Social Media Training: The 5 Most Common Excuses for Not Using Social Media
I do a lot of social media training and strategic consulting to businesses of all sizes. The funny thing is that most business have the same barriers as to why they are not using social media. From fortune 500 countries all the way to small business owner, the excuses and barriers are the same.
The reality is that most of these barriers are only in their minds. They don’t want to use social media because they don’t understand it, so they make excuses. Deep down, they know that they need to use social media (or they wouldn’t be talking to me), but something in their mindset is holding them back.
The reality is that businesses that invest in learning how to properly harness social media see dramatic results. All signs show that social media is here to stay. You can’t afford to ignore it.
Excuse #1 – Social media is a fad
Social media is here to stay. Social media has mass adoption and continues to grow in popularity.
- More people check Facebook every day than read the newspaper or listen to the radio.
- Facebook has over 500 million users.
- There are over 30 million blogs in the US (that is about 1 for every 10 people)
- Twitter has millions of users including most celebrities and politicians.
- Social Media was listed as a key factor in winning the last US presidency.
Excuse #2 – Social Media is a shiny new object
Social Media isn’t really new when you think about it. People have been social since forever. We live in communities. We talk about things that matter. We give advice to our friends. This has all been going on for centuries.
The media part is new. Technology has allowed us to make social connections in a more powerful and scalable way. Rather than keeping up with a few people in person we can keep up with many people by checking out their tweets or Facebook updates.
So really, social media is an age old concept that is transformed by technology.
Excuse #3 – I can’t afford to hire someone to help me
Small business owners who hear me speak approach me afterward and ask me how they can get support to start growing their business with social media marketing. They often then say that they can’t afford to invest. That is a losing mindset, because if they are already struggling, they really, they can’t afford not to.
Businesses waste all sorts of money on things that don’t work any more. Yellow pages ads, newspaper ads, direct mail and coupons. Social media works better than any of these things. If you want to be successful make the choice to invest in something that will actually grow your business and get you results.
Excuse #4 – I don’t have the time
This is one of the most common barriers. I don’t have the time. Do you have about an hour a week? That is all it takes. 10 minutes, 5 times a week. If you are disciplined in your social media marketing approach you can manage social media without a lot of time.
Our clients that use the social marketing action program see results with just an hour a week (after setting everything up). The key is to use efficiency tools and be strategic in how you spend your time.
Excuse #5 – Social media doesn’t deliver business results
This one is just plain not true. Businesses of all sizes have seen dramatic results from social media across multiple areas of their business. Here are just a few examples:
- Lenovo reduced customer service calls by 20% with social media.
- Vista Prints sold $25,000 from twitter alone
- Golden Tee saved development costs with a free Facebook application.
- Naked pizza had their best ever sales day from twitter.
These are just a few. If you make the smart choice to invest in social media you will be on one of these lists one day.
Are there any other myths that you hear?
7 Reasons to Blog
A few years ago blogging was extremely popular. It has declined in popularity recently despite the fact that it remains a popular social media tool.
Blogs provide a number of business benefits, however many blogs don’t get results because they are not created strategically or written correctly for the web. In working with businesses on their blogs there are a number of simple strategies and tactics that mean the difference between success and failure.
Blogs are definitely worth the investment as they can provide LOTS of value to businesses. Here are few of them:
1) Position yourself as a thought leader
A blog is a powerful way to position yourself and your brand as a thought leader in your industry. By sharing your thoughts and views or uniqu knowledge you can be perceived as an expert in your area.
Most businesses are great at something (hopefully you are!) and sharing your knowledge is a great way to showcase this. Showing your expertise through a blog builds trust in you and your business.
2) Search Engine Traffic
Probably one of the best reasosn to start a blog is for search engine traffic. Search engines like blogs because they have a lot of content that is updated frequently.
This means that when people search for words related to your product or your blog posts you are more likely to show up at the top of the results. This means more traffic for your website and ultimately more sales!
