Metrics Are So Yesterday!

Wait, do I already hear the IT folks thumping away on their drums in protest? Understandable, because the technology that weaved social media into shape has always been sold based on metrics. From advertising banners to blog-space, it has always been a number game that determines the monetary value of most social media activities.

As marketers and PR teams attempt to break away from the old conventional ways of connecting with customers, we seemed to be caught two steps back. Simply, the IT folks cannot bring themselves to look beyond metrics. As in social media, the core focus really isn’t about metrics but connection. However, just like how businesses are run traditionally, the management will always be looking for evidence to justify the adoption of social media. That’s inclusive of putting in manpower to blog, man-hours lost for other works, setting up the IT environment for the company and more.

While some would argue that we shouldn’t dabble with anything that we cannot measure, I beg to look beyond what we can measure. For a matter of fact, social media IS new and let’s not even talk about industry standards that we can compare to. What defines a successful social media adoption? What defines a bad one as well? It’s all vague, and we can only barely use the best possible example. I said “best possible”, not best absolutely.

Must we really be able to measure everything? Let’s just assume, that you have a bunch of brand ambassadors made up of bloggers. Or perhaps, users in your brand’s Facebook group. You walk into your boardroom proudly with a full page of statistics. The report read:

- 237 new posts/notices
- 534 replies arising out of the above
- average of 7 new fans in Facebook group
- 5,367 pageviews on all blogs

What do the numbers above really tell you? To me, they tell nothing!

Are all 237 new posts/notices related to your brand, or are they trivial chats? Are all 534 replies about enquiries on your brand and products, or sharing who they met over dinner? Is the daily average of 7 new fans translating into 7 new customers? Do 5,367 pageviews indicate that the readers trust your brand and product?

You may have 10 seconds to ponder over my questions now.

I wouldn’t say metrics can be overlooked. I do believe metrics, to a certain extend, help to define the usability of your website and what processes to change for the better to make viewers want to come back. Metrics can also be plucked off to further understand what are the various demographic groups we are looking at and should pay more attention to. To take it even further, metrics tell you the performance of a certain activity in a website.

What I want you to take notice is that, the metrics are not going to help you engage your customers. Joining your Facebook group, subscribing to your RSS feeds or even to reply in any of those does not necessary mean they LIKE your brand. Not until you engage them, talk to them and find out more.

It’s about time we recognize that certain values within social media are beyond measurement. You have read me using the word “values” many-a-time in this blog, and I admit that is truly what I am hunting for in social media.

When you say readership,
I speak quality conversations.

When you say blogs publicity,
I speak sharing of customers’ experiences.

When you say click-throughs,
I speak eventual purchases.

When you say blogger events,
I speak blog-pimping not.

When you say bitch-slapping between brands,
I speak stay away, for real.

Let me offer you one example that I have been watching for the past week. As some friends and associates came to know, I have been looking at smart phones for a while and I am still undecided. I attended the iPhone private preview, but I am not too impressed other than looking sleek. Blame my big fat thumbs. Not until Samsung Innov8 caught my attention, not bad for a start. After throwing some suggestions to a fellow blogger, she put up one of the best blog reviews I have come across in Singapore’s blogosphere. (Compare with her 1st attempt) Easily 10 times better than 99% of the blog coverage regarding the same event and same product. There’s still room to improve of course, but that’s beside the point.

I sat back quietly, watching as the coverages unfolded. One question crept up in my mind. Why do most customers still rely on Hardwarezone more than blogger’s coverage? Just take a look at Hardwarezone’s forum postings (which most of us consider an old technology platform) on Samsung Innov8 alone, if you have the time, browse through every single page. I assure you, it’s much more informative than any blogs I have read regarding the Innov8.

Are bloggers providing the necessary information enticing enough for others to take notice? NO!

Is Hardwarezone providing the necessary information to allow potential customers to understand the product, potential problems, trouble-shooting and winning factors over other smart phones? YES YES YES!

See the problem here? These are factors you simply CANNOT measure with metrics. How do you measure rapport between customers who shared their knowledge and experiences? How do you measure the rapport between the brands and the customers? How do you measure if a specific reply or blog entry has resulted in a sale of your product? Or better still, a detractor from another brand?

Quit thinking, you can’t!

Perhaps businesses should start rethinking their social media strategies, at this point when the economy is down. Start first, by redefining your objectives. Is sales what you hope to achieve? Are you intending to re-brand your business? Are you attempting to form a core support group using your customers? The possibilities are endless in social media, if only you dare to think out of the box.

It brings us back to the fundamental question, are metrics everything?

October 15, 2008 | Filed Under Social Media

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Is Social Media Only About Technology?

A recent discussion on the recruitment of potential members to an upcoming social media body raised further talks on IT professionals’ roles in social media. As usual, I raised my objections against anymore geeks being brought onboard. My concern laid not only in the possibility of social media being manipulated by the IT industry, I questioned the underlying values that all of us are adopting social media for.

It’s no secret, that the IT industry has boosted social media by a milestone. When was the last time we talked about social media without any references to IT? Hardly! Without the web applications, networks and countless web tools, where will social media be? Evidently, IT is an integral segment of social media as the key facilitator for connections to be generated. Will we suffer from an overdose of IT? I think we’re already looking at it now.

With three IT-based members in a team of 10, I objected to a further three more from being brought onboard. While I cannot disclose details of the confidential project any further, to have more than half the team dominated by IT professionals is definitely not a good sign. Just like what I pointed out above, is the internet itself capable of generating conversations and adding values to brands? I beg to differ to anyone who says yes.

TOO MUCH. TOO SOON. TOO FAST.

I preached endlessly how the true values of social media are in the activities and interaction involving humans. Without all these, a Web 2.0 website is nothing more than a piece of web art. Can you imagine a Facebook without users? Can you visualize a Youtube without videos? Can you imagine a Flickr without any photographs? Unimaginable, you are right. Strip away the fanciful marketing and PR talks, what does it take for such web facilities to get alive? USERSHIP! And, that’s us and our consumers at large.

Each month, hundreds of applications and websites are being released into our virtual world. How many have we truly adopted and used extensively? Nothing more than necessary to converse, track and assess. It could be two. Or it could be five. Or even 10. That’s only so much we can get a foot in. Do we really need all the releases the IT industry poured into the virtual space? Definitely not. More than half of them will eventually end up as junks in the stump. Too much of such online “services” are being provided with little differences between them. The supply & demand equation tells us we are being overfed.

With so many “services” launched every week, if we even considered them as services, all of us are suffering from information overload. Shortly after one service is launched, another similar service pops up on the social media radar. It really beckoned me to wonder, has the later launch spent enough resources to experience what’s truly missing before they throw another out on the streets?

With IT companies trying to up one another in any way imaginable, identical services are just delivered too soon apart from one another. It always good to have choices, but now, we spoilt for choices. My IT friends, do you catch my drift? Not unless you have something truly unique and out-of-the-world that any other companies or services can’t provide, I suggest you might want to hang on to your launch and study your competitors a little more. That’s also establishing your competitive edge over them.

Not forgetting, the amount of information and flow of human traffic in the virtual world. They’re constantly evolving and moving from places to places. Isn’t it a great idea to be able to keep track of every single one, leaving nothing behind? Unfortunately, we do have to concede to the fact that there is no way we can achieve that. Majority? Yes.

Take social networking sites for instance, users have move on from Friendster to MySpace and subsequently Facebook leading the pack. That’s in a matter of years. Take into account the Dot Com Crash, it’s a relatively fast advancement within a short time. That’s how quickly internet users hop from one to another. Again, I point to the fact that we made it possible for them. Companies will eventually find it all too fast to follow up, and find themselves spending more time on the catching-up game than truly exploiting the potentials of these already-existing networks.

