Brain Vibe

Social media has not yet provided marketing concrete effectiveness as it relates to sales.  Maybe the issue is that we have yet to embrace the role social media has in our marketing mix and use metrics that are aligned to the venue.  Social media is not a stagnant website.  It is not in our control.  This is a cyber world reflecting our customer behavior.  Where in the past we could shape our customer environment through television, radio, and stores, in order to enter social media networks we need permission.  We get that through influencers.

Here is where I’m coming from…

The 3rd Annual Marketing and Media Survey Results are in andyou can see the struggle marketers are having with social media in their marketing mix.

Jacob53 on Twitter comments:

“One of the most interesting findings of the study is that while over 70% of the companies plan to include Social Media in their marketing plans, only 49% believe that Social Media is actually effective.”

How ironic.  So, I dove in deeper through the reports.

First off, one result popped out that confirms an earlier report from Marketing Sherpa of lack of knowledge around social media.  It appears that marketers may not be thinking about social media as a tactic that is integrated or intricately connected with email, a primary marketing vehicle.  The fact that 67% think search complements email makes me think that vehicles are considered independent, developed independently, and used independently of one another.  You could argue that this is wrong because social media is number two at 54%.  But, then you see that number 3 is display at 51%.  This seems to indicate that marketers consider these all push vehicles.  Is the reason why social media is considered ineffective is that we are using it and measuring it incorrectly?

A survey conducted by Deloitte, Beeline Labs, and Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) shows exactly how companies are measuring social media.

Key Business Measures:

• Greater awareness
• Number of new ideas
• Increased sales
• More referrals
• Number of new leads

Key Web Metrics:

• Number of visitors
• Number of “active” users
• How often people post and comment
• Number of registered users
• How often people visit

Let’s get back to the purpose of social media and networks.  It’s to connect with friends and like minded individuals.  Providing a venue for your customers and you to interact is a good first start.  Ultimately, you want work of mouth outcomes and key influencers to rise within your venue.  Additionally, when you interact with customers in their own venues, conversations and bonding need to occur for trust to form and word of mouth to happen.

Since I like numbers and metrics, let me through this one out.  According to Deloitte, Beeline Labs, and SNCR, only 54% of respondents had actually been running a community.  If this is an indicator to social media marketing efforts in general, we are only getting started.  Building relationships takes time.  If you consider that startups don’t expect any real results from their efforts until the second or third year and they are using the first year to build a foundation, then this is a good proxy for looking at social media’s overall effectiveness.

If we want to determine that social media is working, we may need to look at different metrics other than the ones we currently use to show how we are contributing to pipeline.  The metrics we look at should revolve around the behavior and interactions that happen within social networks, just like we analyzed how shoppers make decisions on what to by in grocery stores.  A shopper moves through the isles looking for items on their list.  The placement of brands and pricing is within the shopping behavior for easy identification and selection.  There are outside influencers like online and printed coupons, TV ads, radio ads, etc.  Translate this experience to the social network.  Instead of using ads, coupons, and online circulers to influence the purchase, you are looking for influential people.

Ultimately, you need to determine metrics that measure an influence factor within your community.  If you have a lot of traffic but only lurkers gathing data point, you missed the opportunity for someone in the comunity to shape those data points with your lurkers.  This community member can be you, but  in the end you need an influencer.  It is similar to a sales engagement.  Decision makers may not actually be the one determining what to purchase, but focusing on fixing the problem.  They have key influencers that they leverage to gather information, summerize, and make a recommendation.

You can continue to track visitor and membership metrics, but without understanding who is behind these visits and how they evangelize or not, you will never be able to measure social media effectiveness. You are back to gathering leads that no one will follow-up on because they are not qualified.

Filed under: b2b, metrics, networking, social media, individual influence, influence, leads, marketing, marketing effectiveness, metrics, social media, social media index, social media metrics, Social network, Twitter, Word of mouth