Powerful Tool for Marketing PRocial media

At the same time, however, social media creates enormous challenges. From the
conversations that are simultaneously taking place on an expanding number of
social channels, news sites and blogs, you need to be able to filter out the terabytes of unwanted chatter to identify the conversations and information that matter to you.

Further complicating things is that in addition to having to analyze the conversations
from journalists and analysts—those who traditionally dominated and controlled the B2B conversations—you now have to consider a variety of other social media users who have
strong influence, such as HR and other B2B decision makers, recruiters, consultants,
speakers and solution providers.

By being aware of and monitoring all the online conversations—from both traditional
outlets and emerging social channels—marketers can better target their news, grow
their social footprint and online visibility, make better pitches and better business
decisions and choose better and more timely topics for their white papers, webcasts
and blog posts.

Social monitoring software has been developed to help monitor these conversations,
measure a brand’s online sentiment and track keyword mentions by listening to the 140
characters in a tweet or to Facebook updates and, in some cases, blog posts. A deeper
level of analysis affords numerous opportunities for marketing and PR professionals,from being able to spot trending topics, the people who are most influencing these topics, the most popular or shared content on these topics and getting insights into the topics most discussed by individual influencers or groups of influencers relevant to your
product category.

Social Listening and Engagement software allows you also to analyze the broader and
deeper conversations taking place online beyond just social networks, the context ofthese discussions, the types of people participating in these conversations and their level of engagement for a specific topic.

How does one use Social Listening and Engagement software and the information it
provides to deliver measurable improvements to their marketing and public relations?
That is the focus of this paper.

This paper will show you some of the things you can do with Social Listening and
Engagement software, give instruction on how to use it and provide real-world success
stories on how this scientific approach to PR and marketing can generate quick results.
Think of how valuable it would be
if there was a better way to secure interest in and placements of your “news,” or if you
could increase the number of people interested in this news.
It’s possible to do both—thanks to the “social” Internet—by doing your marketing and
PR more like a scientist than a “spray and pray” angler.What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There:
How Social Has Disrupted Marketing and PR

“You want (marketers) to come in with lab coats on,” Tincup said.
Many marketers and PR pros, however, act more like anglers than scientists. They use
their lure or bait—the news or press release—and cast it about the same, familiar pond
for whatever fish might bite.

The first problem with this approach is it’s untargeted. The second problem is that
many others have lines in the water, so it is difficult to reel a fish in, that is, get an
article placement, interview or other form of engagement. And with the number of
journalists declining every year, it is only getting more challenging.
With all the competition, any advantage is significant. Think of how valuable it would be
if there was a better way to secure interest in and placements of your “news,” or if you
could increase the number of people interested in this news.

It’s possible to do both—thanks to the “social” Internet—by doing your marketing and
PR more like a scientist than a “spray and pray” angler.
By “listening” to online news
stories, blogs, Tweets, LinkedIn
shares, Facebook updates and
other social discussions, you can
be more targeted in whom you
present your news to.Marketing, Media Relations And PR In A Social World
How does one properly identify the right audiences to engage with?

There are four basic things you need to do:
1. Find the journalists, analysts and social voices who have recently written or shared
content on the topic(s) relevant to your news.
2. Share their content with your social media networks. And share your content and
news with them (and give some context as to why you are sharing the information).
3. Comment on their blogs and news stories that relate to your news. Do so in a nonpromotional
manner while referencing and/or linking to your content.
4. Connect with (LinkedIn) and/or follow (Twitter) them, thus expanding your network
and social footprint.
But how do you find the right people that are authoring and curating content on the
topics important to you, at the time you have news to share on these topics?
Traditional techniques—such as sending press releases to a list of contacts and checking
for story opportunities on EdCals and services like ProfNet and Help A Reporter Out
(HARO)—still have their place but aren’t enough in a social world. Blogs, Tweets,
Facebook updates, LinkedIn shares and other online social activity open up a new era
of opportunity for B2B marketers and PR pros. Those companies that combine a social
media strategy with traditional outreach techniques will have an advantage over thoseListen. Discover. Engage.
Just as scientists benefit from the latest tools and technologies, so can marketers and
PR pros. There are a variety of social monitoring software options that monitor the
conversations from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs.

But even that’s not enough.
You also want to monitor news stories from media outlets, and the articles/content
referenced on social media—e.g., the content linked to, often using a shortened URL,
from tweets and Facebook and LinkedIn updates. The 140 characters in a tweet may
have no relevance to the topic of interest to you, but may link to content that does. For
example, how often do you see tweets whose entirety is something like, “You have to
read this!” followed by a link. If that link is to your company or related to your topic or
news, you want to know about it and the person tweeting about it, who may be a
great target.

Software that gives you the power to do all of this—Social Listening
and Engagement software—allows you to approach your PR and
marketing like a scientist. We earlier wrote that many PR pros and
marketers take an approach like anglers, casting a line about a
pond hoping to get a bite. But some anglers have benefited
from being scientific, using the introduction of the electronic
fish finder to target fish.