3) To share news
Most small businesses don’t have a fancy PR firm or a press page. That doesn’t mean they don’t have news! A blog is a great way to share news about your business in an honest, opwn and personable way.
4) Get Customer Feedback
Blogs can generate two-way conversations between a company and their customers. Leverage your blog to ask for customer feedback. You can get feedback on current items or have your customers help you build new products or services.
When I worked at a startup we used our blog to generate discussions around what our new products should be. Our blog gave us an opportunity to share what we are working on and our customers an opportunity to tell us what they thought. Our blog comments also helped us to develop our policies, as we got considerable customer feedback and suggestions from our readers.
5) Connect with Customers on Content
Whatever your business line there are subject areas related to your product that your audience is passionate about. Zappos, a company that sells shoes and clothes online runs a fashion blog. They know that frequent shoppers on their site are interested in fashion trends. So, their blog provides information and updates on fashion.
Are there subjects that are related to your business that your customers are passionate about? A blog is a great way to make a connection based around that shared interest.
6) Show you are Human
A blog can show the human side of your business. Remember, people do business with people they know, like and trust. A blog can help people “know”, “like” and “trust you”.
By posting personal content they feel like they know you. It builds a personal connection. For example, people “connect” with me over being Canadian, or drinking WAY too much coffe.
They like you because the blogs show the nice and personable side of you. You share their interests, say nice things, comment and respond.
They trust you because you say smart things about your product or subject area which builds trust over. The human element also builds trust.
7) Provide Context about Your Business
Prior to making a purchase most people do some research online. If it is a big purchase they want to know if you are legitimate, provide a good product and know your stuff.
Often the corporate website is canned and shiny, but doesn’t provide real, transparent and authentic seeming information.
The blog can do this. A blog can show the real side of the company and build the trust that ultimately leads to purchases. It provides more context about you as a business and your products.
How else are companies seeing value from blogging? Why do you blog?
Small Business Social Media Speaker: 10 Ways Small Businesses can use Social Media
I know that a lot of small businesses are interested in social media marketing to grow their business. I speak with thousands of small business owners a year (probably just like you) who hear about social media but don’t know exactly how they can get value from social media.
I have worked with many of these business owners to help them find success in social media, and I know that small businesses can get results using social media marketing. I know first hand that social media can provide a better ROI than traditional marketing methods. Social Media marketing can deliver results when used strategically and with the right plan.
Here are 10 of the most common ways that small businesses can use social media to grow their business. In no particular order, here are 10 ways that small businesses can use social media:
1) Share Deals and Promotions on Twitter
Twitter is a powerful way to share deals and promotions with your customers (and future customers)! Big companies like Dell Outlet have sold millions of dollars through twitter, but it works for small companies too. Naked Pizza, a small pizza store in New Orleans had their highest ever sales day from a twitter promotion. Vista Prints sold $25,000 directly through twitter in their first year. Find and connect with your target audience and give them irresistable offers on Twitter.
2) Share news and Updates on Facebook
Don’t have a fan page yet? If you have fans or customers who are passionate about your business you should have a fan page. Use it to connect with customers and keep them up to date on your new products or services. I was recently getting my car fixed and found that the mechanic frequents the same neighborhood bar as I do. He told me that he checks out their Facebook page every day to see what food and drink specials they have. This bar has a creative new drink special for Happy Hour every day and a different free food item available.
Whether is it food and drink specials, new items in your store, new industry news or regulations a facebook fan page can be a powerful resource to keep your customers up to date. Over 1/3 of people who are fans of companies on Facebook are fans for this reason – to stay up to date.
3) Network on LinkedIn Groups
Lots of small businesses and professionals grow their businesses by networking with people. Meeting people and sharing helpful knowledge drives business over time. People do business with people they know, like and trust.
LinkedIn groups allow you connect with others based on a shared interest. You can join a group and contribute to discussions or share interesting news. By using LinkedIn to build relationships you can earn new customers over time.
