5 Steps to Social Media Success Using Competitive Intelligence
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The 5 step document provides a beginner's guide to social media success using competitive intelligence. The 5 steps are: 1) listen first to competitors' social media before engaging; 2) identify successful social media channels used by competitors; 3) define key performance indicators to measure success; 4) join social media conversations; and 5) continuously monitor competitors and benchmarks to stay ahead. The goal is to learn from competitors, maximize engagement on effective channels, and continuously improve strategies.
5 Steps to Social Media Success Using Competitive Intelligence
- 1. 5 StepS to Social Media SucceSS uSing coMpetitiVe intelligence A BEGINNER’S GUIDE Brought to you by Compete.com www.compete.com 617.933.5600 support@compete.com
- 2. You’ve had “the talk” and your organization is thinking about implementing social media as part of your communication strategy. Your marketing team is ready to join the digital conversation, but you want to take a disciplined approach to campaign planning, tracking and measurement. It brings accountability and rationality to an area of marketing that can be far too undisciplined. Using competitive intelligence, you can get the insights you need to monitor your competition while enhancing your marketing strategy, creating metrics and benchmarks, and delivering measureable results while you engage your community. 1. Listen First, Speak Later Monitor what your competitors are saying in social media before you join the conversation. The beauty of social media is that it’s meant to be just that: social. All of the information on your competition exists openly. One of the best ways to join the conversation is to say nothing at all. Monitor your competitions’ social media to establish best practices. You may even learn from their mistakes. By listening to your competition, you can make logical business decisions and maximize your social TOOLS TO HELP YOU LISTEN TO media engagement. THE CONVERSTAIONS ARE: http://www.google.com/alerts You can also begin listening to what your customers are saying http://search.twitter.com/ about you in this stage. Using competitive intelligence tools, you http://www.google.com/trends http://searchanalytics.compete.com/ can see which websites are getting traffic from keywords or phrases relevant to your brand. There are many tools that can help you listen to the conversation. Google Alerts, are e-mail updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.1
- 3. Twitter Search provides real-time search results on queries about your brand, keyword, or phrase. Google Trends enables you to compare the world’s interest in your favorite topics. You can enter up to five topics and see how often they’ve been searched on Google over time. Google Trends also shows how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and in which geographic regions people have searched for them most. Compete’s Keyword Destination report allows you to enter a keyword or phrase and get a list of sites it refers traffic to. 2. Imitation Is the Greatest Form of Flattery Identify what social media channels are working for your competition and map out your strategy based on their success By analyzing referral and destination traffic for your competition using competitive intelligence, you can identify which social media channels are most effective for your competition. Does a majority of BEfORE STARTINg YOUR SOCIAL their referral traffic come from Facebook? Twitter? Their company mEdIA mARkETINg EffORTS, blog? LinkedIn? Using competitive intelligence tools, create a list ANSwER THESE 3 qUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR COmPETITORS’ of websites you compete with. Then, analyze the conversations SOCIAL mEdIA INITIATIVES: and level of engagement your competition is having with their community. Do they blog? Are they on Twitter? Are they on Facebook? To measure destination traffic, look to see if your competition has social media icons on their website. If so, how many people visit their social media channels from their website? If your competitors are receiving traffic from specific sites, it may be worth targeting those sites as the first social media channels you enter to see how your business can benefit from the relationships you build there. If you have limited time and resources to dedicate to social media marketing, competitive intelligence can provide the insights you need to maximize the results you achieve from social www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.2 pg.1
- 4. media marketing. For instance, Compete Referral Analytics can help you with your site acquisition strategies with referral sources, historical trends, and customized filtering capabilities that let you target upstream (inbound) and downstream (outbound) traffic for thousands of websites. Referral Analytics includes an at-a-glance channel map to visualize the traffic metrics of competitors, clients, or prospects. You can use the Compete Channel Map to efficiently explore large datasets instead of relying on spreadsheets. Examples: Do they blog? If so, how often do they post? What is the tone of their posts? Do they have multiple contributors? Is the brand voice consistent with their marketing? Do people comment on blog posts? What type of content is being distributed? Are they on Twitter? If so, how many followers do they have? How many people are they following? Are they actively engaging their followers? Do people retweet their content? An easy way to track this is using Are they on Facebook? If so, how many people “like” them? Do people interact with posts? 3. Define Key Performance Indicators Define your competitive set, learn what “normal” really is for specific metrics, and know where your competition ranks. How can you win the game when you don’t know the playing field?. Who are the leaders in your space? Who are the copy cats? Do any of your competitors do anything in particular that interests you? How many competitors do you think you have? Creating a list of www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.3 pg.1
