

•       Attitude: Overall sentiment and relationship measurement.

What are the sentiments of your customers’ on the social media efforts made by the organization?

•       Action: Business results of online outreach and the most important measurement tool. A process in which one ties social media efforts to costs and revenues within the organization.

Are our efforts bringing in clients and business?

Having an online presence is simply not enough. In order for a company to grow and develop real tangible relationships online they have to measure what kind of attention they are receiving, what is the general attitude of their online efforts and how their performance is tied to the success of the business.  An example of an organization that successfully utilize the three A’s and who has an influential social web and media presence is Expedia. 

Expedia is one of the top online travel agency who has long been active in encouraging users to engage with them online. A popular tool they use to measure the online success is with the hashtag #expchat. Every week Expedia awards a $500 travel voucher for one user who participating in their online conversation using #expchat. By asking users to get involved and suggest tourist destinations to fellow users, they are creating a dialogue amongst followers. This is an easy way to measure who is predominantly having the conversations online and how they are influencing others to join in. Expedia not only encourages engagement between corporation and customer, they are also encouraging dialogue amongst consumers and understand that this is the best way to ensure that they remain so in the future.

Did social media win Obama 4 more years?

Within minutes of calling Obama as the election winner and returning President of the United States, the big man himself took to his Twitter page to tweet “This happened because of you. Thank you,” to his over 23 million followers. I guess he realized to thank the hand that feeds him.

Throughout this campaign, Twitter brought people closer together and has developed a new platform for voters, running mates and political commentator to connect faster then ever before. Top campaing aids used the social media tool to connect with voters, creating a two way communication, to not only dispersing information but also to receive feedback.

According to Rachel Horowitz, Twitter spokesperson, there were more than 31 million election-related tweets on Tuesday night, making Election Night “the most tweeted about event in U.S. political history."  Between 6 p.m. and midnight, there were more than 23 million tweets. Within moments of declaring Obama the winner, Twitter peaked at 327,000 tweets a minute. Both campaigns had many political reporters and staff as both Twitter and Facebook users,  and thus often social media was where campaign news first broke.

Love it or hate it, Twitter's political role appears to have staying power and has the ability to play an even a larger part in future elections. Candidates should learn that they must have a very aggressive social media platform if they have any chance of a win.

You can't spell Promote without PR

When marketing in the 21^st century, one of the biggest problems many companies encounter is trying to stand out in an over saturated online community.  How do you get noticed?

In last week’s class, Zack Sandor-Kerr, Digital Strategist at H+K Strategies,

discussed the various ways in which businesses use Twitter’s “promoted tweets,” “promoted trends” and “promoted accounts” to expand and reach new audiences.

Here’s the breakdown:

Promoted Tweets: How it works is you establish a daily budget and pay each time someone clicks on your tweet.   With promoted tweets, you have the ability to reach past your current followers and select any previous tweet to promote in 2 different ways. The first option is to promote a tweet to similar users who you share followers. The second option is promote a tweet that uses specific keywords to target users who are searching on Twitter. The benefit is that it helps attract followers who share and amplify your messages and can help you connect with new clientele.

Promoted Trends: is an extension to the promoted tweets. According to Twitter “With promoted trends, users see time-, context-, and event-sensitive trends promoted by our advertising partners.  Users interact with Promoted Trends the same way they interact with any other Trending Topic. They are able to click on a Promoted Trend to view all Tweets containing the trending #hashtag or trend terms. They are also able to Tweet about the Promoted Trend by including the terms in their Tweets. The only real difference is that a Promoted Trend is purchased by an advertiser and clearly marked as being promoted.”

The major difference between promoted tweet and trend is it's price tag. According to the Wall Street Journal, the hefty charge of a promoted trend could cost a company up to $120,000 per day.

Promoted account: is featured in search results and within the “Who To Follow” section, where Twitter identifies and recommends similar followers to help users discover new content and people.

Twitter promotions are one of the most important social media tools when marketing and advertising your business. As a platform of communication, it creates an open dialogue between company and consumer, and is an important utility to promote brands, offers and news. From a PR perspective it’s an amazing tool connect your business with its public. However, it is an extremely costly tool that many businesses cannot afford. 

As a PR practioner I think finding a way to utilize promotions can only have a positive impact on your business. It not only connects you to a large audience, but also helps control and steer conversations and dialogue online.

Check in or Code out

This week we were asked to investigate foursquare and QR codes as social media platforms and give insight into the single biggest learning.

Here’s the breakdown:

Foursquare is an app that helps you share, track and save locations you habituate by “checking in.” When tracking all your locations about town, foursquare will recommend certain venues i.e stores, coffee shops or restaurants based on your previous recommendations. This platform also let’s your friends see where you have visited and review your recommendations. Users can earn badges, special promotions and discounts based on how frequently they visit specific venues. According to Foursquare.com, as of September 2012 over 25 million users are “checking in” everyday, worldwide.

I have never been a fan of foursquare prior to this week. I couldn’t understand the purpose of letting the whole world know where I was every moment of the day.  After some timely research and “checking in,“ I can see the advantages for small business owners establishing an online community while using this app.  What it comes down to is free advertising. Get your most loyal customers to convince their friends that checking into your business is worth their time. The incentive program is no different then a stamp card for patrons. 

QR barcodes is a matrix code readable by scanners on your smartphone through your camera. Thus you can upload any information to your phone just by scanning a products QR code.

The first time I came across a QR barcode, I was completely dumbfounded. While visiting the Tim Burton Exhibit at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the curator informed me that if I had a smartphone, I could access the same information as the $5 audio tour, only for free. With just a click of a button, I could scan the code next to each individual artwork and the audible information would download onto my phone to listen at my own discretion.  Imagine having access to all that information just by scanning a tiny barcode? Two years later, I’m daily user of my own personal QR code. When ordering my morning coffee, a lovely barista at Dark Horse Espresso scans my barcode and knows that I only use lactose free milk in my beverage. As well, every time it’s scanned, I collect points. Since the beginning of August I’ve earned 227 points (don’t judge, I’m a caffeine addict.)

I think the major difference between foursquare and QR barcodes is that one application focus’ more on advertising vs. providing immediate access to information. Both have their perks and rewards but are equally important to businesses looking to establish an online social identity.

Here we go...

I’m about to jump head first into the blogging world and hope that one day, these words won’t come to bite me in the butt. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about being judged and harshly criticized by the work I put out here. I mean we’ve all seen Youtube comments…things can get pretty cruel out here on the web.

I should start off by saying that I only use social media as a way to keep in touch with friends and family. More truthfully, I’ve sometimes used “likes” and “retweets” as a way of validating how funny I think I am. Deep down inside I always knew there was more to social media platforms then a bunch of shmo’s logging online to see how popular they are. So that’s why I’m here, to learn the other side of social media. In many ways I feel like Jasmine in Aladdin, discovering a whole new world I never knew existed.  Until I can truly understand how to use social communication as a tool to my advantage, I won’t be able to further my career as a PR practitioner, or a Disney princess.

Social media is a communication tool that serves a very important purpose in today’s business. It helps you connect with potential clients, like minded businesses and consumers. Particularly in PR, it provides a tool to help answer these important questions: What are people saying about my business? Who are having these discussions? How are these discussions impacting my corporation and it’s clients? This form of communication is keeping us all connected in a faster and more comprehensive way.

I’m hoping that come December, I can be a pro at using all forms of communication platforms and establish an online identity through social media to further my career in PR. I’m also hoping that this course will help me find more up to date references other then Disney films made in 1992.