What are we really looking for in social media metrics? In reality, most public relations, marketing, and communication professionals are using social media metrics to validate their social media choices. These professionals are looking to see if their social media strategy is building affinity and fostering a transparent relationship with their target market.

I propose the following levels as way to develop social media metrics because it tracks relationship development.

Level 1: The target market is Curious about the organization’s mission and values
Level 2: The viewer begins to Connect personally with the organization
Level 3: The site user establishes Rituals when using the organization’s site

Level 1: Curiosity, people are becoming aware and are interested in your Internet presence. This can be seen in the following metrics:

• Page views
• Unique visitors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unique_visitor
• Trackbacks
• Number of repeat visits

Level 2: Connecting, people are considering and beginning to share your offerings, the following metric highlight their level of involvement.

• Increase in time spent on site
• Number of completed profiles
• Increase in site visits
• Tags/ratings/rankings
• Connection between members
• Number of groups, networks, or forums linking to your site because of a suggestion by a user

Level 3: Rituals, people value your influence in their lives and are willing to be transparent in your social media outlets. You can become aware of this level by the following Internet behaviors:

• Increase in frequency of visits
• People begin to post on your site

Collect the following information from the postings:

Frequency of Posts
Posting content
Word count
Number of brand descriptors used in posts
Number of contributors or comments to one posting
Tone of Posting and Comments: positive reflections,offering ideas, expressing concern, or dissatisfaction (is an opportunity to join the conversation and start a dialogue.)

• Partaking in organization sponsored events both online and offline
• Developing consumer generated content regarding your organization
• The number of individuals that are willing to refer you using social media sharing devices
• Speak about you in external forums and networks

The idea of this framework is to make sure that organization’s social media strategy urges the user at each level to move to the next level of the relationship. Professionals can use social media metrics to see where their strategy is weak if they plug their numbers into this framework. As a result, the professionals can hone their strategy and gain more followers at each level.

I continued to question the adage that a line extension is a trap, especially a line extension based on price. Reis and Trout assert that creating a line extension educates the consumer to the fact that there is a cheaper or better way to deliver a product to the consumer.

They use the example of Bayer Aspirin. Bayer was positioned in the mind of the consumer as a superior pain reliever until Bayer thought they should compete with Tylenol. So, Bayer decided to use their brand equity to develop a “non-aspirin” pain reliever thereby destroying the “illusion that Bayer is a superior form of aspirin” (Reis & Trout, 2001, p. 103). However, I always wondered: How can line extensions work?

Well, today in the Wall Street Journal, I found a very interesting article that might be the answer to creating a price-based line extension. Jean-Paul Agon, L’Oreal’s CEO, has been facing a drastic decline in L’Oreal’s’ expensive, glamorous cosmetic brands to the other less expensive brands during this economic downturn. His solution is to develop a lower-cost product line. Right of the bat, the first question has to be: How are you going to protect the brand equity of the higher-priced L’Oreal lines?

He had an interesting response. It was, “you keep advertising on the top products. You don’t advertise the [accessible] products. This has another advantage: the [accessible products] are very profitable. Because you don’t spend much in advertising” (WSJ, August 28, 2009, B1).

This strategy is very interesting, but just because you don’t advertise something doesn’t mean it won’t cannibalize your existing line. This will be a strategic move to watch.

I think they might be missing a golden opportunity by not offering rebating during this economic downturn. Rebating would allow them to collect an extreme amount of data to use when the economy begins to recover. Just imagine the plethora of target market information L’Oreal could obtain by giving women their anti-wrinkle cream at a reduced rate. Plus, everyone knows that rebating is a short-term discount, as long as the company does not make it a habit.

If you are over the age of 18 years old, you might have laced-up a pair of Nike Air Jordans and effortlessly made a jump shot—or at least you thought it was effortless. Or maybe you are over the age of 25 and you remember how Mother Theresa cared for the poor. Both Nike and Mother Theresa are icons. They created a story that elevated the tension between reality and ideals. Simply put, icons promise people a better life. They offer ideals to live by and answers to life’s most troublesome questions.


However, today, people don’t just want to hear the brand story. They want to be the brand story. They want a place to connect with people and a place to rejuvenate—or in other words, they want to be authentic. Hart, Greenfield, and Johnston assert that branding today should be people-centered, passionate, and humane. That’s why strategic social media mustn’t just follow pop culture; the strategy must focus on being an active and responsive listener, all the while, keeping a unified voice.

• Get Specific
  The first tactic to transparency is to get specific. Getting specific requires researching your potential client, or in other words know and understand your audience.

• Make Small Talk Big
  Now that the conversation has been focused on building a connection, the next step is to pay attention to the details in order to create an authentic moment.


• Make Your Pitch Interactive
  The first two steps set the stage for relationship development, but what makes an interactive presentation is giving the audience an opportunity to ask questions and make comments. This type of bid signals to the audience that this endeavor is a partnership, not a dictatorship. This can be done online by offering a place for people to post questions or comments.


• Give a Call to Action
  A call to action can appear to be a sales technique but it sets a frame for a second point of contact. This type of action can be translated in the digital world by creating a reason for people to become frequent visitors to your Web site.


• Write Down a Connection Point
  This point is about showing the audience you are listening to them on a deeper level by trying to help them out. This can be done by offering solutions beyond your own product or service.


• Practice Good Timing
  Good timing is being sensitive to your audience’s situation—personally and professionally. Holtz and Havens (2008) state that, “one ill-timed communication can sour a relationship you’ve been working on for months to create” (p. 62).


• Follow-up
  Follow-up is really about continuing the conversation with new ideas or fresh insights. It is important to follow-up on a conversational bid in some way that validates the time spent by the communicator—it must not seem as though the communicator’s message fell into the black hole of a digital file.


• Partnering Versus Closing
  In the sales cycle, closing should be an “exciting point of the process” (Holtz & Havens, 2008, p. 63) and the culmination of developing a transparent relationship built on trust.

Conclusion
This seems to be a great way to communicate with other people on the Internet and in coffee shops.

References
Holtz, S. & Havens, J.C. (2008). Tactical transparency. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.