Great Social Media Experiment

Final Weekly Stats: Weeks 12

2009-08-31T10:57:00.009-05:00

Over the last 12 weeks we have tweeted, blogged and facebooked to our hearts content to see if utilizing social media held a significant value for service-based business. Our initial goal was to gain 1,000 followers and friends on Twitter and Facebook to share our design ideas and inspirations (and hopefully boost our ROI).

From the first week of the experiment to the last, we didn't hit our goals, but did make satisfactory progress. We gained 346 Twitter followers, added 441 more users to our following list, and increased our Facebook fans by 62%, allowing us the ability to share our ideas and communicate with others. Our blog hits increased from 63 a week to 190 a week and our website hits averaged 174.5 unique viewers a week. Whether or not these new connections are leading to genuine business relationships is still up in the air for us. The connections seem intangible to our service-based business. That doesn't mean they are not valuable, just hard to measure.

(To see our overall stats from week 1 to week 12, click here.)

One problem we ran into was our potential client base is largely not yet on Twitter or reading the type of blog that we published. The average Twitter account holder is reasonably young, urban, and engaged online according to arstechnica.com. Our clients tend to be Directors of Marketing or CEOS, which most Twitter users are not.

We feel that there are things we could have done differently that would have produced better results. We could have blogged about more topics that we are passionate about, and make the blog much more personal. We could have twittered around the clock. Hind-sight is always 20/20.

However, the point of any experiment is not knowing exactly what will happen based on any variable. We went in to this the same way that most companies jump into Social Media, with virtually no strategy. More testing is definitely recommended. A great way to test the significance of Twitter strategies would be to conduct the experiment in a scientific manner: starting with a handful of brand new Twitter accounts and assigning each a specific strategy, with one being a control (no strategy) and assessing the value(s) of each strategy to service-based business.

Though this is the end of our experiment, we are not ending the experience. We will continue to tweet, blog, and facebook to represent ourselves and our ideas and will continue to post to this site with insights and observations about the universe of Social Media.

Keep watching us!

Interview - Social Media Believer

2009-08-24T11:20:00.004-05:00

Ben Smith is what we would call a firm believer in Social Media, especially for business. He's the Social Media Manager for the World Company, a media empire based out of Lawrence, KS. Ben explains what it means to be the same person online as you are offline and shares a few tips on handling Social Media within the business space.

Weekly Stats - Week 11

2009-08-24T09:08:00.004-05:00

We're happy to report good stats this week! The overall bump in our stats is directly proportional to Clifton's blog post, "Is your brand image only worth two hundred bucks?" It's a hot-button issue that gets people fired up. We posted a link to the blog on Twitter and Facebook resulting in 134 clicks and multiple retweets.

The blog itself was based upon an idea we felt strongly about, and thusly received more traffic than some of the other posts we have made which may have been very simply posts of cool graphic ideas for inspiration. We found that many others in the design community also felt strongly about this topic and were happy we had voiced our beliefs about it. This gives us reason to believe that mixing in more personalized content with images of inspiration would result in a bigger following.

Weekly Stats - Week 10

2009-08-17T11:49:00.004-05:00

(Click on graph to enlarge image)

The results of our experiment are really starting to plateau. Sure, they're still increasing, but at very small numbers. Blog hits and website hits seem to be interchangeable and stay within the same span of hits. However, we do have good news: The number of hits on this blog (the greatsocialmediaexperiment.com) have spiked. It's too bad we aren't including this blog in our measured results!

Ten Simple Suggestions for Using Social Media

2009-08-11T14:00:00.009-05:00

If you haven't already, you're likely going to use social media in one form or another to promote your business. The following are a few easy things to keep in mind as you do so:

Advertise less

We all hate being interrupted in what we're doing by an ad or a commercial (think about all those videos online that make you watch an advertisement before you can watch the video.) Try to think about social media from a less ad-centric perspective. Try to pull people into what you're saying instead of pushing your message out to everyone.

