What’s Your Retweet Rank?

Regular blog readers know I am in Twitter learning mode – enjoying the power of blogging and Social Media.

There are many marketing folks who are experts in this arena.  Hubspot and eConsultancy, in particular, offer fabulous Twitter expertise.

Here’s a particularly informative blog from awhile back about measuring the ROI of a B-to-B in terms of Retweet Rank

  

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am relatively new to this area.  Much learning has been done over the last 6 months or so in support of Markit Strategies and PR client Plex Systems.

RT Rank: What’s the Deal?

A previous blog post showcased five top tools to measure success on Twitter, and since that time, it’s been amazing to see the relevance of measuring engagement via Retweet Rank.

It turns out that one of the B-to-B programs managed by Markit Strategies and PR has a retweet rank in the 97th percentile.  The percentile reflects the percentage of tweets that have been been retweeted.

Why is RT Ranking Important?

Why is Retweet Ranking a good metric to measure quality of engagement?

1. It means your followers are reading tweets, directly or indirectly.
2. It means that your Twitter handle "@Name" is spreading to relevant Twitter users in the keywords related to the product or service.  More people will follow.
3. Tweets are interesting enough for both followers and non-followers to take an action and pass along to their followers.
4. It means you are building relationships and trust with relevant followers.

Note that most business to business Twitter users do not realize the importance of "RT". It is a more meaningful metric than number of followers - a way to measure engagement with a relevant community (which by the way you can also measure in terms of followers on TwitterSheep. 

The goal is to build a strong, engaged experience on Twitter with a lot of retweeting by relevant followers.

Do you Tweet? If so, check out your RT Rank!  

Measure Twice, Tweet Once: Measuring for Social Media Success

There’s so much to consider when using Social Media in the business-to-business marketing world.  

This post puts the spotlight on Twitter metrics of success. Facebook and LinkedIn are entirely different animals when one considers measuring success.

Previous blog postings have addressed Twitter Etiquette, and late last year I even took a look at what the 1970-s art house band Talking Heads would have said about Twitter.

This time, though, it’s inspiring to consider the following:  How do you know if a Twitter program is effective?

Wise marketing folks are often posting about this subject, such as this terrific post from those smarty pants at eConsultancy.

Quality vs. Quantity

It’s tempting to measure success by the number of Twitter followers an account has acquired, but that isn’t a complete view of success.

Yet it is fun to watch followers grow (heck, I even wrote a limerick when one of the Twitter programs I managed crossed 500 followers!).

If social media marketing is about engaging and connecting, then it follows that the best strategy is ongoing measurement of  "relevant engagement" on Twitter.

How to Assess Relevent Engagement? 

How can one measure  social media engagement?

One handy approach is to monitor the amount of Tweets that get Retweeted by others, especially followers related to a particular topic.  It is easy to track mentions and direct messages over a 30 day period to establish a benchmark - then monitor growth over time.

The Twitter List

Twitter Lists are critical to monitor. 

How many folks include your Twitter handle in a list?  How many relevant lists follow you?  

Being included in a relevant list by another Twitter account is a great measure of engagement and connection.  For instance, if you manage a Twitter account for a personal trainer, there are many Twitter lists out there that single out those in the personal training arena. Being include in a Twitter list is a great indication of engagement.

5 Tools for Measurement

1. If you manage your Twitter account using TweetDeck or HootSuite, it is easy to set up the interface to quickly track mentions, retweets and direct mentions if folks use the @sign and your full Twitter handle.
2. Search:  A simple Twitter Search monitors those tweeting about a company especially if others don't use @ sign (that's usually what happens) 
3.  Retweet Rank – as the name states, this easy tool monitors Retweets 
4.  Tweet Cloud:  Analyzes the content of a month's worth of tweets (or any timeframe) to analyze whether your tweets are 'on topic" - a really great tool for monitoring content over time.  
5. TwitterSheep offers a clear indication of engagement, depicting visually how relevant the bios of your followers are.  Take just a second to analyze the bios of your followers, when searching under relevant terms (like exercise, personal health, etc....when using the personal trainer example from above)  

Remember the old saying:  you are what you measure! There are likely other great tools that measure social media engagement.  Please share them here!

When PR Means PR

I just wrapped up a small contract PR/marketing communications project and it happened again.  One of the folks involved with the project confused the term “PR” with press release. 

I’ve heard this more than once, from a range of clients and organizations cutting across a variety of departments (marketing, sales, communications) and industries (profit and non-profit).

It’s an understandable mix up. However, PR is short for “Public Relations” and refers to systematic, consistent efforts that support larger strategic goals.  

A fully developed PR program goes well beyond the one-off press releases.

PR programs enhance awareness, support branding and foster engagement and connections with key audiences. 

A comprehensive PR program encompasses media relations, industry relations, awards programs, speaking opportunities, and online communications.

A press release is important to any public relations effort, but is just one tool to secure media coverage.

