• The Social Media Survival Guide: Strategies, Tactics, and Tools for Succeeding in the Social Web (2011) by Deltina Hay (Drury faculty member)
• Digital Media Ethics by Charles ESS (Drury faculty member)
• Secrets of Social Media Marketing by Paul Gillin

Not required but highly recommended:

• The Bootstrapper’s Guide to the Mobile Web: Practical Plans to Get Your Business Mobile in Just a Few Days for Just a Few Bucks (2012) by Deltina Hay
• The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson

Selected journal articles, studies, and whitepapers will also be assigned during the program.  Faculty members will supply these publications to participants as the program progresses.  Getting a jump on the readings by acquiring the required textbooks ahead of time is always a good idea.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone on June 2nd!  Bring your SmartPhones, Tablets, and Laptops.  We’ll have desktop PC’s available as well.

At around 9:00 pm on New Year’s Eve I lost my cookies in my yard.  Not in a happy New Year’s Eve way, but in an “oh my God” I’m dying kind of way.  The virus that had ravaged my family over the past couple of weeks had finally claimed me.  The planned concert with my 15 year old daughter Hailey would be replaced by violent vomiting and terrible chills and fever.

As badly as I felt physically, my condition was made worse by the fact that I felt that I had let Hailey down.  Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is one of her favorite bands and New Year’s Eve was our best chance to date to see them live.  Since Hailey lives with her mother (my ex-wife) I only have her with me every other weekend.  Attempting to mesh our four days per month with the schedule of a nationally touring indie band had been nearly impossible.  New Year’s Eve 2011 was the first time our collective planets had aligned and we missed it.

However, thanks to the power of social media along with the creative spirit and extraordinary indie talent of SSLYBY, I would be redeemed.

A couple of weeks after the yard fertilizing incident I noticed a post on Facebook advertising a unique product.  For $35 SSLYBY would  re-record one of their existing tunes with customized lyrics provided by the purchaser.  The one-of-a-kind song was advertised as a gift for Valentine’s Day.  My first thought was, “great idea” and my second thought was, “I have to order one for Hailey.”

I immediately followed the link and processed my $35 payment via PayPal and saved my electronic receipt.  I had a feeling this deal wouldn’t last long.  Curious fellow that I am, I checked back a few minutes later and the price had increased to $40.  A few minutes later and they were Sold Out.  I followed the directions on the SSLYBY web store site and sent an e-mail to the band’s Gmail account including information about Hailey and the song requested.

I asked for an acoustic version of the band’s song Pangea re-worked for Hailey.  I knew she loved that song.  The melody is incredibly infectious and the spirit of the song speaks to me personally.  Having a teenage daughter that you only see every other weekend makes for a relationship that can be challenging to maintain.  The plaintiff tone of the song about people growing apart reminds me that I must remain diligent.

Philip Dickey, a founding member of the band, responded to my e-mail and asked me for more information about Hailey for the new lyrics.  I provided him with the name of her dog (Daisy), her cat (Louie), her favorite musician (David Bowie), favorite clothing (UGGs & Aeropostale), favorite place (Ritter Springs Park), nickname (Pickle), favorite activity (watching hecklers being destroyed on YouTube, especially a video featuring Zach Galifiankis) and her focus on doing well in school.  I also explained that as a non-custodial parent our weekends together are very important to me.

Phil sent me an Mp3 version of the new song and a lyric sheet for my review.  He asked that I let him know if I wanted anything changed.   I replied that I was very happy with the final product and did not suggest any changes.   My part was minimal.  I provided a few facts about Hailey.   The real magic was how the band incorporated the information into the song (including the Galifiankis comment that “happy meals are weird”).  I was impressed with the results and knew that Hailey would be blown away.