4) Connect with Prospects with a Webinar
Webinars are becoming increasingly popular ways to connect with prospects adn provide value to customers. Webinars are virtual and web-based. A webinar is typically hosted around a specific topic and people sign up, call in and log-in on their computer and they can watch and listen to a live session on a specific topic.
Webinars are very popular in categories that are high-information. Most B-to-B business fall in to this categoy, but it also works for consumer products. If people are looking for knowledge or information on your subject area, a webinar can be a powerful tool to share information with them and position yourself as a leader.
5) Be a Thought Leader with a Blog
Blogs are very popular for a variety of reasons (we’ll discuss one more of them later in this post). One of the reasons is that a blog can establish you as an expert and thought leader in your industry. If people trust you and see you as knowledgeable they are more likely to do business with you.
Run a gym? Share workout tips. Real Estate Agent? Share posts highlighting the people and events in your neighborhood. Restaurant? Show how you make signature drinks or menu items.
6) Connect with Customers and Prospects with an email newsletter
So maybe *technically* this isn’t social media, but it is relatively simple and cheap for most businesses to create a newsletter. Constant Contact and MailChimp offer services for under $25 a month and are easy to use.
An email newsletter can keep your customers and prospects up to speed on news, deals and promotions. Email remains the preferred communication method of most people (1:10 preference over social media) to stay up to date.
7) Join an online community
There are online communities for almost everything these days. Seek out a discussion forum or community that is specific to your business and participate!
You can connect with customers (or potential customers) and really learn about them. What are they interested in? What do they talk about? What do they want and need in products? Participating and listening to communinities that are comprised of your business target can improve your product but also lead to sales as you build relationships.
Monitor and Respond to your Reviews
There are many business review sites – from product reviews on amazon to restaurant and store reviews on yelp to complaints on The Ripoff Report. Whatever your business line, chances are there are review sites that are relevant. Even Facebook has included reviews on fan pages. Google has reviews in their listings.
Look for and respond to reviews (both good and bad). Saying thanks to a good review can build an evangelist and encourage word-of-mouth. Responding to a negative review can help clarify the situation. Showing that you care about negative reviews and plan to take action shows your side of the situation to the hundreds of people who view the review.
9) Get Found on Search Engines with a Blog
Another great reason to start a blog is to get traffic from search engines. Because blogs are content rich (you typically create content for them on a regular basis) search engines give traffic to sites with blogs.
In almost anything that you search for you’ll find a number of blogs show up in search results. If people find you business through search a blog can increase the probability that you will show up in results. This leads to traffic and (hopefully) sales.
10) Generate Awareness with a Video
Videos can be great ways to connect with your audience. A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a million! Video is a great way to share information – whether it is a video showing how you make a dish, customers talking about their satisfaction or a video demo of your product – videos are powerful tools.
Create a video for your business to make a deeper connection with your audience. Whatever your business there are many different creative ways to use and share videos.
This list isn’t exhaustive – it is simply a handful of the tactics and tools that are included in the Social Media Action Pack.
How are you using social media for your small business?
Ad Agency Social Media Training: Top 5 Questions Advertising Agencies have About Social Media Marketing
As advertising agencies continue to grow and evolve we do a lot of ad agency training to help them transition in to the digital and social media spaces. All trends show both consumer attention and advertising dollars are shifting towards internet and digital marketing as well as social media marketing.
According to all projections internet marketing is projected to grow at around 10% over the next few years. When looking at how consumers spend their time more consumers check Facebook each day than read a newspaper or listen to the radio (scary).
In training a number of ad agencies on social media marketing there are a number of questions that are frequently asked.
1) Is social media marketing really that important?
Some agency staff are still not sold on the concept of social media as a tool for brand building. I was recently asked if social media was a fad that might pass. All signs show that social media is here to stay.
- There are now over 500 million people on Facebook – that is more than the combined populations of the US, Canada and Mexico.
