BarnRaisers

Believe it or not, in the mid 1980′s, Harley-Davidson was facing bankruptcy.

BACKGROUND

Founded in 1917, Harley flourished during World War I as the first motorcycle to be broadly adopted for combat services.  By the 1970′s, the design had remained basically unchanged. The bikes were expensive and far inferior in performance, handling, and quality to Japanese motorcycles.  The brand name was mocked as “Hardly Able.”

SOLUTION

As the Harvard Business Review tells it, after examining every aspect of their business, “Harley management recognized the brand had developed as a ‘community-based phenomenon.’  The ‘brotherhood’ of riders, united by a shared ethos, offered Harley the basis for a strategic repositioning as the one motorcycle manufacturer that understood bikers on their own terms.”

Harley’s execs, required to spend time in the field with customers, were charged with bringing insights back to the firm.  What did they discover after looking at everything?  The company’s most valuable asset was its customers.

On the brink of bankruptcy, the company fundamentally changed the way it did business to:

• Show customer appreciation instead of hard selling
• Speak to shared interests before product benefits
• Bring advocates together and let them help build new relationships

TODAY

That change in doing business turned around Harley from a bankrupt company to a leadership brand.  Today, there’s probably no better example of a brand defined by customer loyalty, advocacy and community than Harley.

One living testament viewable online is a brand community called HDTalking.  Here, Harley owners share pictures, their vacations, jokes and where to get hard to find parts.  It’s not only a community but a marketplace where customers buy, sell and customize Harleys with other Harley enthusiasts. Plus, there are at least 7 Harley mechanics online at all times.

There are over 36,500 advocates in this Harley community and it grows at a rate of 40%+ a year.  But it isn’t put up by the company.  It is built entirely by Harley loyalists and maintained entirely with user-generated content.  They even welcome every new member by name, including their newest, SpyDer Monkey.

The brand community is a negligible marketing expense and a major source of business vitality.  Imagine the return on investment and the annuity to the brand every year.

LESSONS LEARNED

In the early 2000′s, with their landmark study on brand communities, Thomas O’Guinn and Alfred Muniz concluded it’s part of our DNA as human beings to share our brand experiences with others, especially if they’re favorable.  Maybe that’s why 4 out of 5 people write positive reviews online (source: Groundswell) and communities like HDTalking demonstrate this principle of human behavior.

Below is a brand video that show the shared ethos of the Harley community maybe better than word can.  It’s done by another brand doing business with them.

How well do you know your advocates and are you showing appreciation for what they can do for your brand?

Social Media Examiner in their 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report says the #1 question people ask is “How do I measure social media return on investment?”

Business measurements abound in social media to determine return on investment and they’re worth considering since only 18% of traditional advertising campaigns ever generate a positive ROI (source: Nielsen).

I asked friend and colleague, David Berkowitz, Senior Director of Emerging Media and Innovation at 360i and blogger at Inside the Marketer’s Studio if I could re-post his blog, “100 ways to measure social media.” This post contains enough measurements to prove to even the most discerning examiners, measurements for social media ROI are there.

David published this post 9 months ago but it’s just as relevant today, maybe even more, because:

• It’s the topic most people are interested in
• Social media interest and usaage continues to accelerate – see Google  Trends graph below
• Great blogs stand the test of time
• When first published, this blog inspired me to start blogging

In fact, with 100 measurements, maybe the question really isn’t  ”How do I measure social media return on investment?”  But is: “What is your business strategy to prove ROI by its most relevant measurements.”

Many thanks to David.  At the end, there’s a presentation of “100 ways…” you can download but there won’t be a test – not interested in grades, just results.

________________________________________________________________________________________

100 Ways to Measure Social Media

By David Berkowitz

If there’s anyone out there left who says you can’t measure social media, here are a hundred answers.

At most of the events I’ve been to lately, measurement continues to be a hot topic. The first question that comes up is, “What can I measure?” That’s where this cheat sheet can come in handy: a list of 100 thought-starters.

