Recent Report Details 15 Best Practices of Top 100 Brands

I’m often asked by CEOs and business owners about the business benefits of Twitter. Clearly they see my enthusiasm for it, but remain skeptical about what it can do for their business. The best response I’ve found that sums up my points beautifully is written by Jeff Bullas on his blog, and I’ll quote him here:
“And now this report from Engagementdb.com , evaluates how well they are engaging their consumers using social media and how that engagement correlates with their most important financial metrics: revenue and profit.”
Here’s a summary of the findings of that report:
4 Key Observations

• As the number of channels increase, overall engagement increases at a faster rate. Brands that were in seven or more channels engaged deeply across all channels where they were present, as compared to brands that were present in fewer channels. There is an exponential growth in the depth of engagement as the brand extends itself into more and more channels.
• Engagement differs by industry. Not only are some industries on average present in more channels, they also engage with them more deeply. For example, media and technology companies tend to be in more channels and engage deeply within them than,…. apparel, consumer products, food & beverage, and financial brands  which is to be expected given that companies in these industries are just beginning to experiment with social media.
• Financial performance correlates with engagement. Back to the million-dollar question: Why do social media? Because it pays off. While no one yet has the data to determine direct cause and effect, what is found is a financial correlation between those who are deeply engaged and those who outperform their peers
• It Provides ” Multiple Communication Touch Points” More touch points can present a ripple effect, inducing viral marketing, boosting brand recognition and driving sales volume. Simply it means that different people prefer different types of communication, so the more types of communication, you as a company are enaging in, the more chance you have of creating a broader and deeper reach in the market place.

15 Best Practices of Social Media Implemented by the Top 100 Brands

1. Deputize people throughout the organization.
2. Understand how each channel provides a different dimension of engagement
3. Centralize coordination
4. Find champions who can explain and mitigate risk.
5. Be in it for the long haul
6. Pick channels carefully.
7. Spread engagement to employees beyond the social media team.
8. Open the platform to anyone and everyone.Encourage employees to tap into social media to get work done
9. Engage in new channels where people already are
10. Support engagement as an extension of the company culture. Be conversational from the start.
11. Be conversational from the start.
12. Make social media part of the job, just like email
13. Modularize and synchronize content across channels
14. To scale engagement, make social media part of everyone’s job.
15. Emphasize quality, not just quantity.

And, on her blog, Nora Oberle adds these take-aways from the same report:

How is it possible to quantify the worth of Social Media?

Instead of blindly hopping on the bandwagon, it is crucial for companies to define what success in the Social Media scene even looks like. Engagementdb finds that it actually “pays to be social” (!), using only one criterion: engagement. And of course, deep engagement does not mean having only a mere presence on Twitter or Facebook.
Engagement is correlated with financial performance.
Engagement in turn  is measurable using criteria that quantify each particular social media channel. Also, the breadth and depth of the overall activities.

Which levels of engagement are linked with best financial performance?

There is no direct proof of cause and effect yet. But still: Being social pays off.
Mavens: Companies that are both widely and deeply engaged cut ahead of their competitors in terms of revenue and margin growth- despite the current economic situation.
Butterflies: Companies with a wide variety of social media activities but a lack of depth in each of these channels have significantly stronger revenue returns than competitors.  Maybe this is because more touch points with lower engagement  still means a gain for brand recognition, which in the end is financially beneficial.
Selectives: On the other hand, deep engagement in only a few channels brings notably higher gross and net margins.

Essentials of the best practices: What can we learn from Starbucks, Toyota, SAP and Dell?

How can you be single-minded in different facets?
Starbucks understood that each social media channel has got a specific value proposition. So, they developed different facets of their relationships.
Starbucks on Facebook: Mix of content from Starbucks and customers sharing their enthusiasm. Starbucks is not only talking to the 3,5 million fans on Facebook, but they can also talk about their love for the product.