Operationalizing social media across the organization is perhaps on of the most challenging aspects of social media for companies and brands. Too many look at social media as a consumer-facing communications channel and forget that departments from HR to research and development and even internal collaboration among divisions can all be helped by social technologies and strategies.

We’re addressing that issue at Explore Dallas-Fort Worth in several discussions, one major one led by Zena Weist, Vice-President of Digital Strategy for Edelman. Her experience at brands like Embarq, Sprint and H&R Block, plus the brands she’s working with in her current role, gives her a unique and experienced look at how to incorporate social across the organization. She’ll share not just advice, but case studies on how to do it.

I caught up with Zena recently to get some good information from her before the event and for those of you who may not be able to attend. I asked her why companies funnel social media into a consumer-side communications channel, how we can get our organizations to move that thinking to internal and cross-silo mechanisms, how marketers can be in front of policy issues and more.

You won’t want to miss the business insights Zena has to give at Explore Dallas-Fort Worth. She’ll be speaking there, along with an all-star lineup that includes AT&T’s Chris Baccus, Radio Shack’s Adrian Parker, Brian Clark from Copyblogger, Tom Webster from Edison Research, Nichole Kelly of Full Frontal ROI, Tim Hayden from 44 Doors, DJ Waldow from Waldow Social and more. The event will also feature a number of excellent software providers and companies to help you navigate the waters of digital marketing. They’ll bring their knowledge to share as well as their products. This is a must-attend event, so register now!

The full day’s content, breakfast, lunch (by Wolfgang Puck Catering) and a cocktail reception is $400, but let’s see if you’re paying attention! Register and use the code “ILOVESME” and you’ll get the early-bird price of $250, no matter what! Can’t be that! Go reserve your spot!

Event management for Explore Dallas-Fort Worth powered by Eventbrite

Explore is a five-city conference event series from Social Media Explorer and presented by Expion and Raven Internet Marketing Tools. Learn more and sign up for email updates for the city nearest you at socialmediaexplorer.com/product/events.

By now, many social media managers have realized a hardnosed reality: Most subject matter experts within the corporate walls don’t have time (or the skills) to blog. So you have two choices:

• Write/edit their blogs for them (and give up the rest of your life since writing is very time consuming)
• Hire a specialist or “real writer” to write for them.

That would be a journalist or professional business writer. (I use these interchangeably, even though there are some solid business writers who were never journalists.)

Hiring a good journalist has huge advantages — this is what they do. Journalists are trained to research, report, and write. They’re skilled in the art of connecting with targeted audiences with compelling, relevant content-and they’re storytellers which separates them from the rest of the corporate pack.

But the key is you want to hire the right writer, one that will deliver solid, compelling content and is a good fit.

I’ve been on both sides of the fence, in senior editorial positions hiring writers for big tech companies, and more recently, developing content for corporate clients as an agency. My first advice: look before you leap. A weak or ill-fitted writer, or one just learning the corporate ropes, can slow you down. They can even wreak havoc, forcing you to spend extra time managing them and cleaning up their messes.

In most of these cases I’m talking about typical corporate bloggers (vs. senior executives) who just need a writer or editor’s support. They’ll spend the time to share their detailed thoughts with the writer and work closely with them on story angles. The final result should be their “voice” even though it was written/edited by a professional. This isn’t that far from speech writing, but for some reason the social media purists have a problem with ghost writing for corporate bloggers.

So look for the following when you go to hire a writer:

1. Solid industry experience - They need to have a record of solid achievement. Check their references. What subjects do they write best about (industry expertise)? Did they deliver on time? Were they reliable, accurate? And if there was an issue, did they quickly take care of it? Would their former bosses hire them again?
2. Good fit - You don’t want a fashion writer writing about high tech. Still, a good writer can quickly adapt as long as they have solid business writing experience. Better to focus on getting a great writer than the perfect specialist, which is nearly impossible in some B2B and niche areas.
3.  Editorial skills - Blogging is a different style of writing than magazine or newspaper writing. Can they write in short bursts? Is it catchy, engaging? Are they good storytellers? How do they develop their stories (through use of personal anecdotes, etc.)? Don’t forget the basics either: They need to be very detailed in checking their facts and very accurate. If a blog blows up, it’s likely going to land in your lap.
4. Web knowledge - Good writers know the online world and how to connect with key audiences, but some are better versed than others. Query them about how their web knowledge and how they write to connect with their audiences. How do they do their research (Google alerts, Twitter, LinkedIn groups, etc.)? Are they socially active?  Do they have a Twitter following, are they active on Facebook, Google+, etc.? None of these are mission critical, but certainly can indicate how much lift you may get from their connectivity.
5. Communications skills - Journalists are trained to question the status quo, look under rocks, charge ahead in the pursuit of truth, etc. This often goes over like a lead balloon in the corporate world, so look for a well-rounded writer who is comfortable in this environment and knows how to work closely with your key stakeholders and bloggers.
6. Proactivity - You want a writer who’ll not be just an order taker. They need to proactively come up with story ideas and fresh angles to help you feed the content machine. Before you hire them, ask for some suggested topics: “How would you handle this subject?”
7. The “right” personality/attitude - This can be tricky. Like any other profession, some writers have better personalities and attitudes to fit the job. They need to be able to “sell” themselves and their ideas, and be versatile. Amazingly, some writers push back on doing multi-revisions and/or resist on being heavily edited (personally, this was beat out of me years ago at Business Week). Set expectations early on with agreements over how many revisions can be expected and what type of blogs the writer will be dealing with. If you have one that’s particularly difficult (i.e., multiple rewrites), put it on the table. In fact, setting clear expectations across the board on deadlines, quality of writing, meetings and so-on is critical.

