By Lance Concannon, UK social media lead at Text 100

Speak to any senior corporate comms exec about the barriers that prevent them from using social media more in their organisation, and I guarantee that the issue of ‘risk’ will usually come close to the top of the list. This raises a couple of questions; what exactly are the risks posed by social media, and how can we negate, or at least mitigate, them?

What if people say bad things about our brand?

People often think that creating social media channels for the brand will add fuel to the fire of criticism, but that really doesn’t make any sense. Almost all brands have detractors, and social media makes it easier than ever for those detractors to share their opinions online and there’s not a lot you can do to stop that.

By participating in social media itself, your brand can at least provide those detractors with the opportunity to come to you with their grievances so that they can be dealt with in a constructive manner. If people are going to say bad things about your company, wouldn’t it be better for them to say those things in a place which you can easily monitor and manage, rather than some other website where you have absolutely no control?
So in this instance, social media does not introduce risk, but enables businesses to manage risk which already exists.

What if our own people run out of control?

In most large organisations there’s a very good chance that employees are already talking about the company in social media in either a semi-official or completely unsanctioned manner. Maybe they’ve set up social media profiles for the brand under their own steam with the best of intentions but haven’t coordinated this activity with the comms department and are not following best practice.

Or maybe disgruntled are employees complaining about the company in channels like Twitter, blogs, Facebook and discussion forums. Perhaps others are trying to be helpful by responding to consumer comments online, but they’re sharing incorrect information or using the wrong messaging.

You manage all of this through robust policies and training.

First of all ensure that you have clear policies in place for how staff are allowed to discuss the company and their jobs in social media; publish guidelines that enable and encourage staff to participate in these channels, but make the boundaries clear and explain why those boundaries have to exist. It should go without saying but you need to make sure that all staff are aware of the guidelines, from the interns all the way up to the directors.

Within any organisation there are going to be social champions – the kind of people who have a natural urge to go online and talk about the business and their work. Find out who these people are, because they are a powerful asset, and give them the training and encouragement they need to act as online brand ambassadors.

What if we get it wrong and end up with egg on our faces?

This fear is not completely without foundation. For all the talk of businesses needing to ‘take risks and experiment’ in social media, the industry loves to trumpet stories about big brands getting social media wrong. If experimentation and risk taking is to be encouraged, then perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to be a little more supportive when brands make mistakes in these channels.

The simple truth is that even with the best intentions, sometime marketing campaigns and comms activities in social media can go awry in ways you hadn’t anticipated. This risk can be mitigated by careful planning and research; read case studies and learn from the experience of others to find out what’s worked well and what’s gone wrong in the past.

When you’ve planned out your activity, spend some time trying to pull it apart and pick holes in it. What could go wrong, how could people derail or hijack it, why might it fail? Obviously you can’t predict all potential outcomes, but at least if you’ve already thought about possibilities, no matter how improbable, you can be better prepared in case things don’t go as planned.

If possible, work with an agency which has plenty of experience in social media activity – but before you sign a contract, make sure you check their credentials to see if they’re really up to the task.

While there are certainly some risks involved in using social media as a communications platform for your business, they are far outweighed by the potential benefits. The biggest risk of social media is being left behind by your competitors if you fail to take advantage of the opportunities it offers.

About the Author
Lance is the social media lead for Text 100 UK, where he focuses on helping clients to build better relationships with their audiences through digital and social media channels.

He has worked in digital PR since 2005, developing and executing social media communications activities for world leading brands such as IBM, AMD, Sony Electronics, and Oracle. Prior to this he worked as a technology journalist for over a decade, most recently contributing to Internet Magazine at EMAP as the title’s technical editor for four years.

Lance contributes to the Text 100 UK blog and Text 100 Hypertext blog  discussing emerging and mainstream communications trends and how they are being embraced, challenged and championed. You can also follow Lance on Twitter here.

