The infographic below was inspired by The Ultimate Guide to Leaving Comments on Blogs, a great post written by Darren Rowse of Problogger.

This visualization highlights the benefits of leaving blog comments, describes the four different personality types of blog commenters, and lists the DOs and DON’Ts of effective blog commenting.

I’d love to get your thoughts. Are there any other points you would add? What are some of your positive or negative experiences with blog commenting?

The post Ultimate Guide to Blog Comments [Infographic] appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Using a blend of research and real world client data, Solis and Li have established a social business strategy DNA – a set of strategic characteristics that are common among successful social organizations.

The book highlights seven success factors, including social business best practices, pitfalls, and practical exercises to help guide you – all in an easy to consume format (~100 pages).

Does your organization have a social business strategy in place? Which of the seven success factors below are proving to be the most challenging? The comments are yours.

Image Credits:

Road designed by Erbil Sivaslioglu from The Noun Project

Map designed by Atelier Iceberg from The Noun Project

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In a recent post on Harvard Business Review, Alexandra Samuel presents a series of data-driven Pinterest tactics that drive sales to brick and mortar retail locations. These findings are part of larger study, From Social to Sale: 8 Questions to Ask Your Customers, that offers some great insight on the factors that impact consumer social purchasing decisions.

This infographic is designed to summarize the 5 key tactics that retailers can use to help drive in-store traffic.

Are you using Pinterest to drive traffic to your retail store? What other Pinterest tactics are working for you? The comments are yours.

The post How Pinterest Drives Retail Traffic [Infographic] appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

In researching the content for this infographic I came across a post in my Delicious archive that helps answer this question. Leo Widrich over on the Buffer Blog wrote a great post about what makes content spread. In it, he analyzes some of the elements that helped one particular blog post get over half a million likes. He also references an interesting research paper about what makes online content go viral.

This infographic highlights five key elements of viral content: scarcity, share buttons, skim-ability, practical utility and consistency. Are there any others you would add? The comments are yours.

Icon credit: Faucet designed by Monika Ciapala from The Noun Project

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A recent study by the Altimeter Group might suggest otherwise, stating that “most companies feel they have fairly coherent social strategies”, but given the advanced nature of the sample i.e. social strategists, large organizations, etc. my sense is that the findings may not represent the experiences of the majority of companies that are using social media.

Aside: I tried to find some research to support my theory and came across a Mashable post referencing “new research finds that 72% of businesses that use social media do not have a clear set of goals or a clear strategy for their social media platforms”. Sadly, there was no link to the original study so the jury is still out.

If you fall into the group that could benefit from some social media strategy guidance check out these great SME posts:

• THE LANDSCAPING OF SOCIAL MEDIA: TACTICS VS. STRATEGY
• SOUTHWEST AIRLINES AND SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY: 5 LESSONS FOR MARKETERS
• SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY LEARNING CURVE AND FRAMEWORK
• SOCIAL STRATEGY ROADMAP INFOGRAPHIC
• SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY IN FOUR STEPS

As far as this infographic – It was inspired by Jay Baer’s “tool-agnostic” take on how to develop a social media strategy.

What are your thoughts about this strategic approach? Does your organization have a social media strategy in place? If so, how does it differ from the one represented in this infographic? The comments are yours.

Icon credit:  Sail Boat designed by Adam Zubin from The Noun Project

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Mass adoption of social tools and technology have created an information democracy. Stakeholders are beginning to expect open access to relevant content and the ability to participate in dialogue that will help them satisfy their information needs. All this for the purpose of building trust in a product, service or organization.

Trust is the foundation of all relationships and relationships are what fuel business growth and long term success. Transparency across digital channels is a great way for organizations to start connecting with their audiences and slowly building trust.

This infographic contains a few ideas on how social media can be used to deliver on the promise of organizational transparency. Please feel free to share your experiences and ideas. The comments are yours.

