Since the emergence of social media, people have been positively vibrating about its potential. The possibility for growth is endless. But, until there’s a tangible benefit to its application, it’s understandably hard to justify investment in this sort of promotion. With a distinct formula developing for social media success, the question is not ‘Will it work?’ but rather ‘What’s it worth?’ Oliver Blanchard of The BrandBuilder Blog breaks it down into simple terms, giving citizens of the realtime web something to chew on.
From Blanchard’s presentation and Mashable’s elaboration on the idea of measuring ROI of social media, it’s clear that the end goal is to justify the profitability of social media. Metrics for popularity laid over a corresponding increase in, say, online sales is pretty good proof that it’s working.
The caveat to this is how a brand will be received by those who make up the ’social’ part of social media. There’s no measure for how individual users who are promoting only themselves (or nothing at all) will respond to instances of marketing in their online world. How direct, how patronizing, how interesting a brand’s message is will affect how it is received. In general, consumers are more discerning now than ever, and individuals feel a strong personal connection to the venues in which they spend their time interacting with others. It’s a safe place. Explicit advertising can feel like an attack in such a space. Allowing an idea to carry itself can yield immense popularity, but once the ad is tied in, reactions can change.
Thus far, great ideas have become hits, but few of them were obviously tied in to a brand. Garfield Minus Garfield was hugely popular, but would it have been as loved if it was promoting one of those awful Garfield movies? The danger here is insulting the intelligence of your target. So far, the world of realtime has remained somewhat exclusive to users. Sure, there are bots dropping status updates now and then, but for the most part, users are deeply involved in using social media apps. Each action taken online yields an immediate benefit for a user; something useful, informative, or entertaining. Advertising on the new platform of social media popularity needs the actual advertising campaign to yield this sort of benefit. Blogs are the first step in forging a connection of this sort with your target, and as more brands see the dollar value it, such tactics will become more commonplace. The bad ones will be recognized, culled and tortured before being disregarded. The good ones, well, you might not even realize you’re being advertised to.
