Looking at Social Media Beyond the Cool Factor

Posted by Gino Cosme

May 23, 2008

In my experience an effective online marketing campaign must aim to do one of five organic things: generate a lead, communicate an important message, improve reputation, cut down costs, and/or establish a relationship with current and potential customers, brand enthusiasts and supporters.

While SEO and paid media placement are both highly effective in attracting the right people to the right webpage (note, I say webpage and not website), social media takes this one step further by engaging with visitors with genuine, relevant two-way conversations and interactions related to the business but of interest to the user across the various phases of the customer journey or life cycle. When executed properly, this is done in an integrated manner over an extended period of time across an array of social media tools with the ultimate goal of improving a business’ bottom line by working towards set goals and milestones.

While I totally agree that true value must sit on the side of the user or consumer, ultimately social media marketing (or as I prefer to call it, relations) must be about a company and their business and communications objectives over the short- and long-term. It is a set of tools and disciplines that allow businesses to bring awareness of a brand into new markets, engage and educate people, subtly generate leads and pitch for new business, support and extend the life span of the customer, conduct research and directly solicit customer feedback, to name just some.

To do this effectively, a company must be open to a number of changes within the business. This includes things like hiring the right people (both internal and external), streamlining internal process, being open to both positive and negative public feedback, and of course evolving traditional, sometimes outdated methods to keep up with the world wide web and its people.

We’re in a period where I think it’s time to get over the hype of social media and start looking at how it can be used to not only add a cool factor to a business or brand but also extend certain verticals of a business strategy. We need to start tapping into the power of social media for business return because until we do this people - the public, business decision makers, the media - aren’t going to take it seriously.

So how do we do this?

I think the answer lies in two things that other online strategies have been using for years: the science of number crunching and the identification of those business activities that could effectively migrate to more cost effective digital alternatives. As an example, by comparing the cost of traditional versus digital talent recruitment, including all costs throughout both options, including time, we see that online recruitment options make most sense for many large corporates. These same comparisons can be made for many other business activities, including exhibitions, advertising, PR, and even account management. And while I am more of a communicator and marketer at heart, having seen these exact spreadsheets and strats in action many times over, I know they work not only in convincing executive level decision makers to sign off budgets but also in measuring results.

One part of being a consultant is answering the question “will social media work?” While impossible to predict, what we can do is improve probability by addressing specific goals that suit the medium, doing some math, thinking outside the box, and having a dynamic plan of action with milestones. By going back to these fundamentals, we’ll be able to monitor the progress and optimise for better return.

Social Media