Personality and values that sync with yours can be as important as editorial skills and experience. Once when I was at Intel, my partner and I hired a writer to help us ghost-write our family computing book for a division of Random House (referred to me by a personal friend). The guy had some decent clips, but turned out to be difficult to manage and would go off for days following different research trails. The result was mountains of barely relevant material we’d have to sort out. Even worse he was stubborn and wouldn’t listen to directions, even arguing with us. We finally let him go.

Another time several years ago we hired a senior writer to work on a four month editorial project for us for an ample fee. He did a good job. But when we came to near the end of the time frame, we’d exhausted the budget but still had several loose ends we needed help on (mainly proofreading materials, double-checking facts, etc.), basically asking him for a favor. He refused to budge, arguing he’d used up his hours, and we were out of money. We scrambled to get it done and meet the deadline. Writers have to make a living, but much of business is about being flexible and bending a little to help the client and get the job done; but this writer wasn’t into trade-offs or building good will. Needless to say, we never used him again.

The point is a good writer needs to have more than strong editorial skills. They need to be able to navigate through the corporate jungle and deal with various personalities. You’ll never find a writer with 100 percent of all of these qualities. If you do, send them my way. A good writer is hard to find, even today.

What about your perspective. Have you hired writers or bloggers for your company? What else would you add? Tell us in the comments.

Have You Registered For Explore Dallas-Fort Worth?

Don’t miss a day of intensive learning with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the digital marketing and social media marketing space. AT&T’s Chris Baccus, Radio Shack’s Adrian Parker, Copyblogger’s Brian Clark, Edison Research’s Tom Webster, Edelman Digital’s Zena Weist and more headline one of the leading digital and social media marketing events of 2012, next Friday, February 17 in Dallas, Texas! DON’T WAIT TO REGISTER! Seats are filling fast! Reserve yours today!

 

It’s the question that social media evangelists, speakers, consultants and practitioners begrudgingly have to answer. Sometimes, they have to or their jobs are in jeopardy. What is the ROI of social media. While I have my own perspective on that, there are many ideas and opinions on the issue. Part of what we plan to provide with our Explore events this year is a better understanding of the ROI question for all who attend.

Nichole Kelly, who not only writes for us here at SME but is so passionate about return-on-investment she named her company Full Frontal ROI, will be tackling the topic of ROI from a no fluff (read: no bullshit) perspective in Dallas on Feb. 17 at our first Explore event of the year. Kelly has a strong brand-side background and specializes in translating social media analytics and metrics to executive teams and C-level folks so they “get” what we’re doing. Her talk is going to be of great value to all who are in Dallas.

I caught up with Nichole recently to ask some questions about why companies struggle with the ROI issue and what they can do about it.

Be sure to check out Nichole over at her blog and assortment of writers at Full Frontal ROI.

You won’t want to miss the business insights Nichole has to give at Explore Dallas-Fort Worth. She’ll be speaking there, along with an all-star lineup that includes Copyblogger’s Brian Clark, Zena Weist of Edelman Digital, Tom Webster from Edison Research, Chris Baccus from AT&T, Adrian Parker of Radio Shack, DJ Waldow from Waldow Social and more. The event will also feature a number of excellent software providers and companies to help you navigate the waters of digital marketing. They’ll bring their knowledge to share as well as their products. This is a must-attend event, so register now!

The first 100 registrants spots are filling up quickly! Register now and get the full day’s content, breakfast, lunch (by Wolfgang Puck Catering) and a cocktail reception for just $250! After the first 100 seats are gone, the price of the event is $400, so save $150 now and reserve your spot.

