Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

June11

Likes Matter

By: Spike Jones

Any social media kid out there worth their salt will tell you that “likes don’t matter.” I even wrote a post over a year ago to explore “Life Beyond the Like.” We all throw hissy fits every time the number of Facebook likes is used as a measure of success in a case study and rail against the c-suite when they tell us that they want to reach a certain number of likes for this campaign.

But at the risk of having the social media kids come out of the woodwork, let me tell you something: Likes matter.

Back off a second and allow me to explain, will ya? You can’t tell me that you haven’t looked at a client’s or potential client’s or even a competitor’s Facebook page and said to yourself, “Hmmmm, they only have XX likes? That sucks.” You can’t tell me that the Chevy Camaro people don’t want more likes than the Ford Mustang people. Or that AT&T wants more likes than Verizon. Or that at least one metric of that project you did for your client isn’t the number of “likes” you garnered.

Let’s face it: People “like” your page if you have led them there because of a promotion. Or because they’ve been a loyal, lifetime customer. Or simply because you’re a beloved brand. Or because you’re “cool” and people want to be associated with you. Just like the people who have huge numbers of followers on Twitter tell you that the number of followers don’t matter, the same goes for Facebook. But it’s a lie. They do matter. Because it’s a measurement of visits and eyeballs. Yes, research shows that on average, only 1% of people who “like” a page interact with that brand on a regular basis on FB. I hear you. I feel your disappointment.

Instead, let’s start thinking about the “like” as either the beginning of a journey for some, or a point in time of a journey for others. What comes before? What comes after? How does that online action lead to offline word of mouth? There are many other variables, but a “like” is one of them.

In other words, “likes” matter. But so do a lot of other things in the mix. So before you go off on another rant about 1% engagement rates and the ROI of someone clicking that “like” button, think about how “likes” are table stakes now. They are expected. They are a part of what not only we are judged on, but what our client is judged on as well. Let me reiterate: it’s not the ONLY thing, or even a really IMPORTANT thing, but it’s a thing. So deal with it.

Posted in: lessons learned, marketing, rants8 comments

April9

Maybe 1% is all you need

By: Spike Jones

Earlier this year, a report came out from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute that I’ve seen popping up again and again with people talking about how only one percent of people who click the “Like” button on Facebook actually engage with the brand. (BTW, if you don’t know who Andrew Ehrenberg is, you need to find out.)

There are SO many directions we can go with this report, like going down that deep and dusty path trying to define what “engagement” really means. Or talking about the value of a like or a fan. Or what brands should really be using Facebook for.

But I don’t want to go down any of those no-win rabbit holes. Instead, I want to talk about that 1% (and no, not in the Occupy Wall Street kind of way). I don’t see why so many people are surprised at this number…because this has always been the case. The social media kids are saying that 1% is a terribly low number and then they’ll show you 10 tips on how to raise that number. But I have to tell you that even waaayyyy back in 2006, the Creating Customer Evangelists kids, Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, talked about the 1% rule by citing data from Wikipedia and Yahoo that found that 1% of the users overwhelmingly create most of the content.

Breaking it down even more, there’s the 89:10:1 rule, which says that 89% of people who come to your site will lurk, 10% will contribute and 1% will create content.

My point? Don’t freak out about only 1% of people engaging with your brand. Especially on common sites like Facebook. Now, if you create a brand ambassador program and you only get a 1% participate rate, you’re doing something wrong. In fact, the average participation in brand community sites is less than 10%. That’s not so great. And I can tell you from experience that if you build it the right way, you can get a 30%+ engagement rate, which opens all sorts of doors.

So before you go wringing your hands about only having a 1% engagement rate on Facebook, think about it differently. Like what you can do with that 1%. Ohhhh, the possibilities. These are hand-raisers. These are evangelists. These are the people that already spread word of mouth about you (hopefully in a good way). Create offline experiences with them. Ask if they want to engage deeper on other platforms. Or learn about the inner-workings of your company and products. So yes, in this case we’re talking about quality rather than quantity. Because, as we are quickly learning, on Facebook and Twitter, numbers – unless they’re sales numbers – don’t mean a whole lot.

