Post 9 : Measurement of Social Media

How can you measure the effectiveness of social media?

Standard ‘Engagement’ Metrics:

In most cases today, if you are leveraging social media, you are driving traffic back to your web site. Here are some general ‘engagement’ metrics that brands can use once their visitors arrive:

• -       Total time spent per user
• -       Frequency of visits
• -       Time spent on site
• -       Depth of visit
• -       Conversions

There are a number of web analytics tools to help track these metrics, such as Omniture and Google Analytics which is free!

In terms of the Innocent ‘Big Knit’ campaign that I mentioned in my previous post, the success of the campaign can be measured through press coverage, increase in sales and overall amount of money raised for the Age UK charity.

Social media regulations

There has been a rapid expansion of surveillance and data mining technologies in order to protect the privacy and security of network users.

UK regulation

•Data protection Act (1998)

•As of March 1^st, 2011, UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (the CAP Code) expanded to include online, including the rules relating to misleading advertising, social responsibility and the protection of children.

How are social networking sites protecting it’s users?

Facebook

Encourages self-surveillance and regulation of the self. The site provides users with a recommended privacy default setting which encourages its consumers to select the “Friends Only” option. This option will limit the amount of information visible other non-friend users.

Facebook work hard with other regulation bodies in order to provide its users with a safe environment to communicate with friends.

TRUSTe Program. Facebook has been awarded TRUSTe's Privacy Seal signifying that this privacy policy and practices have been reviewed by TRUSTe.

Post 8 : Being Social

Being Social

‘To participate in online social networking is also about the act of sharing yourself or your constructed identity with others’ (Albrecht Lund, 2008).

How does an organisation break into the social media platform?

Well firstly, it’s important to define your brand before you sign up to any social networking service. What exactly does your brand stand for? Does it hold a certain vibe or distinctive brand value? It is important for an organisation to determine its key spoken or unspoken messages and select a target audience. 


Once this stage is complete, all other elements such as profile photos, page colours and content should match up and reinforce the definition of the brand.

Selection of a social media platform

There are a number of social media outlets that your can join, many of them are specific to your topic or industry, however it may not be necessary to join them all. The selection is dependent on time and resources therefore brands may wish to establish presence in a couple of networking sites.

It is important to choose a social network that works with your audience. For example a corporate organisation may select Facebook and LinkedIn. If you’re a tech-savy brand you may choose Twitter and Facebook.

The innocent brand values focus on operating a truly sustainable business, with an aim of having a positive effect of the world around them.

Innocent products has positive health benefits and focus on keeping ingredients as pure, natural and healthy as possible, reinforcing the ‘Innocent brand value’.

The Big Knit Campaign

Innocent knitted 800,000 little woolly wonders that are placed on the of their smoothie bottles and for every bottle sold, innocent drinks and Sainsbury’s gave  25p to Age UK to help people in their later life stay warm in winter.

Over the past seven years, people all over the world have been knitting in aid of the annual Big Knit campaign. To date, Innocent have received 2 million little hats and raised over £800,00 for Age UK.

The selected social media platforms taken by Innocent include Twitter, Facebook and campaign blog, providing Innocent fans with regular updates on their success.

Post 7 : New Public Spheres

 So lets start with a definition…

“The public sphere is an arena where people can get together and freely discuss and identify shared problems and, through that discussion, produce solutions that influence elite actors” Dahlberg (2001).

In terms of analysing communicative spaces, interactive discussions can be hugely influential. Arguments can be developed for personal expression and promote citizen activity.

Impact of Twitter and Facebook and recent protests

The rock band, Rage Against the Machine won the most competitive battle in years for the Christmas number one in 2009. The bands single, Killing In The Name, sold 500,000 downloads beating X Factor winner Joe McElderry’s The Climb by 50,000 copies to clinch the top spot.

The success of the campaign followed a Facebook campaign designed to prevent Simon Cowell's ‘music machine’ dominating the number one position over the Christmas period. Quite frankly I believe audiences within the public sphere were fed up with Simon Cowell taking control over the UK music charts. Audiences involved with the interactive campaign wanted to take the power for themselves and in particular, over elite powers.

Today (March 2011) the Facebook group has over 860,000 members and has received support from celebrities including John Lydon, Lenny Henry and Bill Bailey.

Simon Cowell acknowledged the Facebook campaign and commented that it was dismissive of the public as it was directed at him (Guardian Dec 2009)

The campaign provides us with evidence of the power of the public sphere. Facebook users from all over the world shared a similar viewpoint and were determined to prevent Simon Cowell from shaping our music industry. Promoting the power of interactive citizen activity.

Post 6 : Online Consumption

Online consumption

So this week, I shall be exploring the practical issues that are a consequence of excessive digital consumption. Firstly, can purchasing goods online become addictive? I personally will admit to my EBay addition. The site offers audiences with an interactive market place where buyers can purchase great value products and sellers can pretty much get rid of anything.

EBay’s success is driven by the growth of ‘have it now’ digital consumption. From my own experiences, building up your feedback rating can become fairly addictive. The savings are amazing, when my friends head down to the local Top Shop, I can search for the same branded goods on EBay for better value. 

Seller’s trustworthiness depends on their Ebay feedback scores. In terms of building up reputation: 69% of buyers chose to make purchases from reputable sellers, for example 90% positive feedback (ISTC-CNR, 2009).

Acceleration of consumer desire

EBay offers consumers the chance to acquire desired goods more easily. The extensive product range that is on offer further encourages audiences to process digital virtual representations and suspend moral blocks.

Consumer desire is a cyclical process, once the desired product has been purchased, the consumer with further desire for a more exclusive good.  Dreaming about a product can be more satisfying than the ownership of the product itself.

When an item is promoted on a website, the key element that will accelerate the consumption process is reputation. There is an increased role for PR as trust and reputation for online websites such as EBay will have a significant impact on consumer consumption.

Privacy

Browsing history and online behaviour is a key site for data gathering, the EBay organisation however, claim they record the history of your purchases for consumers future purchasing benefits and will not disclose personal information to other organisations.

Post 5 : Search Engine Optimisation

So…. Search engine optimisation, how does it work?

SEO has been defined as the process of improving visibility of a website or web page in search engines, for example, Google, Ask Jeeves, Bing and Yahoo.  The search will go through an organic or algorithmic process in order to reach the desired search results. The greater the frequency or height that the site appears in the search results will have a significant impact on the number of visitors the site will receive from search engine visitors.

Other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings. Google for example, place sponsored links at the top, using the same format as real results, therefore giving the impression that they are part of the organic search.  It has been suggested by Smith (2008) that consumers are desensitised to advertising and 75% of online searchers will happily skip over these sponsored results and go straight to the organic outcome.

I would describe the Google Ad words tool as a genuine piece of technology innovation.

Google 2010 income statement shows total revenue of $29.2 billion (97%) of which came from advertising revenues (Google finance 2010) Amazing stuff really!

What do practitioners need to look out for ?

Well firstly, Ad Words can be costly, so as a PR practitioner is it important to set a budget that you can stick to.

• -       Cost of Customer Acquisition
• -       Use in conjunction with traditional PR / marketing channels.
• -       React to trends not individual conversions.

Why is Google’s reputation so good?

Google’s online credibility is down to their excellent reputation management service, seeking to effectively address any online activity that could have a negative affect on a businesses reputation. Google achieve this by keeping all positive information at the top of search engine rankings. By providing consumers with effective SEO, the company is now regarded as the number one online search facility.