Event management for Explore Dallas-Fort Worth powered by Eventbrite

Explore is a five-city conference event series from Social Media Explorer and presented by Expion and Raven Internet Marketing Tools. Learn more and sign up for email updates for the city nearest you at socialmediaexplorer.com/product/events.

Editor’s Note: Today’s post is a guest post from Jordan Viator Slabaugh, Director of Social Media at Spredfast, a social media management solution provider and SME client.

Using social media for business requires companies to embrace social channels to satisfy the needs of their customers, prospects and networks. This can mean many different tactics for various types of companies, but content is always at the heart of this activity.

On the heels of Community Manager Appreciation Day, it’s worth noting that Social Fresh found “community managers, surprisingly, spend more time on content creation than any other task.” In his latest report on managing social media, Jeremiah Owyang lists developing a content strategy as one of the key steps every social media strategist needs to undertake. And Beth Kanter recently wrote about the debate between creating versus curating content, highlighting a checklist from the Content Marketing Institute on creating valuable content.

Developing and executing a content strategy is one of the most time consuming tasks for most strategists. But with proper planning, this crucial area of focus can ensure better and more relevant content for your network while also making sure your company is sharing the most important messages from a company stand-point. One of the sections of the new whitepaper “The 7 Sessions Every Social Strategists Needs to Have”, a practical framework for how to approach and plan for this includes:

Planning out Content Proactively

You don’t sit down to write and send email messages and new webpage content in real time to send to your entire customer base, so why would you do the same for all of your social content. Using a centralized editorial calendar, strategists should be planning out social content before it’s actually being published. It guarantees your social channels won’t go silent due to team members having a busy day in the office, and it helps multiple people have insight into what is being planned and published.

Repurposing Content for Social Media Channels

You share the same or similar content across all your other communication channels. Why would social media be any different? It’s true that social media shouldn’t be used to spam your network by cramming marketing messages down its throat, but these people are also interested in hearing about company news, discounts, product updates and new content available. If you’re not thinking about what content you already have that can also be shared with your social networks, you’re doing extra work and missing opportunities to provide value.

Centralizing Content to Be Accessed Easily

Equipping team members with pre-made or pre-approved content is one major way to help make social activity more fluid and amplification of messages more common.

If you have more than one person active in social media for your company, you know how complex it can be to stay coordinated. Equipping team members with pre-made or pre-approved content is one major way to help make social activity more fluid and amplification of messages more common. Have you considered creating a content library where all team members can find sample Tweets, Facebook status updates, links to new content or responses to common questions?

Build Social Activity into Campaign Plans

Social doesn’t exist in a vacuum (or at least, it shouldn’t). In the same way you assess what content you have in existence to share in social, you should assess how social media is an integral part of every campaign you launch or run. How can you use social media to launch your new product? What social media elements can be integrated to help amplify your latest marketing campaign? Or what content can help satisfy overarching customer care efforts?

Assess and Adjust Course as Needed

Content strategy is an ever-evolving aspect of social media. Your networks grow, your customer base changes and people’s interests vary. Tracking things like what content receives the most impressions, clicks, engagement and shares can help your social media program flourish over time. It also helps make sure you stay as relevant as possible to your network.

Content is one of the key aspects to a successful social media program. If you’re  not already thinking of this from a higher level, the time is now. Ann Handley of Marketing Profs said it best “In 2012, businesses will rise about the din of mediocrity and retool their content efforts to create a sustainable, workable model that produces stuff that has merit.”

How are you planning on creating your model?

Have You Registered For Explore Dallas-Fort Worth?

Don’t miss a day of intensive learning with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the digital marketing and social media marketing space. AT&T’s Chris Baccus, Radio Shack’s Adrian Parker, Copyblogger’s Brian Clark, Edison Research’s Tom Webster, Edelman Digital’s Zena Weist and more headline one of the leading digital and social media marketing events of 2012, next Friday, February 17 in Dallas, Texas! DON’T WAIT TO REGISTER! Seats are filling fast! Reserve yours today!

Jordan Viator Slabaugh is the Director of Social Media at Spredfast, a social media management system for enterprise companies and agencies.  She leads the company’s Marketing and social media strategy, as well as consults with clients on using social media to help achieve social business goals. She tweets at @jordanv and writes about social business best practices and trends on the Spredfast Social Business blog. 

I have been thinking about the value of Facebook fans lately, and how they stack up against other types of online and digital marketing payoffs. The problem with getting to an answer to the value of a fan, and what many small business owners face when trying to sort out what square to place their marketing dollars on, is the array of mismatched direction.

Small businesses aren’t very good at increasing their Facebook fan base. So even though they may be following all of the “rules of the Facebook road,” they aren’t seeing much if any return on their effort.

A Bigger Fan Base is Better

Ultralinx posted an article titled The Importance of Having a Fan Base, which included a cool infograph illustrating their point.