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It’s well established that social media technologies – the applications, networks and platforms that drive tactical implementation – are not considered by most to be a cost barrier. The fact is that many tools are free or very affordable. But social media still has costs attached to it – a “different kind of expensive” as my friend Jay Baer likes to say.

The general consensus is that companies need to dedicate resources to social media (in the form of time and labor) in order to be successful. I would agree with this statement. But the question is, how much time exactly? Here is where things can get a little sketchy. For many organizations, social media hasn’t become part of the operation yet. As a result, a lot of work is still being done off the corner of people’s desk…or by interns.

This infographic is my take on the time investment required to develop an effective social media workflow. Major caveat – of course, every organization is different and any workflow that is designed and implemented needs to work towards the achievement of business goals. That being said, I feel the time scope represented here is far more realistic than the notion that organizations can get value from the social channel by investing “15 minutes a day”.

I’d love to get your thoughts. How much time does your company invest in managing their social media marketing and communication? Are there any tasks you would add to the workflow? The comments are yours.

The post Social Media Workflow [Infographic] appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Is there risk to the bottom line for organization’s that cut corners in the way they reach out to prospects and influencers? My theory is that the practice of lackluster research, or worse, the lack of research altogether, combined with the use of form letters, spam and automated emails has the potential to erode business value.

Let’s look at the pitch that inspired this post and use it to help illustrate a business scenario:

We have heard some real good reviews about the content marketing services that you offer. We were wondering about your thoughts regarding inclusion of engaging infographics in your content marketing packages. [Company Name] can help you make your content marketing services more special and effective by creating visually appealing, viral infographics that would surely draw huge attention of the target audience.

Sadly, this is a pretty standard pitch. By investing 30 seconds and performing a Google search the person sending this email would have quickly been able to figure out that their pitch didn’t make any sense written as is. The fact that I already use infographics in my content marketing and that I wrote a book about infographics makes their pitch fall flat because it lacks relevancy. But more importantly, the lazy approach has some potential financial consequences in the following areas:

Lost Sales – Poor research blended with the lack of customized outreach can result in lost revenue opportunities. In this case, I didn’t object to the idea of being pitched but, rather, the pitch itself. Yes, I do create my own infographics but I also have a need to outsource infographic designs. If the pitch was written with that in mind it would have kept the door open with respect to future relationship management and business development.

Trust Erosion – A lack of care when it comes to outreach reflects the potential of a greater service problem. If the organization doesn’t cover off the basics when it comes to their outreach what possible gaps or flaws exist in their service delivery and support? This manifests itself in a couple of different ways: people sharing the outreach story with friends, colleagues or across the internet (see next point) or simply removing them from consideration when it comes to using or recommending their products and services.

Negative WOM – I chose not to call out the organization that contacted me in a public forum like SME. Not everyone shares the same view. There are many examples of organizations being used as case studies to highlight poor or misleading outreach practices. Haphazard outreach can definitely result in negative word of mouth that can erode the value of your brand.

Outreach Tips

So how can you avoid some of these potential economic pitfalls when it comes to your outreach?

I like to think that common sense is your best guide – treat the people you are approaching in the same manner you would like to be treated. Be honest, do some research, don’t waste people’s time and offer a value proposition.

Here are a few of the things I like to do prior to reaching out to a prospect or influencer:

