Social Pros #11 goes live today, featuring the always enjoyable Vanessa Sain-Dieguez, Social Media Director at Hilton Worldwide.

The Social Media Stat of the Week comes courtesy of customer feedback management firm CFI Group, which conducts an annual Call Center Satisfaction Index.

The full-report is $500 and I’m a cheapskate, so we don’t have all of the details. But the press release headlines definitely warrant discussion:

• Shift to self-service: “In 2011, 27% of respondents had tried to resolve their issues elsewhere prior to resorting to working with the call center. The primary alternate channel was the web.”
• Post support experience socializaing: “What we are seeing is that, if you have a bad experience, you post it once on Facebook for all to see and then you’re done with it,” stated Terry Redding, director of development and delivery for CFI Group. “By the same token, we are seeing good experiences posted in the same way.”
• Volume drowns out the bad: “While a bad experience may increase the odds that someone will tell others, the sheer number of positive experiences and positive posts seems to be outweighing the negative word-of-mouth in volume.”

Somewhat related case-in-point: my Twitter audience has complained about every airline equally such that their complaints no longer register – let alone resonate. And the number of positive experiences – like in-flight wifi, first-class upgrades, etc. – nets out the complaints.

Social makes everything more transparent – the good and the bad. Should your community goal be to manufacture enough good to cover up the inevitable bad?

Experian just published The 2012 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report. The original report is 153 pages and chock full of insightful data about email, mobile, social, and search marketing. It’s definitely worth a read. My favorite section surfaces some fascinating insights on the performance of social visitors to corporate websites.

It turns out that social visitors to your company’s website are, on average, much more engaged than the average visitor. In particular, paid marketing on Facebook shows some truly off-the-charts conversion rates.

Let me just say: wow. Something is clearly working. In the world of email and PPC campaigns, conversion rates of 10-20% are generally considered pretty good. These conversion rates, hovering around 50%, are nigh or unheard of. Whether this is because of social proof points displayed along with Facebook ads, extreme demographic targeting capabilities, or some other Facebook magic conversion/fairy dust, the results speak for themselves.

These results seem to validate Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s claim that, “68 percent more people are likely to remember seeing the ad with their friend’s name … [and they are] 300 percent more likely to purchase.” It’s no wonder Sandberg describes Facebook’s ad targeting as “the elusive goal we’ve been searching for, for a long time; making your customers your marketers.”

Another set of fun facts from the report was a behavioral breakdown of consumers based on social media activity. It turns out that…

• People who use social media in general are more likely than the average online adult to: fly Virgin Atlantic airlines, eat at Chipotle, shop at Payless Shoe Source, snack on Terra Chips, own an iPhone, visit Starbucks, and drive a Saab.
• Those who visit professional networking sites, such as LinkedIn, are more likely to: fly United Airlines, eat at The Cheesecake Factory, shop at Nordstrom, own an iPhone, stay at Hilton hotels, and shop at Whole Foods.
• Those who visit photo sharing sites are more likely than the average online adult to: shop at Whole Foods, use Burt’s Bees, shop at Payless Shoe Source, buy Huggies, shop at Forever 21, and shop at Hobby Lobby stores.
• Those who visit video sharing site are more likely than the average to: eat at Long John Silver’s, drink Capri Sun, wear Puma sneakers, shop at Family Dollar Store, use AT&T, and use Downy sheets.

Do any of these findings surprise you?

Fellow Argyler Danny Chu and I are working up our two-part harmonies and polishing up the rhinestones on our Nudie Suits in anticipation the good times we’ll have at Jason Falls’ Explore Nashville event later this week.

I’m taking the stage to talk about marketing on niche social networks and Danny will holding down the fort at the Argyle booth. And we’re both looking forward to great talks from Tom Webster, Mark Schaefer, and – of course – Mr. Falls himself.

You can register for the conference at http://ar.gy/explorenashvegas. There are a few spots remaining and we’ve got a $250 discount code – so act fast and you might get a great deal on a great conference. Ping us in the comments and we’ll follow up with the discount code.

Gratuitous country music video for your pleasure:

Wide-eyed and eager, 2012 graduates will soon be making their way out into the real world. These socially savvy digital natives have got a pep in their step, a drive to learn and loyalty to boot. Oh, and they are using online paths to connect to you, prospective future employer!

A new study by Experience and Achievers surveyed nearly 8,000 soon-to-be graduates. The students’ responses suggest that they are loyal, looking for steady salaries, and looking in all the right places. Among the highlights are:

• 47.1% want to be with their company for 5-10+ years
• 54% of the respondents said that the most important qualifier is career advancement opportunities
• 51% (tied for the second most important) said they are looking for interesting, challenging work
• 40% of students are expecting a salary between $50,000-$74,999

As a business, it’s increasingly important to be online for your recruiting purposes as nearly half of the students plan on using social media to aid in the job search, according to Achievers.

At Argyle, we are a rapidly growing company and have made many new hires in the past year. Case in point, I learned of my current job with Argyle through Twitter. Just like the 87.6% of upcoming graduates plan to do, I reached out and applied directly.

So, how can you use social media as a recruiting tool?

1. Showcase your organization’s personality and company values: Be true to yourselves first and foremost, but have a little fun by sharing interesting or funny articles and give an inside look at your culture on Pinterest. Having values isn’t enough; it’s how you live them daily and how you share them with the world that matters.
2. Social media is social: Encourage prospective employees to reach out and then find ways to continue the conversation. Ensure you have the workflow and communication plans in place to handle incoming interest.
3. Be clear. Be direct: Be transparent and make it known you are recruiting!

How do you use social media in the recruiting process? Have you hired anyone you have met through social media?

As a local plug, we are thrilled to present alongside Bronto, Shoeboxed and others at The Tech Jobs under the Big Top event in Durham, coming up on April, 26th. Hope to see you there!

Full Infographic by Achievers Inc and Experience.com:

Social Pros #10 releases today, featuring Lauren Teague, Social Media & Fan Outreach Coordinator for the PGA Tour.

Fun Fact: Lauren made the connection between me and LoudMouth Golf, which resulted in my fantastic collection of Argyle pants. Listen to the episode for the full story…

This week’s Social Media Stat of the Week comes from BRANDfog – a social strategy agency based in NYC. The agency recently released its 2012 CEO, Social Media, and Leadership Survey.

To me, these are the key nuggets:

• 86% of the people surveyed rated CEO social media engagement as somewhat important, very important or mission-critical.
• 81% of the people surveyed believe that CEOs who engage in social media are better equipped to successfully lead a company in a web 2.0 world.

Trust and transparency are the name of the game – stakeholders want it and social media provides the mechanism to make it happen.

The methodology is fairly loose:

The company surveyed several hundred employees of diverse companies, spanning in size from startups to Fortune 500 companies, and working at all levels of their respective organizations. Respondents representing a wide selection of industries, professions and regions were asked to answer questions pertaining to social media participation by their organization and executive leadership team.

…so I’m left to question who exactly is the CEO in the question. Depending on company size and industry, the role of the social media CEO could be quite diverse.

The document is pretty meaty and the visualizations are fantastic – so it is definitely worth reading in more detail.