With the explosion of Social Media, businesses and brands have found a new way to advertise. Advertising through Social Media has a lot better ROI than most other types of advertising and can help build relationships between businesses and their customers. Building relationships with people fosters loyalty, as a result, loyalty has the potential to increase profit.

According to Ultralinx, the benefits of having a fan base include:

• 50% of small business owners reported that they gained new customers through social media.
• Ning, a social network platform, found that it only takes 20 people to create an online community.
• 64% of Twitter users say they are more likely to buy from a brand if they already follow it. 51% said the same on Facebook.

So, one would think that investing time and money building such a digital platform is the proper direction. And, as with your checkbook balance, bigger is better right?

Wait, Only 1% of Facebook Fans Engage with Brands

Just as we were  convinced to start ramping up our digital assault, we read a contradicting article, this from AdAge, that Not Many Fans Are Engaging; What are we to believe?

 For a few years now, brands have been touting frothy Facebook “like” numbers as evidence of their social-media acumen. But how many of those fans are actually bothering to take part in conversation with brands?

Not too many, as it turns out.

Slightly more than 1% of fans of the biggest brands on Facebook are actually engaging with the brands, according to a study from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, an Australia-based marketing think tank that counts Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and other major advertisers as its supporters

Is Facebook for Business Overrated  

The point here is that  you can find a blog, an article, a video and multiple consultants to support either side of the equation. What is best for your business? It wasn’t long ago that I too was a bit skeptical and thought that Facebook for Business is Overrated. I have changed my mind, but with a qualification, only after you have built a Fan Base large enough to matter. If you aren’t willing to do what it takes to create a space for a “community” to gather around your brand, and grow that to a size large enough to matter then leave your Facebook chips at home. Size really does matter.

We have since placed a disproportionate amount of our marketing resources on that bet and Doubled Down on our Facebook Fan Page for our boutique apartment business. I am glad we did, as it is producing a steady stream of rental leads for us. However, not much of anything happened until we got close to 10,000 Fans. Prior to that, we were mostly talking to ourselves.

That raises another question, What is the Optimal Facebook Fan Base size to see a return?

It has taken some time to build a hearty, Hyper Local Fan Base, and a lot of work, trial and error. Patience was required. And, we didn’t know what the right size was either, until finally we started to experience a sharing of “Likes” and engagement. It has sort of been an obsession around our office for the last 24 months or so, but it looks like it is beginning to create a nice return.

What are your experiences — Especially those of you in small businesses? How many fans did you have before you began to see responses, leads and even sales or conversions? Where was your double down point? Let us know in the comments.

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from Tristan Handy from Argyle Social, a service SME uses and a company that sponsors our events. But I think you’ll agree, disclosures aside, it’s awesomeness. 

You’ve spent all year writing and sharing great content. And from time to time, you check to see how your posts perform. But when you look at that report—whether it’s in bit.ly, Google Analytics, or your social media management tool of choice—how do you interpret it? Is 100 clicks good? Is 1,000 clicks good?

If you don’t frame your performance correctly, your boss won’t recognize your impact. If you want to demonstrate success, you need to go further than simply reporting on the raw traffic you drove.

Fortunately, demonstrating your success can be easy. Just follow these three steps:

1. Measure the right stuff
2. Know how you stand up to your peers
3. Choose outliers to tell a story

Read on as I explore each step in detail.

1. Change your metric—Measure clicks per follower

The core measure of performance in social media marketing is clicks. A count of clicks answers the all-important question, “How many people read the content I shared?” But the number of clicks is an insufficient measure when it comes to evaluating your performance, as it just doesn’t provide enough information on its own. Obviously, getting 100 clicks is pretty impressive if you have 200 followers. It’s less impressive if you have 100,000.

To give your metrics more weight, start measuring clicks per follower (CPF). Just take that click data you already have and divide by the number of fans or followers for that account. If your tweet had 200 clicks and you have 7,000 followers, your CPF is 200/7,000, or 2.86%.

Normalizing by audience size is important for two reasons. First, hopefully your audience will grow over time, and it’s important that your idea of “good performance” scales with your audience size. If your audience has tripled in the past year, a post that got 100 clicks last year is more impressive than a post that got 100 clicks today. Second, it’s important if you want to compare your performance to your peers.

2. Benchmark your performance against your peers

The best way to determine what performance is “good” is to compare yourself against your peers. But this is often easier said than done. Fortunately, I’ve done all the hard work for you.

It turns out that audience size is the single biggest and most reliable factor that affects engagement (CPF). This is reflected in a recent study published by my company, Argyle Social, and seconded by a recent report from EdgeRank Checker.

