Earlier this year, Ad Age reported Coca-Cola found that social media “buzz” had no measurable effect on short-term sales. It isn’t that Coca-Cola thinks buzz isn’t valuable. It’s just that they were unable to draw a clean line between it and a lift in sales. Collectively, marketers responded that they aren’t going after sales. That they’re going after something everyone simply knows is valuable, namely awareness, stickiness, loyalty and brand engagement.
The days of social media for the sake of engagement are dead, or should be. Social media can be a transactional engine, a hugely effective conversion machine. Flipboard, for one, just launched a catalogue feature that lets shoppers search for, curate and buy products right from their app.
It’s no longer about searching social media platforms for data we think we can use. It’s about determining what data we need to make something measurable and valuable happen, and then using that data to craft a strong offer, and delivering that offer when and where that customer is most ready to receive and act on it.
