social media explorer

In theory, as social media becomes more common place, organizational audience engagement objectives, strategies and tactics should evolve past acquisition towards advocacy. I’m sure some consumer brands are heading in this direction but, in my experience, many companies and agencies still seem to be focused on driving audience awareness and using “likes” and “follows” as success metrics.

To spark some discussion on the topic I thought it might be helpful to present an encapsulated view of advocacy. This infographic aims to present advocacy at a glance, explaining where it sits on the audience relationship spectrum while visualizing the steps organizations can follow to move connections towards becoming advocates.

Here are a few notes on the process:

• Listen – The first step involved in moving passive social media connections towards some level of engagement is to understand their information needs. What type of content do they want to consume? What conversations do they want to have?
• Publish & Participate – Designing a content strategy that make you relevant is very important. Part of this publishing plan should include active participation on behalf of your organization. Don’t just broadcast.
• Identify – Set up Boolean searches using tools like Hootsuite to monitor your social media channels and flag your most active fans. Also, consider using more advanced tools like mPact or SocMetrics to find possible influencers.
• Activate – Be proactive. Reach out, communicate and build relationships with your advocates. Don’t wait for them to come to you.
• Nurture – Offer intrinsic/extrinsic incentives to help make advocates feel special and an extension of your brand or company.
• Empower – Help them help you spread brand messages through the use of services like Zuberance or BzzAgent

I’d love to get your thoughts on The Social Media Advocacy Model infographic, the rationale behind it and what might be missing. The comments are yours.