Building an organization’s relationships with customers and stakeholders can be similar to building relationships between human beings. In fact, I frequently compare various forms of organizational communications to human relationships. For example, impressions are like guys at a construction site whistling at women on the sidewalk. There’s no relationship there, and probably never will be. (Okay, okay, here’s one real-life exception to prove the rule.) And likes on social media are the relationship equivalent to winks on match.com. Real commitment to your brand only begins when a prospect gives you some indication that they want to have an ongoing relationship — e.g., commenting on a blog post, providing an email address, or following you on Twitter.
Social Engagement is Not Equivalent to Awareness
So where does exposure end and awareness begin? More importantly, how do they translate into a real, lasting relationship? Back in October, the members of the IPR Measurement Commission engaged in a spirited debate about whether engagement on social media was an indicator of awareness. This discussion took up quite a while and a whole lot of words, but the bottom line was “No, social engagement is not equivalent to awareness, and it doesn’t necessarily imply a relationship.” Here are the details:
1. Awareness and engagement are two different outcomes.
As Tim Marklein, founder and CEO at Big Valley Marketing, put it: “We’re typically evaluating different objects, since awareness is ‘of’ something and engagement is ‘with’ someone.” Awareness has always been the first level of the path to action or purchase. Unless you are aware of a problem or a brand it is unlikely you will take any action on behalf of that cause or brand.
Put another way: Awareness is a state of mind, engagement is a behavior. You must measure each differently.
2. There is no provable connection between the content that is engaged with and awareness of that content.
Awareness in public relations is measured by conducting a survey. Change in awareness is measured by comparing a benchmark survey to a later survey, conducted after the campaign is over or at regular intervals. If you want to get very specific you can do A/B testing to see if one piece of content generates more awareness than another, but that requires physically showing the subjects the content and asking their opinion afterward.
Social engagement is a physical action (usually a click) which occurs in response to a piece of content. You have no idea whether that piece of content generated the awareness or whether the awareness was already there. You also have no idea how many people may become aware of your brand as a result of that content, but didn’t choose to click on it.
3. That click may not have been for you.
Suppose you’re at a crowded party and someone winks in your general direction. Was that wink for you? Similarly, someone may click on a post that mentions several brands or topics, yours along with others that he or she may also be interested in. In that case you cannot know if the person was aware of your brand or topic in particular.
4. Clicks do not a representative sample make.
To get a valid measure of awareness you need to have a representative sample of your target audience. With social media engagement, you have no way of knowing if the person clicking is a member of your target audience, your competitor, or a robot.
5. Don’t confuse activity with results.
Engagement frequently crops up as a proxy for customer interest. However, there is no evidence that a lot of social engagement means people are more likely to buy your product. In fact, there is a growing body of research that says that high levels of social engagement do not yield revenue or sales.
What Good Is Engagement?
Even though measuring engagement can’t tell you if people are more or less aware of your brand or issue, it is still valuable. What engagement does tell you is that someone out there (who may or may not be in your target audience, remember) is responding to your content.
Rather than considering engagement as a proxy for awareness or preference or consideration, use it as measure of whether your content is moving people along the path to purchase. Tracking engagement is a measure of how interesting, compelling, or relevant your content is. And engagement with specific content — such as requests for more information or downloading of a white paper or a visitor’s guide — is a perfectly acceptable proxy for consideration.
Remember, as with all metrics, the value of different forms of engagement is not the same for all brands or organizations. We recommend developing a customized engagement index that weights different levels of engagement based on the extent to which each helps achieve your goals. For more about how to create a social engagement index, read this article. ∞
