If you remember when I (late) started this course, you might
remember I shared with you this is my capstone course, I have even passed the Comprehensive Exam!
I would say these are the latest (and greatest!) days of a countdown that I
enjoy as much as the contents and outcomes I am getting, toward the end of all
these weeks of studying, posting, moving (remember I moved from Baltimore?), as well as
overcoming my fears about posting. Writing in a personal way was definitely a
sensitive step I took in the course. After going through that barrier, I
realized people were commenting and replying to me, via email, giving their
opinion and hesitant to respond on the blog. I guess they all experience the
same feeling of vulnerability. Interesting experience I take with me, as we
(almost) finish the course.
This week, as we try to focus on how social media can be
monitored and, in fact, should be able to provide us with an “online picture”
of our success in engagement, I was tempted to think success could be only
measured by hits, ROI (return on investment) and what Turner (2013) defines as
Customer Life Value (CLV), “the amount of revenue a typical customer will
generate for your company during the customer’s engagement with your brand” (http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2013/11/17/in-depth-guide-calculating-social-media-roi/)
For this, I tried to relate my personal experience and work
with the readings and topics for this week and found that the personal
connection with the customer is still one of the best measurement tools for
success in social media. Scott (2015) explained that “[i]n a world where so
many organizations treat their homepage like the cover of a brochure, having a
blog there that updates daily is excellent real-time marketing.” (p. 216)
For the past to weeks more intensely, I felt like a blogger,
challenging myself to open my opinion to the cyberspace, in hopes to let others
to explore what I read and follow it. The type of connection and personal
relationship I seek to nurture –because of my work- is in establishing social
media interactions that could create impact for ministry, to educate or engage.
This is what Mergel (2014) explained as ROI – “Return On Ignorance”, for public
servers in their measurement of responses from social media platforms. Successful
social media for public offices have more an informational or educational
orientation, developed by the three stages: Representation,
Engagement and attention creation, and Networking (Mergel,
2014, p. 15)
Graphic from: http://www.businessofgovernment.org
I truly enjoy learning about the importance to control and
monitor the energy and effort invested by social media teams, specifically
while trying to convey messages and campaigns that could be represented in
figures that could measure their success, in a monetary sense, and I also enjoy
these elements of tracking success measurement in social media we have the
opportunity to learn and nurture all these weeks, as described by Mergel
(2014): Breadth (audience we try to tap into), Depth (responses, quality of
interaction), Loyalty (or the willingness of customers to come back for more),
Sentiments through Qualitative Insight (the impact reflected in the engagement
of the customers and their interactions).
The authors also suggests very useful online tools to have
control over the amount of interaction a customer could establish with relevant
information for them, like SocialMention.com, TweetReach.com, Topsy.com or
TweetDeck.com, as easy to use, affordable tools that can help in measuring
responses in social media for the public sector. Do you agree with these
factors as relevant for measuring success in social media or should only
interaction with the product should ultimately ‘rule’ or provide the success of
a campaign?
Would you try and break your own vulnerability to post a reply this
time? Thanks for reading this post!
Carlos
