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.

Following a landmark year for location based services, mobile marketers are looking towards 2012 as the year when location based technology will pervade many of the services available on users’ handsets.

Last year Foursquare reported that over 15 million users and 600,000 businesses had joined the platform, resulting in over a billion check-ins. Location technology is firmly on the radar for many leading brands, and makes up a key part of the agenda at SMWF Europe in London in March.

Last month Facebook confirmed it was stepping up its assault on the lucrative location-sharing market with the acquisition of Gowalla in early December, expected to close as a stand-alone service later this month.

The increasing spread of ever more sophisticated smartphone handsets, combined with the continuing development of apps powered by geolocation technology, like that from companies like Navteq, is crucial to this developing trend, providing a whole new angle of relevance for marketers and brands.

Navteq, one of the leading providers of location data for developers, said:

“Hyper-local mobile advertising can target consumers in a non-intrusive way when they are near a merchant’s location and then guide them to the front door. This effectively transforms mobile into a direct response channel for retail, restaurants, cinemas, petrol stations, and any business that benefits from getting consumers in the door.”

Savvy marketers are now using location-based technology to reach potential customers in the immediate vicinity. Business listings on services like Foursquare, Loopt, Brightkite, and Google Places have become crucial weapons in the marketing arsenal as the industry waits for this trend to explode across the world.

The rise of social check-in apps has added a new dimension to the trend, using reward, word of mouth recommendation and viral to directly influence peoples’ purchasing behaviour. They allow businesses to interact directly with customers, creating communities with an added level of engagement based in real-world behaviours.

This year’s Social Media World Forum Europe will be looking in-depth at location based marketing, covering topics including:

• Harnessing the power of mobile data through location based apps – how to turn location information into consumer engagement?

• Location triggered mobile couponing / deals opportunities for large brands and local businesses

• Analyse of consumer behaviour – who are the consumers of location based services (who, how many, how old), what do they respond to well and how can you most effectively manage your communication / relationship with them?

• Are these social tools going to bring about a mobile commerce revolution?

• Using the mobile presence of facebook to promote deals, sales and encourage on the move purchases

For more information on this year’s event please visit the Social Media World Forum website.

A big thank you to those that attended the Social Media World Forum in New York.

Also a special thank you to all the speakers, sponsors, exhibitors & media partners we enjoyed working with you and look forward to meeting you all again next year!

Greg Cargill kicks off the Social Media Hub with the Fundamentals of Social Media.

Panel Discussion: Examining strategies for using social media for business to business marketing

Chairman/Moderator: Joshua March, Co-Founder,  Conversocial 

 Linette Gomez, Senior Director, Internet Marketing – Social Media,CA Technologies
Jeannine D’Allegro, Marketing Director, Social & Digital Engagement Strategy, Dun & Bradstreet
Price B. Floyd, Vice President of External Engagement and Digital Strategy, BAE Systems

Keynote Panel Discussion: What is Social Reputation and why this should matter for your business

Chairman/Moderator: Joshua March, Co-Founder,  Conversocial 

 Garth Holsinger, VP of Sales and Business Development,Klout 
Ted Rubin, Social Marketing Strategist & Brand Evangelist & Chief Social Marketing Officer,Collective Bias
Paul Papadimitriou, VP + Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Jason Wellcome,  Head of Digital Group, Weber Shandwick

Networking bar

Social Media Hub chair Greg Cargill introduces Adam Singer from Lewis PR

Exhibition

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).

According to a study by SAS and the Harvard Business Review, by 2012, 88% of companies will use social media worldwide.

Well, 2012 is just around the corner, and if you haven’t taken the steps to make your business socially active and aware, now is a great time to start! Meltwater Buzz, our social media monitoring, engagement and management platform, is the perfect tool to help you build and drive your social business.

How?  We’ve broken it down to six core steps.

1. Listen. Many organizations have already taken this first step—they’re monitoring social media for conversations about their brand or business. This first step is vital—it gives you a basis for understanding the volume, sentiment, tone and topics that surround your brand. You can use it as a baseline to measure how your initiatives are impacting these metrics over time. You also need to constantly monitor your brand to ensure that any crisis situation comes your immediate attention for swift and positive action.

