It’s Planning Season: Five Ways to Apply Social Media to Marketing Planning
Putting together your marketing plan for 2010? Don't forget about social media. Check out Networked Insights' five tips to transform your plan for the social media age.
Madison, WI, August 15, 2009 --(PR.com)-- For almost two years, industry publications and experts have been talking extensively about what is happening and why when it comes to social media. In many cases stories focus on how the “world is coming to an end” as consumers take the power of branding away from the brand managers and chief marketing officers and start owning viral perceptions and reactions. The days of Chicken Little are over; well, at least that’s what social media and customer intelligence company Networked Insights thinks.
“There’s been numerous articles published on the role of social media in marketing and I’ve been speaking enough with marketers to know that it’s time to take the conversation to the next level,” said Dan Neely, founder and chief executive officer of Networked Insights. “We’ve put together five considerations on how any product or service can evolve brand planning for the social media age.”
1) Reconfigure your media budget to include social networking. Traditionally marketers have looked at set categories or buckets for allocating marketing dollars—whether those are broadcast, local store marketing or public relations, to name a few. “With Americans spending more time online than in front of the television and over 100 million people regularly using the top four social media networks, this medium is an industry standard,” added Neely. “You fish where the fish are and while ‘online’ has been a marketing line-item for years, social media has earned its own cut of the pie.”
2) Make social media a research component. Most brands plan for at least one or two major research initiatives every few years—a quantitative survey issued to its core target or a series of focus groups in key markets. “Entire ad campaigns or innovation paths can come from these expensive and sometimes very contrived efforts,” explained Neely. “Incorporating a listening platform like SocialSense® is far more cost effective, can be done in real-time and gives you raw data that doesn’t get filtered through a respondent screener or moderator’s report. Traditional research is very useful but social media listening is a definite value-add and cross-check.”
3) Redefine your target. Watching behavior patterns, trends and evolving attitudes about brands and competition is a more complex but ultimately more comprehensive way to analyze a target, according to Neely. “Demographic information and psychographic response that is reported through other research gives a good gauge for a consumer’s mindset but data based on actual behavior and verbatim commentary is actionable.”
4) Create a social media timeline. Neely suggests brand managers that are new to social media plot when they are going to implement social media outreach—from finding target markets before campaigns to measuring ROI after. For brand managers looking to incorporate social media efforts year round, Neely recommends finding a platform that organizes its findings and offers the information specific to client needs. “Regardless of when you implement using online analytics, there’s no doubt the findings will help increase the lifespan of the brand,” said Neely.
5) Don’t change what you say; change how you say it. Brands are making mistakes in social media when they are insincere, dishonest or underestimating their customers’ savvy. “It doesn’t matter if you’re the CEO of a huge phone company putting a faux e-mail address on commercials or a major retailer planting employees as fake bloggers,” Neely explained. “Social media listening is about discovering real conversations with real people. This can be the most effective component of your marketing mix, but only if it’s treated less like a broadcast and more like a transaction of information.”
About Networked Insights
Founded in 2006 Networked Insights ™ is a privately-held company that combines technology and social media analytics to help businesses make better business decisions. Networked Insights’ social media listening platform, SocialSense, delivers insight about content, consumer behavior and demographics and finds the online audience that matters most for businesses. The company is based in Madison, Wis., and has offices in Chicago and San Francisco. For more information about Networked Insights, visit http://www.networkedinsights.com.
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“There’s been numerous articles published on the role of social media in marketing and I’ve been speaking enough with marketers to know that it’s time to take the conversation to the next level,” said Dan Neely, founder and chief executive officer of Networked Insights. “We’ve put together five considerations on how any product or service can evolve brand planning for the social media age.”
1) Reconfigure your media budget to include social networking. Traditionally marketers have looked at set categories or buckets for allocating marketing dollars—whether those are broadcast, local store marketing or public relations, to name a few. “With Americans spending more time online than in front of the television and over 100 million people regularly using the top four social media networks, this medium is an industry standard,” added Neely. “You fish where the fish are and while ‘online’ has been a marketing line-item for years, social media has earned its own cut of the pie.”
2) Make social media a research component. Most brands plan for at least one or two major research initiatives every few years—a quantitative survey issued to its core target or a series of focus groups in key markets. “Entire ad campaigns or innovation paths can come from these expensive and sometimes very contrived efforts,” explained Neely. “Incorporating a listening platform like SocialSense® is far more cost effective, can be done in real-time and gives you raw data that doesn’t get filtered through a respondent screener or moderator’s report. Traditional research is very useful but social media listening is a definite value-add and cross-check.”
3) Redefine your target. Watching behavior patterns, trends and evolving attitudes about brands and competition is a more complex but ultimately more comprehensive way to analyze a target, according to Neely. “Demographic information and psychographic response that is reported through other research gives a good gauge for a consumer’s mindset but data based on actual behavior and verbatim commentary is actionable.”
4) Create a social media timeline. Neely suggests brand managers that are new to social media plot when they are going to implement social media outreach—from finding target markets before campaigns to measuring ROI after. For brand managers looking to incorporate social media efforts year round, Neely recommends finding a platform that organizes its findings and offers the information specific to client needs. “Regardless of when you implement using online analytics, there’s no doubt the findings will help increase the lifespan of the brand,” said Neely.
5) Don’t change what you say; change how you say it. Brands are making mistakes in social media when they are insincere, dishonest or underestimating their customers’ savvy. “It doesn’t matter if you’re the CEO of a huge phone company putting a faux e-mail address on commercials or a major retailer planting employees as fake bloggers,” Neely explained. “Social media listening is about discovering real conversations with real people. This can be the most effective component of your marketing mix, but only if it’s treated less like a broadcast and more like a transaction of information.”
About Networked Insights
Founded in 2006 Networked Insights ™ is a privately-held company that combines technology and social media analytics to help businesses make better business decisions. Networked Insights’ social media listening platform, SocialSense, delivers insight about content, consumer behavior and demographics and finds the online audience that matters most for businesses. The company is based in Madison, Wis., and has offices in Chicago and San Francisco. For more information about Networked Insights, visit http://www.networkedinsights.com.
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Networked Insights
Kimberly Stobb
608-237-1867
www.networkedinsights.com
Kimberly Stobb
608-237-1867
www.networkedinsights.com
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