(Guest post by Dorine Sinigaglia)

When talking to clients about social media and its effects on increasing sales of their products and increasing traffic to their site, the most asked, common question is: “That’s great – but what will social media do for us? Show me the money!” – and their point is rightfully valid. For those who still don’t quite understand the long-term effects that social media has on their company, it is rather difficult for them to understand the true purpose for setting aside a budget directly for social media, as they don’t see the monetary effects and gains that social media has on their organization. Even for those few who do understand the purpose for utilizing social media tools,  tracking monetary gains and effectiveness of social media it is still not an easy concept to grasp.

If you found yourself questioning the immediate monetary effects social media efforts have on your company’s growth after reading the above and you too exclaimed in your head “Show me the money!” – I highly suggest you check out Olivier Blanchard‘s clever and entertaining presentation on the Basics of Social Media ROI. In short, Blanchard notes an important point to remember about social media: “Social Media is not free: it takes people, it takes technology and it takes time – all of which are limited resources.” Read on.

We already know that social media takes people (often a whole department) to manage a successful community. We also know there are a number of resources available for ways to reach out to a community using social media tools – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – the list goes on and on. And then there’s the major factor of time. Most people think and practice the popular phrase “time is money.” Yes, time is definitely money, but it is important to remember that  most social media campaigns take some time to develop and spread virally. Managers in corporations often feel the need to “pass” on social media campaigns and jump the gun too soon because they don’t see immediate gains or increase in product sales. They think that the campaigns must obviously not be working. This way of thinking goes against every aspect of social media marketing. Embarrassingly enough – 84% of respondents in a survey taken said that they don’t currently measure the ROI of their social media programs (survey taken in August 2009 – noted in a Mashable article). How can one be so certain that social media doesn’t bring in a return on investment if they don’t even measure it?

As Blanchard notes in his presentation, there are many types of non-financial impacts that when glancing from a distance, one can’t see the immediate effects of in terms of money. Types of non-financial impacts include website visitors, impressions and blog comments, customer complaints, positive press & negative press, Facebook friends and Twitter followers, social mention and retweets, positive WOM and negative WOM, employment applications and coupons distributed. All of these impacts have a direct impact on the financial gains of the company – but they do take time to occur and is not something that can be rushed.

According to Christina Warren in her post HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI, “finding trends and tracking them back to their point of origin is the key to measuring ROI.” It is important to know where you started before you know where you are headed in social media. One cannot state that social media tools aren’t “working” for their company if they didn’t even know whether they had a community before they started. It is important to make clearly defined goals and then track progress along the way. There are numerous helpful tools used to track quantitative results and analytics including Google Analytics, PostRank Analytics and eWebAnalytics (check out more ways to track website traffic here). It is not enough to measure solely quantitative results, as qualitative results are also important measurements of tracking success of social media efforts. Before tracking these, it is crucial to determine what it is you want to measure – is it conversations about your products? If relationships were built with your customers? If customers are happy with your product or are they providing complaints? All of this is important to track but one must first understand their organization’s social media objectives in order to know what results should be expected.

According to Aaron Uhrmacher from Mashable,”statistic-based metrics seems to be the primary way communicators feel they can secure approval and budget for these programs from their management teams” in his post How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business. Measuring solely statistics can be problematic,  as social media ROI is based on several factors that lead to an organization’s sales’ bottom line (as mentioned above). Aside from the numerous social networking sites available, there are also insights that come from an organization’s company blog, their participation in other blogging sites, their PR in the blogosphere and any other viral way of virtually mentioning the company’s brand — and all of these  come into play when measuring the effectiveness of social media. This is why it is almost dangerous to assume that immediate returns will show up from your investment in social media.

