Capturing the Lurkers

Why “Engagement” May Not Be All It’s Cracked Up to Be

Featured in last week’s PR Week White Paper Update is an offering from SAS titled “Social Media Metrics Listening, Understanding and Predicting the Impacts of Social Media on Your Business,” labelled as insights from a May 2010 workshop on social media metrics at the eMetrics conference in San Jose, CA. One of the key participants in the workshop was Katie Paine of KDPaine & Partners, and she made an observation that I think is keenly important:

Now the Holy Grail is “engagement,” Paine said. “Proctor & Gamble last summer said to all of its media folks, ‘We’re no longer paying you for eyeballs. We don’t care about how many eyeballs there are, all we care about is engagement.’ Needless to say, the media folks said, ‘What’s engagement?’ And they said, ‘We want some evidence that the people you’re reaching are at least alive and at least somewhat interested in the brand. If they clicked on something, bought something, downloaded something, retweeted something, or said they liked us, then we have some sign of life out there. That’s what we’re going to pay for.’ Good thinking.”

The paper also references a 2009 IBM study of 250 chief marketing officers, which indicated that organizations are shifting significant amounts of money away from traditional advertising and into public relations, particularly mobile and online channels. Paine is further quoted as saying. “So measurement is shifting away from ‘impressions’ and ‘eyeballs’ and toward ‘engagement’ and ‘impact-based metrics.’ This isn’t me saying this; this is 250 CMOs out there who are predicting that most of this will happen within the next three years.”

Paine classifies information consumers into five levels of engagement, based on how they interact with online channels, each more valuable (in her estimation) than the previous:

• Searchers: most passive, they scan online resources to find specific information and largely ignore social media
• Lurkers: those who listen in on the conversation but don’t participate
• Casuals: followers/fans, but participate only lightly in social media
• Actives: more valuable, in that they retweet to others, regularly participate in interactive threads, and post comments frequently
• Defenders: your most influential ambassadors, advocating, recommending and defending the brand and helping police your critics in the community space

On the one hand, this is all well and good. Clearly it is easier to claim value from a more active audience, and most social media marketers will say they want “engagement” with their audiences, as if we all understand and agree on what that means.

I have some concerns about the focus on active participation (i.e. posting, replying, commenting) as the only way to measure social media success. This runs the risk of devaluing customers that could be equally or even more valuable than active social media participants. There is no evidence that a Lurker, to use Paine’s terminology, buys any less product than a Defender. This illustrates the complexity of determining value in social marketing; we assume that the more vocal participants in the conversation are more valuable as consumers, but in fact that may not be so.

Certainly there is huge value in a positive tone in any sort of brand conversation, whether it be media coverage or Facebook or water cooler chats. Undeniably, it is better to have more people say good things about you than the opposite or to say nothing. My point however is that the Lurkers have value too, and since they are in the majority (only 22.5% of users accounted for 90% of all Twitter activity in 2010 according to Sysomos) they represent the biggest potential as customers.

A brand’s Defenders and Actives are also arguably the ones that least need marketing, since presumably they are committed users of the product.

So how can one tap into the Lurker market, and more importantly, how can we measure success?

Make it worth their while. Social media mavens talk a lot about the importance of the conversation, and caution against overt marketing or (gasp) selling in social media channels. I would argue however that today’s social media-savvy consumer EXPECTS to get some tangible value for her interaction with a brand. The explosion of online coupons has furthered the collective desire for incentive or reward with almost any transaction, to the point where it feels wrong to purchase anything WITHOUT a coupon. Coupons are the core method for a brand to tie a marketing initiative directly to sales.

Make it about more than money. There are many other ways to bring value to a consumer and the reward does not always have to include coupons, contests, or incentives. Lifestyle and luxury brands thrive on exclusivity or supporting a kind of cultural image, and social media connections to “private” groups or preferred customer status can be compelling even for non-active consumers. Green messaging is important to many brands, so links to reassuring product or eco-action brand information also bring value.

Make it easy for them to participate. Every tweet or post should include a link to content of value, whether an online coupon or registration for a customer community or more info about brand sustainability. It is keenly important to use technology to provide the absolute best user experience. For example, you must know what kind of device your consumer is using and return content that is optimized for that device. You must have different versions of your content--don’t send somebody to a regular web page if they are linking via Twitter’s mobile app, make sure they get optimized mobile content or even better a custom app.

