“I just don’t have time for social media”, was a conversation I overheard yesterday. “I am not sure why I need social networking” said the head of one of the UK’s most prestigious business schools to me recently. These comments highlight the challenge (not an insurmountable one) of demonstrating the value of social media in certain business contexts.
The role of social media for sponsors and rightsholders is much clearer. It presents a huge opportunity. Social media campaigns work best where the interests and passions of people intersect with a brand rather than being interrupted by a brand. Sponsorship can be at that intersection when it participates in a way that adds value for the fan.
So how best to exploit this intersection between fan and brand? Coming from a communications background, I see two key things that matter.
It’s possible to be blinded by the plethora of social media platforms - wikis, life-streams, social book marking, micro-blogs etc. But fundamentally what counts is the quality and relevance of the content - not the platform. The other thing is that the most effective social media campaigns are integrated. By that I mean they don’t just live in a social media bubble – they use offline and online PR, advertising and activity on owned media such as websites to drive traffic and engagement.
A couple of examples. We were recently tasked with increasing the number of fans on the Sony Ericsson Miami Open page on Facebook. The platform already existed. What we did was to post engaging content on a regular basis – things like behind the scenes videos and voting events for fans. The result was an increase in membership from 500 to 8000 over a few months. In case you missed it - Susan Boyle’s youtube video has a mind-boggling 40 million views. That was all started by the ‘traditional media’ - a TV show, then a feeding frenzy by the print media.
By Adam Lewis
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