It has become common knowledge that the consumer of today, has become the user. Using devices, platforms and media in ways that would be unfathomable to the media magnates of the past. Ben Franklin created the first truly independent newspaper in the colonies, thanks to the power of today’s technology, everyone has the opportunity to be the Ben Franklin of the 21st century and create many forms of independent media. This ability to embrace media creation and use many tools (often times, free as well) to further one’s idea of media, communications and art means that several users are in many places at once: I don’t just Facebook, I upload to YouTube, tweet the blurp and allow analysis and conversation via Facebook. But what happens when the user steps outside of the norm, when they step into the Instagrams, Tinders, Pheeds and Snapchats.
Look Past What Has Worked
It’s no secret that brands shift to where the consumer has a heavy presence. Superbowl anyone? But when the collective group is divided in terms of what they want, or desire to use, and these platforms of congregation are young, it causes stress in terms of how to measure. A fifth of the demographic may like snapchat, but two-fifths may like Twitter and the other three-fifths like Instagram. Only Twitter has analytics, and that’s only if you pay for advertising. How do you define success when the standard definition of success is available to you?
Define Your Success
Whether you are looking for engagement, awareness or added sales, there are ways to measure this even when the platform has no official measurements. Many tools that your target uses today don’t have much in the way of data, so it’s on you to make benchmarks, meet them, beat them or come up short, is doesn’t matter as long as you move forward. At least you can definitely say you have line for success rather that nothing (which is how many are willing to go about this).
I feel the reason we continue to consider particular numbers is because it makes us feel safe, because it’s what we know. Comfort can be a fickle bastard sometimes. But what has traditionally worked won’t always work today. Users today aren’t as grounded into one form of media as previous generations. Today, they are far more mobile and able to drop one thing to shifting into the next idea or new thing in a matter of seconds.
Understanding the Shift
Don’t allow this shift to get the best of you. There are many new ways to create a benchmark, define success and move forward from that point. As the user moves, you can move too. So your target now uses some relatively new, fun platform, let’s say Pinterest. Pinterest at the beginning didn’t have analytics. But as a brand or small business owner looking to capitalize on all of those moms and their champagne wishes for Pottery Barn catalog worthy kitchens, you weren’t able to measure much. Then considering previous measurement methods, how does one justify the use of it? First, throw out convention. Second, define success. Are you looking for awareness? Look at who had pinned for the week, and how big their accumulative networks are. Voila, you have reach defined. Attempting to define engagement? See how many pins, likes and comments are contributed to your business’ Pinterest account. After that, cross reference with competitors… are you beating them in engagement measurements? Good! Consider the ratio of production to engagement, slow down if engagement decreases, you might be overwhelming the user. Find that sweet spot.
Pinterest now has analytics for brands, but this is a perfect case of a social platform that had zero analytics built into the platform to begin with, and marketers had to create benchmarks (although third party tools like Viralheat popped up after Pinterest became so successful). In the case of newer tools, you may have to define your own. Maybe your new use of Snapchat to do something unique gained you a little extra press in small blogs, or people chatted about it on Twitter, there’s a new definition of success in a measurement that wouldn’t have worked even as little as 5 years ago.
Customer service, order processing, awareness, engagement, brand reference, sales driving techniques, advertising and sentiment (cough, check out ViralHeat’s Chrome Plugin, cough)… these all have benchmarks that are unique to them. One measurement doesn’t meet the demands of all.
Once you have the foundation built you will be more agile and able to adapt as new platforms arise and others shut down or decrease in their daily usage. But getting grounded so that you can determine your wins and shortcomings, that’s a win in it’s own right.
Danny Schotthoefer is a social strategist on the Old Spice team at Wieden+Kennedy. He was also a TEDx event organizer and is an avid Oregon Ducks and Portland Trailblazers fan. You can also find him running via Nike+ and cycling via Strava – he is highly social. Follow him on Twitter or connect via LinkedIn. Forewarning: He Talks A LOT!
Work? #officelife @ Wieden + Kennedy instagram.com/p/YN79mNhXU2/
— Danny Schotthoefer (@dschotthoefer) April 17, 2013
