Measuring success of social media engagement: Five pitfalls you must avoid
The interest in social media has been increasing among large businesses. Social media sites were once considered to be a past time of idle employees. But this impression has taken a beating. There is a palpable realization among the top brass that social media can be harnessed to project ones corporate image and enhance its credibility. Serious online marketers often come across questions which sometimes have no answers. Maybe because there are no answers at present. But often most of the queries seem to point towards one crucial question: How does one measure success of a social media engagement? As I said earlier, sometimes finding answers to such questions may be impossible or even fraught with danger. There are however pitfalls which you must avoid under any circumstances
1. Avoid succumbing to pressure of instant results
This is an infection you are likely to catch very fast when dealing with the corporate. Everybody wants results yesterday. But we must understand that social media activities have to percolate and seep down to be really effective. It is just not a wham bam job. Of course, I am not suggesting that you wait for years to get results. It is all about the mindset. Like sowing the seeds, nurturing the plants and then reaping the fruits. It is a steady process which takes time and effort. You have to be at it constantly. Not like a billboard on a highway which we can forget about. Here we have to constantly change our perspective, anticipate viewer response and act on suggestions and comments. At a conservative estimate, I will put six months before we can expect any tangible results.
2. Success in social media activity is subjective
As a social media specialist I have been bombarded with questions related to the metrics of a campaign. My observation here is that it is not possible to put down success of a social media engagement in percentage terms. Like, 80% of a facebook engagement will yield response. The idea of metrics ,let me tell you has emerged from Google ad campaigns. Here we know how many clicked and how many made a purchase. Marketing men in corporate expect the same kind of metrics here also. For them I have a simple question,” How do you measure the returns from an billboard advertisement. For example, how many people purchased XXX car after watching your billboard placed at BBB highway?” There is no way we can do that and traditional marketers know this for a fact. But they have been spoilt by Google. They expect everything online to be measureable. I as a social media specialist as well as an SEO veteran know the difference.
3. The impact of social media engagement is broadband
What is social media by the way? Social means encompassing the entire spectrum of social activities. A social media campaign works best when it addresses the whole gamut of business. For example, take MySpace . We cannot segment the audience as teenagers or employees or professionals or whatever. We cannot isolate a certain segment and then focus our social media campaign at this lot. Will I call this a limitation of social media? No way. It is actually a strength which one must exploit. Or use . I certainly can’t sell a tooth paste on MySpace .Or can I?
4. The social media platform is diffused
This text is in continuation of the previous para. To focus on a certain segment in terms of age, preference, demographics and spending ability is a lot more difficult here . Not that it cannot be done. Also, I demur that there are many out there who will tear down my views about the social media. But I stand my ground. If you are trying to sell cosmetics or run a campaign on a social media platform ,please go ahead. But don’t try to artificially segment the audience. Probably , a few focused forum on cosmetics may be in order. But that’s it.
5. The basis of any social media activity is collaboration
Once again I am forced to point my finger at the corporate world. All this talk about web 2.0 and collaboration seems to go right over the top of their head. What collaboration? We are running a marketing campaign. This is what I hear time and again. To me, this is simply not done. It is against the rules of the game. An engagement with social media means you have to follow the rules. If you cant don’t get into it. If you want then get used to collaboration. Get used to criticism. Get used to really painful feedback. Get used to reality. Many of us need a reality check before venturing into social media activity. It is dangerous for some and rewarding to some others.
I think there is enough for guys to mull over . I have not finished yet. So……..