• Blog Subscription – One of the first things I research is a prospects blog or website. I like to subscribe to RSS feeds using Google Reader and tend to skim through a number of posts going back as far as 6 months. My objective when it comes to referencing  blog posts in any outreach is to be genuine – the best way to accomplish this is to actually dig into some the content and extract value from what you are reading. It’s very rare that you won’t find something interesting, thought provoking or debatable when you conduct this research. Remember, you don’t have to love or agree with everything someone says on their blog in order to genuinely engage them in dialogue. Sometimes offering a counter-point or different perspective is a great way to start a conversation during the outreach process. Also, I don’t like to pretend I’ve been a long time subscriber if that’s not the case. There’s nothing wrong with telling a prospect you just subscribed to their blog and have been catching up on old posts. Be transparent in any outreach you do.
• Blog Comments – After reading a few posts and picking out the ones that really resonate with me I may submit a comment or two on some older posts. Normally I like to continue following a blog for a few weeks and comment when it’s appropriate. Remember to try to add value every time you submit a comment. Don’t simply placate or agree with what is written…try to offer an opinion or unique perspective.
• Twitter Stream – In conjunction with blog research I like to follow prospects if they are on Twitter. I have a special column set up in HootSuite that filters content from people that I may be interested in connecting with down the road. There are a lot of smart people sharing great content on Twitter so I find pretty easy to find relevant, helpful posts to retweet or @mention. I also find you can gain some added insight though the links that prospects are sharing.

These are just a few of the things you can do when it comes to managing your prospect or influencer outreach. For more information check out this comprehensive Best Practice Guide to Blogger Outreach from the folks an inkybee (FREE, email required to download).

Personalized outreach is hard work that can take a lot of time but, in my opinion, it’s the only real effective way to nurture relationships that can add business value over time. What do think? What other economic risks might be associated with poor outreach practices? The comments are yours.

Have You Registered For Explore Portland?

Don’t miss two days of intensive learning with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the digital marketing and social media marketing space. Join SME’s Jason Falls and Nichole Kelly, Unmarketing and The Book of Business Awesome author Scott Stratten, The Now Revolution co-author and leading strategist Jay Baer, Smart Business, Social Business author Michael Brito, allen+gerritsen strategist Tamsen Webster, Edison Research’s Tom Webster and more at one of the leading digital and social media marketing events of 2012, November 15-16 in Portland, Ore. DON’T WAIT TO REGISTER! Seats are filling fast! Reserve yours today!

The post The Economics of Bad Outreach appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

I believe in the idea that organizations adopting the use of social technology, flattening their corporate structure and making the shift towards less siloed communication and operational models will be in a better position to achieve their business objectives as the marketplace becomes more digitally connected.

As an idea or concept, social business is complex. The folks at Dachis Group offer this definition:

Social business draws on trends in technology (e.g., powerful mobile devices, widespread availability of high-speed Internet access, low cost of data storage), work (e.g., always-on culture, globalization), and society (e.g., propensity to share). Companies should care about social business because they can improve business outcomes (i.e., increase revenue or decrease costs). The core principles touch on all areas of a business, whether for business-to-customer engagement, employee-to-employee collaboration, or supply chain optimization. Making social business work requires focus on a company’s culture, connections, content exchanges, and measurement and analytics.

Unfortunately, as the term social business begins to move along the same popularity arc as “social media” it is getting overused and mis-defined to the point of clouding people’s ability to connect with its meaning and context. Recently this reached a boiling point for my esteemed colleague Jason Falls who proclaimed that the term “social business” is bullshit.

Semantics aside, social business presents a set of important ideas that organizational leaders are incumbent to discuss and understand. A post recently published by Dave Gray really helps crystallize the idea of social business design. In The Connected Company Gray uses a series of “city” metaphors to clearly explain how a social business is a “complex, adaptive system.”

His post inspired the following information design. My goal here is to present a visual interpretation of these ideas aimed at building high level understanding and prompting discussion. Let me know your thoughts and ideas about social business. Does it make sense or is it “bullshit”? The comments are yours.

Sources:

Map Artwork: Patrick Hoesly via Flickr

Infographic Icons: The Noun Project

The post Social Business Design [Infographic] appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

When it comes to social media there are a plethora of standards, guidelines and case studies aimed at benchmarking the best way to do things across various digital channels. These best practices can be very effective in building a strategic and tactical foundation for your organization’s social media plan. Also, in a larger context, they serve an important role in documenting information in the ever-evolving field of social media marketing and communications. That being said, there are a number of things that your organization should take into consideration before simply adopting industry best practices as your own.

