Social media metrics: Are we getting it right?

Pope Francis. Study shows he runs the most influential Twitter account. Photo: telegraph.co.uk

Nothing is harder than landing a job in social media marketing. With the emphasis on metrics by the employers, landing these jobs is arduous. I am talking from experience. 

Early last week, for the fifth time in a row, I narrowly missed on an employment opportunity as a social media marketer. Way before going for the interview, I had acquitted myself well with my prospective job description. Initiating and sustaining conversations on social media, blogging, monitoring trends. Do they really change?

But I was not confident. Even with preparation, telling from previous experiences, I lacked the numbers. So when the panel of three waded into that area, I was certain my goose was cooked, again. I lost the opportunity. With 700 Facebook friends and less than 500 followers on Twitter, and 50 people across the various circles on Google +, I did not measure up to the prerequisites.  It kept me thinking. 

Employers seem to be stuck in an age old philosophy that to be effective in communication, one must have the crowds. What else would explain the setting of standards that prospecting social media marketers must meet in terms of numbers? Not less than 1000, over 1500, etc. Very rigid numbers indeed. What really constitutes an effective communication?

Clout. For communication to be effective, it must realize its initial object. Communication meant for entertainment should entertain, that meant for marketing should persuade. The outcomes should be measurable. For social media marketing, the measure of efficacy should be influence. A Twiplomacy study reveals how. 

The study, summarized on the Huffington Post under “Pope Francis Twitter Beats Obama for Top World Leader Spot” challenges the theory of numbers in determining influential  conversations. Tweeting on @Pontifex, Pope Francis has each of his posts retweeted around 19,300 times. Each of Obama’s posts @BarackObama gets 2,300 retweets on average. 

Counting on retweets as a measure of influence makes sense. It agrees with elaboration-likelihood theory of social influence. According to this theory, the more a person thinks about a message, the more likely the message will influence his behavior.  When interrogating a conversation, audiences could consider taking the central route or the peripheral route. 

Elaborating conversations through the central route involves interrogating the key aspects of the message itself. The peripheral route involves interrogating aspects that are not related to the message itself. For instance, the social status of the initiator. On Twitter, the only metric that points to how much we interrogate messages is the retweets. Other aspects of the Twiplomaccy study confirms this assertion.

The study goes ahead to chronicle how the two world leaders perform in the number of followers. Interestingly, Obama remains the most followed with 33, 510, 157 followers. Pope Francis comes a distance second with 7, 200, 332 followers. The universe of the study was not all-inclusive.

“However, if Tibet were to be included with the Dalai Lama as its spiritual leader, his @DalaiLama handle would beat out @Pontifex for the second-most followed account with 7.35 million followers,” reads the Huffingon Post article, in part. What does this reveal?

Clearly, the number of followers a social media account attracts is immaterial. What matters is the quality of the interactions emerging from the connections. Effective social media conversations are such that they appeal to the audiences.

Social media communication intended to influence behavior should reach the right audiences. In this case, the quality of the social circles an account links to is more critical. The quantity of the circles may not count. It is a question of who rather than how many people, you are communicating with. Then there is the message itself.

Social media accommodates all manner of conversations. Some are egocentric.  Reporting on what one has been up to during the day, soliciting for favors. Others are the hallmarks show off by the initiators, hiding behind lingo, on some aspect or two. Earlier, I said that each of these initiatives is important. It can initiate important discussions. However, the quantity of interactions may not necessarily enhance effectiveness, according to insights from the Twiplomacy study. 

 

Uganda’s Prime Minister, Amana Mbabazi, tweeting on @Amanambabazi, is the most conversational world leader. He replies to 96% of tweets. Rwanda’s Paul Kagame comes a distant second with 88% replies. Then there is the most active twitter account. It is the presidency of Venezuela. The number of tweets per day measures activity. The presidency of Venezuela does 41.9 tweets in a day on average. Even with all these numbers, these accounts do not comes any closer to @Pontifex in influence. Is this study relevant in Kenya?

Suppose the Twiplomacy study was to be replicated in Kenya, it would certainly earn the same rebuttal as opinion polls on politicians and their causes. Celebrities, for instance, would be shocked. Their huge followership does not translate to significance. Instead, apparent villains such as Chief Francis Kariuki, @Chiefkariku, would take the day. 

For once, owners of those accounts with numbers skewed towards followers rather than followership would breathe a sigh of relief. It is arduous to keep following people who you treasure and organizations that matter only for them not to follow back.

Who knows how it feels to meet nagging windows every time you log in to Facebook, threatening to disable the account since you are sending friend request to unresponsive friends? This frustration, too, would be no more. Recruiters would be not  be spared.

Organizations recruiting social media marketers would rethink their conviction with numbers. Having huge numbers, they would realize, is not a precursor to quality conversations. That it does not matter how many tweets a handle does. Instead, the quality of the tweets counts. More importantly, aggressiveness to answer any thread emerging from posts, telling from this study, would stop to fascinate social media account holders. In the meantime, the outcomes of the study are palatable. 

When I will face the interview panel again, and I dare it to be soon, I will take the panel head on. Immediately the question of how many followers I have on Twitter comes up, I will enlist this new reality. That they should instead get interested in the number of times my tweets are retweeted. For that measures their efficacy.