- 5. the competitors in your space and indentifying why each poses a competitive threat will be the foundation of your competitive strategy. After identifying your competitive set, start to dig deep. Social media success comes in many forms and will be unique to wITH THE RIgHT kPI’S IN PLACE, YOU CAN REACT ACCORdINgLY ANd: your business. At first, some may be inclined to view social media like any other channel. If you put resources and marketing dollars - Increase brand awareness behind it, you may expect a calculated ROI. This is something you - Increase traffic to your website - Learn more about your target should avoid because successful social media will ultimately build audience relationships, increase customer loyalty and increase profits, but - Increase customer interactions you will not likely see results overnight. However, setting up goals - Generate Leads - Improve Search Engine Rankings and objectives will help you develop benchmarks and measure - Increase Sales success. Examples of popular key performance indicators (KPI’s) include: Brand Awareness – How many mentions are you getting? Customer Feedback – Are responses and comments negative or positive? Is the volume of favorable/unfavorable response going up or down? Website Traffic – How many visitors are going to your website. How many are going to your competitiors. Customer Interactions – how many times do you touch a customer in a given week across customer support, email, chat, twitter, etc. Is this going up or down? 4. Take The Plunge It’s time to join the conversation. Be prepared! Get excited! Now that you’ve monitored the success of your competition, www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.4 pg.1 PAGE 1
- 6. listened to your audience (for better or worse), created goals and objectives, you’re ready to join the conversation. It’s time to build your voice on the web. Social media is all about building relationships with your customers in an unconventional way. Technology removes the geographic barrier from the communication equation. You can now reach SOCIAL mEdIA ExPERTS wORTH out to a customer who needs customer service, share a video on LISTENINg TO: Facebook, educate customers about a new product or promotion Joseph Jaffe in a blog. Every interaction with a customer is an opportunity to http://www.jaffejuice.com/ increase brand loyalty through relationship building or to acquire a new customer. Chris Brogan http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ Your social media experience will be as unique as your business. Seth Godin Some helpful online resources and thought leaders you can http://www.sethgodin.com reference: Brian Solis http://www.briansolis.com/ Joseph Jaffe is one of the most sought-after consultants, speakers and thought leaders on new marketing. His focus is on Mashable http://mashable.com/ helping clients achieve positive change and impact by joining the conversation. You can read Joseph’s blog http://www.jaffejuice. Advertising Age com/ http://adage.com/ Chris Brogan is President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency. He works with large and mid-sized companies to improve online business communications like marketing and PR through the use of social software, community platforms, and other emerging web and mobile technologies. Chris Brogan also has a blog http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ Seth Godin is a marketer and author or twelve books that have all been bestsellers. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. You can read Seth’s blog http://sethgodin. typepad.com/ or for more information about Seth, including his books, you can visit his website http://www.sethgodin.com Brian Solis who is globally recognized as one of the most www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.5 pg.1 PAGE 1
- 7. prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing. http://www.briansolis.com/ Mashable is one of the top sources for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture. Mashable reports breaking web news, provides analysis of trends, reviews new Web sites and services, and offers social media resources and guides. Mashable’s audience includes early adopters, social media enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, influencers, brands and corporations, marketing, PR and advertising agencies, Web 2.0 aficionados and technology journalists. http://mashable.com/ Advertising Age is a global source of news, intelligence and conversation for marketing and media communities. http://adage. com/ 5. Stay on Top Monitor, set benchmarks, and realize how your site enhancements and marketing strategies impact your competitors. In order to stay on track and continue to grow your business, you need an online marketing strategy that can adjust to ever-changing economic, technological, and social environments. Incorporating competitive intelligence into that marketing strategy can give you the critical information you need to minimize risk and ensure success. Monitor your competitive set and use your competitive intelligence tools on a regular basis. You will find much of the information you collect to be critical in making decisions about your overall marketing strategy. Then, set benchmarks and monitor changes www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.6 pg.1 PAGE 1
- 8. across your entire competitive set. Only then will you realize the true impact your of your efforts. Over time your online competition is only going to heat up. Adding competitive intelligence to your day-to-day marketing strategies will ultimately give you the upper hand and allow you to accurately forecast recovery, growth, and success in 2010 and beyond. Compete harnesses the online behavior of millions of consumers to help hundreds of clients improve their marketing effectiveness. Offering a robust suite of products coupled with deep vertical industry insights, Compete provides custom consultative services alongside powerful competitive intelligence tools delivered via compete.com. The results, used by some of the world’s biggest brands, drive more effective online experiences and highly profitable advertising campaigns. Compete’s services are supported by industry- leading data, management, and technological innovation. Our consumer behavioral data is drawn from multiple sources and comprises the largest active consumer database in the industry, unmatched in depth, quality, and integrity. Contact us for more information. Become a fan on Facebook Join our group on LinkedIn Follow us on Twitter Subscribe to us on YouTube www.compete.com 617.933.5600 PAGE 1 support@compete.com pg.7