Social media expert Tim Krotiris asks how social media translates to the bottom line.
How should we measure the worth of a Facebook like? When judging value, ROI (return on investment) or overall worth of a social media presence, should “likes” even be a measurement at all?
Most businesses judge the value of their social media by whether it creates new customers and additional sales. While this makes sense from a basic business metric, it is in fact a sign of a business that doesn’t quite understand the true value of their social media asset. The true value of social media is not evident in such basic measurements, meaning these methods can’t be used as the sole evaluation criteria.
Consider this: if your brand were presented with an opportunity to have contact with every present and future customer in one place, every single day, what would a business pay for that opportunity? If your business had the ability to be integrated into your customers’ daily lives, what wouldn’t you do for that opportunity? If your business could develop infrastructure to literally connect directly to hundreds and thousands of potential customers through new networks and marketplaces, what would the value of that be to you?
When brands evaluate the value of social media simply through the amount of likes and sales it generates, they are missing the bigger picture. In fact, the customer acquisition and sales numbers become almost irrelevant compared to the cost of not getting your social media strategy right for tomorrow’s opportunities.
As society becomes increasingly connected, daily likes and community acquisition will actually become harder to build. The value of your community increases as gaining fans becomes more difficult. People are now more discerning about with whom they connect and fan expectations are rising; it’s no longer a matter of starting a Facebook page and expecting the masses to join.
Technology is evolving. Tomorrow’s progessions will change the way we do business; the brands with the strongest connection to their communities and customers will have the power. Social media is no longer optional. You either make it work today or you suffer tomorrow.
So, with countless brands utilising social media to grow their businesses, how do you differentiate your brand to create high value and return from your networks?
Differentiation is a challenge for all brands online. Customers have access to every single business in the world with a click of a button. One effective strategy we use to differentiate fashion brands through social media is to position them as an expert in their target market. What does this mean? Most brands online take a position of ‘me, me, me’. This means they focus on their products, their business, their announcements, their sales, etc. This is an average social media strategy and you don’t want to be average.
Social media is not about you, it’s about your community. Unless you have a cult-like following already (there are few companies that can claim this), you will not be able to win with a ‘me, me, me’ strategy.
The objective of your brand is to claim a position of high value in your target market. This position must be important enough for your community to want to stay connected to you every single day.
For example, if we ran a swimwear label, a poor brand position would be to focus on our own products, such as swimwear styles, upcoming sales, company announcements and so on. This is the ‘me, me, me’ strategy. It’s not compelling, it’s not consistently interesting and it's very easy for fans to disconnect. You want your community and fans to miss you if you disappeared.
Instead of ‘me, me, me’, the position our swimwear label should take is to become the authority on the summer lifestyle. The content we post, the discussions we create, the education we provide should help our target market have a better summer lifestyle.
Why? This makes the brand the expert in all things summer. And what do customers need as part of a summer lifestyle? A swimsuit!
Consequently, the brand becomes the first point of call for a purchase decision relating to a summer lifestyle. In this case, swimwear. With such a position you are connecting with your community daily with interesting content, you are adding value to their lives, you are relevant all year round instead of seasonally and will attract all customers interested in a summer lifestyle. You become interesting, not just a brand trying to sell more product.
The goal is to connect to customers consistently. Eventually they will need to purchase a swimsuit and when they do, you will be where they turn to first, and you get a shot at the sale. This is all you can ask for, and is a very powerful position to be in.
The social media game is about standing out through the ability to influence communities in your area of expertise. Whether they need or want a swimsuit right now is irrelevant, you just want to be the first considered when they decide to buy one. Brands who get this are playing a bigger game online and are crushing brands that focus on a ‘me, me, me’ strategy.
If you want to differentiate your brand online, you must claim a brand position of higher value than simply your products. Communities want category leadership and the opportunity is there for your brand to be that leader.
If you can achieve this, your brand will have the most powerful standing that can be achieved through social media: an influencer. ?
Tim Krotiris is director of social media consultancy and digital agency, Social Media Servants. The company boasts a number of fashion clients, including the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF), fashion trade event Fashion Exposed, Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia (TFIA), and local labels Quiksilver and Bless'ed Are The Meek. Www.http://socialmediaservants.com.au.