3 Ways to Use Facebook Groups as a Research Tool

Reprinted from Research Access. Check out Research Access for more information on marketing intelligence.

I started in Pay-Per-Click search engine marketing (SEM) way back in 1998, a Beta advertiser on the GoTo.com network. A lot has changed in SEM in the past 12 years, much of it revolving around making the ads more relevant to the searches. The change in the world of SEM, however, has been incremental compared to the dramatic shift currently happening with Facebook advertising.

It’s worth mentioning that no small percentage of the progress in SEM can be attributed to Google AdWords Google’s former Global VP of Sales and Operations Sheryl Sandberg – the same person responsible for Facebook’s current advertising efforts.

What Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, gets is that Facebook is so much more than a way to communicate with friends online. In many ways, it’s a user lead market research experience. Sandberg says: “We believe people want to connect in real ways, be asked questions, and be engaged with brands like they are with their friends and families.” Facebook has the ability to connect key prospects and companies in authentic conversations. (For more see Sandberg on the topic at Ad Week 2009)

Currently I am working on several campaigns for an identity theft protection product line, Identity Guard from Intersections (INTX). One project is to integrate social media and acquisition efforts, and as part of that project we have set up several Facebook Groups. What we like about groups is the ability to quickly and easily test virility of messaging.

There are 3 ways we have been testing.

1. Test messaging with group names/content – We created several groups with different names focusing on different attributes of the Identity Guard products. In each group we posted content daily. After a couple weeks of running ads to attract a base line of members we were able to see which product attributes were most appealing – based on which groups people joins, stayed in, and told their friends about. We were also able to identify, through Facebook Insights, which content we posted was most popular which will inform our retention efforts.
2. Refine campaigns with Facebook Insights – Facebook Insights is a bit like Google Analytics but it really creates a more intimate connection with Group members. For instance, with insights you can track what happens to a link once it is shared. For market research what this means is every link becomes a poll which reads: “Are you interested in this content?” We’ve created new campaigns and tweaked our retention strategy based precisely on what people are reading on our Facebook group.
3. Refine SEO and content marketing campaigns with most popular content analysis – My interest in Market Research is most often of the practical variety and I’m especially interested in improving campaign ROIs. The discussion boards give you perspective on what prospects are reading and thinking about and very easy to not only search Facebook groups for keywords but to float those keywords to a target group.

The most unique thing to remember about Facebook clicks as market research – as opposed to say, clicks on your website or Google ads – is that fanning is not a one time click or a one time impression. Fans are at your disposal everyday to create ongoing and meaningful relationships. Consider treating your Facebook fans as a Beta group or as a research panel and probe them regularly.

Many businesses have developed strategies for promoting their business through Facebook but I believe the real value in Facebook is to conduct research and to better understand your targets and prospects. Dig in and let the learnings be plentiful!

About Angela Lauria – Angela Lauria has been providing strategic counsel to high tech start-ups since 1994. She’s made dozens of marketing departments and their efforts more actionable and measurable with her high octane, ROI-centric approach. She has a B.A.& M.A. in Media from The George Washington University and a PhD in Communication from The European Graduate School. She can be reached at alauria [at] nimblecricket [dot] net.

On Making an Effort

Like any busy marketing executive, I had a long list of tasks I wanted to accomplish over the weekend. I have several big projects this week – a website content rewrite, a focus group, 2 user studies, and a media buy plan – and never enough time during the work day to get them done. I had a plan to bang out a significant amount of work over the weekend to get a jump start on the week.

Competing with this plan, however, was a high school musical taking place 300 miles to the north of Washington DC in a little town called Meriden, Connecticut. My 16 year old nephew, who coincidentally happens to be one of the smartest and most insightful people I’ve ever met had a lead role in The Sound of Music.

I knew on some level whether I saw the show live or watched a video tape didn’t matter, but I was torn. In the end I hopped the last possible train (which arrived a couple towns away just 20 minutes before the final performance of the run started) and I made the show.

As someone who lives by the hand of a cost/benefit analysis, going was probably not the right decision. But as an Aunt, the answer was clear. I knew the moment he caught my eye in the audience and his eyes twinkled like they did when he was 2 years old. Most of the time, in life and marketing, we can run the numbers and make a decision; but sometimes you just have to go with your gut, make an effort, and change the scale on which you measure success.

