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Stop measuring audience in social media

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Jan 20, 2012 in Advertising, Marketing, Metrics, Strategy | 15 comments

Have you heard any of these questions lately:

What’s the value of a Facebook fan?
What’s the value of a Twitter follower?
What’s the value of an email subscriber?

I know I certainly have, and these are the wrong questions to be asking. Why? They assume that all people are the same. Let’s instead crib from Batman:

It’s not who I am underneath, but what I *do* that defines me.

There are, broadly speaking, two types of audience members: active and passive. Active members read your newsletters. They click on your tweets. They like your status updates on Facebook. They share with their networks. They read and forward your emails. They buy your products or services. They recommend you to other people.

Passive members… do nothing.

Here’s an example. I have, at the time of this writing, almost 49,000 followers. Awesome, right? I must be a social media success story. Not so fast. If I segment out the traffic on my website using Google Analytics’ Advanced Segments and ask me to show number of absolute unique visitors in the last 30 days from all things Twitter, the true number of followers I actually have that did the bare minimum of clicking on one link to my site in a month is:

1,293. That’s how many followers I have that actually showed up in the last month. That’s a pretty far cry from 49,000. Thankfully, there’s no cost to having the other 47,000+ in my network, but they’re basically dead weight that are providing nothing at all. It’s not like I’m asking them to buy a car or something, just click once on one link in 30 days in order to show up in the chart above.

Here’s another slice of life, my email list. Over 12,000 people subscribed. Great success story on the surface, but if we dig a little deeper…

Yep, less than half opened or clicked on ANYTHING in the last year. The rest of the list is dead weight, and I can and should just ditch ‘em since most email companies charge based on the number of emails sent.

If you’re trying to figure out the value of a person in your audience, you’re barking up the wrong tree. A person in and of themselves has no value until they actually do something, anything, to show that you have some level of engagement with them. Active members of your audience have value. Passive members do not. Start by figuring out how many active members you have, and you will have a much better idea of how your social media efforts are actually performing.

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Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

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I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

How I’m using Buffer to sync my social

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Jan 11, 2012 in Advertising, Marketing, Social media, Social networks, Strategy | 7 comments

A while back I said that I was testing out Buffer, and would let you know what I thought of it. For what I’m using it for, I think it’s a brilliant little app.

Here’s what I’m not using it for: phoning it in on Twitter. While it can do that and reasonably well (I used it for this purpose during the holidays), it’s still not going to deliver game-changing results for you, since a large part of social media is the social part – interacting with other people. Phoning it in and getting results requires you to have unbelievably awesome content worth sharing, and very few of us have that.

What am I using it for? Periodic reminders. What I’ve done with Buffer is create something of a chart that helps me lay out the basic reminder framework I’m using:

Each week for 4 weeks, I’m reminding people in my various audiences about my presence on other social networks. Last week, it was LinkedIn. This week, it’s Google+. The other networks will be represented, then I’ll likely start the cycle anew.

Why did I choose this method for using Buffer? These are the kinds of periodic reminders that are important to keep publishing if new people are joining your network. One look at the basic raw Twitter graph illustrates the necessity of these periodic reminders:

In 30 days, the network has grown by about 2,000 people. Assuming that each and every person knows who I am, what I do, and where else I post is sheer folly. Thus, Buffer provides me the opportunity to gently remind the new folks where else they can participate and interact with me. How did I pick the times to set my periodic updates? Crowdbooster provides a nice chart of when my existing audience is most active on Twitter:

Crowdbooster + Buffer + a set of standard updates is my current formula for success with the app.

How are you using Buffer?

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Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

What are your kata?

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Jan 10, 2012 in Marketing, Ninjutsu, On ko chi shin, Story, Strategy | 2 comments

In the martial arts, there are series of exercises called kata (in Japanese), or forms. These are single or multi-person exercises that follow a pre-arranged sequence of techniques that are performed almost like a dance.

An astonishing number of martial artists no longer see the value in kata. To them, they are outdated, outmoded relics of a bygone era, and offer nothing for modern practitioners, especially when considering the threats and challenges we face today in the 21st century.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

While it’s absolutely true that facing an attack by someone wielding a spear or halberd is fairly unlikely today, the point of kata isn’t just to teach archaic methods for dealing with danger. The point of a kata is to pass along a story about how an important confrontation was won in the past.

