Page 161 - Free the Idea Monkey

Now, these metrics don’t exist in a vac-

uum. Your competition will be using social

media as well, so you want to be smart

about which you use. If you want something

important to measure, gauge where you

stand vis-à-vis with the competition. See

who has the advantage based on positive/ If you haven’t found a
negative brand perceptions, organic search- way to measure social
term content/ranking, visibility and their media yet, you haven’t
observable overall social strategy. looked hard enough.

We have two suggestions about how to do it. First, identify the

key social media most used by your customers, and then evaluate

their choices by not only popularity but also how believable they

think they are.

FIND OUT WHERE THE TRUST IS
Nicholas Kinports, founder of ADMAVEN and our MD business

partner, has a wonderful way of thinking about implementing your
social media strategy. “It isn’t about making content go viral—though
that would be a wonderful by-product should it happen—or creat-
ing the next great Facebook application,” Kinports says. “It’s about
structuring, and in some cases restructuring, how a business views
and interacts with its customer base. The modern consumer is savvy,
aware and fully able to make informed decisions, thanks to a wealth
of information freely available on the Internet. The consumer of
the near future will make purchase decisions based on information
gleaned from unbiased peers and influencers. Social media is the lat-
est tool through which these interactions occur.”

Paraphrasing Nick, you can’t out-clever your customer. It is best
to see the world as they do and discover where they are going for
trusted advice and then, and only then, interact in an honest, genuine
way. You need to become a welcomed, trusted consultant.

If you think of social media as that—a social consultant—the
results can be remarkable from both a bottom line and competi-
tive standpoint. But to be in the game, you first need the desire to

146 S O C I A L M E D I A : N O W A N D F O R E V E R