Brad Little looks at the value of social media
Made Social on 30 September 2010 | View Comments
Brad started by talking about all the stuff businesses are hearing at the moment: data, the new media landscape (paid, owned and earned) and new processes (listen, learn, strategise, leverage etc). But what does that mean in real terms?
There is a new funnel: awareness – consideration – purchase and finally expression and its this expression that’s changed. We have to do things differently these days, advertising isn’t working as well as it used to so we need to sharpen our knives and do it better (but not stop advertising altogether). People are thinking about what can replace how we used to do things, but it might not be about ‘replacing’. Its about doing it better.
All too often businesses are attending conferences like this and come away thinking they need to ‘do’ social media. Which to them means a Facebook page or Twitter profile. 6 months down the line they normally start asking where the ROI is. This is when they come to Brad and ask him to ‘measure’ social meda. This is the wrong way round.
Brad cited: 26% of online discussion mentions brands. Every one of those mentions is a media impression. Just because you didn’t pay for them or generate them, they exist and they should be measured and reported. These mentions can influence how people think about your brand or product. He showed a case study on TV Buzz which, from 20,000 buzz mentions created 10 million unique views and resulted in great reach for the brand. His point: buzz does equal reach.
The challenge to social media strategy is understanding the measurement and how it is organised. The challenges of social media measurement are around relevance (are we identifying relevant information), reach and impact (are we measuring the full reach and influence) and advocacy (understanding key influencers and what that means). The key blockage is at the organisational and cultural side and this needs to be addressed. A company has to be willing and open to change to achieve what they need to, or at least meet us half way.
If we treat social media like an advertising channel, we ruin the fabric of what it’s about. It’s not just about broadcasting messages and it’s not just about sales and marketing, it crosses over:
- Customer insight and NPD: Brad used Kraft as an example of how they used social to understand what consumers love and want.
- Optimising marketing: The Evian dancing roller babies was used as an example here which had a big increase in lift in engagement and awareness and drove people to the website, far more than paid advertising. The result was 5% increase in sales in the weeks following the campaign.
- Managing reputation and the impact of association: Brad looked at the change in the Tiger Woods brand before and after he cheated on his wife. Brand image can change very quickly through conversation on social media.
- Customer service, building advocacy for your brand and increase customer value: BT was used as an example here with its customer service Twitter channel (although I have my own views on this, but that’s not for this platform). This is a big fundamental shift for businesses but it’s not being embraced enough yet.
Brads key messages:
- Social media is relevant, impactful, drives intent and influences sales.
- Figure out why you’re ‘doing’ social media. Set objectives. Understand what you’re trying to achieve and measure it (right).
brad.little@nmincite.com
@GemmaWent, Founder of Red Cube Marketing and Social Collective Live Blogger extraordinaire (please excuse typos and grammatical errors … I’m typing this uber fast)
