By Marcus Tewksbury

At one point or another I’ve heard someone define crazy as repeating the same exercise but expecting different results.  Mentally I have this picture of an old Simson’s commercial where Bart or Homer keeps reaching for a Butterfinger after being repeatedly shocked.  Basically, this is exactly how I see most marketers approaching the social space.

The metaphor here is to how the advertising world has learned to run itself by household level data supplied by the Neilsen’s of the world.  Was this data every really useful?  Did it ever shed insights on what really moved the needle?  Or, did we just become so desperate to justify what we were doing we grew to accept them as a course of action.  These statistics became an enabler to do our whim – kind of like my Weight Watchers diet.

Why then, when approaching social would we think things would be any different?  Immediately, we’ve all jumped on the buzz bandwagon looking for justification.  Problem is people have not “settled” yet and are still pushing for a social answer that is more accountable and more related to actual business performance.

As service providers then, the question is how do we step to the plate?  How do we provide a measure that truly speaks to business value created?  Start by finding the “client of the future.”  Producing meaningful metrics is entirely contingent on dumping the current episodic, campaign driven mentality of marketing and re-orientating the go to market with a customer centric strategy.  Look for folks who get the “4-B’s” or the like, they are few and far between.  Conversely, you can continue to play the Pancho to your clients as they tilt their windmills with cries of “reach”, “popularity”, and “friends”.

The Importance of Social Media for SEO
by Sky Opila

Yesterday, Walker Sands’ very own John Fairley moderated a discussion on social media and search engine optimization (SEO) at the Social Media Breakfast Chicago #3 event hosted by SCORE Chicago. John brought up a lot of great points for discussion in the group about social media and SEO, but after attending and discussing with the group I think there are some key takeaways everyone can start using today.

No doubt social media has a large influence on SEO. Take Walker Sands for example. If you Google a brand, such as ours “Walker Sands”, you will find that more than half of the links are influenced by social media. From our LinkedIn account, to Google reviews, to our Twitter stream and even our blog. Social media plays a large part in the content displayed in the search engine results page.

As John put it to the group, all of these social media sites are linking back to your Web site. And even though a lot of sites have adapted no follow links (meaning you may not get the benefit of link juice from them), they are increasing your visibility in the search engine results page.

So what does this mean?

Social media can and does influence your SEO. However, the goals for your brand may determine what strategy works best for you.

If you are an already well established brand, you may want to leverage social media to help you optimize for other keywords and phrases. For example, if chip giant Lays decided they wanted to enter the dessert game and offer chocolate-covered potato chips, simply putting it on their website may not be enough. As part of their marketing campaign they may leverage a blog to discuss the finer points of chocolate-covered potato chips or even YouTube videos about how to make and eat the chips properly. These social media tools in conjunction with their larger marketing campaign will help Lays rank for dessert ideas and chocolate-covered potato chips.

On the other hand, a less well-known and established brand may take a different approach to utilizing social media for SEO. This may include a startup company looking to fill out their brand more strongly. They might focus all of their social media and community building on branded items that help push their name to the top of the search engine results page and help fill out all of the results when someone searches for them.

John Fairley suggests that focusing strong efforts in some channels (the ones that specifically make sense for your business) is definitely better than spreading yourself too thin. He suggests that everyone should get a blog because that is the social media channel that you can most easily utilize to help influence search engine ranking.

Beyond a blog, if Facebook doesn’t make sense for your company, wait to use it. But if Yelp or Twitter does, make sure to not only leverage that but to build those communities into strong locations for your brand.

Thanks to John for leading a great discussion on social media and SEO, also wanted to shout out to the group members at the SCORE event that helped keep the conversation so lively!

Veronica Pasia
Gordon Dymowski
Hope Bertram
Jen Luby
Jenn Sutherland
Interactive Amy Ravit Korin
Laura Wasilewski
Tim McDonald
Elyse Devries

Sponsored By: Alterian SM2
Hosted By: SCORE Chicago

Topics of Discussion:
Make Your Social Media Accountable
Marcus Tewksbury, Director of Customer Intelligence, Alterian

Social Media and SEO Strategies
John Fairley, Director of Web Services and Social Media, Walker Sands Communications

How to Build Brand Awareness and Business with Social Media
Catherine Merritt, P.R. Coordinator, Morton’s The Steakhouse

Creating Social Media Content for Small Businesses
Mark E Goodman, Owner, e-Conversation Solutions, Inc

Online Community Building
Brad Flora, Founder, WindyCitizen.com

The show airs every Tuesday evening @ 6:00p on CAN TV-21, which is one of five public access channels in Chicago. Since it is Chicago public access TV, people living outside the city limits miss out on much of the valuable information the show airs.

My first question to Mark Goodman, SCORE Chicago, was why aren’t we simulcasting this show over the internet? To me, streaming over the internet would be the natural progression of expanding the show’s reach.

So I took it upon myself to find a solution of taking an in-studio set camera and splitting that into two streams: 1 for live TV and 1 for live internet streaming.

Not only did this problem stump me, but it had also stumped the Geek Squad @ Best Buy, the regular computer sales support @ Best Buy, and the sales and tech support @ CompUSA.

I knew I needed something to take in A/V components and convert them to USB output. The question wasn’t if Dazzle or Pinnacle Movie Box did this, the question was if it did it in a fashion to provide for live streaming over UStream. The main intended use of these products is to copy home videos onto your hard drive.

None of the people I asked knew if it would be possible to live stream through a Movie Box.