The SMWF team are excited to announce that the fourth annual SMWF Europe event will be taking place on 27^th and 28^th March at Olympia in London. This year’s show is your chance to experience a packed agenda of interactive workshops, combined with unique networking opportunities, a bustling exhibition space and much more…

New for 2012 we have introduced an updated show format, delivering 6 individual conference tracks, each examining the latest strategies and cutting edge technologies across specifically focussed areas of social media marketing.

One workshop pass will get you access to all the tracks, detailed below, as an event delegate you will be able to mix and match your chosen session, creating your own agenda during the 2 day show. You also gain full access to the exhibition & official SMWF party.    Book your pass here today!

SMWF tracks explained…

This 2 day track forms is the backbone of the SMWF agenda; providing insight into how to strategically benefit from the accelerating growth of social media. Teaching subtle  techniques and approaches which can transform social media from a lip-service add-on, to the cornerstone of your co-ordinated communications strategy.

Whether you have an existing mobile strategy or are in the process of formulating one, the SMWF Mobile Marketing track will deliver a wealth of practical advice around using mobile social media, using apps to promote your business, integrating mobile into your existing marketing strategy, location based marketing and much more.

With the home entertainment landscape on the cusp of massive change, the race is on for operators, manufacturers and platform providers to grab their slice of this potentially lucrative new market. The track will explore the social aspect that is changing the way people interact with the media they consume as part of this new TV experience.

With the social media explosion changing the way customers and businesses interact, perhaps forever, the SMWF Social Business track will examine many of the fundamental issues and challenges you face as company culture is being forced to change and adapt to these new social operating systems.

The SMWF Social Shopping and ecommerce track will analyse how some retailers are truly harnessing the power of social media, allowing brands to create a new forum for conversation and interaction with their customers.

Delivered by our friends at MarketingTechNews.net, this track comprises a series of expert led marketing strategy workshops. It will equip you with many of the basic tools you need to begin planning and implementing your own integrated marketing strategy, tying in advice and insight around social media, SEO, branding, affiliate marketing, mobile, PR, blogging, content marketing, web-design and all manner of integrated marketing communications techniques.    To just attend this free to attend track register for your free expo pass here.

Look out for some exciting announcements about our speaker line up and agenda in the next few weeks!

We can’t wait to see you all again this year, keep an eye on the blog or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

We are pleased to have partnered with both the K West & The Hilton London Olympia to offer all SMWF visitors a discounted room rate for the 26th, 27th & 28th March 2012.

Only a limited number of rooms are available at each hotel, and the rate is only available until 24th February so book today to make sure you have somewhere to stay!

K-West Hotel
Richmond Way
London
W14 0AX

Room Rates:

Single occupancy £95 excluding vat & breakfast

Double or twin occupancy £109 excluding vat & breakfast

To book please contact Georgina Ainsworth on +44 (0) 20 8008 6605 quoting SMWF. Rates are available until the 24th Feb so book early to avoid disappointment, after this date hotels will need to be booked on best available rate.

Hilton London Olympia Hotel
380 Kensington High Street
London
W14 8NL

Room Rates:

Single occupancy £135.00 + VAT per room includes English Breakfast

Double Occupancy £145.00 + VAT per room includes English Breakfast

To secure your discounted room simply contact Agnieszka Stopa on +44 (0) 207 856 1902 or email agnieszka.stopa@hilton.com and quote SMWF before the 24th Feb. This rate will expire on the 24th Feb so book early to take advantage of the discounted rate.

Other Hotels Located Nearby:

Kensington Close Hotel
Wrights Lane, Kensington, London
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8008 6600
Best Available Rates from £99

By Christer Holloman author of ‘The Social Media MBA’ 

For how much longer will we call ‘smartphones’ just that and not simply ‘phones’? ‘Smart phones’ will be the de facto standard in a not too distance future (it’s already the case in certain clusters), the long name will eventually be made redundant. The same will now happen to the words ‘Social Media’.

