It’s quickly becoming common wisdom among marketers that a strategy is needed to use social media effectively. Of course, that doesn’t mean a majority of those involved in the space have gotten on board yet and created such a well-thought-out approach. According to a May 2010 study by Digital Brand Expressions, 52% of social marketers are operating “without a game plan,” similar to the 50% found in April 2010 by R2integrated. Further, many that do have a strategy find it doesn’t address all their concerns or fit their needs. The most common elements included by companies with a social media communications plan were resource-allocation guidelines for ongoing activities, registration of branded usernames on social sites and research into competitors’ use of social media.

To be sure, those are all critical components of an effective strategy, but they are only the beginning.

When respondents were asked what they thought should be part of their company’s plan, their answers had a somewhat different focus. While resource allocation was still top of mind, 71% were concerned with preparing and distributing policies for ongoing communications, such as how to respond to comments on social sites. Just 45% of companies had such policies.

Respondents were equally concerned with the ongoing monitoring of brand reputation, at 71%, but only 52% had a plan for such activities. The greatest disparity related to departmental protocols detailing how social sites should be used by sales, human resources, customer service and other groups within the company. While more than two-thirds of respondents saw a need for these policies, 29% were prepared. That desire also highlights how social media has spread throughout many organizations and is not limited to marketing or PR departments. A majority of companies with a social strategy included marketing, PR and sales in their plans, but most respondents also thought that human resources and customer service should be added. Respondents agreed that, in general, responsibility for creating strategies should fall to marketing departments.

“Companies that have held back on adopting social media throughout their organizations would benefit from starting with a cohesive plan that involves all of the key groups within the organization,” said the report, while those that have already adopted the social channel should get all departments and employees on board with a complete strategy.

The brands that have enjoyed the most success using social media to drive consumers toward purchases follow one of two paths: Either they offer coupons or discounts, or they position themselves in front of consumers during sales or other special events, according to eMarketer. One-quarter of respondents to a survey conducted by Chadwick Martin Bailey said that coupons and discounts were the primary reason they became fans of a brand on Facebook. An additional 21 percent said it was because they were already customers. Another survey, by Morpace, found that 37 percent of Facebook users joined fan pages because they wanted to get coupons and discounts.

"Coupons remain a leading driver of brand interactions in social networks," said eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson. "At the same time, they can be one of the trickiest social media tactics to pull off. The discount offer must print or download easily and must work as promised. And the retail store or distribution channel must be prepared for demand."

Consumers do want relationships

Once you find time for social media and move from social chatter to using social media for a purpose, you’ll see firsthand how difficult it can be to get noticed.You might be using social media for marketing, campaigning or bringing attention to a worthy cause, but you’ll be battling against every other person who has the same intention or is just there for a fun time.

How do you cut through all the social media noise and get people to notice what you have to say?

Fact is, it’s not always easy.  To help you, here are 10 ways to make your message more likely to get noticed … 

#1: Simplify Your Message

Your first job is to edit your message down to the bare essentials. What are the facts? Can you use the most simple language to get your point across? Could it be misinterpreted? This doesn’t necessarily mean you should be super-brief, but it does mean that you can crystallize your ideas and make sure you’re very clear on what the recipient should understand, take away and do.

Develop a hook. Why is this interesting, why should anyone care and what’s different in a beneficial way?

Test your message to make sure it’s understood. A complicated message isn’t going to be fully understood, won’t be remembered, and therefore will certainly not be forwarded or acted on.

#2: Find Your Space

If noise is getting in the way of your message being noticed, don’t add to your problem by choosing the most busy times and locations!

Yes there will be more people who might potentially see your messages at peak times, but you have to weigh that against the fact that there are more competing messages at those times too. The same with venue. If everyone else is competing for attention on a certain site, in a certain group, presenting in a certain way, you need to test to see if an alternative time, location or format is going to work better for you.

#3: Use Appropriate Channels

Following the previous point, where and how you present your message is as important as what you say.

Rather than just stating your facts, perhaps you need to tell a story. Pulling at the heartstrings with a human interest narrative often has more impact than a set of bullet points. It might be that all you need to do is zig when others zag; for example, use short headlines when others are wordy, or a long headline when everyone else is brief. Perhaps others only use text and you can use video. Break out of the mold and find your place to breathe.

#4: Spread Your Message

Get it into the hands of colleagues, contacts and friends. These are your seeders and sneezers who will start the viral process.

Tell people you want them to share, email and retweet your message far and wide. Tell them why it’s important and exactly what they need to do.

You need to make it as easy as possible and remove barriers such as opt-ins or logins. Just give them the content and the tools to share it. Make it as easy as one click with an obvious benefit and they’ll do the rest.

#5: Get Help

Stop thinking solo. You’re not going to be able to get much reach on your own.

Reach out and ask for help. Pitch your message directly to key influencers.

Yes, some will reject you. Some will listen, then not follow through. But it’s a numbers game, and worth the effort.

