We’ve taken the three most engaged Facebook pages and for the past week we’ve been watching to see just how much emotion plays a part in their community management. In Part I of this series we laid out our measurement criteria; in Part II we put it to the test.

According to SocialBaker’s latest report, the three UK Facebook pages with the highest engagement levels are Kérastase UK, Lagavulin and Park Bench. Over the space of a week we’ve analysed the level of Emotional Intelligence displayed in their online community management, based on three of the key factors in Goleman’s theory. Here’s what we found:

#1 Kérastase UK
Hair care community
12,558 fans
This is the most engaged Facebook page in SocialBaker’s report, despite having the lowest number of fans in the top three; an indication, perhaps, that social media success is not always a numbers game. The community thrives on its own, providing the manager gives it a stimulus – and that stimulus is typically a prompting question to talk about themselves. Beyond starting conversations, however, the community management remains largely withdrawn emotionally, particularly when the community demonstrates any level of frustration.

1. Motivation
On average, the community manager posted on the wall every couple of days and did not respond to comments. When prompted by a simple question or poll the community became highly motivated to ‘Like’ and comment, left unprompted, the community fell into blanket silence.

2. Self-regulation
The community manager had the opportunity to step in and diplomatically engage with frustrated members, but instead chose to keep out of the conversation, which felt like a missed opportunity to a) forge a stronger relationship with the community and b) use the platform as a means of customer care.

3. Empathy
The community clearly enjoyed being asked questions about themselves and the community manager pandered to this and in this respect showed a clear empathy towards the group. When a practical solution could be offered, the community manager was quick to step in and offer this, but when all that was needed was a sympathetic response to frustrations that had no real solution, the community manager held back.

#2 Lagavulin
Whisky community
112,023 fans
This community displayed a high level of emotion and a great passion for the brand. The community manager used personalised and evocative questions to further fuel the community’s passion and the manager also showed a good level of empathy towards the community when responding to its frustrations.

1. Motivation
Lagavulin posted less frequently than Kérastase, leaving several days between posts, though the community manager did respond when prompted and the community kept the wall active without being prompted. Simple wall posts such as, “if you were asked to describe Lagavulin to a fellow whisky fan who had not yet sampled it, how would you describe it to them,” elicited a visibly emotional response from the community.

2. Self-regulation
When a member of the community complained that they couldn’t find the brand in their local supermarket, the community manager was quick to act in a diplomatic fashion, apologising and offering an explanation in a friendly and understanding way.

3. Empathy
This is a community that wants to talk whisky and the community manager gives them exactly what they want. A prompt to answer the question, “the best place to enjoy Lagavulin is, “________”, generated just under 700 comments and over 800 Likes.

#3 Park Bench
Dog-lover community
45,247 fans
The Park Bench community displayed the most emotion of the three, with the community manager tapping into the shared love and sentimentality surrounding animals, which the community clearly thrives on.

1. Motivation
The Park Bench community manager was the most motivated of all three, posting several times a day and always responding to comments. The community needed a stimulus to start talking, but the community manager never failed to provide it.

2. Self-regulation
Fantastic levels of diplomacy are shown here. The regular ‘Ask A Vet’ slot encourages members to visit the event Wall with questions for the vet, though many members leave their questions as comments on the page which they have been asked not to do; nonetheless the community manager cooly and calmly puts members on the right track.

3. Empathy
The community manager is highly empathetic to the community, responding to its love of sentimentality with Wall posts that play perfectly into this. Regular posts offering advice also offer the community reassurance and encourage trust.

Conclusion
These are pages that see high levels of engagement from their communities, but it’s interesting to see that the emotion and the engagement come more from the communities than their managers. If Emotional Intelligence is as much about expressing emotion as understanding the emotions of others then the role of a branded online community seems to be reading, igniting and empathising with the emotions of the community rather than injecting any emotion of its own.
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This week, in a move that Brian Solis entitled the ‘Mad Men Moment’, Twitter introduced the latest addition to the Promoted products family.

So what prompted the dramatic headline?

Well the latest version of the promoted tweet will appear in the timeline of users that are not already following your brand.

And why is this groundbreaking?

Twitter has entered the advertising arena cautiously. It’s been sensitive to the anticipated resistance of the Twitter community, only serving up advertisements to people that are already engaged with the brand or specifically searching for a related term . Now it’s going one step further. The new promoted tweet will be targeted to users that Twitter identifies as being interested in your brand.