On our next weekend together Hailey wasn’t feeling well.  I burned her song to a DVD and popped it into the player in her room as she rested in bed.  I told her it was a new version of an SSLYBY song that she hadn’t heard yet and started recording video on my iPhone as the song played.  She was surprised and dumbfounded as evidenced by her reaction.  I explained everything to her regarding how the song came to exist and she gave me permission to post the video on Facebook, my blog, etc.  I loaded the song on her Mp3 player and she listened to it on repeat for hours.

I had been redeemed for my New Year’s Eve failure!

In addition to satisfying my personal need to make up for missing the concert I learned a few things during the process that may be useful for anyone attempting to raise funds and/or increase customer loyalty.

#1 – During the holidays double up on the hand washing (not related to marketing but sage advice nonetheless).

• Stick to what you know:  In this case SSLYBY offered a personalized song.  The band recorded 3 of their 4 albums at home.  They have a good handle on producing 2.5 minute pop songs in between games of backyard whiffle ball.  No outsourcing required.

• Give your customers/donors something original:  It may be impossible to measure the value of a one of a kind work of art.  I spent $35 on Hailey’s song, but its worth to her is astronomically higher.

• Go where your customers/donors live:  SSLYBY boasts over 25k Facebook fans.  Also, keep in mind that each of their fans could have 100+ friends (meaning that SSLYBY might potentially reach up to 2.5 million people via Facebook).  Posting their custom song offer there makes perfect sense.

• Directly engage your customers/donors and seek their input:  Phil worked with me via e-mail responding quickly and succinctly.  I felt that he was truly invested in this project and wanted Hailey to love the song.

• Take advantage of the free and/or low cost options offered via web 2.0/3.0:  SSLYBY used an inexpensive web store, a PayPal account, a Facebook page, and a Gmail account to facilitate their custom song transactions.  I’d be curious to learn the ROI for this particular marketing/sales tactic.  In terms of enhancing customer loyalty though, the sky’s the limit.

• Don’t be afraid to mix media:  Combining social media, print media, video, audio, graphics, etc. has the potential to create a formula for extremely sticky content.  SSLYBY are masters of mixing media as are many independent artists.  Last year I wrote a blog post extolling the virtues of mixing media featuring an up and coming band called The Black Keys.  Indie bands with connections within an artistic community may leverage the talents of their brethren to reach their target audiences in new and inspiring ways.

I learned some valuable lessons from this experience and was prompted to consider a few new ideas.  Fodder for a future post, me thinks.

Hailey’s quest to see SSLYBY live ended the week before last when the band played a show at her high school as a reward from the administration for the students with perfect attendance.  As you’d expect from a student with perfect attendance, she didn’t miss it.

Social media strategists agree that there is no one, established framework to measure social media success. However, there are general tactics you can apply to just about any social media strategy.

This article can help you develop a social media measuring framework that can work for your individual social media strategy and goals.

Step 1: Know Your Goals

Any good marketing plan starts with established goals. You need to know what your goals are before you can measure how successful your efforts have been to achieve them.

What do you want to accomplish through your social media efforts:

• Sell more products?
• Get more reviews?
• Establish yourself as a thought leader?
• Drive more traffic to your Website?
• Generate leads?
• Increase your fan base?
• Reach a specific demographic?

Outline very specific goals so you can measure the results of your efforts.

Step 2: Establish Your Baselines

Based on your goals from step one, establish measurable baselines you can use for comparison later.

Create a spreadsheet that includes:

• Current sales numbers
• Review counts
• Number of hits in Google
• Website stats
• Other baselines specific to your goals

Clearly, some things are easier to measure than others. Quantitative elements like sales, website stats, and Google hits can be tracked easily; however, more qualitative elements such as thought leadership, influence, or customer satisfaction can be trickier to measure.

You may be surprised at just how many things are measurable in social media. Check out this post entitled “100 Ways to Measure Social Media” posted by Marketers Studio in 2009. This lists demonstrates that there are many things that can be measured. Your job is to establish which items are true indicators of your efforts based on your established goals.

