Beware the Social Media ‘Cone of Silence’

Can social media suck you into believing you know everything? Absolutely.

I call this phenomenon the Social Media Cone of Silence … and it could be deadly for you and your business.

The “cone” is that space where you are so surrounded by online input that it feels like you’re on top of everything: You’re following the best blogs in your industry. You follow the smartest people on Twitter. You are involved in the deepest discussions on relevant LinkedIn groups. In a nutshell you’re so plugged in you’re the go-to person for what’s hot, what’s new and what’s over the horizon.

But this “cone” of information is a trap … and you need to see it for what it is. It has taken your attention away from some more basic information sources and can lull any business into a false sense of security.

So who are you likely ignoring (or at least not paying enough attention to)?

Sales people:What’s the word from sales? What are they hearing and seeing that you aren’t? They’re in the trenches day-in and day-out and they literally hear from customers all the time. What are they hearing? Is what they hear changing?

But don’t stop there. What do they know about competitors and how competitors are perceived in the marketplace? What opportunities are sales folks seeing? Given the chance to change one thing about your business or your product what would they suggest?

Sales people have your goals too, listen to them.

CRM specialists: Your customer relations specialists likely have obvious and not-so-obvious responsibilities. But the one thing they all have is a gut feeling about what is going on and what should be getting more attention.

Find these people throughout your organization … and look hard. For example the front-desk security guard or the delivery driver may not seem like customer relations types but they are. The handle customers every single day and because of this they know a lot of stuff that you don’t. Find them and listen to them.

Carol: This person may have another name in your organization, but in the first newsroom I worked in many years ago Carol was the secretary and receptionist. That is to say she was the smartest, most community connected person in the room. If Carol said something was a big deal the reporters and editors would always come to regret not following up on her ideas. Who are the Carols in your organization? Get to know them. Listen to them.

Can social media provide you with a lot of real-time business intelligence? Yes. But don’t forget to mix it in with a heaping helping of smarts from the real people around you. Who will you go talk to today?

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Just How Big is Social Media?
10 Commandments for Social Media

Social Media measurement

7 ways to tell how you’re doing

So how do you measure success in Social Media?

And I don’t mean by playing the game of “the new ROI or Risk of Ignoring.” No, I mean once you’ve jumped into the Social media pool how do you measure whether you’re creating waves or merely ripples?

7 Social Media Measures

1. Sales: It seems obvious, but perhaps not. If you are selling more stuff or getting more members was the increased activity after you first jumped into Social Media? Success is: Sales increasing independently of your traditional and other non-Social Media marketing efforts.

2. Opt-in e-mails: The most valuable asset any marketer or PR professional can have. These are people who want you to reach out to them. Success is: More people giving you their email addresses.

3. Time on site/Page-views per visit: It’s not enough to get people to your site, you need to keep them there. Success is: When your Web analytics show an increase in one or both of these scores.

4. Downloads: If you offer good stuff for free – White Papers, How To Guides and coupons, for example – people will come looking for you. Success is: Month over month you are getting more and more traffic to (and then downloads from your) Downloads page chances are your business is about to go crazy because people are finding you and finding value in you.

5. External links/External referring sites: If you are tracking how many sites link to you (and you should) you’ll want to see that number and the quality of those sites go up. This in turn helps with your SEO. Success is: When the number of external links builds exponentially and the referring site traffic also grows steadily.

6. Comments: This is one of the more social aspects of Social Media and whose value is often overlooked. Success is: Getting more and more people to engage on your blog or anywhere else you ask people to comment, rate or generally have an opinion.

7. Social Media metrics: By this I mean Facebook fans, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections etc. These relationships all have value. Success is: A steady growth in the numbers of followers etc across platforms and the increasing flow of messages between you and your fans.

Related Posts
10 Commandments for Social Media
5 Really Useful Sites for Social Media Newbies
10 Things To Watch Out For In Social Media
10 Social Media No-Nos
5 Steps Before Jumping Into Social Media
5 strategies to get the Boss into Social Media