Understanding Social Media Best Practices

A couple of important things to understand about best practices are the information and methodology being used to establish specific social media benchmarks.

When it comes to the source of information, in order to establish its relevance it is important to question the types of organizations that are being referenced in connection with any best practices. Social media best practices from similar companies, sectors or regions will carry more weight than those from sources that have nothing in common with your business.

Brad Batesole, Social Media Manager at lynda.com, feels that organizations need to be mindful of best practice data.

If every brand chased after best practices only, many would miss the mark. What works for 60% of brands, may not be the ideal approach for your fan base. Best practices are often collected by analyzing data trends – and this data tends to come from large brands with a broad reach. While they are a great starting point, they aren’t the definitive answer.

In addition, before jumping in and embedding a benchmarked strategy, process or tactic it helps to understand the methodology that is being used in the research leading up to the development and proclamation of that best practice.

In an article about best practices research, Eugene Bardach, Professor of Public Policy at the University of California Berkley, looks at best practices through a pragmatic lens. He feels that the term “best” is rarely proven using stringent research protocols and recommends that organizations have realistic expectations when it comes to best or “good” practices.

Appearances can be very deceiving. On closer inspection, it often turns out that the supposedly ‘good’ practice is not solving the problem at all. Inadequate measurement plus someone’s rose-colored glasses were simply producing the illusion of mitigating the problem. It may also turn out that, even if good effects have truly occurred, the allegedly ‘good’ practice had little or nothing to do with producing them. Finally, innocently extrapolating from a setting where a good practice has indeed worked well to settings which might differ in little-understood but important ways could lead to weak, perverse, or otherwise damaging results.

Know YOUR Audience

Another critical component of social media best practices is audience analysis. It’s important to recognize that some recommended strategies won’t make sense for your organization because of the simple fact that your audience and their information needs are unique.

Batesole states that best practices are a great starting point, but that it is really important for organizations to be flexible when it comes to modifying guidelines so that they can customize strategies to suite their audience.

Understanding who you are talking to, and how they engage, is vital. For example, some best practices suggest posting to Facebook after business-hours for best engagement – but if you’re in the realm of B2B, you might need to reverse this strategy to hit your target market while they’re in the office, not at home.

Inspiration and Testing

The goal of this post is not to discourage the use of best practices in their entirety, simply to prompt critical thought before embedding them in your organization’s social media strategy. It’s crucial to understand the data behind best practices but it is also important to recognize that best practices can act as a valuable strategic guide and source of inspiration for your organization, helping build knowledge around emerging technology and the evolving social business landscape.

Batesole is a also a big believer in monitoring best practices and encourages organizations to test them within their own environment vs. adopting a cookie cutter approach.

This data is imperative to understanding the evolution of social. We’ve seen huge shifts in how people interact in social, and with new networks such as Pinterest, that method of engagement changes daily. Before, it was compelling enough to just share an article…but now, visual images drive more impact…Take best-practices, and TEST them in your existing strategy. Devise a clear test, try it, and then evolve it to meet the demands of your audience.

How does your organization manage social media best practices? Have you adopted them as-is or refined them to meet your organization’s needs? Have they been valuable in helping you build out your strategies? The comments are yours.

The post The Best Practice Paradox appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

ROI is calculated as follows: (Gain from an investment – Cost of the investment) / Cost of the investment

The formula is simple enough. So why do ROI discussions always seem to have the potential to become acrimonious? Like a good political debate, how you approach the measurement of your content marketing and communication initiatives can depend on your perspective.

THE ROI SPECTRUM

Those on the left side of the spectrum believe that creating marketing content such as infographics and publishing it across social media channels helps their brand communicate and connect with audiences. Because “engagement” is always the right thing to do, measuring performance becomes less of a priority.