- Consumers want to connect with brands. The average Facebooker is connected to over 60 pages/groups and events and over 88% of Facebookers are fans of at least one brand or business.
- 20% of all tweets reference a brand or business.
The reality is that brands and businesses are a part of our lives, and our social lives. Not only are people using social sites but they want to connect with the brands they like on Social Media.
2) How do we create great social media campaigns?
This is a BIG question that can be answered in tens of thousands of pages. But the simplest starting point is to get engaged yourself. Engage in social media and digital marketing. Look around at what different brands are doing. Are there great executions in your industry? What do you think is good and bad about them? What brands engage you in social media? Why are you interested in them?
Listening yourself and getting engaged is a great first step to “figuring out” social media. In addition to that, many ad agencies are investing in training programs to help their staff see best practices and learn about how to harness the power of social media for businesses.
These are great first steps for traditional agencies looking to get up to speed with social media marketing.
3) Brands are increasingly going to smaller “social media” or “digital” firms. How do we get a piece of this?
The first step to winning social media business is to get your entire organization up to speed on social media marketing. Excellent social media and digital campaigns are incorporated at the core of a campaign, and not “added on” after the fact. Creating a solid level of digital kknowledge in your organization is the key to success.
Some agencies start by creating a “social media group” that people are assigned to. Recruit great social media talent to evangelize and spearhead, but make social media a part of the fabric of the entire organization.
Traditional agencies have great creative talent, and creative is absolutely vital to a successful social media campaign. When social media marketing started just showing up was pretty darn good. There were only a few brands on twitter, and they got credit just for being there.
The bar is higher now. Social media marketing requires a great creative idea that resonates with the target audience and is delivered in a way that is relevant to the medium. Invest in your organization and you can win business.
4) Who should own social media in a company? PR or Marketing?
It isn’t the same answer for every organization, and there is plenty of debate. Ownership should be determined based on the goals and objectives of the social media efforts and the core competencies of each organization. Either way, both should play a role (and probably customer service too).
Marketing typically owns the overall brand strategy – equity, positioning and promotion of new products. These are usually crucial elements in a social media program. That being said, PR owns the external positioning of the brand and how they communicate with the public. Customer service also plays a key role as the best suited to be on the front line responding to product questions or complaints.
The best strategy is one that includes all of these stake-holders (and probably others – like legal) each contributing in their area of expertise. Brand should help identify the target audience, the brand character and overall strategy. PR should own how the messaging is customized for “public” and external stake-holders and the overall positioning. Again, these are only guidelines based on the typical roles of different departments. The key to success in social media is to allow each function to contribute aligned with their area of expertise.
5) Who should execute social media? The brand internally or the agency?
This is a great question. Again, there are multiple success models, but I think that the emerging trend is for internal to the brand community managers and agencies to work together.
Typically, someone on the brand team is best suited to manage social media on a day to day basis. This ads credibility and humanity to the social media efforts. For example – Donna from Brand X is more relatable than Sally from the agency. In an age where people can do research and find out who you really are (on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) it is best to leverage reall people vs. create characters.
That being said, the agency still plays a BIG role. The agency should help create the social media assets (brand pages, twitter background and icon) and theme them. What is the strategic purpose of each asset and what content will bring it to life?
Effective social media requires a strong content plan. The agency can contribute to and bring to life a content plan that matches the brand strategy and character. Also, in addition to the base social media many brands run “campaigns” on social media. Like a Facebook contest, tweet promos, etc. This is another example of where the agency comes in. The agency can create and run social media promotions in addition to the base conversation and responding.
What other questions are you seeing ad agencies asking about social media? Any additional perspective?
Mobile Web Market Share
Some marketing groups predict that by 2013 40% of web access will happen through mobile devices. This is a dramatic shift in how web content is consumed. Not just because it is changing from the web to mobile, but because mobile content is consumed differently.