I didn’t get a jump on the tasks of the week, but I did get a smile that will motivate me to work smarter and connect with my passion for marketing in a way writing copy never could. My nephew was living his passion on the stage, and that’s a condition that’s contagious!

What’s Innovation and Why Do I Care How it’s Diffused?

According to Everett Rogers (left), “Diffusion is the process in which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. It is a special type of communication, in that the messages are concerned with new ideas.”

According to Wikiepedia, the definition for social media is not all that different. “Social media is content designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques.”

In other words, Social Media is the channel through which new innovations are often “diffused.” In fact, social media is the PRIMARY channel if you consider Word of Mouth to be a media. I do.

Helping an organization to get others to adopt a new technology is not easy. Often resistance is encountered and people become frustrated at the speed of the process. To help organizations understand this what to expect about how an innovation (new technology) is adopted among members of a group, I follow the research and findings of the master, Everett M. Roger. Rogers life’s work is an extensive study of how new technologies are accepted among social groups.

In his book, “Diffusion of Innovations,” Rogers describes the characteristics of an innovation that makes it attractive for a group to adopt. In my life’s work I have tried to define and apply those characterists to speed adoption of new technologies for cutting edge companies in the online, mobile, and video arenas.

What I’ve learned from Everett Rogers & what I had to teach myself

When you have taken as many classes as I have, most books blur together. At one point in grad school I was “reading” a 300 page book a day. But one book that stood out for me was Everette Rogers’ , Diffusion of Innovations. In fact, Rogers work has been the basis of my career.

Rogers defines diffusion as “the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system.”  I define my job as a New Media Marketer as “the process by which communication about an innovation through certain channels speeds up the time it takes for members of a social system to try the darn thing!”

In other words, it seemed a lot easier when Rogers was talking about hybrid corn seed or birth control.

What I love about marketing innovations is the hope and opportunity associated with something new. When you are working on a new project, it’s spring every day – and with all this snow we’ve been getting in DC, spring is a welcome idea. The truth is Rogers’ work (and the work he summarized in his masterpiece) looked backwards on how new ideas caught on, but it never contemplated the internal struggles behind messaging those ideas, or marketing them.

There are no right answers in marketing new concepts. As a marketing executive with 15 years of experience marketing new products, I can tell you, NO ONE HAS THE ANSWER. To some extent it’s luck and timing that determines success.  Consider, for instance, ringtones. I worked for a company that had the rights to ringtones and they had the process for distributing ringtones. They had some money for marketing, and they hired me. Together we sold a LOT of ringtones — 5 , 10 thousand a day. Our marketing was good, but the decisions were not belabored. We cranked out as much work as fast as we could and it sold! Would it have worked without me in particular? Probably. The company was in the right place at the right time. That said, there was no doubt my efforts speed the revenue generation process along.

At another company, we gave away video. All we wanted was high-quality online publishers to distribute the video and we’d pay them. We had a brilliant marketing team, we spent hours and thousands of dollars trying to come up with the perfect message, but even though it was free and popular, it was a much harder challenge than we expected.

“Adoption,” Rogers explained “is a decision to make full use of an innovation as the best course of action available.” Marketing is the act of exerting influence of that decision.  But the fact is – marketers aren’t the only force exerting influence. Marketing is most fun for me when I can quantitatively see the effect of my efforts like steeping on the accelerator pedal. It’s not the only way for an innovation to be diffused by marketing can make it a better, faster way.

Meeting Michelle Rhee – Lessons in Leadership

In my line of work, I meet a lot of smart people. Last night, however, I met an extraordinary person, Michelle Rhee, the DC Schools Chancellor. I invited a dozen friends over to my house to join me in this “Living Room chat” with Michelle Rhee. Rhee came alone, shook hands and shared stories a little more like a parent than a politician. She was much thinner and a lot prettier than she looks in The Washington Post and on TV. Plus her shoes were fabulous (see picture for details). She did not have a big voice or a defensive posture and she made it clear she  knows there is still a lot wrong with the DC Schools.