Some entries here can be interpreted several ways. Depending on how you define them, some of these metrics may seem redundant, while others may seem so broad that they can be broken out further. Many of these can be combined with each other to create new metrics that can then be tracked over time. It’s a start, though, so dive in and consider which ones may apply to programs you’re working on.

1.     Volume of consumer-created buzz for a brand based on number of posts

2.     Amount of buzz based on number of impressions

3.     Shift in buzz over time

4.     Buzz by time of day / daypart

5.     Seasonality of buzz

6.     Competitive buzz

7.     Buzz by category / topic

8.     Buzz by social channel (forums, social networks, blogs, Twitter, etc)

9.     Buzz by stage in purchase funnel (e.g., researching vs. completing transaction vs. post-purchase)

10.  Asset popularity (e.g., if several videos are available to embed, which is used more)

11.  Mainstream media mentions

12.  Fans

13.  Followers

14.  Friends

15.  Growth rate of fans, followers, and friends

16.  Rate of virality / pass-along

17.  Change in virality rates over time

18.  Second-degree reach (connections to fans, followers, and friends exposed – by people or impressions)

19.  Embeds / Installs

20.  Downloads

21.  Uploads

22.  User-initiated views (e.g., for videos)

23.  Ratio of embeds or favoriting to views

24.  Likes / favorites

25.  Comments

26.  Ratings

27.  Social bookmarks

28.  Subscriptions (RSS, podcasts, video series)

29.  Pageviews (for blogs, microsites, etc)

30.  Effective CPM based on spend per impressions received

31.  Change in search engine rankings for the site linked to through social media

32.  Change in search engine share of voice for all social sites promoting the brand

33.  Increase in searches due to social activity

34.  Percentage of buzz containing links

35.  Links ranked by influence of publishers

36.  Percentage of buzz containing multimedia (images, video, audio)

37.  Share of voice on social sites when running earned and paid media in same environment

38.  Influence of consumers reached

39.  Influence of publishers reached (e.g., blogs)

40.  Influence of brands participating in social channels

41.  Demographics of target audience engaged with social channels

42.  Demographics of audience reached through social media

43.  Social media habits/interests of target audience

44.  Geography of participating consumers

45.  Sentiment by volume of posts

46.  Sentiment by volume of impressions

47.  Shift in sentiment before, during, and after social marketing programs

48.  Languages spoken by participating consumers

49.  Time spent with distributed content

50.  Time spent on site through social media referrals

51.  Method of content discovery (search, pass-along, discovery engines, etc)

52.  Clicks

53.  Percentage of traffic generated from earned media

54.  View-throughs

55.  Number of interactions

56.  Interaction/engagement rate

57.  Frequency of social interactions per consumer

58.  Percentage of videos viewed

59.  Polls taken / votes received

60.  Brand association

61.  Purchase consideration

62.  Number of user-generated submissions received

63.  Exposures of virtual gifts

64.  Number of virtual gifts given

65.  Relative popularity of content

66.  Tags added

67.  Attributes of tags (e.g., how well they match the brand’s perception of itself)

68.  Registrations from third-party social logins (e.g., Facebook Connect, Twitter OAuth)

69.  Registrations by channel (e.g., Web, desktop application, mobile application, SMS, etc)

70.  Contest entries

71.  Number of chat room participants

72.  Wiki contributors

73.  Impact of offline marketing/events on social marketing programs or buzz

74.  User-generated content created that can be used by the marketer in other channels

75.  Customers assisted

76.  Savings per customer assisted through direct social media interactions compared to other channels (e.g., call centers, in-store)

