Have Social Media Analysts Gone Crazy?
June 22, 2011 5 Comments
Sometimes I think if I hear the word “engage” one more time I’m going to scream. Please understand. I’m in a unique position where I interact with social media “experts” selling their services daily. I’ve seen their bios and I’ve read their tweets. There’s a lot of excitement over “engagement” and sentiment analysis and there’s a “wild west” sort of mentality where self proclaimed experts are rushing in to fill the void.
In some ways we’re all guilty of it, we social media professionals. We use words like “engage” and “connect” and “brand relationship.” There are legitimate firms out there taking good money for building Facebook pages and developing Twitter strategies and then reporting back to their clients on sentiment, number of followers and “engagement.”
There is some truth to these numbers so I don’t want to completely minimize their importance. These tools allow us to measure our fans’ and followers’ interaction or *wince* engagement with our brand. We can see, in granular detail, what people click on, what they comment on, when they visit, what they “like.” Social media firms put together glossy reports on this stuff and tailor their strategies to it and it looks and feels like important information and in some ways it is. In a lot of ways though, it isn’t.
Image courtesy of rankmagic.com
It’s snake oil.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Numbers of followers and sentiment can’t measure the success of your social media strategy. Clear through the hysteria and hype and remember that there is a person at the other end of that tweet or Facebook post. That person represents a potential or current customer or in a B2B environment, a representative for a business prospect. What do they care about? What can we do to help them? Of course, the most important question is, are they going to buy from you and then tell their friends about it? How do we get them to do that?
Businesses need social media analysts with a deep understanding of social media tools and how to use them to foster these relationships. They need people with a business background and an understanding of marketing principals, search engine optimization skills, good grammar and spelling (yes that matters) and a genuine passion for people and their profession. They need specialists that can measure how all this can and will translate into more business.
There are lots of talented social media professionals out there that can offer this to their clients. Whether it is training on the tools or a session on strategy, these professionals can help businesses succeed in this “wild west” environment. If you do decide to take the plunge, make sure you’re working with one of them. Make sure they’re offering you real bottom line value.
I’d love to hear your stories. What, as a business owner, are you looking for in a consultant? Comment here, or send me a tweet @suereynolds or leave me a post on my Facebook page.
About Sue Reynolds
Good call, Sue. As you know, I’ve been working in social media for some time now, and I agree. There are a few good tools and metrics out there one can look at to help gauge how social media is helping a communications/marketing program on a larger scale. And there are also those that are very detailed about certain things that really can be time wasters. To me, it’s much more fruitful to be spending your time actually connecting and using social media rather than worrying about “engagement” metrics and one’s Klout score. Being there, being real and paying attention to more than the numbers can tell me much more than an nonstandard algorithm. I know value when I see it and participate in it, and oftentimes it’s the qualitative and anecdotal successes that can’t be measured that are the most valuable. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to experiment with various tools and metrics, but being obsessive about it and focusing solely on the numbers just takes time away from providing real value. Let’s not forget the social side of social media.
Here here! Thanks for adding your thoughts Dan – much appreciated. You are a talented communicator and can recognize and understand real value based on your intuition and experience along with some calculated metrics. I’m sure you can also show an increase in membership to the Farm Bureau based on your efforts, which is part of your bottom line no doubt. Thanks for posting!
Sue
Excellent post Sue! I think all too often, businesses focus so much on establishing a social media presence and building followers that they overlook the obvious – social media is a powerful marketing tool that really puts a company “out there”, for better or for worse. It reminds me of a line in the original Karate Kid – “Karate do, okay … karate no do, okay … karate do so-so … (sound of a breaking bone).” Social media is the same. Do it right, or don’t do it at all.
Anybody can set up a Facebook or Twitter account and start building followers. But turning those followers (and their associates) into customers means hiring somebody who truly knows all the ins and outs of social media, and who is able to communicate with both marketing and the customer base in a coherent and professional manner. And you’re right – spelling and grammar count.
It’s like anything else in business – you get what you pay for. Hire a professional, and you can expect professional results. Very few businesses will trust their advertising to an amateur copywriter. But far too many trust their social media presence to the employee who has the most spare time on their hands. Go figure.
Dave you have it exactly right! Thanks for adding your thoughts here as well. I so appreciate your insights and your common sense approach here. Well said!
Sue
Good commentary Sue, all too often marketers default to letting numbers determine success rather than using them as information tools. It reminds me a bit of the 1:1 CRM craze in the late 20th century, when CRM, with the emerging power of database management, was preached as the ultimate marketing solution. No matter what, marketing is about being valuable and valued by customers. Numbers can provide indicators of activity, but they are not the value themselves.