For marketers, data is a huge turn-on. But not everyone in an organization may share their lust for qualitative and quantitative insight. This lack of passion can make it difficult for marketers to prove the value of their efforts, especially when it comes to newer tactics, like social media marketing, where the key ROI metrics aren’t always clearly defined.
“We’re here to make metrics sexy,” Erin Dwyer, SVP of global e-commerce and social for Haven Beauty—the manufacturer and distributor of Kardashian Beauty, said during a session at SXSW in Austin.
Meg Owen, senior digital analyst at communications and marketing firm Edelman, joined Dwyer on stage and together they shared their secrets for making social sexy through such efforts as holding social accountable and communicating its value to the rest of the organization. Here are seven of their tips.
1. Communicate with your partners and try to fulfill their needs.
Marketing lingo can be like a foreign language to others in an organization. Staffers in other departments may be confused when hearing about algorithms or acronyms (e.g. ROI, KPI) and, as a result, may take social marketers’ insights less seriously.
“Sometimes we forget that other people and other marketers aren’t living in our everyday environment,” Owen said.
To ensure that everyone is speaking the same language, marketers need to have a clear understanding of who their internal audience is and who they’re reporting to, Owen said. They need to get their creative, IT, and sales teams to be just as data-driven as they are, she added, and have a unified definition of what the return will be. Marketers should also share their strategies and discuss how their social initiatives are going to help other departments succeed.
“What’s going to get them hot and bothered and make them understand the value of what we’re doing?” Owen asked.
2. Be in long-term relationships with your data and team members, not one-night stands.
Once marketers establish what the “r” in ROI is with the rest of the organization, they need to determine the timing of social interactions and how frequently they should measure success, Dwyer said. Doing so, she argued, can help marketing professionals uncover long-term patterns and separate them from “flash-in-the pan” trends. She also recommended taking one’s product cycle into account when determining measurement frequency.
“No matter what industry you’re in, I hope you’re looking at your data on a quarterly basis,” she said.
3. Share the love.
“Social is all about being social,” Dwyer said. And not just with customers. Marketers should be willing to share their data and insights with the rest of the organization, not hoard them for themselves.
That doesn’t mean marketers should send all of their spreadsheets to the rest of the company. Dwyer recommended taking a “peephole approach” that gives other departments a glance into marketers’ world by providing reports that summarize key metrics, include a little social news, and cite three things other departments should know. Doing so shows other departments how they’re helping marketing, as well as how marketing is helping them.
“One of the things that’s beautiful about social is that it really takes a village to do what we do,” Dwyer said.
4. Give C-level executives the “quickie.”
The C-suite is focused on the bottom line. So, while marketers may be excited about their brand awareness, engagement, and algorithms, they should keep their social reporting to a minimum when selling up to the C-level. Instead, Dwyer said they should only talk about three or four of the most impactful metrics.
“They just want the hard and dirty facts,” she noted.
5. Be nimble.
From algorithm updates to new measurement tools, the social landscape is always changing, and marketers need to be able change along with it. Marketers need to ensure that their reporting is dynamic rather than static, Owen said, and make sure that their data and metrics reflect the current state of the industry.
“Keep it nimble; keep things fresh; keep evolving it,” Owen said.
6. Don‘t focus too much on vanity.
Today’s marketers like to track anything and everything, but Dwyer discouraged them from focusing too heavily on vanity metrics, like virality.
“Going viral isn’t necessarily a success metric,” Dwyer said.
Rather than solely focusing on going viral, marketers should consider what steps they’re taking to get there, Dwyer said. Plus, Owen advised marketers to consider whether going viral would actually benefit their organization; and if so, how?
Remember, marketers should focus on quality, not quantity, Owen said.
7. Question everything.
Data is meant to be objective, Owen said; but it can be biased if portrayed in a certain light. That’s why she urged marketers to consider the context of the data, challenge it, and think about why it matters.
“Challenge everything,” she said. “Poke holes in everything.”
