Defining Social Media
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1st Floor, 17-21 Old Street, London EC1V 9HF
t +44 (0)20 3058 1100 f +44 (0)20 7253 6846
e jay.nicholl@makeitclear.co.uk www.makeitclear.co.uk
Defining Social Media
Social media marketing has struggled to define its own terminology during its boom over the last five years. Though certain technical terms have come to prominence e.g. aggregation, photosharing, transparency; terms that refer to more general elements of the media are often interchangeable and unspecified. The problem arises from constantly evolving technology e.g. mobile internet, iPlatforms; and changing popularity and function between platforms; 5 years ago myspace was king, now Facebook dominates web use. With the general settling of social networkers around several sites; Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and LinkedIn- there’s an opportunity to finalise our thinking on how contemporary social media marketing should function. Though we may be operating with new formats inside a very short time frame (with the addition of FourSquare being a near certainty in the future), we should begin to clarify the way social media marketing works at present.
Community
Refers to the collective societies created within any individual platform. These communities will have more active and less active members and will evolve dynamics that allow for the specifying of strategies. Any individual community needs to be recognised as such, a Twitter community cannot be catered for in the same way as a Facebook community.
Expanding the vocabulary
There are numerous individuals and organisations seeking to impose their own definitions on social media. For the utility of shared terms or the kudos attached to consolidating and defining a fragmented industry- the responsibility has been assumed by bloggers, reporters and marketers worldwide. Some recent additions to the social media dictionary are particularly useful. They give us methods to express the measurement of social media success. Here are some helpful terms coined by HYPERLINK “http://www. webworkerdaily.com” www.webworkerdaily.com contributor Aliza Sherman:
The need for terminology
Through the introduction of staple terms we can begin to realise the impact social media has on business and can start to discuss relative success measurements more succinctly. The flexibility of social media to take on new forms and garner new terminology is part of the reason for its lack of solid definition. The following are collective terms used to refer to similarly behaving aspects on different platforms.
Attractions
The number of members gathered by a social media presence is one easily quantifiable factor that determines part of the success of a campaign. Sherman points out that the quality of member is more important than the number. If 20,000 members are never going to have any meaningful impact on the brand or company, they are less valuable than one member who is. The sort of business you operate will affect the impact of a member, but the type of content you publish and the way you attract members will also affect their contribution. A steady trickle of engaged members gained from affiliated or related networks will promote the change of members to clients- a change described by Sherman as a transformation.
Members
There are various different ways of referring to the individuals who interact with brands. Platforms define their own words to refer to them, Twitter uses Followers and Facebook has recently migrated from Fans to the subtler Liker. We can send personal, individual messages and see them as people and not demographics. They are part of a community and can choose to leave at any time. They are social and each contributes to the group in different ways.
Transformations
In all forms of marketing the goal is usually a point where conversion takes place- a prospective client becomes a client. Social media marketing identifies this as a part of transformation, and an important one, but not the only one. Transformation can occur as a company or organisation offers a redemptive solution. An example of this would be responding to a disgruntled Tweet, not necessarily directed at the company, to offer resolution. Another might be to respond to a negative comment to offer a solution, rather than just deleting it. Ford’s Scott Monty is an exemplar of this thinking.
Personals
A message or reply intended explicitly for an individual member. These could take the form of direct messages or comment replies. These are highly personalised and are not group events like a broadcast. The utility of being so personal is that a contact feels respected and acknowledges that their singular issue is being addressed. There are many examples of this customer care being received in a very positive way- it’s a method that can result in transformation (see below). If several people are communicated with in a specific manner i.e. the matter being addressed only applies to those individuals, this can still be seen as a personal.
Interactions
Once a community is started it seems to take on a life of its own. Identifying and measuring the value of directs and mentions (in the form of shared information, problem resolution and crowd-sourced hype) is something that should solve some of the problems of quantifying ROI in social media marketing.
Broadcasts
A communication that has wide reaching visibility. Blog articles, discussion posts and status updates are all forms of broadcasting and need to be appropriately adjusted to be applicable to a wide range of contacts.
Mentions
A comment made about the company but not directly to the company.
