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"The Digital Marketing Series is supported by HubSpot, which offers inbound marketing software that helps small and medium sized businesses get found on the Internet by the right prospects and converts more of them into leads and customers. Learn more.\nWhile there are hundreds of ways to calculate the ROI of social media, the general consensus is that Twitter and Facebook are worthwhile tools that can add a lot of value to your marketing campaign. Of course, the value of social media depends on how well you execute it. \nFortunately, a few big brands have already blazed trails in the digital marketing world. We spoke to social media and marketing experts at MTV, American Express, Xbox, NBA and AT&amp;T to get the scoop on how they learned to hit the mark.\nHave some other lessons that helped you achieve digital marketing success? Let us know in the comments.\n1. Be Human\n\n\n\n\n\u201CNailing a tone that resonates with your audience is of paramount importance,\u201D says Tom Fishman, manager of social media and community at MTV. The goal at MTV, he says, is \u201Cto sound human and conversational and not be the voice of some corporate overlord.\u201D To that end, tweets are often written in the first person (\u201Cwe\u201D and \u201CI\u201D) to convey that there are \"hearts and faces\" behind the screen. Resonating with a particular audience is especially important because MTV has 70 Facebook Pages, covering everything from Daria to Jersey Shore \u2014 MTV's social media crew has to speak in a way that feels comfortable with each audience. \nAt Xbox, there are 15 people on the Xbox Tweet Fleet, all of whom tweet with their own personalities and \u201Ccreate a collective voice\u201D by being passionate. Each tweeter signs off with his initials so the consumer knows who tweeted at them (American Express also does this). Adds Jerry Kansky, manager of the Tweet Fleet, \u201CWe are the consumers, and we know how we\u2019d like to be talked to, so we\u2019re just being ourselves.\u201D\nChris Baccus, executive director of digital and social media for AT&amp;T, notes that it\u2019s important to \u201Cbe a part of the conversation and not try to own or control the conversation.\u201D While brands can \u2014 and should \u2013- use social media to promote their messages, it\u2019s important to be real and not sound like a press release. After all, people are opting to follow you \u2014 don\u2019t give them a reason to unfollow!\nSomething else that\u2019s human? Making mistakes. If there\u2019s a spelling error in a celebrity's name or the wrong time is tweeted for a Real World episode, \u201Cthe move is not to delete the tweet and let it go away,\u201D Fishman says. It\u2019s an opportunity to show what kind of company you are, and that human touch (a follow-up tweet with a \u201Csorry\u201D or \u201Coops\u201D) is something the fans appreciate more than sweeping mistakes under the rug.\n2. Know What You Want\nEvery brand has its own reasons for jumping onboard with social media, and it\u2019s important you know your reason and your goals before you start. \u201CIt\u2019s not a toe-in-the-water-thing,\u201D says McKenzie Eakin, whose @XboxSupport handle specifically offers technical customer support. \nFor AmEx, reach and engagement are essential \u2014 as a result, assessment is qualitatively focused \u2014 it comes down to sentiment and what people are saying more than the raw volume of tweets and Facebook posts. However, Shari Forman, director of online communications and social media at AmEx, does track links and remains cognizant of the numbers to see what kind of content is most engaging.\nMTV's goal is to crystallize communities around shows and bands. While promoting the new show Skins, Fishman says MTV was able to build a hyper-passionate community before the show even premiered. He says it was an eye-opening experience when it comes to \"thinking about how to approach special campaigns in a pre-promotional phase.\" MTV Vice President of Digital Media Colin Helms told Mashable in January that, \u201CWe usually build a community after the show has launched. We did the opposite with Skins.\u201D\n3. Listen and Respond\n\n\n\n\nNo one likes asking a question and not having it answered. The @XboxSupport stream sends 5,000 tweets per week, and it is the Guinness World Record holder for most responsive brand on Twitter. The average response time? \"Three to five minutes, if not faster,\u201D Eakin says. And Baccus says AT&amp;T usually responds within 15 minutes \u2014 impressive, huh?\nWhile public messaging is obviously the purpose of Twitter, it\u2019s also a good idea to engage in behind-the-scenes communication with fans. The MTV team responds to every single direct message that comes its way on Twitter. \u201CIt\u2019s another touchpoint for the brand,\u201D Fishman says.