Mashable ran an article titled “Why you need to monitor and measure your brand on social media” . The author Maria Ogneva touched on the difference between monitoring and measurement. Very interesting article she has there.

Digital strategists look for data to better understand a particular situation and from there it attempts to offer a solution. So where does this data come from – in this context it would be listening to the conversation out there. Having been bombarded with the conversation – how do you make sense of it all? That is the question.

To monitor, there is a magnitude of tools out there, ranging from Google alerts (free) toRadian6 (paid). So what works? I cant answer that from you. For some, the free version works well, afterall, data is just data, its how you interprete the data that matters, isn’t it.

Alot of times people (read: clients) do not know the difference between monitoring and measurement (and also interpretation).

Whats is the point of monitoring – in my view the idea of monitoring is to garther insight and thereby use it to inspire strategy making. number (data) –> insights –> strategy – success in one audience generate success in another. Monitoring is pretty much useless if you cant interpreted to an action that ties in to company (campaign) objective.

Many a times, I hear companies say – so and so (competitor) have 5000 fans – in my mind (silently of course) – so what? what does these 5000 fans means? I can get you 10000 fans if you want – just give me the carrots (attractive) ones of course and I can bait. But sadly this is how it works out there. The success of a campaign is down to the number of fans…but isnt social media about conversation – candid conversation. Gone are the days of interruption marketing – we now need to engage and speak social language! So the advocates of social media says. we need interaction – we need to use their consumer language to make them act! of course in a subtle non-intrusive manner.

Typically, a successful online endeavour needs a plan and also questions that you need to ask your self.

Here are some…

• Behavioural : everything you communicate to your customers has a purpose. What do you want them to know?

• Essential : deliver information that your best propects and customers require to succeed in work or life – meet them expressed needs and wants – better still fulfil their latent needs.

• Strategic: – your efforts must be an integral part of the company overall business strategy - link your online endeavour (social media) to bottom-line results.

• Integrated Communication: Social media needs to be coherent with other modes BUT please do not just put a Press Release onto a social media platform (BIG MISTAKE).

• Targeted – you need to target your content (i.e. products precisely so that it is truly relevant to your prospects. Shift consumer behaviour via education.

• Ownership – get someone to spear head it and get that person to OWN it. I am a firm believer of people do not do what you say but what you paid. Pay for their behaviour and performance.

and last but not least – measure it! online can always be measured , but only if you have a clear understanding of your strategic communications objectives. just keep it simple – “how will we know that my content (social endeavour) is working to begin with….

What are your thoughts? I am keen to hear.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Social Media Marketing has received centre stage in most of today’s marketer’s planning plateau, e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube etc. Not is it without a day passed without a mentioned of them.

Marketers are curious about this ‘new’ media channel, proponents of it highlight its strong ability in improving the bottom line. Well to be honest, it’s really not a surprise, given that that many studies depict a sense of positivism in it. For example, TNS USA study in 2007 found the following…

“if you had 15 minutes of free time…”

1. 17% Social networking
2. 17% Talk on Cell
3. 14% Watch tV
4. 10% Surf the internet etc.

and Forrestor Research’s highly positive report on social media. For more information please view my previous entry found here.

If these numbers hold water, it definitely paints a picture that social media networking is a force to be reckon with and companies should engage them, afterall one of marketer’s many tasks is to seek customer engagement though many of the touch points available at its disposal.

However the reality is social media marketing is something of a black box, marketers inject programs into the black box and cross their fingers at the output. Though we appreciate the art of it, there should be some science involved to track. After all in the boardroom, numbers do the talking and in addition, there has been a saying, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”.

If this mantra is true, does this really hold water in the social media networking or marketing world? Well maybe, well maybe not. I do not know. But what I can offer is if we were to approach the measurement, we could perhaps look at alternatives – after all there is no such thing as a one off solution, no?

Perhaps the standard quantitative notions of approach to analyzing data (bounce rate, CTR, regression, path analysis etc) may be cast aside for qualitative methods? afterall social being social requires the need for verbal and face checks, no? or perhaps we should just get companies to state their objectives and we just track certain metrics. Do we really need to measure it? that is the question. Or shall we just let social media play its role and just cross our fingers and hopefully the spread of it is positive and will correlate positively with profitability and hope that we can control the spread if its negative.

Well what are your thoughts? I’m keen on hearing them.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Related posts:

1. To Seed or Not to Seed on Social Media Networks – Stealth Marketing? A day doesn’t go by (online and offline) where people...
2. Authentic Marketing in Social Media – Paying People to Seed Comments – Trust In media such as prints, TV ads, consumers will understand...
3. Social Media humanizes your brand? Sure but firms are more concerned about “negative comments”…true? You bet! of course that depends on how you interaction...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Many seem to have ignored the fact that the digital space has been around for more than an decade. It is no longer a new media as what the traditional media owners are trying to paint in the corporate world. A new generation of digitally savvy users are now every ready to experiment, explore and participate as a global online community citizen.

This maturing digital community has created a critical mass that is sufficiently large enough for marketing professionals to measure and make inferences on the behavioural aspects of different segments within the community. This is the insight which is sadly not practiced (as much as we would like) in the marketing profession as measuring and analytics is not a discipline which most practicing industry marketeers prefer to engage in (sad but true).

If so, is there a reason why?

Personally, I feel that this lack of discipline will come back to haunt them as the digital space (moving forward) offer the best and most effective means to measure and assess their customers’ preferences. It is only through this insight that the marketing professional can make evolutionary changes to their products and services to match their customers’ changing needs.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.