Social Listening and Engagement software
is a similar tool but even more powerful, for it not only tells you the
targets’ location and job function (journalist, analyst, consultant,
HR professional, solution provider, etc.), but also what bait (topics)
they are biting (writing and conversing about).
A

relevant to the existing conversation.
“The study reinforces what most
journalists and marketers have known
intuitively for some time now: that
piggybacking on the trending ideas that
constitute ‘the conversation’ online
maximizes the ability to spread tweetsized
ideas,” says author Jared Keller.
Source:

With a simple topic search, you can get a list of the
people who are writing and/or talking online about a
given topic so you can connect with them to share
your news or make appropriate outreaches, thus
improving both the quantity and the quality of
your audience.

You also can view trending data that shows what topics
are hot. Knowing what is trending will allow you to tailor
your content and SEO strategies to those topics. You can
choose more timely and relevant subjects for your white
papers, webcasts and blog posts, and watch them be more successful and impactful as
a result. And when the content is ready to publish, you will know which influencers to
share it with.

Equally important, you can join the right conversations in order to grow
your company’s social footprint and online visibility. By using Social Listening and
Engagement software, you can discover what “existing” conversations are trending within
the most influential “voices” in your industry, allowing you to quickly join
these conversations.

The software allows marketers to take this a step further and analyze what’s trending
in their own custom networks—say, for example, sales prospects or a certain
geography—in order to be more selective and strategic in what conversations to join.How to use Social Listening and Engagement Software
We’ve discussed what Social Listening and Engagement software is and what it
can do. But how, specifically, should one use it? Let’s examine this using SocialEars
HR edition, which is Social Listening and Engagement Software for the human
resources marketplace.

Use can be broken into two categories: (1) routine use, which is use not related to any
specific news you are trying to publicize, and (2) news-dependent use, which is when
you have specific news, an event or other information to release or promote.
For routine use, we recommend setting aside an hour or two every week. The goals
here are to stay up-to-date with the news and social conversations taking place in
your market; to participate in the social conversations, thereby expanding your online
visibility; and to add to your network. Here are the steps you should take:
Routine Use: An hour or two per week

1. Search for three or four specific topics that apply to your business. For example,
marketers and PR pros for an employee background screening company might
search for “background screening,” “background checks” and “employee privacy.”
The results will return articles, blog posts, tweets, retweets, Facebook posts
and other online conversations, sourced to journalists, analysts and social voices.
Examine the results and select the ones that are most relevant. Read the applicable
articles and blog posts and comment on them – keep it non-promotional! Retweet
them. Reference them in a blog post. Connect with the authors on LinkedIn or follow
them on Twitter.

View a “What’s Trending?” tag cloud for your industry (or for a custom network
of influencers important to you) to see if any topics applicable to your business are
trending up. If any are, it’s a good time to write or publicize content related to those
topics. When publishing this content, share it with the people currently talking about
it (see step 1).
3. Check the trending hashtags. Click those that are applicable to your business
and see the latest tweets using those hashtags. Many tweets feature links to more
valuable content to read, and you can choose to communicate with the authors via
Twitter or email.
For news-dependent use, you take advantage of some of the same tools, but in different
ways because you have a different goal. The following are the steps we recommend.
Use Social Listening and Engagement Software to focus past the noise of the expanding
universe of social media to the galaxies important to yourNews-Dependent Use:
When you have news, an event or other information to promote

1. Identify the primary topics discussed in your content (blog, white paper, news
announcement) and search those topics to find people to connect with
and share your content with. You can also find the most popular content being shared on these
respective topics—this can help you research and write your own content, and thereby develop thought leadership.
2. Check the trending hashtags to find more people to share your news with. Then use these hashtags when
 tweeting your news.

3. Use the “What’s Trending?” information to see if there are any trending topics to
incorporate into your content that can expand the interest of your content and make
it relevant to more influencers. Remember, piggyback on what’s hot.

4. Put your content into SocialEars’ Content Analyzersm to discover other keyword
topics that you might want to include in your release. The patent-pending Content
Analyzer looks at the trending topic phrases used in your content (e.g., mobile
recruiting, open enrollment, etc.) and points you to the people currently writing
about those topics, then examines their content to see what other terms this content
includes that you did not include in your content (e.g., employee privacy, social
screening, etc.). You can then tailor your content and SEO strategies to these newly
discovered keyword topics and share your content with the people writing about
those topics.

Remember, piggyback on
what’s hot.How to Learn More
We have discussed many uses of Social Listening and Engagement software in this
article, but there are many other ways this technology can benefit B2B marketers and
PR pros and their clients.

SocialEars is a radically different approach to social listening and engagement software
that helps you focus past the noise of the expanding universe of social media to the
galaxies you care about. Listen to the right conversations, discover the information
important to your needs, and engage with the people and influencers that matter
business.