Look at a kata like Kyogi, for example, from the Koto family. In its barebones form, it reads like this:

Avoid first punch
Avoid second punch
Step on foot
Knockdown

Pretty unremarkable story, which is why most people discount kata. But think about how you could condense down any story:

Boy loses family
Boy meets wizard
Boy grows his powers
Boy blows up Death Star

We of course expand that little sketch into the epic movie Star Wars. Likewise, with study and practice, we can dig into the story of Kyogi and glean some powerful insights about how to win against an opponent by keeping them constantly off balance and constantly reacting to changes they can’t predict.

The danger with kata is that we pay attention to the wrong things. Instead of delving into the kata and learning the story fully, we skip to the next story sketch, learn its basic outline, and move on yet again, never getting the full flavor of the story.

Sound familiar? That’s also what every digital marketer does with the social networking tool of the day. Instead of exploring all of the different ways we can use one network, we move onto the next shiny object without developing any competence about what we already have access to.

Instead of skipping around and dabbling, think instead about creating and collecting stories from your own work. How would you take an event like an important sale or an important social interaction and convert it into a story that can be told and retold in your company, your network, or your community? How would the story change as people retell it and practice it, refining it and adding to it?

That’s the essence of good martial arts kata and good marketing.

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Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

The burst pipe

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Jan 5, 2012 in Advertising, Marketing, Social media | 6 comments

If you’re not a homeowner, you miss out on some of the joys of life, like taking out the garbage at 7 PM and wondering why water is spraying out the side of your house. That was last night for me – seeing water rushing out of the side of the house near the foundation and wondering what in the world was going on. One quick trip down to the basement revealed the very unhappy truth: one of the heating pipes near a partially frozen open window had cracked and was spraying water everywhere.

This is what my basement felt like.

In something of a panic, I did the first thing that came to mind and called my plumber, Paul. I said, “Hey Paul, I’ve got this pipe spraying water everywhere, and so much of it that the sump pump is actually having to work to empty out that part of the basement. Can you send someone over?” He said, “Of course, but my guy can’t be there for 2 hours. For now, why don’t you just shut off the water main?” After that he promptly hung up in order to call his emergency on-call plumber and get him assigned to our case.

For someone like me who knows little or nothing about plumbing and house design/construction in general, he might as well have said, “Why don’t you go take this scalpel and remove your gall bladder?” It took a minute or two and a fast Google search to figure out what a water main looked like and how to shut it off, but the moment I did, the water stopped rushing into the house and the immediate crisis was over.

After all was said and done, the repairs were completed, I settled up the very, very hefty bill, and thanked Paul and his team for another job well done. Despite the bill being astronomically high for a relatively straightforward repair (remove 2 inches of broken old pipe, insert new one), I was more than happy to pay it so that life could get back to normal. Fixing it myself was far beyond my knowledge of plumbing, which is close to zero. (although I now know where the water main is)

When we as experienced marketing professionals look at the social media landscape, there’s an awful lot of stuff we deem “snake oil”. People are selling books, DVDs, webinars, consultations, etc. on the most basic of basics, like how to set up a Facebook page or a Twitter account, and to veteran practitioners, it’s almost offensive what they charge for. We forget that there are an awful lot of people who have the marketing equivalent of a burst pipe in their shop, and they don’t know where the water main is, much less how to fix it themselves. Thus, they’ll pay just about anything to just about anyone in order to get the most basic repairs underway.

More important, there will always be a role for people doing the basics of social media on behalf of others for a tidy profit. Why? For the same reason that I will continue to pay Paul and his team to come out to my house in the night time and fix simple things: I don’t want to become a plumber. I’ll learn enough to get by for real basic stuff, but anything more than turning off the water main, I am happy to leave to him and his team. Likewise, there will be plenty of folks who want you to be their social media plumber. They don’t want to become digital marketers. Instead of berating them for not doing it themselves or mocking them for not knowing where the water main is, be helpful, provide your service with a smile, and like me calling Paul’s shop, they’ll always call you back for more and happily settle up whatever the bill is.