Listen to what's being said

Monitor what is being said about you or your company, share your perspective and even attempt to apologize when needed to remedy a situation. Not doing so could cost you some business. It's free to utilize a number of useful tools like Google Alerts, Backtype, and TweetBeep. So start doing it. Even if you do nothing else with social media, you need to listen to what people are saying about you and your company. Not doing so could prove costly.

Learn from it

Publicists used to try to "handle" situations, and many likely still do. Instead of doing this, use this feedback to your advantage and learn from it. Have someone cursing about your product? Talk to them and find out why they're so frustrated. It's a pretty wise idea to take what they say to heart.

Define your purpose

It's easy to become intoxicated by the litany of tools available to the marketer - Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Feedburner, widgets, applications. There are lots of things you can do... so don't. Instead, try to put all of the tools out of your mind, and think about your purpose. Imagine someone asking, "I just got a screwdriver...what should I fix?" Wouldn't that be crazy? You shouldn't get a tool and then look for a problem; instead, isolate a problem and then select the appropriate tools.

Speak human

People don't care about companies. They care about the people in them and the things they do. Think small. If I need help with your product, I probably don't want to talk to a person in a call center reading a script. Actually, the very best thing for me would probably be if I were able to talk to the person who actually put the thing together. So, drop the posturing and let me talk to that person. Why not just be a person who thinks, cares, and makes mistakes instead of replacing that person with an automated robot designed to take calls?

Have a personality

Social media is only interesting when it's social. That means that we need the discussions, debates, and back-and-forth. The only way you get to that is by being who you are and letting the chips fall as they may. I'm not proposing that you act like a jerk, but don't let politeness get in the way of something you actually mean. Most people prefer that to corporate fluff.

Play

In spite of all the "experts" out there and the many grand claims around what they can do with social media, it's actually not quite that clear. In fact, with the rate at which social media and trends change these days it's pretty hard to establish any proven method for success. So give up on perfection and try some things out. Get out there and play with the tools and see what works for you.

Give us the good stuff

Forget about "going viral". In fact, never even say the word "viral" again. A lot of people want to "go viral" but in reality they don't. They just think it would be nice to get some free advertising by doing something quirky. Most of them aren't prepared for it if it did actually happen. It's unlikely that their servers would handle the load, and even if they did, they would probably get a chuckle, but not a sale. The truth is that "viral" almost never happens, and when it does, it's generally not as important as the long-term stuff. Instead, make (and sometimes give away) good stuff that has value to your audience.

Avoid the quicksand

A day spent on social media seems, in many ways, poorly spent. These are great tools, but they're just that. Don't let them cloud your vision. Remain focused on where you're going and what you want to do. Establish goals that help you determine if you're actually doing what you want, or in fact just getting sidelined by distraction. You can always walk away from social media if it's not working, and for some it just doesn't. Fact is: there are many ways to communicate with your audience and a lot that "old stuff" still works pretty well.

Surprise people

Every once in a while we're all surprised by something that just goes further than we might have thought. It doesn't have to be monumental and it doesn't have to cost a lot. All it has to do is take us somewhere we didn't think you'd take us. Go beyond trying to get as many followers as possible or doing something funny for kicks. I suggest that we think about connecting with people in an authentic fashion instead of treating it like a digital popularity contest in which we "streak the campus" to make people look for a moment.

To read the entire article, click here

via Eric Karjaluoto at ideasonideas.com

Plaid Nation Rocks!

2009-08-11T13:12:00.003-05:00

A big thank you to the rolling van that is Plaid Nation. A couple weeks ago we mentioned them on this blog and their tour through the country meeting creative, marketing, brand and internet networkers and celebrating their innovations. Today we received a package from them, containing a hand-written note, super-cool t-shirt, air freshener, and an awesome button. Way to go guys! You show great care in social relations. We can only hope all companies will incorporate the same values you have.

