Turning likes into loyalty…… the ultimate prize of social engagement
“Is the short term tangible ROI more valuable than the insight we gain from long term engagement with your customers and the business potential thereof?”
I posed this question in a blog earlier this year (read here) and it seems this topic is still up for debate.
Ted Rubin, Chief Social Marketing Officer at Collective Bias suggests in his book Return on Relationship that “Social Media drives engagement, engagement drives loyalty, and loyalty correlates directly to increased sales. Return on Relationship™ = ROI”.
If this equation deems true…I’d like to unpack how marketers can begin to understand how to use this metric to determine ROI from social media.
We know that there is no real correlation between vanity metrics and revenue impact. What I mean here is that the more likes, follows & shares do not necessarily lead to an increase in income.
In a recent webinar, hosted by loyalty 360, there were 4 main questions marketers were dabbling with in attempt to answer “How to measure ROI from social media”
1. Quite obviously: What’s the ROI of SM?
Marketers are saying that is it difficult to justify increasing spend on social media arguing whether or not you can directly compare ROI attained from TV commercials & billboards etc. to the cost of your social media activities.
“Social media is so popular and effective as a marketing tool because it focuses on the customer experience instead of just throwing an advertisement at them and hoping the impression will stick.” by Ted Rubin.
The realization is, the lifespan of each of these channels are dramatically different and if you cannot justify spend per campaign (output) especially in social media, how does one begin to measure the return?
2. Do marketers care enough about data?
Data is not yet seen as an important tool to help increase effectiveness of marketing campaigns and social media campaigns……how come?
Currently, there seems to be not enough time dedicated to training. There are little to no resources, no skills, no staff & no ability (or desire by marketers) to get to the heart of data and how to attribute it across the company. The scale & complexity of data has changed dramatically – what used to be done by marketing teams on excel is no longer possible, it’s far too complex and leads to incorrect insights.
Businesses have evolved so much so that not only does your financial department or IT department use data…but your marketers HAVE to use data too.
Advice given from the panel on the webinar suggest that marketers need to start from the beginning by defining their social media strategy to create & include insights derived from data.
Webinar host, Wes Brooks says, “No business has a data problem; they have a filter problem. Your analytics model has to look at the whole interconnected digital ecosystem for predictive data.”
It is essential for dialogues on data to start internally – data is needed from internal business partners and everyone needs to fine comb the data that is relevant to their department, but which aids to the bigger picture.
Lauren Swanson @swantonsoup Marketers who embrace #data will get to leave the kids table and sit with the adults in the C-Suite. #SMTlive
Social Intelligence @SDLsocial The future of marketing/sales is going to be data driven. You can use data to narrow down exact steps in the customer journey. #SMTlive
That’s why companies such as ourselves at Truth work strategically with data insights experts like P:cubed. The end client value proposition in the B2B market places is meaningless if data cannot be demystified.
3. Job titles & description are no longer clean cut.
The scale of a digital role is tremendous and the expectations are too high. There is major challenge to find one person to cover all aspects on this so called Social Media/Digital Strategist role. The expectation is that this job should cover roles that in their own capacity are so widespread such as digital & social media strategist, marketing manager, content & CRM management to mention a few.
Another change worth mentioning in organisations today is the CMO, CFO and CIO relationship….they’re big mates now. The CMO role has changed by becoming increasingly responsible for tech investments & actions driven by data insights. There should also be a single line that connects your social media manager and his/her team to your CMO.
Josh Milenthal @JM_allgrownup The most common misconception is that “social” is just something someone can do on the side. It’s a full time gig.
4. Focus on content…..not just selling.
As mentioned above, there is no real correlation between vanity metrics and revenue impact. The notion of accumulating as many likes/followers/fans will soon no longer be a metric to gauge popularity of a brand or show how truly engaged they are with their fans.
The true metric will be how engaged and loyal their fans are. Good content builds trust, builds credibility. Content is read to acquire knowledge and shared to spread that knowledge. Technology has broken down the barriers between brands and customers making it much easier to speak AND listen to your customers and vice versa. It allows for ‘on demand response’ to the needs of your customers.
Become more creative with your content and move passed the pre-populated Facebook post or tweet. Use your data wisely and fuel content based on the insight you have about your customers. It gives your customers the chance to feel more for your brand once you’ve taken the time to engage with them about what’s relevant to them.
Josh Milenthal @JM_allgrownup Look at it like this. When marketing in person, do you preach a message or hold a conversation? Conversations increase trust/sales #SMTlive
Challenge yourself and think beyond the audience…..how do I change them into advocates? The advocates are what create the reality of the brand. People are watching & listening to these advocates so pay attention to who they are.
Ros Siddle, Marketing & Loyalty Research Manager, Truth
