In today’s digitally savvy age, the use of digital media has become increasingly common for companies of all sizes. Social media is a two way communication platform which makes measuring the effectiveness of a campaign very difficult. On an average, there are 1.9 million daily users of Facebook which is five times that of the Irish Times. The number of users on Facebook is even more than the viewership of Ireland’s most watched TV show ‘The Late Late Show’ which has a 1.5 million viewership. These facts show the importance of using social media as part of the marketing activities. Using platforms such as Facebook, companies can create a loyal fan following which is a strong competitive advantage for the company.
In order to effectively use social media, it is important to understand with the understanding of the company rather than just digital channels. Content that is posted on a channel is consumed by all of these followers and a recent study shows that consumers who consume branded content online are 41% more likely to purchase from that brand. Therefore, it is important to create content according to the various channel norms set by each individual platforms.
Facebook is the most used channel for people to consume information online. Interaction is the key for this channel as without any engagement from the community, the content that is created is wasted. Insights that are given by Facebook are very accurate and these should be used while scheduling posts and creating content. The most important rule of marketing today is to know your customer. A customer can make or break a brand and hence these insights are very useful while creating content for a branded page. Getting the rest message out to the right target audience at the right time is critical for success! Facebook should be used to build brand loyalty for a brand – this is only possible when there is a real conversation between company and customer.
It is also important to know what to measure on social media. The depth on engagement and the breath of influence are the key measurement metrics for social media platforms such as Facebook. Online influence is determined by how many people are talking about your brand and this can be measured by constantly monitoring what conversations are happening about your brand. There are two main types of measurement methods – Functional metrics and Emotional Metrics.
Functional Metrics are those metrics that set the big picture for the brand. They are highly measureable and offer insights on awareness and should be correlated to the company’s KPIs. Emotional metrics provide a picture on the likeability of the brand. These help in proving the relevancy of the content that is created. Thus, with the use of both these metrics, brands can easily create a big loyal community which will provide a big competitive advantage in today’s competitive environment.
