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Engagement in Social NetworksAngela Hausman, PhDAssociate Professor of MarketingHoward UniversityAmerican Marketing

Association; August, 2011

+Agenda

Why Study Social Networks/ Social Media?

What Are Social Networks?

How Social Networks Differ From Social Media? Brand Communities?

Method

What is Engagement and Why Its Important?

What are the Challenges of Engagement?

Engagement Marketing Paradigm?

Future Directions

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+Why Study Social Networks ?

Social networking is the most significant business development of 2010, topping the resurgence of the U.S. automobile industry. During the year social networking morphed from a personal communications tool for young people into a new vehicle that business leaders are using to transform communications with their employees and customers, as it shifts from one-way transmission of information to two-way interaction

Bill George, CEO Medtronics

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+Why Study Social Networks ?

Magnitude 750 Million Facebook Users 300 Million Twitters 100 Million LinkedIn members (Branson, 2010) 30 Million Google+ users in 3 weeks (Mashable, 2011)

Consumers are happier with Facebook pages than company websites (Freed, 2010)

Declining effectiveness of traditional media (Maddox, 2008)

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+Why Social Networks (cont)

Positive results (Stelzner, 2010) Brand awareness Website traffic Leads Reduced costs

Segmenting

Positioning

Enact roles Share information Answer questions Cheerleaders for brand Evangelists

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+What are social networks?

Social Networks involve a pinball game where “companies serve up a ‘‘marketing ball’’ (brands and brand-building messages) into a cacophonous environment, which is then diverted and often accelerated by new media ‘‘bumpers,’’ which change the offering’s course in chaotic ways.” (Hennig-Thoreau, 2010)

Firms don’t control the message (Hoffman and Fodor, 2010)

Two way interactions looking like Friendships

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+How Social Networks Differ from Social Media

Consumers use social networks to create value Connection, community Entertainment Information Celebrity

Social networks differ from virtual or brand communities

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+Research Questions

What is engagement in social spaces?

How can firms manage engagement in social spaces?

Tensions between commercial and non-commercial elements in social spaces?

Dangers of Social Media?

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+Method

Netnography of Social Media Blogs Google Alerts < 100k Alexa 4 months 4760 posts Strategic rather than tactical focus

Interviews 1-3 hours Online interviews in open networks – G+ Agencies, corporate bloggers

Participant Observation http://hausmanmarketresearch.org 1+ years -- 100+ visitors/day

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+What is Engagement? Engagement

Allows non-service firms to build relationships with customers and prospects

Heart of the relationship between consumers and brands Consumer to consumer interactions Amplify message beyond traditional word of mouth Authentic relationships (http://liminal.razorfish.com/?

page_id=13)  

Purchase behavior is a social process (Rosen, 2000)

Engagement builds affinity and people buy from people they like (Odden, 2011)

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+Engagement Requires Different Communication Style Not just tools and technology

Understand the art, the environment and how you can fit in.

Build your own community, but also be able to successfully grab the attention of your audiences authentically and via relationships.http://socialmediatoday.com/pammoore/258004/2011-predictions-top-12-reasons-businesses-will-fail-social-media?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+(all+posts)

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+Engagement and its Benefits

Write blog entries, provide quality content, analyze Google analytics, update Twitter and Facebook accounts More unique visitors More time on site More leads More positive comments on search engines Increase in Google indexing Augmented online branding (Mike, Community

Manager)

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

Social Network Hierarchy of Effects

Awareness

Liking

---------------------------------------

Engagement

Participation

Community

----------------------Evangelism

AttractionPhase

RelationshipPhase

LoyaltyPhase

+Engagement Drives Hierarchy of Effects Engaged Fans/Followers enact roles

Engagement drives consumers down the hierarchy Having a website not enough Organize social graph Make messages attractive, valuable, and easy to share Go where your target market lives online

Processes driving hierarchy: SEO, SMM create awareness Engagement encourages trust and relationship Engaged fans share, create, promote – more engaged fans Increasing recognition – loyalty and evangelism

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+Increasing Engagement

4 Elements (Nambisan and Baron, 2009) Cognitive/ learning Social Hedonic Status

Transform commercial messages into social messages (Kozinets, et al. 2010) Self-disclosure Expressiveness Interaction Reciprocity (Arnould and Price, 1999)

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+Tension Between Commercial and Relational Aspects of Relationships Engagement must create value for consumers

Through user-generated content (Henning-Thoreau, 2010)

Objective, credible information (Brown and Reingen, 1987)

Solutions

Engagement creates company value (Henning-Thoreau, 2010) Create and watch YouTube videos Post and comment on blogs Tweet about the brand and RT brand messages Discuss the brand on Facebook

Engagement must influence purchase behavior

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+Engagement is A Two-Edged Sword Using social media as a channel to spread commercial

messages can damage the brand (Kozinets, et al. 2010)

Using social media takes time and skill

Customer empowerment highlights the nightmare reality of the broken relationships between consumers and brands.. http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=145996

Other aspects of marketing must be optimized first (http://businessinsider.com/ hot-to-make-money-with-facebook).

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+Gift Economy The point is to regularly put up new, fresh engagement

features that are easy and fun for users to interact with, that they will want to post to their wall and share with their friends. Then users will interact with your brand just like they interact with their friends on Facebook! http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_most_facebook_marketing_doesnt_workp2.php

people share content, expertise, and experience with everyone – without cost. It is a form of information commerce, with creation and curation of content. They also launched a mobile app to bring that experience to anyone anywhere. Their idea is to earn social capital by making a contribution to the wider community of small business owners (Solis, 2010)

 

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

+Decommodification Imagine this. Stefano posts to his Facebook that he just had

the most delicious cookie he’s ever eaten. His friends comment and say, really, where can we get them? Stefano is probably going to answer them, but you come in as a representative of the brand and say here’s a link to our website where you can find out all about our cookies, they’re great, here’s a coupon, yum, yum. Now, there’s a good chance that the conversation is over because your response looks like spam and it feels a little like you were spying on their private chat. (Even though Facebook is far from private.) Using the Watkins method, you could email Stefano and offer him a free box of cookies for him and five friends. Now Stefano himself is going to mention your generosity and ask who wants free cookies? Me! Me! Me! That conversation is going to continue and when everyone gets the free cookies, they’re going to talk about it on their Facebook pageshttp://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2011/03/turning-social-media-followers-into-brand-evangelists.htmlDC Marketing Colloquium; April, 2011

+Conclusion and Future Research Strategic shift from traditional view of online

community

Inherent recognition of the person-ness of network users

Not a conduit for commercial messages and commerce

Requires different language and behaviors Rights of users to self-organize and control their

environment Non-transactional behaviors create value Acceptance of the gift economy Rejects commodification of social networks

American Marketing Association, August, 2011

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Check out my blogs for more information – Hausman Marketing Letter – blogging on the intersection of

marketing and social media Let’s Blog for Money – training for small businesses who

need a web presence or want to enhance it My Wacky Life After 40 – not a business blog

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