Measuring ROI is key to assessing the true impact your social media efforts have on your business and your gross margin. However, measuring it is one thing – knowing what to do with those results in another story. Look for specific trends and user behaviors before and after posting status updates, blog posts and promoting discounts and coupons for the holiday season. Every move counts and its success (or lack thereof) can be tracked with numerous sites and analytical devices. Remember the time factor also. Don’t assume your social media efforts are worthless if you’ve only spent 2 weeks promoting a new product. Large-scale marketing campaigns in social media can take up to 6 months for them to come into full-effect and start driving profit to the company’s bottom line. So take a look at your current community and track what has been done and make attainable goals of what needs to get done in order to grow. Continue to engage with your community, track progress along the way and have patience – as this process will take some time – but is definitely worth the wait.

Dorine Sinigaglia is the Account & Content Manager at Blonde 2.0.

(Flickr image courtesy of Arisey)

(guest post by Dorine Sinigaglia)

When done correctly, a successful business blog can be extremely rewarding for businesses of any industry. Creating a blog from scratch is in no way easy; it requires hard work on the writer’s end and the ability to think creatively about the benefits its business has to offer the community. In addition, building a community in general around the brand name takes some time.

A successful blog has its investments and definitely its returns, as the content in the blog drives attention and recognition of your business or brand, attracts new customers and may ultimately “turn your current customer base into the type of fans that companies like Apple, Netflix, and Ben and Jerry’s have: people who will not only buy your product or service, but evangelize it to their peers” – says Josh Catone in his Mashable article, Top 5 Business Blogging Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.(The latter point is key here). We’ve all done it: purchased a cup of coffee from the new coffee shop in our neighborhood and ranted and raved to our friends all day because the service we received was horrible and the coffee wasn’t drinkable. Evangelists can work in your company’s best interest and also be your brand’s worst nightmare.

So, how can one really be sure their latest post is being read and readers are thinking positively about your brand or product? Since most readers do not offer their feedback or comment on your work after they read a blog post, it is imperative to make sure that your company’s blog is constructed well and is being written right. There are a few simple but critical key factors that one must take into consideration to ensure their company blog has potential for success.

Make it personal.

A friendly reminder: your company blog is not the place to copy and paste press releases about your product. Press releases are impersonal and often sound too “markety.” Bottom line, your customer base does not want to read content that sounds like a sales pitch. Your blog is a place to promote your product or related business announcements about your company, but do so with originality and a personal tone so readers feel the human touch behind the text. Additionally, make sure your business blog contains content that is not solely about your product or business. Your readers want to read quality content that is original and interesting to their industry – and not necessarily related to your brand. Since they’re already reading your blog, it is safe to assume they know your brand and even like it. Feel free to share your thoughts on the industry, provide vital tips your customers can utilize in their business and any personal stories from your experience in business that will be of added value for your readers.

Post regularly.

Recently wrote a post and think you’re set for the month? Think again. Most successful business blogs post new content at least a couple of times a week. Integrate writing time into your regular scheduled routine and keep your writing cap on at all times. Great blogging ideas are hard to come by, so jot down ideas for future posts as they come to you and to avoid writer’s block when it’s crunch time. Putting out quality content consistently will keep your readers returning for more and over time this will help your company build a community, which will turn your fans to customers. Planning ahead is key: brainstorm ideas with other members of your company and get them involved with writing for the blog so that one person isn’t carrying the entire writing load on their shoulders. Content sourcing can also come from your employees or even your customers, since they know best what they enjoy reading from a blog. Anything can provide you with food for thought for a good blog post – so pay close attention to what you read on other blogs, newspapers, magazines – and what your competitors are doing.

Spread the word.

With social media all around us, there is in no way a shortage of channels a business blog can take to spread the word about their latest post. From sharing posts on Facebook to tweeting – there are many ways to share your latest blog post within your business community. According to Ben Parr from Mashable, Twitter may be the fastest and most effective way to spread the word in social media. In his article Top 20 Ways To Share a Great Blog Post, Parr says it well: “sharing or retweeting a link in Twitter can spread like wildfire.” To post a link for your blog post without going over the 140-character limit, you may use simple URL shorteners such astinyurl or bit.ly to shorten links to fit. After Twitter, you may post it on your company’s Facebook group profile, Linkedin grouppage, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon - and the list goes on.

