Is Your Brand at Social Media's Ground Zero?
Facebook, MySpace and other social networks can be very tempting for marketers but challenging for the brand overall. Consider these obstacles you may encounter on the road to social media success.
Many brands are eager to jump into social networking. After all, it's relatively cheap, and it can be insanely successful. But there are many more failures than successes in the medium, and it's important that brand managers pragmatically consider the risks and rewards for the business.
It's not all about building the perfect widget; it's about careful homework, smart decisions and thinking comprehensively. It requires an understanding of how social networking campaigns work and if the campaign will fit in with larger business goals.
Brand managers must justify the expenditure by setting goals, and must minimize risk through research of users, networks and the competitive landscape.
This article will explore the critical strategic mistakes that brands must avoid on their road to social networking nirvana. Along the way, we'll use some real-world examples that illustrate the successes -- and failures -- of marquee brands.
Understand social networking
Like many other business ventures, a successful social networking campaign revolves around using good information to drive smart decisions. Gather qualitative and quantitative information and then use it to define project goals. An ill-defined project is substantially less likely to succeed.
To get context, research what competitors are doing in the social networking space and identify best practices relative to the specifics of the campaign. Perform research into the target demographic and determine how their interest in the campaign will help the enterprise. Define measurable success metrics and track them carefully through the life of the project. For a Facebook widget, it might be total number of active users. For a MySpace page, it could be the number of friends the brand has.
If possible, identify hard numbers that can be pointed to that substantiate revenue or conversions. These are key steps on the business end of a social networking campaign.
Without proper research, it is doubtful that the campaign will reach the intended audience. If success metrics are not defined at the very outset of the project, the project will lack focus, and you'll be unable to identify what is or is not working. This makes it very hard to justify future expenditures on similar projects.
Source: Quantcast, July 27, 2008
Make sure that social networking is a fit
Social networks have inherent limitations, and certain brands will have a much harder time succeeding than others. In short, people share what is interesting, exciting or funny with their friends. When users spread a message about a given brand on a social network, they are effectively co-branding themselves and tend to be very particular about which messages they will propagate. A well-defined brand such as Puma, where users seek to identify themselves with the business, is more likely to succeed than other brands, which lack the same levels of affinity.
Puma on Facebook
On the other hand, a brand such as "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" is going to be challenged.
The "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" Spraychel for President campaign
For the brand to succeed, the enterprise must have a relationship with the consumer that inspires and promotes co-branding. However, it becomes tricky; if brands are cool, people want to identify with them and spread the message. If it becomes too cool, it begins to feel co-opted and people will shy away. While the team that produced this site took the right steps tactically, such as creating a poll which propagates interactions through the news feed, it's unlikely that the page will ever have a huge number of fans.
Choose the right one for the brand Another possible mistake is to engage with the wrong social network. MySpace and Facebook are the two names everyone knows, but there are plenty of other platforms out there tailored to more specific demographics. Ending up on the wrong social network wastes time and money. For example, Bebo is very popular with a younger audience in the U.S. looking at lifestyle-related content, while Dogster is targeted at an older audience that dotes on their pets.
Bebo
Dogster
Simple exploration of the sites, as well as some demographic research from free tools like Quantcast, can help corroborate the conclusions reached. The key first step is to understand who is using these tools, how they interact and why.
Primary research can shed valuable information on how a particular audience interacts with their social networks. User interviews, surveys and active participation in social networks are key first steps to understanding who, how and why people use these tools.
Secondary research such as competitive analysis and case studies shed light on what is happening in the field. There are some very big differences in who is using which tools and what they are doing there. Use this information to guide decisions around which platforms to use and the best approach to succeed.
Understanding why people might be using a particular network greatly influences the direction of a campaign. Think beyond what is happening on the web and reach out to platforms that resonate with the particular audience. For example, if a specific demographic contains a lot of mobile users, consider ruling out platforms that don't offer a mobile interface.
Set up the technical platform
Success in a social network is less about the number of individuals friending a certain page and more about the creation and viral spread of brand-related content. It is crucial that the team behind the endeavor think about creating content users want to share, and being sure that the technical infrastructure is optimized for this sharing.
For example, marketing groups might want to let users pull web content off of the company site and onto their social networks. Great videos are relatively easy to repurpose, and with a snippet of code are available for the world at large. The good news is that it could be successful, and suddenly people everywhere are viewing the site. The bad news is that if it's not set up properly, the content can be pulled off of the company's servers, instead of the file itself propagating. In this case, there are considerable risks, such as drastically increased bandwidth charges from the hosting provider, or performance impacts as unprecedented numbers of users access their servers.
The best bet is to work closely with the IT staff to make sure that the site is optimized for content sharing, or consider other alternatives. Uploading the content to YouTube minimizes the risks of inordinate traffic breaking the bank or bending the backbone of the site.
Another approach is to store content in a format that lets users share it easily. A services oriented architecture (SOA) can facilitate the movement of content without causing the tech team to perform coding gymnastics to free data.
Embrace the limitations of the medium
Social networks are inherently constrained by the relationships they create. This is nothing new; research from Paul Lazarsfield and Elihu Katz in their book "Personal Influence," penned in 1955, demonstrated that the bigger a person's network grows, the smaller the influence of other members becomes.
If a user has a lot of friends on Facebook and an application is trying to leverage the newsfeed to spit out messages, it's unlikely that they will be paid anything more than scant attention. Social networking friends are not always close -- they are cursory buddies who scan through vast fields of data looking for interesting tidbits. If a brand attempts to surmount these challenges through increasing the frequency of their messaging, they can be perceived as spammy.
Repeat postings on a user's newsfeed, especially if they are unsolicited, will damage brand perception and leave the social networker wondering if they have a virus. The "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" Spraychel for President campaign, while not the best brand for social networking, does make good use of the newsfeed and ensures that it is not overdone. Ultimately, for messages to propagate, they must stick out among all of the other data passing across the network, and be generated by the user, not the system.
A Facebook news feed
Think holistically
Frequently, in large enterprises, the left hand does not know what the right is doing. To ensure that brand voice stays consistent across all channels, it is critical that the team think about what else is happening in the business and how social networking can support other initiatives.
Before starting a social networking (or any other) campaign, check with other groups and make sure there are no crossed wires. Also, be sure to educate upwards and outwards; teach executives about the risks and rewards of social networks, and solicit feedback from others in the firm. Not only is it a handy CYA move, but it also generates goodwill and invites valuable feedback.
Prepare people for the negative feedback that might show up on in the public forum. Finally, think about the lifecycle of the campaign. Social networks put the brand in the hands of the consumer, so the marketer is relinquishing control and might not have a say. If it's truly successful, it will take care of itself. If it isn't, however, it's important to think of how to gracefully end the campaign if necessary. A little homework done on sites like Mashable will provide valuable insight into what is going on in the world of social networking, and provide valuable data into what can happen in the world of the social web.
Mashable
Conclusion
Social networking can be very tempting for brand marketers, but it can be very challenging for the enterprise. While there are new rules and new challenges in the space, some common sense business guidelines still apply. Start by doing extensive research and define what success means for the project. Shore up support within the organization and be ready to pull the plug if stakeholders are unwilling to embrace risk. Make sure that the brand is right for social networking; it's very easy to get caught up in the fad without making sure it's a good move.
Don't select a social network just because it's the biggest. Instead, look for the one that has the correct attributes for the selected demographic. Do research into everything that is happening within the organization, as leveraging synergies saves both time and money. Social networking is not right for all businesses. Good brand managers will do their homework, set their goals and base their decisions on solid, justifiable business decisions.