Author Archives: Talia

  • -

Why Outsource Social Media?

I’m hearing a repetitive theme from organisations I’m meeting with lately. It goes something along the lines of:

“We know we need to have a Social Media presence to engage our target market/s, so we went ahead, assigning the task to the staff member who was the most available, enthusiastic, knowledgeable or youthful (they must know about Social media right?)

Until the realisation some months on that their representation on Social Media has been erratic (some report weeks or even months between posts and unanswered queries from customers/followers), lacking tangible goals (so no clear ROI) and bearing little or no relation to the organisation’s business plan or brand. In addition, they have achieved very little ‘reach’, meaning they’ve practically been talking to themselves.

Here’s some things to consider before you launch your organisation into the world of Social Media:

1. Why do you want your business on Social Media? What are your objectives?

2. How will you meet those objectives – what are the best channels and methods to reach your goals/audience and what are your competitors doing in the world of Social Media?

3. How will you know if you’ve succeeded in meeting your objectives? What measurements or Key Performance Indicators will you use to show a clear return on investment?

4. What are the risks for your organisation in the Social Media arena and how will you mitigate them?

Outsourcing your organisation’s Social Media means engaging an experienced Social Media Manager who will consider all of the above and more to guide them as they represent your organisation, using Social Media current best practice as they regularly curate, create and publish content on your behalf.

A simple but effective approach, that ensures consistency with your overall business and marketing objectives and produces measurable results for your investment in Social Media Marketing.


  • 0

Five Simple Steps to Social Media Nirvana

Category : Uncategorised

I was recently honored to be asked to share some thoughts on Social Media for an organisation called Governance Matters – an Adelaide based,  recognised world leader in providing a range of consulting services in the governance domain.

There was lots to cover, so we ended up with two BLOGS! Here’s part two: 

Hi, Talia Hagon here again, to conclude our two-part social media soiree.

Okay, we’ve agreed that a social media strategy that feeds into the overarching corporate strategy is a vital component of the modern organisation. We’ve also accepted that the board must ensure that social media and the social media strategy gets the high priority it deserves if they’re to fulfill their primary role of charting a successful course for the company.

So what next? What are the most important things to consider before you launch your organisation into the dynamic world of social media?

I’d argue there are five non-negotiables.

The first is to actually take a step backwards. Stop and reflect, think about why you’ll have a social media presence and what do you expect to come out of it. With a clear understanding of your objectives, you can step forward and embark on the social media journey.

Secondly, appreciate that if you’re going to do it, you need to do it properly – and that involves extensive research into what your competitors are doing in this space. Understand what they’re doing, see what’s working for them and what’s not…and use this intelligence to create a best practice social media strategy.

This will help to ensure that you have a great feel for the tools available, their strengths and weaknesses and how you can best use them to reach your audience most effectively and efficiently. Remember, too, that your content and the tone of voice you use should reflect how your brand would sound had it a personality.

Moving onto number four – in the world of social media just as in most areas of business, what you can’t measure you can’t manage. It’s important to set clear and measurable KPIs that will provide you with regular updates on how you’re travelling against your agreed objectives and what sort of return on investment your organisation is getting.

Finally, have a detailed risk management plan that allows you to mitigate risk and outline how best to respond to future crises or potential crises.

Now it’s time for implementation – and this is where I’ve seen so many diligent organisations come unstuck. They’ve done all the groundwork, they’ve developed a cracker of a strategy and then they go and toss it all away.

They allocate it to either the youngest person in the office (they know social media, right?), or the receptionist, or perhaps the person down the corridor who’s a little ‘light on’ when it comes to workload.

Then they’re surprised and disenchanted when their social media representation is erratic. They find there are months between posts and unanswered queries; in other cases they achieve very little ‘reach’ having spent much time and energy practically talking to themselves as the person at the helm has no experience in social media for business (yes, it’s vastly different to being active on your own social media accounts!)

Treat implementation as importantly as you do all other aspects of the strategy and you’re sure to reap the enormous benefits. Give it to someone in the organisation who is social media savvy but who also understands the organisation, its values, its positioning and the overall business strategy.

Or consider outsourcing it as this removes the emotion and places it in the hands of an expert who calls on all their nous to regularly curate, create and publish content on your behalf.

Thanks Talia for your guest blog and for all the great work you do for Governance Matters. If you want to find out more about Talia follow the link to her website here.

Until next time,
Kate Costello, Managing Director,  Governance Matters

http://www.governancematters.com.au/five-simple-steps-to-social-media-nirvana/

*To read the first BLOG in this series, click here


  • 0

When it Comes to Social Media, the Greatest Risk is….

I was recently honored to be asked to share some thoughts on Social Media for an organisation called Governance Matters – an Adelaide based,  recognised world leader in providing a range of consulting services in the governance domain.

There was lots to cover, so we ended up with two BLOGS! Here’s the first for you to enjoy:

Social media – two words that excite so many but fill others with white knuckle trepidation…and as many of the latter seem to find themselves sitting around the boardroom tables of corporate Australia, Kate Costello has asked me to share my social media thoughts with you.

My name is Talia Hagon and social media is my business. It brings me into contact with countless board members and directors and a startling observation is that many don’t have an understanding of or passion for the digital world.

