Social media has become an integral weapon in the advertising and marketing arsenals of businesses the world over – more so for technology and fashion based businesses as these businesses now rely significantly on publicising their products online. Statistics supporting the fact that social media is a competitive marketing tool are vast and difficult to argue. Social networks use different terminology to describe what is essentially the same thing; Facebook and Instagram have features such as “like”, “follow”, “comment” and “share” – while Twitter has “like”, “follow”, “share” and “retweet”.
These are means in which people are becoming more linked in terms of sharing ideas and images. Using social media, any layperson can cultivate a following for a brand that they are building and be able to track apparent indicators of how well a social media strategy is being implemented to further business growth. Many businesses make use of prima facie indicators such as number of likes and followers to assess the reach and effectiveness of a particular social media strategy. While this does give an indication of the number of interactions associated with the brand, it is a very literal way of interpreting the available information.
This is where the quality of interactions comes into play. It is only once we analyse the nature of the interactions that a business can truly measure the success or failure of a social media strategy.
The difference between quantity and quantity of followers
While the two are inextricably linked, quality and quality of followers have very different impacts in terms of assessing a social media strategy and informing future business decisions associated with it. Any information to be gathered on “quality” of followers is based solely on “quantity” of followers available to analyse.
“Quantity” of followers is informed by the desired “quality” of followers for a social media strategy which informs the manner in which the “quantity” is targeted through sponsored interactions. Basically, once a campaign or strategy is identified, the target reach is identified from which interactions will follow that yield a certain number (quantity) of follows or likes. From a literal point of view, the number of likes and followers may give a certain comfort about the reach of a particular strategy but, as information on which to base further strategic decisions, they are lacking because do not give qualitiative feedback on the conversions related to the interactions.
‘Conversions’ are defined as how many of those followers and likes (even the quality ones) convert into buyers and how many actually end up following the link to the campaign’s website and transacting. Social networks are media where a campaign can post little snippets of quality information which would have a link attached that transfers customers to the brand website for “more information”. The website is where the online store or check-out counter is available.
Thus a website needs to be engaging, interesting and optimized. Quality of followers goes beyond selecting target demographics in advertisement the way Facebook and Twitter allows a user to do – for it to have a material impact on business and the brand, it must lead to true engagement with followers, which then drives them to conversion by going to the website and not only becoming users; sharing the fact that they are users thus promoting the brand to their social networks but also, and most importantly, it can lead to them becoming buyers.
Brand building happens in the process. There is a certain psychology to social media; for a person that is building a social media campaign, there has to be an understanding of the motivations behind likes, follows, retweets, shares and all other social media interactions. There are people who follow individuals who have large followings because of a conformist tendency – they are in pursuit of having a larger following and improved social media presence.
There are people who like every share they come across to appear in touch with all things social media; and there are people who only genuinely follow causes, campaigns or brands that they believe in or have a direct interest in who would have more meaningful interactions with the campaign. This last group presents a true opportunity for meaningful conversions. Essentially, the number of followers that a brand or campaign has on social media is not as important as the kind of followers it has.
Online brand awareness and qualitative following
Consistently publishing relevant, timely and superior content builds trust and a dedicated following. It is easy to buckle to the flash-fried approach of buying followers to show that a brand has a solid following on social media than to cultivate a base of followers that will have value adding interactions with your brand’s social media. To realise any Return on Investment when it comes to social media strategies, it is imperative that the interactions grow your base of people that are interested in the posts that are published and ultimately product/service itself. Growing your own following the right way will ensure longevity of any given social media strategy.
With the advent of bots and fake accounts on social media platforms there has been a proliferation of inflated followings on social media. Providers such as Google and Facebook are identifying and deleting accounts that are not users that are not genuine. The accounts are used to inflate the number of followers that a user or social media campaign has on social media.
Further to this is a need to implement tools within a social media strategy that involve processes such as Search Engine Optimisation. Webopedia defines Search engine optimization as a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) -including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.
Using these tools to further reach is a way that campaigns can add to both quantity and quality of followers but there is still always a need to keep sight of the ultimate goals of social media strategies as they relate to growth of a business.
As a famous quote reads, “one true friend is worth more than a thousand acquaintances”. This principle can be applied to any discussion about the quantity of followers versus the quality of followers. In the end, quality wins out over quantity in terms of interactions with users when it comes to social media.