Mobile internet access tends to include shorter and more frequent sessions vs. PC web access. For example, on a mobile phone a user may browse the web 10 times a day for 5 minutes or less each time. On a PC a user typically logs on once or twice a day for 20 – 40 minutes each time. Since mobile web users have such short sessions the content needs to be designed differently. With shorter sessions there is also less time for users to be lured away with ads.
In addition, there are limitations due to the screen size. Smaller screen sizes means less room for advertisements. Additionally content should be designed for the small screen and take advantage of the flexibility of touch screens.
Finally, applications are able to provide more efficient solutions to many traditional searches or web browsing sessions. For example, if a mobile phone users is looking for a restaurant they may look for an application like Urban Spoon or Yelp. On a PC a search for a restaurant would probably start with a search engine like google.
While the mobile web is changing the way we consume it is interesting to see the growth of web use and how different operating systems stack up. Will the winner be iphones, android or blackberry? The chart below for Quantcast shows Android is significantly gaining market share at the expense of the the apple operating system.
Only time will tell who the winner will be in the mobile operating system race.
How are Professionals Using Social Media? Mostly for Marketing
Think social media is just a fad? Think again. Social Media use by business professionals is high and growing. The vast majority of professionals across the world are using social media technologies for business purposes, according to an August 2009 survey by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education. 86% of respondents to the survey of professionals from different industries said they had adopted social technologies. This underscores that social media isn’t just a fad – business professionals are adopting social media and getting results. Have you started leveraging social media for your organization yet?
The survey also explored which specific business areas professionals are using social media for. The most common use of social media is for Marketing, with 57% of professionals using social media for this purpose.
If your organization isn’t using social media yet, what are you waiting for? While marketing receives a lot of hype it isn’t the only way that organizations and professionals are using social media. In addition to marketing businesses are using social media for internal collaboration and learning, customer service and support, sales, human resources, strategy and product development.
How are you using Social Media professionally?
8 Tips for Setting up Social Media Profiles to Build Your Personal Brand
Whether you are a social media enthusiast or a newbie starting out, setting up a strong profile is extremely important in how you represent yourself online.
Here are some tips for setting up strong profiles on the web:
1) Think KeyWords for Search - The point of social sites is to connect with people – in order to connect they have to be able to find you. Recruiters search LinkedIn for keywords. People search keywords in twitter profiles to find similar people to connect with. Companies search the web for suppliers and business partners. When setting up your profile on social sites, think about some of the keywords that someone looking for you may search for and be sure to include them in your profile.
2) Pick a Consistent UserName - Try to use the same user name across all sites – I use kristaneher or bootcampdigital across all sites on the web. This will help people find you across multiple websites.
3) Set up a Personal URL – Most social sites like Facebook, LInkedin and Flickr allow you to set up your own URL. For example on Facebook I am at www.facebook.com/kristaneher and on LinkedIn I’m www.linkedin.com/in/kristaneher. Setting up these URLs helps build your brand positioning and also makes it easy to link to these sites.
4) Use a Picture that Looks Like You - Many connections that start online eventually lead to a face to face meeting. Build a consistent image for yourself by using a photo that looks like you. This will help you establish yourself as a brand and people will recognize you when they see you in person. Also, if you have a common name people may not be sure that they are really connecting with you – your photo will help them identify that you are the correct person.
5) Complete all of the Fields – Complete as many fields as possibly when you set up your profile on a social site. This will help you with search, but also provides a full picture of you. If a business contact or recruiter searches for you online it is likely that your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts will show up on the first page. Complete the profile information to make a strong first impression.
6) Manage Privacy Settings - Be sure to manage your privacy settings. Facebook often shows up on first page search results for most people. Make sure that your Facebook page is protected if the content might not be appropriate for all audiences.
7) Assume Everything is Public - Manage privacy settings as best as possible but remember that there is the potential for information you share to become public. Be sure that you are comfortable with the information you share on social sites and make sure that it isn’t inappropriate for multiple audiences.
