10 Communications Objectives of Social Media

I think this list is interesting, but I think with the exception of #10, these are general objectives for PR and marketing. I think one that may be missing is educate (which could be a little bit of a crossover with #8), but I think education is a big part of it.

Thanks for sharing!

I think this is a perfect example of how social media blurs the marketing/PR line. A marketer is interested in pushing a message. A PR person is tasked with building relationships. The “good will” you’re seeking is a key component – brands engaging and understanding their consumers. This is why PR plays an important role in social media adoption for brands.

Chris,
These 10 are interesting in that they all sound like they are pointing out. None of these reflect ideas like:
* listening to the marketplace
* learning from peers, partners, customers
* responding to customer inquiries
Maybe I’m missing his #10, but these all sound like old-style marketing 101 to me.
ahg3

I think your list is a fairly comprehensive one. However, whats missing is market research. It’s an invaluable tool for finding out where your brand stands within the marketplace and for gaining insight that could possibly lead to new products/services, or a change in marketing strategy.

Hi Chris,
This list seems to be a mixture of tactical and more strategic objectives so not sure I would put them together in that way. But I think it’s a good simple start to summarizing how marketing folks use social media. One thing that was missing is using it as a market research tool – I find social media a perfect medium, if you can call it that, for gathering feedback from the market – prospects and customers, that can be used in a number of ways.
–Amrita

I think douglas covers all of the bases with his categories if you read his definitions.

He labels community goodwill the very dry “Establish/Regain Trust”. Being a branding guy, I’d rather call it something a little sexier like “flashlight”. Social media helps you shine a light on cool people, ideas, products and events.

I think the list skews too old school and misses a great deal of what’s different about social media. Listening. Relationships. Helping people buy what they want to buy. Providing good service.

I really feel like the list just points out that the “canon” of “what to do” in MarCom can be done in social media, while missing a large % of the value that social media can adds because of its unique characteristics.

I think the list skews too old school and misses a great deal of what’s different about social media. Listening. Relationships. Helping people buy what they want to buy. Providing good service.

I really feel like the list just points out that the “canon” of “what to do” in MarCom can be done in social media, while missing a large % of the value that social media can adds because of its unique characteristics.

Hey Chris, I agree with you. It’s a good list but missing some of the key items that distinguish social media from old-school marketing. This list is heavy on “company-out” or one-way communication and the associated metrics vs. the two-way communications (i.e.,conversations) that can and should be created through the use of social media. I’d add listening, learning, and idea generation to this list in addition to generating goodwill as you mentioned.

Hey Chris, I agree with you. It’s a good list but missing some of the key items that distinguish social media from old-school marketing. This list is heavy on “company-out” or one-way communication and the associated metrics vs. the two-way communications (i.e.,conversations) that can and should be created through the use of social media. I’d add listening, learning, and idea generation to this list in addition to generating goodwill as you mentioned.

Walker lays out a nice clear cut plan. It is kind of plan that you could safely take to a CEO or a Board of Directors at any corporation. It would tell them in a quantitative way exactly what they would get for the campaign you had in mind. For a marketer whose budget or proposal is on the line it might be better to be quantitative when you layout your proposal…especially if you want the Glengarry leads.

Fact is it is hard to quantify “good will”. It is time consuming to build true affinity within a community. Often companies don’t want to go to those lengths. They want clear cut results. They want to “set and forget” a campaign.

Which is too bad because affinity allows you more than just the ability to market to a group of people. It allows you to be part of the community. For me it is the difference between leaving a sign on the front lawn and being invited in for dinner.

Walker lays out a nice clear cut plan. It is kind of plan that you could safely take to a CEO or a Board of Directors at any corporation. It would tell them in a quantitative way exactly what they would get for the campaign you had in mind. For a marketer whose budget or proposal is on the line it might be better to be quantitative when you layout your proposal…especially if you want the Glengarry leads.

Fact is it is hard to quantify “good will”. It is time consuming to build true affinity within a community. Often companies don’t want to go to those lengths. They want clear cut results. They want to “set and forget” a campaign.

Which is too bad because affinity allows you more than just the ability to market to a group of people. It allows you to be part of the community. For me it is the difference between leaving a sign on the front lawn and being invited in for dinner.

So coming wy out of left field, with this list I feel like I’m watching a rerun of Hogan’s Heros and Col. Klinck is telling all the inmates that they will eat the meal and they will like it. Meanwhile the escape tunnel keeps progressing…

Chris –

Great list – however I would still have to put “Improve Conversion Ratios” somewhere in that list.

It still comes down to increasing ROI.

The marketers I know (many) are not very good yet at social marketing. Is anyone? The best they know is to put themselves out there and let the magic happen.

“Influence the Influencers” reminds me of a technique Internet Marketers (IM) use to sell to their lists. In IM the list is king, not the content. The products don’t have to be that good since the guys and gals making money all have lists that “will do anything I want” as I heard one say. The Influencers have very large lists and they will help you promote your new product, usually at 50% of the price.

They are a clickish bunch who circle the wagons when threatened. As long as there are hungry newbies who are desperate to make money, the IM folks will do very well.

Typical marketing speak… This list seems so cold, rigid and impersonal. It turns marketing into a dehumanizing and self-serving activity.

It’s marketing advice like this that makes me want to remove myself from the marketing scene and transition away from being a marketing coach.

