June 2010

Guidepost: Social Media & Change Management

7 Changes With Big Consequences. In the exploding world of social media, every day seems to bring a flurry of new tools, tactics—and toys—that must be deciphered and evaluated for possible relevance/usage for the organization. And yet, comparatively less attention seems to be paid to the people, processes and systems inside an organization that can make or break even the most brilliant social media initiatives.

What’s the big deal? We’re simply talking about helping employees develop new skill sets, right? Wrong.  We’re talking about restructuring the organization in order to manage new ways of interacting. Re-anything-ing in an organization means CHANGE. And change can mean trouble if it is not managed and planned for in advance.

Head on over here to find out what the seven changes are, or to share how social media has changed your workplace experience.

Guidepost: Social Media ROI

Measuring Social Media ROI: The Quest Continues. According to a recent study by R2Integrated, one half of all companies now say they have a social media strategy. For those who don’t, the biggest single obstacle to implementing social media is a perception that social media ROI is difficult or impossible to prove (numerous other studies throughout 2009 and 2010 found this to be the most often cited reason for not having a social media program).

As measurement experts, we have a hard time understanding this position. The main reasons?

1. Most organizations don’t have a handle on measurement and ROI for their current channels and
2. There is no shortage of social media metrics to measure.

At the end of the day, measuring social will never be easy and never get “solved.”  It’s just changing too fast and in a sense, we are (as is often the case in an environment driven by disruptive technologies) using our old ideas and understanding of marketing to make sense of something that lives on a very different planet.

In that scenario, how wise is it to remain on the sidelines? Read the rest of the post and let us know what’s driving your quest to determine social media ROI?

Guidepost: Analytics

Human Analysis in Social Media Monitoring: 5 Simple Steps to Navigate a Sea of Records. If you’re aiming to tackle social media monitoring, then finding a suitable tool is simple. A stable of popular products such as Alterian SM2, Radian 6, and Sentiment Metrics offer users the ability to conduct complex searches through millions of historical records.

In theory, the social media monitoring tools provide these answers along with a variety of pretty charts and graphs that further illustrate the point. In practice, however, those of us that are tasked with reporting on this output are occasionally encountered by a sea of unintelligible records in which the charts and graphs are at best, misleading, and at worst, completely erroneous.

If you are struggling in a sea of social media monitoring records, our five simple steps might just be the life raft you need.


Guidepost: Social Media Tools

We’re looking for Social Snap Beta Testers!  As you know, there is no shortage of social media metrics and ways to gather data on these metrics.

Unfortunately, no single tool brings all of the data into one dashboard – until now. Enter Social Snap!

Social Snap, Serengeti’s social media dashboard tool, allows organizations to:

• View data from all utilized social media channels, including YouTube, Facebook Fan Pages, and Twitter;
  
• Get a 360 degree view of social media ROI with an integrated analysis of relevant web analytics, buzz monitoring data and data from social media channels;
  
• Monitor their brands and social media campaigns;
  
• Automatically calculate their total social media reach and engagement;
  
• Track their progress through a proprietary social media scoring system; and
  
• Get customized recommendations from social media experts on how to improve campaigns and programs.

If you would like to be a part of our exclusive user test group and are willing to provide in-depth feedback on Social Snap, sign up today. A Serengeti representative will be in touch soon to explain the program (scheduled to begin August 1, 2010).   

To learn more about Social Snap, head on over to: www.socialsnap.com or give us a call at 703. 556.3390.