A ROI-Oriented Social Media Strategy

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When social media were first established as a marketing tool, businesses treated it with an experimental mentality, trying to figure out what works and what does not work. But as social media start to reach a mass market of consumers and more businesses are adding their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts everyday, poking around with social media is no longer sufficient in bringing a competitive advantage. Instead, it is time to consider a well-thought out social media strategy, as Brian Solis argues well in his blog that a company’s social media elements need to be part of a master plan. Here, I go one step further and argue that, simply having a social media strategy is not enough; it is also necessary to incorporate ROI into the strategy, in what I call a ROI-oriented social media strategy. This is different from running a social media campaign and then figuring out how to measure its return as an afterthought. Instead, ROI is an explicit element of the strategy right from the start.

Why ROI-oriented social media strategy?

Because it is a sound business decision. Just like savvy investors who would not jump into the market without a target in mind, a company’s social media strategy should not be without the guidance of clearly-defined returns. After all, if social media spending are to increase as fast as 34% a year, as Forrester Research predicts to be the case between 2009 and 2014, it is important to know that that money is not just thrown away to chase after some fad.

Social Media Growth

Photo by Flickr user Mike Manuel | CC 2.0

Another advantage of having a ROI-oriented social media strategy is company internal support. Continue reading “A ROI-Oriented Social Media Strategy”

Do Social Good and Earn Customer Respect

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Today is a special day for social media and society. Mashable together with (Red) have named today the Social Good Day to show what social media can do for social good. It is intended to “celebrate, share, and educate and engage in a discussion on how social media can be used to tackle some of the world’s social challenges and issues, in particular how it can be used to help fight AIDS in Africa.” For this reason, I have teamed up with a few fellow bloggers. Each one of us will write a special blog post today, and for every comment on these special posts, we will donate $1 to the UN’s Global Fund. Please consider joining us to make the world a better place by commenting on these blogs (see a list at the end of the post), tweeting or blogging about the Social Good Day, or donating to the Global Fund yourself.

Social Good Day 2010

In keeping with the spirit of the Social Good Day, in this post, I would like to talk about how companies can contribute to social good and at the same time earn their customers’ goodwill and respect. Although all businesses operate under a profit motive, they are also obligated to give back to the society and fulfill their role as a corporate citizen. Starbucks, for instance, challenges and encourages its employees to contribute to their local community. Brands such as Gap, Nike, and Apple have all become part of Product (Red), where up to 50% the profit from these products’ sales go to fight AIDS in Africa.

Doing Social Good the Right Way

Done in the right way, charitable behavior from businesses can increase customer loyalty and lead to goodwill among consumers, investors and the general public. But corporate philanthropy does not always touch people in the right way. Sometimes it becomes an ostensible tool that some corporations use to cover up their bad behavior or manipulate public opinion. As a consumer and a member of the general public, I asked myself what corporations do that truly touches me as being kind and generous and what appears suspicious and fake to me. Here are a few things that came back to my mind: Continue reading “Do Social Good and Earn Customer Respect”

Check-ins and Places

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Launched in March 2009, Foursquare has established itself as a top player in location-based services. It allows users to “check in” to a business when they are at (or technically in the vincinity of) a business. In exchange, users earn fancy badges and mayorships, plus social benefits with their friends and other users located nearby. In the short one and a half years of its life, Foursquare has quickly signed up close to 3 million users. Following this surprising enthusiasm from consumers toward such location-based services, Twitter introduced its own location service earlier this year, where Twitter users can attach a location to their tweets. More recently, Facebook also introduced its own location-based service called “Facebook Places”. Through the Facebook iPhone app or mobile web interface (touch.facebook.com), users can check themselves and their friends into locations, and share that information with other Facebook friends.

Facebook Places

Photo by Flickr user Anthony Quintano | CC 2.0

Mobile Check-Ins and Loyalty

The fast growth of mobile check-in services has sprung other services that target more specifically at customer loyalty. Some of these services are built on existing mobile platforms such as Foursquare, and others use their own proprietary system. Here I would like to briefly mention three such services as examples of what is taking shape in the field of location-sensitive loyalty. Continue reading “Check-ins and Places”