Campaigns versus Conversations – Measuring Social Media Success
- Social Media can be measured by its short term and long term value.
- Conversations are the cornerstone of social media.
- Success is defined by the piece of the conversation you own.
- Successful campaigns must be placed in the context of long term conversations.
The answer largely depends on your time horizon. In talking to clients, I find it helpful to break down social media into short-term and long-term value. In my lexicon, “campaigns” are important to achieve short-term measurable success, but sustainable customer engagement requires a commitment to long-term “conversations.” Generally, I view campaigns as efforts that incorporate user generated content, viral videos, promotions, and games to generate sales. I view conversations as part of efforts to enhance reputation or brand and may not have immediate payoff. Of course, there is much overlap as campaigns can be part of conversations.
From my perspective, I am very focused on the long term and can’t stress enough the importance of conversations. Radian6 (blog) defines brands “as the sum of all conversations taking place amongst users, and they are happening regardless of whether you are part of these conversations or not.”
Conversations are the essence of successful social media. Social media thrives in a flat community based on participation, connections, engagement and open dialogue. The chief currency is not monetary; it’s about reputation and influence, which are defined by credibility and authenticity.
Successful conversations require long-term commitment and engagement from the highest levels in the company on down. Customers want to engage on a personal level with their brands and the companies (and employees) behind them.
In a highly competitive market where brands are seeking to capture mindshare, the key is to determine what part of the conversation you currently own, what part of the conversation you want to own and what part of the conversation you are able to own given the competition and the attributes of your brand. To that end, you must look at your product or brand and ask:
What is it?
Who is it for?
Why do they care?
How is it different?
Answering these questions will also help determine how broad or narrow you may want to play in the online conversation. Owning a small portion of the conversation may yield the highest level of extended engagement and generate the most buzz.
Conversations are well and good, but what about clients seeking short term, immediate results. I can’t deny my bias. Launching social media campaigns around user generated content, viral videos, casual games, promotions may generate spikes in website visits and online sales, but I am not convinced they have lasting value or build engaged customers without conversations. Once the campaign is over, how do you continue to engage the users you reached?
In using social media campaigns as part of a marketing or PR strategy, I offer up the follow considerations in helping evaluate a potential campaign:
- Long-Term vs. Short-Term – How does it relate to the conversation?
- Continuity — What steps are in place to maintain connections and continuity after the campaign?
- Scalability — Is it scalable?
- Amplification — How does the campaign extend to other marketing efforts and other channels (both new and traditional)?
- Payoff — What is the pay off for the user?
- Employee Engagement — Can employees be engaged?
- The Community — Does the community match the marketing strategy?
- Technology — Does the technology match the user target?
- Celebrity Endorsement — If you are using a celebrity, is there a direct connection between a celebrity endorsement and the user, channel and particular application being used?
- Refreshment — Does the campaign or interactive website have rich, refreshed content?
These questions are helpful in setting expectations and putting campaigns in a larger context. No doubt, ordinary campaigns can yield extraordinary results, but extraordinary campaigns are really extensions of conversations that you should be having.
As for effective social media campaigns, I will save my rules of engagement for another posting. But I do recommend checking out the 2008 Forrester Groundswell Award Winners for some excellent case studies.
Let me get back to you.
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