My first modem was 14,400bps, later we got a 56k one. Today modem speed is pretty much irrelevant; the speed is usually determined by your ISP. My first PC CD-player was ‘2x speed’, we eventually upgraded to ‘16x speed’. Some years later manufactures stopped talking about CD-player speeds, it became irrelevant.

“2012 will be the year social media just becomes a part of everything we do.”

So for the exact same reasons as developments exemplified above, ‘social media’ will also disappear. For the companies that were early adopters, 2012 will be the year ‘social media’ just becomes a part of everything they do and this is why:

1) Social Media Fatigue

If you think of social media as a product life cycle, companies that adopted it early have experienced the launch, the growth and are now moving into a steady state, plateau or even fatigue phase. The new kid on the block is not so new anymore. If the company hasn’t seen any measureable success yet, perhaps due to poor a strategy and/or delivery, without a senior leader that can identify and address the issues, these kinds of organisations will realign their expectations and talk less and less about social media as a separate topic.

2) Social Media Departing From Marketing

There was a time when social media was the responsibility of the marketing department. Now we know that companies that adopt social media, and do it successfully, make it a way they do business across the whole company. As such it is the responsibility of every department; sales, customer service, product development, etc. Increasingly companies assign social media responsibility to a senior person whose sphere of influence covers multiple departments, such as the CIO. This empowers every department to incorporate social media in how they go about their business.

3) Social Media Coming Of Age

‘Social Media’ is a generational thing in the same way my parents still talk about ‘The Internet’. Ask any teenager about social media and you get a blank stare back; for them social media isn’t a set of tools, channels or even a topic of conversation. It’s something so intuitive they don’t need labels but rather just get on with it. The same is true for any modern organisation.

Companies that are still in the early stages of their social media adaptation will continue to separate out social media for a while longer but will eventually catch up.

For more ideas on how to ensure your approach to social media strategy development and delivery is up to date, check out: http://www.socialmedia-mba.com or join the debate at The Social Media MBA LinkedIn Group! 

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What others have said about ‘The Social Media MBA’:

Scott Monty, Head of Social Media, Ford Motor Company

“Holloman et al. provide a very suitable handbook for those who need more than the rah-rah social media talk. From strategy development to execution, with a look at case studies from major brands that are respected in the field of social media, this book will serve seasoned communications and marketing professionals who want to integrate today’s digital thinking into their teams’ efforts.”

Jamie Grenney, VP of Social Media & Online Video, salesforce.com

“Virtually every customer, partner, and employee is engaged on social channels, yet too many organizations have failed to reflect this shift. The Social Media MBA provides the strategy and real-world examples to help transform your company into a social enterprise.” 

Christer Holloman is the editor of the new book, The Social Media MBA: Your Competitive Edge in Social Media Strategy Development & Delivery (Published by Wiley). Christer is Head of Digital Product Development at The Times and The Sunday Times Newspaper.

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Wiley will be exhibiting for the fourth year running at this year’s Social Media World Forum in London. Their stand will feature a range of the latest books in social media and online marketing.  For more information on how to register for this year’s event please click here.

Companies in the social media space are constantly looking for advice and new ways that they can make sure their efforts in the space are working. While there are no definitive answers, as every company’s goals will require different methods of showing success, there are a few tips that can be followed for guidelines along the way

The following is 10 tips that I’ve learned from the fantastic community that participates in #SMmeasure. #SMmeasure started off as a weekly Twitter chat that I’m fortunate to host. It has since turned into a community that shares interesting articles and ideas throughout the week, but still gather to chat for an hour every Thursday at noon(EST)/9am(PST). This list is the second part in this series. If you missed part one, be sure to check out our first 10 tips learned through #SMmeausre here.

