This agency:2 white paper explores how brands can use social media to influence the buying process and drive ROI. The paper analyses how brands are successfully building marketing strategies using social media alongside traditional marketing and advertising to produce campaigns that provide measurable results.

1. the social media agency
How social media
can influence the
buying process
and drive ROI
020 7775 5608 | www.agency2.co.uk

2. the social media agency
Introduction
Social media marketing is here to stay. Companies big and small – both B2B and B2C – are successfully building marketing
strategies using social media alongside traditional marketing and advertising.
Advocates of social media are embracing its capabilities to “spend less and invest smarter”. Among sceptics, however,
there is much debate about how the ROI of social media activity can be measured.
For every success story, there’s a brand that launches into social media without a strategy, or fails to establish metrics to
effectively measure achievements. They are swimming against the tide and find it difficult to establish the ROI of their
campaigns.
The best way to be certain of a financially rewarding social media campaign is to have a clear roadmap to success.
Distinct goals and a real commitment to investing enough time and expertise are essential.
That can mean using social media monitoring to analyse a brand’s position at the outset of a campaign. Establishing
areas of weakness delivers insights into how social media can be used to
bolster other marketing endeavours.
Moving forward, it’s imperative to define social media objectives and key “Social media is not
performance indicators. This facilitates the development of an effective social new anymore. It has
media strategy that can be continually measured and optimised. an established role in
This four-pronged approach – of strategy, implementation, measurement
marketing – and its
and optimisation – is necessary to build an efficient, quality-controlled social power can be proven.”
media programme that reassures brands of its concrete value.
In addition to its clear potential for raising brand awareness, building online
communities, providing customer service and conducting market research – it can be shown that social media drives
sales and leads and delivers an ROI that can be measured in business performance.
Social media is not a fad
Social media has earned a permanent role in the marketing mix. Social networks, blogs, wikis, picture sharing, video
sharing, review sites and social bookmarking – have become essential artillery for marketers.
Just like traditional media, these social channels enable marketers to reach customers, build a positive reputation and
generate sales and leads. In addition, social media marketing allows brands to invest their marketing spend in a highly
targeted way – and to directly interact with their audience.
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3. the social media agency
The possible business benefits include:
“There is no battle
n Low cost per conversion between social media
n Reduced market research costs and traditional media.
n Enhanced customer satisfaction
n Greater brand recognition
When all strands
n Better brand reputation are pulled together,
n Improved search engine rankings the brand message
Higher levels of website traffic
n
is stronger, more
credible and more
These clear advantages are possible because social media creates opportunities influential on buying
for brands to: choices.”
n Develop
understanding of their industry landscape: their positioning
compared to competitors and their customers’ perception of them
n Tailor campaigns to directly target relevant audiences
n Listen to and engage with customers – turning negatives into positives
n Empower legions of customer “brand advocates”
n Create and build business partnerships
n Monitor, measure and optimise ongoing campaigns
For some marketers, social media is now their primary marketing tactic. For others, investing in social media adds value
to other approaches like traditional marketing, PR and advertising – helping to maximise the ROI of a wider marketing
programme.
Clear goals lay foundations for social media success
Clear objectives are the driving force of any successful social media programme. Hence, social media’s promise of ROI
is conditional: it depends on the precision of the objectives, the setting of metrics, the thoroughness of monitoring and
analysis and the continual optimisation of campaigns.
At the outset, social media monitoring should be employed to help:
n Understand a brand or product’s position in social media
n Seek out and rank social media influencers such as bloggers
n Track content about a brand/product/service on social news sites
n Identify the most relevant social media channels that will facilitate engagement with the target audience
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4. the social media agency
n Produce a direct and indirect competitor audit
n Help pinpoint relevant topic clusters “Half-hearted social
n Spot key trends, threats and opportunities media campaigns run
the risk of not meeting
An over-arching strategy can be defined by drawing on intelligence from
their objectives
monitoring, set alongside other information: Customer insights, knowledge or, worse still,
of brand values and business goals, understanding of social media trends and adversely affecting
awareness of competitor behaviour and customer experience.
brand reputation.