Make it even easier for them to participate. More and more consumers are admitting that they want a seamless user experience across all interaction channels, and they are willing to permit the technical deployments that support it. Cookies, behavior profiles, single social sign-in capability: as long as these actions are not intrusive, and as long as brands are not egregious in their targeted marketing, consumers will tolerate them and actually appreciate the resulting enhanced user experience. People respond well when they are given customized content, even in a cross- or up-selling vein, as long as it is accurate; if you “get” them wrong, then you’ve lost them, so brands must be careful.

Measure, record, report, iterate. The traffic generated via those links must be carefully measured, as must be the data from the interaction on the landing page, app, or site. Obviously, any coupon use will be tracked but must be segmented in such a way that you can see which channel gave the best result. All marketing and customer interaction activity must be viewed holistically and considered as an integrated and connective whole; social media can really help as a kind of electrolytic fluid that carries the consumer from one channel to the other but with the same connective experience. The key is to take your measurement strategy to a new level, where you are monitoring different metrics in different ways based on your audiences. Data must be regularly analyzed and should be used as the basis for positive change; do not expect the interactions to always be the same, and don’t be afraid to jettison things that are not working.

This will help you tap into the huge customer potential of a social media user segment that generally gets short shrift, and shows how the focus on engagement may not necessarily be the most conducive toward building business success. However, it also might help you convert some of these passive listeners into more active participants, and build the chorus of positive voices that ARE engaging in the conversation.

5 Reasons Why Engineers Should Love Social Media

A recent article in EE Times explored the supposed antipathy held by engineers for social media. Prominently referenced was a graph that showed the results of an EE Times survey from May of 2010 which clearly indicated that the overwhelming majority (85%) of sampled engineers had feelings towards Twitter ranging from indifferent at best to “HATE IT!” (Emphasis was theirs.)

It doesn’t take a CSEE degree to know that engineers are notoriously suspicious of marketing, equating it to spin which equates to lies, or at best time-wasting communication fluff. Since social media is generally considered a form of marketing, the presumption goes, the thread of disgust is easy to understand. However this supposed hatred for social media is certainly not warranted for most engineers and may not be true.

Part of the disconnect lies in understanding what social media is; for most people, and by extension most engineers, it is Facebook and Twitter. Ignorance plays into the cloud of suspicion, as evidenced by some of the comments posted in reply to the EE Times article. Apparently unaware of the irony of responding to a blog post about social media with the opinion that social media is useless, some offered hoary clichés in the ”Twitter is a waste of time. Who cares what you had for lunch?” vein. Others disparaged social media but grudgingly allowed that they found some value in LinkedIn.

If these engineers could merely apply the clarity and careful consideration with which they approach problem-solving, they would quickly understand that they should LOVE social media for the following reasons:

Speed of Information
Nothing fires an engineer’s imagination like a new product, or a new way of using an existing product. They are almost always willing to receive product or capability info because they might be able to use it. Correspondingly, when seeking a solution for a particular problem, they will conduct their research but once they choose a solution or an approach they quickly move on to the next design step. Catching the engineer in the right window for consideration is key. With social media, the engineer can constantly be exposed to a stream of information in near real-time, as well as access to archived info flow via search functionality. This means they can literally have the latest and greatest info from all their trusted sources right at their fingertips.

Without Twitter or blog RSS feeds, the responsibility falls back on them to seek out information. Microblogs and related push technology makes it easy to get the latest and greatest served up on a platter, or at least a pad.

Collaboration
Who invented the BBS, after all? The idea of posting questions in front of a community and having members reply or comment is one of the first instances of social media on the Internet. Engineers of all types routinely seek out the ways that others have addressed problems or determined solutions. Avoiding the reinvention of the wheel is deeply ingrained in the engineering mindset; use what has worked before, because it will save you time and stress. It is very important to be efficient and effective, so proven solutions vetted by others have great credibility. Clearly the many facets of social media facilitate and enable this kind of collaboration, from forums and blog responses to more sophisticated tools and community functionality that can share everything from software code to 3D CAD elements.

Evaluation
Collaboration is built on, and builds, trust, which is the core currency of all social media. The democratization of influence, broken out from the silos of professional reviewers or classic Word of Mouth dissemination, has allowed recommendation to become a valuable function of business social media connections. Research has shown time and again that personal recommendations are the most important factor in the B2B buying decision.

