It is exciting to see that the companies and their executives are jumping into the social media wave. To be able to use this tool completely, one needs to know how they can measure the benefits that they receive from them. After all it is your business and you need to know the amount of benefit that you get when you spend your time and money on them.
Calculating ROI on social media is not the same as calculating ROI from print media or broadcast media. It is not just a simple calculation of how many new sales you made or new enquiries you generated by posting an advertisement in a magazine or broadcasting an ad during a T.V. show. The steps that are to be taken are somewhat different.
The first step to measuring ROI from social media is to define concrete goals as they will help you in your calculating what you wanted to accomplish and what you have accomplished. For example, if you wish to increase the number of views of your website, you need to know the number of views you currently get on a daily/ monthly/ annual basis. Similarly, if you wish to increase the number of mentions your organization gets in social media, you need to know where you stand now.
You also need to know the demographics that a specific tool is catering to. After all you need to know where your target audience is. The maximum number of Facebook users fall in the age group 35-41 years. If you are selling a product that is for the teen agers, Facebook is not the right tool to be used.
You would be required to register with one or more of the web-traffic measuring tools like Google Analytics, TweetMeme Analytics, PostRank Analytics, WebStats BASIC, WebStats PRO, eWebAnalytics and MetaTraffic.
You also need to keep a track of time spent by you or your employee on any of the social media tool for promoting your product; the number of man hours consumed to get a stated return.
After a phase of, say, 90 days or so, you need to pull out the numbers from the traffic measuring tools. A simple correlation method will help you in calculating the increase is sales due to increase in traffic to your website through advertising on social media tool.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Initial Steps to Managing Your Own PR with Traditional Media
Moving ahead of why small businesses should do their own PR. In this article, we are restricting to broadcast media i.e. radio and T.V., print media and touching online a bit with blogs etc. Social media is an exhaustive tool and hence we will talk about them separately.
The first step to managing PR with print media starts with preparing a list of press contacts. A PR agency would of course have a exhaustive and ready to use list which otherwise is a tedious task. That is why they claim to have an edge over others in doing your PR with traditional media. However, with the websites like Gibbie press, you can get a press list which can be filtered to cater to your need. Another method of preparing your press list is to contact key press reporters and reviewers at a trade show. Else you can try contacting few of them individually. This list would also include broadcast media.
The second step is handling inquires from press reporters. Press reporters keep looking for information and comments from experts. They keep posting requests for the same purpose. Try looking for services like http://www.helpareporter.com/ which have long list of media inquiries. You can selectively answer them. It is important that your answers should not sound like spamming.
You would also require to master in writing the press release. It should not sound like an ad or a promotional campaign. It should be to the point news with claims that are supported by facts. It should not have exclamatory sentence. In the modern times, stress is given on the structure, form, outlet and means of how the news is delivered. Try getting some help online in writing your press release as every good press release will build lasting relationships with media. Remember not to boast and be to the point and truthful.
The process of building PR starts with firing some press releases from time to time. It does not happen in one day that you make a big story. It includes releasing the news and them follow-up on the mails and calls that you receive and then analyze how it has impacted. Free tools like Google alerts can help you in this. Prepare for the second release accordingly.
Once you have successfully done the press release, respond to emails and phone calls with a sense of urgency as press-reporters work under stringent deadlines. Hence you should have an understanding of deadlines and lead time and other essentials of the trade. Remember not to overdo the mails or calls as it might annoy your contacts.
The first step to managing PR with print media starts with preparing a list of press contacts. A PR agency would of course have a exhaustive and ready to use list which otherwise is a tedious task. That is why they claim to have an edge over others in doing your PR with traditional media. However, with the websites like Gibbie press, you can get a press list which can be filtered to cater to your need. Another method of preparing your press list is to contact key press reporters and reviewers at a trade show. Else you can try contacting few of them individually. This list would also include broadcast media.
