Social media managers measure the success of social media campaigns based on many components. Many rely on their feelings, many on facts and figures. If you want to take a closer look at your success in social networks, you should familiarize yourself with a few technical terms: socializing, conversion, reach, target group and metering. With these steps, campaigns on the social web can be measured and optimized. More tips can be found in the Social Media Blog or for free in my Social Media Marketing Guide.
Social Media Management means Societing, Conversion, Reach, Audience and Metering …. ufff!
Societing – Improvement through customer feedback in social networks
Let’s start with the basic principle: social societing. We network groups based on information and affiliation. We improve ourselves through customer feedback. In the literature, improving image through users in social networks is called societing. Negative statements can also be helpful, for example, to improve customer satisfaction measures. Social networks can also be used as a source of information for market research. Feedback, whether positive or negative, should always be taken seriously and considered. A serious dialogue, even with criticism, helps your company in brand building. Social media management can therefore also be understood as participatory marketing, with the aim of generating reach in order to siphon off information, for example to strengthen one’s own brand presence – societing. The basics of Web 2.0 offer the best opportunities for this. Social media managers deal with improvement and optimization every day!
Conversion – incentives increase the interaction of your users
Social media management ultimately pursues the goal of attracting users to one’s own online or sales offering. As diverse as this can be (fan page, e-commerce, POS campaign, app launch, etc.). But good social media managers or measures do not stop when the respective user has carried out the action. In the following, it is always important to keep the user and interact with him. The longer the user stays on the web offer, the more likely he is to make positive associations that connect him with the brand. Ergo, you need to create incentives to attract users and incentives to retain users. According to Weinberg (2010), this is only successful if the marketing message of the respective campaign can be found by the visitor where the desired action is to be carried out (product review, registration, etc.).
This clearly shows how the different goals of a social media campaign support each other. From increasing traffic (visitor numbers), increasing brand awareness to promoting reputation which ultimately leads to customer acquisition, retention and increased sales. In the later metering, I go into more detail about this measurement of campaign goals. Comparing social media management to other measures in marketing is not easy. There is no proven strategy for success for online marketing in social media. Therefore, social media management can only be successful if on the one hand the principles of the social web are understood and on the other hand a consistent strategy for the own label is developed.
Best Practice – Social Media Campaigns using the example of the sports manufacturer Nike+.
A great but impressive best practice example comes from sports fashion manufacturer Nike. The following social media campaign was called Nike+. The goal was to publish the training data of their own fans on the web, to make it analyzable and shareable with other users. The cooperation with Apple enables (to this day) the real-time transmission of personal data, automatically from the running shoe to the smartphone and further to the internet. The social media campaign was accompanied by various TV spots, Youtube videos, billboards and ads in trade magazines. Nike’s social media campaign was successful: Currently, the online campaign Nike+ has generated the largest runner community worldwide. What is special about Nike+ is that although it is linked to social networks, it is in itself a separate, self-contained social network for its users (multi-channel).
Reach and target group – The A&O for successful social media managers
To achieve campaign goals, reach is a particularly important component in marketing. In social media marketing, too, the maximum number of reachable contacts is our goal. However, target groups can be reached much more efficiently on the social web, for example through Facebook Ads that can be tailored specifically to the areas, interests and demographic characteristics of the user. Of the current 2.4 billion Internet users worldwide, 900 million are also registered on Facebook. The German comparative figures have already been mentioned. This shows the great importance of Facebook, as does the company’s current market value of over one hundred billion US dollars. Far behind, in second and third place, are Youtube and Twitter. Facebook is unchallenged in first place. Every week, there are 3.5 billion comments from users on Facebook alone.
Technological advancements like Facebook Realtime Search even transport social media content beyond their own borders. Realtime Search also allows search engines such as Google or Bing to conduct targeted real-time searches in groups and discussions. In the process, the databases are permanently synchronized. This bundle of enhanced, faster search options increases the reach of social media campaigns to almost all Internet users. Information can be found immediately at the time it is published. This means that Internet users can also follow current trends and discussions via third parties. Campaigns can thus be organized even faster and in an even more targeted manner. All that is then missing are the right people, trendsetters and multipliers.
Not all members of social networks are equally active. According to Bitkom, about 35 percent of all Facebook users actively participate. By comparison, it is only 13 percent of users in video portals. This means that most users on social media do not take an active role, but a passive one. For you as a company, it is therefore important to identify and reach the trendsetters and opinion leaders named in chapter 3.1.3.
