Since the dawn of social media, I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter from marketing folks about when, where and how to approach it. Among those who have rightfully acknowledged the fact that it is having a profound impact on the way businesses should approach their communications strategies, there seem to be two diverging streams of thought. Some in the field seem to be taking the tact that if social media is the next big thing, then being an “expert” in social media is a smart career move. These are usually the people with words like “experience”, “knowledge” and, yes, “expert” in their Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, etc. profiles–the ones who claim to be the gurus of a new phenomenon called “social media marketing”. There has even been a push amongst this crowd to develop social media marketing certificates to add to their resumes. Let’s call them the “aspiring pros”.
The other stream of thought is pretty much a reaction against this: those who think that the concept of social media marketing is an oxymoron. If the medium is truly social, then the consumer is the one with the power to carry a message about a product or organization. No “expert” can truly influence behavior in this kind of atmosphere, and anyone claiming to be such is not only fooling their clients, they’re fooling themselves. They tend to focus on social media as communities–where businesses can attempt to engage and gain the community’s loyalty. Let’s call them the “self-proclaimed tenderfoots”.
When these two strains of thought clash, the aspiring pros tend to wonder when the self-proclaimed tenderfoots will allow the same marketing standards to apply to social media that apply to other forms of marketing–ROI being the prime example. The tenderfoots, knowing these kinds of questions are inevitable, tend to answer with statements that go like, “The medium is too new. Give it time.”
When I see statements like this, that seem to want to delay the marketing questions that we’ve all been taught to ask, I think, Until when? When are these kinds of questions appropriate? When will social media be truly ‘ready’ for them?
My gut reaction to this is simple: never. The self-proclaimed tenderfoots (with which I tend to align, for full disclosure’s sake) will never be ready to ask these questions of social media, because social media is in its essence a form of communication that is something completely different. Standard marketing measures work fine for standard marketing forms, but there is no way to effectively measure a medium that truly empowers the consumer over the marketer. And that makes people taught to measure the effectiveness of every dollar understandably uncomfortable.
I’ve argued previously that this is part of a cultural mindshift change that is not to be taken lightly. Social media is essentially a post-modern medium; every other type of marketing vehicle is not. So why do we keep trying to fit a square peg into a round hole?
What do you think? Do you feel there a way to reconcile the need for measures with a medium that shuns the idea?
Photo credit: lumaxart
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Loved this post, as I’m currently in the middle of trying to convince one of my current employers that developing a social media presence would be a beneficial step, and I’m having a difficult time without being able to lean on more traditional metrics to convince my (substantially more old school) bosses.
I’m new to this whole debate, and really the social media scene as a whole, but I feel like I may sit (cautiously) in the tenderfoot camp as well.
That being said, I think its only a matter of time before post-modern media leads to post-modern determinations of value. The standard ROI questions may not apply, but surely there are other metrics a savvy marketer can measure effectiveness by?
Thanks Robby. I loved your thought about post-modern determinations of value. I was just having a discussion with someone on another site about being OK with qualitative measures as well as quantitative, and I think that’s probably where this discussion is going. We need to be OK with pointing at relationships when we can’t point directly at dollar signs.
Thanks again.
Right on. I had a commenter say once that some companies wait to get on Twitter because they want to see if Twitter will last – so silly! Also, there are plenty of case studies that confirm the value (and revenue increases) as a result of social media.
I get where you’re coming from. And I’m not sure you’re wrong, BUT…
I will be one of the people pushing for measurement of the ROI of social media initiatives and trying to get more ROI from them.
We have clients who need to decide on the best spend… Email Marketing? SEO? PPC? Social Media?
Social Media can be measured a variety of ways- the value added can be mid-stream (pre-buy) elements like:
* new links to site (SEO value)
* emails added (market to with email marketing)
But if social media only adds traffic to the site, in the absence of site analytics that determine if these people later become buyers, email sign-ups, etc., we really can’t say that this exposure has any value.
Saying you’ve created relationships isn’t enough either. There are thousands of people I could go meet and form relationships with that would not help me reach my goals better than the 10-50 people I really need to meet. And many of those thousand people don’t know any of the 10-50 I need.