I love what you wrote: “whatever one might call it when you’re not trying to sell, but instead are just proving that you’re a contributing human.”

I have resisted caving in to purchasing “social media marketing” info products (oh that enticing copy), because I don’t want to do it the “right way.” I don’t care if I don’t make tons of money using social media. I don’t care if I don’t get X new clients per month. I don’t care if social media increases my mailing list of not.

That’s not why I use social media. My posts would be as cold as this list…

It’s called SOCIAL media, but it seems like most marketing “gurus” are forgetting to teach the basics of “social”izing: interaction, relationships, pleasant companionship, humanity, associating, concern, (and dare I say) sympathy and frailty.

I’m no “6-figure” expert, so maybe I’m doing this all wrong, but my entire approach to marketing using social media is to let people see the real me and hear my voice. I’m a real person dealing with the same issues as everyone else. I’m a human full of imperfections. I’m approachable and accessible.

At first, I thought I could use my blog to accomplish that, and I do self-disclose to some extent on my blog, but I certainly don’t want to bore my readers with posts about my personal life. Social media allows me to share snippets of my personal life as well as my personality, thoughts and activities on a regular basis (many times per day as opposed to a few blog posts a week).

I’m so sick of being talked at and sold to on social networking sites, that I have majorly cleaned up my “friends” lists, have left groups and have unsubbed from countless mailing lists.

If you’re going over such a checklist before posting on social media sites, you’ll come off as talking at, instead of talking with.

It’s time to stop trying so hard to snag the next sale or grow your mailing list. If what you have to say is intelligent, human and even a little imperfect, you will endear people (maybe even clients) to you…

Again, those are just my thoughts as a (soon not to be) marketing coach and maybe that’s why I’m not making 6-figures yet… If wild success depends on meeting these 10 objectives then I’m out. The price is too high. I’d rather be poor and happy, than to be known as pushy, annoying, disingenuous and opportunistic.

Thanks for opening the conversation on this topic… As you can tell, I’m quite passionate (and opinionated) about it!!

I think one of the most obvious is missing. Many average users are engaged in social media to have an experience. It’s as simple as that. This is where marketers miss out; you don’t have to convince these users to listen to you to in order to influence them. Just help them have the experience they want in the context of the medium.

In other words, participation for participation’s sake can still be a marketing goal.

I intended to comment before reading Christina Favreau‘s response, but find myself echoing her sentiment.

This list is surely a representation of commercial ideals, but I’m struck by how it’s empty of any sort of social awareness, of what moves individuals to act.

Perhaps that’s the thing about mere careerism and mere mercenary opportunism: it doesn’t challenge neo-realist myths and fictions. That would explain how that attitude spreads like kudzu.

“Don’t be lucid and ironic. People will turn that against you saying, ‘Ah-ha, you see? I told you he wasn’t a nice person!’” –Albert Camus

And yet I can help thinking that real entrepreneurship is more responsive to actual human motives. (I mean beyond primitive self-interest.)

Yes, the above is a list of traditional marketing goals. It does not encompass the benefits of Web 2.0 community to marketing such as
A. User feedback for product/service improvement
B. Improve customer service with rapid feedback and response
C. Public relations / build goodwill (similar to their #10 Establish Trust)
D. Also as part of Establish Trust: Humanizing the company (such as by having an executive blog)
E. Market trend analysis and use as a bell weather to identify emerging markets
F. Recruitment and search for opportunities
G. Enablement: build a community where customers build stronger businesses by enabling one-another when they share best practices, news, insight, and strategies.
H. Build a larger presence on the web with searchable content with the addition of blogs, microblogs, social media & wikis (which can be used to #1 Generate Awareness, or for customer enablement/education)
I. A new way to accomplish their #6 Positive Association: Show the use of Web 2.0 functions to demonstrate the hipness of the company (For example: include links to Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, and a whole list bookmark sites on press releases, wikis, and blogs.)

Some of these are decidedly more applicable to B2B such as recruitment, enablement, and education.

The only one that heavily counts to me is #9.

#9 pays the bills.

Great post. Alas, it applies to XX century marketing.

The single most important communication goal of social media today is to change the medium (as in ‘the medium is the message’).

We write too much (people don’t read websites); we design too predictably (we’re victims of trends).

We still use the same language and props belonging to traditional media, whilst the tools in web 2.0 are crying out for new devices and new forms – those applicable and efficient in the next foreseeable future.

Let’s catch up.

What amazes me is not the amount of content you’re able to produce, but that you’re able to come up with so many ideas for content to produce.

I think there is one very important missing objective: Interaction

Without interaction, two, three or a million engaged in any particular conversation about anything or anyone there is no “market development”, learning,attraction, gains or losses.

The give and take of social media is in the conversational exchanges which help identify wants, needs, issues and preferences about anything and everything.

Just my two sense. Interaction is the primary value component

Social media is about engaging people in conversations through various platforms. When people participate and understand they have a voice where their thoughts/opinions are valued, the objectives Douglas lists can then be accomplished. The missing piece, however, is consumer engagement.

To answer your question: No. These goals do not make sense as it relates to how I interact through social media. Oversimplifyng, marketing is about product/service; communications is about information; and public relations is about building relationships. This list reminds me to what I call the Wizard of Oz approach to marketing and it doesn’t work for me; I like marketing efforts through social media and I am open to marketer’s creativity, but it has to be all about what happens to the wizard behind the curtain. :)