Follow plaid nation on Twitter

or check out their website

Weekly Stats: Week 9

2009-08-10T10:21:00.007-05:00

(Click on graph for larger image)

We are in the last quarter of our Great Social Media Experiment. Have you been keeping up with our efforts?

Again, for the most part, our numbers are slowly rising. Is the lack of "speed" due to summer vacations? Are people on the internet hearing about or getting our information? Will our numbers skyrocket once school starts and vacations end?

It seems our new strategy has nicely boosted our blog hits, but our websites hits are slipping. The problem is, it is difficult to get users to access our website if there is nothing new for them to see. We depend solely on new viewers to boost our website hits.

Click here to head on over to our overall stats of the experiment.

Help us spread the word! Not only do we have a website, we're on Twitter, Blogger, and Facebook. And be sure to check out our t-shirt shop :)

Weekly Stats: Week 8

2009-08-03T10:07:00.007-05:00

(Click the graph for a larger image)

It's time to start strategizing. Yes, we had a goal of 1000 followers/fans on Twitter and Facebook, but what then? Do you just happily tweet your heart out and hope for the best? No!!!

We're going to start using search.twitter.com to find local people who are twittering about the stuff we care about. Hopefully this will shed some light on our audience and core target.

We also realize there are other outlets than YouTube, so we're also posting our videos on tubemogul.com and vimeo.com

At the same time, we'll be creating a Twitter account for our T-shirt shop to see if retail fairs better than service-based business on Twitter. We're wondering if general tweeple are the everyday-9-to-5-worker rather than a director of marketing or CEO which would be our target consumer. Maybe this retail addition will help us prove our deduction: t-shirt shops and retail, to the public companies are more widely marketable to larger publics than design studios - which have a much smaller public and may not be hip to Twitter.

Keep watching as we evolve our strategy, and please chime in if you have any thoughts.

Enough with Social Media ROI, Already

2009-07-29T08:38:00.009-05:00

Breaking news: ROI may well not matter for your social media program.

That is, according to Dave Fleet of Social Media Today. It's a financial term, with a set definition that carries a hefty weight in companies. However, that doesn't mean you can always relate your programs directly to it.

For the ROI formula to work, you must be able to measure the cost and benefits of your in dollar amounts. The problem is the cost is easy to assess, but the gain can be difficult to attribute. For instance, what is the $ gain of improving customer service, increased employee engagement, or relationship-building?

Taking these situations into consideration, ROI may not be the right measurement for you.

It doesn't mean your program isn't valuable or your program isn't worth measuring. It means you need to find appropriate ways to tie your measurements back to your objectives. Everything should lead back to your objectives. This allows you to make adjustments to your program to perform to your (or your client's) needs.

"The fact that you're not measuring ROI doesn't mean you're not measuring success or impact. In fact, it may just mean you're measuring the right thing."

This has definitely hit home for us at REACTOR. Our first goal for our Great Social Media Experiment was to measure the true value of social networks to increase ROI for service-based business. As the weeks have progressed, we have begun to question the ability of social media to increase ROI. After reading this article, I think it's time to change our measurements, like Fleet suggests, to tie back to our objectives: to make the REACTOR name and concept more widely known among businesses.

See the entire article here.

(via @paulbarron)

Weekly Stats: Week 7

2009-07-27T09:55:00.007-05:00

(As always, click on chart for larger image)

This experiment is proving to be more difficult than we have imagined. As you can see from the charts above, our numbers are either beginning to plateau or slip.

The funny thing is, there are all these social media "believers" out there, but is anyone really making any money and affecting ROI simply by utilizing Twitter, blogs, and Facebook?

We've read article after article about successfully using and increasing business through social media, most articles being very vague. Only a few had mentioned exactly what they had done, and those businesses happened to have a very general public. Unfortunately, our public is not so large.

I think what we're starting to prove here is for a service-based business, utilizing social media is not worth the time and money spent on it. Sure we get fans and followers, but it seems to be more for an entertainment crowd, rather than a business audience.

