See How They did it: 104 Social Media Case Studies

Is your boss still skeptical about social media? Are you looking for creative ideas for social media executions? Do you have a sense of what you’re looking to achieve? This post is for you.

Last week we talked about how to develop a case study. This week, we review 12 out of 104 case studies that are telling the story of how businesses progressed through solving a problem and delivering results — with social media.

To summarize, the structure of a marketing case study generally is:

situation or challenge

time line or complication

solution

results

I’ve been saving posts about businesses small and large for this conversation.

Before we dive in though, I would like to make a strong point — your business and the context it’s in, which includes your competitors, economy, customers, etc., is not the same as any of the ones described here. You should plan your own strategy, build your own audience, connect with your customers, and so on.

There are now plenty of social media case studies out there. And I encourage you to submit yours to me — this is a pitch I actually want. See the structure and post linked above for a framework on constructing one.

via conversationagent.com

You can follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and read the rest of the article if you’re interested…

September 3, 2010 0

12 Steps To Hiring A Social Media Manager

I think we can all agree by now that social media is here to stay. As such, the importance of formulating a social media strategy, executing on it, educating and aligning the whole organization, is paramount. This is why your social media manager / director is going to be a crucial hire. Someone asked me on Wednesday night at the SFAMA event: “How do I find someone good to lead social media and community building efforts? What are some success characteristics?” This is a very big question, and one I hear often, so I thought it merited its own blogpost. First of all, let me preface the below by saying that some of the characteristics for success in your field will be particular to you, as well as a lot of the differences will be dictated by whether you are a B2C or a B2B (otherwise known as B2B2C) organization. Based on my observation, however, all successful social media and community people share the following characteristics (although this post skews a bit more to social media management than community management). There are definitely overlaps between social media and community management, but it’s important to realize that they are fairly distinct disciplines. For differences between community management and social media management, check out a post I’ve written, as well as this post by Rachel Happe.

via socialmediatoday.com

Follow the ‘via’ link above to go to the source and get the rest of the story…

September 2, 2010 0

If You’ve Got Social Media Fatigue, UR DOIN IT WRONG

Just as I was reading Paul Carr’s latest column about quitting social media, my husband looked at his phone and broke into a huge smile. He is a graphic designer and has long been a fan of Chank Fonts. Earlier that day, he’d taken a picture of a retro-looking podiatrist office, posting it on Twitter with the word “Font-o-licious.” It didn’t go viral. It didn’t become a trending topic. It didn’t get him 1,000 new followers or even attract much attention at all. But it was noticed by Chank Diesel of Chank Fonts who Tweeted “I’m gonna dedicate my next font to that type-savvy podiatrist” and started following my husband.

Here in front of me was one of those serendipitous moments of social media collapsing space-and-time. These moments don’t change the world, but they’re exactly what made social media so addictive in the first place. Imagine an industry hero of yours who seemed untouchable creating a product just because of a random picture you posted on an ever-moving stream of colliding information that he happened to see. Here, in the guise of my beaming husband, was the perfect articulation for why I think people—even my close friends— who declare dramatic social media bankruptcy were just doing it wrong.

What made social media a phenomenon were moments like these. Passively connecting in-and-out of a persistent conversation with people you know and see everyday, people you know but have lost touch with, and people you don’t know but share interests with. People who in a more efficient world, you might have known. It’s about making relationships more efficient. My parents know what I’ve been up to by reading my Twitter feed, so when I call home I don’t have to answer a vague question like “What have you been up to?” I answer a specific question like “What country are you traveling to now?” If a friend is looking for a job at a given company, I can’t always remember who I know who works there, but with LinkedIn, I don’t have to. And seeing what an old flame looks like on Facebook never gets old.

via techcrunch.com

If you have social media fatigue or you haven’t even started and you’re afraid of social media fatigue, comment, call or use the contact form to discuss how this applies to your business. The ‘e1evation workflow’ and our “practical, tactical social media” approach will help give you relief…