Without Conversation There Is No Social

To be completely honest, the debate regarding whether content or conversation is “king” of social marketing really got my head spinning.  After reading Greenberg’s Content is King of Social Marketing, I was sold.  It made complete sense that content would rule over conversation because you can’t have a conversation if there is no content to talk about.  But after reading Novak’s Why Conversation, not Content, is King, my views began to change. 

Content does not always result in conversation and I believe conversation is what drives social media.  As Novak (2010) points out, “Content without conversation is just broadcasting, or just advertising.”  If the content does not trigger a conversation, then where is the social aspect?

However, I still wasn’t completely convinced that conversation was “king” until I started looking at how social networking sites like Facebook work.  If I post a status on my Facebook fan page, my status will pop up on the news feeds of all of my “followers”.  For this example, lets say I have 100 “followers” on my Facebook fan page.  Now, although my status offers valuable and relevant information, what happens if none of my followers are prompted to “like”, “share”, or comment on my status?  The answer is that status goes no further than my 100 followers. 

But, what if I wrote a status that was still relevant and informative (maybe even a little less informative) but was able to get just a couple “likes” and three comments all from different people?  For this example we will assume each of these people has 100 friends because Facebook indicates that 100 is the median friend count on its social network (Backstrom, 2011).  Now my status would appear on the newsfeeds of my 100 followers and on the newsfeeds of the” friends” of each person who interacted with my status (I’m referring to those who liked or commented on my status as “people” rather than my “followers” because as previously mentioned, once one of my followers has liked, shared, or commented on my status, that follower’s interaction with my status will show up on the newsfeeds of the follower’s friends.  That follower’s friends can then like, share, or comment on my status even if they don’t follow me, ultimately exposing my status as well as my brand to even more people).  This means my status could potentially reach 600 people just by receiving a couple “likes” and three comments. 

I realize this number is probably a bit high since it is likely some of my followers would have mutual friends, but you get the point.  Without conversation, my status only has the potential to reach my 100 followers.  With conversation, that number grows with each like, share, or comment.  Conversation wins again when I respond to the comments in a timely fashion, which could potentially, generate even more likes and more comments.  In summary, one interaction with my status from one follower opens up potential interactions with that status to every person who is “friends” with that specific follower on Facebook. 

Greenberg (2009) also suggests adding the development of your social content to your marketing calendar.  But if you develop all of your content ahead of time, the information may not be as relevant by the time you go to post it.  Plus, being social doesn’t always require a brand to spend hours thinking of what to say.  Sometimes posting a relevant post in the spur of the moment can generate the best conversation. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be a full thought.  For example, during the Super Bowl blackout this year, Oreo tweeted “You can still dunk in the dark.”  The tweet resulted in 15,811 retweets and 2,200 new followers (Costa, 2013).  The social media marketers for Oreo simply listened to what consumers were actively talking about and joined in the conversation.

Of course content is still important.  However, I believe the content must be developed around the idea of creating good conversation or adding to conversations consumers are already having.  If social content doesn’t generate some form of conversation, then what are really the odds of it being effective? 

References: 

Backstrom, L. (2011, November 21). Anatomy of facebook. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-data-team/anatomy-of-facebook/10150388519243859

Costa, J. (2013, September 19). Brand building: Connecting with consumers through social media. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jose-costa/brand-building_b_3950341.html

Greenberg, M. (2009, October 20). Content is king of social marketing. Retrieved from http://multichannelmerchant.com/social-media/content-is-king-of-social-marketing-20102009/

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. Retrieved from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king