Seeing Plaid in Kansas City

2009-07-27T09:07:00.010-05:00

Plaid Nation is rolling around town today. It's a creative design company, on tour through the midwest on a rolling celebration of creativity and a demonstration of social media in action. It's a Plaid Ford Flex driving through the country meeting creative, marketing, brand and internet workers, and celebrating their innovations.

We're excited to see their experience in working with the latest social media tools available, especially since we are conducting a similar experiment. We're curious to see/hear what they've been up to.

If you keep an eye out, you might just see the Plaid Nation van drive through your neighborhood.

Be sure to check out their website and their cool bobble heads.

Social Networks Not Much of a Marketplace

2009-07-23T13:49:00.005-05:00

This morning, Jack Loechner of mediapost.com blogged about "Social Networks Not Much of a Marketplace" in which he cited a study released by Workplace Media, outlining some of the hurdles major brands face as they attempt to create a consumer impact on social media networks. WorkPlace Media is a national media company that focuses solely on helping marketers reach the working consumer, with over 20 years experience.

In his blog, he goes on to give statistics provided by the company regarding time spent on social network sites at work, social networking impact on brand perception, and product/brand recommendations from social networking sites.

The statistics are interesting, but the comments are where the meat of the story really lies.

Time Spent on Social Networking Sites at Work (% of Respondents)
*Time Spent*	*% of Respondents*
Less than 30 minutes	78%
30 minutes	13
1 hour	5
Open all day	4
Source: WorkPlaceMedia, May 2009

Social Networking Impact on Brand Perception (% of Respondents)
*Activity*	*Yes*	No
Follow a brand's social network account	11%	89%
Opinion changes if brand has no presence on social media site	4%	96%
Opinion changes if brand has significant presence on social media site	12%	88%
Source: WorkPlaceMedia, May 2009

Product or Brand Recommendations From Social Networking Site (% of Respondents
*Activity*	*Yes*	No
Recommended business/product via social network site	25%	75%
Received a business/product recommendation via social network site	33	67
Acted upon business/product recommendation from social network site	18	82
Source: WorkPlaceMedia, May 2009

I'd personally like to know if this report was based solely on one social networking site or on the use of the major sites. I say this because Loechner also cites a recent Harris poll showing that word of mouth is a much stronger influence than social networking.When a group of adults were asked about their information-gathering process for the most recent purchase they made,

21% of Harris poll respondents cited "face-to-face with a person not associated with the company, such as a family member, business colleague or friend."
12% cited a phone call with someone similar
4% mentioned using "public online social-networking sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn or MySpace"
4% mentioned "private social networking sites, such as customer communities"

Word of mouth is a social networking tool and is predominately used in Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites. In fact, I would venture to say that Twitter is 90 percent word of mouth.

The problem is that branding companies have yet to figure out how to successfully connect with consumers without pushing products. "If your product, service or conversation isn't relevant, authentic, and valuable then all marketing efforts will work equally well - which is to say, not at all. Marry that with [the] (correct) assertion that word of mouth is social media and you've got a recipe for success: great product/service = social discussions = consumer buy-in," points out Trevin Bensko-Wecks.

"The 'social media' part of the equation as defined by this study is a relatively trivial outpouring of the meaningful activity that's happening below the surface. So, while this study successfully determines that a 'surface' social media presence is inadequate and ineffective, it only further proves the need for deeper and more meaningful engagement with consumers, and reaffirms the role of differentiated and authentic brand positioning and voice," says Alex Morrison, the first to comment on the blog.

Speaking of comments, it seems the actual meat of the information lies in the comments, not the article itself. It only touched the surface of social media instead of diving in and really figuring out what is going on and how to fix the problems.

To read the entire blog and comments, click here.

