Social Media Assessment - How to Get Started

Social Media Assessment How do you start? Walter Adamson # @g2m [email_address] Presented as part of Social Media Tools Week, November 2009

Contents
How to start a Social Media Assessment
Overview
Rationale
Process flow
Where to start
Approach
Four Quadrant Methodology
Avoiding the Traps
Assessment Plan and Report
Tools
Paradigm Shift

Overview
Enterprise Social Media Assessment
Method used by Social Media Academy, developed by Axel Schultze
Top down
Part of a suite of top-down methodologies
Flow from one to the other
Business approach
Not about tools
Initial step
Determines path to people
http://xeesm.com/axelschultze
http://www.socialmedia-academy.com.au

This methodology helps a business to understand its market from a social point of view, including:
customer mapping and field assessment,
brand analysis,
competition analysis and
partners/alliances analysis.
Uses social media tools
Preparation, review and refinement are key
Case Study – not idle theory
http://www.slideshare.net/SocialMediaAcademy/social-media-assesment-case-study-citrix-webex

Fools rush to Tools
We’ll get you on Twitter and Facebook and then see if you can build a supporter base.
Sound familiar?
Usually in conjunction with a “great idea”
Campaign-mentality
The image, and trade name WoW WoW Wubbzy are the property of Nickelodeon Online.

Anybody home?
By not researching the social media places and spaces:
Right conversations with the wrong people
Wrong conversations with the right people
Conversations with an empty room
Just because it is hip it doesn’t mean it fits you , Nicole Simon
It’s more than just LISTENING it is knowing WHERE to listen!

Rationale for Assessment - why
Media is an arena where people with shared interest and enthusiasm converge around a shared idea - Helge Tennø “Post Digital Marketing 2009”
You need to find the right arenas
Match the shared interest with your own
Understand how to contribute
Ideally, find the actual people who are most enthusiastic
This is Social Media Assessment – before thinking of tools.

The “As Is” of strategy
The Assessment helps to understand the level of Social Engagement of the company/brands
It’s about understanding the socio-economic landscape of:
Customers
Prospects
Partners
Competitors
and our role, or potential role, in it.
This is the “ As Is ” assessment of normal strategy assessment.

Process Flow Where does Assessment fit? Strategy Development ASSESSMENT You have some understanding, need a strategy.

Process Flow Where does Assessment fit?
You understand enough about social media
You have some kind of customer-oriented feedback, ideas
You have some idea of resources and how it can be handled
You need a strategy (however large or small)
It’s at this point you need to do an Assessment
Map the terrain
Identify the places and spaces that matter
Understand the real environment
Then develop a strategy which is informed and practical and effective.

Where to start?
Depending on client:
B2B or B2C
How mature in the market?
How active with user base?
Who do they follow?
How widely are products/brands known?
B2B could be a subset of landscape:
Groups
Majors
Few others

B2C
Open mind
Tool important:
efficient
effective
flexible
able to find people

Scope Design to cost
Not usually the way to make a big plan and then cost it , although might be OK for very large client and project - “ cost to design ”
Rather, use a reasonable fee, fit for purpose, and plan the scope to match – “ design to cost ”
Scope variables:
Balance of attention to the 4 quadrants
Number of keywords and phrases
Cost of analysis tool per unit/day etc
Depth of blog analysis
Depth and quality of tracking of influencers and social graph
Size of company/brands etc - complexity
Refine based on results, may need incremental extra investment

We are working in the context of the NCP model
This is the key to success in social media for business:
Networks
Contribution
Participation
We can then set out to:
measure,
model and
tune our social media activities.
Reminder

Approach Look for influencers
Conversations often around problems or needs
Who are the problem solvers?
Look for real people with real titles who are having the conversations
Say 50 of these people
Narrow down to relevant topics and influencers

Change your mindset to their need for value:
What makes them happy?
What makes them interact?
Why are they in the place in the social web?
What is the “gift” giving between members?
How is the reciprocity working?
What helps them to get what they want?
Approach Think Customer/Partner

