Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
smaller organizations and the intense and continuous level of engagement required by some
social media initiatives.
Measuring social media marketing outcomes
Relevance can only be assured if social media are continuously monitored and effects of
marketing campaigns are effectively tracked. Fortunately, interactions in the social media space
leave digital traces that can be tracked and measured. The issue is what should be tracked and
how it can be translated into measures that can directly inform strategic marketing decisions.
This section offers a brief overview of social media monitoring as a way to inform social media
marketing strategies.
Based on the defi nition of social media as conversation spaces, monitoring involves trying to
understand who is talking to whom and what they are saying (Evans 2008). One of the problems
to consider when monitoring social media-based conversations is that there are different levels
of user engagement (Tedjamulia, Olsen, Dean and Albrecht 2005). The majority of users are
lurkers and only a small percentage of users are active content creators (Yoo and Gretzel 2011;
Gillin 2009). These content creators have specifi c demographic characteristics and personalities
and might not be representative of the company's typical target market. Another challenge lies in
most content posted being positive (Gillin 2009; De Ascaniis and Gretzel 2012). Overall ratings
of experiences such as in the case of travel reviews, for example, do often not refl ect the actual
content of the review (Jiang, Gretzel and Law 2010). This means that superfi cial measures can
be very misleading and general brand sentiment might not be a very insightful measure. It is
very important to include not only the conversations these consumers have with the marketers
but also those they have among themselves. This requires knowing where such conversations
take place.
The currency of social media marketing is infl uence. This means that the effectiveness of
social media marketing campaigns should be measured in terms of infl uence. This is not only a
question of what kind of infl uence is exercised but also on whom. The goal is to reach those who
will likely help spread the message. Infl uencers in the social media space are a new breed of
opinion leaders and should not be confused with traditional infl uencers (e.g. celebrities, etc.).
Infl uencers can be described based on their level and type of engagement with the brand as well
as their desire and ability to infl uence others (Gillin 2009). Infl uencers play a critical role in
shaping conversations. There are increasing efforts in the social media space to identify those
with greater infl uence than others. Klout.com is an example of such an initiative.
Success in social media marketing is not about return on investment but rather return on
engagement (Frick 2010). Harden and Heyman (2009) describe the 'mathematics of engagement'
as requiring a focus on click depth rather than just clicks, loyalty (number of visits), recency
(return visits within a certain time frame), visit duration, interactivity (consumer actions such as
comments, retweets, etc.) and commitment (e.g. subscription). These outputs have to be related
to the engagement inputs on the marketer side, e.g. the number of posts, types of contents
posted, frequency of posts, etc.
The relationship focus of social media marketing implies that its value is the network, i.e.
the connections established with consumers and other stakeholders (Gillin 2009). However, not
all connections are equal. Thousands of 'likes' on Facebook and 'followers' on Twitter are only of
value if they represent genuine connections. While research exists on motivations of consumers
to contribute contents in virtual communities (Yoo and Gretzel 2009), very little information
exists on why consumers would want to connect with companies. Gretzel (2010) found that
most consumers defi ne their relationships with companies on Facebook as functional and