It may sound demoralizing on the IT industry, in particular the Web 2.0 diehards. I’m not here to strip the IT professionals of the credit they deserve. All I am pointing out, is that what social media needs is more than just the IT infrastructure. The technological tools are incapable of generating anything until someone publish an article, a consumer puts up a review or a professional starts a discussion. So on so forth. Are we now able to see where the core contents that facilitate social media is coming from?

Let’s imagine a time when we pitched a social media proposal lacking in content input, what kind of values are we adding to our clients branding? Or are we trying to sell an empty shell?

I believe at this point, it is about time for the majority of IT professionals to take a back seat and allow the marketers or PR team to run the show. These are the people who are actively interacting with consumers, and what’s more?

Would you be expecting an IT person from the company to answer your question regarding your car radiator when you post a question in your blog?

Would you prefer an IT person from the company to answer your queries regarding your new cupboard you bought from Ikea in your Facebook Ikea group?

Would you want an IT person from the company to answer your frustrations when your air con goes dead on you after purchasing it for three days?

October 10, 2008 | Filed Under Social Media

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Using Social Media In Economic Downturn

Todd Defren shared how social media may play a critical role in this economic downturn, and it’s a reasonable cause to be concerned about. How do you retain your current customers when times are bad? You do not want to remain stagnant, so how do you attract new ones? For many companies that reduce their marketing activities, are they securing their positions or will they suffer the unthinkable?

The question of budget slashing and reduction in activities is debatable. I often point to the fact that customers are often spoilt for choices these days. Sitting back and waiting for them to come to you, is no longer an option. Let’s not discount the additional activities your competitors are working on to take over your market share. Hence, we’re looking to evolve from the conventional marketing mix. What should come in place is not a new mix, but rather, it’s the shift in methods in reaching out.

You have switched more aggressively with a line-up of new products. So now, how are you going to deliver them?

IS SOCIAL MEDIA A TOOL?

Todd questioned the same in his later comments. While he believes that it is a change in mindset and strategy, I am inclined to reveal social media as an interactive process. I have indicated in my previous post citing the engagement of bloggers, that internet is the tool in oppose to bloggers.

This transfer of (helpful) information from one party to another is precisely the most valuable aspect of social media. Almost like a devil’s advocate, it represents your branding and lead with opinions, when done correctly. The part that companies should take note of, I feel, is that it doesn’t matter where these opinions are found. It could be a blogger network, otherwise it could be in social networking sites. It is the ultimate function of interaction with customers that will allow the principles of social media to flow.

Valeria Maltoni wrote recently of how social media can be applied into customer service, something which I echoed a while ago. If you hadn’t had a good reason to apply multi-discipline social media, perhaps the economic downturn has provided you the best opportunity now. How it will be implemented, is entirely up to you where interaction matters. Afterall, the experiential marketing aspect will eventually reveal your strengths and weaknesses.

Just a few days ago, I had the opportunity to speak to a fellow PR anchor on how important it is to advance ahead of the industry. Take for instance, many PR agencies and enthusiasts are still fiddling with bloggers and all that talks about going viral. Do these really matter at this point? We’re already looking at, instead, how communities can be better managed and the application of social media as an integral part of day-to-day operations. For one thing, social media is an ongoing process more than a one-off campaign. Cheap advertising space in blogs or social profiles is so yesterday.

I said above it didn’t matter where the conversations are taking place. I will leave you to read Jason Falls recommendations how you can better your Facebook groups. That’s on top of other aspects like transparency. The groups will still be there, even if you’re not. The next worse thing you can do, is ignoring the noise instead of using it to define your brand.

Does that mean traditional methods should be abandoned? Not really. How can you integrate traditional methods while increasing the level of interaction to further enhance your brand? That’s what you should really be looking at now.

October 7, 2008 | Filed Under Customer Service, Social Media

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