The second step is handling inquires from press reporters. Press reporters keep looking for information and comments from experts. They keep posting requests for the same purpose. Try looking for services like http://www.helpareporter.com/ which have long list of media inquiries. You can selectively answer them. It is important that your answers should not sound like spamming.
You would also require to master in writing the press release. It should not sound like an ad or a promotional campaign. It should be to the point news with claims that are supported by facts. It should not have exclamatory sentence. In the modern times, stress is given on the structure, form, outlet and means of how the news is delivered. Try getting some help online in writing your press release as every good press release will build lasting relationships with media. Remember not to boast and be to the point and truthful.
The process of building PR starts with firing some press releases from time to time. It does not happen in one day that you make a big story. It includes releasing the news and them follow-up on the mails and calls that you receive and then analyze how it has impacted. Free tools like Google alerts can help you in this. Prepare for the second release accordingly.
Once you have successfully done the press release, respond to emails and phone calls with a sense of urgency as press-reporters work under stringent deadlines. Hence you should have an understanding of deadlines and lead time and other essentials of the trade. Remember not to overdo the mails or calls as it might annoy your contacts.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Small Entrepreneurs Can Do Their PR Better than the PR Firms
Whether you believe it or not, you are a better PR person for your small business than any PR firms. Agreed, that you would have to shoulder yet another responsibility that you could have handed over to the safe hands of PR. However, you need to remember that you are one among those hundreds of business owners of various different sizes and selling your kind of product. Saving on money that you plan to pay to PR firms can be crucial for you. There are other reasons as well that justify you being your own business PR.
You know your product far better than the PR Company and hence can represent your product authoritatively and zealously in any media exposure, be it newspapers, magazines, T.V. or internet. The span of time required letting the PR firm know what you do and how you do is too high to invest in.
T.V. and newspaper reporters, bloggers and the likes would love to listen from you about your product far more than listening to a PR firm. Everybody wishes to hear the story from the story-maker.
Even the basic PR project, if outsourced, costs a lot. The higher is your requirement, higher is the fortune that you have to shred.
The ROI in PR projects are more often not immediate. Hence there always stays a gap between the time when you have made an investment (paid the PR firm) and the time when you realize the returns.
When you are promoting your product on your own, you are investing time (which of course means money), however, you are more flexible in investing it at your will. You will most probably invest your time in it when it can yield maximum return.
Any entrepreneur would like to build lasting relationships with key media personnel. The relationship built through agencies goes away with the agency. On the contrary, if you are responsible for a relationship built with an editor, blogger or a writer, you will be able to carry it on till you wish to.
There is a plethora of applications that hardly cost anything yet help you in all PR aspects right from press releases, maintaining and management of contact lists, process management, follow ups and analysis of results. Even if you are a novice, it would not be that difficult.
You know your product far better than the PR Company and hence can represent your product authoritatively and zealously in any media exposure, be it newspapers, magazines, T.V. or internet. The span of time required letting the PR firm know what you do and how you do is too high to invest in.
T.V. and newspaper reporters, bloggers and the likes would love to listen from you about your product far more than listening to a PR firm. Everybody wishes to hear the story from the story-maker.
Even the basic PR project, if outsourced, costs a lot. The higher is your requirement, higher is the fortune that you have to shred.
The ROI in PR projects are more often not immediate. Hence there always stays a gap between the time when you have made an investment (paid the PR firm) and the time when you realize the returns.
When you are promoting your product on your own, you are investing time (which of course means money), however, you are more flexible in investing it at your will. You will most probably invest your time in it when it can yield maximum return.
Any entrepreneur would like to build lasting relationships with key media personnel. The relationship built through agencies goes away with the agency. On the contrary, if you are responsible for a relationship built with an editor, blogger or a writer, you will be able to carry it on till you wish to.
There is a plethora of applications that hardly cost anything yet help you in all PR aspects right from press releases, maintaining and management of contact lists, process management, follow ups and analysis of results. Even if you are a novice, it would not be that difficult.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)