Lewis Black has a very funny bit on his last standup special. Lots of funny bits actually, but I’m picking the one he does on expectations for my purposes here. “The economy is down, the housing market is down, and we all just need to lower our expectations,” he says. “In fact, we need to lower them about 25 percent.”
I’m not about to suggest we lower our expectations for digital marketing. The possibilities are still infinite. But I do want to address the concept of expectations especially in regard to social media. And it was more than a Lewis Black rant that got me going. I saw a Harvard Business Review study last week that showed 79% of the 2,100 companies surveyed are either using or planning to use social media channels, but only 12% of those firms feel that they are using them effectively. Forty-five percent say they’re “getting there.” Forty three percent say they’re ineffective.
Now to me those numbers are completely unacceptable. It means most companies have not moved beyond the grudging “have to be there, everybody else is” kind of attitude. As a business we need to take this conversion from “getting there” to “effective” seriously. For me these attitudes speak to a lack of clarity in social media goals. They speak to unmanaged expectations. We need to recast those in order to push the “getting there” companies over the hump. Let me put four ideas on the table:
1. Expect different results from a 30-60-and 90-day approach. Seems to me that big companies want immediate results from social media efforts. In some ways they should get short-term results. Let’s say a company redesigns its website, marketing and messaging to move customers toward social media. They should expect that within 30 days that a target number of people engage. But that’s where they stop. If the 30-day results don’t meet expectations, the initiative is deemed ineffective. Set expectations for 60 and 90 days, and correlate marketing activities behind it, and companies will have more realistic expectations.
2. Expect to move toward a CPG approach. I’m fascinated by the latest P&G approach. They have moved very quickly from branding and information-based community toward a couponing and e-commerce based approach. This ties directly into an overall CPG retail promotional approach. No different from the Budweiser, Pepsi, or Coke holiday themed attack plans we’ve seen for years. Promotions on social media will have different ROI and different conversion metrics. Again, all about expectations. But I doubt P&G still feels like it’s “getting there” on social media.
3. Expect specific behaviors from your community. Do you expect to be part of the conversation? Do you expect higher engagement? Expect both of these things and more. I would counsel companies to focus on customer segments here. Focus on the humanity. Expect good numbers, but expect to follow the humanity behind them.
4. Expect to revisit the community you create. And here’s the final point to make. The community you create becomes a community that must be maintained. Expect that you will have to maintain a community with offers and information. Social media depends on effort. It’s not a set and forget media.
If we really believe social media is the hub of all digital marketing and, perhaps, even all customer strategy, we might have no bigger challenge. I certainly believe -- and I expect all my clients will too!
