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Michael Brito, senior VP-social business planning at Edelman Digital and author of 'Smart Business, Social Business,' talks with Syncapse founder and CEO Michael Scissons.
Bringing clarity to chaos
Michael Brito: What's your advice for companies seeking the right
platform to manage social media?
Michael Scissons: First things first: There is a huge divide between
the needs of small and large companies when it comes to managing
social media. For small companies, the choice is easy. There is a great
variety of tactical tools that are on the market. Large enterprises that
manage an average of 178 corporate-owned social media accounts1
are looking to make a significant investment in a social media management
platform. A large global enterprise
with numerous stakeholders needs
a partner that is aligned to a strategic vision
from both a technology and services
perspective. Cohesion among the entire
marketing team worldwide is critical.
Global marketers must consider their
team members in São Paulo or Munich,
and who is going to be on the ground to
support them in making social media
successful in their markets.
Social media is like the wild west
Mr. Brito: What are some methods that organizations can adopt
that will allow them to collaborate more effectively?
Mr. Scissons: Alignment starts to happen when companies wean
their marketing teams off using several-point solutions and consolidate
their social marketing efforts onto a central technology platform.
This leads to a scenario where regional marketers have an
outlet to exchange ideas and compare what content is working and
what isn't across their global and local social networking sites.
Empower local marketers
Mr. Brito: What makes fans want to stay connected with a brand?
Mr. Scissons: Syncapse's research shows that the more power
given to local marketers, the better the results for the brand. In a
recent study, local pages received 36 percent higher engagement
than a single, global page.2 An empowered and efficient marketing
organization can produce content and offers that are relevant
to fans and followers. This is what we call the "blue sky" scenario
for global social media management, and it leads to a happy and
engaged fan base that is ultimately spending more on your products
and services.
The value of an audience is more important than its size
Mr. Brito: If you had to choose one, what would be the most important metric when measuring social media? Mr. Scissons: The most important thing marketers should ask themselves is what is the value of my brand's social media audience? Communicating the value of social media is always a tough thing to do for marketers. When it can be proven that investment in social media marketing leads to increased brand loyalty, referrals and product spending, an organization's investment in social media marketing tends to increase drastically.
Michael Scissons is the founder and CEO of Syncapse. He is a contributor to the Ad Age Digital/Next blog and can be found via Twitter at @scissons, and on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Sources: 1Altimeter Group, July 2011 (http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2011/07/29/number-of-corporate-social-media-accounts-hard-to-manage-risk-of-social-media-help-desk/). 2Syncapse data, June 2011.