Content Management is a new buzz word. I think most brands didn’t realize that when they went down the path of social media, that they would end up becoming content creators and publishers. The fact is that there are 3.5B pieces of content shared per week. That’s essentially what is causing the big data explosion. People are sharing everything – posts, status updates, links, pictures, videos, etc… And with all that content, it makes it very difficult for a brand to stand out… In fact, with Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm, nearly 80% of a brand’s content is not seen on a fan’s newsfeed. What that means is that brands are spending a lot of money on content that’s not seen and that means lower engagement.
Why is engagement so important? In the old marketing funnel, it was very clear. Drive awareness to get as many people as possible into the marketing funnel. Brands spent / spend millions of dollars on getting the attention of millions of people with the idea that the more people at the top of the funnel could translate into more sales. The marketing funnel steps were: awareness, interest, consideration and purchase. Most Marketers didn’t take into consideration the idea that customer service should actually be part of the marketing funnel. Why? Customer Service is where customers reach back to the company after they have been interacting with a company’s products or services. And with customers being able to talk to each other online, those customer to customer conversations are driving referrals and advocacy, which directly influence sales — far more that the top of the funnel stages.
To get more referrals and advocacy, of course you need to have good products and services. If you don’t, complaints about that will surface in social media channels. Assuming that your products and services are up to meeting the brand’s promise about what a customer can expect, then the next step in referrals and advocacy are good word of mouth – online and offline. People trust people like themselves – even if they don’t know them personally more than a brand’s advertising.
So this report helps brand managers understand how to decide what content is important to drive engagement.
To get a copy of the report, Click on the report: