Walter Adamson

Social Media Tools Week: Social Media Assessment - how to start

Thanks to all of you who attended my second webinar today (Social Media Tools Week) on Social Media Assessment - How To Start.

I've seen in practice that many companies skip this Assessment stage or don't understand why it is important. Of course the very large agencies do apply their own assessments,and have inhouse or acquired tools to do an excellent job.

The presentation shows how every business can think about Assessment, and why it is important.

I was struck by this comment: "Media is an arena where people with shared interest and enthusiasm converge around a shared idea" by Helge Tennø Post Digital Marketing 2009.

If you BELIEVE THIS, as I do, then you need to find the right arenas and match the shared interest with your own and understand how to contribute and ideally, find the actual people who are most enthusiastic.

This is Social Media Assessment – before thinking of tools or "doing something on Facebook".

You can get a copy of the presentation from Slideshare.

Where does an Assessment fit in with developing a strategy?

Let's say that:

• You understand enough about social media
• You have some kind of customer-oriented feedback, ideas
• You have some idea of resources and how it can be handle
• You need a strategy (however large or small).

It’s at this point that you need to do an Assessment.

You want to map the terrain, identify the places and spaces that matter, understand the real environment, and then develop a strategy which is informed and practical and effective.

The Assessment is one of the suite of methodologies taught by the Social Media Academy and put into practice by its graduates across the globe. These have the benefit of being consistent, having people talk the same language, and being continuously improved from global feedback.

I'm sure you have experience in developing forms of Assessment, before doing the strategy work, or perhaps you don't agree with this logic?

Please add your comments below as I'd love to see those ideas.

http://xeesm.com/walter

Mindshare Report testiment to solid social media methodology

Mature and business-experienced students, now consultants, from a Leadership Class of the Social Media Academy pulled together this groundbreaking survey of the business use of social media which provides insights and illustrations about this whole new ecosystem.

The report covers 222 pages, and 6 companies in depth - Toyota, Vodafone, Dow Chemical, New York Life, John Deere, and NetApp.

While the insights may or may not stand the test of time, the point is that the process of assessment is rigorous and follows a clear methodology. Because it is a well constructed methodology it can be continually improved.  This is one aspect alone of this report which makes it worthwhile reading. This kind of approach is called a Social Media Assessment, and is usually aligned with corporate objectives.

As a graduate of the Social Media Academy, and a Black Diamond consultant, I know the rigor of the methodologies, which are continually refined based feedback from practitioners, such as me, in the field.

As for the companies and conclusions themselves, well suffice to say that they cover the spectrum of good planning and poor or inconsistent execution and visa versa. In the main they reflect the learning curve of companies moving into social media.

Where the initial objective or approach is not inclusive of customers, or not about customers gaining more information for better decision-making, or not about creating a better user experience, the investments fall short.

The key value in the report is the in-depth and factual content of the 6 assessments, and the learnings for future investments in social media. When you read the report you can assess for yourself whether or not the group predicted the slump in Toyota's customer loyalty scores.

Download the 30 page executive summary here. The full 220 page report including all six companies can be ordered online for US$29 in either PDF or printed version.

Five fundamentals fall one short - social media strategy

Socialsmart expands on 5 Fundamentals for Companies Looking at Social Media about social media marketing, and the explanations are good in themselves.

The post does however fall a bit short, since we believe that the "fundamentals" are quite different and are based on comprehensive social media planning and implementation methodologies. That's a bigger topic, and in any case the answers to the questions posed at Socialsmart are good guidance.

In particular #4 - It's your story - it needs to come from you - is a particularly important one, since quite a few agencies see themselves jockeying for contracts as "social media outsourcers". That's a mistake, and the post gives a good explanation. In any case, it's very transparent where agencies are doing that for customers today and it just brings a fake and non-transparent air to the whole exercise. 

You can see this issue in the community sites for several major Australian brands who have obviously outsourced to their agency.

The real point which I wanted to make, is that while "you need to know who your customer is" (point #1 of the post), which is what would typically be used in an online marketing design – persona-based market segmentation - it's not necessarily the best approach for social media.

The social media is different in that:

1. you need to know in which places and spaces your company / brand / products / services / competitors are being discussed i.e. a Social Media Assessment; and,
2. you can identify real people talking about real issues and you can determine how influential these real people are. 

By using this knowledge you can be far more effective than standard “marketing” person-driven analysis. Effective marketers need to hone their tools for the media at hand.