Results...One key measurement for Social Media

RESULTS were certainly a common area of interest/concern as it relates to Social Media. How to measure results is a widely discussed topic among Social Media Experts (if there truly are any), Marketing, PR, Communications Groups, etc. This discussion will be going on throughout all of 2010 and probably beyond. After all, measurable results are still a widely discussed topic for most forms of traditional media. We can’t say we have a definitive answer for the standards by which to measure success for this new form of marketing. But we can say is that one traditional marketing result consistently ranked high by accomplished users of social media is – WORD-of-MOUTH.

Why? Because Word-of-Mouth marketing is so “universally understood” and “universally accepted” that everyone “gets it” and what it means and how it works. That is a great place to start the discussion on results. And here’s the kicker, it’s not incidental. Social media is ALL ABOUT Word-of-Mouth. It is about “connecting” and getting people to “follow” what you do. To take an interest in you and your product/service, and then “talk about” you and what you are doing. This is the true power of Social Media.

So how do you measure Word-of-Mouth today? Guess what, the same as you’ve been doing all along. Nothing has changed with the advent of Social Media marketing. The only differences are the tools you use to deliver the marketing messages and the ways you track how people found you. And the best part is that even if you aren’t that good at tracking where all your Word-of-Mouth referrals came from, do you really care that much if your revenues and profit are rising? Didn’t think so.

Word-of-Mouth...Comfortable and Valuable

Let’s face it, in a world of complexity and increasing competition, the one area everyone seems to agree on is that if they had more Word-of-Mouth they would be more successful.  End of story.  But in this “new world” of recession, increased competition, and new competitors, this is harder and harder to achieve.

Traditional media says to do more “mass mailing” or more “broadcast messaging” to announce your message to broader and bigger audiences. This just doesn’t work like it used to. Almost every form of traditional media is bleeding “red ink” and seeing massive declines in advertisers. The return to users of traditional media is falling rapidly – and more every day. When 25 of 26 major newspapers are showing a significant decline in ad revenues (and many other sources of traditional media are showing similar declines) you get the picture pretty quick.

But the one constant in all of this is Word-of-Mouth. It remains as the pinnacle that everyone wants to achieve. So we asked the question of hundreds of Business Leaders, “If you could increase your Word-of-Mouth by 2X, or 3X or even 5X and do it at half the cost, would you be interested in how that worked?” Of course, the resounding response was YES. Welcome to the POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA.

Word-of-Mouth on STEROIDS

From our consulting experience and countless engagements with CEOs and Executives, it is unanimous that Word-of-Mouth is the “most sought after” source of generating new business. OK, so maybe we didn’t have to do a ton of research just to state the obvious. But somebody had to say it – because most companies have forgotten about the basics and the power of Word-of-Mouth marketing.

It also has one other HUGE benefit – ZERO Cost-of-sale. That’s right, if you have customers coming to you from Word-of-Mouth, your direct cost to attract that customer is Zero, nada, zilch. Your customer base is doing all the work for you and “escorting” (figuratively or literally) your best customers to your door – and you don’t have to pay a cent for that sale. Staggering thought isn’t it. It reminds me of the speech Allan Greenspan gave years ago when he said, “Americans have forgotten about the power of compound interest.” Same concept, we forgot about the most basic and yet most powerful form of marketing available to any business – Word-of-Mouth.

So the BIG QUESTION we get asked frequently is, “How can I get more word-of-mouth?” And the BIG ANSWER is Social Media. Having a Social Media Strategy that focuses on building Word-of-Mouth is the best way we have seen to truly capture the power of social media and get the bang for the buck out of this new approach to marketing.

The true value of Social Media is developing a strategy to get “Word-of-Mouth on STEROIDS” for your company. The tools don’t matter, they will be continually evolving and changing rapidly (thank heavens). What does matter is to understand the basics of marketing, so you can increase the number of people saying positive things about your company when talking to other potential customers (as fast and as many as possible) for the lowest cost possible. We think this is what will separate the “winners” from the “losers” in business and define the leaders in an industry. Do you agree?

Yesterday we were lazy, now we have to survive...

It was only a little over a year ago when being “fat and happy” was the way of life and people and their businesses were living the “good life”, like with Dany Mitchell, pictured with me, from Trattoria Mitchelli's. Today, those same people are trying to survive – my how the world has changed and changed all of us. But there is a silver lining to this…

The silver lining is called INNOVATION. When your back is against the wall you have two choices, flee or fight – been that way ever since the caveman. Those that flee disappear and go out of business – we’ve all seen that from small businesses to big banks and even bigger companies. They lived a life of “fat and happy” for so long they forgot about creativity and innovation. They are gone now. The world has been purging itself from these for the past 18 months.

Enter social media – the new (and inexpensive) way to add to creativity and boost innovation. How, you might ask, can social media boost innovation? Lots of ways. Let me give you one thought to get your juices flowing. Remember all those products you might have designed, built or even thought of but decided that to go into full production, put together a marketing campaign and materials and figure out a way to sell it was way too expensive and risky? What if you could “test the market” for your product before you ever had to do any of that stuff. You can today.

Today you can throw a product (or pre-launched) product into the internet airwaves through social media and get immediate reaction from people all over the world. Heck, you can even put it out there for people to order and if they order it, you can then go into production and build it. And with social media, you get to do that for little to no cost because the tools you use are FREE. Now you can do a test launch like a Proctor and Gamble and spend virtually nothing. How cool is that!

And if people start talking about it, you get the power of Word-of-Mouth to help you accelerate the conversation and the comments so you know exactly what people are thinking, wanting and looking for before you ever started production. You just created the ability to conduct “mini-focus groups” in real time to direct your development efforts to be in direct alignment with what your customers are willing to buy right now! The world has changed…

Foundation for building "Word-of-Mouth on Steroids"

Word-of-Mouth has its roots in developing trusted relationships with people so you feel no only comfortable, but obligated to refer or recommend someone. People don’t spread the word about organizations and people that are “mediocre” or “average” or “the norm.” No, they spread the word about those that are unique, honest, authentic, and trustworthy and have gone the extra mile to make their experience truly memorable and “referable.”

Ask yourself a simple question, “When my customers interact with us, are they left feeling passionate about the way they were treated to tell someone on their own?” If not, this is a great place to start looking at what you are doing to build “deeper” and stronger relationships with your primary “megaphone” – your customers.

Social media gives your customers the “megaphone” to say whatever they want to say through various tools, like facebook, twitter, blogs or a host of other tools. And you can’t do anything about it. They tell their friends, family, and virtually anyone that will listen. They just want to be heard.

Building trusted relationships is still in vogue – even more so today than ever before. Today, with the help of social media, they can simply tell their “followers” faster and in more volume than ever before. It’s our job, as business owners and leaders, to arm them with great experiences to blast over their megaphones. Experiences still lead to relationships – good or bad. But the customer is in control and it is their voice that the audience wants to hear and will believe.