Step 3: Track Your Efforts

There are plenty of tools you can use to help measure your social media efforts. Internal features of social media tools like Facebook and WordPress, free external tools, and paid services can all give you insight into how well certain strategies are paying off.

It is important during this step to use more than one tool to track your efforts. Each individual tool can give you specific insight into one or more aspects of your social media presence. Together, a carefully selected host of tools can give you a complete picture of how your efforts are paying off.

It is also important to focus only on the data that is relevant to your goals. It is easy to get lost in the “numbers” and lose track of your goals. Some of the data may not be relevant to your goals – focus on the data that is.

Internal Tools

Start your tracking and analysis from within many of the tools you already have in place – here are a few to get you started.

Facebook Insights

Facebook’s statistics tool, Insights, can help you track and analyze demographics, engagement, referrals, click-throughs, and more for your Facebook pages. Access this tool from the main menu when you edit any Facebook page.

Facebook Insights breaks down the demographics and activities of a page’s fans. This feature also allows you to gain insight into how users engage with specific content, where your referrals are coming from, how well individual posts are doing, and more.

The latest version of Facebook Insights includes demographics and metrics for overall Facebook page activity, the reach of your Facebook content, the people who “like” your content, and insights on how your content is shared.

When viewing these metrics, keep your goals and baselines in mind.

WordPress Stats

If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, there are a number of good plugins that can help you analyze your site. I recommend WordPress.com Stats, mainly because it is developed by the WordPress.com team.

Using this plugin, you can get a very good picture of how visitors are interacting with your site: which of your posts are the most popular, where your incoming referrals are coming from, which key terms visitors are using to find your site, which outgoing links are clicked, and more. You can drill down to get more details on many of the stats, but keep in mind that only you are going to know which results are relevant to your specific goals.

FeedBurner

Burning your RSS feed or blog to FeedBurner means that your blog subscriptions (either via feed reader or email) can be managed, optimized, and analyzed using the FeedBurner service. You can see which of your posts are the most popular, drill down on your subscriber demographics, and more.

HootSuite

HootSuite is a platform to help you manage one or more Twitter accounts as well as integrate your other social media tools and blogs with Twitter.

In addition, HootSuite has some nice analysis tools you can use to analyze your Twitter accounts. Their pro version also allows you to integrate Facebook Insights and Google Analytics so you have a one stop place to get insight on your Social Web presence.

This tool can help you get a feel for which of your tweets are getting the most engagement, and even attempts to calculate the “sentiment” of your Twitter followers toward your tweets.

Free External Tools

There may still be questions you need answered that the tools above are not able to accommodate. Luckily, there are some free tools that can help even further. Here are a few to consider.

Klout

Klout uses an interesting set of criteria to determine what it refers to as a “Klout Score.” The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses variables on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus to measure what they call “True Reach,” “Amplification Probability,” and “Network Influence.”

True Reach is the size of your engaged audience and is based on those of your followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages. Amplification Probability is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes, and comments). Network Influence indicates how influential your engaged audience is. An overall score over 30 is considered good.

This scoring method can help you pinpoint specific areas where you may need improvement. For instance, the results depicted below demonstrate to me that I should take a close look at why my posts do not get as many “actions” as they should, especially since one of my goals is to increase virality.

There is a fair amount of controversy as to how accurate Klout scores are at measuring influence. But this controversy simply reinforces why the best approach to a successful measuring framework is to use a variety of tools, avoiding the temptation to rely on one “magic” number to measure social media success.

Google

Google still has about the best host of analytics tools at your disposal. Google Analytics can help you track and analyze website and social media visitors. Google Webmaster Tools can help you gain insight into how Google indexes your site, which search terms are used to find your site, errors on your site that may be keeping it from placing properly, and more. You can get advanced metrics on specific search terms with Google Trends, and Google Alerts can keep you informed when certain terms (like your name, your business name, your website name, or your book title) land high in search results.

