Twitter: Social media engagement alone “doesn’t mean anything”
Global Twitter brand advocate, Melissa Barnes, has told a forum of Australia’s leading marketing professionals that social media “engagement”, on its own, is meaningless and that they must focus on achieving results.
Barnes delivered the keynote speech in day two of the Mumbrella360 conference in the first ever Australian public address by the micro-blogging media giant.
“I hate meeting with brands and asking them what their goals are and they tell me it’s “engagement”, said Barnes. “Engagement doesn’t mean anything”.
“At some point the CEO is going to look at what you’re doing, and so you’ve got to figure out a way to show how you’re moving the business needle.”
“Engagement doesn’t mean anything.”
Um…
Yes it does. It just shouldn’t be the endgame. Engagement without ongoing strategy to convert it into action means nothing.
“Engagement doesn’t mean anything”. Amen. I hate that word. It’s right up there with words like leverage, framework, stakeholder, dialogue, conversation, strategy.
Talk of the day.
Inspiring viewpoint. I think Australia needs a shake up and recent social media statistics suggest that.
“Like” if you think that Melissa hit the nail on the head, “share” if you think she didn’t or “comment” if you think otherwise…
If this was a shock to anyone in the room then they need to go back to school.
Its the same as saying ‘tv ratings don’t mean anything’ or ‘clicks are not indicative of intention’ etc. It ALL means nothing if the end result is not a positive shift in whatever the client’s objectives are. Engagement is a tactic to deliver a strategy. Nothing more.
Couldn’t agree more with Melissa. I don’t know how many times I’ve had the conversation where someone’s goal is to drive engagement and have no follow up or direction for that to go in (other than the vague and mysterious brand awareness score).
If engagement demonstrably pushes the business needle then you’ve got a great idea. If it doesn’t you’re just buying a seat on the bandwagon.
I know not everything will work, and taking risks is essential, but having no direction is a waste of everyone’s time.