Forget traffic. Forget dollars and cents. For measuring ROI in social media, engagement metrics are all that matter.
Okay, we all know that pure numbers can’t measure the world. Social media is particularly tricky to tack down to numbers; how do you measure the quantitative value of this comment thread on Facebook?
Is that one point for iPhone? A negative point for BlackBerry? How many for Android? Does it add .000001 percent to Apple’s brand valuation? You get my point. We know this post has value, but trying to quantify that value might not be the right exercise. More...
Tags: that's debatable, social media, engagement, financials, metrics, traffic, numbers, online, internet, roi |
Categories: Social Media, That's Debatable
Introducing That’s Debatable – a new approach we’ll be taking to expand upon the popular brandchannel debate section to provide a platform for debating the “big picture,” sharing more perspectives, and delivering more value to our readers.
That’s Debatable will take on big topics in our industry that offer rich opportunities for debating the merits of different points of view. We’re jumping in with one of the most widely debated topics out there right now: social media. What does it do for brands? How does it work? How do we measure it? How do we use it to a brand’s best advantage?
Over the next 10 weeks, we’ll be posting a new point/counterpoint on a social media hot button each week to hear what you have to say on the matter. We’ll also be sharing some thoughts of our own – Interbrand experts across the global network will be weighing in on each topic with perspectives and examples to keep the fire of controversy burning bright. We’re also posting a social media survey that covers the Top 10 questions we hear most often – from clients, industry thought leaders, and readers like you – so we have some data to round out our understanding of how people feel about social media. When the 10 weeks are up, we’ll do the legwork to collect all of the ideas and conversations shared throughout this edition of That’s Debatable, and share the results with all of you.
We hope you’ll share your thoughts with us – take the survey, offer your comments, suggest new topics, tell us what you’ve posted on your own blog that’s relevant to the conversation. That’s Debatable is here so all of our opinions can be heard and used to collectively shape the best way to build brand value.
Thanks for playing.
Beyond pioneering and popularizing what is arguably one of the most revolutionary art forms of the last two decades – and some of the most meaningful recasting of pop culture since the work of Warhol – the video remix-master-DVJs of Eclectic Method are serving up the latest Holy Grail of communications: A glimpse into the experience of today’s multi-channel multi-media info-content consumers.
I’m talking about people like you and me who are surfing facebook, chatting online, fast-forwarding commercials to get to the next scenes of The Soup, writing a blog post and reading a magazine – simultaneously. The rapid rise of this type of consumer has been a hot topic at almost every communications conference or future-forward planning session over the past few years. And the same questions always arise: How do these people experience the world? How do they integrate and filter the copious amount of content coming from mainstream media and mainstream everyone else? How can we penetrate the chaos and get our message across? Really: WHAT DO THESE PEOPLE WANT? More...
Today I checked the Twitter feed of one of my go-to guys for great content, Undercurrent digital strategist Mike Arauz, and happened upon this conversation between him and Ivan Askwith, senior strategist at Big Spaceship:
mikearauz what if you empowered 10,000 people who loved your brand to share, cooperate, and take collective action on the web?
ivanovitch @mikearauz Counter-question: what can a brand do to let people share, cooperate & take collective action that they can't do for themselves?
mikearuaz @ivanovitch right, i think that what the brand brings to the table is the ability to introduce a large number of people to each other
This strikes me as the crux of the issue around what a brand can/should contribute to the social media experience – that it uniquely enables people to connect in a real way, revealing common passions and creating real-world ways to share them. This is what I consider the game-changing secret ingredient to brand success in social media.
Nothing demonstrates this principle better than Town Holler. Leveraging the location-based mobile platform of nightlife brand Foursquare, Conrad Lisco and Richard Schatzberger created Town Holler, an in-person pub crawl that brings together the most active and passionate users of the service, the Foursquare Mayors. (Huh? Foursquare? Mayors? Get your answers here) The great turnout (see pics here), the active interest on Twitter (#townholler) and the NYTimes coverage are all evidence of Town Holler’s success. So is the fact that it’s already generated a wave of anticipation of users from San Francisco (location of the next Town Holler) to Amsterdam. But beyond the success of the event, Town Holler is even more telling of the success of the Foursquare brand, by revealing how it taps into a true human passion and generates real brand-based user interaction. How do I know? Because Town Holler creators Lisco and Schatzberger aren’t employees of Foursquare. Just passionate users of the service.
Perhaps using an already digital/mobile/social media service like Foursquare as an example of brand doing great things seems unfair. But any brand, no matter how brick-and-mortar or B2B, can learn something from Foursquare, because it exemplifies the six key ingredients of building success in social media:
#1: Be Simple. Signing up takes 5 minutes. Checking in (how users indicate location to participate in the service) only takes 1 minute. The points and prizes that keep people checking in again and again are instantly calculated. Make it easy, make it fun, and they will come.
#2: Offer Social Utility. The service allows users to find current friends and meet new friends by revealing like-minded revelers nearby.
#3: Increase Personal Status. By letting individuals share the places they visit, their favorite things to do at each spot, and the ranking they’ve gathered through check-ins, Foursquare automatically tallies each person’s “cool points.” Whether or not coolness is quantifiable is debatable, but I’m definitely just as apt to check out the To-Do lists of the high ranks as I am my friends.
#4: Provide Relevant Information from Genuine Sources. Foursquare is centered around users’ common passion – restaurants and nightlife – but helps people find what they like most through seeing detailed tips from users, like what a certain place serves, does particularly well, or if it has great specials certain nights of the week. And because each user has nothing more than their own personal rep at stake, there is little reason not to trust the recommendations.
#5: Measure Me. As the Internet increases access to data, we as individuals have become more and more obsessed with knowing our stats. How many views of my Flickr photostream? How many hits – unique, daily, monthly – on my blog? When? From where? We want to know the details. Foursquare provides stats that let you track where you go, how often, how many places are new, on what days you go out most – etc.
#6: Facilitate Integration Control. With blogs, Facebook profiles, Twitter feeds, Flickr photostreams, etc. as the norm of now, we are always looking for a better way to bring it all together – or keep it all apart. Foursquare allows integration to Twitter, sharing with friends on Foursquare – or, you can hide your Foursquare check-ins, stay blissfully out of the spotlight, and still earn all the points you deserve.
These six ingredients aren’t tremendously new – though Foursquare does an excellent job of executing on them. But Town Holler takes Foursquare’s social brand success to the next level. It reveals the seventh and super special secret ingredient of what it means for a brand to do social right:
#7: Inspire Real-World Connections. Get your passionate user-base talking to each other. Even better, get them face-to-face. Be the engine that helps them forge relationships. Create a foundation from which these relationships can grow.
Super Special Secret Ingredient #7 is the one that shows that your brand is being adopted into the lives of your users. That it’s becoming part of a recurring ritual. That people are no longer dialoging with your brand but internalizing it as part of their personal “innerlogue.”
And that, as Mike and Ivan hit on this morning, is really what a brand can – and should – bring to the table.
