Understanding that there is a real need for training in this area my attentions have turned to establishing the areas avid social media see as most important and what they feel should be included in presentations or training courses on the subject.

Using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter I posted the question below and received some great responses from the social media community. Do you agree or disagree with the comments so far? Do you have an idea of your own not already mentioned? If you do, why not add a comment at the bottom of the post?

“If you were leading a social media course what do you believe would be the 3 most important things to cover?”

@guavamarked (Twitter) monitoring, empowering existing users, engaging with new ones.

@sam_deeks (Twitter) 3 tips for Social Media course 1) SM wasn’t created for your benefit 2) Leave your ego out of it 3) Get a (real) life as well

@seasedge (Twitter) Understand your social media goals, tracking / monitoring your current interaction & attracting new customers.

@enterpriseiain (Twitter) depends on the audience.never sell a tragedy to an audience expecting a comedy. A vital point for all courses.

@cyberdoyle (Twitter) before i started I would watch this, its mega and full of wisdom for any social media peeps http://tinyurl.com/kvmods

@24x blogs, twitter, facebook for business…all of course accompanied by a latte

Sean McManus (LinkedIn)

A lot of businesses fall flat when they go into social networks and just start spouting off about how great they are. It needs to be more about building a relationship with people (two way communication), and messages need to be consistent with the tone of the community, and add value.

So I’d suggest the three priorities are:

- making sure that you add value to the community
- listening to what people say (not just pushing stuff out there)
- respecting that it’s not your community – follow the rules and netiquette.

I guess another part of it is that it’s a long term game – you can’t expect quick returns from social media. It’s about building reputation and relationships, not about making a quick sell.

Steven Stearns (LinkedIn)

1.) Face your market.
2.) Listen to it.
3.) Engage.

Aaron Shaffer (LinkedIn)

Good question. I would start with determining the goal of why a company wants to leverage social media. Is it a feeling that they have to, are they interested in a new venue for customer interaction, or is it just another way to brand or sell themselves. Based upon that goal, I would then begin to look at:

• How you want your community’s followers to interact with you, and for what purpose? As Sean said in the post above me, it really is about listening to your community. Establish a network of trust. I know there are a myriad of good and bad examples of this.
• Determining your long term value proposition. Are you simply a logo in cyberspace, or are you going to provide and disseminate information that would be important to your audience.
• While building credibility for yourself, respect the ethos of the specific community and your followers. At this point, we’ve seen sites come and go. Without that respect, are you going to be able to carry your users to the next platform?

Above all, stress the importance of building the reputation of the brand and providing a pathway for long term interaction and a sustained relationship.

Steve Buser (LinkedIn)

Suppose I am selling coffee. I want to get a dialogue going about coffee, not about my coffee. How to brew the perfect cup. The best coffee houses (let the users tell me where they are and why. THe best blends, The newest trends. Quote famous people on coffee. Great coffee moments in history. Best foods to eat with coffee.

But it is not just you telling them. Let them be the major part of the dialogue. A reward for the “best coffee story.”

Make coffee part of their lives, not just part of their shopping list.

Involve them, celebrate their ideas and input. Then you will be following the old marketing line “Sell the sizzle and not the steak.”

>Peter Graves (LinkedIn)

1. Making your social media efforts more targeted, mostly otherwise you’ll be marketing to friends, family, competitors and spammers.
2. Selecting the right site(s) for your market, personality and time-availability.
3. Working SMM in with your SEO – the SEO is lightly to bring you larger numbers of better targeted visitors, so those that forsake this for pure social media can pay quite a high price in the long term.
4. Doing it efficiently, so it creates maximum impact and involvement while swallowing up as little of your time as possible.
Good grief there’s so much isn’t there – good points from the others on this page too I feel.

Rob Duncan (LinkedIn)

1. Be where your market is (pick the right platforms).
2. Know what you are trying to achieve (stay on message).
3. Think “give” not “get” (invest in your network).

Claire Eason-Bassett (Facebook)

what are the benefits of social media and how can it be used to get them? e.g. writing good twitters. And how to join up between the social media forms and include social media in your overall marketing strategy.