Choose What Social Media Metrics to Measure

11.Friends/Fans/Followers – it’s great that you have people who want to follow your account(s). Without them, no one would hear what you have to say. However, don’t place too much emphasis on this number. Sometimes having a lower number of friends/fans/followers who are more engaged can be better than a large amount of uninterested and unengaged people.

12.Soft metrics – depending on your goals for being in social media there are a lot of non-traditional metrics that your organization may be interested in tracking such as response time, response percentage (how many people spoke to us that we responded to), customer satisfaction and many others.

Make Your Social Media Metrics Easily Digestible

13. Show trending in your metrics.  Not only does it help your case to show before and after social media, but you can use graphs to visually present the data.

14.Use ratios in your data to compare your social media metrics to other campaigns.  Are you converting 0.5% of your social media traffic while you convert 0.25% of your organic search traffic?

15.Show context in your numbers.  Compare what your social media efforts are doing compared to other campaigns.  Use benchmarks with your industry, competitors, or start internally.

Learn from Your measurement Analytics

16.Re-evaluate your social media measurement objectives preferably every quarter.  Don’t be afraid to adjust for the following quarter.

17.Gathering your social media measurement metrics isn’t the end of your measurement responsibilities.  Analyze the benchmarks you have created, evaluate the data you have gathered, look at trending, and revise your processes.  Always work on improving your goals and objectives.

18.Turn your data into action item – did you notice in your data that

things weren’t going exactly as you planned? That may mean it’s time to change up a few things in your plan. Did certain content get a much larger response than others? Perhaps you should focus more content around that subject.

Read, Review, and Adopt Best Practices

19. Social media measurement is an evolving aspect of social media.  However, there are many case studies available that outline best practices.  Read and review social media case studies and then adopt best practices that you can apply to your business

20. #SMmeasure – social media is a great place to learn from others and being part of a community like #SMmeasure is a great way to keep up to date on new and best practices (Yes, this last one was a shameless plug, but we want to make sure that you all come back time and time again).

Social Media World Forum N. America is almost upon us. The event is designed specifically to help delegates build valuable connections in New York and the rest of the digital world. We have compiled a few of suggestions suggestions for how you can get the most out of getting connected at the show.

Social shindig – come join the party at the Social Shindig, this year hosted by I AM DIGITAL at Studio Twenty Onein Chelsea kicking off from 7.30pm, an excellent opportunity to catch up over a few beverages in a chilled atmosphere.

Social Media Passport  - We’ve  partnered with Social Media Passport to enable you to connect with our show exhibitors more easily online. Simply visit, www.socialpassport.net and download your Social Passport onto your smartphone, tablet or mobile; you can even print it out. Have it handy to be scanned when you’re touring the SMWF/AppsWorld exhibition to get access to exclusive prize draws and special offers. Social Passport is also available as an Android or iOS app.

Tweet our speakers – twitter will of course be the order of the day, below you can find a list of many of our speaker’s and special guests twitter handles so you can get the conversation started ahead of the show. If you have a question for one of the speakers don’t forget to use the #SMWFQ and #AppsWorldQ hashtags.

You can view all of this year’s speakers here.  

Abell, Jon, New York Bureau Chief, Wired, @johncabell

Britton, Matt, Founder & CEO, Mr Youth, @Mattyb123

Cann, Jeff Manager of Accounts, Marketwire @JeffCann

Cargill, Greg VP Client Services, Social & Media,BLITZ , 4As / Blitz Agency, @GregCargill

Carter, Sarah Vice President of Marketing, Actiance @SarahActiance

Choy, RogelioChief Operating Officer,Formspring, @rochoy

Coatney, MarkMedia Director,Tumblr, @markcoatney

Contreras, EstebanSocial Media Manager,Samsung @samsungesteban

Davar, Sara, Head of Business Development – Sales and Growth, Meltwater, @sdavar

Díaz Ortiz, Claire, Corporate Social Innovation & Philanthropy, Twitter, Inc. @claireD

