Social networking and community engagement technology made easy

If we were to summarise one of key Community Engine value propositions, it is this: social networking with a purpose.

The fundamental value proposition underpinning purpose-based social networking can be considered to fall under two broad headings:

1. Efficiency &

2. Effectiveness

Efficiency

Dictionary.com tells us that efficiency is the accomplishment of or ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort.

Broadly speaking, old media [i.e. television, radio, print and traditional "web 1.0" online platforms] can be thought of as broadcast media. That is, they facilitate the communication of “relatively unspecific” uni-directional messaging to “relatively imprecise” audience groupings. To reach your intended audience you must broadcast your message to a larger audience than required and hope the individuals you’re after are within that grouping. It is, by definition inefficient and costly. To reach x target market you must in effect pay the costs associated with reaching x plus y. Y being that part of the audience that are not interested in your message.

What’s more, if you need to reach that audience twice you literally have to pay twice. Cost efficiencies cannot be obtained.

Likewise, the larger your intended audience, the more you must spend in hoped to reach that audience.

Social media, on the other hand, allows you to target specific messages to specific target markets – on demand. Once a relationship is established the cost of repeated communication is immaterial and the size of the intended audience will not affect the cost of the communication. That is, genuine cost efficiencies can be obtained and harnessed over time.

Effectiveness

More importantly, communication via social media channels is far more likely to deliver REAL results. Messages can be targeted to specific needs and audiences, they can be communicated on a far more timely basis and most importantly they can be delivered in a context wherein other audience members can in effect be made advocates of that message or call to action. Word of mouth becomes word of mouse [on a scale previously unimaginable] and there’s no one we listen to more than our peers – “people like us”. There is considerable academic literature to support this theory – the Endelman Trust Barometer being one of the better known reference points.

In short, the fundamental value proposition to be harnessed via social media is the ability to cost effectively turn you audience into advocates for your cause – for your audience to convert others in your potential target market to your cause in a way that simply would not be possible via traditional broadcast media.

Not surprisingly traditional media channels are now in almost freefall collapse for the simple reason that social media channels deliver results, faster, cheaper and more reliably than traditional channels.

posted by Piers Hogarth-Scott in the category ROI Social Media Social networking Web 3.0
Tags: Community Engine, effectiveness, efficiency, endelmen, social networking with a purpose