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Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

The toughest fire to start

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Jan 4, 2012 in Advertising, Marketing, Story | 3 comments

The toughest fire I ever remember having to start was when I was on a Boy Scout campout in February. One of the challenges issued to scouts during that campout was the one-match fire: you’re given exactly one match to start a fire, and if it doesn’t work out, you don’t earn whatever merit badge that you were competing for. On top of that, if you don’t get the fire started, you don’t get to cook dinner, either. Picture this: it’s February. There are 7 inches of snow on the ground, and anything flammable is covered and imbued with frost. It’s also 15 degrees out, and you’re 11 years old trying to start a fire to cook on and stay warm by in two hours before it gets dark.

Starting a fire requires three things: heat, air, and fuel. Air was no problem, even if it was frost-laden. Heat was a single match, and all the fuel was wet. Oh, and we couldn’t cheat, or I would have just poured a gallon of gasoline on the wood and called it a day (and a fireball).

The trick with starting a fire under those conditions is careful preparation. You have to find some dry tinder and kindling (deadwood still on trees), break it off, and then shave it with your pocketknife until you have what looks like a loofah made of wood shavings. Around that you put twigs and smaller branches in a sort of tent shape, then larger branches around that. When you’re done, you have what looks almost like an American Indian lodge. It’s okay for the outer layers of the wood tent to be wet – as long as the first few layers are dry wood, the rest will dry over time from the heat.

I made my pile of shavings eventually. Did I mention it was 15 degrees out? Shaving wood with a small penknife when it’s cold enough to numb your fingers in minutes is painful, but the alternative is worse: if you don’t make enough shavings, the twigs and kindling won’t warm up enough to catch. I couldn’t make a big pile either, because I was running out of time and the sun was setting.

Finally, I had my wood tent set up. I checked the time – about 15 minutes to sunset. It was now or never – and if my preparation wasn’t sufficient, I was going to be very cold and very hungry that night. I grabbed the one match I was allowed from the scout master and lit it as close to the wood shavings as possible. Smoke, some initial sparks, and then finally a flame. The wood caught fire, and I could have a warm dinner that night.

There’s a fine balance between rushing to get the job done before the deadline and doing it well enough that your single match will catch fire. Likewise, in digital marketing, there’s a fine balance between building your base (audience) and making your offer, lighting the match. Like the campfire, for any given campaign, you get only one match, one shot to start a fire or go hungry. Most marketers these days err on the side of rushing to light the match with too little preparation, and it’s no wonder that they and their sales teams are going to bed with empty stomachs and cold feet.

Do your preparation work as best as you can given your time constraints, and you’ll go hungry a lot less often.

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Marketing White Belt

Basics for Digital Marketers
is now on Amazon & B&N

Watch me speak:

Attend virtually!

I recommend:

for Twitter audience building.

Looking back at the three words for 2011

Posted by Christopher S Penn on Dec 27, 2011 in Advertising, Marketing, Strategy | 2 comments

Back at the beginning of the year, I shared with you the three words I chose for 2011. If you’re not familiar with this, here’s the original post. Let’s see how they panned out, shall we?

System

The original idea was to see how many ideas from automation of the World of Warcraft Auction House could be put to use in real life, and this year was an excellent year for systems. Together, you and I developed some fairly useful templates for making exciting things happen. The most telling example of this was the sheer number of “How to” blog posts I wrote this year, many by request, from Facebook Insights to Google+ analytics. Some of the templates turned out to be case studies in their own right, such as my book launch roadmap. Other systems you can see the results of, but not necessarily how the machinery works.

Overall, 2011 was a very good year for systems.

Shatterpoint

The original idea of shatterpoints was to find where little things can make or break a company, make or break a system. Thanks to many different events this year, I got a chance to clarify many of the frameworks I talk about and where the exact shatterpoints are. The method you use to judge how a lead is qualified in a sales and marketing funnel can make or break your company’s entire revenue stream and simultaneously break all of your marketing efforts. One of the biggest shatterpoints this year was around metrics. So many people are choosing the wrong metrics to measure by, which in turn either invalidates or outright breaks their marketing programs entirely.

Shatterpoints were clearly important as part of 2011.

Leverage

The flipside to shatterpoints was leverage, or where little things can make a big difference. If there was one defining factor of 2011, it was that social became an integral part of other marketing efforts and added to them with unforeseen synergies. For example, one of the biggest was that search engines began to use social to adjust search results, which was a giant game-changer. That turned little habits like #the5 into legitimate search boosters, and this became obvious by the number of people asking to be listed in it. Other simple things like a welcome message on Twitter generated giant results: