Social Media Blog by Michael Brito

Move over influencers; advocates are more valuable to brands.  It’s a fact.  And I won’t try to make the case with research on how consumers want to engage with brands on the social web because we all know that’s the case already.  I don’t have a problem with influencers at all; and have been vocal in the past about some of my own influencers.  All I am saying is that customer advocacy bring more life and longer term value for a brand.  Here’s why:

Influencers can be bought; but may not always deliver

Well, not really.  What I am trying to say is that influencers don’t really care about your brand.  They may have a crush on you or find your product useful; but they are too busy being influencers – tweeting, blogging, and recording webinars to really care. Of course they love getting free trials and new products before they hit the market; and very rarely will they say no when you offer to send them that new shiny object. 

But how many times have you seeded a product to an influencer without any result?

Besides, even if they did love you, they’d probably refrain from talking too much about you in fear of community backlash or the fear of a negative perception of being bought even if it’s not true. I completely understand that conflict. Most influencers get pitched several times a day and all it does is feed their egos; so the time commitment of reaching out to them won’t always reap any positive benefit much less any business value to a brand. I am speaking in general terms here because I do know some really awesome influencers. Point is that influencers are great for generating buzz; not so great for driving purchase decisions.  At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, right? Go ahead, attack me.  

• Is one that is collaborative, internally
• Has an open, honest and transparent culture
• Thrives with teamwork and constant communication
• Looks beyond internal organizations and business titles
• Equips and encourages employees to engage with customers
• Is hungry for new technology that makes communication with each other and customers more efficient
• Has a simple social media policy that protects the organization and empowers its people
• Blends traditional CRM tools w/external social technologies to make for a more relevant consumer brand experience
• Thinks beyond Twitter and Facebook
• Will invite competitors to their communities
• Fails with egos
• Fails with organizational silos
• Cannot have effective external conversations until having effective internal conversations first

Geez, it’s been a while and I have been working on this post for months. I was originally gong to title this “the Facebook Fan Fallacy” but the wizards over in Palo Alto changed it up on me so this will have to do.  And, since my schedule has been crazy busy these days, I have decided to make my posts a lot shorter and more direct. Hopefully you will still find value.

My point with this post is to blatantly say that buying fans/followers is not a very effective strategy. I have been bought before by a few brands but a quick glance at the list reminds me that I have NEVER gone back to any of these pages, ever!

I do understand the need to spend money in Facebook or wherever to drive people to a particular domain. How else will the masses even know you exist?  The problem arises when brands make this the core focus of their outreach strategy.

Organic growth via real time engagement is what works. Having dedicated employees managing Facebook “like white on rice” is where the true value is.  Statistics show by multiple data sources that consumers want to engage with brands; AND according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, consumers TRUST employees of a company. Truth is, people relate to other people, not logos or corporate entities.  It’s the core of our DNA.

1. You follow 100K people and they all follow you back.
2. You follow 100K people and 200K follow you back (this person has more influence than the previous).
3. You have a low (follower/followee) ratio because you un-follow the majority of the people who you previously followed.
4. You go to the local grocery store and a random person shouts “Hey, I know you! I follow you on Twitter and RT everything you share”.
5. You have a personal Facebook Fan Page (it doesn’t matter how many people like you either. The mere fact that you have one is all that matters).
6. Your twitter CTR is 38% on all the links you share about YOU.
7. Others randomly RT YOUR Klout score (keyword – RT)
8. You get invited to speak at every social media conference (even if you have to pay for your own travel, you still have influence).
9. You check in to a random location on Foursquare and it turns into a Tweetup in honor of YOU!
10. You get your profile image on Fast Company; you Tweet it, it gets RT’d … and the cycle continues.

In case you didn’t get it, I am being completely facetious with this post.  I personally think that anyone who considers themselves to have “real influence” just because they have a certain amount of followers or fans is a complete joke. My opinion only.

There are only 3 things that I care about having influence over; my family (and friends), my co-workers and my clients in that order. Everything else is irrelevant.

So this past 4^th of July weekend, I decided to take my wife and daughters to Santa Monica for a short vacation.  We stayed at the Sheraton Delfina for four nights and it was very pleasant. The hotel staff was nice, the room was phenomenal and we had a great view.

And of course, being the great social media practitioner that I am, I checked in on Foursquare the day I arrived.

Just today, I noticed that the hotel started following me on Twitter.  I reciprocated and then got this message a few hours later.

I am on a quest to understand Social CRM. Not so I can be an early pundit shouting “to dos” at companies or pointing out their mistakes; but so I can really understand the value proposition it can bring to an organization, their constituents and ultimately my clients. I even joined the Social CRM Pioneers Google group to start marinating in what influencers are talking about and it’s been good, real good.

I have read several excellent definitions of social CRM but I am yet to be satisfied. I often try and put myself in my client’s shoes and evaluate whether a given definition (program or strategy) makes sense for the business. So far, a lot of what I have read is either fluff or so high level that it’s not actionable.  And from my experience working in the enterprise, a strategy that is not actionable is usually just someone’s really good idea that will never get implemented.

A few months ago, I wrote about Vitrue’s study on the value of a Facebook fan being worth $3.60; and last week, Syncapse released a similar study and assigning a $1.36 value to a fan.  The 18 page comprehensive study can be downloaded here but here are some key findings:

Product Spending: Facebook Fans spend, on average, $71.84 more than non-fans over a two-year period

Brand Loyalty: Facebook fans are 28 per cent more likely to continue using a brand than consumers who are not fans on Facebook

Willingness to Recommend: 68 per cent of fans are ‘very likely’ to recommend a product to family and friends (as opposed to 28 per cent of non-fans)

Brand Affinity: 81 per cent of fans feel a connection to the brand (versus only 39 per cent of non-fans)

Earned Media Value: Incorporating all of the above factors, the average value of a Facebook fan is $136.38 to an organization

I have been working at Edelman Digital for 7 months now and still think it’s been the best career move I have ever made in my life. I am amazed at the people I work with day to day and learn so much from them.  The collaboration, sharing, support and encouragement inspires me every day to give 110 percent.  With that said, I wanted to share some job openings, specifically here on the West Coast. For a full list of job openings, you can go directly to the web site. I currently work out of the San Mateo office but have colleagues in each of the others and the leadership in each is top notch!