(via mediapost.com) (via @DennisMuse on Twitter)

Weekly Stats: Week 6

2009-07-20T12:04:00.006-05:00

(click on the graph for a larger image)

As the weeks go on, the numbers continue to go up, but at a very slow pace. The question now becomes, Can we expect to experience a spike in our numbers at any point in time, or is it just a continuous, slow ascension that requires a bit more patience to get to our goal? We're hoping for the spike, but I guess we'll see what happens.

Weekly Stats: Week 5

2009-07-13T11:44:00.005-05:00

At only five weeks into our experiment, we feel like we obviously haven't had long enough to really pull any useful data. But, from a quick glance, the money we have put into it in "man hours" isn't getting enough ROI to justify what we are doing.

We do still see a value in utilizing social media though. Online media outlets can demonstrate a business' priority in keeping an updated visible profile. Keeping active accounts with blogs and tweets shows the dedication a business has to getting and keeping it's name "out there." If you have a blog or twitter account and don't publish on a regular basis, it can be seen as stale.

---------------------------

While the number of website hits is down, the rest of our stats are up, but not by any incredible number. At this rate we will not reach our goal by the end of the experiment.

This brings us to a few questions...

Are the number of followers/friends really important to the success of the experiment that's sole purpose is to increase the ROI of a service-based business?
Are blog readers really potential clients, or are we fishing in the wrong pond?
To a business, is the time and money spent on utilizing social networking sites really worth doing all this?

Maybe we need to be a little more personal in our posts to get a better glimpse into inner walls of our company. Starting this week, we'll start to inject a little more of our personality and will see where that takes us in comparison to what we have been doing.

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Ad Agencies Social Media Success Stories

2009-07-08T10:15:00.006-05:00

Agencies are obtaining new business by leading conversations with social media and being able to demonstrate their credibility within that arena, according to Michael Gass, New Business Consultant to Advertising and PR Agencies utilizing social media of Michael Gass Consulting.

He received word from Jaci Russo and The Russo Group that they had received their 12th new client of the year, CC's Community Coffee House. For those of you who don't know, CC's has over 30 locations in the state of Louisiana.

The reason for The Russo Groups' success is their ability to demonstrate the benefits of social media by how it has benefited their agency. They actually use the tools they recommend their clients to use and practice what they preach.

They've learned to lead conversations with their social media expertise that has opened up doors for this agency nationwide. Ninety-eight percent of their new business now comes from outside their market. That's pretty good for a small- to mid-size ad agency. (And since we're a small firm, this definitely caught our eye.)

The Russo Group isn't the only firm generating new business through social media. A few other agencies are also using Twitter, blogs and other networks to build awareness and gain new business opportunities.

The question we have is "Is this new business strictly social media work, and if so, is it merely being used as 'getting your foot in the door' for future advertising and designing business?"

To read the full article, visit fuelingnewsbusiness.com

(http://is.gd/1bRjh via @scottbait, @triveragirl, @michaelgass)

Learning Twitter? Don't Take Cues from These Agencies

2009-07-07T14:19:00.009-05:00

Thinking of Tweeting?
There's no silver bullet when it comes to Twitter, but here is some common-sense logic agencies should apply to their strategies.

Don't over-promote. Of course you want to use Twitter to build your agency's brand, but don't hit people over the head with a litany of press releases.

Be human. Attach a personality -- a name, a photo -- to your Twitter feed and balance promoting your brand with some personal updates so followers can get a sense of your company culture.

Remember, Twitter is public! A client probably won't appreciate your tweeting "Ouch, got a nasty hangover" when you're late to the meeting.

Keep clients looped. Be sure to share your agency's Twitter strategy with your clients. Get permission if you want to mention one by name, and don't forget that a lot of your work is proprietary. Don't let a careless misstep to cost you the relationship.

Listen. Know what people are saying about you on Twitter. Use search.twitter.com or an application such as TweetDeck to monitor the chatter.

Respond. The point of being on Twitter is to engage with people who know your agency, as well as those who don't and want to learn more about you. If followers comment on your feed or send you direct messages, get back to them promptly. Remember, it's a conversation.

