Shel Holtz is moderating the afternoon brainstorming session at Ragan’s “Unconference” in Chicago and we’re talking about how to measure whether social media marketing efforts is effective. Some ideas we’re discussing:
–Use social media to drive traffic to your website, then capture email addresses and start building an opt-in list of people who have given you permission to market to them. I use the Hover Ad Generator that makes the box bounce down from the top of the screen at my website. Offer a freebie in exchange for an email address.
–There’s a Facebook page called “I Love Triple A” which Triple A didn’t know about.
–A mid-size marketing communications firm in Milwaukee has partnered with OnMilwaukee.com. The creative director writes about marketing issues such as new digital outdoor billboards. It helps position himself as an expert.
–Viking Community College in California has its own bookstore on MySpace, and more than 800 friends.
–Park and Fly apparently monitors blogs to see what customers are saying about them. When Shel Holtz had a bad travel experience with the company, he blogged about it. A real human from the company contacted him, apologized and offered a refund. A customer who is unhappy by bad customer service and is made happy by that same company is 10 times more likely to talk up the company, Shel said. And indeed he does. Monitoring the conversation about you online makes it easier to tell your boss “people are out there talking about us and we need to do something about it.”
–Finally, he showed this cool video for Dove soap company, which illustrates how our perception of beauty has become distorted. Ogilvy Mather created it and uploded it to YouTube, as well as to the Dove website. So many people copied it that it ended up on diet, wellness, cosmetics and health blogs and websites. It was also featured on “Oprah,” “Ellen Degeneres,” “The View” and “Entertainment Tonight.”
–Offer an RSS feed at your website for things such as articles and press releases. Use Feedburner to track the results.
–Cost avoidance. Does a viral PR campaign head off trouble like a strike? If so, how can that be measured in dollars and cents?
Great stuff.
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