Social Marketing Strategies: Metrics, Where Are They ?

By now you probably have heard that I'm going to moderate a panel at SXSW 2008 on the topic of social marketing strategies and the related controversal topic of metrics.

The title for the Session is Social Marketing Strategies: Metrics, Where Are They?

I have the following talented and experienced people on the panel:

Brian Magierski - Chief Development Officer, BSG Alliance Corporation

Michael Smith - Executive Director, E-Business at USAA

Ynema Mangum - Executive Producer and Host for BMC Software's TalkBMC Community

Rohit Bhargava - Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy & Marketing Olgivy Public Relations

Why are CMOs so scared of social media and social networking?  Let's look at the success of vendors and businesses who have employed these new systems to explore their lessons learned and discover how to leverage social media maketing strategies that will increase business growth for small-, medium- and enterprise-scale businesses.

Attendees will learn ...

 - What social media marketing strategies are working

 - How to define metrics for social media marketing strategies and talk with your CMO

 - Why you should be thinking about social media and social networking-based marketing strategies for business growth

Some Questions we are reviewing - What are yours ?

From Tom Parish

  - What is social marketing and how is it different from traditional marketing?
 -  What defines success in social marketing?
 -  Why is management so leary of incorporating social marketing strategies and how can that be changed?

From Ynema Mangum

Where does social media fit within your organizational structure?
-  What is some of the best advice you can give to a manager with no social media experience?
-  What is the impact of the introduction of social media on office politics?

From Rohit Bhargava

- Is it better to grow a social media effort from within or hire a "ringer" to be part of the team?
- How do you deal with the essential truth that in social media sometimes everyone won't love you and say positive stuff about you?
- What is the best metric to focus on to gauge success of a social media effort? (and broad answers like "engagement" don't count - get specific!)

From Michael Smith

- Does social media contribute to lead generation and revenue contribution directly or indirectly? If so, how do you measure it?

-  What specific metrics tools are available to quantify the impact of social media as part of an enterprises marketing & communications plans? How much should an enterprise invest in social media and metrics as a percent of the total marketing investment?

-  CMO’s are continually pressured today to define the “economic value contribution” of the marketing organization. Other then brand impacts what tangible economic business value can social media bring to the table?

From Brian Magierski

1. What is the primary value driver behind social media marketing? (i.e. is SMM best suited to drive leads, commerce/transactions, customer innovation, other). Is there more than one?

2. What media are channels for social media marketing? Social Networks, blogs, microblogs, others? What are the benefits / drawbacks of each?

3. For the primary driver or drivers identified in #1 above, what are the metrics which would measure success and potentially ROI for each? Be specific.

Bonus1: Is social media marketing better suited for certain industries and not others? If so, which ones are best suited for SMM?

Bonus2: What edge am I getting on my competitors by starting with SMM now rather than waiting?


Tom Parish

Host: www.EnterpriseLeadership.org

Monday, February 04, 2008  | Permalink |  Comments (1)