If you compare the average CPF performance of hundreds of business social media accounts of varying sizes, smaller accounts perform better than large ones. This relationship holds true for both Facebook and Twitter.

(source: Argyle Social)

When you stop and think about it, this makes intuitive sense. At Ma & Pa’s Corner Store, the owner likely has a personal relationship with much of their audience. At a global online retailer, this clearly isn’t true. Closer relationships translate into greater engagement.

Does this mean that you should try to keep your audience size as low as possible? Probably not. If your goal is to maximize engagement, then larger accounts still get more clicks per post, even though followers engage less frequently.

(source: Argyle Social)

So, if your peer group is based on how many followers or fans you currently have, what we need now is a set of performance benchmarks for your peer group. The table below is just that.

(source: Argyle Social)

Let’s run through a quick example so that this makes a little more sense.

You’re a regional B2C retailer with 12,000 Twitter followers. You tweet a link that gets 12 clicks. That’s a CPF of .1%, which puts that tweet right at the 50^th percentile in your peer group. Not great, but not too bad either. Then, you tweet another link that gets 180 clicks. That’s a CPF of 1.5%, which puts you in the 95^th percentile. Awesome!

Running the numbers on your annual performance works the same way. Put together a big spreadsheet with all your posts, all of their clicks, and get an average CPF for the year. (Or use your social media management tool of choice.) Then compare yourself against the benchmarks above.

How do you perform? If you’re at the top of your peer group, great! Go brag about it and demand a raise. If you’re not, that’s OK—use this process to inform your 2012 goals. Create an action plan that will have you ahead of your peer group by this time next year.

 3. Select outliers

Now that you’ve diligently measured your CPF and normed it against your peer group, it’s time to select outliers. Rank your posts from 2011 by CPF. What do the top ten have in common? The bottom ten? Pull these out as success stories to celebrate and epic fails to vilify.

This step is particularly important in your year-end review because it helps you tell stories. Numbers are important, but human brains are wired for storytelling. If you can support your industry-benchmarked numbers from step 2 with some really excellent success stories and lessons learned, you’ll make a much bigger impact.

Want some of our success stories? Here are three of the best performing posts in the data set used for this research:

• Who’s been more influential in 2011, @PiersMorgan, @TinieTempah or @CharlieSheen? Vote for the Top 49 Men UK Edition now %link%
• Everyone #likes to WIN – Win A 25th Anniversary Nintendo Wii Bundle! #Wii #Retweet #Vancouver  %link%
• Facebook Achieves Majority – NEW Research from Edison and Arbitron: %link%

As you can see, looking at individual outliers is quite powerful. These three posts immediately beg the question, “Should I be posting more surveys, contests, and research?” Use anecdotal evidence like this to frame the larger conversation and to ask questions that should be looked into further.

Dominating your performance review

There you have it—three easy steps for success when it comes time to summarize your performance.

Do you use this process already or have a favorite of your own? Let us know in the comments.

Methodology

The data behind this analysis comes from a sample of customers’ activity on Argyle Social, a social media marketing software provider (and my employer!).

The selected sample included more than 150,000 posts from more than 1,000 Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts between November 2010 and December 2011. Our customers are professional marketers representing a range of company sizes across all major industries.

Have You Registered For Explore Dallas-Fort Worth?

Don’t miss a day of intensive learning with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the digital marketing and social media marketing space. AT&T’s Chris Baccus, Radio Shack’s Adrian Parker, Copyblogger’s Brian Clark, Edison Research’s Tom Webster, Edelman Digital’s Zena Weist and more headline one of the leading digital and social media marketing events of 2012, February 17 in Dallas, Texas! DON’T WAIT TO REGISTER! The first 100 to do so get an incredible discount! Reserve your seat today!

Tristan Handy is Director of Operations for Argyle Social, a social media marketing dashboard that helps businesses create real returns from the social channel. Follow him on Twitter @jthandy.

As you know, Copyblogger‘s Brian Clark will serve as the opening keynote for Explore Dallas-Fort Worth on Feb. 17 in Dallas, Texas. Register now so you don’t miss out on the full day’s content and networking that I’ve started saying is a, “no-frills, learn-your-ass-off digital marketing event.” But his opening keynote will surprise many. It’s a new talk and one that I’m going to be taking a lot of notes from as well.

Brian’s talk is called, “The Star Wars Guide To Online Marketing Success.” I’m sure we’ll all get a kick, as well as some great knowledge from him. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say Brian is a content marketing and internet marketing Jedi.

I caught up with Brian recently to allow us to start learning from him now, and to allow those who may not be able to join us in Dallas to get some scoop. We talked about Copyblogger’s recent redesign (the why, how, and what’s it done), why marketers today struggle with content marketing, how he would approach internet marketing for a company or brand that was not Copyblogger, how content marketing can work for non-sexy products and more.

