What Does Success on Social Media Mean Today?

What does success on social media mean?

A simple question that maybe a lot of marketers ask themselves, myself included.

For some of us it is a tough question because we really don’t understand the context in which the question was asked. But I have 2 answers for this.

The first answer is the obvious one that you can find with a simple google search right now. For some marketers, success on social media translates into traffic on their website or blog. For others it’s the engagement and reach. For some of you might be only about going viral with a tweet or with a youtube video. And for others it’s only about the final numbers they get on the spreadsheet.

So that means that for some marketers the success in social media is all about numbers.

And let me tell you that this kind of answer will never help your brand achieve real success. Why? Because this is not the real success.

I look at success in social media more in the context of social than in the context of media.

Let’s start with another question (man, I love questions these days):

What is social media?

Before you open another tab to google it, please answer it yourself – What is social media?

Before every brand got on social media, this was a place where people talked to each other and did whatever they wanted in their everyday life, only this place was virtual. So, social media WAS the place where people get social, right?

But today, when marketers want to destroy it (thanks Gary for inserting this thought in my head) today is more about media and less about social, right?

[Tweet “Marketers Ruin Everything via @garyvee”]

And this is why success for marketers is measured in numbers.

So, what if I told you that you can do better on social media than the numbers you have in your spreadsheet? What if I told you that you, as a brand/marketer, can have a bigger impact on your user/follower/fan experience?

I call it: that happens when you, as a brand, find a solution to the user’s problem.

It’s about what you’re doing, when are you doing it and how are you doing it to give the right solution to their problem. Even if we talk about real time customer service (exactly, a 24/7 Twitter account that will answer all the customer’s question) or about educational experience (exactly, YouTube tutorials that show users how to do a certain thing to get a result).

This is the real success on social media:

…when you do something meaningful for your audience at the right time, at the right moment and for in right context.

When you use your Pinterest board to gather all the information in your field, let’s say home-deco, and you inspire followers and know they can now make decisions easier. When you reply to a question on twitter in up to 30 minutes. When you help your community save time, money, energy and other things they struggle with every day.

Social media is about helping the customer first so that the customer will help you later.

I don’t care about the numbers, followers or likes on my social media. I only care about giving something valuable to my readers, to my followers so that this thing will help them do a better and more meaningful work.

On behalf of brands, this is what I believe should be the success on social media.

And when this will be the kind of mentality that social media managers and marketers out there have, we will see a better social media from brands and also from the user.

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