MediaCamp Bucks 08 – my first unconference appearance

May 16, 2008 By 1 Comment

It’s my first appearance at an ‘unconference’ tomorrow, when MediaCamp Bucks 08 takes place at Buckinghamshire New University.

It’s free to attend, and the sessions are running from 9am-5pm, with drinks and music afterwards. There’s actually some social drinks tonight as a warm-up, but due to recent fatherhood, I think the odds on me attending much of the entertainment and socialising are pretty much non-existant!

I’ve been looking forward to it for a while, especially after Twittering with the co-conspirators, Chris Hambly and Eaon Pritchard. But I had been a little worried about running a session after 2 weeks of sleepless nights, changing nappies, and lots of other stuff that doesn’t lend itself to long hours in front of a laptop.

Which is why it was quite funny getting an email from Michael Clarke, who had scheduled himself to run a workshop at the same time as mine, on a very similar subject. As we’re both looking at the changes that occur when you go from ‘playing’ with social media on your own time, to then using it for an established organisation, it made sense to pool our resources.

So tomorrow, in the spirit of social media, I’m attending a free conference around conversation and sharing knowledge, and running a sessions with someone who I only know about from a couple of emails and reading his blog for a couple of days!

In an additional bit of luck, before I went on paternity leave, I’d outlined a community marketing strategy for one of the titles I work across. And I came back to find community referrals had doubled, amongst other great results! A great result for Car Magazine.

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Solve one problem to justify social media marketing to any boss

May 14, 2008 By 5 Comments

There’s just one problem which requires solving to finally put social media/buzz/community marketing people in a position to easily justify investment and resource.

Image by uBookworm under Creative Commons

We can all measure the splash of a promotion dropping into our worlds.

But what we need to do is be able to measure the quality and quantity of every ripple it makes, and everything else it disturbs, and combine all those measurements into one, simple, and hopefully big, number.

Until digital and social media advocates are in positions of responsibility in large companies around the globe – that’s what it takes. And to get to that position, you have to either accommodate the measures of the old school, or start a new firm and grow to the size of a global megacorp. In the meantime, we need to be famous to 15 people for quality,

and still show we can also reach 15,000 with anything down to the merest 5th hand whisper.

The problem is, measuring every single effect of even a single conversation is near impossible. But the closer we strive to it, the more influence and reach we can report back.

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Measuring social media and buzz marketing

April 19, 2008 By 1 Comment

It’s a great time to be interested in measuring the output of social media marketing (buzz marketing, community marketing, WOM – call it what you will!).

Because so much of it is so new and evolving, and because it’s as much about quality as quantity, essentially it’s like trying to measure magic or trying to turn common metals into gold.

And being part of evolving social alchemy is pretty exciting. Most online measures of success are still evolving – but the basics are well established. Unique Users, Hits, Page Impressions etc are universal enough that everyone understands them. And terms like Bounce Rates are following close behind.

But measuring the value of a company CEO spending time chatting on Twitter, and what benefits that gives the company?

You could measure followers.

You could measure referral clicks to the company website.

You could even measure @replies as a metric for engagement.

And it’s the fact no-one has worked out the right answer (or combination of answers), that makes it so exciting. For the first time since choosing my A-levels, I’m actually using and enjoying maths to uncover the solutions – and working out how to best serve communities that seem determined to surprise and confuse me on a daily basis.

Just wish I’d done a maths/statistics A-level rather than Biology now!

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Don’t assume social media solutions are the only answer

April 15, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Out of a long and convoluted debate on Twitter came one important point which is easy to overlook when you’re dealing with social media and buzz marketing. It’s one that other people have alluded to, when they’ve written reminders that social media marketing isn’t the only tool in a digital marketing toolbox, but I haven’t seen it stated clearly…

Some people won’t want to be social.

There, I said it. As a Community Marketing Manager, and a fairly social person, it’s easy for me to think about ways to integrate community into everything I do, and provide research and solutions that show the power community marketing can have.

But a proportion of people just want a clean transaction.

So to prove you really can put community everywhere – in this case it’s about listening and facilitating those members of the community to be able to go straight to the action/transaction and bypass community if they want. And allowing everyone else that wants to engage, to be able to do it on their terms, and be encouraged to do it.

I’d wager those seeking a clean transaction will either be performing a chore – paying a bill for example, and that the clean transaction seekers will be a minority, because industries have been striving to that end for years, and it isn’t working…

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