Social media can be a benefit for optimizing our total presence on the web. Unfortunately it’s hard to figure out how to measure the impact we’ve made via Social media. The truth is, it’s social media, and the name of the game of Social is engagement. –
According to Wikipedia; “Communication (from Latin commūnicāre, meaning “to share”) is the activity of conveying information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals, signals, written, or behavior. It is the meaningful exchange of information between two or more living creatures.”
Companies need a strong social presence on the web, but most importantly they need to have communicative relationships. Allan Knecht had mentioned on Webcology that it’s not all about how many followers or fans you have it’s about how you engage with them. Shared posts, communications and involvement are just few things to look at when measuring engagement. There are a number of free applications like Hootsuite, Tweet deck and Google alerts to help keep an eye on what people are saying about you or info they could be possibly sharing. Unfortunately the truth is that many companies out there do very poorly in the social arena. A good chunk of the time they either talk “at” their followers or post memes and quotes-of-the-day without any personal interaction what so ever.
Companies on the web need to recognize that they need to be an influencer in their sector before they can begin to see the development of positive response through their social efforts. Often we have clients that ask for a quantifiable number to help measure the worth of a social campaign. A good number to offer is a Klout score. A Klout score measures your social engagement and the new interface also connects users with other relevant content around the web catered to their interests and area of influence. The score is rated from zero up with an authoritative influence rank starting at 60. Giving a client a number to work up to helps provide incentive but also gives them an idea that what they are doing is actually working. Once they can see this number increase they will be more likely to continue with their efforts; understanding what actions result in increased Klout and taking the correct actions to move on.
When an individual has reached an influential score it becomes easier to have them and their brand begin to network with other influencers, expanding their exposure to a much larger audience. Most importantly, by sharing knowledge with other industry leaders and their audience they will have strengthened their trust and authority, thus providing them with a better chance to attain natural, organic links.
The foundation to being a successful, optimal online company is to embrace social media while engaging with and listening to the audience carefully. If we can work with a client to recognize the value of proper social interaction then we will be ahead of the game when achieving converting traffic.
Follow this Webcology program from March 27 with guests Allan Knecht (Digital Always Media) and Adam Proehl (NordicClick) as they help explain the necessity of engagement.