Reserve Your UserName Everywhere - If a site starts to gain traction be sure to reserve your username on it. This will help you with #2 – using a consistent username. In the profile mention that you aren’t active (if it isn’t a site that you are using) and provide alternate ways for people to get in touch with you.
As you can see in the image below, social media profiles are very predominant in search results, so be sure that your social media profiles are a strong reflection of you – employers, business partners, friends and even random stalkers may be looking for you online. Be sure that your profiles are appropriate for all audiences.
Does anyone else have tips?
The Challenge of Measuring Social Media
A few weeks ago I was on a panel for Business Wire on social media measurement. James Pilcher, Daniel Lally and I had a great conversation about social media measurement – what, why and how to measure social media.
Since the panel I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and last week I posted about the types of marketing activities that brands are engaging in using social media. The graph below shows the % of Firms using Social Media for Marketing activities.
As you can see below, brands are using social media for a variety of different purposes including obvious ones, like brand building, acquiring and retaining customers, as well as less obvious ones, like marketing research, finding new audiences for the product and improving current products or services.
What struck me about this list are two things:
1) Brands are using social media in ways that they probably didn’t initial plan to, and
2) Many of these uses are difficult to quantify and measure.
Brands are Using Social Media in Creative Ways
Most brands probably initially engage in social media as a way to drive sales, run promos or build positive equity. Once they start to build relationships and explore the inner workings of social media it becomes clear that it can be used in a wide variety of ways and provide value that was not initially anticipated.
Much of this value comes from just listening and engaging in a dialogue. Marketing research, finding new target audiences, improving the product/service and even identifying new products are all very valuable ways to leverage social media. What is more is that all of these can be achieved just by listening.
Most brands using social media in these ways probably didn’t start out with these benefits in mind, but after participating and exploring 1/3 of CMOs are finding value from this. It is important to have some fluidity in your marketing objectives on social media and be open to creative and surprising opportunities to leverage it to grow your business.
The Value of Social Media is Difficult to Quantify and Measure
Most of the uses of social media are extremely difficult to 1) measure and 2) quantify the value of. The #1 use of social media is brand building and awareness. How do you measure that? It isn’t by the # of friends or followers, or even how many people are clicking on your links. The best way to measure this is the way equity is measured in traditional media – run a test and control and look for improvements in recall, sentiment, purchase intent, etc. This takes planning and a budget. If you don’t work for a big brand and have money to spend on this there is good news – you’ll still know if it is working. If you are OK with qualitative feedback the people on the front lines of your social media execution team will know if they are moving the needle and generating traction from their efforts.
The other measurement issue is that many of these activities don’t have easily quantifiable values. For example, what is the value of finding an entirely new audience to market your product to? What is the value of making product improvements due to feedback gained on social media sites? How do you quantify the new product or service idea that was generated as a result of listening and building real relationships?
The answer is that you probably can’t. The reality is that social media can provide lots of different value to an organization and much of it is difficult to exactly measure – partly because the value is difficult to assess.
The Point: Be Flexible in Your Social Media Metrics
The point is that it is important for brands to be flexible in their social media metrics. Think of social media and the potential benefit as touching multiple aspects of your organization. Remember that a lot of value can be derived just from listening and building relationships (ie. without overt marketing). By being open and flexible you can get some game changing opportunities. Yes, it will be hard to measure exactly.
But hey, aren’t a lot of your business investments difficult to quantify? What is the ROI on your sales people taking clients to lunch? Or the training program you invested in? Or that party you sponsored? Or the conferences you attend? Or the networking to invest your time in? Or the relationships you build?
81% of Firms are Using Social Media for Marketing – CMO Survey
I came across this chart last week that provides insight as to what types of marketing activities brands are using social media for.
The first big A-Ha from this information is that a full 81% of firms are using social media for marketing. If you aren’t using social media to build your business yet you are definitely behind the curve.
