Social Marketers Need Commitment to Succeed

E-Centric recently talked with Greg Cangialosi, president of Blue Sky Factory, about how marketers can optimize their social media efforts. Blue Sky is a Baltimore-based e-mail service provider, with over 650 clients in areas such as entertainment, travel, higher education and other verticals. The company has helped clients such as Disney, Dow Chemical and Verizon Wireless develop podcasts to broaden their content distribution horizon.

E-CENTRIC: With all the social media options available to consumers, is oversaturation a concern?

CANGIALOSI: There is the challenge of there being too much content, too many networks to probe. We've found that people are engaged through different things, and it's important right now to give each one attention on its own. I think aggregation tools will help minimize information overload. There's a lot of choices for people to keep track of.

E-CENTRIC: What mistakes are you seeing marketers making in social media?

CANGIALOSI: Lack of commitment is obviously number one. And you can't just think that "if you built it they will come"—that is the furthest thing from the truth. You can't put out weak content. If you don't have anything to say, definitely <I>don't</I> be in the creation mode. It's okay to listen and participate, but you don't want to make your company look like a fool. Transparency is obviously a trend—showing the good, bad and the ugly. If you have a bad day or a hiccup in your system, you can get rewarded by your community for being open about that.

E-CENTRIC: What ways are marketers tracking how their audiences are interacting with brands online?

CANGIALOSI: We've heard people talk about ROE—return on engagement. And there's a new metric called the WOM (word of mouth) unit, measuring how many times your brand was mentioned online, using tools like Technoratti to scour blogs and sites to see if you've been mentioned. You can also check comments on blog posts you've written. We've got clients who have taken these things to the next level and used them for lead generation and new business development.

E-CENTRIC: Are companies getting savvy about cross-promotion?

CANGIALOSI: Absolutely. E-mail can connect all these other pieces. It's the only commonality in the Web 2.0 world. You can't join a social network or leave a comment on a blog without an e-mail address.

For more from Greg Cangialosi, see the July issue of Direct magazine.