Donnelly, Michael, Director, Worldwide Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company @MichaelDonnelly

Donnelly, Margaret, Director of Marketing, Meltwater @mwdonnelly

Espersen, Peter, Online Community Lead (Global), Lego @VirtualPeter

Floyd, Price B. Vice President of External Engagement and Digital Strategy, BAE Systems, @pricefloyd

Fraietta, Mike, Enterprise Community Manager, News Corp. @MikeFraietta

Janin, Keeran, Creative Director, Infindo Technology,  @keeranj

Gold, Kate,  Social Media Director, Scripps Networks, @katefgold

Gomez, Linette , Senior Director – Internet Marketing – Social  Media, CA Technologies, @LinGos

Guest, Phil, Chief Commercial Officer, Peer Index, @philguesty

Heindl, Matt, Head of Social Media, Razorfish, @matt_heindl

Hempstead, Sebastian, VP – North America , Brandwatch, @sebhempstead

Heron, Liz, Social Media Editor, New York Times, @lheron

Heuer, Chris, Social Media Club, @chrisheuer

Holsinger, Garth, Head of Communications, Klout, @garthsklout

King, Lila, Participation Director, CNN, @lilacina

Lagier, Eric, CEO & Co-founder, Memolane, @elagier

Liebling, Rick, Director of Digital Strategy, Coyne PR, @Rick_Now

Marsh, Josh, Founder and CEO, Conversocia, @joshuamarch

Napolitano, Anthony, Director of Sales and Business Development, Stumble Upon, @stumbleupon

Neale, Nicole, Social Media Director, Four Seasons, @Nicole_Neal

Papademitriou, Paul, VP and Principle Analysyt, Constellation Research, @papadimitriou

Peters, Meghan, Community Manager, Mashable, @petersmeg

Ramers, Justin, Active Network Events, Director of Social Media, @JustinRamers

Rezab, Jan, CEO, Social Baker, @janrezab

Rosenthal, Jason, CEO, Ning, @jasonprosenthal

Sain-dieguez , Vanessa, Director, Social Media – Planning and Integration, Hilton, @VSDieguez

Schafer, Ian, CEO & Founder, Deep Focu, @ischafer

Schactel, Jane, Director of Social Media Bing,@seejanesays

Schierholz, Stephanie, Head of Social Media, NASA, @schierholz

Sharma, Tom, P Emerging Products, NBC, @TomSharma

St. Amand, Wayne, VP of Marketing, Crimson Hexagan, @WayneSaint

Weiswasser, Gayle, VP of Social Media Communications, Discovery Channel @gweiswasser

SMWF Asia comes to Singapore on 1-2 September, offering social media marketing advice and in-depth insight into how brands and businesses across Asia are using channels like Facebook and Twitter to connect with their customers, build communities, monitor brand reputation, advertise and even sell their products directly.

Some of the world’s leading social media thinkers will gather to provide discussion and analysis around the unique and diverse regional factors that affect take-up, market development and strategic effectiveness of these techniques.

Covering a number of key issues around the social media space, discussions will feature insight on measuring ROI on B2B and B2C social media activities, integrating relevant channels into your marketing strategy, social CRM, building and managing communities, social shopping, geo-location, measuring and managing reputation, how social media is changing customer behaviour and much, much more.

With a number of high-profile speakers representing leading brands like Google, mixi, Dell, Yahoo, Ogilvy, Nokia, the International Advertising Bureaux and many more, SMWF is designed as an effective forum for building industry connections. The event will include a number of innovative networking sessions and dedicated networking and meeting areas.

Taking connection-building to a more sophisticated, hi-tech level, the now famous SMWF TwitterWall will also be a prominent feature of the show, not only projecting show-related tweets up onto a massive screen, but allowing delegates to access a raft of statistics and infographics detailing who the most influential show tweeters are; even suggesting potential connections relevant to your fields of interest.