Transactions
These are trades of value between the company and members. A member provides a service to the company when they suggest your Facebook page to a friend or retweet a blog post to their followers. Value should go both ways, how are members being rewarded for offering you a service? Discounts or additional perks can help to encourage members to talk about your brand or become more loyal. Demonstrating that their relationship with you is valuable is a vital part of successful social networking. These relationships can be valued with reference to interactions, transformations and attractions, and outgoing discounts or rewards can be balanced accordingly. Written by Charlie Thompson
Directs
A message or comment directly addressing the company, these should be responded to as soon as possible, with the exception of obscene messages- which should just be deleted (aggravation within reason should be responded to).
white paper | defining social media
page 1
1st Floor, 17-21 Old Street, London EC1V 9HF
t +44 (0)20 3058 1100 f +44 (0)20 7253 6846
e jay.nicholl@makeitclear.co.uk www.makeitclear.co.uk
Defining Social Media
Social media marketing has struggled to define its own terminology during its boom over the last five years. Though certain technical terms have come to prominence e.g. aggregation, photosharing, transparency; terms that refer to more general elements of the media are often interchangeable and unspecified. The problem arises from constantly evolving technology e.g. mobile internet, iPlatforms; and changing popularity and function between platforms; 5 years ago myspace was king, now Facebook dominates web use. With the general settling of social networkers around several sites; Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and LinkedIn- there’s an opportunity to finalise our thinking on how contemporary social media marketing should function. Though we may be operating with new formats inside a very short time frame (with the addition of FourSquare being a near certainty in the future), we should begin to clarify the way social media marketing works at present.
Community
Refers to the collective societies created within any individual platform. These communities will have more active and less active members and will evolve dynamics that allow for the specifying of strategies. Any individual community needs to be recognised as such, a Twitter community cannot be catered for in the same way as a Facebook community.
Expanding the vocabulary
There are numerous individuals and organisations seeking to impose their own definitions on social media. For the utility of shared terms or the kudos attached to consolidating and defining a fragmented industry- the responsibility has been assumed by bloggers, reporters and marketers worldwide. Some recent additions to the social media dictionary are particularly useful. They give us methods to express the measurement of social media success. Here are some helpful terms coined by HYPERLINK “http://www. webworkerdaily.com” www.webworkerdaily.com contributor Aliza Sherman:
The need for terminology
Through the introduction of staple terms we can begin to realise the impact social media has on business and can start to discuss relative success measurements more succinctly. The flexibility of social media to take on new forms and garner new terminology is part of the reason for its lack of solid definition. The following are collective terms used to refer to similarly behaving aspects on different platforms.
Attractions
The number of members gathered by a social media presence is one easily quantifiable factor that determines part of the success of a campaign. Sherman points out that the quality of member is more important than the number. If 20,000 members are never going to have any meaningful impact on the brand or company, they are less valuable than one member who is. The sort of business you operate will affect the impact of a member, but the type of content you publish and the way you attract members will also affect their contribution. A steady trickle of engaged members gained from affiliated or related networks will promote the change of members to clients- a change described by Sherman as a transformation.
Members
There are various different ways of referring to the individuals who interact with brands. Platforms define their own words to refer to them, Twitter uses Followers and Facebook has recently migrated from Fans to the subtler Liker. We can send personal, individual messages and see them as people and not demographics. They are part of a community and can choose to leave at any time. They are social and each contributes to the group in different ways.
Transformations
In all forms of marketing the goal is usually a point where conversion takes place- a prospective client becomes a client. Social media marketing identifies this as a part of transformation, and an important one, but not the only one. Transformation can occur as a company or organisation offers a redemptive solution. An example of this would be responding to a disgruntled Tweet, not necessarily directed at the company, to offer resolution. Another might be to respond to a negative comment to offer a solution, rather than just deleting it. Ford’s Scott Monty is an exemplar of this thinking.
Personals
A message or reply intended explicitly for an individual member. These could take the form of direct messages or comment replies. These are highly personalised and are not group events like a broadcast. The utility of being so personal is that a contact feels respected and acknowledges that their singular issue is being addressed. There are many examples of this customer care being received in a very positive way- it’s a method that can result in transformation (see below). If several people are communicated with in a specific manner i.e. the matter being addressed only applies to those individuals, this can still be seen as a personal.
Interactions
Once a community is started it seems to take on a life of its own. Identifying and measuring the value of directs and mentions (in the form of shared information, problem resolution and crowd-sourced hype) is something that should solve some of the problems of quantifying ROI in social media marketing.
Broadcasts
A communication that has wide reaching visibility. Blog articles, discussion posts and status updates are all forms of broadcasting and need to be appropriately adjusted to be applicable to a wide range of contacts.
Mentions
A comment made about the company but not directly to the company.
Transactions
These are trades of value between the company and members. A member provides a service to the company when they suggest your Facebook page to a friend or retweet a blog post to their followers. Value should go both ways, how are members being rewarded for offering you a service? Discounts or additional perks can help to encourage members to talk about your brand or become more loyal. Demonstrating that their relationship with you is valuable is a vital part of successful social networking. These relationships can be valued with reference to interactions, transformations and attractions, and outgoing discounts or rewards can be balanced accordingly. Written by Charlie Thompson
Directs
A message or comment directly addressing the company, these should be responded to as soon as possible, with the exception of obscene messages- which should just be deleted (aggravation within reason should be responded to).
white paper | defining social media
page 1