Keep expectations in check. A Twitter strategy does not make your agency "social." Try out tools internally to share knowledge, exchange ideas and -- best yet -- encourage learning that you can pass along to clients.

Identify impersonators. Accounts purporting to be someone or something they're not violate Twitter's terms of service. So if someone's got their paws on yours,let Twitter know .

-- Rupal Parekh

Some tweet deftly, while others lag clients. As Twitter moves into the business mainstream, it's increasingly clear that one community has yet to fully embrace the social-networking tool du jour: agencies.

The irony is that the same people clients hire to erect communications and social-media strategies often appear uncomfortable using Twitter themselves.

Other users are misrepresenting their usernames (often corporations) publishing tweets that have nothing to do with the company's business or image. Whatever the case may be, save for a few shining examples of shops that "get it," agencies need to catch up with their clients, and fast.

To read the entire article, visit mobile.adage.com

(via @BURNadvertising)

Weekly Stats: Week 4

2009-07-06T12:13:00.009-05:00

The following graphs represent the statistics during June 22 through July 6. Our updated graphs will continue to show our progress over a 3 week period. To see the master graph, click on the Overall Stats tab.

(click on graph for larger image)

If you notice, there is a drop in website and blog hits over the past week. While we are not 100% certain of the actual cause, we believe the holiday/vacation week may have had something to do with it. On the up side, we are still maintaining our increase of Twitter followers and Facebook friends.

Weekly Stats: Weeks 1-3

2009-07-01T11:17:00.017-05:00

To kick off the Social Media Experiment, we've posted a chart showing the pertinent information that will be updated weekly. This information will be used to compare our weekly results with our beginning results to determine the efficiency of our social networking efforts.

These charts show this week's statistics - June 29, 2009 - compared to the previous two weeks.
(Click on the graph to enlarge the image.)

If you look, you will notice our website traffic shot up dramatically. We made some minor modifications to our website and blogged and tweeted about it, asking people to visit the site. The spike is a result of our social media efforts.

To view the overall progress of our efforts, visit Overall Statistics.

Interviews

2009-06-08T23:59:00.006-05:00

Interview with Ben Smith of World Company
Ben is what we would call a firm believer in Social Media, especially for business. He's the Social Media Manager for the World Company, a media empire based out of Lawrence, KS. Ben explains what it means to be the same person online as you are offline and shares a few tips on handling Social Media within the business space.

Interview with Devran Brower of The Halcyon Group

REACTOR Launches the Great Social Media Experiment

2009-06-08T02:00:00.006-05:00

Why this experiment?

Everyone is talking about it and you can’t ignore it. We understand the value of social media for retail or product-based business, but here at REACTOR, we are skeptical if there is any true value or ROI in utilizing social media networks for a service-based business. Is it worth the time commitment or is it just another fad waiting to blow over?

We are committed to finding out if it’s worth it. Starting today, and over the next 10 weeks, we’ll be Tweeting, Facebooking, YouTubing and blogging on a regular basis to grow followers and build awareness of the REACTOR brand and what we’re all about. We’ll also add traditional media such as newsletters and press releases.

We will then attempt to capture any data that seems relevant to the experiment and post the results on the website. Here are some examples of data that we will be reporting on:
• website traffic
• blog traffic
• google search relevance (generic and specific terms)
• Twitter followers, mentions and retweets
• Facebook fans

Some questions we will try to answer:
• What happens if we have 1,000 people or more following us on Twitter?
• How will it affect our bottom line?
• Will our website traffic increase exponentially or just a little?
• Can we put a value on the hours spent to administer the social media?

Please follow our progress through the summer as we officially launch the Great Social Media Experiment!

Overall Statistics

2009-06-01T11:55:00.012-05:00

These charts show our overall progress over a 12 week period beginning June 17 through August 31.

(Click on the graph to show a larger image.)