Web Development Tips

A small assortment of social media icons.
Why include RSS? It’s a listening tool.

As some of you know, I regularly participate in a variety of real-time
chats on Twitter, including #smchat, a
weekly discussion of best practices in social media. On Wednesday September
30th at 1:00 p.m. e.d.t. I’ll be moderating #smchat as we discuss what social
media tactics people have implemented, how they have measured the results
and how they have performed.

To prepare participants for the event I thought it might be helpful to give
some examples.

Many people are jumping on the social media bandwagon these days just because
they feel they should. One hear’s people say "Everyone’s on Twitter and
Facebook, we need to start Tweeting and put up a Facebook page." Needless
to say this isn’t usually the best approach. Before picking tools and tactics
one must assess needs, develop
measurable goals and identify
a target audience. Once
that is done, then one can start developing strategies and tactics to connect
with that audience (in their space, on their terms) in a way that will serve
one’s goals most effectively.

Your goals are set, what’s your social media strategy?

To get things started, I’ll give you an example of some of the things I’ve
been doing. One
of my goals is to get you (or someone you know) to hire me to
consult on social media, offer guidance on search engine optimization or
design and build a Web site or custom Wordpress blog. My audience includes
small to medium sized businesses, academic departments at universities,
individuals and others who may need such services. My strategy is
to position myself as a reliable and knowledgeable resource for information
on Internet marketing and related topics.

Tactics to implement this social media strategy
include:

• Sharing links to worthwhile articles and videos via Google
  Reader Share,
  Delicious, Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, and so forth—and
  conversing with people in those spaces.
• Blogging in-depth articles on Web related topics here on the Web
  Development Blog.
• Commenting
  on other blogs.
• Networking with special interest groups on LinkedIn, Ning and the real
  world.
• Answering questions on LinkedIn. (You can read more about my LinkedIn
  Q&A strategy in Maisha Walker’s Inc. blog, The
  Internet Strategist in the article, Building
  Your Tribe – 6 LinkedIn Success Studies (final/part 3). Read the complete
  series to learn about the myriad ways you can use LinkedIn for business.)

This blog serves as the foundation for all of these strategies. It provides
a destination for traffic from the social media services and offers content
for me to share via those services. Since it is built as a part of my
overall site, it also gives visitors quick and easy access to other information
such as the services I offer, my portfolio and my contact form—and I’m
working on some site changes that will make that even easier.

Time is a major cost factor in social media

Measuring marketing results is fairly straightforward. If I want to know
which activities are driving the best traffic to my Web site I can look at
Google Analytics to see who is visiting from where, how long they stay on
site, how many pages they view, etc. This tells me that LinkedIn brings in
more new traffic while Facebook brings in the most repeat traffic. Visitors
from LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter all also read more pages and spend more
time on site than visitors from StumbleUpon.

In terms of leads and sales I can count the requests for proposals that come
in via LinkedIn messages, Facebook mail and my contact form. Measuring the
ROI comes from comparing my time investment to the results. In direct mail
one measures the cost per sale in terms of dollars spent. When implementing
my own social media strategies I must measure the cost per sale first in hours
worked, then use that to calculate costs.

Social Media goals come in many flavors—not just marketing

Networking with peers, monitoring your products and brand, enhancing customer
service, collaborating with colleagues, sharing policies and procedures, listening
for ideas, sharing knowledge, and other functions are also popular and practical
uses for social media. Here are a few more examples of strategies and tactics
one might use for a few of these goals.

Listening for ideas via social media

During last
week’s meeting of the Cleveland Social Media Club we listened to a panel discussion in which members of the local media discussed how they use social media. Panelists included:

• Kaye Spector – Health and Medical Reporter, The Plain Dealer
• Howard Fencl – Assistant News Director, WKYC-TV
• Joseph Sheppa – Interactive Content Manager, WVIZ/PBS & 90.3
  WCPN – ideastream®
• Scott Suttell – Managing Editor, Crain’s Cleveland Business
• Denise Polverine – Editor in Chief, Cleveland.com

As one would expect, these media outlets are all using Facebook and Twitter
to publish headlines and links to stories or videos on their Web sites. But
they’re also listening for information. News travels so quickly via social
media that it’s not unusual for them to first hear something on Facebook that
they can later confirm through other channels. They also listen to their followers
to gauge interest levels in certain topics and events. If their Twitter followers
are all talking about X and not about Y, then the newspapers, magazines and
T.V. stations know that their readers and viewers have an interest in hearing
more about X.

Others—including bloggers as well as those in mainstream media—use social media to listen for ideas. When I answer questions on LinkedIn, I can see if certain types of questions in my field are trending. This can give me ideas for blog posts I should write. I also read blogs and listen to podcasts to keep up with information and get new ideas.