In the same way that Yelp reviewers can influence a restaurant choice, Twitter or blog commentary about a product can influence its specification and use. Expertise is demonstrated in opinion or commentary compared to personal experience, so the reader makes his/her own decision as to whether or not to trust any given evaluation. But again, in terms of efficiency, exponentially more recommendations can be parsed via social media feed than possible through direct human interaction. I look forward to the day when GlobalSpec allows commentary on any given company or product, since they typically qualify their registered users and could guarantee a certain amount of credibility for any participant.

Gadgets and Apps
The first people I knew to get iPhones were not interactive marketing gurus; they were electrical engineers. The bleeding edge is crowded with MSE’s and their brothers and sisters who can’t wait to get the latest toy. This is related to the need for the new described above, coupled with the longstanding geek cred that comes from possessing the rare and the special. Also important is figuring out how it works, and applying it to ones needs in order to be more efficient (as described above as well).

The hottest gadgets are in the mobile device space; iPads and iPhones are natural social media enablers, so by extension as the engineer figures out how to use these advanced devices, s/he will be exposed to the mobile versions of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and may just realize how they might be worth using. More obvious will be the appeal for dedicated apps published by vendors, consultants, and other resources that meet specific needs and allow quick calculation and specification in the field. EE Times mentions that Agilent offers a Microwave (µWave) calculator to find errors in measurements. I doubt it will rival Angry Birds for number of downloads, but for a specific audience that could be keenly valuable.

Modest Glory
Finally, let’s be honest: the engineer wants the world to know about his or her great skills and accomplishments. I did it! is the mantra for all problem-solvers, and the common yearning for efficiency prevalent in any engineering mindset means that others will want to know how they did it, right? The mores of social media not only allow this non-boastful bragging, they almost demand it. Any engineer worth his or her salt needs to hop on Twitter and tell the world how they visualized a particular system’s time response to various inputs. or overcame the limitation of space and load with a judicious brace. Alternately, they can cruise trade media blogs or the LinkedIn groups in their specialty and respond to questions.

I’m sure that every engineer, being rational and open-minded, will take these proof points to heart and open themselves up to the world of social media. In fact I think that it is quite possible that, in the nine months since the EE Times survey, engineers might have been changing their minds all along and are now happily utilizing all social media channels for help, value, and advantage. It’s the smart thing to do.

Excited about 2011

Every year of the Digital Age produces exciting new technologies, bright industry superstars, and the purported decay or demise of some hereditary company, platform, or application that (in an earlier time) we previously could not live without. The only constant is change, as somebody probably said at some point while playing Space Invaders on his Commodore 64.

Even in the B2B world, where traditional ways of selling still reign supreme and early adoption is a dirty phrase, this past year has been one of evolution and innovation. In particular, there has been explosive growth in the use of digital technologies and social media for sales, marketing, and communications. The challenging business climate of the past couple years has resulted in very sharp marketers who know how to do more with less, always a key digital/social strength, and the improving economy has now created even greater opportunities for smart technology-driven initiatives.

This constant change is what excites me about 2011. Trends that are just now sprouting will blossom and grow in the coming year, and B2B marketing professionals will be in an excellent position to help clients leverage these evolving memes into sound business strategies for growth and market expansion.

Here are some of the things I look forward to in 2011:

Mobile keeps moving. The continued growth of mobile device use, especially smart phones, tablets, and other advanced platforms, will be a dominant story in the coming year. The ubiquity of consumer use will continue to cascade into the B2B world, as business customers come to expect the same capabilities and user experience as in B2C. Engineers and the R&D crowd have always been eager adopters of personal gadgetry, but in 2011 even the crusty traditionalists and old-timer sales reps will have advanced Blackberrys or even iPhones. The brands that provide a seamless experience on all mobile devices between web site content, email, social media channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter, and online video and audio media will have the competitive advantage.

Clients get real. This year I expect clients to become more sophisticated in their understanding of the potential business value of social media…and in what they can expect from these channels and the expert partners they hire. In the B2B world, Return on Investment is a key consideration for any expense. It is surprising to learn a recent survey found that less than 15% of surveyed companies measure ROI for their social media programs (SmartBrief, The State of Social Media 2010). That percentage will certainly increase as the buzz and resulting hyped desire to participate or get left behind, is replaced by an acceptance of social media as a mature marketing/communications channel that should be subject to the same measured consideration as any other. The ability to measure impact and demonstrate ROI will be key to continued growth of social media use for consumer brands as well as B2B.