So what does this mean?

There’s an opportunity for brands

Research into the first promoted tweets has demonstrated their value to brands. Nearly 25% of users reported seeing a promoted tweet that was of relevance to them. 14% reported re-tweeting a promoted tweet.

With the new promoted tweet, brands will now be able to extend these benefits by reaching a wider audience and an audience that includes people not already affiliated to their brand – but possibly affiliated to their competition.

The competition is hotting up

Twitter is identifying users on the basis of their existing interests and profiles. There’s a high chance that your promoted tweet will be featured in the timeline of a tweeter who is following a similar brand. This means that brands will have to work harder to retain the loyalty and engagement of their existing followers. It also means that tweets from your competitors might appear in your followers’ timeline.

Twitter is becoming more commercial

The extension of promoted tweets marks a new step in the evolution of Twitter. Although this is yet to roll out in the UK, the trend is towards more opportunities for brands to proactively engage with consumers rather than wait for consumers to demonstrate an interest in an area or brand.

It’s a great opportunity for brands, but not without its challenges. Barely distinguishable from regular tweets and restricted to the same format criteria, the content will have to be compelling to get cut through. And, whilst the anticipated backlash against Twitter advertising is yet to materialise, we’ll be watching how the Twitter community responds as advertisements increasingly feature in their Twitter streams.

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Google+ has really got the social media world excited. Twenty-five million users in 6 weeks, makes the growth of similar social networks like Facebook and Twitter look positively stunted in comparison. And the blogosphere is just as fired up – a quick Google blog search for Google+ returns more than 10 million results!

When Google+ launched, every marketeer worth his salt wondered what the network would do about brands; and companies across the globe started chomping at the bit to be the first to interact with the consumer communities on Google+. That privilege has gone to Ford Motor Company, which has managed to gain a corporate identity on the new social network, despite Google closing down all other brand pages. Google says it’s working on a suitable brand solution, but we’ll all have to sit tight until then.

Looking at the Ford page, it’s difficult to find any differences to established Facebook pages. It comes complete with a profile picture in the top right corner, smaller pictures at the top of the page and its ‘wall’ underneath. People can +1 things (akin to Facebook’s ‘Like’) and comment underneath.

While the aesthetics might be similar, there are a number of features we’re keen to start trialling and we’re excited to see what Google has in store for branded profiles. With the network looking set to spice up the social media marketing mix in the not too distant future, we take a look at what brands and businesses could be doing with Google+ in the coming months:

1) Hangouts

Customer service is one of the key areas we encourage our clients to explore and consider for their social media strategies and the Hangouts feature of Google+ could potentially revolutionise online customer service. The likes of Vodafone and ASOS are doing a great job on Facebook and Twitter already; and a number of companies offer instant chat via their websites. But, Hangouts could provide brands with the opportunity to chat to customers directly via video chat, making the whole experience more personal and friendly.

From a PR perspective, Hangouts offer some great opportunities, such as video roundtables with key influencers, and live customer events. This feature will get creative juices flowing as brands think of ways to engage with consumers using this new medium.

2) Search

As a search engine, it’s obvious to point out that Google’s strength lies in search. Google has already temporarily stopped its real time search function with assumptions that it will be restored with results from Google+.

Users can also +1 things, equivalent to a ‘Like’, and this will determine a website’s social value. This could potentially mean that the more +1′s a website has, the higher up it features in the rankings, affecting the SEO tactics we’ve become accustomed to. Google+’s Circles feature can also affect the way we search online, as recommendations from people in our circles, i.e. our trusted sources like friends and family, can feature in search results.  Social search is also beginning to affect the way businesses look at SEO. As well as +1′s, Facebook ‘Likes’ and re-tweets on Twitter can influence what we look for online. As this evolves, the customer experience has never been more important. You need to ensure you give the best experience possible to help encourage social recommendations.

We’re also keen to see the insights provided by Google+.  Facebook Insights are great but can be limited when it comes to identifying key influencers. And there are a number of Twitter apps and tools that give us good information but not all in one place. Monitoring and listening play a crucial role in informing your social media strategy so with Google’s background in analytics, we’re hopeful Google+ insights will provide the information brands need.

Time will tell if Google+ lives up to the buzz it has already created in the social media world. It may take time to become mainstream but, if and when it does, it’ll definitely make its mark on social media marketing.

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