For instance yesterday, while listening to Diggnation,
I discovered that Adam
Savage, co-host of Mythbusters reads
a wide array of blogs and visits Digg.com daily
to get story ideas for the T.V. show. He’s using the same technique for mainstream
media that I use for my humble blog. By simply following my own listening routine,
I discovered what he was doing so that I could use him as another example in
this post.

Measuring the results of listening is somewhat murky. If you need to justify
this use of time one could create a spreadsheet that would tally how many ideas
you find each day then develop a ratio comparing "finds" and
usefulness to "time-spent." But if you are also reading and listening
to increase knowledge it may be harder to quantify. How does one measure the
value of such activities? I know that everything I learn in this field makes
me better at what I do, but I’ve not come up with a calculation to demonstrate
how much more effective I may be now than I was 5 years ago when I knew less.
What I do know is that I will better serve my readers and clients if I keep
striving to learn more.

Social media strategies in local politics

Ari Herzog and Jill
Miller Zimon are both long-time bloggers, who I’ve come
to know through their blogging activities. Jill is a writer and political
analyst who blogs at Write
Likes She Talks. Ari is an online media strategist and community manager
for business and government who blogs at AriWriter.
Each of them is running for City Council in their respective home towns and
each is using social media in their campaigns.

One could argue that political campaigning is similar to mainstream marketing,
but I think it also bears a particular connection to brand management. When
running for office, candidates need to increase name recognition, build a positive
reputation, let voters know about their goals and demonstrate how they would
serve their communities if elected.

As writers, Ari and Jill have an advantage in this sphere. Each has produced
a wealth of online material that is part of the online historical record. If
you read their blogs, you will see that they are both candid and direct. While
I eschew the word "transparency" they’ve both exhibited the real
meaning of this in their writing. Neither hides behind jargon or political
doubletalk, they speak their minds so that you can tell exactly what their
position is.

Their similarities extend to social media. As you can see from the links below,
each of them is using an array of social media services, and neither is new
to this medium. While their
strategies may have some subtle differences, both are using social media
to spread their message and to let voters know that they are listening.

Jill Miller Zimon – campaigning for Pepper Pike, OH, City Council

• Friends of Jill Miller Zimon for Pepper Pike Council – Facebook Group
• Friends of Jill Miller Zimon for Pepper Pike Council – Facebook Page
• Jill Miller Zimon for Pepper Pike Council (Main Web site)
• Friends of Jill Miller Zimon Flickr Photos
• Jill Miller Zimon on LinkedIn
• Zimon for Council on Twitter
• Jill Miller Zimon You Tube Videos

Ari Herzog – campaigning for Newburyport, MA, City Council

• Ari Herzog for Newburyport City Council – Facebook Page
• Ari Herzog (Main Web site)
• Ari Herzog for Newburyport City Council Campaign Blog
• Ari Herzog on LinkedIn
• Ari 4 Newburyport on Twitter

Measuring the success of their campaigns will be relatively easy. They’ll
either win or lose. But measuring the impact of social media on the campaigns
may be trickier. Will having more Facebook
fans make a difference? Does it help to drive Twitter traffic to your site?
How does one measure voter engagement? Blog comments? Online donations? Volunteers?
How would you measure the results?

What strategies are you using for social media?

Frank Eliason has had great success using http://twitter.com/comcastcares to
provide proactive customer service to Comcast customers. The Cleveland
Social Media Club used it’s Ning Network in conjunction with Google docs
to collaborate on our Welcome
to Social Media eBook. Companies and universities
alike subscribe to Twitter searches to monitor brand and product mentions.
What other ways would you use social media tools to serve your specific goals?
How do you know if your strategies are working? Do you have measurement techniques
in place to gauge success?

Please feel free to share your ideas and experiences in the comments below
and/or during next Wednesday’s live #smchat. If you’ve not previously participated
in a Twitter chat, you can learn more in my article, Twitter
chats: if you can’t meet in real space, meet in real time. I look forward
to reading your ideas and suggestions.

Social Media Measurement & Chat Resources

• #smchat Schedule
• #smchat Network on Ning (for ongoing discussion)
• Tweeting With Your Twitter Community: How To Participate In A Twitter Chat
• Introduction to Measuring Social Media for PR/Marketing
• Measuring Social Media ROI: Does size matter?

heidicool.com is also on Facebook

Need more Web tips? Fan
the heidicool.com Facebook page. I’m posting 1 tip/link there per day
to offer ongoing advice on Web design, marketing and social media—without
overwhelming your Facebook stream. (I just need 13 more fans to get a
custom url; let’s see if we can make that goal this week!)

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