Many of us know that social media marketing is an important part of a solid inbound marketing strategy. However, sometimes we need some backup when speaking with others who might still be struggling to understand how social media fits into the overall marketing mix. This post is for them — and you. Even if you are a veteran inbound marketer, these stats will get the gears in your head turning about the still limitless possibilities that the internet provides.

via 13 Mind-Bending Social Media Marketing Statistics.

Is social media marketing effective? That’s the question being asked as more and more businesses are investing in increasing amounts of social media marketing.  With no standard means of measurement, there’s a wide variety of goals and metrics used to define the ROI of social strategies. Fortunately, this enlightening infographic, developed by MDG Advertising, helps clear up the confusion by outlining the objectives, benefits and factors that affect the success of social media marketing.

Infographic by MDG Advertising

via Measuring Social Media ROI | How To Measure Social Media Success | Social Media Agency | MDG Advertising.

Only 50% of U.S. Adults Use Social Media http://mashable.com/2011/08/26/adult-social-media-stats/

……….which means 117 million adult Americans are using social media. Heck, I’d even settle for 11.7 million.

Only 50% of U.S. Adults Use Social Media

mashable.com

Social media is not ubiquitous. In fact, says a Pew Internet Survey released on Friday, just half of U.S. adults are logged on to sites like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn.

8 hours ago · 716 · Like · · Share

via Facebook (1).

Just read an interesting post on Mashable called Should You Outsource Your Social Media Efforts? which talks about how…

The costs for social media support can vary widely — some social media consultants charge a flat fee per month for an agreed-upon scope of work, while others charge by the hour, at rates varying from $50 to $100 or more per hour. Whatever the cost, the bar for success will be set much higher when you’re actually paying someone to do it. Make sure you’ve established some measurable goals to ensure that your social media spending is moving the needle for your business.

They speak to measuring ROI which has been a topic I’ve been researching these past few months, and love their suggestions as a starting point:

• Fan base growth:
  Hitting 1,000 fans or followers over a set period of time
• Customer acquisition:
  Getting 50 redemptions per campaign on social media offers
• Support of direct marketing:
  Adding 200 names to your e-mail database per month
• Engagement:
  Achieving 20% participation by your fan base (e.g. Facebook “likes” and comments)

How are YOU measuring social media ROI?

Loved this post by Oglivy “Time for Brands to Adopt a Comprehensive Social Media Strategy (and Why You Need One)“ which highlights three things a company needs to do to achieve the biggest impact possible with Social Media Campaigns:

1. Define their social brand — just how can they and should they participate in social media that is authentic to them. Not every company should put their 1,666 blogging employees in an aggregator like Microsoft.6 Not every brand should enlist women to tell men how they can score like Axe does via Facebook.
2. Decide how to move your organization to adopt social media best practices via an Enterprise Change Framework.
3. Establish a Marketing & Communications (Marcom) Social Media Engagement Framework outlining the best way for the organization to plan marcom programs.

If you need help getting more from your Social Media Campaign, please give me a call. It would be my pleasure to assist.

Just read Harvard Business Review Analytics Services Studies Social Media and was not surprised to hear that…

“Most organizations are in discovery mode when it comes to social media,”

or that…

“the significant participation in the survey of more than 2,000 senior executives demonstrates how important the topic is—and it’s one they are working hard to figure out.”

I was however VERY surprised to read these statistics:

• Three-quarters (75%) of the companies did not know where their most valuable customers were talking about them.
• Nearly one-third (31%) aren’t measuring the effectiveness of social media on the business.
• Less than one-quarter (23%) are using social media analytic tools.
• A small number (7%) of participating companies are able to integrate social media into their marketing activities.

Especially that 75% of companies polled were not monitoring their reputation in this day and age and economy.   Don’t they realize that there are over 500 million active users on Facebook alone – over 1/2 of which participate once a day — even if they choose not to???

If you’re reading this blog and are not managing your online profile and need help getting started, give me a call. I’d love to show you how to protect the reputation you’ve worked hard to get.   We call it profile management and in our books it’s a must do, that is if you want to stay in business!

Savvy marketers and business owners have flocked to Foursquareto take advantage of their 4.5 million members for one simple reason: Foursquare requires action. Conversations on Twitter and fan engagement on a brand’s Facebook Page can be valuable pieces to a successful social media marketing campaign, but user activity at the point of sale is the ultimate objective for us marketers and business owners. We ultimately want action, and geolocation networks like Foursquare deliver the goods.

via 6 Ways to Market on Foursquare Without a Location.

