Note: Photo courtesy of Michelle Killebrew (@shellkillebrew) on Twitter.

[Members of the panel, from left to right: Chris Heuer, Ally Greer, Ted Sclavos, Tim Hayden]

This week, I attended a meeting of the Social Media Club (@smcsfo), hosted at the offices of Ancestry in San Francisco. Chris Heuer (@chrisheuer) moderated a panel discussion with social media marketing experts. Here are some takeaways.

To Prove ROI, Make Small Bets (on Your Own Dime, if Needed)

When Ally Greer (@allygreer) was getting started with social media marketing at Scoop.it, she faced the typical chicken-and-egg scenario: how do you demonstrate ROI on something you haven’t yet tried?

So Ally reached into her own pocket and spent $10 on a Facebook ad. It paid dividends: she could attribute new user sign-ups to the ad. With this proof point, she went to management to ask for budget to spend on social media advertising.

Involve Influencers to Promote Your Content

Ted Sclavos (@TedSclav) shared a great example of influencer marketing. For an HP Enterprise webinar, Ted’s team activated industry influencers to promote the webinar to their followers on social media.

Related: Our Evoq product helps you activate the brand advocates already on your website.

It worked! After the webinar, Sclavos’ team compared registrations from influencer promotions to those from HP’s branded channels. The influencers scored 12x more registrations.

Software Tools Make Your Team More Efficient and Productive

Software tools (e.g. Sprinklr, Hootsuite, Zignal Labs, Radian 6, etc.) cost money, but the return on investment is proven, said the panel. “Time is money,” said Greer, who noted that a tool allowed her to trim one activity from five hours down to one.

Tim Hayden (@TheTimHayden) of Zignal Labs noted that smart agencies and brands use tools to listen and monitor at a rate that no human can match. When conversations surface about your brand, tools can gauge topic and sentiment, then send a notification to the appropriate group. “You don’t need the data analyst to be in the room at all times,” said Hayden.

Don’t Feed Negativity, Embrace It

It’s bound to happen: someone criticizes your product or company on social media. Sometimes their reason is unfounded and they simply want to stir the pot. Resist the urge to combat negativity with negativity, said Hayden.

Referencing “Hug Your Haters,” an upcoming book from Jay Baer (@jaybaer), Hayden noted that better outcomes result from embracing, then diffusing the negativity. In one scenario, Hayden was notified that a user tweeted a negative comment about Zignal Labs. The Zignal Labs software surfaced information about the tweeter, including a positive comment he tweeted in the past.

Hayden shared the prior, positive tweet, then responded to the user, “I’m in Dallas next week. Let’s grab a beer.” A potential crisis diffused.

Thanks to Golden Ashby (@goldenashby) and Kristie Wells (@kristiewells) for organizing and hosting the event.

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