77.  Savings generated by enabling customers to connect with each other

78.  Impact on first contact resolution (FCR) (hat tip to Forrester Research for that one)

79.  Customer satisfaction

80.  Volume of customer feedback generated

81.  Research & development time saved based on feedback from social media

82.  Suggestions implemented from social feedback

83.  Costs saved from not spending on traditional research

84.  Impact on online sales

85.  Impact on offline sales

86.  Discount redemption rate

87.  Impact on other offline behavior (e.g., TV tune-in)

88.  Leads generated

89.  Products sampled

90.  Visits to store locator pages

91.  Conversion change due to user ratings, reviews

92.  Rate of customer/visitor retention

93.  Impact on customer lifetime value

94.  Customer acquisition / retention costs through social media

95.  Change in market share

96.  Earned media’s impact on results from paid media

97.  Responses to socially posted events

98.  Attendance generated at in-person events

99.  Employees reached (for internal programs)

100.  Job applications received

There you go. I welcome other entries in the comments. It’s also just the start of the answer to the broader question: “How do I measure it?” Ultimately, you need to start with figuring out your business objectives and then apply these metrics accordingly.

Some say social media is a lot like high school.  People follow the popular kids.

But most of us never were or will be ”most likely” to…succeed, funniest or best looking.  The popular kids represent a small segment in high school.

According to new data from eMarketer, there’s a greater asset available; trust and it has little to do with being popular.

This eMarketer data comes from Scott Monty, Global, Digital and Multi-Communications Manager at Ford.  Scott is one of the most trusted, “go-to” social media voices in corporate America.  He writes a great blog, The Social Media Marketing Blog.  I go to this blog because I trust Scott.

And the same applies to businesses and brands.  If you’re not #1, #2 or #3 in your category and are being outshouted, you can gain a stronger competitive advantage.

Here’s what the data says about trust and social media:

1. PEOPLE LIKE TO DO BUSINESS WITH PEOPLE THEY KNOW.  And who they know is who they trust.  That’s why social outposts with the most content and expression give people the chance to learn more about, know and trust you.  Whether it’s people or companies, blogs generate the most trusted information source, followed by Facebook then Twitter.

2. TRUST CAN’T BE BUILT BY POPULARITY; IT BUILDS BY BEING GENUINE.  It isn’t how many fans or followers you have; it’s how open, engaging and responsive you are with every connection.  So, unlike high school, you don’t have to worry about being outgoing and extroverted; you do have to listen, engage and be timely about it.

3. TRUST IS CURRENCY FOR AWARENESS THAT CAN’T BE BOUGHT.  Social media is different from traditional media where impressions, reach and awareness are a function of spending.  Social media is available to anyone, but only if you jump in, keep at it and show you care do you secure trust and awareness, the kind you can’t buy.

Good research tells a story.  This story here is social media is more egalitarian than high school.  Everyone gets the chance, every time they put themselves out there, to be trusted.  Anything stopping you?

Thanks to eMarketer and Scott for bringing this to our attention.

The Tweet (and Re-Tweet) I received most this week originated from Sunday’s #blogchat on Twitter with Mack Collier and his guest, Chris Brogan.  In this #blogchat, there were over 4000 tweets from 800 contributors to 1 Twitter site in 1 hour.  It was a speed that would make Evelyn Wood dizzy.

The Tweet/Re-Tweet was: “93% of people opt into msgs via email versus 19% in FB and 5% in Twitter (I might be wrong on FB but it’s less than 30%).” In a related tweet, e-mail was referred to as the “#1 social network.”

Touche e-mail marketing.  Too bad social media.  If you thought social media was a threat to e-mails, think again because:

• The gap is huge
• E-mail marketing is a 1-to-1 relationship vehicle; social media is 1-to-many
• The opt-in numbers suggest subsequent actions such as requests for more information, conversion and, of course, sales will be much, much greater with e-mail than social media

But, is this a competition or a collaboration?  Another perspective is it’s a sign of progress because:

• E-mail and social media are now part of the same relationship marketing consideration set
• One builds off the other. E-mail often works off a list of known customers and prospects; social media adds incremental outreach, new leads and brings out advocates
• Duplication adds frequency, essential to getting someone to take action
• Opt-in progress of social media is encouraging considering its relative newness as a marketing channel
• Using both is going to give reach and impact a boost

According to comScore, Facebook now draws 145 million unique visitors monthly and Twitter gets 24 million uniques per month; 29% who use the service for retail purposes.  So, even though the opt-in percentages are much smaller, the reach potential is substantial.

