Page 108 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

» The size of the campaign: If your campaign touches lots of people, you need
a higher-end tool that can help you track the activity as well as manage
responses.

» Influencer identification: If you’re planning to focus on influencers rather
than the mass population, choose a tool that’s strongest at influencer
identification (the ability to assist you in identifying people who influence
customers about your brand). Not all tools do this equally well.

» Regulatory considerations: If you work in a highly regulated industry, you
want a tool that lets you view commentary and glean insights anonymously.
Higher- and mid-level tools have this capability.

» Dashboard functionality: Some marketers require interactive dashboards
through which they can view the conversation in real time. If you’re one of
them, be sure to look for a tool that allows for that.

Lots of free tools for brand and conversation monitoring are out there. Regardless
of the complexity of your SMM campaign and tracking needs, there’s never any
harm in beginning with the free tools. It’ll cost you only the time in setting up the
domain names. Also keep in mind that these tools are valuable to departments like
public relations and customer research, too. They may be willing to share the costs
of the tool or service with you.

Responding to Criticism

No SMM campaign is a complete success. It never is. Although you may reach many
more people than you could have ever imagined, more likely than not, you’re still
bound to upset some people and even potentially spark an inflammatory response
among a few others. From the outset, before you launch your SMM campaign, you
need to plan for the potential criticism that may come your way. There’s no perfect
way to respond, and the answer usually depends on the type of criticism, how
widespread it is, and where it is coming from. Your PR department is usually more
versed in responding to criticism (and crisis management more broadly) than any-
one else, so you should be sure to bring that department into the process early.

Regardless, here are some guidelines to keep at the back of your mind as you
launch your campaign and prepare for the criticism that may come your way:

» Respond early and often.
There’s no greater insult to people criticizing your SMM campaign than to be
ignored. Ignoring criticism results in greater anger and more vitriolic
responses that can snowball into a full-fledged crisis as the anger percolates

92 PART 2 Practicing SMM on the Social Web