\nBaccus says \u201Csocial listening\u201D is a big part of AT&amp;T\u2019s initiative. The social team takes note of trends and engages in casual \u201Ccocktail conversation\u201D to glean information from customers. The team then uses that information to advocate for its customers within the company. For example, if a number of people in one town are lamenting poor reception, AT&amp;T will alert the local AT&amp;T market managers and network team to investigate the issue. This kind of active response and proactive troubleshooting is highly valued by customers and easily executed via social media.\n4. Diversify and Pace Your Content\nFishman says the purpose of @MTV is to advance the brand's message, but it\u2019s also important to be \u201Ca good source of content for people.\u201D Since MTV is a cultural tastemaker, that content ranges from music and fashion to social issues and politics \u2014 the feed provides a lot of relevant information for myriad demographic groups.\nAt AmEx, Forman focuses on hitting a balance of proactive and reactive tweets. Proactive tweets result from events that are planned on an editorial calendar \u2014 promoting Small Business Saturday, for example. Then there are reactive tweets that respond to inquiries from followers and cardmembers. \u201CWe\u2019re cognizant of what we\u2019re pushing out, and we know that people are following us for different reasons,\u201D she says.\nTo figure out what content you should be sharing, pay attention to your followers. NBA fans are passionate about their favorite teams and players, and they want to chat about what happens on the court in real time \u2014 the NBA feeds let the conversation flourish. \"Our league, team and player Twitter feeds give us a unique opportunity to connect directly with nearly 35 million followers and to help them share in the excitement of our game \u2014 the amazing plays, buzzer-beaters and great moments,\" says Melissa Rosenthal Brenner, vice president of marketing for the NBA. The NBA feeds often republish \"compelling tweets from fans\" to share the enthusiasm and show appreciation for their fanatics.\nBrands have to be careful not to push too much content \u2014 no one wants to hear from a brand more than they hear from their friends and family. The NBA frequently polls its fans to find out just how much content they want. With those responses in hand, \"We try to guide ourselves accordingly\" and not let too much \"uncurated information\" clog the feed, Brenner says.\t\n5. Inject Yourself Into the Conversation\nWe know that responsiveness is important, but there\u2019s another related trait that\u2019s crucial, too \u2014 preemptive tweeting. When someone tweets about a problem with his Xbox \u2014 even if he's not tweeting at Xbox \u2014 the Tweet Fleet team responds. In fact, someone on shift is responsible for \u201Cengagement finds\u201D \u2014 tweeting at users who mention Xbox to let them know the Tweet Fleet is there to offer support for technical issues.\nAnd when something big happens in your industry or your brand has exciting news, get out there and share it. Brenner says game highlights and player milestones are heavily shared because social media has become what NBA Commissioner David Stern has called, \u201Cthe digital water cooler\u201D \u2014 a single place where passionate fans can gather and talk about the game in real time. In February, when Celtics guard Ray Allen broke the all-time 3-point record, @NBA tweeted:\n\n\n\n\nIt was retweeted almost 2,000 times, driving \"Ray Allen\" to the #3 worldwide top trending topic on Twitter.\n6. Get Feedback in Real Time\n\n\n\n\nBecause the Tweet Fleet fields kudos, comments and complaints about Xbox, it is able to relay important information from the consumers to its tech and development teams, which can be incredibly useful for troubleshooting.\nAt AmEx, Forman says she and Hamouly closely monitor response to tweets and Facebook posts \u2014 are we getting new followers? Are people responding? Are they engaged? -\u2013 to make their social marketing efforts more effective. It\u2019s test and learn \u2014 if something falls flat, they fix it.\nA perfect example of this flexibility is AT&amp;T's \u201CPlead Your Case\u201D Facebook app campaign. AT&amp;T discovered a high dropout rate \u2014 people weren't clicking through to the end. Instead of letting the campaign fail, the AT&amp;T team made some quick tweaks based on the real-time data it was collecting from the app. The result? More than 90% of people went through the entire process once the fixes were implemented.\nAnother AT&amp;T lesson involved an email blast sent from the VP of general marketing. It was a broad and generic email that outlined how much money AT&amp;T was spending on infrastructure. The email outraged customers, and the team manned the Facebook Page for 48 hours, compassionately responding to every single post within ten minutes. \u201CIt really changed the tone of the page and within 24 hours, the sentiment totally changed because we were engaging and responding.