Companies are frequently misguided by relying on fan and follower count as the primary measurement for their social media investments, instead they must focus on the outcomes of these fans and followers.
We wouldn’t buy a car without looking under the hood, or buy a house without getting it inspected, or hiring an employee without doing a background check, so we should also ensure we’re providing the right metrics for our social efforts.
Because fans and followers are so easily viewable by all employees of our owned social accounts as well as our competitors, it’s easy to use that as a default index. In fact, strategists should not serve up fan and follower data to executives, as they often self-diagnose this number to be most important and compare themselves to their competitors.
Instead, focus on the business outcomes of the account, whether it be for being involved in influencing them, transacting leads or conversions, fostering word of mouth, improving customer service and support, or generating ideas for future products or the brand.
Don’t focus solely on fans and followers as a primary key performance indicator, instead focus on the business goals the fans and followers yield for you.
Take Action Now
- Follow Altimeter Industry Analyst Susan Etlinger who focuses on Analytics, Monitoring.
- Apply the Framework, KPI Formulas, and ROI Pyramid today.
But how do you do this? All good to say this but how do you actually put into practice?
How about focusing on outcomes that “friends and followers” want, need or desire as a business objective. Businesses often come across as self serving when it comes to using social media how about simply serving?
The yield is what you can do to serve the customer and that is how you get the business yield
This is so true. Just as in online advertising- it’s not the CTR, it’s who clicked on the ad and what action did they take if any. Those are the people who are valuable to your business.
We’re actively encouraging our clients to move beyond mentions and to categorize their social media analytics by expressions of intent or behavior (like intention to buy, intention to view, having a problem) and then tie that data to other metrics. Volume is important but we need to help businesses take it a step further to surface actionable insights from this activity.