It's been my experience that one press release here or there is an ineffective way to go.  Instead, media outreach efforts must be fully integrated into a broader marketing and communications plan, timetable, and budget.

Media outreach should support specified communications objective for one or more target audiences.

Most of the success of a media campaign comes from media relations – the research and cultivation of strong relationships with carefully selected journalists, editors and bloggers that are relevant to the organization.   

A press release has a better chance of being picked up by a media outlet if the blogger, reporter or editor has a basic familiarity with your organization.  That research will also help determine whether the media outlet is the best fit – blindly emailing press releases to reporters who don’t in fact cover the topic is not the way to go.

So remember, PR stands for Public Relations!  More about PR another time.

When Are You Too Big to be Flat?

I attended an industry event last night showcasing the importance of innovation in traditional business settings. 

One of the more interesting presentations referenced the benefits of a “flat management organization” especially as a way to foster creative problem solving and innovation. 

The presentation got me thinking:  when does a company “get too big to be flat”? 

As a marketing professional, I’ve consulted with smaller, innovative companies and have witnessed an evolutionary progression.  

A flat org structure offers needed communication, flexibility and agility.

As the company succeeds and grows, however, and projects become more complex, that approach must shift to a middle ground with new structures, hierarchy, accountability, degree of supervision and processes.

Flexible Structure

Perhaps it’s a mix of the two approaches that serve companies well:  call it “a flexible, fluid structured process”.

There’s no doubt that the organizational structure of a business has to evolve.

With a flat organizational structure, there are few or often no levels of management between the staff and the managers. This means that the staff has decision-making authority, but the downside can be a lack of accountability or structure.

When larger companies have a number of layers between the actual workers and upper management, there is structure and process, but it’s difficult to innovate or change.

Sooner Than Later

So returning to the concept of  “a flexible, fluid structured process” – as companies grow there is likely a need for a hierarchy sooner than later.

From my experience, it’s a challenge for a growing organization to maintain flat management methods as the complexity tends to grow (in tasks, projects, sales, staff, etc.) and become more complex.  


The challenge is to actively foster a hybrid approach. 

Thinking About Words: Part 1 "Snafu" and "Kudos"

Words can be fun. 

That sentiment sounds like the title of a 1960’s era elementary school textbook. 

But in fact, some of us consider it fun to contemplate word origin, usage and history of words. 

A previous blog post warned against “Blah Blah” words commonly found in marketing and there are plenty of those around in b-to-b marketing-speak.  Blah blah text sneaks into too much of my marketing copywriting like “leverage”, “world-class”, “industry leading” and other blah blah terms.

This time, though, the fun comes from thinking about the origin of words.  

For this first installment of the recurring “Thinking About Words” blog posting, let’s focus on two words, shall we? Snafu and Kudos…

Snafu

The word “Snafu” seems to occur regularly in my conversations in an average week.  I just heard it today at a meeting.  It’s a fun word to say, and most dictionaries define it as “chaotic or confused situation” or “in a state of confusion or chaos”. Snafu can also refer to a bad situation, mistake, or cause of trouble.

What might not be commonly known is that SNAFU is an acronym that stands for Situation Normal: All F***end up. Removing the foul word, it can also stand for Situation Normal All Fouled Up.

According to various online research, the acronym originated in the US Army during World War II.

Who knew?

Kudos

Kudos is another word one hears in a range of settings.  

Kudos is loosely based on a Greek word meaning "praise" or “good job” or even “well done”.  Online research from “Take Our Word” website notes the term entered English as university slang.  The first known recorded use of kudos comes from 1831. 

Interestingly, folks in the UK pronounce the word Kudos as "cue-doss" while in America it is "koo-doze". 

If taking a wild guess, I would have thought Kudos had its origins in Latin. Yet digging a bit deeper shows it is basically a co-opted American slang-word.

Looking for More?

As you undoubtedly agree after wading through this blog post, it can be fun (a time-waster, but fun nonetheless) thinking about words. 

Want to think some more? Then be sure to visit one of the web’s leading resources on all things words - Wordnik.

Wordnik bills itself as “a place for all the words, and everything known about them.” And they do a great job in that regard

Check out the “Word of the Day” just for fun. 

Wordnik goes to town with other word-related info.  For example, this page about the word “Kudos” features a chart detailing the number of occurrences of the word "kudos" per million words from the 1800’s to today.  How do they know this stuff?

Thank You MarketingSherpa, for Your Useful and Timely Wisdom

I’m never disappointed when I click over to MarketingSherpa.

Chances are, you’re familiar with this organization.  But if not, MarketingSherpa is an online community dedicated to providing useful marketing resources and research.

As they note on the About section of their website,  the name "Sherpa" refers to the Sherpas – or guides -- of Nepal who guide climbers up Mount Everest. The goal of this for-profit entity is to guide marketers through their tough climb toward great marketing results.  They do this by providing research on 'what works.' 

