Connie Bensen

Everyone wants to maximize the return on their efforts in social media. In my day job with Alterian SM2 (previously Techrigy). I have spent a lot of time working with agencies and brands in identifying how to maximize the most return on their monitoring efforts.

I shared that information last week in a webinar that covers best practices for social media monitoring & reporting.  I included:

• Common Applications of Social Media Monitoring
• Search Design
• Dealing with Noise and Spam
• Reports and Analysis
• Actions Based on Insights that Result in ROI

Here’s the slide deck and the recorded version of the webinar is available.

And you may also be interested in the webinar that Surresh Vital of Forrester presented on how social media monitoring is impacting marketing.

I have a growing library on SlideShare on the topics that I speak about (building community, monitoring, measurement, etc). Check out the widget on the right side of my blog.

Please ask if you have questions.

What kind of social media monitoring are you doing? ah, so you’re using some free tools, that’s great!

• How are you analyzing the data?
• What are you doing with it?

And if you’re not, what if your competitors are?

• What kind of advantage does that give them?
• Are they monitoring your brand?

If you’ve been wondering where to begin then you should attend the webinar on Social Media Marketing wtih Techrigy SM2 next Tues, Dec 16th. Try out the Freemium version in the meantime.

As of last week, I’m now working with the Techrigy guys on a full time basis.   I’ve been working with them part-time for the past three months.There are a couple of things that make the position unique:

• it’s community building in a B2B setting – most of our customers have clients
• I’ve never met my co-workers in person. (That hasn’t seemed to make a difference though.)

What I love about my job:

• working with the customers (ranging from individuals to large agencies)
• product development & QA (Christmas arrived last weekend when my requested feature was implemented!)
• connecting with the home office – working remotely isn’t totally a walk in the park
• the challenge to learn more about our app & the industry
• demo’s are connecting me to friends & amazing people on a new level

I’ve been brand monitoring since 2006 & times have sure changed since then! (:) couldn’t resist saying that!). There are new tools & new methodologies. TechrigySM2 offers a great way to gather, organize, analyze & act on your social media initiatives. So definitely join the webinar! or ask me for a demo. I do group demo’s too – they’re fun!

Over on the Marketing 2.0 blog I’m writing with some awesome people! Paul Dunay shared a survey that he did on reputation management. The community manager is the voice of the company and responsible for responding quickly.

Here are my responses to specific ones in regard to community building. Definitely check out Paul’s survey & get his perspective:

• Measuring and monitoring my organization’s reputation is a strategic
  priority in 2008?
  • If you’re not monitoring your brand (company & personal) you’re missing out on huge opportunities to grow your community
• My organization has a strategic plan in place to manage its online
  reputation?
  • A strategy is imperative before you engage. As a Community Manager your time could get frittered away so fast.
• My organization is monitoring its reputation on social networks like
  Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace?
  • This is where a Community Manager can be effective. Being interactive & participating in the conversation is far more useful than automated service.
• My organization is developing applications, or widgets, that can be
  easily installed on social networks and spread virally?
  • I really liked Paul’s comment about syndication. I’m starting to syndicate my blog into new communities of like minded people. But how can you do that with your company’s pages?

A recent Forrester article noted that 80% of Web traffic comes through the homepage and 20% comes in to very specific pages. Forrester now is recommending that you plan for 20% of traffic to come from your homepage and 80% to come from very specific pages in your site. That means start syndicating your content!

• My organization is adequately prepared to manage an online
  reputation crisis situation?
  • Having a plan is imperative. When the moment happens, it’s too late & you want to respond ASAP.

What do you think? Is your company involved in reputation management? Should you be concerned? Will your customers appreciate your participation?