“Engagement” is being proposed as the new metric for online and social media interactions. Although not uniformly defined, “engagement” seems to be an aggregate measure of a variety of interactions, which include clicks, likes, comments, shares, and re-posts. It’s a proxy for conversion in environments where goods and services aren’t directly sold.
To the old school crowd, including yours truly, engagement is measured more discretely by counting the number of people who show up on a site, view a desired number of pages, spend significant time per page and per session, and take the desired action. These “engaged” visitors sign up for a newsletter, download something, use a calculator, enroll in a class or webinar, or maybe even buy something.
Part of the debate centers on a definition and the use of the term relative to media values and media buying. If someone comes to your site or onto your Facebook page, are they engaged or not? If they spend a nanosecond to click “like” or view two pages or less, are you suffering from low engagement?
In the old media world, we measured time-spent-viewing or time-spent-listening and inferred engagement from lapsed time. So if Nielsen clocked you listening to Z-100 for 45... Read more
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Engagement isn't a Useful Metric
Tags: marketing metrics, Social Media, social media marketing, social media metrics, Targeting
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The 48 Hour Imperative
Every marketer makes offers. The difference between the successful marketers and the also-rans is follow-up. Fast, personal, on-point follow-up turns a random offer or a blind pitch into the beginnings of a meaningful relationship. More great campaigns have been killed by the lack of fast-acting follow-up than anything else.
The most effective marketers build follow-up communications into the initial plan.
Why?
First, to break through the clutter. Prospects are busy, not paying close attention and not looking for a message from you. Distracted by others they are generally bombarded by messages that don’t matter to them.
Second, to differentiate your brand. Prospects are so used to being ignored or treated with one-size-fits-all messages that when you actually listen and respond you instantly separate yourself from the pack. And if you listen and respond in ways that are personal, relevant and synchronize with what they told you or what they want -- you have a momentary shot at becoming their new best friend.
Both forms of follow-up require a strategy and technology to implement. Map out the most likely responses to your offer and how you intend to respond to each one. Drawing a schematic forces you to think practically. Those squiggles on paper lay out... Read more
Tags: buyer experience, Digital Marketing, online advertising, Targeting
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4 Ways to Better Engage Millennials
Every younger generation knows better. Every younger generation wants to un-do, reject, fix or repair the mistakes made by their elders. Every younger generation brings its own POV to the party.
Seventy-five million individuals born between 1981-2000 grew up with computers at home and at school, are beyond the tricks and techniques of advertising and wield enormous buying power. Millennials are better educated, more diverse and better at multitasking that their Boomer parents. They’ve been indulged, encouraged, pampered and have different expectations and sensibilities than their elders. Catching their attention and involving them in a brand isn’t easy.
Consider four ways to open the conversation:
Give them instant access and status. Collaboration, shared responsibility and consensus constitute their worldview. Millennials want to be taken seriously and have both a voice and vote. They expect to weigh-in on the key issues regardless of rank, tenure, status or skill set. They don’t want to be bossed around and expect to be included in every relevant decision. They reject hierarchy. Seniority and tenure are dirty words. They don’t want to be bored or have to work their way up along a well-trodden path.
Maybe this is a presumption unique to this generation. Though, I doubt it. It... Read more
Tags: buyer personas, social marketing, Strategy, Targeting
Posted in Targeting | 1 Comment »
Facebook's New Ad Units
Does it really surprise anyone that Mark Zuckerberg has his own vision of how advertising on Facebook ought to work? Is anyone really troubled by the fact that he is willing to force advertisers to conform to his wishes by changing the rules yet again?
New ad units and parameters are expected to roll out next week. This continues the evolution of an advertising universe in which Facebook encouraged brands to build apps, buy ads and run promotions to aggregate large audiences. Then Facebook encouraged individuals to sort themselves into sellable segments. Then Facebook created filters using a sophisticated EdgeRank algorithm that essentially eliminated the free reach they enjoyed from spending to collect all those fans. And now, after experimenting with sizes, placements and formats, Facebook offers brands options to buy back the access and the reach they previously enjoyed. If you feel like a rat running through a maze, you’re getting the point.
The new units, which were leaked online, are touted as bigger, more prominently placed, and likely to prompt more engagement, better recall, more brand affinity and greater purchase intent based on research that nobody has seen. They will be better integrated into fans Newsfeeds and will be sold... Read more
Tags: Facebook, social marketing, social media strategy, Targeting
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Pinterest's Success Formula
Pinterest, the virtual pin board, tickler file and scrapbook, has come out of the woodwork two years after launching and captured the attention and the traffic of 10 million unique users and generated approximately 1 million pins almost overnight. The average user is a woman who spends 15 minutes per session on the site.
According to RJ Metrics, Pinterest engages users two to three times more efficiently than Twitter did at a similar point in its history. Eight weeks after signing up, 40-60 percent of users are still pinning. This is counter to the usual cycle of sign-up, test and abandon that plagues so many sites and niche social media properties.
In an arena of social media phenomena, it’s the latest skyrocket that sent start-up CEOs and VCs into a state of jealous lust.
How has Pinterest done it and what is the formula?
Newness. We’ve been doing Facebook and Twitter and the others for a while. As we become complacent about social networking or burnt out on cat videos and baby pictures, it’s a shiny new object.
Familiarity. Pinterest uses technology to do what most women already do – clip, pin and save stuff. They tapped existing scrapbooking behavior and it’s muscle memory with... Read more
Tags: social marketing, Social Media, social media strategy, Targeting
Posted in Emerging Platforms | No Comments »