Open communication doors.

After spreading the word, your company blog must open all doors of communication to ensure feedback about the content of your post – both good and bad. In essence, blogging is like have a one-sided conversation with your reader; their feedback to your post is their response to your side of the conversation. Not allowing others to comment on your post is a mistake, for it cuts off two-way communication. As Josh Catone states in his post, “blogging is an unparalleled opportunity to connect with your customers.” Enabling your customers to respond to your writing efforts and encouraging them to comment and provide feedback with allow you and your company to get a lot more out of blogging. As readers begin to comment, engage with them and continue the two-way conversation. Responding to reader’s comments will enable your company to develop a community around your writing and ultimately your brand. As mentioned before, your goal is to turn your customers into fans, and these fans into evangelists of your brand who will promote it to all their friends. Participating in conversations and commenting on posts written in other blogs around the blogosphere is also expected from you as a business leader and will in turn help you promote your “blogging brand,” bringing new readers to your blog.

Wait patiently.

A wise man once said, patience is a virtue. One cannot expect to receive immediate results simply from posting a few interesting articles in their blog. Your company blog, as most marketing efforts within a company, won’t be an overnight success and will take some time before its well-known to your customer base and the general public, so expecting immediate returns will leave you quickly let down. As Catone mentions, “it can take time to build up your readership and have a regular community of people who participate on your blog.” Set attainable goals for your blog’s success and work on not only providing valuable content, but on building a community around your blog, as this takes some hard work within the first few months. Stay motivated to continue writing – even if some posts go without much feedback. Don’t cancel your blogging efforts too early — give your company blog at least one year to gain full momentum and post quality, original content regularly. It is crucial that your blog is easy to find and accessible on your website’s Home page and your other social networks so your readers are able to easily locate your blog, comment and share posts with others.

A successful business blog is not a difficult goal to accomplish. The recipe is simple: quality content, quality exposure and quality time. Remember, we all have to start somewhere – so start off your business blog the right way by putting in strong efforts in the beginning and watch as it gains publicity in the blogosphere for the rest of your company’s lifetime.

(Flickr image courtesy of dmangust)

Dorine Sinigaglia is the Account & Content Manager at Blonde 2.0.

(Guest post by Dorine Sinigaglia)

Recently, I noticed a friend of mine following a food truck company on Twitter. Call me old-fashioned, but I didn’t even know food trucks were still around – let alone had Twitter accounts! Food vendors always reminded me of a place where starved businessmen would run to grab a quick bite in TV sitcoms. I realized I knew very little about this business, so I began to do some research, as the concept of food trucks’ branding and marketing tactics on Twitter began to intrigue me. I was amazed at the amount of information I found online revolving food vendors’ online presence and I quickly grew an appetite to write a new post.

Street food vendors, trucks and carts have been around way before the time of Twitter – so it’s evident that their primary source of growth and ways of  promoting locations on an hourly basis is not solely done through Twitter (most of them have developed websites with full menus and directions to daily location stops). On the other hand, since Twitter is now available as a means of marketing and promoting brands, food vendors have quickly jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and are utilizing its real-time status updates to their advantage. According to Ann Handley from Mashable, “a growing number of street vendors have been leveraging Twitter in innovative and interesting ways, serving up lessons for any business” – in her article Tweetable Eats: What Street Vendors Can Teach Businesses About Twitter. With the help of Twitter, street food vendors can promote their precise stopped locations and what they are serving throughout the day by tweeting to the hungry public.

