Social Media is Word of Mouth on Steroids, or is It? Part II - Ed Keller

I have heard it said on a number of occasions that social media is word of mouth on steroids The argument goes like this Whereas facetoface conversations only reach people oneonone or oneonseveral social media allows people to reach hundreds and often thousands of people with a single post As a result it has a far greater reach than word of mouthI have been skeptical of this view arguing that while social media is certainly a piece of the social influence puzzle for brands that deserves to be leveraged it is just one piece among many And the premise that social media is word of mouth on steroids ignores the facts A singular focus on social media is misguided in my view as it can blind brands to the full array of opportunities available to them to drive brand advocacy This is the subject of my forthcoming book The FacetoFace Book Why Real Relationships Rule in a Digital Marketplace coauthored with Brad Fay and coming in MayA few months ago I wrote a blog under the headline quotSocial Media is Word of Mouth on Steroids or is Itquot In the piece I shared research that shows for brands with tens of millions of Facebook fans active engagement by those fans is quite small In fact just 045 are active fans In a similar vein research was released last month from the prestigious EhrenbergBass Institute for Marketing Science in Australia showing that after the initial click to quotlikequot the brand consumers rarely interact again with the brand on Facebook Here too less than 1 percent of people remained active on Facebook after the initial engagement EhrenbergBass summarized its results as follows quotBig Brands Snubbed by Fans on Facebookquot The message here is that the large numbers associated with social media can be seductive but they are not always exactly as they appear to beNow comes a very different type of study that further debunks the quotsocial media is word of mouth on steroidsquot argument This research conducted by BuzzFeed and StumbleUpon looks at the sources of shared content online across their respective networks and comes to this conclusion quotPut simply the vast majority of sharing occurs in the normal fashion evidenced in realworld wordof mouthquotMore specifically they report that the average Facebook share leads only nine people to visit the story The median for Twitter was even lower with each story shared on Twitter leading to five people visiting the story This reality is far from the quotonetomanyquot image of social media that many proponents postulate and would be consistent with the quotword of mouth on steroidquot claimThe conclusion from BuzzFeed and StumbleUpon quotWhat emerges is a picture of social networks where stories go viral when lots of people engage with their normalsized circles to share content In looking to get content shared marketers and publishers should focus on content that will resonate and get people talking to their colleagues friends and families Social media is about engaging people in conversations that mirror the offline worldquotThe research that is emerging helps to separate fact from fiction Yes social media has the potential to reach hundreds or thousands of people at a time but the reality is that it rarely does It should be considered as a part of today39s marketing mix but it is becoming increasingly clear that for brands which wish to spark the conversations that will move their business forward it is not a panacea nor is it quotword of mouth on steroidsquot Remember for each conversation people share with their colleagues friends and families via social media there are many multiples more that get shared at the dinner table at the water cooler on the sidelines at youth sports events and anywhere else people congregate Those conversations collectively generate far more sharing Let39s take a holistic perspective on the best and most productive ways to engage today39s social consumerEd Keller CEO of the Keller Fay Group has been called quotone of the most recognized names in word of mouthquot The publication of Keller39s book The Influentials has been called the quotseminal moment in the development of word of mouthquot His new book The FacetoFace Book is coming out in May 2012 You can follow Ed Keller on Twitter Facebook and Google or contact him directly at ekellerkellerfaycomRead all Edamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at WOM MattersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Social Media is Word of Mouth on Steroids, or is It? Part II - Ed Keller

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