SF AppWorks | Warm Metrics and Social Media Engagement

“Social media provided a way to measure fan affinity in a way a TV spot never could. Why? Social media communication is two-way. It’s a dialogue versus a monologue. Instead of promotions, it creates conversations, sometimes unprompted conversations that can be listened to, recorded, and measured. No longer did we have to say, “Trust us, our fans really like the team. Suddenly I had data to show how fans really liked us.”
–Amy Jo Martin, Founder and CEO of Digital Royalty.

Engaging social media into your business by SF AppWorks

As a digital marketer, one of the more daunting tasks you’re faced with is maintaining a consistent and effective social media presence. It can be challenging for two reasons: one, you have to be sure you’re engaging with potential clients in relevant ways, and two, success on social media is harder to measure than more straight forward metrics like Return On Investment or Marketing Originated Customer Percent. That’s where warm metrics and cold metrics come in.
The idea of Warm Metrics (the most important marketing metrics) put forward by Amy Jo Martin of Digital Royalty helps to create a framework for assessing the effectiveness of your social media tactics. The more interactions and social media engagement you get, the more effective your efforts can be considered.
Here are five best practices to follow when going after these Warm Metrics.

1. Buyer Experience

Steve Jobs once said “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work back to the technology, not the other way around.” It’s imperative that you understand the perspective of your potential client as they move along the buyer’s journey towards your product. Offer content and engage in dialogues that address each stage individually. In the Problem Stage they’re looking for information to solve a pain point. In the Solution Stage they’re looking into specific products and services. Finally, in the Delight Stage you should offer them the best sales experience possible. 82% percent of customers say the number one factor to great customer service is having their issue solved quickly. While 70% of buyer experiences are based on how the customer feels they’re being treated. So it’s important to be relevant and personable, and to come from a place of understanding your customers and their needs.

2. After Sales Experience

You’re job’s not done after the customer makes a purchase. Continuing to be present and ready to solve problems and answer questions after the purchase is the key to offering a great After Sales Experience. It’s one of the biggest methods of customer retention, as 70% of customers will do business with you again if you resolve any complaints they have. You need to send follow up emails and monitor social media for questions and concerns that your network may have.

3. Solving Relevant Problems

Customers will grow to value your company more if they feel that you’re genuinely helping them with their problems, not simply pushing a product. One way to do this is to create and share content that will educate potential customers interested in your industry. Doing this might cause someone to realize a need that they were unaware of before. For example, say you’re a camping supply company and you publish a blog about the issue of arch support in hiking boots. Someone doing research on hiking might realize that they have this problem and reach out to you for more help. Another great way to solve relevant problems is to create a venue for open dialogues with your customers. Starbucks has a great example of this with their “My Starbucks Idea”, which is a page on their site where customers can suggest drinks they’d like Starbucks to serve.

4. Peer Validation

If a customer is pleased with your services, they are likely to write a positive review on places like Yelp, or tweet some kind words about your company. Their network and peers will see this positivity and in turn be more likely to use your services. This is called Peer Validation and it’s great because it is genuine which adds authenticity to your brand and gives you positive exposure to the initial reviewers entire social network. After a while you’ll have a whole body of social data to show that you’re doing something right, which puts into practice the idea of warm metrics. If you’re having trouble achieving this, you should go back over the first three points and make sure your efforts are being expended in the right way.

5. Social Tracking

The only way to know whether the aforementioned best practices are working is to track your social interactions with customers. Pay attention to what posts do well, which content is more popular, and what people are saying about your company on social media. The best way to track your social interactions is through a custom CMS, which provides you with a tailored dashboard of social data that will help you form an effective online marketing plan.

For more tips on digital marketing download our E-book “6 Important Marketing Metrics To Show Campaign Effectiveness” Here!