Ink Foundry - Social Media Marketing and Word of Mouth Marketing

Article From JustInCaseYouWereWondering
By Justin Goldsborough

Approximate Reading Time: 5 minutes

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times — (paraphrasing, of course) “When it comes to social media measurement, the number of fans or followers a brand has won’t tell us anything.”

I’ve thought about this philosophy a lot, so much in fact that I’ve become slightly OCD about it. It’s hard not to when the majority of the PR thought leaders I respect have at one time or another made a statement similar to the one above and followed it with contempt for agencies or “so-called” social media experts who only focus on these numbers.

If there was a way to un-fan fans and un-follow followers, I’d have done it by now. But they won’t go away and clients keep asking about them, so I’ve kept thinking about just what, if anything, these numbers actually tell us. And here’s what I’ve come up with:

I want to revise the statement, “The number of fans or followers a brand has won’t tell us anything.” Well, really, I just want to change one word — “The number of fans or followers a brand has won’t tell us everything.”

Fans and followers do tell us some things. They provide us an “at least” number of people that have visibility to the messages a brand shares via its Facebook and Twitter presences and the number of people who might share that message. In other words, Gatorade currently has 326,543 fans and 2,314 followers. That’s “at least” 328,857 (326,543 + 2,314) people who have visibility to a conversation on Gatorade’s wall or Twitter feed and who could share that conversation with their friends, followers, colleagues or anybody else.

Why is that 328,857 number important? Because we know a few things:

1. We know if Gatorade really needed to get a message out, say about a crisis, that message is likely to have a greater reach and be shared by more people if the company has 326,000 fans as opposed to 32,600. It’s purely a numbers issue.
2. We know people trust people and consumers more than they trust organizations. As Gatorade gains more fans, it gains more chances that a story about the company (e.g. helping a customer with as service issue on Facebook) will be told by the fans as opposed to the organization. And that’s a reputation win for the brand considering the source. How do you think Gatorade and other companies gain the majority of their fans and followers? Via word of mouth endorsement, of course.
3. We know that brand fans are an audience that serves as advocates for our clients and we want them to have stories to tell. And while we can’t guarantee that all fans or followers of an organization are actual brand fans, I think we’re safe guessing that the fans and followers of a company would be a good place to start when looking to engage fans of that brand.
4. We know the majority of people who participate in online social networks and take the step to fan or follow brands — not the first steps a person usually takes when dipping their toes in the social media waters — are more likely to engage with a company or tell a story online than those who aren’t as active in the online space.
5. Finally, we also know about perception. And I can tell you — based on recent conversations with clients, peers, colleagues, tweeps, fans — the perception is that the more fans and followers a brand has, the more successful that brand is with social media. And the more successful a brand is with social media, the more progressive that company is. And the more progressive a company is the more successful it often seems. Is that perception wrong? Well, I’d lean toward calling it incomplete.

If fans and followers are the only measures of success you’re tracking, then I agree that doesn’t tell us much. And that’s where I fall in line with the gripe against some agencies that base the entire social media strategy they’re selling on those numbers. The most significant thing about fans and followers is the audience they create for a brand to engage with. That’s where the real strategy comes in.

Think about it this way. When you go to a networking event, you may not know much about the organization or the people when you get there. Over time, you may get to know the organization and the people in it better. You’ll probably form opinions about the group and share stories about your experiences. But for any of that to happen, you had to show up at that first meeting.

Successful PR is still about building relationships — always has been. When a person fans or follows your brand, that’s just a relationship starter. They decided to come to that networking event. Or since users can fan or follow with the click of the mouse, you could argue they’re making much less of a commitment. But even if it took five seconds, the person still made a conscious effort to engage. Where the relationship goes from there is largely up to you.

I was lucky enough to see Brian Solis speak in Kansas City tonight and he offered a lot of great food for thought and insight into “the conversation” and “influence” that I’m still thinking about and continue pondering for a while, I’m sure. But one thing Brian said tonight came to mind as I sat down to finish this post — (I paraphrase again) “If we’re not in the conversation, it’s easy to fall off the radar screen, disappear.”

To me, when you look at a brand’s fans or followers, you can get a rough idea of how many “radar screens” that company is on. And you’ve got to be on some radar screens to keep from disappearing. But you can’t tell a whole lot more than that without digging much deeper.

Fans and followers are a starting point. They tell you something. But the companies and agencies that run into problems are the ones who don’t keep going. There’s a lot more to a conversation than the introduction.

What are some of the companies you know that have a lot of fans and followers? Did those numbers change your perception of the brand? How did you hear about those companies? Do those brands do a lot to engage their fans and followers?

• Posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
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