Ever have one of those projects where you think you have successfully positioned the value of a social media-based WOM program and then in the 11th hour, someone decides that all they want are click-throughs to the ad campaign microsite?
Don't use WOM for awareness alone
Don't get me wrong, the right WOM program can drive traffic. But that should never be the sole KPI. And looking at WOM as a channel is a BIG MISTAKE. WOM's best value is at the lower half of the funnel: engagement - loyalty - advocacy. You can combine that with some solid marketing goals like conversion and, even, raising awareness, but if you do not value the benefits of deeper enagagement for a particular initiative, then you might want to stick to the traditional bludgeons like advertising.
Frequency vs. Attention
Advertising, in general, is measured by GRP or gross rating point. Reach x Frequency = GRP. Pretty simple. That's how it is valuated for 'sale" so-to-speak. Marketers plan against target GRPs based upon the belief that a certain frequency of ad impressions on an individual make an impression on that person. That belief is based upon studies that demontrate that multiple impressions have an effect. That potential effect can be a higher consideration for purchase. Pretty basic stuff.
Alternatively, other studies show higher trust for different types of WOM and a preference for recommendations from other people over one-way marketing in purchase considerations. That would suggest that WOM has the capacity to grab our 'attention' more than ad messages or even multiple ad messages. In a long tail-world where everything is in abundance except our time and capacity for attention, grabbing attention is valuable.
In most WOM campaigns, we cannot report "frequency." We cannot say that some number of people (reach) read 4 blog posts or comments (frequency) about our brand-related topic. Can we say that a single positive WOM mention grabs attention better than an ad message? Yes. Better than 4 ad impressions? Now I am starting to slide down the slippery slope in an effort to compare the impact of advertising and WOM. I suspect that the right answer is that advertising will never garner the same attention that authentic WOM will. (Strangely enough, the advertising industry is trying to co-opt both 'engagement' and 'attention' by applying those same concepts to one-way advertising. See an interesting ARF paper here)
So What?
I feel like my train of thought has been a little academic. I am trying to get somewhere. Simply put, to define how WOM programs are scaleable, we want to say what some unit of WOM is worth. So we pine for our own version of GRPs which would answer the question, "If I throw $100K more WOM into the mix, what do I get?" Problem is a GRP-like model requires a companion assumption that describes the impact of WOM. Just like GRP says that reaching a number of people multiple times produces a impact on attitude and behavior, we need the analog for WOM. Is it that a WOM unit is 4 times, 8 times, 12 times more likely to impact our attitude and behavior than an advertisement? Again, I am back to the slippery slope.
I suspect that we need a few more, very focused studies that will tell us the following:
- Is positive WOM (please define) x times more likely to affect attitude and behavior in relation to product consideration and purchase. We need the "x" even if we have to get multiple "x's" for different product types if they behave differently (is a WOM unit about a high-engagement product like a car more or less impactful than one for, say, soda?).
- Is here a tipping point in "personal share of voice" (what I hear about a movie, car, cause from other people) that drives a person to consideration and finally conversion?
- What is the trust or attention differential between people I "know" and those I do not?
Some of these studies may exist in various forms. I may have even read them. I think some combination may be key to acheiving the "Attention Rating Point" or whatever we use to evaluate WOM for spending purposes.
Warning: I am trying to work out some thinking about social media measurement. I may be onto something useful or I may just have drunk too many cups of coffee. I need your feedback but if you think it's the coffee, just be kind.)
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