Social Media Google Analytics

Measuring the true value of social media has always been a challenge for marketers. And with good reason: it’s hard to understand exactly what aspects of the social media mix are having the real benefits and what parts are merely passive by standers.

Similarly as Social Media is often an initial part of the buying process,it again remains difficult to know with absolute certainty which platforms are most directly responsible for buyer behaviour.

With Social Media now well and truly being past the 'let's wait and see stage', it inevitably is developing better and more reliable ways to measure and accurately allocate merit. Despite this, we know that the vast majority of buying is still done away from the social media site and specifically on the corporate website.

With this in mind, Google have designed a new range of social media reports contained in Google Analytics. These reports now providing greater ability to connect the social media and website metrics, and consequently providing greater insight into the true full value of the social channel for your business.

Google have overtly stated set out to target 3 key areas. Namely:

1. To identify the full value of traffic coming from social sites and measure how they lead to direct conversions or assist in future conversions
2. Understand social activities happening both on and off of your site to help you optimise user engagement and increase social key performance indicators (KPIs)
3. Make better, more efficient data-driven decisions in your social media marketing programs

Consequently these new reports allow you better information that can be used as the basis for more robust decision making.  The extended range of reports allows you to do more. These include:

Overview Report:

The Overview report allows you to see at a glance how much conversion value is generated from your social channels. A visit from a social referral may result in conversion immediately or it may assist in a conversion that occurs later on.

 Referrals that lead to conversions immediately are labelled as Last Interaction Social Conversion. If a referral from a social source doesn't immediately generate a conversion, but the visitor returns later and converts, the referral is included as an Assisted Social Conversion.


Conversions Report: which goals are being impacted by social media

With the Conversions report, marketers can now measure the value of each individual social channel by seeing the conversion rates of each social network and the monetary value they drive to your business.


Social Sources - find out how visitors from different sources behave

The Social Sources report shows engagement and conversion metrics for each social network so you can see how people are interacting with your content and whether it’s leading to a desired outcome.


While the other reports show you the impact that social engagement is having on your site, the Activities Stream tab (located within the sources report) shows how people are engaging socially with your content off your site across the social web.

As has always been the way, Google continue to find bigger and better ways to add value to all their users.

Until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Daniele.

Emails Vs. Social Media. Does it have to be a choice?

Interesting that some of the recent email vs. social media effectiveness data is filtering down through the community, and surprisingly being quoted back by people who traditionally have had very little interest in anything related to marketing before.

Case in point this week when one of my clients sent me a recent review that took a position that emails were more effective than social media marketing activities.

As someone that's been involved in marketing for 30 years I never tire of seeing people have these 'grade 5' type arguments about who's better, as if there has to be a clear winner and loser.

Well news flash. They are both useful, strong and proven in marketing, and as part of a balanced and blended promotional strategy will both provide value.

Although they will do so in slightly different ways.

Let's start with email. Certainly it's been around longer and more people have email accounts than social media accounts, proving that the potential audience will be bigger. Very true. However the real drawback with email is that the laws that have evolved over the last decade or so against spam, are quite severe and it goes without saying that email is really only for existing clients that have given you prior approval to communicate with them (by way of a double opt-in process).
Naturally once that has been lawfully done, email becomes a viable and sustainable channel through which your business can communicate over time to customers.

Social Media on the other hand has been around less time and has less people involved in it. However unlike email you can communicate with prospects, qualified leads and former clients as well as current clients alike.

As such it can help you gain a raised market awareness within all of these groups in an open, social and engaging way.

Clearly, this is not a black and white, two dimensional argument. There are serious shades of grey here and all businesses should include elements of both of these promotional tools to their marketing plan to help ensure success.

Let us know. Which one do you prefer and why?

And until next time, good marketing and good luck.

Daniele.

Social Media and Advertising. Friends or Foes

Yesterday as sometimes happens, I found myself participating in not one but two separate business conferences, and interestingly I was asked virtually the same question came up at both events. Specifically if advertising was still valuable now that social media marketing was continuing to play such a powerful role?

It's a great question and the answer lies in the fact that social media is as we all know, about engagement and forming networks of like minded individuals with a common interest, passion, problem or need. Advertising on the other hand is all about mass marketing and getting your message out to a wide group.