Google Analytics also has some nice real-time measuring tools to help you get a good picture of how you are placing in the social web.

socialmention

Real time search engines and analytics tools like socialmention can give you good insight into the kind of attention your posts and updates are getting. In addition, socialmention shows the reach, sentiment, and passion followers have for your name or brand. These search engines can also give you insight into the key terms that are typically associated with your brand.

PostRank

PostRank is one of the few paid services that still has a free option. Using PostRank, you can track not only your social media efforts, but engagement on specific pages of your website. It also allows you to track documents like PDFs, videos, or presentations. You can even use the service to analyze your RSS feeds.

You can get a lot of information on individuals updates or blog posts as shown below. Scrolling down this page reveals individual engagement activity, like tweets mentioning the post and more.

Paid Services

There are a lot of social media metrics services popping up now-a-days, but with all of the free tools at your disposal, you won’t likely need them. Large companies, major brands, and PR firms running regular campaigns are typically the target market for such services.

If you do find yourself in need of a paid service, though, here are a few that have earned good reputations in PR and marketing circles:

• PostRank
• Radian 6
• JittterJam

When choosing a paid service, here are some questions to ask:

• Does it integrate your social accounts like Facebook, Google Plus, and Twitter?
• Does it measure all of your social accounts?
• Does it measure your RSS feeds, Website, and other documents?
• Does it measure interactions across other social sites?
• Does it show specific interactions?
• Does it measure engagement within your social accounts and on your website?
• Does it show “tags” or key terms used to find your content?
• Does it interface with Google analytics or other analytics tools like Facebook Insights?

Step 4: Stay Informed, but Trust Your Instincts

Don’t get overwhelmed by all the “advice” out there. You know your business better than anyone, so don’t fall into the trap of following advice that does not apply to your goals. I am not suggesting you ignore what others are saying, but I do suggest choosing only a few good sources that can help you stay informed on the latest trends in social media.

Here are some resources to consider:

• Mashable
• ReadWriteWeb
• SocialMedia.biz
• SocialMediaToday
• SocialMediaPower

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

I also recommend a slow and methodical approach. If you are building a consistent and optimized online presence that you periodically analyze and adjust to meet your goals, then you are on the right track. Trust your instincts: keep doing the things that are working, and ditch the things that aren’t.

This post first appeared on SMC webinar facilitator Deltina Hay’s blog, Social Media Power.

Mobile device users don’t use their smartphones and tablets to access the Internet the same way they use their desktop computers.

Mobile device users don’t typically “surf” the Internet using mobile devices. Their motives tend to be more intentional and action-based. They usually know what it is they are looking for and are more likely to act once they find it. Consumers use mobile search mostly to access local information, stay informed, buy products, and download music and video.

In a study from Google conducted by Ipsos OTX:

• Search engine websites are the most visited websites, followed by social networking, retail, and video sharing websites
• Nine out of 10 smartphone searches results in an action (purchasing, visiting a business, etc.)
• 95% of smartphone users have looked for local information
• 88% of these users take action within a day, indicating these are immediate information needs
• 79% of smartphone consumers use their phones to help with shopping, from comparing prices and finding more product info to locating a retailer

Take these facts into consideration when creating your mobile website. When a potential customer lands on your site, assume they are there for a specific purpose. Try and predict the customer’s intentions, and make certain there is a way for them to take action easily without navigating away from your site.

It is important that your site is properly optimized for mobile devices. If your site loads too slowly, does not clearly present actionable items, or if content and buttons are too small for visitors to access, they will likely move on.

This excerpt was paraphrased from The Boostrapper’s Guide to the Mobile Web by SMC Webinar Facilitator, Deltina Hay. This post originally appeared on her blog, Mobile Web Slinger.

So … I was asked to speak about Pinterest for a local media story on the network’s savvy and creative import.

