Marketers clearly not setting expectations for social media within the company
I have been one to point out, in my past posts, that everything marketers do has to show an ROI. Budgets are too tight and consumer behavior has changed forcing companies to rethink all their expenses and marketing plans. That being said the simple fact that marketers are looking for direct ROI remains puzzling because social media can provide ROI in a lot of different ways.
Clearly they have not
set expectations for social media
or are using the wrong
benchmarks.
OK, let's take a
step back and talk about social media business
strategy for a second. When you develop a social
media strategy it's important to understand the
value of your product/brand with consumers. For
example, a social media page devoted to Starbucks
coffee is going to have a lot more followers than
a social media page devoted to dishwasher
detergent. Starbucks can use social media to stay
in touch with their loyal coffee fix customers
who need their morning joe while not many people
(who have a life) are going to friend a detergent
brand on Facebook.
Not enough data ? You aren't using the right
tools
because there is a lot of data available right
now to
marketers.
So the question
thus becomes; "what is the value of keeping
customers informed via social media about new
products at at the nations top coffee chain vs
the value of informing people how to keep their
dishes clean?" The power and ROI of engagement
can be hard to measure but as Mr Kotler said in
his new book Marketing 3.0;
Love your customers, respect your competitors:
Win their loyalty by giving them great value
and connecting with them
emotionally.
Social media is a great way to connect with them
emotionally but the problem is that too many
marketers feel that advertising is still a way to
connect with consumers who don't trust ads and
don't like the interruptions.
What should we be measuring then ?
Companies today need to measure engagement with individual customers and move away from influencing the masses. They also need to understand that social media is not going to have an immediate ROI. Social media is a way of reaching out to customers and saying "we value you as a person & customer and we want to listen to what you're saying about us and our products" . To savvy marketers this kind of communications and engagement with customers is invaluable and may be hidden in quantitative sales numbers within the balance sheet.
Your main reason for
social media should not be leads but be
engagement because engagement =
customers.
The key point is
that , regardless of how your company chooses to
measure engagement, is that
you have a success metric in mind before you
begin. Without some
sort of benchmark, it’s impossible to determine
your ROI. If that benchmark is sales than you are
setting yourself up for failure because trust and
a successful social media program take time at a
time when accountants know the cost of everything
but the value of nothing.