Who are these opinion leaders? Opinion leaders create content, comment and represent their opinion. They therefore influence the buying behavior of other active and passive users. Particularly interesting for marketing targets are those who have already established themselves as opinion leaders and who also have a large intersection with the previously defined target group. From practice, bloggers are particularly suitable here on the Internet and in social media. Opinion leaders are therefore also called multipliers. They can often be won over by simple product policy – in other words, by the sheer persuasiveness of your products. But also through communication policy such as advertising in video spots or quite classically, an invitation to exclusive events. Then there is the good old customer service. Here, too, multipliers could be won over for your brand and your offer.
In the new social web, Internet users expect a timely, transparent dialogue on your part. Even on the modern web, customer service is an unbeatable means of brand loyalty.
Metering – results and analysis of campaigns in social networks
Social media marketing, like all other activities of companies, must pay off at the end of the day. Metering tries to show whether the investments for companies in social media campaigns pay off. In order to be able to evaluate the costs of social media marketing, economic success measurements are carried out, as in all marketing departments in the world. These success measurements also help to compare the activities in social media in part with other marketing tools. Because, marketing in social media is subject to the economic principle of investment and return. From an accounting perspective, this means that all expenses must always be matched by an entrepreneurial value – just like other areas of a performance-oriented company.
The results and significance of the measurements depend on the predefined metrics. They are classically divided into qualitative and quantitative key figures.
Qualitative key figures for social media managers
Qualitative metrics, as always, have room for interpretation. For example, the quality of user comments. Qualitative measurements do not result in fixed numbers in comparable tables, but rather a positive or negative mood. The success of a social media campaign is therefore not directly measurable by qualitative indicators. However, they do provide information about the brand image. Through continuous data collection of qualitative key figures, later conclusions about the development of the brand image are possible. This in turn enables early reactions to negative developments, but also helps to reinforce positive trends. Because emotions have also become an essential part of digital communication due to the free exchange of opinions in Web 2.0. Therefore, as a social media manager and as a company, you must take into account the emotions of your users in social media campaigns and later evaluations.
Quantitative key figures for social media managers
Quantitative key figures, on the other hand, make clearer statements about the economic success of social media campaigns. Nevertheless, the actual benefit of social media management cannot be determined directly, as it does not generate direct revenues. It is also impossible to track all interaction and discussions between users. However, key performance indicators (KPI) make it possible to estimate the benefit.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
KPIs are purely quantitative metrics, such as the traffic of a website, the number of likes, behavioral flows, fans, followers or the number of initiated conversations between users. An equally well-known (quantitative) metric is return of investment (ROI). ROI is determined by a simple cost-benefit calculation with measurable numbers. But be careful. You only see the first level of interaction between you and the user. You have no conclusions about further parts of the interaction chain. This in turn makes it difficult to accurately calculate ROI and thus compare it to other online marketing methods, be it email newsletters or banner ads. Dusty marketing messages are hard to get across. In social media, you need to rethink. You’re not talking to advertisers, you’re talking to fans.
Conclusion – Image, brand building, … all this happens in social networks more accurately than ever before
The discussion about companies, about services, fashion pieces, behavior and image takes place on the web. Whether or not you as a fashion company participate in it through social media management measures. You should do it! Because the possibilities of viral campaigns are increasing: On the one hand through new technological advancements but also through new social networks like Instagram, Pinterest or Snapchat. Social networks have established themselves. Social media management does not replace the other marketing tools, it complements them, as part of a long-term marketing strategy.
For brand loyalty and positioning, active work in social networks is particularly effective in coordinated combination with other marketing actions – multi-channel. Also in cooperations with other companies. According to various expert statements in the interviews, cooperations such as joint competitions are a very good means of generating reach for companies in social networks.
In order to measure their own chances, companies should analyze the market and align their social media measures accordingly. Both fashion and social media are fast-moving and dominated by constant change. Both thrive on visual stimuli, novelty and trends. The commonalities shape up as an optimal combination of both worlds. Companies benefit from the active role of consumers on the social web. They in turn benefit from exclusive information within the networks, as the example of the “Behind the Scences” video material from the fashion label Asos shows. This and other examples illustrate that if careful research is carried out, creativity and customer-oriented social media management will be rewarded by the user and this in turn with increasing reach (fan numbers) and increased brand identity in the longer term.
Sources
Levine; Locke; Searls; Weinberger: The Cluetrain Manifesto. The End of Business as Usual. Perseus Books, New York, 2009
Bitkom: Social networks – third, expanded study (2013) on
http://www.bitkom.org/de/markt_statistik/63995.aspx (as of 06/06/2014, 15:53)
Weinberg, T.: Social Media Marketing. O’Reilly Verlag, Cologne 2010
