Tactical Awareness of Social Engagement and Interaction

I’m not going deny it… I’m quite fond of the folks at Awareness Inc. Not just because they afforded me the awesome opportunity of personally visiting and meeting the folks running the  Super Bowl Social Media Command Center, but because they also put together some phenomenal reports (see the State of Social Media Marketing).

In their most recent whitepaper, they explore something nearer and dearer to my own passion: engagement.

“Engagement” is a hot word these days but what does it really mean? Why is it important? How do you drive it? How do choices such as the day and time of a post affect interaction with content, engagement and loyalty? This paper explores those questions, citing research and comments by social media marketing thought leaders, and drawing on a recently completed analysis of aggregate data collected across all Awareness, Inc. clients, including more than 250,000 posts published to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Slideshare, Flickr and WordPress, and the 31+ million interactions on those posts over the course of 2011.

The result is an insightful whitepaper, Social Engagement: How to Crack the Code of Social Interaction, which shows how content performs in the social sphere and how marketers can get the most from each post.

But I love this report not just because it’s applicable to external engagement, but to how we engage with internal audiences as well.

What Social Engagement Provides

AMPLIFICATION: Engaged fans help spread your message within their social network.As they do, posts gain credibility and expand reach. A May 2009 study by Knowledge Networks found that between 10 and 24 percent of U.S. social media users turned to social networks when making purchase decisions. A survey report by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research, “Why Social Media Matters to Your Business,” found that fans and followers of a brand or company were more likely to recommend that brand or company (60 percent of Facebook fans and 79 percent of Twitter followers).

BRAND LOYALTY: Engagement also affects existing customers by improving the chances they will become repeat customers.

Nearly half (49 percent) of the Facebook fans studied by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research in the study previously mentioned reported that they had become fans because they were already customers. Further, more than half of people who had engaged with a brand or company in social channels said they were more likely to buy (51 percent of Facebook fans and 67 percent of Twitter followers) than they were before they became a fan/follower.

CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS: Customers now expect to engage via social channels to ask product questions, give positive and negative feedback, get customer service and to simply share enthusiasm. This expectation is evident in comments by respondents to the Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research survey report. The report asked what it says about a brand if they are not involved with sites like Facebook or Twitter; survey respondents indicated companies and brands are now conspicuous if they have no presence on social channels. “You doubt their relevance in today’s marketplace,” said one consumer.

Similarly, brands that do not have a social presence risk alienating certain demographics. “Either they are not interested in the demographic that frequents Facebook and Twitter or they are unaware of the opportunity to get more exposure,” said another consumer.

AMPLIFICATION: Engaged fans help spread your message within their social network.As they do, posts gain credibility and expand reach.

A May 2009 study by Knowledge Networks found that between 10 and 24 percent of U.S. social media users turned to social networks when making purchase decisions.

A survey report by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research, “Why Social Media Matters to Your Business,” found that fans and followers of a brand or company were more likely to recommend that brand or company (60 percent of Facebook fans and 79 percent of Twitter followers).

EDGERANK: “Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm … is the key to effectively managing content on Facebook for deeper and more meaningful engagement,” Taulbee Jackson, president and chief executive officer at digital media agency Raidious, told Awareness in an interview for our “2012 Social Marketing & New Media Predictions” white paper. EdgeRank strongly favors content with engagement.

As a marketer, or as someone who seeks to engage any audience, you need to know which publishing variables drive meaningful engagement. And  should be able to answer:

• What day of the week has the highest post volume?
• What day of the week has the highest interaction rate?
• What day of the week has the highest number of interactions per post?

Engagement is the enduring effect of content to motivate an audience to do something; motivate your audience with data proven best practices. Visit Awareness Inc to download Social Engagement: How to Crack the Code of Social Interaction.