Posted in: brands, lessons learned, marketing, word of mouth1 comments

December13

Campfires. Not Communities.

By: Spike Jones

The word “community” is quickly approaching over and misused status in this shiny social media and word of mouth industry. And it saddens me.  But don’t get me started on “social community.” What does that even mean? Isn’t the very definition of community a place where people (or things) are social?

Which brings me to my point:

Just because you get a bunch of people to sign up for your website or “like” you on Facebook, or even follow you on Twitter, doesn’t make it a community. So stop calling it one.

During my college years, I worked at a camp for four summers in a row. There were the various activities and events, but the night that really brought your cabin/teepee together was campfire night. You’d go out as a group and pick a spot in the woods to build your campfire and then hand out the ingredients for the s’mores. Everyone would pick out their marshmallow roasting stick and the bonding would begin. People would share. Open up. Talk about what really matters. It was always a powerful evening. Well, after the sugar rush wore off.

My point is that maybe we shouldn’t be concentrating on gathering communities, but starting campfires. At least it’ll force us to think about how we bring people together and what kind of interaction we want to have with them. Do you want just another personality-void gathering of random people or intimate groups of folks that are there to connect in a way that’s valuable to them (not you)?

Chew on it.

Posted in: lessons learned, marketing, rants, word of mouth6 comments

October25

My fear for social media

By: Spike Jones

Look, I know I poke fun at the whole social media thing. Often. I know I bitch and moan about the consultants that have somehow pulled the wool over many people’s eyes as they continue to spout philosophical crap while not having any actual experience to back it up.

But I digress.

Lately I’ve been very disheartened by my Twitter and Facebook streams. Because the very people who tell the rest of us to use social media as a place for “authentic, transparent conversations” have turned their presence on these channels into link farms that constantly and incessantly push out messages about themselves, their business or links to yet another article about the practice they so love.

In other words, the social media space is quickly being overrun with impersonal “look over here” “please pay attention to me” messages by the very people who think that it’s the chosen medium. And I only follow 400 people (and yes, I do use lists). I fully believe that Malcolm Gladwell nailed it in his recent article in The New Yorker. Yes, we are creating ties with others through social media, but they are weak ties. They are ties that we may not have had before, but they are no replacement for good ol’ face-to-face word of mouth.

Turn on your Twitter stream and you can connect with some great thinkers – but most of them are only thinking about the medium that they continue to preach about (and that earns them a paycheck). So my challenge to you is when you’re thinking of that next social media campaign, think about how it can live offline. Think about humans, not technology. Think about being a facilitator, not a marketer. Think about how people are not tools (insert your own joke here), so don’t treat them like they are. And when they do decide to engage with you, appreciate it by showing your appreciation.

Actions speak louder than tweets, people. Remember that and you’ll be on the right path.

Posted in: lessons learned, marketing, rants, word of mouth23 comments

September24

Why you care about Twitter too much.

By: Spike Jones

The kids over at Information is Beautiful have put together a great infographic that looks at Twitter in several different ways and really, it’s a great shock to the system to help us all realize that Twitter isn’t as important as a lot of social media consultants and digital shops might want you to think it is. Take a look:

Seriously. Over 70% of users (which, let me remind you, is still a very small sliver of the population) aren’t active users. And, on average, only 8% of content on Twitter is considered “good.” (And yes, I know that’s subjective.)

My point? That Twitter is a drop in the bucket of word-of-mouth. That you don’t need a Twitter strategy first. You need a STRATEGY first. And maybe Twitter is an extension of that strategy. But never, ever, the center. It seems that the social media consultants have all started saying that Twitter and Facebook and Foursquare and (insert whatever platform comes out next week) are all “tools in your toolbox.” Yet most of them have no toolbox to speak of. They still all talk about the platforms – incessantly.

So start at the beginning. Look for where it hurts instead of just taking fist-fulls of medicine and hoping for the best. It’ll save you a lot of time, energy and pain.

Posted in: lessons learned, rants, word of mouth25 comments

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