Chart of the Week

The chart of the week is especially interesting – there's a new one shared every Tuesday. The one posted above summarizes top objectives of email marketing, as gathered from one of their member research analysis.

Wisdom Report

Other content offers additional value. For instance,   I just stumbled upon a useful document entitled the 2011 Wisdom Report.  As always, it is a concise and succinct summary of shared wisdom related to direct marketing, list management, social media marketing, and online marketing.

Subtitled “Real Life Stories of Success & Lessons Learned from the MarketingSherpa Community”, the 32-page document is worth saving.

Please read it for yourself – it is available as a free download (not sure how long, the offer will be valid, though). 

In the interest of this blog posting, here are a few standout nuggets of wisdom.

Importance of  driving traffic to website

No matter the b-to-b marketing program, be it a press release, media coverage, guest blog posting, Tweet, LinkedIn update or banner ad, never minimize the importance of driving traffic to your website.  Embed links to your site, as many as you possible can. Of course, you must provide a clear “call to action” on your website once folks land there, but all programs should aim to drive traffic back to your own domain, not somebody else’s. The report shares the conventional wisdom other folks have learned about this important goal.

Social media marketing

I’ve covered this before in various blog postings, but this research reminds us that social media marketing needs to be “social” and focus on =connecting and engaging with folks relevant to the business.  Don’t just blast your message.  Engage, connect, pose questions, answer questions about the topics and industry trends that make sense for your company. Consistency is key.  A regular (daily) stream of postings goes a long way to communicate about a company’s brand.  

One especially useful nugget: “Successful social media marketing is about identifying the most influential members of your audience and leveraging them to achieve your key business goals.”

Pay attention to the horror story one company experienced – engaging with an agency to manage their social media marketing at a rate of $7500 pre month, only to garner a miserable ROI. 

The importance of communicating  "targeted content to segmented lists"

The more timely the message, the better the open rate and conversion rate (amount of people who take an action like download a report) when it comes to direct mail.  We’ve proved this time and again at various clients.  Open rates of messages improve when a subject line is tweaked to target the list segment of recipients. This research reminds us of this important fact.

Download the 2011 Wisdom Report today. Bookmark the MarketingSherpa website and visit it often!

Five New Year’s Resolutions for B-to-B Marketers

B-2-B marketers are a busy group of folks.  For many marketing departments, the to-do list seems never-ending. There’s always another marketing campaign to generate; tradeshow to plan and attend; eNewsletter to write and distribute; prospect database to build; Adword campaign to launch; and so on.

Before this first month of 2011 ends, it might be useful to commit to a set of resolutions as a way to give focus to efforts.  This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, just a way to place priorities.  Hope it is helpful as we start the New Year of business-to-business marketing. 

1) Test your marketing programs, when you can.  If you have a CRM solution, split direct email marketing messages into A/B groups and test one element at a time.  Test the placement of a download button; test a subject line for the best open rates; test design elements like photos; test headlines.  Use Google Optimizer tools to A/B test two pages of a website. See which message or page gets the largest open rate or conversion rate.  This approach is truly liberating and focuses effort on the optimized, best performing elements.

2) Ask somebody else outside of the organization to review your content.  This is a favorite subject, as my colleagues likely know.  Did you just write a web page, brochure or eNewsletter?  Let somebody outside the organization, who is in the same general industry, read the content and see if resonates or hits the mark.  Getting feedback from folks outside the organization is a low-cost, high impact strategy for improved marketing communications.

3) Make campaigns as relevant and timely as possible.  Here’s a resolution to put into place as much as possible.  Just yesterday President Obama signed a new food safety bill into law, and a Markit Strategies client sent a notice reminding our team of the news.  We quickly sent out a direct marketing message to food industry folks in the prospect database addressing how the client’s products help meet the new mandates.  The message was emailed that same afternoon (subject line: Food Safety Bill Signed Today. Now What?)   The timely nature of the subject line and content helped garner a nearly 8% open rate (that’s pretty good!) and very high conversions responding to the offer, plus a few direct calls right into the sales team.  The timely nature of the message was a big part of the success.  Let’s do that again!

4) Make measurements meaningful.  Measuring success in b-to-b marketing is critical, as long as you choose the most meaningful metric. In the case above, two measurements helped us gauge success: open rates -- the number of emails opened by recipients of the email; and conversion rates --- the percentage of email recipients who visited the website or downloaded a form by clicking on a link in the email.  Likewise, when measuring social media engagement on Twitter don’t concentrate on number of followers, but analyze the type of followers (do they fit a certain profile?), along with their level of engagement in terms of mentions or retweets.  Measuring engagement is pretty significant in terms of social media programs.

5) Keep learning! Try something new!  That means attending webinars, participating with professional groups like IABC Detroit, or attending conferences such as Usability Week conferences by Norman Nielsen Group to keep skills fresh.  Resolve to keep abreast of current thought about social media marketing, SEO and online marketing. Learn a new skill?  Try it out to see if it garners results.

Happy New Year, all!