This is one of many installments in my Optimization Summit recap, which took place March 23 -24, 2010, in Dallas, Texas.

After starting the conference off with making sure I was clear on the makings of a movement, I moved into a two-part, four hour workshop focused on how strategy, measurement and ROI all come together for social media. The workshop was led by Jason Falls, creator of SocialMediaExplorer.com. Jason had a lot of things going for him from the beginning for me. First, he’s a fellow Kentucky boy. Second, he’s had to have had two of the coolest jobs in the world: those being handling marketing and social media for both Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark. I also quickly appreciated his to-the-point demeanor and his unapologetic style for making said point.

With that said, he did apologize often for what he felt was a lot of him “talkboxing” from the front of the room, but I actually liked the presentation. Yes, anytime you talk about strategy, it can sound a little familiar and general, but it’s necessary. The reason people talk so much about strategy is because so few of us actually use it and plan. So I walked out of this four-hour marathon with a very clear framework for how to plan the right way, whether it has to do with social media or not.

Without further adieu, here are the big takeaways I received from Jason’s presentation, with my own comments following:

• If you don’t know why you need social media, then you can’t use it effectively. Jason stressed that you have to have a grip on what the tools are good at facilitating, and then figure out if that method will help you with your specific plan. Of course, if you don’t have a plan, then you try everything and have no way of knowing if it’s working or not, because you have nothing to measure against.
• Create your goals, then measurable objectives, then strategies to meet the objectives, then tactics to accomplish the strategies. Sounds kinda basic, huh? Well, I don’t know what it was, but hearing it laid out so succinctly made a light bulb sparkle above my head and then pull out a hammer and crack my skull, screaming, “You thick-headed idiot, you still don’t do it this way!” I daresay too many times we start at the wrong end, focusing on the tactics and hoping that the “doing” will help us figure it all out as we go. I’ll admit, there are certain (low-level) instances where this might be true, but not for the big stuff. Spending your time in planning is worth whatever pain or delays it may cause.
• Goals must be singular (there are no “ands” in goals). Jason explained that you must make goals singular, because next you have to figure out the objectives, strategies and tactics to accomplish them. So, for example, you can’t create a goal like “We must increase recruiting and sales.” You rather must create two goals: “We must increase recruiting. We must increase sales.” Then, you can create objectives, strategies and tactics specifically to increase recruiting, and another set to increase sales.
• Objectives must ….
  • Be measurable and specific
  • Indicate a target audience
  • List a realistic level of attainment (and realize it’s just a benchmark, and does not determine success or failure)
  • Have a deadline.
  • Point to one of three things:
    • Outputs
    • Outtakes
    • Outcomes
• Strategies cannot be built in a day. Too many of us either a) underestimate the time needed to fully think through our strategies, or b) forget to do it the right way and therefore squeeze it into our already crammed timelines.
• Social media is just a spoke in the wheel. As Jason talked through the nuts and bolts of true strategic planning, the idea of starting with “we’ve gotta start using social media” became dumber and dumber. Accept social media as a means to an end. Which means you need to figure out that end first. Too many people are giving it silver bullet status when they don’t know how to use the gun and they don’t have a target to aim for.
• Build appreciation. Jason shared that the goal for his personal use of social media is to elicit the response of “I really appreciate Jason Falls because he …..” He used the example of tweeting useful links out on a regular basis.
• Some great consumer insight tools Jason mentioned during his presentation:
  • Ask customers (Easiest and most important)
  • Pew Internet and American Life Project
  • Forrester Research
  • Emarketer.com
  • Compete
  • Quantcast
  • Traditional Companies (Nielsen)
  • Social Media Tools and Companies
    • SocialMention.com
    • Sysomos
    • Radian6
    • Google Alerts
    • ViralHeat.com
    • PeopleBrowsr
    • HubSpot
    • Visible Technologies
    • Cymfony
    • ScoutLabs
    • Trackur.com
• Conversation doesn’t ring the cash register. Jason warned us that he was going to give the social media hippies a hard time. While we could all make the case that conversation may indirectly lead to ringing cash registers, his quote of Eric Brown of Urbane apartments captured a mantra we must all keep top of mind: “Did we rent more apartments? If not, the practice of social media marketing is just a hobby.”
• Helping people buy. The average person on social media is not a social media purist. So don’t get too caught up in the philosophy of using the tool. While hard-selling on social media is frowned upon, it doesn’t mean that selling can’t occur. In Chris Heuer’s words, “Remember, it’s not about selling, but helping people buy.”
• 80% of corporate blog traffic is not part of your “community.” According to the Compendium Blogware Corporate Blog study of December 2009, 80% of a company’s blog traffic is landing on a specific post via search. So they don’t hang around to interact with fellow fans, and they usually don’t come back. They get what they were looking for and then they’re gone. So, don’t ignore the faithful 20%, but don’t overlook the majority. Plan, build and write accordingly.
• ROI is a term of corporate fear. ROI is only important if money is your goal. The answer to ‘what did I get?’ is ‘what were you trying to get?’ ROI is a business metric, not a media metric. Jason advised that ROI must be measured across the entire marketing plan, not a single slice.

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