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The Numbers Of Social Media And Some Foolish Examples
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I often write about the numbers game on this blog. How it doesn’t matter and how somebody with 2 followers on Twitter could be the person who sends you that huge lead or killer bit of information. Having said that the one thing that clients always talk about and look for are numbers. There is no doubt that it is a case of educating the market and setting expectations but the challenge is that no matter how much you educate people there is always someone above them who wants to know about the numbers…how many fans, how many followers or how much traffic. This mentality comes from old campaign based advertising that didn’t look at the bigger long term picture of engaging people with your brand through amazing customer service, conversation and the creation of meaningful content. The reason I got to thinking about this again were 3 different items that I spotted in the last week around social media and the numbers involved…
The Numbers Game
Lots of people are smart enough to realize that the numbers are not really that important but there are plenty of people out there determined to bump them up as much as possible and resort to lots of different techniques, some legit but some not quite as legit. Here are 3 examples of buying numbers that I spotted in the last week…
I wasn’t really surprised by this article over on Techcrunch claiming that Twitter followers were worth less than a penny each (to be honest I wouldn’t even pay that much). The idea that you could suddenly buy a following is one of the most ludicrous things that I have ever heard as the chances are that not one of those followers would actually be human and engage with you or your content and you would be far better off spending the time cultivating your own following online and although it is a massively time consuming process it is the only way of getting any value out of the service.
Get Twitter followers Ebay
We have been hearing noises about Facebook introducing a flat out “cost per fan” option for bigger spending clients recently and a move like that would certainly make sense for them financially and could appeal to brand managers who look purely at the numbers. As we all know Facebook pages are all the rage at the moment due to their highly targted nature and with Facebook improving the reporting by the day to include reports on who and how your content is shared the incentive for brands and businesses to flat out start buying fans could increase. You can of course build fans to your Facebook page through advertising already but Facebook turning it in to a flat out numbers game where buying a fan would cost you X could be a massive money spinner for them in a world obsessed with numbers. Would a brand come along and just buy 10,000 fans for $10,000 instead of building them up organically and crucially would those fans prove valuable enough? The click through rates on Facebook at the moment are shocking so this could be an interesting alternative and I can see it appealing to the decision makers who are obsessed with numbers.
RSS Readers
Some interesting reading here on site that just sold. (They key being that the traffic is not that high but the subscribers are). I have been reading about sites that are selling recently based on the number of RSS readers that they have and it seems to be common perception that the value of an RSS reader when it comes to a sale is anywhere between $10 and $30. It does seem like quite a high figure and it might not apply to blogs on the small end of the scale or massive blogs but it does give a good guage of just how important and valuable RSS subscribers are. There was a small discussion a year ago about which was more powerful…RSS subscribers or Twitter and I think you only really need to look at some of the numbers mentioned here to see which is treated as more valuable on the open market right now. The important question to ask here is if people are paying so much for sites based on RSS subscribers what happens if the method in which content is delivered suddenly changes? RSS is a very techie tool and has never really appealed to the masses and it is just crying out for somebody to simplify it and create a mass market way of viewing content. Might not seem likely at the moment but things happen overnight in the technology business and the huge money you spent buying RSS readers could be worthless in a matter of weeks if technology shifted.
What Happens When The Audience Moves?
It wasn’t that long ago that people were trying to get as many people to their Bebo/Myspace pages as possible. How would you feel now that the once popular social networking giants are on the decline if you had been spending lots of money and time driving people to your Bebo/Myspace profile? What would those friends be worth now? The key here is to remember that the eyeballs move all the time. Sure Facebook and Twitter are popular at the moment but that doesn’t mean that some new fad won’t come along in the next year and see millions of people moving there. Fans and followers are only really worth while if you are engaging with them and where relevant increasing your sales. Having a load of them is good for the ego and might impress some people at first glance but it is what happens once you have your first fan or follower and how you engage with them in the long run that really matters.
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My one frustration with Facebook fan pages is the fans ability to remove all updates from their news feed – thus furthering the inability to know how many of your ‘fans’ you are actually reaching. This should be removed by Facebook – with this in place what makes a page that much better than a group?
Yeah that is a tad annoying alright but I do think that fans are a lot more engaged than on Twitter. Better analytics and reproting about who sees your content, who shares it and how it gets shared will defo help brands and ultimately lead them to spending more money
Agreed. It’s an ongoing argument amongst the masses. Twitter is still a pitch where the players make the rules. BTW, don’t know if you have but you could check out bit.ly for your facebook link updates if interested.
Ah yeah do use Bit.ly normally
Just was in rush this time! Thanks for all the RTs and support BTW, much appreciated!
YW. If I ever move home I’ll come knocking for a job
Niall, how would the ability to purchase 10,000 fans work? Wouldn’t the fans have to give their approval first, otherwise would FB be in danger of becoming like any other medium where the viewer has no control over the content?
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