2. Plan. Use the knowledge that you gain from monitoring your brand to determine what you really want to accomplish through your social presence. Define the “why”—the use case(s) for your social media presence. Do you want to reach out and draw customers closer to your brand? Provide better service and customer care? Gather feedback and ideas for new products? Sell more widgets? The choice is yours. After you define the “why” then detail the “how.” Create a strategy and plan, get everyone on the same page and define roles and responsibilities. Train ALL your employees on your strategy and draft your social media policies and procedures for everyone.

3. Engage. Now that you’ve done all that planning, start engaging! Make sure to publicize your social presence through email, your website, your advertising and more! And start getting active on your social accounts. Post great content to share with your community. Canvas social conversations to find potential new contacts to draw to your brand. And start making connections with your brand’s social fan base!

4. Measure. As you’re growing your social community, make sure you’re constantly measuring value. Which content drew the most re-tweets? The most likes? The most comments and shares? Which activities drew the greatest engagement? How has your activity changed the volume of conversation around your brand? How have your other marketing initiatives impacted social chatter? Regular measurement will give you an idea of what works (and what doesn’t) for you brand and market. Let those measurements be your guide to zero in on the things that resonate with your community.

5. Evaluate. Along with measuring key performance indicators, you need to evaluate your long-term results to see what ROI you’ve achieved through your social campaigns. Did your Facebook contest generate a huge new fan base? Did you see a rise in dog bed sales after you created a “star dog” photo promotion? Which social channels are generating the most engagement? Are you doing the right things for the channel that’s lagging?

6. Evolve. The answers you see in the metrics and results you see for particular campaign types are going to change drastically over time. That’s because this market is changing and evolving every day. New marketing ideas and campaigns are driving new business opportunities—and rules for social engagement. By being a part of this movement, you’ll be able to evolve with the market rather than be left behind.

This is a lot of food for thought. We’re here to help you make all this happen. Meltwater Buzz is a great tool that can help you manage through the steps of building your social business, and our Social Advisors are a great resource to guide you through the process. We’ll be at Stand 79 at Social Media World Forum in New York.

Please come by to see us and find out how we can help you drive your social business to success.

About the Author:

Margaret Donnelly, the former VP of Marketing & Business Development of JitterJam, spearheads the marketing efforts for Meltwater Buzz. Meltwater Group acquired JitterJam in March 2011.

Margaret has over 25 years of technology marketing and business development experience in the social media, telecommunications, services, and computer hardware and software industries at companies such as Firetide, ArrayComm, SkyTel, Commtouch and Pyramid Technology.

Margaret co-founded the Personal Broadband Industry Association and has served as an industry analyst and marketing advisor for a diverse set of businesses. A transplant from Silicon Valley now living in the wilds of New Hampshire, Margaret is active in the local arts community.

Twitter: @mwdonnelly

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mdonnelly

This November the Social Media World Forum will be landing in New York and we are giving you the chance to win an access all areas workshop pass as well as an invitation to the evening networking party.

What can you expect from #SMWF N. America?

SMWF North America will be providing a format for networking, engagement, and lots of social media debate around the latest tools, technologies, platforms, and emerging trends within social media marketing.

With predicted numbers of 2500 + attendees the show has grown significantly and will host a variety of free to attend Social media Hub & paid conferences for marketers, PR professionals, brands, agencies and SME’s.

The workshop sessions will feature leading brands such as Coca-Cola, Stumble Upon, Nike iD, Sears Holdings and Yahoo!  Key speakers include:

• Dennis Maloney, VP Multimedia Marketing, Dominos
• Robert Harles, Global Head of Social Media, Bloomberg
• Michael Donnelly, Director, Worldwide Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company
• Claire Díaz Ortiz, Corporate Social Innovation & Philanthropy, Twitter, Inc.
• Anna Lingeris, Public Relations Manager, Hersheys
• James Jeynes, Global Brand Manager, Nike
• Mark Coatney, Director/Media Evangelist, Tumblr

And many, many more

Find out more information about this year’s event here.

How can you win a free workshop pass?