I learned a few things I hadn’t previously known about this tech startup (like the fact that the co-founders don’t necessarily see themselves as a traditional tech startup–whatever that might be!).

Thanks to Mashable, Shareaholic, Monetate & Compete, here are the top 10 things I gathered about Pinterest:

• 7 million + visitors thus far; 400+% increase in traffic during the fall of 2011
• Used for Sharing & Planning: Inspiration, Weddings, Brainstorming, General Projects, Recipes, Shopping & More
• Top Brands Include:  HGTV, Whole Foods, Martha Stewart, Better Homes & Gardens, West Elm, Real Simple
• You can ONLY get started by invitation; You can request an invitation directly from the site
• PinBoard Category Creation is crucial…as is following, repinning & commenting
• Best Practices for Organizations including getting pinned across several accounts & pinboards
• You can ‘like’ in Pinterest…even when you don’t repin something
• Monetization is already extant in Pinterest:  Check out price tags
• Pinterest may be referring as much useful traffic to retailers as Google & Twitter
• Pinterest refers more traffic to retailers than Youtube, Reddit, Google+ & Linkedin…combined

Wow, I guess Pinterest is so MUCH more than simple fascination with vacation pics and tasty-looking recipes.

What is the next step for organizations new to Pinterest?  Generate a useful pinning, pinboarding & sharing strategy in terms of what the Pinterest community might like to see/eat/plan/think.

By the way, here’s the Monetate infographic on Pinterest that Mashable re-shared.  I guess, in a sense, I’m repinning it:

Addionally, here’s an image link to the local story:

If you’ve spent any amount of time among social-media types, authenticity is tossed around as a key to success.

It seems a straightforward concept: In the online realm, be honest, transparent, and open. Be yourself. And the audience will follow.

The danger with this approach is it’s possible for the primary motivation for being authentic to become building audience — and, ironically, the antithesis of authenticity.

Existentialist philosophers tackled the notion of authenticity in the context of art and creation, and raised the central conundrum: Are you creating for the purpose of exploring and revealing your inner self, or are you merely trying to seize attention and glory?

In a social-media/marketing sense, is it even possible to be truly authentic? I believe so.

One of the best examples I’ve found: the Green Bay Packers, one of the most storied franchises in the NFL. (Disclaimer: As a Wisconsin native, I have been a lifelong fan of the team.)

Connecting to community

The roots of this authenticity did not form overnight. You have to go back to 1923, when owner Curly Lambeau restructured the team as a public corporation and sold shares for $5 in the community. Its ownership structure is unique among professional sports franchises: It is the only one that is nonprofit and publicly owned in the United States.

The team tapped into its fans in 1935, 1950, and 1997 to help it stay afloat and expand Lambeau Field, its home stadium.

These shares do not increase in value. They do not pay dividends. If the team is ever sold, the proceeds go to build a soldiers’ memorial, not to shareholders.

Yet more than 112,000 people have bought shares in the team.

In December, the team went to the public again, offering 250,000 nonappreciable shares at a face value of $250 through Feb. 29. My wife and I decided to invest the team, as did thousands of other fans.

When I found out about the offering, I felt this overwhelming desire to buy into the team. I had spent years following the Pack, through seasons poor as well as successful, and this purchase — which would help fund new capital projects — seemed an ideal investment, even though I get no tangible benefit from the purchase.

What is it about the team that makes me feel it’s authentic?

• The ownership structure is designed for longevity, not profitability. As Umair Haque notes in “Betterness: Economics for Humans,” we need to recalibrate a corporate structure that prizes profitability above all else. Here, no single owner controls the team’s fate, and it is likely to remain in Green Bay unless it falls into dire financial straits.
• The team remains connected to the community, a city of about 104,000 people. Its players regularly volunteer, and in 1986, the team created the Green Bay Packers Foundation, which has donated $2 million over its history to groups and organizations throughout Wisconsin.
• Connecting with the organization provides a deeper connection with others. It may seem odd to elevate a sports team to the level of deep human connection, but internally, many of us feel a desire to be a part of something larger than ourselves. There’s something about being part of Packer Nation and running into fans wherever I go.
• It’s what leads people to join causes, participate in political campaigns, and volunteer and contribute to nonprofit organizations and churches — a connection that ties us to one another and reminds us we are not alone.

