While social media channels are becoming more of a long-term – rather than episodic – way to engage with a brand’s target audiences, one of the most perplexing issues facing CMOs is determining ROI on earned and shared social media.  It’s not that there’s a lack of data, but the metrics are much less robust.  In two CMO panels I moderated in October during Advertising Week in New York and the CMO Club Summit in Los Angeles, CMOs differentiated ROI measures between paid and owned media investments, where they can truly measure ROI, versus social, which they see as more about achieving reputational measures rather than financial returns.

Just this week, the American Marketing Association (AMA) published a summary of a recent McKinsey Global Survey of marketing executives showing that while most marketers agree that their online presence is important and that digital tools provide their companies with a major opportunity, few are taking the structural steps required to benefit from selling online or engaging consumers through new technologies such as social media.  Indeed, most respondents indicated that companies are still trying to figure out how digital media can meaningfully improve their bottom lines – a.k.a. what is the ROI?

Marketers know that their brands need to be present and engaged in social media.  And even though North American and European consumers seem to be less open to engaging with brands in the social media space than people in developing markets (according to the recently-launched TNS Digital Life Study), marketers are learning that it is HOW they engage that drives the interest and engagement level with their audiences.  In other words, it’s not just a numbers game – it’s not just about getting in front of as many eyeballs as possible, but it’s often about micro-relevancy, driving deeper engagement and, if possible, building advocacy.

As Beth Comstock, CMO and SVP of GE, said in the Advertising Week CMO panel, “We talk a lot more about micro-relevancy, moving from massive reach and getting as many eyeballs as possible to now, with social media and targeted technology, getting to the right people, the right targets.  In some cases, where we have a strong B2B constitutency, maybe its 40 radiologists.  It’s about reinventing how we describe success.  It allows us to be much more surgical and targeted.”

But how do you measure the real effect?  There are all sorts of spurious metrics being used such as Twitter reach – when it’s impossible to track just how many followers see and consider a message.  The standard business lunch chatter seems to center around the likes of Klout, Peerindex and other nominal measurement tools.  While Klout score bragging rights may be entertaining when it comes to an individual, these measurement tools are not robust enough to satisfy CMOs’ needs to provide the sort of ROI that they can on their other marketing investments for their brands.

Social media consultancy Sociagility, a new kid in town, has launched a new tool that seems to provide a more comprehensive metric, a ‘social brand value’ ranking.  Its “PRINT” is an assessment methodology that examines Popularity, Receptiveness, Interaction, Network and Trust across multiple platforms.  The idea is to provide brands with an assessment of their social profile and performance, i.e. their ‘social footprint’, and it allows CMOs to compare their brands against named competitors or benchmark brands.  That’s making real progress.  In fact, Sociagility has just released a ranking of the world’s most valuable brands to reveal a global ‘social brand’ Top 50.  Check it out.


The drive towards more meaningful analytics for social media will undoubtedly continue to blaze into 2012.
Regardless of the ongoing battle over who “owns” social media – the CMO or the CCO, social is about to get a lot more crunchier.

My panel at last week’s Advertising Week was entitled “Winning the Marketing War”, featuring four notable CMOs:  Beth Comstock of GE, Stephanie George of Time Inc., Rob Price of CVS Caremark, and Raj Subramaniam of FedEx.

Putting the panel together, I aimed to showcase a mix of B2C and B2B senior marketing experience from different industry sectors who could speak to how technology is changing the game, how top bands are meeting the challenges posed by the modern-day customer, and how social media is changing the dynamics of building brand reputation and sustaining brand loyalty, the latter of which forms a central pillar of my book, The Changing MO of the CMO.  In fact, Beth was one of my interviewees for the book, so I kicked off by taking a page from Mashable’s recent Social Good Summit quoting her since she claimed that GE is using social media “to connect the dots”.  I asked my panelists to highlight how they are evolving with the rapidly-changing environment specifically with regard to social media. 

GE is harnessing social media both internally and externally, and one of the most impressive examples is the recent internal competition to come up with start-up ideas by igniting the GE community and using open innovation.  Beth called it “Match.com for start-up ideas”, and while not every one of the 5,000 submitted were winners or even do-able, the program unleashed the power of the community and produced some very real opportunities.  Two weeks ago, GE announced a similar program to break the code of breast cancer.  GE is using social media very much as an accelerator for innovation.  

Another key business-building aspect of social media was highlighted by Rob who claims that CVS are using it to influence thoughts around business design, tapping key trends such as greater personalization, and using feedback to reinvent the pharmacy space such making as the company’s Mini Clinic program more accessible and personal.
Relationship-building seemed to be another key output of tapping into social media.  CVS is extending its relationships with the 68 million households currently in its ExtraCare loyalty program, Time Inc. is building community around its key titles, and FedEx is using it to listen, respond and connect to its constituencies, including its 290,000-strong workforce around the world through its “I Am FedEx” program.

The advent of social media also has brought about the need for marketers to consider broader and more diversified audiences as brand and reputation continue to converge.  Much emphasis is being placed on internal audiences of course, and how consumers can influence opinion.  But as well, Rob called out the “scrum of audiences” overlapping in the social media sphere, including regulators, B2B customers, consumers and other influencers.  

At the same time that audiences are proliferating for marketers, a certain degree of micro-segmentation is taking place.  Beth called this “microrelevancy”, and spoke to getting the balance right between mass media and special-interest groups.  GE caters to a strong B2B contingency so, for example, a specific target audience could be just 40 radiologists. “Reinventing how success is defined is much more surgical,” she said.  “Are we relevant with exactly the right audience?  We have to work harder to do so.”

And everything is converging from analyzing to doing to measuring.  GE has created little R&D labs within teams to create new capabilities in social media, elevating its ability to scale with content development over the last two years. Now the company is investing in the user experience, trying to reinvent customer service, while at the same time combining employee experience and PR and scaling to all audiences.

Elevated in terms of importance by all panelists is analytics.  Rob explained the need for CVS to reconfigure how insights are gathered, synthesized and consolidated.  Stephanie had just announced a new analytics initiative announced in AdAge.  But while new analytics are constantly being sought, nothing is discarded.  According to Raj, there is a shift from the sequential to a more parallel and simultaneous approach.  Everyone is constantly learning.
New technology is allowing GE to leapfrog and accelerate its analytics.  “If your’re a marketer who doesn’t like data and insights, you’re not going to have a very long tenure,” said Beth.  “You gotta love this stuff.”  Rob explained that insights are about taking a field of opportunity.  “We want every weapon in the arsenal.  It has enabled us to make the transition to focus on our top customers.”

So what do these CMOs look for in new talent?  Curiosity.  The exploratory.  The ability to constantly re-invent yourself.  Good listening skills (knowing what’s noise and what’s worth listening to).  And the ability to translate.

A killer last question from the audience almost stumped the panelists:  How do you make a brand social?  One could argue that’s a whole other panel!  “I think you make yourself accessible, more transparent, put more experts out there to provide commentary in both the good times and the bad.  It’s more the PR side of marketing than anything.  Opening up. Being real.  Being open to judgement.  Allow people to find things that are relevant and connect,” according to Beth. 

“Introspection,” said Raj.  “Determine core attributes of the brand and how best to communicate.”
“It means making your brand more personal because that’s what is socially transferable,” according to Rob.  “You share a lot of nonsense with your friends on Facebook, but you share the important things with your best, closest, most intimate customers.  And ensuring that’s what’s conveyed in the experience and touch points is what counts.”