The effectiveness of the strategy depends on further considerations:
Dabbling, rather than
strategising, will not
n Clarity
is needed from the outset on the social media channels to be maximise ROI.”
used and the media and messages that will be delivered
n Attention should be given to ensuring that all social media engagement
is relevant, of value, timely and compelling
n Metrics must be measured, set and agreed before starting activity, so that there is total transparency on what
“success” will look like and how it can be calculated: i.e. in terms of engagement, sentiment, conversions, exposure,
blog views, sales and lead generation
Transparent returns thanks to social media tracking
Contrary to common misconception, the effectiveness of a social media campaign can be measured precisely using
a variety of metrics. For instance, a social media measurement dashboard may track the following key performance
indicators:
n Share
of voice: The number of social media mentions about a brand, compared to that of its competitors (this is
misleading unless juxtaposed with intelligence about the sentiment of mentions.)
n Sentiment: The proportion of social media mentions that represents a brand in a positive, neutral or negative light
n Views: The total number of views across social media channels, including the number of active users for a Facebook
page, blog page views, YouTube channel views, YouTube video views, Flickr photo views
n Connections: The number of people who express a clear interest in a brand or company, including blog subscribers,
those that “like” brands on Facebook, Twitter followers, YouTube subscribers, LinkedIn group members
n Audience engagements: The level of conversation between a brand or company and its audience, including blog
comments, Twitter retweets, Facebook interactions and YouTube interactions
n Conversation reach: The number of unique visitors across sites involved in a conversation (searchable by keywords
or hashtags)
n Company/brand engagements: A measure of a brand’s social media presence, including blog posts, blog and
forum commenting, Facebook posts, Twitter tweets and retweets, YouTube video posts
n Active advocates: The group of social media connections that actively promotes a brand and shares positive user
experiences
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5. the social media agency
n Advocate
influence & impact: A measure of the influence of individual active advocates through social media
channels and its impact on other key performance indicators, such as referrals and conversions
n Resolution time: The time taken to resolve customer problems through social media channels
n Satisfaction score: The level of satisfaction experienced by customers whose problems have been solved via social
media channels
n Referrals: Traffic driven to a website by social media activity
n Conversions: Sales that result from social media referrals
In each of these areas, expert analysis can uncover deeper levels of understanding about a brand’s audience that help
shape its future interactions – and deliver greater returns.
For example, sentiment analysis is broadly about determining whether online conversations reveal a like, dislike or
neutrality towards a brand.
However, to convert this knowledge into a valuable asset, techniques like text mining produce greater awareness –
identifying potentially damaging issues early, like customer complaints and product faults.
As social media campaigns are always in a state of evolution, this continual and thorough tracking – and measurement
of success while the campaign is underway – is vital. It ensures that targets are met in current and future campaigns –
and ROI is constantly optimised.
Social media’s influence on buying decisions
As people spend an increasing amount of their time on social websites, they are becoming their first stop for trusted,
relevant, personal advice – as opposed to corporate websites, where messages
are carefully controlled.
Most consumers and B2B buyers now rely to some degree on social media “To ignore social
when they are purchasing and decision making. Online, just like offline, media media is to waive an
exert a powerful influence over buying choices. opportunity to be part
A variety of social media channels support every stage of the purchasing
of customers’ buying
process: from the initial consideration, through the evaluation process, to the process.”
moment of purchase and beyond to the post-purchase experience.
From casual information-gathering on social networks like Twitter and
Facebook, to more detailed research on blogs, review sites and forums, social media steers customers – both in a B2B and
B2C context – towards their buying decision. The cycle continues when customers report their purchasing experience,
appraising their overall customer satisfaction.
It’s clear that sales performance depends increasingly on what people are saying online about a product, brand or
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company. So how can businesses harness the power of social media to achieve stand-out from competitors?
The simple answer is that they have to offer something of real worth to customers. They can do this by taking part in
conversations on the social web in a useful way.
Social media’s “give and take” rule
Brands that make valued, relevant and timely contributions to targeted user-generated sites can experience huge
rewards:
Users click through in much higher rates from social interactions than other digital channels
Leads from well-timed and helpful interactions within social platforms convert at higher rates than other key digital
channels
An example: agency:2 helped MasterCard in its quest to be the credit card of choice for travellers by
driving holiday makers and business travellers to its branded travel portal. Brand ambassadors promoted
the site across travel forums by posting valuable comments and answering questions. Referrals from
brand ambassador posts spent 22 times more time on the site than the average user. Three out of ten
of these resulted in conversion.