According to an August 2009 survey of CMOs 81% of firms surveyed are using social media to build brands and drive brand awareness. This isn’t surprising – because of the reach of social media it is a great tool for generating awareness and building positive equity. This also highlights some of the measurement issues with social media – brand awareness and equity (i.e. sentiment, recall, etc) are difficult and expensive to measure. Specific testing budgets need to be set aside to measure these activities correctly.
There are a number of other surprise take-aways in this chart:
- Marketing Reasearch – Almost half of companies surveyed are using social media for marketing research – and why not? Social media is a natural fit for research since you can get quick, unfiltered responses, or just listed to what people are naturally saying.
- Brand Promos – It isn’t surprising that 42% of marketers are using social media for promos, contests and giveaways. The issue is that as the social space continues to become cluttered with brands fighting for attention the promos will have to be more targeted and meaningful.
- Identifying New Customer Groups - Since social media allows you to connect with a wide variety of people you can actually determine new audiences for your product just by paying attention to how people are already using it. Targeting new groups can be a HUGE driver of new sales.
- Improving Products and Services – Listening and interacting with customers and potential customers can actually help you improve your products. Learning what they like and don’t like through direct feedback helps brands improve their products. Not really surprising is it?
- Identifying New Product and Service Opportunities – This is an interesting use of social media. Social Media allows brands to monitor conversations and hear what customers are really thinking in an unfiltered way, without the expense or issues of a traditional focus group. Just by listening and monitoring brands can gain insights into their consumers.
Key Takeaway:
Social Media can be used for far more than you maybe initially thought. Look for creative new ways to leverage the power of social media beyond marketing at people.
Measuring the Web from ad:tech San Francisco
Measurement is a hot topic in digital marketing. Over the years measurement techniques have evolved and marketers are looking beyond the click to get a full picture of measurement.
In this session at ad:tech David Smith, CEO of MediaSmith shared some insights on measurement for digital marketing.
Visitors = Audience
Unique Visitors = Net Reach
ClickThrough = Consumer interest/action (Direct Response)
ViewThrough = Consumer interest/actions (branded).
Engagement – Still fuzzy. This active involvement with communications
Key Takeaway: There is too much emphasis on clicks at the cost of other metrics.
Visitors
Audience buying on the web can be different than buying audience in traditional media. In traditional media you purchase demographics and you may have some waste to the extent that you can’t target very specifically. On the web there is very little waste because you can target more specifically. Think target audience vs. total audience – in traditional media you get the total audience and on the web you can choose to buy total audience or just your target audience. Targeting comes at a price – your CPM may be higher when you are targeting more specifically, however if there is less waste you may have a higher overall ROI. Don’t get too hung up on the CPM – focus on the overall value.
Unique Visitors
Unique Visitors is a front end metric that tells you how many people are going to a web site. You can get research from companies like comScore, Nielsen NetRatings, Quantcast and Compete. Research companies are not the same as web analytics. Web analytics derive their information from cookies (like Google Analytics and Omniture) however research companies take a more holistic approach.
ClickThrough vs. ViewThrough
Clickthrough is not a Key Performance Indicator. Over 50% of all visitors that come to a site are from viewthrough and not ClickThrough. ViewThrough is the traffic that comes to your site as a result of someone viewing your ad online (although they may not have directly clicked on it). With today’s rich media and applications, a better measure might be clickthrough, viewthrough and engagement. At the very least, look at clickthrough and viewthrough. There is a strong correlation between viewing ads and traffic – consumers may see an ad and go to the site later.
CPM (cost per thousand impressions) is not a Key Performance Indicator. Performance should be the evaluator in direct response campaigns, not the front end pricing. The front end pricing doesn’t matter – pay a premium for better targeting and response relative to the audience you want to buy. Don’t compare HouseHold CPMs with web target CPMs – the web CPMs can be more targeted and produce better result. Marketers need to focus on the actual results and quality vs. just the cost
