8/6/2019 Communicating and Measuring the Success of Social Media

1/4a publication of the specialty coffee association of america 2011 issue n

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4Communicating and Measuring theSuccess o Social MediaTara ShensonFor every business, social media requires an investmento time, energy and money. Understanding the investment

versus return is an important part o using socialmedia wisely.

6The Future o Social MediaShanna Germain, with Liza Hausman, vice-president o marketing rom Gigya, Inc.Social media moves ast, rom AOLgroups to MySpace to Facebook to...whatevers next. Here, Liza Hausmanofers some speculation on the uture o

social media.

8This is Where We StartSarah Beaubien

The Sustainability Tracking and Reporting Toolwas developed as an industry-wide measurement

tool that everyone can use. Discover what it does andhow you and your business can get involved.

Branding in a Digital WorldTracy GingThe marketing world has changed a lotsince the days o brand strategiesand customer relationshipmanagement. Is it time to throw awaythose old marketing guidelines, or isthere a way to truly mesh the old withthe new?

3Caf BreveWe ask. You answer.SCAA member Vittoria Cofee has AlPacino raving about their cofee. I youcould get a Hollywood A-lister to promoteyour company, who would it be?

4 Welcome to your Virtual Communityby Peter GiulianoCofee played a surprising role in the developmento social media and virtual communities. Now, thosecommunities are playing a surprising role in thedevelopment o cofee.

6 A Closer Look: SCAA Companies& Strategies that WorkTara ShensonEver wonder how some social mediapages manage to make success look soeasy? Winning social media strategy is anart orm perected by a number o SCAAmembers; here they share their secretsor success.

Snark Attack: Navigating theIntrepid Waters o Social MediaTim DominickThe cofee community relies heavily on socialmedia and digital interaction to stay inormed.But what happens when positive, introspectiveconversations take a nose dive into negativity andsnark, and how do you navigate those dangerouswaters?

Social Media Roundup:Keeping up With the JonesesDo you have to have socialmedia? Is Facebook arequirement or yourbusiness? What about

Twitter or YouTube?See what othercofee businessesare doing or socialmedia, how itsworking and whatthey plan to do next.

On the Cover:An illustration by Damon Brown, The InkLa

2011 issue no. 2

Copyright 2011 Specialty Coffee Chronicle. All Rights Reserved

a publication

of the

specialty coffee

association of

america

featu

res

in the next issue

6

tmk

9Contributors:

Sarah Beaubien

Tim Dominick

Tracy Ging

Peter Giuliano

Tara Shenson

2010/2011

BOARD OF DIRECTORSPresident, Peter Giuliano

1st Vice President, Tim OConnor2nd Vice President, Max Quirin

Secretary/Treasurer, Shawn Hamilton

Directors:Marty Curtis, Nathalie Gabbay, Al Liu,

Ellen Rogers, Dr. Timothy Schilling, PaulThornton, Andi Trindle, Willem Boot

Immediate Past President, Mike Ebert

SCAA

330 Golden Shore, Suite 50Long Beach, CA 90802

TEL: (562) 624-4100FAX: (562) 624-4101

www.scaa.org

The Specialty Coffee Chronicle is publishedsix times a year by the Specialty Coee

Association o America as a orum or discussionand inormation on industry-related topics

and issues. The Chronicle welcomes and willconsider or publication articles, columns

or irsthand accounts o lie in the specialtycoee industry rom SCAA members. Opinions

expressed in articles and letters do notnecessarily represent the position o the SCAA,

its members or directors.

The Chronicle is printedon 100% recycled paper

containing 30% post-consumer waste.

Executive Director

Ric Rhinehartricr@scaa.org

Executive EditorTracy Ging

tging@scaa.org

Managing EditorShanna Germain

shanna.germain@gmail.com

Art DirectorTiffany Howard

tiffany@tiffolio.com

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Communicating andMeasuring

the Success ofSocial MediaTara Shenson

Standard return on investment(ROI) is a measure of the moneyyou invest against the return

you realize on that investment. Its aprofitability ratio, and businesses havebeen using it for decades to, simply put,figure out whats working and whats not.

While this is a relatively easy thing to do whenyoure dealing with straight dollars and cents, theequation begins to look a little less like simplearithmetic and a lot more like quantum physicswhen you start factoring in social media intangibles

like fan engagement, advocacy and brand lift, allof which are inextricably linked to online growth.We can probably all agree that these intangiblesare good things (says the marketing professional toher counterpart: I have 2,000 fans and daily fancommentsthis is directly contributing to our bottomline, I can just feel it!). But, feeling it and beingable to prove it are two very different things and theproving part has been at the center of heated debatein digital media circles for some time now. Howexactly do we standardize metrics and figure thesenew tools out when the equation is so convoluted?

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According to emarketer.coms 2009 survey, 84 percent ofrespondents admitted they did not currently measure the ROI of theirsocial media programs.

Somewhat more telling is that of those respondents, 40 percentstated that they werent even sure if they could track ROI from theirsocial media tools. What this tells us is that a good majority of thebusiness community has been actively using these tools based on agut feeling, which, right or wrong, isnt a sustainable business practice.

2011 is proving to be the beginning of a shift in attitudes withregards to reporting abilities. Bazaarvoice released a survey that showsthat 74 percent of CMOs predict they will finally tie social efforts tohard ROI this year, with emarketer.com reporting highest ROI datapinpointed to activities on Facebook, as well as ratings and reviewsites like Yelp.