Michelle Rhee in my Living Room

What impressed me most about the Chancellor (besides her flawless skin) was her self-belief. Now, working in start-up companies my whole career, I have met lots of confident people (some who could deliver and some who couldn’t) and I have met many people whose belief in themselves lead to some amazing accomplishments. One CEO I worked with always seemed to assume valuations he felt his ideas deserved and then just attracted funding based on that. But what I have never met, was someone with extraordinary confidence and self-belief WITHOUT delusion. Rhee was extremely practical and pragmatic in both her understanding of the problems in the DC Schools and what it would take to fix those problems; while still holding – and conveying – faith the system could be fixed. Her message to anyone who didn’t agree this school district could be turned around was, please move aside. “People can have whatever beliefs they want,” she said, “but I am not willing to give up on the 46,000 kids in my care, and I’m not willing to work with people who are.”

Frankly, as a mom, I respect that.

I learned more than I expected about the system and about how I might be able to get my son in to an “Out-of-Boundary” school in DC. But really, last night was a master class in leadership.

1. How to arrive on time by Michelle Rhee – arrive 45 minutes early and set up a mobile work station in your car a block away. Once you are in the right place, get some more work in before coming to the door.

2. How to make an entrance by Michelle Rhee – okay, first, be understated but gorgeous. Manicured nails, hot shoes, a nice but simple suit, some lipstick – it all helps. And then, enter with a purpose. She wasn’t chatty, but she wasn’t cold. Honestly, she walked into my house like it was a public building and she was ready to get to work.

3. How to win friends and influence people by Michelle Rhee. Be honest! Don’t over promise. And don’t aggrandize what you are doing. “We aren’t innovating here, we are just trying to get DC kids the BASICS  they deserve.” Extend yourself. She not only told us to email her and that she would personally respond, but she expressed her awareness that people were afraid to reach out to her, choosing instead to work the hierarchy and be frustrated in the process. By being grounded in reality but keeping a vision for a better tomorrow, she won the crowd over (and several people were not prepared to be won over.)

4. How to build a coalition by Michelle Rhee. Rhee talked about meeting with parent’s groups and listening to her student’s council, she talked about what administrators and teachers told her they wanted. It was personal for her but she wasn’t personal about what she wanted. She laughed off the press but didn’t dismiss their importance or her need to participate with them. She glowed when asked about her recent engagement but promised she wasn’t leaving. She opened up about her promise to Mayor Fenty to see this turn-around through and about her commitment to Mayor Johnson (her fiance) to make the most of a bi-coastal marriage.

The average tenure for a CMO is 18 months and for a Superintendent of Schools it’s 2 years. Neither her job or mine is an easy one, but success revolves around balancing reality with vision. I’m glad I got to spend some time with Michelle Rhee (AT MY HOUSE!!!) to learn more about how she does exactly that and I plan to put some of the lessons I learned from her into practice.

Now… here’s hoping I get my kid into a good school.

GOBOSH AppAssure 2009

I’m a Start Up Junkie. My first start up job was in 2000 when I worked at AllAdvantage.com, an online advertising network which was one of the original dot com darlings. At AllAdvantage the company motto was GOBOSH. Go Big or Stay Home. The GOBOSH mantra has stuck with me all these years. For me the purpose of work is to be part of something big and exciting and to contribute to that big, exciting thing in a measurable way.

My current start up is doing something very special with Backup and Disaster Recovery software, so special, we call it Backup 2.0. It’s really NOT your father’s backup solution! But due to some strategic changes, I will be leaving AppAssure soon.

That said 2009 was very exciting and we did GO BIG!

My team and I created 4 websites, a blog, and a social network. We created  cranked out 2000 tweets, 144 blog posts, 30 industry news wrap-up newsletters, 24 press releases, 22 case studies, 21 videos and a video channel – AppAssureTV, 6 whitepapers, 6 webinars – 3 of them as part of a program called Backup 2.0 University, and 5 chapters of a book! We also generated nearly 12,000 leads for sales with a 31% qualification rate and an 8% yield (qualified lead to close rate).

Marketing leads were responsible for 48% of license revenue and 50% of all deals. Marketing also brought in 73% of our top tier partners. And, we had a 133% return on investment.

My proudest moment came in my final days at AppAssure. We were named by Storage Magazine as one of the finalists on the Product of the Year award. It’s a tough list to make and we are in great company. I am so proud of my team and all we accomplished. Looking forward to seeing great things from AppAssure in 2010.