The Cloud and the Crowd take over. From a technology perspective, the development of “Cloud” computing is almost as compelling as the growth of mobile. From the corporate Facebook page to Salesforce.com lead tracking to the branded YouTube channels, hugely important marketing, communications, and enterprise operation elements are now hosted completely outside of the corporate IT structure. This results in an unprecedented freedom of access for both audiences and employees, but also raises huge questions of security and risk management. Savvy technologists are thinking long and hard about ways to leverage the Cloud for business gain while mitigating the risk of loss of control.

In a similar vein, brands have lost a great deal of control because of the growth of social media which is fueled by the Cloud. Customers now communicate with each other about, with, and through the brand in ways they historically never could. Influential voices in an audience community now have power to directly impact brands with a broader reach than ever before.

However, this also means the learning from customers is now easier and more effective than ever, in particular with the use of social channels for almost real-time feedback and crowd-sourcing innovation. One thing is clear: brands have got to understand how to operate within the new reality to deal with both crowds and their angry incarnation—mobs--if they want to avoid public firestorms like those famously experienced by BP and Nestle in the past year.

This is a key reason why Public Relations professionals are very important in the management of social media: identification of influencers, and engaging them as champions, has always been a core PR competency. In an agency like Fleishman-Hillard, this is now coupled with expertise in social media technology and practice to create powerfully effective client programs.

One thing I know about the coming year: it is going to contain innovations and developments that nobody can predict. Something new will come along to fire the imagination and attract all the attention. The key is to be ready to decide whether and how a given splashy innocation can help a business succeed and grow, while still capitalizing on the evolving strategies and tactics of previous technological revolutions. That’s what really excites me about 2011.

B2B Companies: Do They Believe the Hype?

Parsing the eMarketer Report on B2B Social Media

Earlier this month, eMarketer released a report titled “B2B Social Media Marketing Heats Up.” eMarketer bills itself as “a business service unlike any other.” It is different from other well-known business intelligence companies, such as Forrester Research, in that it conducts no primary research itself; instead, it aggregates and analyzes all the available research, surveys, and data on a given topic.

I took a careful look at this report and have some thoughts about the following key points, as well as additional observations that might be helpful for B2B marketers thinking about social media.
· Spending on B2B social media is expected to increase significantly
· There are still barriers to adoption for many B2B companies
· Lead generation remains keenly important and is being achieved by many via social media
· Measurement and ROI are also key for B2B companies
· The differences between how B2B and B2C companies approach social media illustrate the differences between audiences and the respective marketers’ needs

B2B Social Media Spending to Increase (or as the kids say, “Duh”)
One obvious conclusion reached by the report is that spending is on the rise for B2B social media marketing (their term, not mine). They lead with a Forrester prediction: B2B firms will spend $54 million on social media marketing in 2014, up from just $11 million in 2009. The $ figures seem small to me, although the report does specify that internal costs such as staffing and training are not included. Since most of the social media channels are currently free or cheap (which may not be the case forever), it stands to reason that increased person-power will comprise the bulk of expanded social media efforts and thus would not be represented in these numbers. Still, given the consistent trend of exponentially increased online budgets from year-to-year, these amounts seem very cautious to me especially over a five year period.

One trend worth noting: the flight of budget from other media to social, especially that of online display advertising.

Nielsen reported that in 2009 B2B display advertising overall declined 8%. My assumption is that this was due to a couple of factors: the failure of many B2B trade media titles and associated Web sites, and an increased understanding by B2B marketers that display ads don’t work, especially when compared to tactics like SEM and email.

However, spending for paid advertising on social media (mostly Facebook ads) increased by 184% (probably reflecting the small $ from 2008 as much as the increased interest in social media).

Barriers to Adoption
The key question B2B companies have about social media is the same question they have about any marketing approach: can it help with their business objectives?
· The number one concern for B2B companies, in survey after survey over the years, is lead generation. If social media can generate leads, then it will be embraced.
· The other main concern is ROI; if the value of social media can be measured and documented, and proved to be acceptable, then they are more likely to use it.

At this point in the evolution of social media, I begin to worry about oversaturation. Users of social media can easily find themselves bombarded with input, and many are simply unable or unwilling to read everything or engage with brands as they had in the past.

Despite this concern, it is worth noting that a significant percentage of B2B companies are NOT using social media and represent a worthwhile business opportunity for communications agencies. 37% said they did not know enough about social media or how to begin, according to an Equation Research study in August 2009.

