SEO Werkt!

Unless you've been living in an cave in Afhanistan you have probably heard the steady drumbeat of the need for standards in social media. I you were following the IPR or #AMEC2012 last week, you'd konw that we've made a lot of progress in the last few weeks. The IPR set out proposed standards for measurement of traditioanal media while more standards were proposed in Dublin. 

Nows your chance to learn even more, I'll be doing a FREE webinar for the Society of New Communications Research on "Standards in Social Media – Where we are and where we need to be?

Wednesday, June 27^th at 1:00pm – 2:00pm EDT

 You'll learn more on what constitutes influence, what count and doesn't count as content, what should you include in an engagement metrics. so Register Today

Join us for this webinar as we discuss:

• What is a standard and why do we need it?
• What defines a social media channel?
• What content is social?
• What metrics really matter and what should be measured?
• What are the standard definitions and guidelines the individuals and companies should follow?

Online marketers and advertising are getting access to more and more data, but that’s not enough, according to the 2012 Digital Marketing 2.0 Study commissioned by ad company DataXu.

More than 350 “enterprise decision makers” in management, marketing, communications, digital, IT and social media were surveyed, and 75 percent of them said that data will help them improve their businesses. However, 58 percent said they didn’t have the skills and technology needed to analyze marketing data, while more than 70 percent said the same about customer data.

“We know about Facebook and Google and other Internet service companies leading the charge in dealing with big data,” DataXU co-founder and CEO Mike Baker told me. Other large companies know “they need to get in the game,” but “they don’t have the training or the tools to actually realize these efficiencies.”

Perhaps related, 90 percent of respondents said that digital marketing can reduce customer acquisition costs, but 46 percent said they don’t have the tools to communicate those benefits to management.

When the respondents were asked about the biggest obstacle to the growth of digital marketing, they pointed to the lack of a single platform that reaches across all channels. With its online marketing tools, DataXu is tackling this problem, but Baker said his company hasn’t quite covered every avenue that marketers  need help with — they want tools that aren’t just “multi-channel” but “omni-channel”.

“An equal challenge is ease-of-us — how to bring the power of big data people who have never taken a stats class in their life,” he said.

The study was conducted by social media consultancy Human 1.0 and nonprofit Society for New Communications Research. You can download the related whitepaper here, and sign up for the related webinar, scheduled for March 29, here.

[update 5/17/11] – the editor for the magazine got back with me, apologized and rectified the situation. I removed their name from the title of he post.

At some point in time tonight, I got a Google Alert about the Tribalization of Business Study, a study which I co-founded with Deloitte and the Society for New Communications Research and which is in its 4th year.

The article, written by Marco Ciobo, a Principal at AT Kearney, claimed that “A study by AT Kearney in 2009, called The Tribalization of Business, found that the vast majority of Fortune 500 companies in the US investigated, and then relegated, social media to the marketing department, which was also given responsibility for imposing tight policy controls on its use.” (screenshot here)

I immediately posted a comment on the Business Spectator Article, alerting them to the fact that the study was not done by AT Kearney, but by Human 1.0 (formerly Beeline Labs), Deloitte and the Society for New Communications Research. I also tweeted my indignation with the obvious plagiarism. After all, the study made for the foundation of our award winning book, The Hyper-Social Organization, which was published by McGraw-Hill last year.

The comment was not approved, but the article was modified to say that “A study by Deloitte and the Society for New Communications Research, in 2009, called The Tribalization of Business*” – without any mention that:

• The article had been modified
• Human 1.0/Beeline Labs is a founding sponsor and a driving force behind the study

In my book, this is a bad practice all around, violating most Human 1.0 principles we discovered through the Tribalization of Business study.

I’m proud to share the news that our Converseon client Lion Brand Yarn has been awarded two of the awards I most respect in the social media world: Forrester’s Groundswell Award in the highly-competitive ‘Talking‘ category and a Society for New Communications Research award for best use of online publishing in the corporate division.

I’ve previously blogged a detailed case study on LBY’s outstanding results in social media, including sharing the presentation I delivered alongside LBY’s smart VP of Marketing Ilana Rabinowitz at the Internet Retailer Conference earlier this year.

The Forrester Groundswell Awards attract a large amount of entries, and I was blown away that we beat out the likes of the innovative Mad Men Yourself campaign and USA.gov from the Office of Citizen Services amongst the 23 entries in the B2C talking category. Meanwhile, the Society for New Communications Research has the support and involvement amongst its fellows of the smartest thinkers in our industry. We’re humbled by the recognition.

This post ain’t all self-horn-tooting though, to add some value I’ll share some quick thoughts about the ’secret-sauce’ of the Lion Brand case study:

• Connect with people around their passions

Knitters and crocheters are extremely passionate, their hobby is one of their greatest areas of interest. Not every brand has as direct a link to a passion as LBY does, but every brand can work to find the point where they really ‘matter’ for their stakeholders.

• Social media is a marathon, not a sprint

We’re receiving these awards 18 months after we launched the podcast and subsequent blog efforts. The greatest returns for this program have came in the 12-18 month range. First you need to build community, then you need to market to it.

• Do it wrong quickly (as Mike Moran would say)

You can’t measure what you’re not doing. LBY gave themselves the time to do corporate social media right, before worrying about strict ROI and proving a business case for resources. If this initiative hadn’t shown success, they could have stopped at any time. But continual measurement and improvement proved the case for more time and energy.

• Organizational culture matters

At the core of good social media strategy you need to care about your stakeholders and be prepared to openly connect with them. You can’t pay lip service to adding value to the online community – you really need to walk your talk. Focus on relationships and building trust over time.

• Anyone can succeed in social media

Who would have thought knitters would be one of the most passionate online audiences you can find? Stop making excuses for why your brand can’t do it, and get out there and try something.