Those on the right side of the spectrum ardently believe that content marketing initiatives must be able to be measured and show a proven ROI, or they are not viable or beneficial to the organization.

A practical solution to the measuring of infographic value lies somewhere in between.

Costs are associated with the development, design, publishing, and promotion of your infographics. It may be unnecessary to measure the direct correlation between your infographic marketing efforts and revenue, but it is important to understand and measure the relationship between resource allocation and marketing performance. As a business person, you need to be able to justify the internal and external value of infographics as a communication tool.

Conversely, looking at infographics and other content marketing purely through a fiscal lens may be too narrow an approach. Not every marketing and communication initiative that adds value to an organization can be unequivocally connected to revenue. In reality, some hypocrisy is related to ROI expectations with new marketing tactics such as infographics and social media when compared to legacy programs. For example, how many organizations actually measure the ROI of an established marketing activity such as attending a trade show?

When it comes to measuring the value of infographics, maybe ROI is simply not the best end goal.

MEASURING VOI (VALUE OF INFOGRAPHICS)

Another way to study the value of information design as a marketing and communication tool is to take a more balanced approach that assesses both tangible and intangible benefits over the short and long term.

Be sure to set analytics objectives and have a benchmark for each metric so that you can gauge progress over time. For example, you can note, audit and record performance metrics as of a specific date, such as the first day of the next fiscal quarter. Then measure the same metrics in regular intervals moving forward – 30, 60, or 90 days – comparing them to the benchmark and subsequent historic figures. This process helps you measure progress related to awareness and engagement and also helps you assess what infographic content is most effective.

Tangible Metrics

Awareness

These basic metrics indicate the level of exposure your infographics are receiving across different digital channels:

• Inbound links – Use Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to measure how many sites are linking back to your infographic content. Also, if you include an embed code, track how many people copy and paste the code and embed your infographic on their sites. In addition to measuring awareness, back links also provide insight into the types of people and websites that are publishing your infographics.
• Page views – Use Google Analytics to measure how many page views and unique views each infographic on your website or blog is generating.
• Searches – Use Google Analytics to see how many people are finding your infographics by using specific keywords. Understanding which topical or industry search words are working well can help you refine keyword optimization in future infographic titles. In addition, you will be able to assess the growth of an infographic’s popularity by how many times people search for its title.
• SEO ranking – Use RankChecker to measure the page rank of your infographics on major search engines such as Google and Bing.
• Subscribers – Use the analytics functionality native to each of the applications you are using – blog, Facebook, Twitter- to measure how many people subscribe to your content across digital channels. Examples of metrics include blog subscribers (RSS and email), email subscribers, and followers on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. It’s important to recognize that these metrics reflect your potential audience reach. Not all your subscribers will necessarily see every infographic you will publish.

In addition to quantifiable metrics, a number of less-tangible benefits are associated with using infographics as an internal and external communication tool.

External

• Building relationships – The process of publishing and promoting your infographics presents opportunities to develop relationships with a wide variety of influential individuals, media, and organizations.
• Credibility – Publishing relevant and useful infographics that educate and offer insight positions you or your organization as a thought leader within your sector, building credibility with your audiences.
• Experience with your brand – Infographics and other content create micro-interactions with your audiences, helping facilitate positive experiences with your organization.

Internal

• Communication – Infographics can make it easier for your employees to communicate problems, ideas, concepts, and processes with each other, allowing more efficient dissemination of information and transfer of knowledge. Infographics, because of their accessible and viral nature, also have the potential to get spread to all corners of an organization, fuelling expanded internal debate and dialogue.
• Corporate pride – If an infographic becomes popular and gets shared across social media channels, it can become a point of pride for employees and the organization.
• Decision-making – Infographics speed up information consumption and understanding, resulting in incrementally quicker decisions.
• Learning – Infographics make complex information easier to understand, helping educate employees about important data and processes.

