1. Whitepaper
LET’S TALK:
Social Media ROI
With Connie Bensen
First Priority for a Social
Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a
Social Media Monitoring
Tool
4th in the Social Media ROI Series

2. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
Executive Summary:
As marketers we assume a number of things. We have our methodologies for brand building, public relations and advertising. We believe
that we know our customer segments. We know our target markets and their geographical locations. And we have our ways of gathering
competitive insight. The savvy marketers have realized that social media marketing requires more than just the presumed.
A social media monitoring tool offers a distinctive edge to marketers and agencies who wish to be a step ahead of their competitors.
Listening is the first step in creating a social media strategy or campaign, but how well are you listening? It is very important to approach
social media marketing with a complete set of information. Only then can you create a strategy that is representative of what will be the
most effective in meeting your business needs. And, yes, it is also important to have metrics and be able to measure them for your business
objectives.
This white paper is the fourth in the Social Media ROI series. Let’s Talk! about how to conduct a brand audit using social media monitoring
tools.
Listening is the first
step in creating a social
media strategy or
campaign.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

3. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
Cornerstone of Listening:
The social web is filled with conversations about your brand, your competitors and industry topics. Everyone is in agreement that listening is
the first step before you should join the conversation. Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff is an excellent resource that outlines the
reasons why it’s important to listen. A social media strategy requires more than just random listening with free tools on the social web and
engaging without direction.
A brand audit is the first step in social media monitoring and therefore an effective social media strategy. The following diagram shows the
natural progression of application of social media monitoring over time as a company gains experience. A brand audit of social media
channels will identify the opportunities that exist and also point to areas where the brand is at risk.
Every business endeavor should complete a comprehensive brand audit when considering the online world beyond their website. A social
media monitoring tool offers the functionality to gather an overview of a brand’s presence as well as that of competitors. A brand audit is
imperative for achieving business objectives, creating an effective strategy and identifying what to measure.
Brand Audit Goals
Using a social media monitoring tool for an online brand audit is an eye opening experience. It can even be quite shocking if it is the first
exposure to conversations in the online world. It is very important to set up searches that are broad enough in order to find information that
you did not know you were looking for. A brand audit should not only confirm what you know, but it should also point to what you don’t
know. Perhaps you have expanded your market to a new geographical region. Wouldn’t it be nice to see that reflected in the online
conversations? Or conversely, what if a brand audit proved to be an effective gap analysis showing consumers expressing a need for your
product in a specific geographical area?
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

4. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
Purposes of a Brand Audit
A brand audit indicates The primary purpose of a brand audit in social media is to provide direction for a social media campaign or
direction for the strategy engagement. It is very tempting to just jump into creating a Twitter account or making a Facebook page.
But what is the justification for doing so? A brand audit not only indicates reasons to participate but also
identifies where to do so online as well as offline.
A social media monitoring tool provides in-depth information that will provide considerable insight into a
social media strategy. In order to provide an idea of the capabilities that a tool offers here is a list of reports
that are specific to Alterian SM2 – Alterian’s social media monitoring tool.. It is an overview of what they
represent and the insights they offer. Click here to try the Freemium version of SM2.
1. Daily Volume Report a. Drilling into the spikes identifies trends and patterns
charts the number of
b. It is the place to start because it is the easiest way to analyze large amounts of data
conversations over
time.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

5. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
2. Share of Voice Report a. Identify which social networks are being utilized most by those discussing the product/brand, and don’t
shows the distribution forget the competitors.
of the conversations
b. No conversations about the brand? Then use industry terms in your search.
across the social
networks.
3. Themes Report is a The word cloud depicts the most frequently used words as larger.
word cloud that is a. Examine the words in the word cloud and remember that these are from consumer generated
created by analyzing commentary. Look for new ideas in the theme cloud for the brand as well as that for the competitors and
all of the conversations. industry terms
b. Drill into the larger words in the word cloud and look for patterns in the individual results
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

6. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
4. Author Tags depict the a. As with the Themes Report, this is another word cloud that provides direct insight into the consumers’
words that people are minds. They indicate which terms and phrases are important to them.
most frequently
b. The author tag clouds show which terminology consumers are using. It is beneficial to review them and
tagging their content
ensure that these terms and phrases are being used in the marketing messages and SEO keywords.
with in the hopes that
others will search for it.
5. Demographics Report a. Use the popularity chart to identify influencers. Drill into the highest numbers to identify the influencers
sorts the data by age, and brand advocates.
gender and popularity. b. The age and gender charts are helpful in identifying target markets. It indicates the age or gender that
your products appeal to.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

7. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
6. Top Domains shows a. This report is ideal for identifying the online communities where your consumers and potential customers
the domains where are interacting. Go join them!
the majority of the b. Take a look at the Top Domains report for competitors. It is a good idea to join those conversations too.
conversations are People always like choices.
happening online.
c. The Top Domains report for industry terms identifies communities which may not be aware of your
products and brand.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

8. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
7. Top Authors Report a. Use this report to identify the influencers and advocates for your brand.
shows the authors that
b. Identify those that are the most influential for the competitors and strategize on how to build
are generating the
relationships with them.
most conversations.
8. Map Overlay identifies The larger the pin, the larger the volume of conversations. Hover over any pin and it’s possible to see how
the physical sources of many results for each.
the conversations. a. Review the pins and decide if this information confirms what you know or if there are some geographical
areas that are surprising. Drill into them.
b. Drill in the largest pins and review the specific conversations. Taking a deeper dive into analyzing the
demographic data of a certain geographical area can generate interesting insight!
c. The pins and the data behind them offer insight into where it would be effective to integrate offline
events with your social media strategy.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

9. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
9. Top Languages creates a. Review this report and consider if it is what you expected.
a list of the languages
b. Consider this data with that from Map Overlay as you plan your social media strategy. It may indicate
that consumers are
that your strategy should include a more global approach. And it may indicate if there is a need for
using when creating
localization of your products.
their content.
10. Brand References and The advantage of using a social media monitoring tool is that it is automatic and provides a high level
Content Tone indicate overview.
the sentiment and tone
a. For both reports it is important to drill into the negative results and note the sentiment. Identify what the
around the conversations.
issues are and consider how to rectify them. They could be related to product performance, customer
service, brand reputation, commentary on marketing and advertising, etc.
b. The positive results offer excellent opportunities to identify influencers and advocates as well as content
and quotes for marketing.
c. Drilling into the most extreme positive and negative results provide feedback on advertising & marketing
efforts. They will indicate if the messaging is connecting with the target audience. Sifting through the
results will also result in product development information.
d. Use Share of Voice to see the trending of sentiment over time. This allows you to identify trends on a
daily basis and drill in to isolate on the topic. This is very important in monitoring for brand crisis.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

10. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
The previous section outlines the vast amounts of insight that a professional social media monitoring tool
provides. All of these can be considered as one works to identify the business objectives for a social media
campaign. It is imperative to carefully consider this information and decide which objectives the social
media strategy will meet. The reports will directly influence the following decisions: Which departments
should be reviewing the reports and responding appropriately?
A brand audit Identifies Marketing
business objectives • Clarify whether the messaging is connecting with customers
• Is it reaching the target audience
• Are the word of mouth marketing efforts being achieved
• Are there opportunities for lead generation
• Generate more word of mouth
• Reduce market research costs
Customer Service
• Are customers receiving responses in a timely manner
• Are their needs being met satisfactorily
• What is their sentiment
• Reduce customer support costs
• Increase customer loyalty
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

11. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
Sales
• Build relationships with potential customers
• Contribute to building brand visibility
• Reduce customer acquisition costs
Product Development
• Gather ideas for products
• Innovation - Improve new product success ratios
• Bring outside ideas into organization
• Competitive insight
• Reduce product development costs
Public Relations
• Improve public relations effectiveness
• Build advocacy program Identify influencers and engage them
• Minimize brand crises
• Establish thought leadership
In addition to providing considerable insight, a brand audit provides direction on metrics.
After identifying the business objectives for social media engagement, it is very important to establish what
to measure and report. The goals will provide direction of what reports to use and how the information will
be quantified.
1.This is a three step process: Use the social media monitoring tool to benchmark where the brand
visibility is at now. Identify the reports that contribute to measuring the goals.
2.Create a report that will serve as a baseline.
3.Note where the brand is in regard to SEO performance.
This report will be used as a comparative in the future to chart progress and the value of the social media
campaign. It will also provide the necessary data to calculate ROI.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

12. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
A brand audit defines How to do a brand audit using Alterian SM2
what to measure
1.Set up searches (remember to keep them broad enough to find what you didn’t know you were
looking for):
a. Brand and product(s)
b. Competitors
c. Industry terms
2.Scrub the results:
a. Remove the noise (unnecessary data)
b. Three step process – look for odd things and drill in
i. Theme Chart
ii. Author Tag Cloud
iii. Domains
c. Put the excluded words and the URL’s to ignore in the profile
d. Copy the profile and run the searches again
3.Use Share of Voice Report:
a. Compare the brand against the competitors
i. Click on Categories and choose the brand, competitors
ii. Create the chart
b. View the trending of sentiment over time for the brand
i. Filter to the brand in the orange filter bar
ii. Click on Categories
iii. Choose: positive opinion and negative opinion
iv. View the graph at the bottom showing trend of sentiment over time
4.Use Compare Dates Report for business development:
a. View the brand performance overlaid against a competitor
i. From the dropdown, choose a brand and competitor
ii. Choose the same date range
iii. Create the graph
b. Interpretation – every result is an opportunity!
i. If brand has more volume
1. They are ahead of competition
2. The brand should engage more to get further ahead
ii. If competitor has more volume
1. The brand has a lot of work to do
2. The brand needs to engage
iii. If neither have many conversations
1. It’s an opportunity for the brand to engage
2. The brand can engage and get ahead
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

13. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
5.Review the reports listed above in section 1 of Purposes of a Brand Audit for insight:
6.Create a report that offers insight on potential objectives to be accomplished in a social media
strategy:
a. Include reports from SM2 such as:
i. Daily Volume with events flagged
ii. Theme Chart identifies main topics that consumers are discussing
iii. Domains showing online presence of communities
iv. Map Overlay shows offline communities
v. Brand References and Tone
b. An overview of SEO presence
Conclusion A brand audit is essential for every social media engagement and the measurement of it. Assessing a
brand's online presence without a social media monitoring tool would be very difficult. A professional tool
offers the advantage of aggregating all of the information in one place and the ability to perform an in-
depth analysis of the data in a variety of ways. It provides the basis for determining the business
objectives. The tool also provides a basis for benchmarking the data and creating a reporting methodology
as the social media strategy is executed.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

14. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
Next steps 1. Try the Freemium version of Alterian SM2 (a professional social media monitoring tool)
2. Explore resources on social media monitoring
3. Request a Little Book of Social Media Marketing on some BIG marketing topics
4. Read a client case study: Pursuit uses brand audits to design creative campaigns.
5. Email info@alterian.com or call
North America:
+1 312 884 5321
UK & Continental Europe:
+44 (0) 1202 250003
Asia Pacific:
+61 2 9968 2449
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

15. First Priority for a Social Media Strategy:
A Brand Audit Using a Social Media
Monitoring Tool
The ROI of Listening to your Customers’ Needs
About the “Let’s Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers. The
Talk” Series with social web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most cost
Connie Bensen effective and efficient manner. A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digital
portion of your marketing budget in order to create, execute, measure and report on a social media
strategy.
The Let's Talk Series, by Connie Bensen, is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways that
marketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts. Topics will include how to use a social media
monitoring tool for SEO, Lead Generation, Social Media campaigns, Customer Service, Competitive
Insight, Corporate marketing, PR and reputation management, etc.
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian, which provides marketing
software to help brands engage with their customers. She is a key voice amongst online Community
Managers. Her blog, www.conniebensen.com is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating online
communities, providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbes.com as one of the 20
Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women.
SM2 Social Media Alterian’s SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR and
Marketing professionals. SM2 helps you track conversations, review positive/negative
Monitoring (SMM) sentiment for your brand, clients, competitors and partners across social media channels
such as blogs, wikis, micro-blogs, social networks, video/photo sharing sites and real-time
alerts.
About Alterian Alterian (LSE: ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant, effective and engaging experiences with
their audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand, through the use of the
Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform. Alterian drives the transformation of marketing and
communications, making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannel
engagement with the individual.
Alterian’s unprecedented integration of analytics, content and execution through industry leading tools,
such as the Dynamic Messenger email platform, SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the award
winning Content Management solutions, enables companies to build integrated communication strategies
which create a true picture of the individual.
Alterian works with marketing services partners, system integrators and agencies who recognize the need
to plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients. For more
information about Alterian, products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterian’s Partner
Network, visit www.alterian.com or the Alterian blog at www.engagingtimes.com.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

16. White Paper
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