As you can tell, the Force is with him. Come to Dallas on Feb. 17 and begin your training!

You won’t want to miss the business insights Brian has to give at Explore Dallas-Fort Worth. He’ll be speaking there, along with an all-star lineup that includes AT&T’s Chris Baccus, Radio Shack’s Adrian Parker, Zena Weist of Edelman Digital, Tom Webster from Edison Research, Nichole Kelly of Full Frontal ROI, Tim Hayden from 44 Doors, DJ Waldow from Waldow Social and more. The event will also feature a number of excellent software providers and companies to help you navigate the waters of digital marketing. They’ll bring their knowledge to share as well as their products. This is a must-attend event, so register now!

The full day’s content, breakfast, lunch (by Wolfgang Puck Catering) and a cocktail reception is $400, but let’s see if you’re paying attention! Register and use the code “ILOVESME” and you’ll get the early-bird price of $250, no matter what! Can’t be that! Go reserve your spot!

Event management for Explore Dallas-Fort Worth powered by Eventbrite

Explore is a five-city conference event series from Social Media Explorer and presented by Expion and Raven Internet Marketing Tools. Learn more and sign up for email updates for the city nearest you at socialmediaexplorer.com/product/events.

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post written by Ann Davlin who works at MotoCMS – an advanced Flash CMS and Flash templates provider.

It’s not a secret that many recruiters and business owners use social networking sites to screen prospective employees. According to the survey of 300 hiring professionals conducted by Reppler the most popular online resources for time wasting are Facebook (76%), Twitter (53%) and Linkedin (48%). It probably means that the whole (online and offline) business world considers it necessary to take social networks activity into account and use it for corporate objectives. But there are not so many employers who enable their employees to use these social networks at the working time if they are not engaged in corporate social accounts maintenance: In 2009 Robert Half Technology proclaimed that:

• 54 percent of U.S. companies ban workers from using social networking sites while on the job;
• 19 percent of companies allow social networking use only for business purposes;
• 16 percent allow limited personal use of the web.

In 2010, Manpower Inc. published a survey of over 34,000 employers in 35 countries and it turned out that three out of four companies have no formal policy regarding on-the-job use of social networking sites. In addition to the fact that social networking sites expose employees’ productivity to risk, corporate networks security and confidential data prove there is a strong need to determine how social networks can influence organizations.

Surely the problem related to the non-purpose use of the web at workplaces is quite hot and is an object for debates. There are numerous pros and cons of on-the-job use of social network sites including:

Strengths

• It gives the “bush telegraph” effect.
• Employees will be well-informed about latest online trends.
• Organizations with an access to social networks are considered to be progressive ones.

Weaknesses

• It’s hard to influence social networks messages of employees.
• Occasionally there is a need to invest money into office networks security.
• Some employees spend too much paid working time using private social network accounts.

Opportunities

• It is possible to increase labor productivity using this tool.
• It can be a good stimulation for workers enthusiasm.
• It’s also a good mean to increase the pleasure employees get during working hours.
• Using permissions for social communication it is possible to motivate and encourage workers.
• It can be a strong advantage while searching for new employees.

Threats

• Some public messages on social networks can really hurt the company’s public image.
• There can be some emotional and moral disorder of staff.
• There is a risk to infect corporate networks with viruses.

You can also supplement this list with other points which you consider to be important and influential. This ones are just examples that we think will make you think about the harm and benefits from using social networks at workplaces.

As Manpower’s survey states, very few organizations all over the world mentioned that their reputation has ever been impacted as a result of employees’ use of social networking sites at their workplaces. Here is a strict illustration on how little damage was caused by social media websites from the employers’ point of view.

Has your organization’s reputation ever been damaged by employees using social networking sites?

Americas – 11,000 employers from 9 countries from South and North Americas.
Asia Pacific – 7,700 employers from the Asia Pacific region.
EMEA – more then 16,000 employers from 16 countries of Europe, Middle East and Africa.

It shows that the threat of being damaged on the web by your own employees is lower than it’s considered to be. Within the whole world there are only 4 percent of companies whose business interests were negatively affected by the private online communication. Nearly 90 percent of businessmen don’t see any harm in social networks. Probably this diagram will look a little bit different in case of taking into account the employees’ productivity and time which they spend on social networks.

Now let’s get to another part, which can really be more important. This previous diagram was about actual damage, but what’s really widespread is not the damage, it’s the lack of any use from those employees spending their working time on social networks. Official Facebook stats claim that there are more than 400 million users which log in to Facebook every day and what is more important all of them combined spend something about 2 billion minutes a day on Facebook. Do you really think that all these people check their accounts at home after a working day? Nope! They spend their working time to chat with friends and relatives! Unfortunately, nobody estimates the work efficiency before and after such brakes. There are many employees who frankly think that social media communication during working hours relaxes them and even tones them up. This point of view is quite interesting and challenging to make some employers think about enabling their workers to surf through social media websites. But undoubtedly, this question requires a strong regulation.