\u201D Lesson learned: AT&amp;T now personalizes email messages and geotargets its email blasts.\n7. Know Your Audience\nEakin says that the Xbox audience is so diverse \u2014 moms, dads and kids \u2014 that the same tone doesn't fly for all tweets. She says her tweeters take the extra few seconds to click on a user's Twitter handle to find out who they\u2019re talking to, because a working mother should be spoken to differently than a 14-year-old gamer. That personalization is simple to implement, and it goes a long way.\nIn addition to knowing who your audience is, you should know where it is. AmEx has an international following, so Forman geotargets posts on Facebook for promotions and contests. \u201CRecognize that you\u2019re casting a wide net and be specific about who can benefit\u201D from what you\u2019re offering, Forman says \u2014 or else you could get some angry messages.\n8. Know the Platforms\n\n\n\n\nTwitter and Facebook are not interchangeable, and you should have a different approach for each. In general, Twitter is more of a two-way conversation \u2014 a brand\u2019s Twitter feed is a timeline of responses to customer inquiries, \"thank yous\" for nice tweets, brand updates and conversational dialogue. Facebook, however, is more of a community -\u2013 the wall can be treated as a sort of bulletin board for announcements. Having Facebook posts push to Twitter and vice versa isn't the best idea \u2014 the platforms serve different purposes.\nAmEx\u2019s Small Business Saturday campaign lives on Facebook, where it has more than one million fans and was one of the fastest-growing Facebook Pages during the early days of its creation. Though the campaign also had a Twitter handle (@SBSat), the Facebook Page had the unique opportunity to build a community \u2013- and target more people, thanks to Facebook's immense user base.\nThe NBA embraces both platforms pretty equally. \"We want to be where our fans are \u2014 and we have worked hard to engage our fans and develop a strong presence on each platform,\" Brenner says. The NBA has more than 200 players on Twitter and more than 50 players on Facebook. The NBA, player and team pages boast nearly 100 million fans on Twitter and Facebook combined.\nIn terms of post volume, brands typically can communicate more on Twitter than Facebook before annoying their followers, thanks to Twitter\u2019s @replies, which are hidden from users' feeds if they are not following those mentioned in the tweets. Forman and her AmEx partner are active Facebook users, and they use their personal experience to guide and inspire their posting schedule on Facebook and Twitter so as not to overwhelm their followers.\n9. Create a User-Centric Experience\nSocial media has changed the way we market \u2014 billboards, print ads and commercials were always one-way. Now, brands engage in dialogue with the consumer, and communication has become a two-way street. Fishman says that, for this reason, you must make sure that the most important thing is to be \u201C100% user-centric.\u201D He adds that everything the MTV social team does is first assessed through the lens of, \u201CHow are we adding value for our users?\u201D MTV\u2019s TJ campaign also drove home the commitment to the users \u2013- TJ Gabi fully dedicates her day to blogging, tweeting and interacting with the users and \u201Cisn\u2019t beholden to some of the priorities that we are at the corporate level,\" Fishman says.\nPart of this user-centric experience can be thanking and rewarding the users. When someone \u201Clikes\u201D your brand or follows it on Twitter, he\u2019s publicly endorsing your company and becoming a brand ambassador. And so, he should be acknowledged. Forman says a huge part of AmEx's social media campaign is making its cardmembers feel special -\u2013 they have exclusive access to concert tickets, travel giveaways and special discounts.\nSeries Supported by HubSpot\n\n\n\n\nThe Digital Marketing Series is supported by HubSpot, which offers inbound marketing software that helps small and medium sized businesses get found on the Internet by the right prospects and converts more of them into leads and customers. HubSpot's software platform includes tools that allow professional marketers and small business owners to manage SEO, blogging, social media, landing pages, e-mail, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Learn more.\nMore Marketing Resources from Mashable:\n- The Pros and Cons Of Tumblr For Small Business- 4 Innovative Ways to Use Web Video for Small Business- Top 5 Web Design Mistakes Small Businesses Make- What to Look For When Hiring a Community Manager- 3 Ways Companies Can Reach Generation Z\nImages courtesy of iStockphoto, melhi Moodboard_Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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