Review the ecosystem of the challenge/need:
sentiment
positive/negative
trends
issues
conversation threads
But ultimately you are looking for people:
get a people list together around the topics they discuss
Approach Look for challenges and topics

Quadrant Methodology Customer Landscape
Identifying relevant places and spaces by searching for your existing, previous or future customers in person
Look for people you know (first, last name)
Or look of networks of relevant people
Or look them up in LinkedIn by title
BUT LOOK FOR PEOPLE

Customer Landscape Example
Let’s say Hungry Jack’s (Burger King in the US)
Keywords, things customers will be discussing:
hamburger(s)
burger
cheeseburger
aussieburger
brekky
hash brown
muffin
fries
onion rings
nuggets
WHO are they?

Customer Landscape Customer as People
LOOKING FOR PEOPLE
Identifying our customers’ challenges, topics excitement and frustrations the issues and sentiment – based on the people you find from the keywords you define.
Identifying the influencers
Creating a factual analysis
Identifying opportunities and threats
Make some initial suggestions

Customer Landscape Example
Hungry Jack’s:
22,000+ Facebook Fans !!
Pick those who comment and also with pictures loaded into Fan page
Hungry Jack’s Blog registrations - pick from those
Then either random selection, or by further research on Facebook a defined demographic selection

Quadrant Methodology Brand Assessment
Identifying the places and spaces where the brand is discussed
Brand reflection, sentiment around the brand and “brand team”
Identifying opportunities and threats SWOT
Key individuals and key influencers re brand
How is our brand and team being represented?
Based on products or services what are the specific conversations
Make some initial suggestions
Note: brand side focuses on specific discussions about the brand not about other products and issues

Brand Landscape Example Keywords (Hungry Jack’s)
People
Jack Cowan ( Founder of Hungry Jacks in Australia )
Marketing slogans and messages:
hungry jacks burgers
flame grilled burgers
fast food hamburger
Hungry Jack's brands and trade marks
"burgers are better at Hungry Jack's"
whopper
whopper Jr
bacon deluxe
chicken tendercrisp
Business and franchise
hungry jack's franchise
hamburger franchise

Partner Landscape Partner Assessment
Identifying the places and spaces where the partners are present
Identifying the partners topics and their second degree ecosystem (the partner’s customers). Those discussions and sentiments.
Identifying the key individuals per partners and main influencers (teams and individuals)
Some initial suggestions
Tips: partners have their own life, place yourselves in their value chain and risk/reward sales outlook
But partners are laggards in most industries (Drucker) - real estate devastated but most active in social media now, also travel agents going through similar cycle.

Partner Landscape Example Hungry Jack’s
Keywords to find partners and key people in the distribution chain
Franchisees
Locations: Sydney Airport, Toorak, Mornington, Flemington, etc etc
Shopping Mall and Venue Owners/Operators
Westfield, Centro, Macquarie, Telstra Dome
Keywords
fast food outlet
hamburger store
flame grilled fast food
Burger King

Partner Landscape Example - Blackmores
Keywords:
blackmores buy
blackmores "where to buy"
blackmores homeopaths retail distribution outlets naturopaths
blackmores prefer
blackmores chemist
blackmores coles OR woolworths
cenovis buy
natures way buy
golden life buy

Start with a qualified search (ScoutLabs)
few results e.g. 37 blog posts over 6 months

Few comments (6)
Some tweets

Simpler (unqualified) search (Techrigy SM2) – 23 results

Themes for this search “blackmores+buy: seemed reasonable:

Forums, for this search, contained most activity:

Sentiment
Most was the Agency promoting itself – going for the awards !