For example, look at the graph below. Too much lemonade makes you hate lemons. This statement relates to pretty much everything – like eating sweets, watching TV and social media communicating too. So it is possible to find some solution when private communication becomes more of a useful thing than the harmful one for your business (position A). The point is that even if an unlimited access to the entertainment sites would be given to the employees during their working hours after some time general interest towards such form of wasting time starts to fall (position C) .

For example: if employees can use their private Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. accounts at workplaces 30 minutes a day they will be waiting for this time and will try to take maximum advantage of it. Then if they are allowed to communicate on the web for 2 hours a day – be sure workers will do the same as if they have had only 30 minutes (there is no need to hurry up if there is a plenty of officially allowed time). And when an unlimited access to all social media sites is provided people either get bored of this idea very quickly or they will waste the whole working time on the web (however in such case the employee risks to be fired).

So here are several suggestions on what can be done to minimize the threats and maximize the benefits of on-the-job usage of social media sites (as well as other entertainment online resources):

• Provide an unlimited access to entertainment sites and wait until employees will be tired of playing around on the web. In this case you’ll need a strong network protection software and plenty of patience.
• Provide an unlimited access to the web but do not let things drift – a constant online activity control is demanded.
• Allow a free access to the web only during breaks. It will save your corporate network from overloading and employees from time wasting.
• Another option is to forbid any access to social network sites at workplaces whatsoever. This step will probably reduce company’s popularity among current and potential employees, so be ready for a public dissatisfaction (especially if your competitors are not so strict).
• Provide an access to different sites for different categories of employees according to their duties. It requires some monetary and labor spending, but it is a very effective optimization tool.
• Describe all conditions concerning non-purpose use of social networks in the employment contract. This measure will clarify everything for both parties: employees and employers
• Establish fines for those who use Internet for private purposes. However there is a need to separate different types of employees: those which were and always will abuse an access to the web, those which will react and those who are indifferent to the web. All these people need an individual approach.
• It is possible to make entering social media sites a some kind of encouragement. The more effective employee is the more time he/she can spend on social networks. It will stimulate those workers who like to relax on the web and will build convenient labor conditions for others.

Probably there are no universal solutions for every single case but there is one good rule of thumb: be useful and don’t harm. If employees follow it then probably they deserve getting some encouragements from the company. A few minutes in social media communities a day can hardly hurt any business but this time will bring a feeling of satisfaction for every worker. But of course it’s all up to you: to allow web surfing during working hours or forbid it. You are welcome to choose your own way of solving the problem of non-purpose use of social media websites on workplaces.

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Ann Davlin is a young inspired blogger who is always open to trying new things. She works at MotoCMS -  an advanced Flash CMS and Flash templates provider. And if you are a fan of web design and social media (like Ann is) you can always follow her on Twitter (@SmilingAnny)

 

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Suzanne Norman, director of brand at Emma, an email marketing and communications company.

The bot problem

Let’s face it: most companies write marketing copy for the web and email that reads like it was written by a robot.

And nobody likes bots. (See: spambots, twitbots, fembots, that 80s movie with Emilio Estevez where all the semi-trucks come to life.)

I spot this kind of writing all the time in email marketing campaigns — that’s the realm I work in — but it’s just as rampant in every other digital medium.

“The objective of our organization is to provide best-in-class e-commerce solutions that facilitate bottom-line growth.”

Okay, fine, but don’t you just help people sell more stuff?

When we marketing-types talk about content, we talk a lot about relevance and architecture and SEO optimization, but we don’t talk much about voice — that intangible quality in writing that shows off your company’s personality.

And that’s a shame, because voice drives how people feel when they read what you write. And when you can evoke a feeling in your customer, you’re closer than ever to a sale.

A few organizations have parlayed a memorable voice into brand distinction that delights their customers. (Moosejaw, Innocent Drinks and 826 Valencia come to mind right away.) But anybody can strengthen their company’s voice with writing that’s simply more conversational.

Three ways to fix it

Think, then talk, then write.
Writers often mistakenly believe that writing is about writing. It’s not about writing.

(It’s not about caffeine, either. Most days, anyway.)

It’s mostly about thinking.

When I haven’t thought enough about a piece, I know it. I find overwrought sentences, rambling paragraphs, lazy word choices and ill-advised Dolph Lundgren jokes. Those writerly fits and starts add up to a stilted, distant voice that bores readers faster than the plot of Rocky V.

