GERVAS: Goal - Engage - Relationship - Value - Action - Synthesize
GERVAS is the tool to guide the development of your social media campaign. Here are the six elements and the questions to ask?
As a business or organization launches a social media program, they try to anticipate the results and make the necessary refinements. These are some typical questions:
- Is the content of your social media message effective?
- Is your target market communicating via social media and will you reach them?
- Are you choosing and optimizing your social media tools?
- How do you evaluate your strategy before launch?
Each marketer/ businessperson can apply six simple benchmarks to evaluate the potential effectiveness of your social media efforts. This can be done as a self-evaluation, discussion with your team or via a focus group.
1. Goal - What is the targeted goal of your advertisement, social media program or campaign?
- Is the goal measureable?
2. Engage - How effective is the message in attracting or involving your target market?
- Does it reach your target markets?
- Does your content provoke an "emotional" attraction?
- Did your targets take note or remember the message?
- Can your message easily be shared in multiple channels?
3. Relationship - Did the message stimulate the target to feel trust or common interests?
- Did the communication foster interactivity or shared dialogue?
- Did the communication help you to "know the users'... needs, preferences, interests"?
- Did the tool inspire ongoing conversations?
4. Value -Does the product or service and related message communicate added benefit for the individual, organization or company?
- Does it answer a need or solve a problem; address a "pain point;" make you more ________ (e.g., competitive, feel better about yourself); or help you to be a better parent , businessperson, or citizen?
- Is the message clear and focused to consider action?
- Can the user perceive Value/Benefit in the offering?
5. Action- Does the message move you to act?
- Is the activity clearly defined?
- Is it accessible? Is it being communicated where the target market "hangs out"?
- If the activity is successful, will it meet your goals?
- Is the activity, trackable and measureable? (e.g., sales, orders, leads, database, social referrals, downloads, reviews, social mentions, website visits)
6. Synergize- Is the tool an add-on to current marketing efforts or is it integrated into the campaign?
- Is the message designed to "weave with" and leverage other marketing efforts?
- Does the message link to other media and generate new sources of traffic?
- Is it designed to be passed on to different communities to create viral buzz?
GERVAS is a powerful, yet simple approach to analyze your social or integrated marketing applications. Please share your analysis and we will share them!
Part Two (coming soon) : Let's look at using GERVAS Benchmarks to analyze how social media applications effect a organization's marketing strategy.