‘Likes’ aren’t a measure of success

Too many South African brands embarking on social media marketing campaigns believe that the number of ‘friends’ or ‘likes’ they have on Facebook are a measure of the success of their campaigns and the popularity of their brands. This isn’t the case, say local social media and marketing experts.

Jarred Cinman, chief inventor at Native, points out that brand ‘likes’ on Facebook are generally incentivised and do not necessarily indicate brand support. The success of a social media marketing campaign lies in the spread of the message throughout the right networks, the level of engagement that follows, and the positive sentiments this generates, he says.

“In South Africa, we have a very active social media user base that is very engaged. This isn’t matched on a brand marketing level. South African businesses tend to be very conservative and stuck in the old paradigm, focusing on broadcast and print media. Brands and companies are not fully exploiting social media to their advantage yet,” he says.

Using social media effectively takes a whole new marketing mindset, the experts say.

Numbers not a metric

Walter Pike, founder and leader of PiKE | New Marketing, says: “We suddenly think about the audience and realise that, although it may be great to have 10 000 Facebook ‘likes’, it may be better to have 10. The 10 000 could be the lurkers, or not even actually present – they may have clicked the button never to return, while the 10 may be the bridges or the thought leaders.”

Melissa Attree, business development manager at Cerebra, echoes this sentiment: “I’d far rather have an audience of 100 very engaged people in a social network than a thousand ‘likes’ who only visit the page once,” she says.

Handing over control

What is happening now, thanks to social media, the experts say, is that brands are having to find their voices, customers are becoming the branding agencies, and the conversation is no longer with a customer, but with a chain of that customer’s networks, too. Brands can no longer tightly control their messages.

“We start thinking about strategic brand management and we suddenly see that we no longer control the messages, the brand associations nor the media, and realise that we only control the experience with the brand,” says Pike.