We need lots of buzz!!! – or do we?
Ahh the cloud of numbers that flood your Google Analytics and your Insights and your Klout scores. More numbers! More numbers! More must be good, right? Well, you would think so. But what if I suggest you might be missing the numbers that matter? Only one number matters – want to guess which one? It is not your Google ranking, or the Likes on your Facebook page. Its your sales figures. That’s right, your bottom line.
Well, if you have a ton of Facebook Likes and a big Klout score doesn’t that mean your sales will be up? No. No, it doesn’t. Let’s take a real life example that I won’t tell you the name of. When it comes to Social Media numbers they have it down pat. They have high numbers of Likes on their Facebook page. A good following on Twitter. They even have an amusing word game going on a blog and people are enjoying it. When they post an interesting picture as many as 90+ people will comment on it. Their Social Media guru can probably tell you their Klout score in his/her sleep.
But what do you see if you look more closely? Well, the first thing that I notice is that it is not interaction WITH the public, it is all aimed AT the public. You can tell that because when a Facebook fan comments negatively or asks the company a question there is never an answer. I read my way through a flame war between a number of people debating whether silk was an ethical fabric and the insults got uglier and uglier and no one from the company commented, moderated it, or removed the exchange. The same thing happens in all their Social Media. It is all a one way street with no real engagement just clever posting. So, if they have fifty people commenting on a post isn’t that a good sign? Not if they are all angry. Not if none of those comments is leading to a sale of the company’s product.
And what about the clever blog with cute word games? Ummmm, exactly how does that stimulate sales? Here’s an example. What if you sell cars. And you have a Facebook page for your automobile dealership. And every day you post a hilarious picture of a fish. And people comment and laugh and tell their friends. And not a darn one of them buys a car from you. Is that REALLY a successful Social Media campaign. No.
Engagement matters. Relationships matter. Try to remember that it is a business relationship you are striving for and you are hoping to engage the public in the sale of your product. Nothing else matters.