One of the categories SMBs ask for the most help with is social media. You need to quickly and easily keep an eye on what people are saying about you; more importantly, you need to participate in the social media conversation yourself, without drowning hours upon endless hours bouncing around various websites.

There are three great tools we’d recommend for pushing out updates to a variety of sites at once. All three have free, web-based services, and they’re great for working with teams, too. Depending on your specific needs and tastes, you could try out Hootsuite, Seesmic and TweetDeck.

If you want to see what people are saying about your company, your product, your location or your vertical in real time, try searching for relevant terms on Collecta or SocialMention.

You also have options for network-specific monitoring tools. To see how your tweets are performing, tryCrowdBooster. And remember, Twitter’s official analytics product is coming soon, too. For Facebook, use that social network’s Insights dashboard for your business’s Facebook Page.

via 23 Free, Web-Based Tools SMBs Are Asking for Now.

By SHERRY HINMAN Special to Sun Media

“The key to a growing a small business? Have a plan! For a business of any size, it’s important to know what you’re about and where you’re going,” says Mark Drager, president of Phanta Media, a corporate video production company in Markham, Ont. He sees his company’s plan as being like something a general would use before a war, to rally the troops.

A traditional business plan begins with an executive summary to allow the reader a quick look without delving into details. The company overview follows, outlining the mission statement, goals and objectives, corporate values or philosophy and vision statement. Following is a description of the business environment, which looks at the market trends for the particular industry, as well as the company’s competition; then, a description of the company and company strategy, which outlines strategies about the industry, markets and competition.

Finally is the financial plan, which covers the position at the start of business and where the financial position is expected to be in the future. It includes an income statement (revenues less costs to show profits), balance sheet (record of the financial position at a given time) and cash-flow statement (cash in and out as it’s received and spent). A good business plan also includes an action plan, showing how the business plan will be carried out.

A business plan doesn’t have to fit the traditional model to be valuable, though. Drager says he would write a full plan if he needed it for bank financing, but instead he develops what he calls an annual vision statement. “This concentrates mostly on what the company will be like in the future. Where will we be in one year? Three years? Five years? It’s a two-page document that outlines aspects like the company’s vision, mission, positioning in the market, objectives and corporate values.”

It also gives staff and prospective employees a sense of the culture of the company, something that Drager feels is critical. “We use it as a recruitment tool.” Once they’re close to hiring someone, they share the document with prospective employees. “This is what we’re about. And this is where we’re going. If the person is not on board with it, then they’re not a good fit with the company culture.”

It can be difficult to write a business plan as you launch your business, because there’s a lot you still don’t know about where you’re heading. But it’s worthwhile. “If you don’t write it down, you can’t articulate what you’re doing as a company,” Drager says. “And you need to articulate your plan for staff, investors and clients. That gives you the confidence and allows other people to buy into your plan.”

Once the plan is up and running, it needs to be maintained. Sue Sutcliffe, owner/manager of aWEBthatWORKS, an Internet marketing company, feels one of the most important aspects of working with a business plan is a system to track your goals and objectives. “I look at my plan once a month and update it two or three times a year. I do this whenever we have a new project or new product, to see what’s working, and tweak it. Action items have to have a date associated with them, for example, achieving this much in revenue by a certain time. But we track a lot of other aspects, too, such as where customers come from.”

Drager does the same. “I do quarterly goal-setting, and the action items are specific, for example, to systems, marketing or accounting. Our quarterly goals are only for one or two of those, so that they’re achievable.” Goals may be related to revenue or about next steps for growth, for example hiring staff or opening a new office.

The process of updating the business plan is one Drager does himself, as president. “You’re driving it,” he says. “But you’re not in it alone.” So he shares the plan with staff and gets feedback. “Then everyone will make sure it happens.”

Drager’s advice about business plans is to “just do it. You won’t see the benefits if you don’t do it. And, unless you’re taking it to the bank, don’t struggle to make it perfect.”

— Sherry Hinman is a freelance writer/editor and owner of The Write Angle. info@thewriteangle.ca.

Toronto Sun | Last Updated: October 19, 2010 4:20pm