A recent study of US marketers by the Direct Marketing Association and COLLOQUYfound that brand awareness was the most popular objective of social media "campaign". How can this be I ask? For starters, "Social" is not a campaign, it is an ongoing dialogue between a brand and a consumer. Secondly, how can companies expect to build brand affinity without first establishing customer loyalty?
My opinionated attempt to explain:
Think back to the days when marketers referred to word of mouth as the best form of "advertising" a company could ever hope for, yet there were very few ways to prove that positive or negative word of mouth affected brand or impacted the bottom line. Even more puzzling was the fact that marketers had very few ways of touching consumers on a personal level if they needed to remedy a problem, or thank someone for being a loyal supporter.
Today, those same "word of mouth" conversations still take place, except now marketers have an opportunity to see them, understand them, influence them, and most importantly, connect them to individual customers. Never before, have Marketers and Brands had an opportunity to get as close to their customers as they can today, yet so many of them limit their "social efforts" to simply "advertising" to consumers within social forums.
Those who understand the value of today's social ethos, know that social media is not about a "campaign". Its not how much money you sink into advertising on social networks, and it's not about how many leads can be delivered. It's about making sure your company in sync with its customers - It's about providing value. When you provide value to consumers you establish trust and loyalty, which lead to brand affinity & awareness. It is only then, when companies can expect to see the fruits of their labor through increased sales, and overall growth etc.
Now that I've got that off my chest, I will say that I do believe its beneficial for Marketers and Brands to "advertise" in social environments, but these efforts should not be looked at a social media, they simply should be looked at as advertising campaigns (which is what they are). And should not be measured any differently than other "campaigns" with specific and measureable KPI's.
I welcome your thoughts.