Monthly Archives: October 2011

Social Media roadkill: Death by vanity metrics

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What’s the main goal of your social media objectives? To get more followers on Twitter or Facebook?

If that’s so, it shouldn’t be.

Vanity metrics still prevail

According to Chief Marketer’s 2011 Social Media Marketing Survey, the number of friends, followers, and likes is the leading measure of social media success for 60% of marketers. In fact, only 35% of marketers said they track qualified leads from social media. This means that a whopping 65% of marketers aren’t even measuring leads generated from social media. Eek!

top social media metricsMaximizing your reach is important, but this shouldn’t be the intent. This is the biggest problem when starting a social media initiative; defining what metrics really matter. Vanity metrics, such as number of fans and followers, really don’t matter. If, at the end of the day you have nothing to show for your increased reach, are your marketing efforts even worth it?

I see way too many social media programs start with the objective of ‘acquiring followers’, as many as possible. This approach is flawed because it begins with the assumption that just tweeting and posting status updates will entice people to follow you. It doesn’t work that way.

Instead you should look a little deeper and come up with a profile of your ideal follower/fan. If your marketing already includes this profile or profiles then you are in good luck because now it’s a matter scanning through potential followers. Tools like SproutSocial can help you dig through a multitude of people to engage with either by tracking specific keywords in conversations, bios or names.

An all out approach is tempting and the majority of businesses approach social media this way, but it’s not the most effective way to go about it. Doing it this way ignores the fact that there are many tools to help target your strategy to very specific people.

Talking to everyone is talking to no one, in this day and age.

One more thing to remember, everyone is thinking the same way you do, and are frustrated by the same results. So why would you expect any different?

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What influences women to buy when they shop?

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Many influencers!

“The Atlantic” has a great writeup from a new book called, “Why She Buys”, by Bridget Brennan, CEO of Female Factor. The book is about how women shop and how advertisers and retailers can better understand the psychology of female consumers.

Among the highlights:

  • Caregiving extends to shopping. “They look at shopping as part of their caregiving role in the family and household. This means that women are buying on behalf of everyone in their lives, and as a result they are constantly considering the needs of others when they shop — even when they are shopping for themselves.”
  • Personalized experiences win women over. This isn’t a shocker but considering the first point, it makes even more sense. A personalized customer experience that also includes a woman’s family produces higher levels of emotional attachment.
  • Women enjoy shopping with friends more than men. Not a shocker either. For women, shopping with friends equals catching up. Catching with a friend is a big part of a woman’s shopping experience and can easily influence her purchases.
  • In commercials women like humor without victims. This one is interesting.

Considering how all these points connect, you can see that for women it’s all about their family and friends. Any customer experience that includes both these factors is a winner with women, it will engage a woman’s emotions and influence her to buy.

The article is a good read, you should definitely check it out!

What do you think, what other factors influence women to buy when they shop?

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6 ways to use Twitter strategically

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Twitter has existed for awhile now, after 5 years, and with over 200 millions users, it’s now a mainstream social network. Even with mainstream usage, there are still many businesses who still ask themselves: How exactly do I use Twitter for my business?

Let me tell you something: There are no rules.

There are various reasons for which you could use Twitter such as customer service, reputation management, promotions; but how to engage these activities successfully is a different thing altogether.

I found the this infographic below which lays out a more strategic approach to using Twitter with the some activities related to each strategy. If you’re a small business who is just started thinking about how to use Twitter for your business, this should definitely help you get an idea as to how go about it in a smart way.

strategic approach to using Twitter

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How Mattel used ‘Hot Wheels Stunt’ to grow it’s business through social media

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Is consumer advocacy much more impactful than traditional media impression? Yes. That’s the idea behind Mattel’s Record Breaking Stunt at the Indy 500 earlier this year. Below is the presentation about their record breaking stunt and how it was driven by social media.

Mattel: Hot Wheels’ Record Breaking Stunt, presented by Betsy Burkett and Gretchen de Castellane from GasPedal and SocialMedia.org on Vimeo.

Betsu Burkett makes an important point in the Q&A when asked if the stunt drove sales. Her response: This wasn’t about driving sales, it was about getting Mattel out of the toy aisle and into the view of a much older generation of people.

Presentation given by Mattel Executives Betsy Burkett and Gretchen de Castellane:

BlogWell San Francisco Case Study: Mattel, presented by Betsy Burkett & Gretchen de Castellane

Video of Record Breaking Jump

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Coke: Our brands are owned by consumers

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Coke certainly understands how it should treat it’s customers online according to Jonathan Mildenhall, VP, Global Advertising Strategy and Content Excellence.

He also brings up an interesting point about where innovation in this space is headed: how do you create frictionless brand engagement?

It’s a 6 minute interview well worth watching:

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Is brand loyalty dead?

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Quick think about it, name 5 brands to which you are loyal to. Brands you just can’t live without.

Ready?

Now that you got those in your head, I’m sure your brands are the more flashier things you buy such as shoes, accessories, clothes, bags, etc.

But what happens if we take these away and you can’t choose them? Any other brands come to mind?

I’m sure they don’t. I’m also sure those brands you can’t name outnumber the ones you can’t live without.

Nowadays, there’s so many brands buying for our attention that no wonder we only keep a special few close to our hearts. And, by the way, most of these ‘brands’ have been with us for awhile.

Why is it that there aren’t any brands worthy of mention? What would it take for a new brand to replace one of the ones you love?

I think there’s a HUGE opportunity for new businesses to create a strong and lasting brand. Why? Because social media makes it possible to make 1-to-1 connections with people. It let’s businesses create trust faster. All you have to do is reach out and be part of the conversation, or better yet, be the conversation.

But this also brings another problem: lots of noise. And all we see online is a lot of advertising and promotional communication by businesses trying to get people’s attention. What most businesses don’t understand is that this doesn’t work. People are becoming more aware of this to the point where they ignore any promotional messages thrown their way. Trying to be part of the conversation by bombarding people with constant promotional messages turns people off. You’re just another business selling something, not adding any value to my life.

Brand loyalty comes to those businesses that look out for our well being. That protect us. That nurture us. That add meaningful value to our life if even for a small moment. They won’t bombard us with advertising because they know advertising won’t improve our lives. It won’t bring a smile to our face. What they will give us is information that we may find useful. They’ll look after us because they understand our needs. And in return we give our loyalty. All this because that brand listened.

Anyway, what do you think. Is brand loyalty dead? What can brands do about it?

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Social Media was invented for women?

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According to Vickie Milazzo it was. Author of Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman, a self-help book for females which, in part, argues that women use social media more effectively than men.

Last week I asked you if , all evidence points to say they are.

Andrew Keen from Techcrunch asked Vickie why she thinks women are more effective at social media than men. Her response: Women are natural relationship builders.

It’s a valid argument and fits in with what I wrote about last week. Watch the full 12 minute interview, it’s well worth it and let me know what you think.

What do you think, are women hardwired to use social media more effectively than men?