A big thank you to all those who took the time to answer my question. Some really great responses which will give me a lot to consider when preparing the next course or presentation.

The original press release and Helen’s report at first seems to have some pretty compelling evidence; under 5% of social media users refer to social media in making purchasing decisions across a number of purchase categories ranging from travel to banking. However, on closer inspection of the study there are a number of factors which make this report less substantial than it may at first appear.

‘Social Media Users’

Starting at the beginning, the report is based around a study conducted by Knowledge Networks as part of their Home Technology Monitor and draws on one specific question asked to just 418 respondents considered to be ‘social media users’. These users are defined for the purposes of this study as:

“those who ever use any of 27 pre-specified websites commonly categorized as social media sites, or those who have used social media features on other websites that are not primarily social media sites.”

Now this may seem like a fair definition of a ‘social media user’ in general, but looking at the list of 27 pre-specified websites it is clear that the majority of the sites named are more akin to ‘social networks’ than they are ‘social media’. And secondly categorising those ‘who have ever used’ those sites as ‘social media users’ seems a little weak at best.

Any company investing time and other resources to implementing a properly researched social media strategy will know that success in social media does not come from social networks alone. A lot of social media activities rely on engaging content which may be hosted across a series of websites or blogs. This content may not be immediately apparent as a form of ‘social media’ to the consumer; however, they are right there at the core of the social media activity being carried out.

Social media users come in all shapes and sizes. Some will be evangelists spending every waking moment connected to the web, whereas others just dabble with it, spending ten minutes a week corresponding with their friends. To lump all these groups together as one only serves to water down the research and skew the data.

‘Refer’ to Social Media

The question used to compile the research read as follows:

“How often do you refer to social media websites or features as a resource for information, reviews, or recommendations when in the market for [category]?” Categories on offer to participants included: Travel, Banking, Clothes, Groceries, Restaurants and Cars.

In both the original release and Helen’s report, they headlined with the fact that under 5% in each category, stated that they ‘regularly’ refer to ‘social media’ when making the decision. However, what they fail to highlight is that this number doubles for the answer ‘sometimes’ with percentages ranging between 10% for Prescription and OTC Drugs purchases and 24% for Travel and Travel Services.

What’s more, the question fails to recognise that many consumers may have been influenced by recommendations, reviews and information over social media in the days, weeks or months leading up to their decision. These consumers may not actively ‘refer’ to social media in making their decisions; however, there is still a link between social media and their purchase that needs consideration.

In the same way that many consumers will not make purchases off the back of one display ad alone, the brand awareness created by a series of ads and the company’s wider advertising or branding leads the consumer into making the all important purchase.

(Also, what about the benefits of increased traffic to the websites used to purchase products?)

The Results

Looking at the age banding and categories employed in the results, it seems a little odd that Knowledge Networks felt it best to display the results for one wide age category of 13-54 year olds.

Would it not have been more interesting to look for trends amongst particular age groups and particular categories? After all it would be natural to assume that younger ages would place more trust in friends’ recommendations over social networks than their older counterparts.

Would it also not be likely that some ages would use social media to differing degrees depending on the purchasing decision to be made, and furthermore that each age group in each category may behave differently? For example, younger people may look more to social media for clothes or shoe purchasing decisions, whereas older groups may prefer to review banking or travel arrangements.

By lumping all the data together in one set, Knowledge Networks have missed a real opportunity to understand how those using social media actually refer to social media in making their purchasing decisions. As such, we are left with some pretty bland and misleading figures.

Return on Investment?

In reality this study has very little to do with the return on investment from social media. It focuses on one very small element of the potential returns.

There are plenty of examples of companies who have used the platforms available to achieve tangible business success. Below are links to two great examples of social media ROI and the Groundswell Awards Winners list which includes a number of great case studies along the same lines. 

Twitter Proves Its Worth as a Killer App for Local Businesses

Case Study: ROI of Social Media Campaign for SeaWorld San Antonio – A Year Later

2008 Forrester Groundswell Awards Winners