Comments on: The Holy Grail of Social Media: Conversions or Conversations?

By: Ed

Ed — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:41:25 +0000

I’m not a Digg user because I have never used it due to my reservations about it. Not intending to rebutt you, but rather, do we really expect nothing out of a social media campaign other than relationships? In truth, we are all working towards what comes after the relationships are established. It’s almost like establishing brand evangelists through conversations with foster the relationships. That’s only how I feel, which may differ from you.

Since I don’t agree with Digg’s (or rather the top user’s) practice, I am only reduced to the idealogy it’s just another traffic-raking site.

By: Michael Brito

Michael Brito — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:33:36 +0000

Hi Amanda,
Thanks for the comment. When I look to engage in a social media campaign, I like to take a holistic approach.

Number one – how do I drive traffic to my site; and I may very well use Digg as ONE channel for this purpose.

Number two (which is the most important) – what am I going to do once I get visitors to my site? How will engage them? How will I facilitate ongoing, two-way conversations that are aligned with my overall business goals?

Also, social media may not even revolve around driving visitors to my site. It also involves monitoring conversations that are going on – off domain – like Facebook, the Digg community, Twitter, etc. – and engage I these conversations in these communities as well.

I hope this helps.

Michael

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:05:45 +0000

I’m certainly not a seasoned player in the Digg field, and I found your post very interesting and had to do a little research of my own in regards to what Digg is all about. I’m curious to know if you would suggest using this “type” of social media over other types. I understand some of the pros and cons to this, but do you think the pros outweigh the cons and is the reason that marketers are using this approach because of the pros?

By: Brick Marketing

Brick Marketing — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:02:08 +0000

“Digg is a one night stand.”

You’re exactly right. The short term benefits do not equal the effort put into gaining first page status. Digg is certainly NOT social media marketing defined.

By: Jeremy Rodriguez

Jeremy Rodriguez — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:24:06 +0000

Great post. I try and tell my clients the same thing. Thank you!

By: Linda Bustos

Linda Bustos — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:30:02 +0000

Ugh I failed your skill testing question. Hmmph!

PS I digg your new redesign

By: Linda Bustos

Linda Bustos — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 03:29:04 +0000

Every once in a while I mention Digg in passing to a non-techie/non-Internet marketing friend or family member. No one’s ever heard of it. It ain’t no YouTube

By: Kelly Feller

Kelly Feller — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:31:37 +0000

Traditional marketing orgs have always looked to easily quantifiable metrics to justify their marketing ROI. Relationship building has typically been seen as “soft” marketing with limited (or at least difficult to measure) ROI. And in an era of increased budget constraints, the programs not easily quantified are first to get the knife across the neck. I think this explains the attraction to sites like Digg which provide easily reported metrics that help justify activity to upper management.

Social media may be the darling of marketing departments today in part because many of these programs require minimal upfront investment (in theory). But I predict that later down the line–if it hasn’t happened already–execs will also hold these “programs” under a microsocope and ask for the click thrus instead of commitments, or conversions instead of conversations.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:17:47 +0000

Yeah but without traffic, there will be NO conversations.

By: Michael Brito

Michael Brito — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:18:05 +0000

@Jens

This is precisely my point. If you join a community just to monetize it, it will not provide the value that you expect (social networks aren’t the best channel for customer acquisition). However, if you join the community in an attempt to join the conversation and build trust, you WILL seem some positive results in the future – like brand stewardship, etc.

Then again, it really depends on your product/service and/or value proposition. Not all companies should go join a social network. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t build a community around your product; and host/facilitate the conversation on your domain.