Is Social Media Crap for Business?

I've had a few heated discussions with my marketing mates down the pub about social media. Some say it's all meaningless BS and I quote, "Nobody I want to sell to wastes their time on Twitter".... puleease......

That's not how I see it - I get more hardcore, relevant information that I need by listening and contributing on Twitter and linkedin than anywhere else. I hardly bother with my old corporate email address any more because it's so much easier to Skype. I can find all the leads I can handle and I can't imagine not being part of this many-headed Hydra (now, now, no comments about which head i am....or was that medusa?)

I'm interested to find out other opinions - from diehard social media addicts and those who simply loiter.

How to measure the impact of social media - checklist

The PR industry continues to look for a reliable way to measure ROI on social media - they know they have to be there but where do all the hours go and was it all worth it?

One clearcut metric is viewer stats (of tweets, video, press releases, diggs, etc) - they are a surefire indicator of the popularity of a topic. But even without a lot of 'thumbs-up' on DIGG.com, you can still get to the top of Google Search for major, 'expensive' keywords. So views on a single website don't tell anything like the whole story.

A large percentage of tweets (more than 60%) contain brand names so you can also begin to measure online reputation and impact: analyse positive, negative and neutral mentions.

Here's a handy checklist from Ogilvy PR that might help you put together an ROI chart:

• Blogs & Microblogs
– Number of inbound links
– Frequency/timeliness of posts
– Foll owers & subscribers
– Number and content of comments
– Affiliation of author
– Search engine visibility
– Traffic
– RSS feed subscriptions

• Videos & Photo Communities
– Number of views and downloads
– Number and content of comments
– Ratings/peer assessment
– Relevant groups
– Number of subscribers
– Number of inbound links

• Message Boards & Forums
– Breadth of boards
– Quantity and timeliness of activity
– Search engine visibility
– Affiliation
– Membership numbers
– Traffic

• Social Networks
– Membership numbers
– Types of community features present
(eg, profiles, blogs, video, message boards)
– Activity level on features
– Affiliation
– Search engine visibility
Hope this helps - let me know what you use to measure success!

Jack Evans honoured in newspapers across Australia

Proud to say the Newsmaker helped inform newspapers across Australia about the passing of Jack Evans, founder of the Australian Democrats.
http://news.google.com.au/news/story?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&ncl=dRd0cHKsyhll0KMAhN5xLvrkmxS0M&cf=all&scoring=d

Aussie start-ups look for US gateway

Aussie start-ups look for US gateway

MIS Australia and Australian Financial Review writer Rachael Bolton wrote this cool story about the Australian companies attending this year's ANZATech Summit.

Computerworld also covered the story at:
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/320473/australian_companies_hit_silicon_valley

Both these pieces of coverage were generated from a press release on NewsMaker :
http://www.newsmaker.com.au/news/1508


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Great coverage for PODMO internet bus story :)

PODMO got a whole bunch of media coverage recently, thanks to a press release distributed from NewsMaker:

The press release:
Adelaide's carbon-conscious commuters get on board with Podmo

A few coverage examples:
Anthill: http://anthillonline.com/adelaide-bus-commuters-get-free-wireless-entertainment-platform/
Adelaide commuters get free wi-fi Digital Media
Net savvy Adelaide bus commuters get free Wi-Fi Computerworld Australia
Internet-enabled bus hits road in SA Australasian Bus and Coach
Adelaide commuters get Internet Bus - Stuart Corner iT News
The Wheels On The Broadband Bus Offer Wi-Fi Gizmodo Australia
all 44 news articles » See Google News

Plus plenty more TV/Radio/Print
PODMO for the people!

Why would a journalist bother reading your press release?

For all those who have asked me what makes a good press release, here's the inside leg:

http://www.justweb.com.au/public-relations/how-to-write-a-press-release.html

Any other tips, just ask me :)

SEO doing the trick - 2nd spot in Google

Thanks to JustWebs writing a fantastic article about us, if you search Google "Australia Only" for "free press release" or "free online press release", NewsMaker comes up at about No 2 in natural results - out of about 22m! Very convincing and thanks, Rob!

PR fails hard via Twitter

This is the funniest thing I've read all day, from Advertising Age. A heated discussion after a US PR firm forgot to BCC her contacts in a press pitch (i love that, makes me feel less stupid!) and were subsequently flamed on Twitter. The bit that caught my eye was ... "Then again, some of them are "social-media experts" and we all know that's a pretty low bar." (can't we come up with some other term for "social media" - it's so last year :) Found this through #fail where you can find everybody's bloopers.

http://adage.com/adages/post?article_id=138547

Coverage in The Oz wins applause!

This has been a record week at the news-making coalface and, at the risk of pumping up my own tyre, it started well with this great testimonial from Matthew Michalewicz, SolveIT Software Pty Ltd.

"Having used a number of media distribution services in Australia and
overseas in the US and Europe, I can tell you first hand that the
results NewsMaker delivers is head and shoulders above any other
service on the market. The first time I used NewsMaker it delivered
more media hits than all the previous releases I had distributed using
a different service. If you want results, use NewsMaker."

Here's a link to just some of the coverage from SolveIT's press release:

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25910639-5013038,00.html

It came with a lovely pic - having good-looking staff never hurts in the media!

OMMA Metrics & Measurement Conference

An online metrics expert has labeled traditional marketing departments as "fossils" at the OMMA Metrics & Measurement Conference at the Yale Club, NY. The gathering, many of them marketers, was told that in future (as in, now) marketers’ performance will be measured in the way sales people's performance is measured, because they are increasingly responsible for the consumer's ‘click’ action. Today's top online marketers are achieving breathtaking conversion rates of 15-30%, Jeffrey Eisenberg of FutureNow claimed. But the trick is, where did the sale came from, or to which activity do you dedicate the 'attribution' - buzzword du jour. Was it the video ad, or the Google ad, or the website copy, or the PR? Means marketers have to be across more territory than ever before.