Why social media engagement is overrated
Kelvin Claveria
Director of Demand Gen Marketing @ Rival Technologies and Reach3 Insights | VP of Marketing @ Insights Career Network
When I talk to other marketers about social media, there’s one buzzword that will inevitably come up: engagement.
“It’s all about conversations and engagement,” a social media marketer might say. “You use social media to engage people,” another one might offer.
Social media marketing tactics usually get measured by engagement: Look at Facebook Insights or Twitter ad analytics and you’ll see that engagement is a consistent metric offered in these tools.
But driving engagement can have some downsides and in fact, it might be a little overrated. In a Slideshare presentation, Mark Schaefer, author, blogger, and Executive Director at Schaefer Marketing Solutions, makes the case for why driving social media engagement is not a viable strategy. That may sound like an odd perspective, but it’s one that’s worth hearing.
Here are 3 reasons why Mark thinks comments, replies and other types of engagement on social media need some rethinking:
1. Engagement alone is not a strategy.
Engagement for the sake of engagement will not result to social media ROI or to revenue.
“Engagement is a tool...one that isn’t very valuable on its own,” according to Mark. That’s why as a marketing tactic, engagement has to be tied to a measurable business objective.
Are you engaging customers on social to get R&D insights? Are you using engagement to drive brand awareness? Or is it more for customer service? Engagement can do all these things, but your business goals need to be crystal clear first.
2. Engagement by itself is not an indicator of success.
Mark gives the example of Apple, a company that has zero social media engagement but is one of the most valuable brands of our time. This is an extreme example: Most brands can’t afford not to be on social because they don’t have the clout that Apple has built up. However, Mark’s point is that engagement is not necessarily a useful business metric.
It really comes back to your business or marketing goal: if you know what business goal social media engagement supports, you’re one step closer to ensuring that engagement metrics are more useful and actionable.
3. Engagement comes at a cost.
“If you’re not careful, you could literally talk yourself broke,” Mark says in the Slideshare presentation. Getting lots of comments on your blog or on social requires heavy investment in creating content, driving the conversation, and distributing it to various networks.
In the same way that going viral means nothing, lots of engagement may not be so useful after all. Engagement takes valuable time and resources. “You’ll have to find a balance to optimize results for your business,” Mark offers.
Here’s another one: “Engagement” is vague.
There’s one thing I’d add to Mark’s argument about social media engagement. In the context of social media, when people say “engagement,” they're usually not clear what they mean.
What do we really mean by engagement? Does a negative comment or reply count as engagement? (I think it does.) Are pageviews a type of engagement? (You can make the argument that it should be since it means people are reading your content.) Is bounce rate an indicator of engagement? (Again, one could argue yes since it indicates whether your content is compelling enough that people would click on your links.)
Engagement evokes warm and fuzzy feelings, but its definition isn’t clear. And that vagueness contributes to why many business leaders question the effectiveness of social media. We have to be clear in our language when talking about social media measurement if we want our bosses or our clients to take us seriously.
Say it with me: Engagement is not a strategy!
It’s time to rethink social media engagement.
Driving engagement for the sake of engagement is not a great strategy. Engagement is a tactic that supports your bigger marketing strategy. So, remember to:
- Consider your business goals—and use engagement only if it can help drive those goals.
- Clarify what “engagement” means to you, your organization, or your clients.
- Use your time working on your marketing goals, not driving engagement alone.
For more, check out Mark’s fabulous Slideshare below.
How are you measuring social media engagement in your company? Do you agree that social media engagement is overrated? Leave a comment below or tweet me at @kcclaveria to share your thoughts!
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DP/MYP English teacher / Former DP Math teacher
9yYou're articles are always insightful and fun to read. I think that's best part of it all KC, they're entertaining and provocative. I see social media engagement almost like a sales funnel. It should be tied to a strategic goal and help move people along a path (not that it needs to be a straight path). And when there's a a clear goal in mind, and an understanding of what your audience is looking for then it's easier to define what's successful engagement is. Looking forward to your next article.
Digital Strategist at Creative Communications Rwanda
9yTotally agree, without conversion- all the conversation and engagement is of no use. And with Digital platforms like Facebook making it even harder every other day to have organic reach, I feel it is high time companies resorted to finding ways of engagement on platforms that they own.
Marketing, communications and business development professional specialising in legal tech and professional services.
9yI love this post. It's a very valid point that is rarely brought up in conversations about social media and marketing.
Director of Wealth Management Strategy at UBS
9yKC, You are absolutely correct in that engagement is not a strategy unto itself, although it is probably a leading indicator of success. The biggest question is if this engagement can be monetized, and if a decent return can be generated. There are several ways to think about this, but the most valuable, in my opinion (and most challenging), is to use social media engagement metrics for the purposes of predictive analytics. If one can understand how a client (or potential client) is engaging with social media, the company, the web, etc. then one can tailor an experience, a product and a promotional strategy in way that generates real return on investment. Moreover, that tailored experience can be built around the cost to provide it. Clients with high expected value can be targeted with low-scale, high-touch means (i.e., costly methods) whereas low expected value clients can be targeted with highly scalable, low cost methods, if at all.
Business Lady & Chattanooga Realtor
9yDo you draw a distinction between small and large companies? Does "engagement" become problematic when scaled to large concerns? Or do you see this at every level? Very interesting!