Have you linked your Google Plus page to your website?

It is important for exposure and good placement for both your Google Plus page and your website to verify your Google Plus page by linking it to your website. SMC webinar facilitator, Deltina Hay, shows you how in this video tutorial:

Learn more about the online Social Media Certificate course from Drury University.

Find more posts by Deltina Hay on her blogs SocialMediaPower and MobileWebSlinger.

The mobile web is here, whether we are ready or not!

There has been a lot of talk over the past couple years about how many people own mobile devices and how much time people spend on them.

Indeed, look at some overall numbers:

• There are presently 5.3 billion mobile device subscribers.
• There will be nearly as many mobile devices as there are people in the world by 2015.
• There are 48 million people in the world who have mobile phones, even though they do not have electricity at home.
• SMS (text messaging) traffic is expected to break 8 trillion in 2011.

So everyone has a mobile device. What’s the big deal? What does this matter to our website optimization or online marketing efforts?

The following numbers reveal the impact more clearly:

• By 2012, almost all mobile devices produced will be able to access the Internet.
• There will be 788 million mobile-only Internet users by 2015.
• By 2014, mobile Internet browsing will surpass desktop browsing.
• Mobile ad revenue will sky rocket to $20.6 billion by 2015.
• Shopping on the mobile web will reach $119 billion in 2015.

Now the issue is not that everyone has a mobile device, but that they all have Internet access via that device—many of them access the web only through their mobile device. More importantly, they are taking advantage of that access by searching, purchasing, and clicking through on mobile ads at unprecedented rates.

This is great news for those of us who market on the Internet. But it can be equally bad news for those who are not prepared for this mobile opportunity.

Imagine that someone visits your website from their mobile device and your site loads so slowly the user just moves on to the next site in their search results. Or, perhaps your site eventually loads, but with no images and with a gaping hole where that spiffy piece of Flash you paid so much for is supposed to play. Or worse, the user receives a message from their browser informing them that your site cannot be viewed on their mobile device. These are very possible scenarios for a website that is not mobile-ready.

There are many things you can do to get your existing website ready for the mobile web, as well as other tactics you can use to market within the mobile web. Stay tuned as we explore these tactics in more detail…

This excerpt was paraphrased from The Boostrapper’s Guide to the Mobile Web by SMC Webinar facilitator, Deltina Hay, and was originally posted at her blog, Mobile Web Slinger.

Here are ten of our favorite mobile apps for social media. 

6 Staple Apps:

• Facebook for Mobile
• Twitter for Mobile
• LinkedIn for Mobile
• Flickr for Mobile
• YouTube for Mobile: Rather than use an iPhone app, Google prefers its users to access YouTube from this URL on their mobile browser: m.google.com/youtube. The mobile URL offers nice features, all optimized for the mobile web.
• WordPress for Mobile

4 Analytics and Social Media Tools:

• HootSuite for Mobile
• Posterous for Mobile
• Homebase
• Google Analytics

(Note: Though these links are to iPhone apps, the tools listed have Android counterparts as well.)

Do you have any favorites to add to the list?

This post first appeared on SMC Webinar facilitator Deltina Hay’s blog, Social Media Power.

So I use Google Analytics.  Many of us do.  But how often to we care about real time information?  I spent a few moments this afternoon reviewing Google’s Real Time feature of Google Analytics to contemplate just such a question.

Google Real Time from C Gilstrap on Vimeo.

Great Fun!  I’ll be back soon to investigate how Google Analytics can really ramp up intelligence with regard to social engagement.