I would love to get your thoughts on measuring the value of infographic content. How important is it to measure VOI? What others ways would you measure the impact of infographics? The comments are yours.

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This is the final post in a 4-part series covering some of the themes included in The Power of Infographics: Using Pictures to Communicate and Connect with Your Audiences – my new book now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Que and Indigo.

The post The ROI of Infographics appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

Infographics are becoming a mainstream marketing communication tool, thanks in part to the exposure they have gained across social media channels. But has this digital exposure increased adoption of information design as a tool for internal communication, education, and decision-making?

INTERNAL ADOPTION OF INFOGRAPHICS

Although not as popular as content marketing infographics targeted at external audiences, data visuals and information designs created to communicate with employees are slowly being adopted by organizations.

Joe Pulizzi from the Content Marketing Institute agrees that infographics are being used primarily for external communication, but he sees some internal crossover starting to take place.

“Clients are becoming interested in hosting infographics for employee training and education on their internal blogs and intranets, seeking to provide information similar to those posters you would see in many manufacturing facilities.”

Because of their high shareability quotient, organizations hope that infographics can facilitate more rapid dissemination of important information compared to traditional ways of transferring knowledge such as text laden documents.

David Armano, EVP of Global Innovation and Integration at Edelman, shares an example that highlights the power of infographics in helping spread information across an organization.

“We created a cool visual analytics report for one of our technology clients that was very different from the static dashboards they were accustomed to seeing. The information was consumed by almost every department as the report went viral across the organization.”

In addition to creating internal information design solutions for clients, Edelman is committed to embracing the use of infographics and the development of visual literacy initiatives within the organization. Armano cites the evolution of the agency’s premier intellectual property asset, the Edelman Trust Barometer, as an example, stating that recent iterations have become much more visual and have evolved to include a number of infographic elements. In addition, the firm’s own internal social media education program, BELT, also reflects this commitment to visual learning. Many of the training modules are very visual, using infographics to complement text.

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION OPPORTUNITIES

There are a number of different ways to use infographics to communicate with employees, management, and other stakeholders within your organization:

Decision-Making

• Use infographics to present comparative lists and to highlight pros and cons. Visual elements make it easier for people to compare and make choices.
• Use information design to expose data patterns and relationships. Visualizing data enables employees to analyze reports more effectively.
• Use infographics in situations where there is not a lot of time to interpret information and where prompt decision-making is required. Infographics help employees digest and understand information quickly and easily.
• Use infographics to visualize important strategic documents, reports, and plans.

Training

• Embed infographics into employee training manuals and guides to make them easier to consume and understand.
• Use infographics to create sets of training cards that can be distributed to employees as a reference tool or used by managers in workshops and training sessions.
• Place large infographics in highly trafficked areas in your organization to offer visual reminders of important ideas, processes, or policies.

Exchanging Ideas

• Use infographics to disseminate important information. Because they are unique and get shared readily, infographics help embed knowledge across the organization.
• Use information design to communicate in diverse internal environments where language or education barriers may exist. Infographics are a universal communication tool that makes it easier to deliver information with less likelihood of misunderstanding.
• Use infographics in meetings and presentations. Visualizations can help employees digest and understand information within condensed periods of time, making it easier to communicate takeaways and next steps more effectively.
• Use infographics in situations where you need buy-in. Infographics facilitate quicker consumption and comprehension of ideas and concepts, making it easier to garner support and obtain consensus from your audience.

Have you seen infographics used effectively inside your organization? What are some other ways organizations can use information visualization with internal audiences? The comments are yours.

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This is the third post in a 4-part series covering some of the themes included in The Power of Infographics: Using Pictures to Communicate and Connect with Your Audiences – my new book now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Que and Indigo. For a chance to win a FREE copy drop by the and vote for your favourite image in the infographic tug of war (Contest expires 11:59pm PST July 24, 2012).

The post Infographics Inside the Organization appeared first on Social Media Explorer.