It’s About the Leads, Stupid
Some important numbers discussed in the report:
· DemandGen June 2009: 14% of companies surveyed were getting more than 10% of their leads from social media (218 companies surveyed); 28% were getting more than 5%
· 35% of respondents expected their number of leads generated via social media to rise by 1% to 5% over the next year.
· Hubspot reported in January of 2010 that the following percentage of B2B companies using the indicated channel have acquired a customer from that channel:
· Company blog 43%
· Facebook 33%
· Twitter 38%
· LinkedIn 45%

These figures are both encouraging AND somewhat daunting. Clearly, social media channels are effective at generating B2B customers as well as qualified leads; however, more than half of the companies surveyed in these various polls have not had success using them. Sobering reality, reminding us not to jump at the hype but rather consider the facts and realize there is risk in every venture.

Measurement of B2B Social Media
As my colleague Don Bartholomew puts it, there is a difference between value and ROI. Sometimes you can clearly demonstrate value without necessarily being able to calculate ROI, which is a financial metric.

Still, being an internet-based engagement process, there is an assumption that social media should be able to be measured and tracked the way that Web site traffic or email opens/click-throughs can be tracked. Lack of clear metrics is a major reason some B2B marketers choose not to engage with social media: 37%, according to Equation Research ("2009 Marketing Industry Trends Report, "August 18, 2009).

It seems clear that more marketers are expecting and demanding a clearer measurement of the value of social media engagement. A lot of people who have built their careers on the fuzzy values of “engagement” or “community” have pushed back that social media cannot fit into the dull box of ROI because its inherent value is much higher than simple metrics.

I am not sure B2B companies will accept that. They are clearly leading the charge over their consumer-oriented brethren when it comes to identifying success metrics and tracking results. Business.com’s report of November 2009 identified the percentage of companies (engaged in social media marketing) using the following criteria for success:
· Website traffic: 68%
· Brand awareness: 61%
· Engagement with prospects: 60%
· Engagement with customers: 52%
· Brand reputation: 47%
· Prospect lead quality: 40%
· Revenue: 38%
· Prospect lead volume: 37%
· Useful product feedback: 26%

To Don’s point, most of these indicate value, but to calculate ROI is complicated. Attributing success to any of a variety of factors can be difficult, so even a clear financial metric like revenue is not easy to connect directly to social media. At FH, we conduct a significant period of discovery and definition to fully understand what factors contribute to a business’s success, and we carefully choose the trackable events that form a basis for suggesting ROI or value attribution to the social media programs we develop for our clients.

Differences between B2B and B2C
The report identifies two key differences between the business audience and the consumer audience:
· Multiple influencers/deciders
· Longer buying cycle = more need/opportunity for interaction

The consumer is usually the sole decider and often susceptible to the spur-of-the-moment purchase. The business decision, in contract, is almost always subject to group input and careful financial scrutiny. The purchasing process is often hard-coded to enforce consideration of multiple providers in pursuit of the best choice and lowest cost. With a buying cycle in multiple stages, the B2B customer will benefit from consistent and appropriate input, which social media can facilitate.

Business.com noted some important differences between B2B and B2C in their survey (September 2009) of social media initiatives.
· B2B companies are much more likely to maintain corporate blogs (74% of respondents vice 55% consumer)
· Business marketers were also more likely to upload content (i.e. white papers, videos) to third-party sites (50% vice 32% consumer); vertical sites like GlobalSpec certainly promote and encourage sharing content via their platforms
· Not surprisingly, Facebook and MySpace were more popular with consumer companies, while more B2B companies were using LinkedIn and Twitter

One more note on Twitter: an October 2009 survey from Chief Marketer, Direct, and Promo found that B2B marketers were more likely than B2C marketers to use Twitter to announce new Website content. On the other hand, B2C marketers tended more to tweet about special offers and locate brand fans.

Ed Linde II, senior marketing manager for Web marketing at IBM.com, seems to be an excellent provider of illustrative sound-bites because he is quoted several times in the report. On this topic, he points out: “In B2C you’re looking for a lot of interaction and collaboration between the individuals who tend to be a youthful audience, and from time to time there’s a celebrity element. In the B2B space, you want subject matter experts who are known authorities on particular topics. They’re credible experts on a particular area that people are trying to learn more about and make educated decisions on.”

I think his latter point underscores what has always been a key difference between B2B and B2C, and why social media is such a good fit for the former: the need for technical credibility. Expertise in B2B is valued in a different way than popularity in B2C, and the technical audience has always sought guidance and instruction on how to apply a given technology to its own needs and application. Social media facilitates that in a more direct and immediate way than any other interaction besides face-to-face meetings, or as we now call it F2F.