Since people took an interest in this issue, do you have a particular opinion?  Do these numbers surprise you?  Do they cause you to choose one over the other or show the value of integration?

If you don’t know about #blogchat, it’s about the best hour you could spend on a Sunday evening.  It’s at 9 pm EST on Twitter at #blogchat.  And Mack does a great job, both as host and giving great value to his audience.  If you don’t know about Tweet Chats, they’re a great source of learning, networking and are usually good fun.  Here’s a brief definition.

The meaning of this well-known maxim is clear: Some extra planning time upfront avoids a lot of uplanned time undoing and redoing mistakes.

The application to the internet is especially relevant, because once something is out there, it stays there, even if you abandon it, and time commitments to social media are very real.

With many available resources, there’s never been a better time to take this counsel to heart.  Here’s the “Measure Twice, Cut Once” Guide to Social Media with the available tools for those looking to build.

• CONTENT REALLY IS KING:  This may sound like a cliche but, if you can’t start with a passion to tell your story (or your business’s or brand’s) and convince your audience (with the content you bring) you do it better than anyone else, think again about starting.
• LISTEN:  Identify the topics, key words and phrases you’re going to talk about.  Investigate who uses them and how.  Learn from your colleagues and competitors.  There are many available tools.  Starting at 30,000 feet, there’s Google Trends.  Then, be notified daily of news with Google Alerts on primary keywords.  If you want to go where people say the most, which is usually blogs and consumer reviews, some great blog search engines are: 1. Google Blogsearch, 2. Technorati, and 3. Alltop. From there, social networks searches at Twitter Search and Facebook Search are good resources.  In addition to social media, it’s also valuable to see how these keywords and phrases rank with the online tools available for Search Engine Optimization but we’ll save that topic for another blog. 
• CONNECT: Look for the conversations (quantity and quality).  Determine where you will find others who share your interests and values.  For example, we recently did some listening for a company that makes women’s over-the-counter contraceptives.  We found the phrase, “birth control,” to be a magnet on blogs for passionate discussions with women looking for information on choices and product options.  But, we found on Facebook, this same phrase revealed groups that were cheap dating services with questionable content.  Same keywords.  Where would you want to place your client’s business?.
• BUILD:  Create your social media presence.  My advice is to be grounded in a blog because it’s where most of your content comes from, most of your measurement are and benefits to your business are big.  Start with an  ”open source” blogging platforms; one with a great selection of templates, design and custom features.  My favorite is WordPress, which Google owes.  They also have many plug-ins, widgets and the functionality and updates are advanced.  Regardless of the platform, the benefits of blogging are:  97% of businesses that blog have higher search rankings; 55% drive more visitors to their web site and 44% report increased revenues due to their blog.  Connect your social networks to your blog.  Customize background for social networks wherever possible.  Twitter has a helpful feature called Twitter Themeleon.
• BUILD-IN MEASUREMENTS AND ANALYTICS:  Equip your blog/website with Google Analytics.  Equip your blogposts with Social Network widgets and plug-ins to allow for Sharing and Re-Tweeting.  Use Short Links for your blogposts to publish on social networks for outreach.  Add a social network sharing feature like Add This so other can share with their networks. The combination of these tools allows you to measure: 1) Who’s coming to your site, 2) where they’re coming from, 3) how long they’re staying, 4) what they doing while they’re there, 5) where they go after they leave and 6) how many share your information with their friends/networks.  That’s more information than store owners know from customers who walk through their doors. 
• RECOGNIZE OTHERS (MORE OFTEN THAN YOURSELF):  A paradox of social media is, by recognizing the work of your peers (and sometime competitors), you draw greater attention to yourself.   Comment on the blogs of others, Share and Re-Tweet their work with some brief words on why it’s valuable to you.  Put a Blogroll on your blog to show where you go.  This step is relatively easy to do but it is also easy to forget to do, regularly.  
• MAKE IMPROVEMENTS:  Learn and put the learning to use.  Examine what your readers want, what builds audience involvement and what drives further engagement.  For example, I have one blog on this page with over 90 comments.  Another with 0.  I thought they offered equal value in writing them but, obviously, readers told be different.  That doesn’t mean I won’t write about what is meaningful to me but I have to understand the balance of what readers want and why.

