Social Media Marketing

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Figure 5.9 Connecting Source and Social Graph

Tools like Alterian’s SM2, BuzzStream and Tweetdeck—none of which are

break-the-bank expensive—provide simple and straightforward ways to implement

these practices in your business or organization. For example, using the combination of

Tweetdeck (available free of charge) and BuzzStream (under $100/month) enables you

to actively monitor Twitter for mentions of your brand or a competitor’s and ascertain

the social influence of those talking about your products and services. This gives you

precisely the data you need to prioritize your actual response effort (which is decidedly

not free) given what is being said and who is saying it. This data translates directly

into meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs), too: The number of mentions on

Twitter, positives versus negatives, average influencer rankings, and mean response

time are all examples of KPIs that you can add into your existing dashboards.

Being able to prioritize your responses allows you to connect more deeply with

individual customers, be it a one-off interaction around a particularly delightful or

upsetting experience, or the development of a longer-term relationship with a signifi-

cantly influential individual within your customer base. If you’ve ever posted a favor-

able comment—or any comment, for that matter—about a brand, product or service,

think about what it would feel like if you were personally acknowledged by the brand

manager, for example, as a result. In general, people post because they have something

to say—and because they want to be recognized for having said it. In particular, when

people post positive comments they are expressions of appreciation for the experience

that led to the post. While a compliment to the person standing next to you is typically

answered with a response like “Thank You,” the sad fact is that most brand compli-

ments go unanswered. These are lost opportunities to understand what drove the com-

pliments and create a solid fan based on them.