Do brands care whether they have influence in social media? They certainly should, said members of the three-person panel on social influence at NMX Monday.
Jonathan Dick, Director of Business Development at Klout, kicked off the conversation with his thoughts that brands do care, though they may struggle to understand or measure their influence.
Andy Levey, Senior Manager of New Media & Analytics at Cirque du Soleil, believes social influence is incredibly important for brands to connect with and engage fans. “It’s all about them; if we don’t have fans talking about us, we’re not in business,” he said. Cirque du Soleil are lucky, Levey admits. Their brand is creative and entertaining; many businesses lack this stroke of good fortune. What can you do if your brand isn’t inherently entertaining or you’re not in the media space and therefore informative by nature?
Be realistic, advises Susan Borst, Director of Industry Initiatives at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Brands needs to discover which interactions are truly valuable and understand their goals going in to any social situation, she said.
Dick recommends that brands start within their own network. Begin with your own customers. Find out what they need by listening, then use content to give it to them. “Why does influence matter to Crest?” he asks. “It’s because a lot of people talk about oral care online. It’s not exciting, yet people are talking about it. You want to reach mothers and those who drive purchase decisions.”
Once you’ve identified those people who may talk about your brand, how do you find and reach them, then inspire them to actually engage, asked moderator Steve Faktor of Idea Faktory.
You need to dig deeper and segment your target audience, recommends Levey. So you want to reach moms… which ones? Are they in their 20s, 30s, or 40s? What income bracket does their household fall into, and does that matter? Setting clear goals is key, he said.
The panelists agreed, social media monitoring and analysis is incredibly important. These are the insights that can help brands determine ROI and drive future strategy.
Borst notes that many brands are using social more than actually being social. There’s a massive data model behind social activity that is key to understanding the value of individual interactions.
Cirque du Soleil actually brought in a financial analyst with no knowledge of social media or online marketing to help identify their goals and build out a business model for their social channels. This person wasn’t required to have social knowledge, said Levey, because this was just the first step, albeit an important one, in their strategy.
Brands get that what they’re doing right now isn’t working, said Dick. Increasingly, brands are “getting it;” that they need quality and context around the numbers they’re measuring. Influence is about driving activity on your networks, but sentiment and context are key.
One audience member asked the panel how, exactly, someone from a traditionally creative background, focused on content creation, can better improve their marketing skills. Content creation and social are two degrees away from making money, said Faktor. This is where business model connectivity with social media is so critical for brands.
Branded content is important, he said, but what is its purpose? It needs to drive people back to the website, to inspire them to complete your desired action, which must be closely aligned to business goals.
Borst recommends that brands move beyond trying to simply identify who their fans and customers are, to determining what they need and how you can deliver it. At Cirque du Soleil, says Levey, they have to make choices every day about which customer groups need to be nurtured through social and how they can effectively do this. They use influencers in their target markets, as an example, to reach more people in a scalable way.
Overall, brands need to care about social influence and also need to get smarter about the way they use social to build relationships. Companies must better align their online marketing efforts to business goals, in order to build influence that matters and results in growth for the business. After all, that’s the whole point, isn’t it?
Is your company one of those highly evolved, like Cirque du Soleil, or are you working on better tying your social marketing strategy to business goals? Share your tips and experience in the comments!
+1’d on GPlus. Nice timely work Miranda.
Agreed!
Thank you, Linda!
REAL NICE post, Peter. Thanks for sharing today. Be well.
It’s true that brands can’t simply identify customers because this is only the first step. Brands need to go as far as identifying customers’ needs and how these can be best delivered.
Very true; we have more content from NMX coming out that addresses next steps over the next few days. Thanks for your comment!
Thank you for writing this, Peter. You nicely captured the point of the discussion which was that when it comes to social influence, brands care – and they care a lot. There is data via interactive never available before and technology is advancing at a rapid pace to pinpoint users, discussions, locations, etc. The key is to have set goals and know which data is – or isn’t important – to meet your needs. Thanks, again!
I don’t know why I wrote Peter. Thank you to you, Miranda!! Greatly appreciated.
LOL, I’ve been called worse, it’s okay 😉 I really enjoyed your session, nicely done!
What about using bloggers for influence.
Influential bloggers can be a great source of PR and links for businesses they write about, for sure. This particular session was more about how companies can build influence themselves, though with that said, one of the ways they could do so is by blogging.
What’s the best way for brands to identify most influential social users in their industry?
For any company using social media marketing, the most important thing which needs to be kept in mind is the way brands can be engaged with its followers/fans.In a world of growing internet users, its equally essential to be visible, update and add content useful to the customers, only then pillars of trust and credibility can be built for the brand.At synechron,we are committed to engage and interact our social media followers on a continuous spree.