TheWayoftheWeb

Content and Digital Marketing Specialists

community marketing

Solve one problem to justify social media marketing to any boss

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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.

Image by uBookworm under Creative Commons

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.

Measuring social media and buzz marketing

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It’s a great time to be interested in measuring the output of social media marketing (buzz marketing, community marketing, WOM – call it what you will!).

Because so much of it is so new and evolving, and because it’s as much about quality as quantity, essentially it’s like trying to measure magic or trying to turn common metals into gold.

And being part of evolving social alchemy is pretty exciting. Most online measures of success are still evolving – but the basics are well established. Unique Users, Hits, Page Impressions etc are universal enough that everyone understands them. And terms like Bounce Rates are following close behind.

But measuring the value of a company CEO spending time chatting on Twitter, and what benefits that gives the company?

You could measure followers.

You could measure referral clicks to the company website.

You could even measure @replies as a metric for engagement.

And it’s the fact no-one has worked out the right answer (or combination of answers), that makes it so exciting. For the first time since choosing my A-levels, I’m actually using and enjoying maths to uncover the solutions – and working out how to best serve communities that seem determined to surprise and confuse me on a daily basis.

Just wish I’d done a maths/statistics A-level rather than Biology now!

Don’t assume social media solutions are the only answer

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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…

The easiest way to website and blog success!

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Whenever I look at websites or blogs, there’s one key ingredient which is essential 99.9% of the time. It’s so obvious it can easily be missed, and isn’t down to technology or snazzy design. And, despite my slightly misleading title, it can be the easiest and the hardest thing to create and maintain.

It’s focus.

To clarify, I don’t mean a dogmatic clinging to one aim or proposition set in stone for all eternity. In the social we we now inhabit you’ll need to change and adapt to the needs and desires of your potential and actual audience.

But there’s an overwhelming amount of ways and means to achieve your goals – and a similar amount of things you might wish to cover. No matter how big your team or organisation, by trying to be all things to all people you’ll end up spreading yourself too thinly, and doing everyone a disservice.

It’s a lesson I’ve sometimes struggled with in the past, and one that reappears with my current employment, my blog, and Disposable Media all asking for my time – in competition with my life offline.

That’s why I have to prioritise my work first, then my blog, then Disposable Media, and then anything else online.

It’s also why the blog I started to look at anything online which interests me is now increasingly about social media marketing, community marketing and social networks. It’s my work, my main interest, and the thing it makes sense for me to focus on.

It’s also why I value the reminders about priority from a colleague of mine, and why I’ve already seen how much value comes from her work in establishing clear propositions on some of the titles I work with.

As another example, compare Pandora.com (If you’re in the U.S. and still able to) with what I thought would be a good substitute, Meemix. Both have a streaming radio station of your preferences at their heart – but where Pandora was incredibly quick and easy to get going, Meemix is prettier and yet less satisfying. Meemix has games, profiles, and all sorts of lovely graphical interfaces – and yet for me it crashes, cut outs, and fails to load. And whilst I can understand their need to differentiate themselves from Pandora in the past, now that non-U.S. residents are looking for a quick musical fix, they could be serving the millions now searching for a replacement. Instead, it’s just as quick to go to Last.fm, and gain the extra social context it offers.

Word of Mouth Marketing and Community Marketing defined

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I’ve read a myriad of works attempting to quantify Word of the Mouth Marketing and Community Marketing, ranging from the likes of the Cluetrain, to Wikipedia. Many attempt a philosophical or pseudo-scientific approach, citing ideas such as messages spreading like viruses, key advocates, and bi-directional customer feedback flow.

That’s fine, and some of those approaches have a lot of worth. But I like to make things simple as possible.

Community Marketing and Word of Mouth Marketing is simply helping people to find the solutions to their problems (including finding news/sports/entertainment) by asking around. And it leads to the feeling you get when someone you know recommends a good plumber or carpenter who can fix your house, or a mechanic who can get your car on the road. For half price.

That’s it in the most basic nutshell. As a community marketing person, my job is to make the tools on our websites as simple and easy to use as possible to allow people to get to know each other and ask those questions in whatever is the best way for them at the time, and also to let people not currently on our sites know we exist in order for them to satisfy their needs.

That’s why most of the best Word of Mouth and Community Marketing experts aren’t employed by companies or marketing agencies. That’s why the best Word of Mouth and Community Marketing experts are those people who work for some spare cash as plumbers, electricians and carpenters. Because they can’t advertise, and they totally rely on recommendations.

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