I know many people reading this blog may use many of these tools, if not all and more.  But I thought it was worth putting down because I didn’t know about them when I started.  People like Chris Brogan, Amber Nusland, Jason Falls, Mack Collier, Mike Volpe at Hubspot and Mike Stelzner at Social Media Examiner helped me “Measure Twice, Cut Once.”

Social media promotes a culture of sharing so a refresher is worthwhile, occasionally, to help guide others.  Can you think of others tools or advice worth considering that has helped you “Measure Twice, Cut Once?”

Social media is different from other forms of marketing because it’s a conversation, not a monologue.

Just tell someone to “Buy This Now” and see what happens.  It doesn’t work.  That’s because there has to a dialogue; one that is founded on mutual respect and trust.

The first order of business and branding is to establish your voice.   It’s not what you need to make someone do; it’s how you have to be.  Here are 12 Be’s for your blog and social media brand.

1. Be helpful
2. Be willing to ask for help
3. Be an effective teacher
4. Be willing to share
5. Be able to ask others to share in return
6. Be a good listener
7. Be inspiring
8. Be able to express a point of view convincingly
9. Be able to respect and show appreciation for those who don’t agree with you
10. Be able to give and not worry about what you get
11. Be able to express uncertainty when you are
12. Be yourself

The list and your voice is as long and as true as your authentic qualities.

Do you have any ”Be’s” you recommend in establishing the social voice for your brand?

Social media/PR maven and friend, Sarah Evans, let me know Armani paid Kim Kardashian $25K for 1 Tweet.  It drove 40,000 people to the Armani website in less than 24 hours.  Is she worth it?  I had some questions considering:

1. The amount of money for so little work
2. Kim may have more curves than a ski slalom course but she doesn’t have a real talent
3. The rest of us who tweet, blog and use social media to try to provide something of value don’t make anywhere near $25K for our tweets

Michael Corleone said in The Godfather, “It’s not personal, Sonny; it’s strictly business.” Maybe it is worth it when you consider:

1. Kim has 4,202,855 Twitter followers
2. 40,000 visitors to a website in less than 24 hours is a big response; it’s a better response rate than most other media channels and definitely quicker
3. Armani paid 59 cents per 1,000 followers, a very attractive price by media standards
4. 90% of all purchase decisions begin online and 75% are looking for a personal recommendation
5. The connection between the brand and the personality is strong

As Kim’s case demonstrates, you see results almost instantly.  It’s quantifiable and accountable.  My guess is to Armani it is worth it and we’ll see more endorsement tweets from celebrities.

But maybe there is something we can do to also advance positive values.

Right now, there are millions of people just getting started with social media who aren’t Kim Kardashian.  They are trying to find their voice, start a business and establish a reputation.  Maybe they’ve just written their first blog, started attracting a Twitter following and established relationships with experts in their field and potential customers.

We can help, offer encouragement and tell our followers about people to watch.  I read blogs regularly.  Today, I read a great 1st blog post from Jonathan Kay, entitled  The 3 Most Common Mistakes When Growing an Idea into a Business.  He’s really good and I look forward to more blogposts from him.  You should read what he has to say.