Many brands are on Twitter but don’t know how to engage with their followers or create constant dialogue to keep them coming back to read about company news or industry updates. When searching for street food vendors’ presence on Twitter, I found that most of them didn’t have more than 2,500 followers – and some had as few as 250 followers. Since their target markets are “geographically constrained” – says Ann, you won’t find food vendors on Twitter with tens of thousands of followers. For street food vendors, “1,000 followers who will actually do business with you are ultimately more valuable to your business that 100,000 less-engaged people.” There are exceptions of course – like Kogi Korean BBQ –  an extremely successful Korean BBQ taco truck that has a dynamic website filled with photos, videos, a blog, and also a Twitter account with almost 50,000 followers! According to an article in the LA Times – Living section featuring this successful taco truck,  Kogi brings in “300 to 800 people each time it parks (often several times in an evening).” But overall, street food vendors have to do much more than just “follow” people on Twitter in hopes of gaining a customer or two – for it doesn’t matter how big the list is if they don’t make it to the food cart.

For street food vendors, it is about finding the right followers in order to ensure a successful lunch hour. There are a few important tips that food vendors must keep in mind in order to get proper exposure in general – and most importantly, before lunch time when its their busiest time for sales.

First, they must know who their target market is. If the local taco stand or hot dog cart tends to remain in the Los Angeles region, for example, roaming from one college campus to another within the same county boundaries, their target audience is specifically people who live in Los Angeles and attending students of those colleges. If the food cart tends to post up near local museums, on the other hand, their target market is much wider and appeals to a variety of crowds. In general, it is crucial to know who their target market is and where these customers roam in order to ensure a high attendance to their parked food cart.

Next, street food vendors must create a tasty demand for their products while simultaneously creating a sense of urgency in their tweets. Some vendors post a brief menu of their available foods or how many items they have left before they run out for the day to create that sense of urgency in the customer’s potential purchase and gets their mouth watering for the vendor’s food (if they can throw in a quick link to a picture of their melting grilled cheese sandwich or their sizzling hamburger, this helps wonders!). According to Ann, food vendors must “communicate the breadth and depth of your products or services on Twitter in a fresh, compelling way, and in a manner that speaks directly to your customer’s needs.”

Food vendors must humanize their brand in order to reach out to their customer’s hungry heart. Monitoring conversations online is key in this business and goes a long way in terms of keeping customers feeling appreciated and humanizing the brand. Responding to customer’s comments and questions in real-time is crucial to keep the business going successfully and they should listen to customer’s suggestions and feedback with the use of Twitter and use this vital information as a resource for product development and ways to improve their business. According to Ann, food vendors must “reveal a little bit about the people and personalities who run your business so that your customers can connect with you on a human level.”

And now, its all about continuous open communication. Twitter’s real-time social platform allows food vendors to be in regular, instant communication with its customers and keep them informed on news and updates – even if the news is not in their favor (for customers respect honesty and would rather know the truth than come hungry and be let down). Whether food vendors publicize their locations and hours on Twitter or send a tweet about how they didn’t find parking on the street, communication is key to keep the customer engaged and coming back for more tasty treats.

Done correctly and with style, Twitter goes a long way in having the ability to connect customers with their business in an immediate, intimate level. But since Twitter is only one social media tool for food vendors to utilize for promoting their brand, like any marketing efforts, spreading the word about their tasty foods is done best when integrated with other valuable tools – like having a company blog, a dynamic website and by reaching out to the blogosphere for other companies to write about their products. Now, Twitter is simply another great resource for food vendors to be able to reach out to their community in a quick fashion with real-time updates and tasty tweets that bring hungry customers to their cart simply because they feel they have to save the last, lonely hot dog from the stand before closing time.

Is it lunch time yet?

Dorine Sinigaglia is the Account & Content Manager at Blonde 2.0

(Guest post by Dorine Sinigaglia)

Brands are using effective social media tools like Twitter more and more these days in creative ways to promote their brand name as a way to reach out to their consumers and attract new ones. Some brands really know how to promote their brand well – and this has been their saving force during the economic downfall over the last year. While thousands of businesses worldwide have closed down or filed bankruptcy as they watched their sales numbers plummet, many businesses actually saw an increase in sales this past year and they can thank their use of their social media network for that. If your company or brand still does not yet hold an active Twitter account – it’s time to wake up, smell the coffee and re-evaluate your strategy on ways to reach out to your consumers.

