When executing a social business initiative, measurement is key to it succeeding. Matt Ridings from SideraWorks commented on my earlier post about communicating a social business initiative to decision-makers. He pointed out that I’ve used “social media” and “social business” too closely in context without separating the differences.
He’s right.
Lately, there is a lot of hubbub about Facebook’s alleged algorithm changes to the News Feed. Some reports have indicated that Pages experienced a 40% drop in reach; others stated that it’s holding steady. So, what’s the verdict? More importantly, why does it even matter?
As you probably know, the Facebook News Feed is prioritized by a user’s activity. If they like a bunch of sports content today; tomorrow, they will likely be shown more sports content. Facebook, like Google, has a duty to provide a relevant user experience by any means necessary. [click to continue…]
Ever since my days from taking support calls for AOL Tech Support, one bit of advice that has helped me incredibly in my career and even in life. It’s the role that metrics play in business and ourselves. I have some strong views about how we should look at metrics, but I wanted to share what has led up to my decision. This two-part post is first about what has led up to my thoughts on this and my second part will be about my theory on metrics and behaviors. [click to continue…]
Would you still reply to everyone one of them? If not, you don’t deserve to have a million Twitter followers.
Stop counting followers.
Stop counting replies.
Stop counting RTs.
Stop counting lists.
These Twitter-specific stats don’t matter when it’s these business metrics that are measured at the end of the day quarter/year.
Businesses don’t operate on the best way to fit an idea into 140 characters. Followers don’t make the cash register ring. Businesses do well because they impress their customers and have a service or product with value. Doing well in social media predicates that you’re doing well already as business and want to amplify your reach with it.
Even social media-based businesses like Radian6 aren’t exempt from this rule. As a SaaS provider of social media analytics for larger brands, they still got revenue to drive for, they still got customers and prospects to touch, they still gotta peacock their feathers and show the industry who’s got it together. This isn’t deduced down their followers.
If you had a million followers, but only ten made a difference, why do the other 999,990 matter?
Most businesses who want eleventy-billion followers frequently lack the reason why they want those followers. Is it so they can be heard, or so they can hear other people? Is it so they can gain value or give value to a million people? If you have value to give, give it with no expectation that you’ll get it. Oh, and not every business needs to have everyone listen to them. Twitter and the rest of social media enables businesses to solve problems, innovate and to be creative. If success is measured by sales, leads and revenue, why do we measure the metrics that don’t align?
This is the time to think critically of what we do and why. Let’s calm the hell down about social media and really go big in 2011. That’s why I bring this up.
Regardless, here’s a strategy for being successful on Twitter. It scales and drives business metrics. But can you measure it? Not exactly, but you’ll know intimately if you got that “it” factor. Is it Klout? No.
If you think this was good, help me get to a million followers. Thanks!