The problem is this. Advertising works by increasing the level of awareness of you, your brand or business generically and reinforces the relationship you have with your market if you have one. If you don't, it reinforces that as well.

In other words it will be like a blank billboard with little value if the connection is not already there to support it.

This fact was made clear to me several years ago when I had just taken over as product manager of some major pharmaceutical brands and on doing a review of past spending, I found that my predecessor had been poring in a half a million dollars a year to a specific medical journal despite the fact that the product appeared to be receiving little or no benefit from it.

on doing a little research with a group of doctors, I found that they all agreed that if they were not using a product then just seeing ads of it in the magazine would have no effect. In short, no relationship equals no sale.

Interestingly when I cancelled the remainder of those ads, I was able to redirect those funds back into an innovative program designed to give the doctors exposure to using the medicine in a specific group of patients, as a basis for (wait for it) forming a relationship. Result millions of dollars increased revenue that year.

So yes advertising can and is still an effective option today, but needs to be properly applied when there is already an existing relationship, to remind people of that relationship.

Hope this sheds some light on this issue. Please let me know your thoughts a s well.
And until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Daniele.

Starting to Like Likestester

As is always the case with Social Media, there continues to be a seemingly endless stream of ongoing programs, apps and platforms that are released almost on a daily basis.
One new platform that you should consider joining and getting to know better is: Likester.
Likester is a a powerful platform that allows you to gain insight into what’s happening with any person or product brand that you may have any interest in.

Specifically it can be a tremendous channel to follow the latest updates of key rival businesses and plans, industry trends, key internal or external personnel or any other specific thing that you need to know more about.
This system can track individuals, locations and brands at no cost.
I think many will be glad they gave this program a closer look.
If you already use Likester or like it after your first look, please let us know with your comments and until next time,
Good luck and good marketing.
Daniele

The Single Biggest Mistake In Social Media Marketing Continues to be the Hard Sell

Social media continues to undergo change and development at a staggering rate.
However despite the dynamic nature of this medium the biggest mistake that continues to be made by marketers is the unfailing desire to sell their product.

Message to the uninitiated, Social media is not about selling its about being part of a community of individuals with a common passion, problem or defined need.

Once this community is established and attracts members, the members gain currency within the group be ongoing involvement and engagement.

People's expectation is not to be sold to but given information, support, empathy whilst providing appropriate content as needed.

Over time as you gain standing within your community the opportunities will eventually arrive where as part of a balanced discussion and solution you will earn the right to provide a possible solution and redirect the discussion away from a communal platform to a commercially based location such as a corporate website or fan page with commercial service capabilities.

A balanced approach for example may include ten blog posts with another directly providing an offer for a commercial product or service, given that it is an effective option to meeting some aspect of the person's unmet need.

Social media is about being social, otherwise it would be called business media marketing.

Don't make the same mistake that so many others make. Contribute, care provide content and eventually were appropriate, commercialise your wares.

What other mistakes do you see people making with their social media marketing?

Until next time, good marketing and good luck.

Daniele.

20th Anniversary in the World of Pharmaceuticals

Hi Everyone,
I can not believe that today marks the 20th anniversary of the day I stated working within the pharmaceutical world at Bristol-Myers Squibb. I was 27 then so it's also hard to keep telling people I'm 29 now the way the Nanny does.

And in this time so many changes have occurrred within the industry and like so many other markets, social media is now exerting its influence here as well.


As we speak, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is deliberating on how and to what extent to regualte all the popular social media platforms other industries just take for granted.

There is no doubt that Pharmaceutical firms will continue to try to maximise their earning potential both withinin the constraints of what is legal and what also what is ethical for them.

Pharmaceuticals will urge the FDA to allow them to make it easier to reach patients and be able to deliver more information about the safe use of their products to achieve optimal patient outcomes.


No doubt that some of the key areas the FDA will be consideing include:


- Who is responsible for user comments? Especially if they contain wrong information.

- What can be said about drugs openly to people who may not already be on them. Etc.
Although no definitive date has been specified, the FDA is expected to release social media guidelines later in 2010.

No doubt these guidelines will then be very influential in guiding other major pharmaceutical governing bodies around the world pen their guidelines.

As this issue is focused on social media and ultimately effects all of us, I will watch out for any updates and report back to you all when I know more.

Until then,
Good marketing.
Daniele.