To fix it, I call a smart friend and talk through my idea. A living, breathing audience asks questions and checks assumptions better than a blank page, and the dialogue always helps distill and refine my main points.

Best of all, it tricks my brain into approaching the problem conversationally, so I end up writing the thing considering what my reader wants, when she hesitates and how she reasons.

Ditch the multisyllabicness.
In email marketing — and really, in any marketing channel — your words have a few seconds to grab and keep your readers’ attention. And even then, people don’t really read so much as scan.

So when you write multisyllabic words overwrought into convoluted sentences with which one requires assistance in comprehending (you see what I did there), you lose readers.

Use simple words instead, words you can read at a glance. It’s the surest way to copy that’s warm and friendly since it reflects how we actually talk.

It helps me to read my stuff out loud. Thesaurus-y words and convoluted phrases might sneak past my eye, but my ear will catch them every time. If I stumble over a phrase, I rework it. If a sentence stalls the whole paragraph, I rework it. If it’s another Dolph Lundgren joke, I rework it (begrudgingly).

Okay, two caveats. First, we web writers have to keep our copy keyword-rich and shiny for the Googles, so if your industry’s vernacular includes five-dollar words, try offsetting them with straightforward sentences and brief paragraphs.

And second, I’m not suggesting you dumb down your writing. Keep your sentences varied, your adjectives meaningful and your verbs brimming with life. Just put clarity and brevity before the fancy stuff, okay?

Have fun. Seriously.
Although the cats are giving us a run for it, I believe humans are the masters of humor.

Humor erodes our defenses. It makes us feel good. It puts us on the same team.

These qualities are wonderful for humanity and whatnot, but they also come in handy if you’re trying to sell something.

Humor isn’t right for every brand, but it shouldn’t be reserved only for the energy drinks and beer conglomerates of the world, either. Add simple, friendly asides to your writing or build your whole brand around a laugh-out-loud silliness — whatever seems in line with your company’s values and goals. Either way, readers will know that there’s another person behind the writing.

You know, talking about humor gets a little humorless, so I’ll point you to an essay I came across earlier this month by author, writing instructor and all-around badass Anne Lamott. Her style keeps you reading and makes you love her, but her humor never upstages her point.

What’s next?

It’ll take you fifteen minutes to apply some of these thoughts to your latest blog post or a landing page. Try it this week.

When you do, remember it’s not merely writing. It’s your company speaking. And your readers aren’t merely listening to what you’re saying. They’re reacting to how you say it.

Show no mercy to robotic words and phrases. Replace ‘em with words that show your humanity. Shape and refine your company’s voice, and your readers will respond.

You’ll boost your pageviews, I promise. You’ll sell more stuff.  And you’ll make the world a less robotic place.

Suzanne Norman works on all manner of brand-y things for Emma, an email marketing and communications company that serves more than 30,000 customers around the world. She lives in Nashville with her husband, son and inexhaustible supply of goat cheese.

Why are blogs such a powerful communications tool in the arsenal of a company? There are lots of reasons, really. But the explanation I’ve used that normally gives those who don’t quite understand blogging have their “ah-ha” moment is a simple one. To understand the power of a blog you have to compare it to something familiar.

Think about your company newsletter. If you’re not that hip to blogging yet, your company newsletter is probably still printed and circulated in everyone’s box in the mailroom. Or maybe it’s mailed to everyone’s house. But in some form or fashion, some printed piece of information is circulated monthly or bi-weekly to everyone in the company. There are pictures of new hires, company softball team news, maybe even some tips and tricks articles for the sales team and a list of birthdays.

The problem with that mechanism of communication is that the information has a limited life cycle and, due to costs, the publication has a limited circulation. Only a few people can access it.

With a blog, even if just focused on internal news, everyone, in or out of the company, can access it. There’s less hard cost to produce and adding news or information doesn’t add cost to the project. And the information can be updated on a whim, giving it a forever life cycle. Not to mention, the content can be more easily found thanks to the ubiquitous power of search.

Those reasons alone make a blog a much more powerful communications mechanism — internally or externally — than a company newsletter.

Capitalizing on that same analogy, though, think about how many company newsletters you’ve read that were interesting enough to want to read again.

It’s a comparable medium, but not the same. With more power, comes more responsibility.

It’s time companies grasped that and made their new newsletter, in whatever form, worth reading.

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Don’t miss a day of intensive learning with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the digital marketing and social media marketing space. Copyblogger’s Brian Clark, Edison Research’s Tom Webster, Edelman Digital’s Zena Weist and more headline one of the leading digital and social media marketing events of 2012, February 17 in Dallas, Texas! DON’T WAIT TO REGISTER! The first 100 to do so get an incredible discount! Reserve your seat today!