Until recently, soft-metrics (such as total fan count, total likes orfan growth patterns) have been the primary means of quantifyingsocial media data. However, the combination of a more thoroughunderstanding of how social activity connects to profits, unitedwith the expansion of technology that can provide better trackingmechanisms, has opened up the door to a new era of insight and datacollection.

Measuring the Immeasurable:How do you Connect Things Like

Page Engagement to Revenue?

This is the million- (or more accurately billion-) dollar question.Most businesses know that fostering brand conversations andenabling customers to become advocates (digital marketing speak forgood word of mouth) is not exactly a new concept and has alreadybeen working for them for years. The confusion factors in given theunfamiliar environment in which the conversations are happeningin. Luckily, the offerings with regards to tracking mechanisms haveevolved substantially since 2009. Facebook offers its Insights, itsanalytics page, which allows page administrators to gauge basicinformation with regards to user growth and activity, although this isstill considered somewhat data-light for most marketing professionalswho want to really drill down to the specific media consumptionfigures.

Twitter is also readying its own analytics offering, which was stillin Beta at press time. Additionally, there is Google Analytics and a

slew of paid tracking sites that may or may not deliver the goods.But the next big thing that has many of us watching intently are thecompanies that are integrating with and pulling data from the SocialGraph, Facebooks central brain, if you will, which is a data base of ourindividual interests and social profiles-that each of us have personallyconstructed based on our activities on Facebook, and external sitesthat allow you to sign in using Facebook (such as Amazon and theHuington Post, among others. With the goliath network projectingone billion users by August 2012 (Time Magazine, Jan. 2011) thatpromises of a way to connect to one-sixth of the population. Ofthe current 500 million + users, a sixty-second snapshot of userengagement includes 510,404 comments, 382,861 posts liked andover 55 thousand shared links with a total of nearly two million actionsperformed per minute. Wouldnt you love to know exactly how manyof those actions were connected to a conversation about your brand?

Establish metrics that outline your uniquegoals and objectives.

Remember to think of social media platforms as tools, not websitesor communitiesa tool is something with multiple uses and may resultin various outcomes based on who is using it, their skill level withthe tool, and the specific application of that tool. For instance, I mayuse a hammer to put a nail into a wall but you might use it to pull anail out of the wall. Same tool, different desired outcomes, differentmethodology = different means of determining success. It is veryeasy to decide that you want your new tools (social media pages) toproduce specific outcomes, such as increased sales volume withina specific division or product line, or perhaps youd like it to drivemore traffic through your monetized websites to increase ad revenue.

Once you have your end game, it suddenly becomes much easier tobegin to strategize how to get from point A to point B and thus beginto measure the success of specific desired outcomes against appliedstrategies.

It is also important to note the generational shift that we willexperience over the next few decades, and being prepared to measurthe value of social media against a new demographic of buyersand their unique expectations. Gen X is considered the bilingualgeneration; however Generation Y and the upcoming MillennialGeneration (75 percent of whom state they have at least one socialnetworking profile) have essentially been raised on technology andsee it as a barometer of a businesss overall health and value. It willnot be long (in fact, we are arguably already there) before not havinga social media presence is akin to not having a company website.And more important perhaps, will be how the company engages withtheir customers within these social media sites and what emotionalconnections are established between buyer and seller during thesocial interaction.

Companies like Gigya and others now offer solutions that allowcompanies to integrate Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. into their ownwebsites to encourage their customers to amalgamate their socialcommunities into the buying experience and in doing so, offer you theability to begin to track social exchanges attached to your content.These services come with a price tag of course, but will likely becomemore widely available and thus more affordable over the next 1836months as awareness and demand for these types of solutions grow.

A quick snapshot of measurement categories to determine the R

segment of the ROI include:intangble:Community growth patternsretun on engageent:Likes & CommentsShared content / Advocacysentent appng:Conversation profilesmoe Dect Data:Conversion volumeLead generationRevenue growth attached directly to social campaignsIncreased customer satisfaction and reduced complaintsYou will also need to define the I in ROI, specific to your strategy

to see the full picture. Most social media campaigns define investmenas simply time and effort, however more complex campaigns will likel

also take into consideration financial components related to graphicdesigners, web programmers and web based solutions.

Clear Data will Inform yourFuture Successes.

At this point in 2011, businesses are not trying to justify the factthat they are using social media tools to support their businessobjectives but rather trying to understand how to navigate this newand relatively uncharted territory successfully. As technology changes(rapidly) so too will the need to revise strategy and objectives, andnecessitates clear and concise data to inform our approach. It is nolonger sufficient to know instinctively that your social media programis working, but rather to understand how it is working successfully anwhat gains your company will gleam from your investment. Only then

will you be able to strengthen your social media strategy, reduce yourcosts and ultimately harness your social tools as a means of achievingyour overall business goals.

Tara Shenson is a marketing and communications proes-

sional ocused on the digital industry specifcally on social

media. Prior to joining the SCAA in 2009, she worked as a

consultant / designer or numerous online websites and digi

tal start ups within the handmade community a s well as at a

large Southern Caliornia construction company ocusing o

marketing and executive coordination. Known to her colleagues at the SCAA

as the Techie, Taras passion or the ever-evolving landscape o online com-

munications and message prolieration is closely ollowed by her ascination

with image development and branding concepts.The Specialty Coffee Chronicle 1