Don’t make it about you or your mission, make it about them and their audience.

Explain briefly what the hook is and why they should care, tell them how to take the next step and leave it for them to come back to you.

#6: Appeal to Ego

People are most engrossed in their own self-interest, so play into that.

Use “you” and “your.” Make it about them, their needs, goals, wants and desires. Relate it to their own history, situation, reputation and behavior.

#7: Cut the Clutter.

You need to remove anything that doesn’t directly support your message or argument.

Remove fancy phrases, clever wording or embellishments. Use short words and sentences.

#8: Appeal to Primitive Instincts.

Observe the newspapers. They sell sex and fear because that’s what people respond to. We’re hardwired to look out for danger and problems and to follow other base instincts.

If you’re having trouble being heard, try turning your message into a warning, highlight a problem or emphasize the dangers.

#9: Use Keywords.

Another element of our brain programming is to be on the lookout for keywords and phrases that interest us. Rather than using clever headlines, key into the words people are looking for, not just in searches but while scanning down headlines. People are always on the lookout for what interests them, consciously and subconsciously, and when these particular words or phrases pop into view their reticular activating system will say “Hey, look!” If your message is about Apple or the iPhone, mention those words. If you’re talking about Seth Godin or Natalie Portman, use their names.

#10: Stick to One Point.

This whole article builds to one argument. One point. Do the same.

Summary

Getting your message out there is not always about what you say but as much how you say it. Don’t just shovel your messages out into your social media channels. Think carefully about your audience, what they like and react to, and what else is going on within those services and networks.

Most of all… It’s not what you say that matters, but what your readers hear!

It’s your job to keep crafting and honing your message until you get it right. If people don’t “get it,” keep working until they do!

By Chris Garrett

Its use is exploding, but ad spending in the sector continues to be a blip on the radar for most brands

Social media use is exploding, but ad spending in the sector continues to be a blip on the radar for most brands.
 
Razorfish, one of the largest digital ad spenders, compiled data on its 2009 digital ad spending. It found that social media display advertising made up just 3 percent of its clients' budgets. Non-display in social media accounted for another 1 percent. The figures pale in comparison to the time spent online. According to comScore, U.S. Internet users spent 11 percent of their time online in 2011 on social media sites.
 
The spending figures reflect that, all the chatter about Facebook, Twitter and iPhone notwithstanding, online media is dominated by traditional vehicles: vertical sites, ad networks, portals and search accounted for 88 percent of buys. Vertical sites got the biggest share of spending, 31 percent. Search was next with a 25 percent share and ad networks received 20 percent. Other emerging media remain blips: mobile accounted for just 2 percent of Razorfish's spending.
 
Like other agencies, Razorfish has found social media is less of an ad medium and more of a platform for building communities. The spending doesn't take the form of ad buys but rather the labor to build a Facebook page and staff it to respond to consumers, said Jeremy Lockhorn, vp of emerging media at Razorfish.
 
"A lot of the display media in social media is very cheap," he said. "More importantly, a lot of the money going into social is people powered, like blogger outreach. You don't see that in the media spend."
 
More money will flow into social in 2010, but Lockhorn believes it will continue to be in the earned media space rather than paid.
 
Overall, Razorfish saw signs of an online ad recovery. After dipping by 13 percent in 2008, ad spending for clients rebounded to increase by 4 percent in 2009. Razorfish expects growth to pick up in 2010. The average CPM paid was between $7 and $8. The median was $5. Razorfish said it expects CPM prices to rise in 2010.
 
Search occupied less of the spending pie at Razorfish. In 2008, the agency spent 37 percent of client budgets there, but in 2009 that dropped to 25 percent. The shop attributed that to normally high-spending clients in financial services and health pulling back budgets. Plus, at one point last year, pharmaceutical firms took down their ads after the FDA sent out warning letters. The losses in those sectors weren't offset by travel and retail, where spending was flat.

Portals fell out of favor, with spending dropping from 16 percent to 12 percent overall. Ad networks continued to hold strong, increasing from 12 percent of spending to 20 percent. Ad exchanges, which only got going late in 2009, accounted for 2 percent of expenditures. Lockhorn predicted more money would flow through them in 2010.
 
Despite excitement over new interactive formats, the overwhelming bulk of Razorfish's spending (77 percent) remained in standard display units. Rich media accounted for another 15 percent, with video at 8 percent.
 
The report, compiled based on spending data and a survey of Razorfish's media department, reveals some interesting impressions of digital media. Google, despite its efforts to be more than "just search," isn't viewed highly in other areas. Razorfish's media planners gave it the highest marks on a four-star system for search, but doled out single stars in other areas, ranging from performance display to video to mobile.
 
Looking ahead, Razorfish's list of publishers to watch includes Facebook, mobile ad network Greystripe, Hulu, Pandora and, perhaps most surprisingly, MySpace. On the latter, Razorfish praised the News Corp. property for mining profile data for ad targeting.