Maybe you already do this but by giving a little recognition to one person per week who is starting out and doing interesting things, we help raise the human value of social media.  Since social media has been so good to Kim, I’ve reached out to @KimKardashian for her help too.

Do you think Kim Kardashian is worth $25K a tweet?

You can’t swing a cat these days without hitting someone talking about the Old Spice commercials featuring the dashing, shirtless former NFL wide receiver, Isiah Mustafa.  The commercial, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” has been viewed on YouTube 15,535,845 times.  It proves the viewership potential for advertisers with social media and, most important, shows Old Spice’s connectedness and relevance to its target audience.

It also reminds me of the social media campaign for Blendtec blenders, featuring the cloaked CEO and everyman, Tom Dickson.  The commercials, “iPhone” and “iPad,” have been viewed roughly 8,000,000 times each.  Blendtec achieved a 500-to-1 ROI from this effort.

Developed so consumers watch and like so much they put on social networks for others to watch, these social media commercials are generating reach that rivals paid mass media.  You might think, based on this criteria, it’s better quality reach too.  If for some reason you’ve been living under a digital rock, you can view them at the bottom of this blog.

I don’t want to suggest rules or a formula to great creative but I can’t help but notice some similarities between these two campaigns.  Here are 5 best practices of social media commercials:

1. REINVENT THE RULES: Both begin as “talking head” commercials, the oldest and most basic commercial form, but then take this “tried and true” approach and turn it into something you’ve never seen before.
2. LIVE COMFORTABLY OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE:  Both presenters seem right at home and willing to take risks in situations that would cause much embarrassment to most of us.
3. GIVE A NOD TO TECHNOLOGY: Early Blendec commercials blended broom handles and golf balls.  But, when they started blending iPhone and iPads, viewership took off to the mega-millions.  For Old Spice, references to social networks and Tweets from Alyssa Milano have helped the interest and pass-along value spiral upward and upward.
4. CREATE LEGS TO THE IDEA, IMMEDIATELY:  Both benefit from multiple executions right off the bat making us appreciate the breath and commitment to the idea and looking forward to what comes next.
5. ENTERTAIN AS YOU SELL:   When consumers choose to look for you instead of you chasing them, there’s a new value exchange. 

I don’t know about you but I look forward to many more social media commercials.  I would think advertisers would too.  Do you see similarities between these efforts?  Can you think of other best practices?

Before starting BarnRaisers, I worked at well-known advertising agencies.  I was fortunate to have worked on major brands, some at times of profound change, and with very talented people.  It was a lot fun for a lot of years.

A former client, Brian Perkins, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at J&J, said at Cannes this year, ”holding companies for ad agencies should consider taking themselves private.  Advertising is a labor-intensive, not capital-intensive, business and it’s inevitable digital agencies are going to gravitate toward brand stewardship.”

You may or may not agree, but Brian’s comments indicate a shift is taking place.  To help explain why, here are 7 reasons social media agencies are like ad agencies and 8 reasons they’re not.

7 REASONS THEY ARE

1. Both have to demonstrate a deep understanding of consumer attitudes and buying behaviors
2. Both have to find insights into unmet consumer needs
3. Both have to know how to create and build brands
4. Both have to be able to take the brand idea and translate it across all media platforms
5. Both have to be on top of media usage and trends
6. Both have to find unique tactics and executions that accelerate sales and have people talking
7. Both are accountable for results, return on investment and sustainable sales growth