Search again!
This is difficult as not many mentions of Blackmores let alone Partners!
Try this qualified search
“ Blackmores AND buy AND NOT (music OR band OR guitar OR ritchie)”

Open tools may have an answer!
Google sponsored ads may be the best pointer to get channel partner names and keywords on which people might search

Quadrant Methodology Competitor Assessment
Identifying the places and spaces the competition is active
Identifying the competitor’s partners activities
Identifying the competitors customers activity, discussion and sentiments
Identifying the influencer of the competitors teams and those of their partners
Some initial suggestions
Facts leading to a competitive threat analysis
Note: competition's customer is of most interest
competitor's partners of most interest - who, company names, and who is promoter of this relationship

Competition Landscape Example Hungry Jack’s
Keywords related to competitors
Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC
McDonalds
Red Rooster
Oporto (chicken)
Keywords:
flame grilled burger
cheese burger
chicken burger
bacon burger
fast food burger
Tone - competitors

Quadrant Methodology Summary
You almost always find customer conversations
Partners can be a challenge in a distributed model
The example showed this difficulty
Not to show the problems but to show that this may happen to you
Thinking through new partner and distribution models is challenging
Remember that the initial suggestions should relate to the NCP model:
Networks
Contribution
Participation
Solving this question
How do we optimise the path to advocacy through N-C-P?

Contents - you are here!
How to start a Social Media Assessment
Overview
Rationale
Process flow
Where to start
Approach
Avoiding the Traps
Assessment Plan and Report
Tools
Paradigm Shift

Avoiding the Traps
Don’t get distracted by traffic counts – these are not conversations
Traffic can be driven, conversations can’t
Think AUDIENCE not traffic
Be careful with search terms – think how people would discuss
It’s not a numbers game
Demographics not really relevant to social conversations
We need to focus on conversations and the topics and who the people are and who are the influencers
Explore the most influential spaces
Make the results create a solution!

Summary The Assessment Plan
Not the Assessment but the Plan
AIM: to find the topical aspects of our ecosystem which are important to our business
names + customer/company
keywords which are relevant to you
competitors
preparation for search/tools
customers/brands/partners/competitors
why names and rationale and keywords
find conversations around coffee shops etc "Peets"
find influencers
Name as many people and refer to as many facts as possible
Prepare initial thoughts and suggestions

The Assessment Report
Executive Introduction
The companies social media landscape
Identifying the places and spaces
Identifying the issues and sentiment
Identifying the influencer
Factual analysis (explanations and screenshots)
Opportunities and threats
Suggestions
The brand representation
Identifying the brand reflection
Identifying the brand sentiment
Identifying the brand presence
Suggestion
The partner landscape
Suggestions
The competition
Summary

Tools Free Tools
www.samepoint.com
www.collecta.com
Good but not same ability to track people
e.g.

Tools Paid Tools
Paid tools do extensive analysis
It takes time to learn to use them e.g. Radian6 is quite complicated
“ Share of Voice” example

Review Rationale - ROI
Let’s recap, because Assessments are often skipped:
As Jacob Morgan said yesterday in his keynote on ROI
The goal is not to “get” an ROI, but to optimise your ROI by directing your spending to where you get the greatest return
Assessment tells you where is the best place to build your house
And , the orientation – the Feng Shui of social media

Paradigm Shift
In the old model we introduced something new to our customer base
NOW, this is the other way around
The customers are introducing us to their way
The assessment is the foundation
sales, support, service, HR, product development
The assessment gives us the answers as to how to do this better
The instincts of the past are now overridden by real input

Strategy Next step
Based upon 6 core elements:
Goals
Mission
Benefits
Actions
Programs
Reporting
Bring your stakeholders into the process:
Including customers!
From the start!

Consulting Tip Kick Off – Proof of the Pudding
For C-level and others who are skeptical about social media,
Assessment is great way to present factual evidence
Free one hour discussion (collect keywords) and review to find what is being said and where
This should get you a start as almost always you find surprises, often “bad” ones

Contact
Walter Adamson
[email_address]
@g2m
http://xeesm.com/walter
Slides at:
http://slideshare.net/adamson
Blog set up for discussion:
http://walteradamson.com
Thanks to my colleague Rick Special @zemlak for some of the images used.

Social Media Assessment - How to Get Started

by Walter Adamson on Nov 19, 2009

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