Take a close look at Starbucks‘ brand presence on Twitter (@Starbucks). The guy behind the Starbucks Twitter account runs the show like I’ve never seen it done before. According to Jennifer Van Grove from Mashable, Brad Nelson – a former Starbucks barista – is now the face behind the Starbucks Twitter account, replying to messages, promoting seasonal drinks found in local stores and helping coffee-addict-customers in every way find resolutions to their problems, questions & inquiries. Grove says it well: Brad is continuously “putting out fires left and right” – in her post 40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them. It’s really impressive to see! He turns frowns upside down as he offers solutions to customers’ complaints when seasonal drinks change over the course of time. Take a look at the below response to a customer’s disappointment when a seasonal drink she enjoyed stopped selling at her local Starbucks store (note: Brad’s response came 3 minutes after she wrote him!).

Brands on Twitter must not only engage with their consumers through conversations, but also bring them news and info not only about their brand or company but about related topics as well to hold their attention. When Brad writes customers back and replies to general inquiries about flavored frappucinos and holiday music playing in local stores, he is representing more than Starbucks’ product and service; he is representing the whole coffee industry and related information that is attached to this industry. With an average of 10 Tweets per day, Brad does more than simply promote Starbucks’ coffee brand; he engages with consumers and holds their interest to ensure they keep coming back to hear what interesting comments and updates he has to say about Starbucks.

Despite their announcement last January that they were shutting down 300 stores (and closed down another 600 in July), Starbucks remains an attractive workplace and is still ranked highly in Fortune Magazine‘s Top 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2009 – ranking in at #24 (was ranked #7 in 2008). Just last month, Adam Ostrow from Mashable wrote a post that mentioned The 50 Hottest Brands on Twitter Right Now – and Starbucks’ brand was definitely in that list of 50. Having joined Twitter at the end of November, 2006 — almost 3 years ago to date — Starbucks’ Twitter now has more than 515,000 followers. Starbucks’ Facebook presence is also amazing – with over 5 million fans to date, but since Facebook launched two years prior to Twitter in Feb. 2004 (Twitter launched in March 2006), Starbucks’ online presence got a jump start on Facebook. With an average of over 3,000 new followers daily, Starbucks’ Twitter account could reach to 1 million followers within 6 months.

In addition to their general Twitter account, Starbucks continues to find new & inventive ways of reaching out to its consumers – like using crowd sourcing, where companies let users speak their mind on their brand. Starbucks started a website called My Starbucks Idea – a website that engages with their consumers and encourages them to share their inventive ideas they have for the company and initiate discussions with other Starbucks consumers. They opened a Twitter account (@mystarbucksidea) 4 months ago and already have over 9,000 followers.

Finding new ways of earning customer’s loyalty and increasing consumer numbers is a challenging task to accomplish for any industry. Consumers don’t want to feel like services are after them solely for their money – even when they do enjoy the product. Starbucks’ Twitter presence has come up with an effective formula to do both – gain customer satisfaction and increase sales. Its online presence adds valued content for its veiwers while making sure the customer is always feeling satisfied with a solution to an inquiry. By taking a brief look at Starbucks’ Twitter presence, it is simple to see why people keep coming back for more lattes. Yes, their fond love for peppermint flavored coffee is a big factor; but overall, it’s the complete customer experience they receive – in the store and online.

Dorine Sinigaglia is the Account & Content Manager at Blonde 2.0

Dorine is a dedicated individual with experience in account management, sales and business development for large corporations. She gets to know all the ins and outs of each account she handles and gets up close and personal with everyone she works with.