8 REASONS THEY’RE NOT

1. Ad agencies communicate through a monologue.  Social media agencies through a conversation
2. Ad agencies work with product benefits.  Social media agencies with shared interests
3. Ad agencies target heavy users of brands who they encourage to buy more.  Social media agencies find advocates who they encourage to spread the word
4. Only 14% of people trust advertising.  80% of people trust the recommendations of other people
5. Ad agencies use multiple mediums and are ”media neutral.”  Social media agencies work mostly on the internet where 90% of all purchase decisions begin.
6. Ad agencies are labor intensive.  Social media agencies are even more labor intensive because, once the campaign is launched, the work has just begun (e.g. content refreshment, community management, measurements and analytics).
7. Only 18% of ad campaigns ever generate a positive ROI.  While people kick the tires on the ROI of social media, brands, like Blendtec blenders, have proven an ROI of 500-to-1 with much less investment.
8. Ad agencies tend to be secretive about their “proprietary” and “trademarked” process for creating ads.  Social media agencies tend to share their work and publish for all in places like SlideShare.

I’ve found social media promotes a culture of givers, not takers.  People like Joe Sorge, Toby Bloomberg, Tom Anderson, David Berkowitz, Kelley Connors and Mike Rogers (to name just a few) have routinely offered to help or participate in speaking engagements, workshops and presentations with no mention of “where’s my cut” or “what are you getting.”  It something that’s a little different and a whole lot more fun.

Do you have an opinion on the difference between the two?

Search Engine Optimization and Social Media are two relationships vehicles meant to work together.  We have Google to thank for making this happen and it’s a relationship built to last.

Google determined ”links” to be of primary importance for a high search ranking.  What matters to Google is who goes to your site and who goes to the sites of people who go to your site.  These links means your site has “authority” and authority means a higher ranking by Google’s standards.

Simply letting viewers know, on your website, they can follow you on Facebook, Twitter, etc. increases links.  Since Facebook and Twitter friends and followers can be substantial (130 and 129 on average), social media is important to search.  If you blog, publish frequently and readers follow, your site gains: Frequency X Links X Time spend on your site = A powerful effect on search ranking.

What this is doing is significant.  It’s changing online marketing for a monologue to a conversation.  In the old world of search, everything was focused on talking with and winning over Google.  Now, it can be balanced with talking with and winning over consumers.

For any business or brand, search and social media should support one another.  Here are 5 ways to use Search and Social Media for better results.

1. BALANCE KEYWORDS WITH CONVERSATIONS:  Keywords are the currency for search and social media but conversations around them matter.  Social media lets you listen to what people say, see how much conviction they have and understand what is their emotional involvement.  For your key keywords, do a little investigation on conversations around them.
2. LOOK AT DESTINATIONS WHERE KEYWORDS ARE FOUND:  Where keywords occur is important.  For example, we recently did a “Social Search” for a company that markets over-the-counter female contraceptives.  The keyword used most often to find contraceptives is “birth control.”  It is most  often found in blogs and communities for women like iVillage.  There, it is associated with passionate discussions around a “woman’s most fundamental right.”  ”Birth control” is also found on questionable Facebook pages that serve as cheap dating services.  Same keyword.  Same search value.  Where would you choose to begin a discussion about your brand?
3. FIND ADVOCATES AND BUILD RELATIONSHIPS:  There are online conversations happening about your business right now.  If you’re done #1 and #2, you can find advocates.  Engage.  Be human.  Show appreciation.  Build relationships.  I guarantee it’s worth the effort.
4. EXECUTE SOCIAL MEDIA “CONTENT SEEDING” WITH SEARCH “LANDING PAGES:”  In order to benefit from keywords, many companies build “landing pages” with content including important keywords.  This helps benefit from keyword searches, establishes links and avoids having to make frequent changes to website pages.  Now, social media gives an additional option.  Put these keywords in social conversations.  It adds reach and valuable connections in visible and targeted online destinations.
5. MEASURE RESULTS, LEARN AND REPEAT: Both search and social media share the same characteristics of giving real time results that are easy to modify.  For both, establish a schedule for measuring and increase what’s working and pull back on what’s not.

There are some great companies advancing the dialogue on Search and Social Media.  Some I find particularly helpful are Hubspot and SEOmoz.  They’ve taught me a lot so I hope what I can pass on helps.