To win a free ticket to this year’s event simply email rachel@sixdegs.com using the subject title ‘SMWF New York Competition’ with the reason why you deserve to win the free workshop pass. You have until the Oct 21st at 0530pm EST/ 1030pm GMT.  The team at SMWF will select the winning entry and that lucky person will be emailed & announced on Twitter.

Re-tweet this and let your friends know! We look forward to reading your comments – Good Luck!

1. Two days of action packed engaging content within 30+ sessions, across three tracks covering all aspects of the social media & apps ecosystem.

Click here to book your pass today!! 

If you’re looking for a job, your online profile is more important to you now than ever before, even more so if you are looking for a job within social media!

Social media now plays a role in finding, positioning and promoting yourself to your potential future employer. With strong competition from other applications social media offers a great way to find a job and stand out from the crowd.

In the age of Web 2.0 employers are now looking at how you interact and position yourselves within social media.

So how does having an online presentence can you successfully market yourself online and really stand out?

• Search within social media – Social media offers a great platform to find job openings, follow your top 10 ten preferred employers to see if they have any openings. Keep an eye on their LinkedIn company profile
• Network with the recruiter
• Have you got a LinkedIn profile? – Is your LinkedIn profile up to date? LinkedIn is probably the easiest place that employers can look you up and read further information about you. What message are you sending to your prospective new employer when they run a check on you?
• Join the conversation – Some employers even check out on your online profiles in Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, blogs
• Personal vs. private – clean up your online presence – Do you know what’s people can see on your social media profiles, much should you share?

SMWF Asia have partnered with e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) this year to run 2 panel discussions centred around social media employment opportunities on 1 Sept at 12.30pm at the Social Media World Forum Asia.

The workshop will be looking into:

• HOW HAVING AN ONLINE PRESENCE CAN IMPACT YOUR EMPLOYMENT PROSPECTS
• HOW TO LAND YOUR DREAM JOB IN SOCIAL MEDIA
• CHAT WITH SOCIAL MEDIA EMPLOYERS

To attend the social media employments free to attend workshop click here to register for your pass. The full agenda for the two days can be viewed here.

E2i will be holding 1-to-1 chat session with employers to explore your employment opportunities.

Do you have a social media job position available in Singapore?

E2i workshop will offer a great opportunity to meet prospective employees, keen to be involved in the world of social media. Don’t miss out on the chance to find the potential future stars for your business.

About e2i (Employment and Employability Institute)

As THE market-place for workers, employers and training providers, e2i exists to create better jobs and better lives for workers. In 2010, we helped 40,000 workers through providing better jobs, developing better skills through professional development, and improving productivity for companies.

An initiative of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), supported by the Workforce Development Agency (WDA), the Singapore Labour Foundation (SLF), and the Singapore National Employers’ Federation (SNEF), e2i serves all segments of workers, from rank and file to professionals, managers, executives and technicians.

For more information on e2i, please visit www.e2i.com.sg.

Related articles

• Job search – Time to think again about social media (leavingthepublicsector.net)
• HOW TO: Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for the Job Hunt (mashable.com)
• The rules of social recruiting (guardian.co.uk)

SMWF have teamed up with the Ritz Carlton, Singapore to offer all SMWF Asia visitors a discount rates for the duration of the show.

Please note: Rates are only available until the 15th Aug, so if you would like to stay at the hotel we recommend booking asap before allocation runs out.

Room Rates:
Deluxe Rooms, Kallang Bay View
S$ 320.00 per room, per night including 01 Buffet Breakfast & Internet

*This rate is available from the 31st Aug – 2nd Sept

To Book:
To take advantage of the above discounted room rates simply contact  The Ritz Carlton on (65) 6 337 8888 and quote Social Media World Forum.

The Ritz Carlton,
7 Raffles Avenue,
Singapore 039799
Singapore

Other Hotels located near the Suntec Centre include:

Hotel Grand Pacific                                               Price from:  S$220
101 Victoria Street
Singapore 188018
T : +65 6336 0811
E : reservations@hotelgrandpacific.com.sg W: www.hotelgrandpacific.com.sg/

HOTEL 81 – BUGIS                                                 Price from:  S$120 – 140
31 Middle Road Singapore 188995
T: + 65 6339 8181
W: www.hotel81.com.sg/h

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.