So in a two-part blog, I’ll explain why boards should insist on their organisations having a social media strategy and conclude with what I believe are the mandatory elements of such a strategy.

Some boards may think they don’t need to be across social media or have a social media strategy. They can see it as a risky business being out there in cyberspace and, besides, they’re doing just fine in the traditional ‘old’ world.

My response is that if you want to talk risk, the greatest risk is not having a social media strategy and presence. After all, the online landscape is evolving at a rapid rate and for boards to perform their primary function of steering the organisations they head up, they need to stay in touch with, if not ahead of, the game.

And that means staying connected with an increasingly tech-savvy customer, member and shareholder base.

Of course, the social media strategy should not be out there on its own, operating in isolation; rather it must support the overarching business objectives encapsulated in the strategy and plan and be very much a part of it.

Ultimately, it’s about ‘social care’, the new buzzword for stakeholder service via social media, and it’s a business imperative in our current world, pretty much guaranteed to become stronger and more powerful in the days, months and years ahead…all because that’s the space our customers and potential customers and other stakeholders are playing in.

But don’t just take my word for it, take the findings of the 2011 Neilsen report that found that 73 per cent of customers in Australia prefer to engage with their favourite organisation or brand via social media. Add to that the 14-million Australians on Facebook – and more than 80 per cent of them say they’ve purchased something in store after seeing online content – and that’s a whole lot of people you’re missing out on and potentially alienating if you don’t have a social media strategy and presence.

As for the hoary old argument that says having an online presence gives consumers and others a place to come to and complain, I say that people are talking about your organisation online whether you have a presence or not. And when you have a presence, you can monitor mentions, respond to concerns, utilise word of mouth marketing and even exert influence.

It’s quite simple, really. The game has changed, there has been a seismic shift in the way we do things, and organisations ignore social media at their peril.

http://www.governancematters.com.au/blog/when-it-comes-to-social-media-the-greatest-risk-is/


  • 0

B2B Social Media Marketing Report

A new report on current trends in Social Media for B2B organisations from Regalix has found that Twitter is the favoured social media platform for 93% of companies for business marketing, with LinkedIn coming a close second with 91%.

What does this mean for your business? 

Well, if you are a B2B organisation, whatever your Social Media objectives, Twitter and LinkedIn are the places to achieve them.

Here’s what the survey respondents had to say about Social Media marketing budgets:

  • 82% respondents said their organisations invest in social media marketing
  • 52% respondents say they expect their social media budget to go up in the next 12 months

If you’d like help developing a best practice Social Media Strategy, we can help. In Addition, we manage the day to day Social Media on behalf of many successful Australian and New Zealand B2B organisations. 

Get in touch to find out how we can help your organisation.

info@hagonmarketing.com

You can download the full report here 


  • 0

Which Social Media Channel/s Are Best For Your Business?

Category : Uncategorised

I’m asked regularly (and increasingly in recent months), which Social Media channel/s represent the ‘new’ and ’emerging’ channels of choice for consumers.

The release of the Australian Social Media statistics for May essentially show more of the same for the most part. In other words, putting aside the significant growth on Instagram (32% in the past year), it’s pretty much business as usual.

And that means Facebook is still the largest consumer market in Australia for Social Media Marketing, with 14 million users. Instagram (which, incidentally is owned by Facebook), currently has 5 million users.

The choice of Social Media channels for your business, however, is about more than just numbers. It’s about where your target market can most effectively and efficiently be reached and that depends on a multitude of factors.

So how do you know which Social Media channel/s are going to be the most effective for your business? Time for a few questions.

1. Are you operating a B2B or B2C organisation? Or both?

2. Who are your target market/s? Which Social Media channels are they active on?

3. What are your objectives on Social Media?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can start to understand more clearly which channel/s will work for your business.

Get in touch if you’d like our guidance on the best practice approach for Social Media and advice on how to utilise the channels that are right for you in the most effective way possible by outsourcing your Social Media Management.

In the meantime, here’s the Social Media Statistics compiled by SocialMediaNews.com.au for May 2015.

1. Facebook – 14,000,000 users (steady)
2. YouTube – 13,750,000 UAVs
3. WordPress.com – 5,800,000
4. Instagram – 5,000,000 Monthly Active Australian Users (Facebook/ Instagram data)
5. Tumblr – 4,500,000
6. LinkedIn – 3,550,000
7. Blogspot – 2,800,000
8. Twitter – 2,791,300 Active Australian Users (see calculation)
9. WhatsApp – 2,400,000 Active Australian Users (see calculation)
10. TripAdvisor – 2,100,000
11. Tinder – 1,500,000 Australian users (my estimation)
12. Yelp – 1,500,000
13. Snapchat – 1,070,000 Active Australian Users (see calculation).
14. Flickr – 660,000
15. Pinterest – 330,000
16. Reddit – 150,000
17. MySpace – 105,000
18. Google Plus – approx 60,000 monthly active Australian users (my estimation *revised*)
19. StumbleUpon – 48,000
20. Foursquare/Swarm – 25,000
21. Digg – 18,000
22. Delicious – 16,000

(All figures represent the number of Unique Australian Visitors [UAVs] to that website over the monthly period – unless otherwise stated above).