TheWayoftheWeb
Content and Digital Marketing Specialists
Before you start on Facebook or Twitter, and when you’re coming up with your strategy, there’s one important question to ask yourself.
Who’s more important – your boss or your consumers?
I’ll expand more on this shortly – but the answer isn’t as obvious as you might think…
When you’re looking at why companies might be reluctant to use social media and blogs properly, and why measurement is so important, it’s important to remember there’s a very real cost involved to them.
It’s something I’m acutely aware of, both in my professional role, and particularly in my personal life at the moment. My blogging and use of social networks has definitely been affected by my other commitments, whether it’s doing work on our house, sorting the bills, fixing the cars, or taking care of our pets. And the biggest commitment is to our baby son, which has had a big effect on how I can justify spending time online.
And in my professional role, I’m very aware that although implementing social media work has no direct financial cost, it has a real cost in terms of allocating time and resource.
Just as I wouldn’t expect to pay for something I didn’t receive, it’s unreasonable to expect a company to pay for for staff, and all the additional costs (office space, broadband, etc, etc,) to pursue social media engagement without them receiving a return which exceeds that value (increase in sales, website traffic etc). That’s where planning, measurement, and being realistic all come into play…
(And even this post has taken twice as long as it used to, due to my son needing attention!)
There’s just one problem which requires solving to finally put social media/buzz/community marketing people in a position to easily justify investment and resource.
We can all measure the splash of a promotion dropping into our worlds.
But what we need to do is be able to measure the quality and quantity of every ripple it makes, and everything else it disturbs, and combine all those measurements into one, simple, and hopefully big, number.
Until digital and social media advocates are in positions of responsibility in large companies around the globe – that’s what it takes. And to get to that position, you have to either accommodate the measures of the old school, or start a new firm and grow to the size of a global megacorp. In the meantime, we need to be famous to 15 people for quality,
and still show we can also reach 15,000 with anything down to the merest 5th hand whisper.
The problem is, measuring every single effect of even a single conversation is near impossible. But the closer we strive to it, the more influence and reach we can report back.
I’ve been using Twitter for quite a while (@badgergravling if you’re inclined), and I’ve found it an invaluable place for communication, debate, and refining ideas.
And I’ve also got used to both the concept of following 1000s of people, and combining real conversation, and the growing number of automated blog/website feeds using services like Twitterfeed. But whether you’re Disposable Media or The Guardian, if you’re not responding to direct messages and @ replies, then you’re really missing the point, and not getting the best benefit. Having set up the Disposable Media feed, I’ve been guilty of leaving it too much already, as I’ve concentrated more on my personal endeavours…but even with limited time, everyone is guaranteed a reply eventually – better than The Guardian manages.
Some services – The BBC, The Guardian, etc can offer enough interesting content in specific enough areas to get away with it. Just. But if you’re not a leading news agency etc, you’re better off using Twitter for personal discussion rather than relying on an automated feed to do all the work…
Out of a long and convoluted debate on Twitter came one important point which is easy to overlook when you’re dealing with social media and buzz marketing. It’s one that other people have alluded to, when they’ve written reminders that social media marketing isn’t the only tool in a digital marketing toolbox, but I haven’t seen it stated clearly…
Some people won’t want to be social.
There, I said it. As a Community Marketing Manager, and a fairly social person, it’s easy for me to think about ways to integrate community into everything I do, and provide research and solutions that show the power community marketing can have.
But a proportion of people just want a clean transaction.
So to prove you really can put community everywhere – in this case it’s about listening and facilitating those members of the community to be able to go straight to the action/transaction and bypass community if they want. And allowing everyone else that wants to engage, to be able to do it on their terms, and be encouraged to do it.
I’d wager those seeking a clean transaction will either be performing a chore – paying a bill for example, and that the clean transaction seekers will be a minority, because industries have been striving to that end for years, and it isn’t working…
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