We can argue for 6 degrees of separation, but does that mean that if you go to enough Rotary meetings, you’ll eventually meet the President of the US? Or Kevin Bacon? Or Bill Gates? I don’t think so.
Marketing on a limited budget for specific goals requires targeting people and the ability to measure the fact that reaching these people helped us get closer to those goals.
Great discussion starter! I do agree that the social media “experts” are more then likely overselling and under delivering when you look past a small group of individuals. I will disagree thought that I believe social media absolutely can be measured and needs to be measured if it is ever going to used as a viable marketing tool. This is not to say that measuring it will be or is easy but it is necessary. I do agree though, all existing marketing metrics need to be thrown out and we start new, and we are doing that I’d say! With the vast amounts of data available online the real discussions are around what do we measure and how, and that depends on your objectives as a business. ROI is a bit of a different matter, certainly very important but much more difficult to quantify. ROI though has been the white whale of marketing since we started, the difference now though I’d say is we have so much real time data that something is possible.
When somebody questions the ROI of social media, they have already missed the point. It is worse than the mentality of trying to measure the ROI on taking a client to a ball game or going to dinner. Building relationships should not be measured by dollars and cents. I have just been communicating with a friend whom I met and have built a strong friendship since 1998. I have never asked her for business or for referrals, but you can bet that if she knows somebody who needs my services, I will get the call. Further, I did a lot of dating online years before it was common and finally met my wife online in 2000. We are now expecting our third child in April 2009. Social networking has been ready for years, but people being ready for it is another story. Social networking used to happen in ballrooms and the corner restaurant. The primary thing that changed was the venue.
@Brian
“Marketing on a limited budget for specific goals requires targeting people and the ability to measure the fact that reaching these people helped us get closer to those goals.” I think it’s nice to say this, but be careful that you’re not limiting your imagination as far as what your marketing can achieve. It’s important to focus on those 10-50 people, but I think you’re undervaluing the brand equity you build with other relationships, who may be influencing those key people, when you use social media to build communities around your brand. It’s this brand equity that is hard to put a $ in front of, and if you desperately need the $, you’re going to miss out.
I would actually recommend David Meerman Scott’s e-book on this issue, “Lose Control of Your Marketing”, which can be found here:
http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/documents/Marketing_ROI.pdf
Let me know what you think.
Thanks for the comment.
@Tony
I would actually agree with you that social media should be measured – what I was trying to get at is exactly what you were saying: that all existing marketing metrics should be re-evaluated in light of the new medium. And that pretending that one day our current metrics will magically work once social media has been “tested” and is “ready” for them is wishful thinking.
@Mark
I love the personal story about your wife. Way to make an emotional (literally) appeal for social networking.
It’s an interesting thought that social networking has been around for years. You’re right – it literally has in that we’ve always built relationships with those around us. I think what is happening is that the Web is making us more cognizant of the relationships we build, because we’re able to build them with people that we never would have been in contact with before.
Hmm… have to give that some more thought. Sounds like an interesting post on its own…
@caleb
Since my comment, I was on the phone with a good friend I know from my “other job” racing cars. His very financially successful company has a churn issue because of a hugely competitive market with tiny margins. I used myself as an example with him. I explained that he would not hear my message as clearly if he did not know me, my wife, my children, and my integrity. He has been in my garage working on racecars with me at 3:00am before a big event, and we drive around corners at 100+++MPH together, for the sake of Pete. He knows that I have a lot more at stake than a sales pitch. We have a relationship. I have tried to reach his executive staff to understand that without relationships, all we have is a sales pitch, and that people do not buy the pricetag but rather what is attached. He gets the message, and he is really excited to work together, as am I, but he is getting a lot of pushback on implementation from his fellow execs. They have a corporate stuffiness that does not even match their written message and their goals. The bottom line is that if we miss the relationships, we work much harder and achieve less. You built on our relationship by engaging me with your reply. This is how stuff really works. My next blog article about it is forthcoming.
@Mark
Fantastic. Make sure to send it to me when it’s done. Love to read it.
You asked, you got it, Caleb. I wrote it and gave much credit to you.
I hope you like it!
http://www.awebguy.com/2009/02/proof-social-networking-works/