So I thought, I’ll test the waters. I went with the Pinnacle Movie Box Ultimate which was $130.00 @ Best Buy after taxes.

After installing Pinnacle Studio 12 and set up my A/V components into the proper ports, I was able to get the video play on my laptop, but not on UStream.

Reading more into the problem, I read that I would need to install Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder 3 (FME).

Finally, live streaming with audio over the internet via A/V components.

So if you have a camcorder, DVD, gaming system, or any other A/V you want to stream over UStream, follow these steps.

1. Open a UStream acount

2. Buy a Pinnacle Movie Box Ultimate

3. Install Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder

4. Download your UStream account’s XML file and upload into Adobe FME

5. In your UStream account, select install “high quality” platform

6. Start you Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder stream

7. Open your broadcasting page in UStream and click “start broadcasting”

And that should do it!

The other morning I had the pleasure of being asked to moderate a session; the honor to discuss an important subject – Digital Measurement precisely Social Media Measurement. We’re all trying to figure out how to measure social media, the Social Media Breakfast was perfect place to discuss theories and successes in measuring social media. I wasn’t sure of the level of experience my audience would have so I de-geeked my formulas so that we could have a pleasant conversation.

And a pleasant conversation we had. The Social Media Breakfast of Chicago founded by Craig Bagdon, Scott Bishop and Mike Pilarz who brought together people from all types of backgrounds who are excited by social media and it’s various forms, usages, and users. The group I had sparked enthusiastic conversations around calculating success through measurement and a genuine desire for participates to get something out of the session. If you’re going to show up for an early morning breakfast this is the place that will fuel you physically and intellectually.

I presented rationale on measuring Social Media. Most importantly what’s necessary to do before your begin to measure. It’s always good to have a baseline. We all acknowledged there are so many different behaviors to measure. I spent the past years working out the behavior and intent which I described through a schema I created.

Rick Sack made a great comment about social media he said it’s not media it’s marketing.

The take away from our lively session on Social Media Measurement:

Identify the communication objectives

Define the communication objectives and in terms of social media usage

Identify the social media tactics along with key performance indicators

Indicate outcomes – these are end results of the communications, such as reaching the audience with message. inspiring dialogue, and learning.

Set the return on investment as well as baseline for future analysis – the formula for this is cost of acquisition.
Cost of program/metrics = CoA

Danial Prager, Ocean Agency, nicely summed up Social Media Measurement session in his blog post, On Social Media Measurement.

My recommended reading:
Aliza Sherman, The Everything Blogging Book
Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody
Bob Garfield, The Chaos Scenarios

Highly recommend attending the Social Media Breakfast Chicago – #SMBChicago follow: SMBChicago

I’m always honored when I’m asked to speak on a panel or moderate an event in front of a roomful of people. It can be intimidating, however, as hundreds of ears tune in for the pearls of wisdom you hopefully offer. Usually, no one throws rotten fruit in my direction.

Last week I had a new honor, and this one was exceedingly fulfilling. The organizers for Social Media Breakfast Chicago have created a program where the moderator leads a discussion for about a dozen attendees in a small room, not a discussion with four panelists who pontificate in front of a ballroom crowd. This approach allows everyone to participate as the moderator–me, in this case–asks questions that the group can embrace and illuminate upon. Everyone is involved to the degree that makes them comfortable.

I’m a journalist by training (these days, that makes me an editorial consultant), so the approach is ideal: I was able to do what I do best, ask questions and then sit back and take notes. My panel discussed mobile marketing trends, one of the hottest topics of interest to communication professionals. Our group included a small business consultant, a media analyst from a major retailer, a non-profit “policy wonk” (his words!) and marketers with international clients.

While I could fill a few pages with take-aways from the SMBChicago event, I’ll leave just one: Attend the group’s next breakfast seminar. You’ll learn much when everyone gets to participate.

Social Media Breakfast Chicago Promo from Tim Jahn on Vimeo.

Imagine yourself as the CEO of your company. Imagine the responsibilities. Imagine the decisions. Imagine everything that gets put on the desk in front of you. Imagine the solutions you would put in place to handle the decisions and responsibilities you face.

Now open your eyes.

Think how social media would fit in.

Going up to the CEO of Company X and telling him 250 million people use Facebook will get you nowhere. Going up to CEO of Company X and telling him Company Y is on Twitter will get you nowhere.

What will get you somewhere is knowing his company. Knowing Company X.

You need to understand the goals of the VP of Sales. You need to understand the concerns of the VP of Human Resources. You need to understand the budget of the VP of Information Systems.

Then develop a solution.

Company X has a core customer base of males between the ages of 18 and 25 in the Chicago region, we can use this to target them.

Company X needs to grow their Inside Sales team 15% by year end, we’re going to use this and this and maybe that to really show off our work environment and attract the cream of the crop.

Company X has a Q3 budget that is already 97% consumed, we’re going to put a solution in place that will not only be cost effective, but will also supplement this strategy, which will free up 10% of the budget.

The only way to figure out these answers is to talk to people within the company. Every Director. Every VP. Every Account Executive. Every janitor. Well, maybe not every janitor, but you get the point.

You need to keep in mind that SM is cheap. Most sites are free. You’re selling your knowledge, your experience, and your brain.

What will stop you dead in your track is selling SM only for advertising or marketing. Dig deeper than that. Tie every verticle into the solution.

You should have so much information about Company X that you can do the quarterly conference call for the CEO. If you can attack his problems, beat his goals, and save his money, you can sell him anything.