With a free-to-attend industry exhibition and Social Media Hub, covering some of the more basic aspects around the effective use of social media, this event is a must for anyone in the region with an interest in the opportunities presented by these additional marketing channels.

Full registration for SMWF also grants delegates entry to another highly relevant, co-locating event, Apps World Asia, which will explore the rapidly expanding Asian apps market, attracting developers, operators, brands and businesses from around the region.

For more information on what you can expect from both shows, please visit the SMWF agenda page. And to book your place at this year’s event, click here.

LEWIS PR COO Paul Charles will be chairing the SMWF “Social Media for crisis management” panel at 16:50, on day one of the event on 29 March.

The session will cover some of the recent catastrophes to have hit the news, and will involve some of the people who were, for better or worse, caught in the middle and forced to make their social media strategy work to deal with the situation.

Aurelie Valtat, for instance, covered last week in this blog, ran the EuroControl air traffic hub social media information feed single handed, keeping virtually all of Europe, passengers, airlines and worried relatives, up to date with the latest developments surrounding the Icelandic volcano crisis and what it meant for air traffic.

This is sure to be a fascinating panel discussion, and you’re almost certain to be in need of a stiff drink after hearing so many tales of social media heroism. Fortunately, Paul and the LEWIS PR team will be heading to the SMWF bar at the end of the session to continue the discussion with a few drinks on them.

For more  information about LEWIS PR click HERE, and to register for the event click here

SMWF are very excited about hosting the 3rd annual event for the Social Media World Forum and with a new year comes a new look, increased interactively and networking opportunities plus an action packed workshop agenda.

New for SMWF Europe 2011 ……….
• Larger venue - with over 4500 visitors rocking up to SMWF 2010 we have moved to a larger venue for 2011, so this year you will find us located in Olympia 2, ground & lower floors

• Social Media Hub – our new for 2011, free to attend workshop zone for all visitors will be located within the main expo area

• SMWF Lounge Bar – our purpose built lounge bar is the perfect setting for grabbing a coffee or even something slightly strong while networking comfortable on our sofas.

• More Interactive Workshop agenda – You will notice that this year’s agenda is action packed with an increased number of panel sessions with ample time for Q&A, plus a Social Soapbox Debate, Mind mapping for 2012 and Sit Back and Tweet session.

• Topical Sessions - building your social media marketing strategy, social shopping, location based marketing, b2b social media marketing, social crm, social tv, mobile social media, social search, social gaming, virtual currencies and the latest in twitter and facebook marketing.

The team are busy recruiting the leading speakers from the industry to ensure we delivery you guys with a exceptional line up which is truly inspiring, thought provoking and knowledge driven.  New speakers will be announced through our newsletter and on our speakers page here.

Registration for the event is now open, to take advantage of the early bird savings you can register here.

Book your hotel – we have arranged a reduced rate for SMWF visitors at the Hilton Olympia, to take advantage of the rate and to avoid disappointment we recommend booking early. Full details available here.

Get Involved – if you would like to explore the opportunities for your company to get involved as either a sponsor or exhibitor at the SMWF email enquiries (@) sixdegs.com.

The team will of course be keeping you all up to date with regular blog updates in the lead up to the show

Below Huzu asked brands and agencies from the Social Media World Forum March just gone ‘Why Are some brands still reluctant to put spend into Social Media Marketing?’

The Brands’ Perspective

Huzu is a social media technology company. Licensing its white-label social media platform to brands and agencies. Allowing them to provide their customers with an engaging community and reducing the cost of building the technology in – house. The platform is flexible and can be customised for each brand, with functionality that includes profiles, forums, video, blogs, picture galleries, friends network, calendars, instant chat, plus Facebook share and connect, amongst others. Designed with easy-to-use administration and content management tools, Huzu also benefits from fully controllable ad space. TUI, Eircom, Racing UK and Durex have built successful communities using the Huzu social media platform.