Conclusion: Heating Up, but No Slam Dunk
Pardon my mixed metaphors, but it’s important to realize that few B2B companies are willing to jump onto the social media bandwagon simply because of the hype. The ones that have adopted these strategies and tactics are doing so because they see the value, not simply because it is “hot.”

eMarketer concludes the report with a set of conclusions that seem achingly obvious but are nonetheless worth making:
· B2B marketers need a social media strategy
· Social media can and does generate leads
· It is very important to monitor and measure your B2B social media efforts

B2B social media is certainly riding the buzz wave, and most companies are aware of the various channels and interested in learning more, but they approach all marketing efforts with a critical eye and will not gamble their hard-earned and only now slightly-rebounding budgets on strategy or tactics that they don’t understand or can’t properly value. It’s up to us as communications and marketing professionals to explain the value and demonstrate the worth of social media for B2B companies.

We’ll give the final word to Ed Linde from IBM who pretty much sums up the bottom line:

“…at the end of the day, the marketer’s job is to facilitate collaborations between the customer and the seller. If we can use social media technologies to help do that, we will.”
—Ed Linde II, senior marketing manager for Web marketing, IBM.com

Actionable Awareness

For months now I've been thinking about digital communications for public relations, especially in the B2B space. This of course coincides with my joining a PR agency, and getting deeply immersed in how PR views digital. In most cases, there is a heavy emphasis on social media support, most obviously Twitter and Facebook, but that's not always a viable area for B2B companies. Social media in a broader sense, in the sense of community building, has been an important part of interactive B2B for many years, but for most manufacturers of highly designed products (with long, carefully considered buying cycles) the worth in engaging with those kinds of channels is still under review.

In my mind, even beyond social media there is constantly a question as to how we measure success and therefore how we structure our efforts to bring real value to clients.Traditional PR metrics like share of voice or impressions have value but the B2B world is so focused on achieving specific results (i.e. generating leads, making sales, etc.) that PR metrics are often denigrated. Budgets for interactive PR often suffer because of this perceived notion of vague attribution and suspicion about ROI.

I've come to the idea of "actionable awareness" as a concept that leverages both the intrinsic goal of public relations (awareness) with the measurable impact of digital (action):

actionable awareness = ability for web users to not only BE aware of brand but also immediately act on that awareness in a way that helps drive business goals and objectives

Tactics like Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, and other inbound efforts clearly fall within this concept, but in the digital world, so does media relations, blog posts, Twitter links--anything that mentions your client can allow them to find your web site or landing page with just a few clicks, especially with text links that many publishers now routinely insert.

And that of course allows us to measure any number of data points which can indicate spread of our messaging, value of our communications, level of influence, and the $ metrics like data capture (lead generation) or even ecommerce sales.

For me, this means that actionable awareness is a good handle on which to hang one's B2B digital PR efforts.

Don't Believe the Hype

"Social marketing is a shiny new toy and almost everyone is wising up and getting involved, as they should...There's no question that social applications are becoming central to our online lives, and soon social apps will be a central part of the very operating systems we use...Still, at the heart of it all for marketers is the message. Never forget that these new social technologies are just new ways to communicate. And technology by itself is not persuasive. Beware not to get the media mixed up with the message...Every status update, tweet, and inbox message is nothing more than a communication between a sender and a reader. What you say and how you say it matters."

--Bryan Eisenberg, Social Media Is Not the Message

I love Bryan Eisenberg. He almost always hits the proverbial nail right on the head, and in this case his words ring truer than ever over the buzz around Social Media.

From the earliest days of technology-aided communication, the temptation of the new has always been the demon of the effective, or at least of the cost-effective. Many of us remember the client refrain from the early days of Web 1.0: "We just need a web site!" In other words, we haven't thought at all about what to put in the web site, or how it can help us, we just want one because everybody is getting one. It is the classic case of substituting the tool for the finished object, and that is what Social Media is--a tool, and only a tool, for communicating. Just having a Twitter account means nothing, you have to use the tool in the proper way and most important you have to create good and appropriate content for that tool.

Please don't get caught up in the hype. Think carefully about how you would use Social Media applications to further your business objectives, how you can properly support it, and whether your target audiences will utilize your Social Media presence in a way that furthers your goals. If not, don't bother. Use the money and time you might otherwise put into it for channels and initiatives that will help you achieve your success metrics.