Using social media tactically has a profound impact on organic search optimisation
An example: Hewlett Packard enlisted agency:2 to improve its search results for high value key terms
across Europe. A social media marketing campaign in business and IT forums resulted in HP ranking on
the first page of leading search engines for highly relevant, popular key terms.
It’s worth noting that brands need to decide which social media channels are best for influencing different stages of
the buying process. Each channel has multiple capabilities, but a chosen strategy might identify one in particular that is
helpful in meeting its primary goals. For example:
n Twitter is useful to engage consumers and drive them to a company’s main website or blog or to another online
destination
n Facebook is ideal for building communities of brand advocates
n A blog helps deliver in-depth information on a product/service
n Review sites and forums offer advice and first-hand experience
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A well-managed social media campaign hand-holds customers through the journey from brand awareness to
consideration, to trial, to repeat custom, brand loyalty – and, finally, brand advocacy.
Friends in high places: the value of brand advocates
For lots of companies, an important part of their social media journey is the creation of channels that help them connect
with customers, existing and prospective, and develop their online community.
They may do this by setting up a blog or help centre on their website, or by creating a presence on social networks like
Facebook or Twitter.
Social media marketers argue that a direct value can be attached to every member of a brand’s online community. For
example, brands that engage effectively on Facebook and Twitter generally agree that:
n Meaningful brand-customer relationships can be developed quickly
n Brands can gain valuable insights from their audience of followers
n The viral nature of these channels raises brand awareness
n Fans and followers have an authentic voice that other people trust
n Brand advocates are more loyal to their brand, spend more on their products and are more likely to recommend
them – compared to non fans
n Brands that are very active on Twitter, and are committed to adding value through their tweets, enjoy good click-
through rates
n Attracting, retaining and growing a valuable audience requires that brands converse with a distinct audience –
preferably “key influencers” in their business’ realm.
It’s also important that brands do more than establish a presence – they need to provoke and participate in discussion
– and they must do this frequently.
The key to this is content. Whether through contests, promotions, applications, videos or provocative debate, brands
must deliver creative, authentic content that continually revitalises dialogues.
Time invested in building online communities pays dividends when it generates and spreads powerful customer
endorsement. In some instances, this can deliver a greater ROI than brand-generated PR or advertising.
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Conclusion
Social media marketing is a valuable investment with wide ranging business benefits. To reap the maximum rewards,
social media objectives must be given an appropriate time-frame to be met. And there must be investment in the right
tools, budget and expertise to deliver specific results.
The biggest challenge for marketers when embarking on a social media programme is to be able to justify this investment
– by underlining an impact on buying decisions and ROI.
Measuring social media ROI can be made easier with proper planning. Programmes must be managed by a team that
understands how to set goals and metrics, develop strategy, measure success and never stop optimising.
Understanding what to measure is paramount. Organisations that simply measure the volume and reach of social media
engagement are limiting their insights into its value – and may struggle to prove ROI.
The effectiveness of a campaign must be measured against key performance
indicators – such as the impact on organic search engine optimisation and its
link to increased monetisation opportunities. “Calculating ROI
should be at the
Social media monitoring tools can help gather insights. But deeper social heart of any social
media analysis takes expertise – and the use of bespoke tools that identify
not just the volume, but also the value, of online conversations in real time.
media marketing
planning process.
Monitoring over time leads to an understanding of how many people are Hard metrics such
talking about a brand, what they are saying, how conversations are changing
as sales, conversions
and how this dialogue is shaping purchasing choices.
and leads should
With the benefit of this knowledge, a social media programme can be reviewed focus on defined
and revised continually. This evolutionary process unlocks its potential measurements.”
to influence the buying process positively – and make a real difference to
profitability.
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agency:2
agency:2 were the UK’s first social media agency – what makes our social media marketing offering unique is our proven
ability to combine the power of social media together with search to maximise ROI.
We manage tailored social media solutions for our clients and are proud of the results we deliver for them.
Since agency:2 was launched we have established ourselves as a truly global social media agency, creating social media
marketing programmes for clients on a national, European and International level.
This proven experience and expertise, together with our passion for every individual project, has seen us help a diverse
range of clients to develop successful social media campaigns. That’s why our clients trust us to engage with their
consumers around the world.
Contact agency:2
Ally
agency:2
Sea Containers House
London
SE1 9PD
T: 020 7775 5608
ally@agency2.co.uk
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