How to Go From Collecting Fans to Social That Works

Millions and Billions of… Something?

It’s accepted as fact that your reach and impact on social is directly related to the numbers of views, likes, fans, followers, retweets, and plays your posts receive.
Right?
Well… not really.
With 18 years of experience at Cox Communications, Martin heads a team that oversees the evolution, placement, and evaluation of social that appeals to several different verticals.
From residential services to schools to hospitals to sports stadiums, Cox has many different consumers that are all looking for different things at different times in different places. On the surface, their millions of followers would give you the impression of a robust social plan that works. But that is not the whole story.
Martin saw through this false front and realized the age-old way of measuring success on social was not helping them to engage with their customers. Through some tough scrutiny and willingness to confront the status quo, he rebuilt the brand’s approach to social and has seen traffic double and a sharp rise in return rates as customers begin to engage with actionable content.

In This Episode

• Why a million Facebook followers doesn’t mean instant conversions or customer relationships
• How finding content for each vertical leads to streams that double traffic
• Why reliable reach means tuning out historical views of social media
• How focusing on specific measurements of individual tactics instead of a general social ROI leads to more impactful refinements
• Why vanity metrics are out and social is leading marketers back to basics

Quotes From This Episode

“We started looking long term and saying a year from now, two years from now or three years from now, what’s going to matter to us?” —@martinjonesaz

“If we’re going to put the time and resources into this, we really need to make sure that we’re getting to people, that we’re engaging with them, that we’re having conversations with them and that we can activate them.” —@martinjonesaz

“As marketers, we have a tendency to sit in a room with other marketers and our teams and think that we know exactly what our audience wants.” —@martinjonesaz
“Asking for an ROI on social media is like asking for an ROI on a billboard. It’s very difficult to get an overall picture.” —@martinjonesaz
“I know it’s interesting, but if people can’t use it for anything, what good is that?” —@martinjonesaz
“It’s reach. It’s impressions. It’s context. It’s leads. It’s how many people do we activate and actually get to go on beyond the content and actually convert.” —@martinjonesaz

Resources

• Martin Jones on Twitter: @martinjonesaz
• Cox Communications on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn
• Cox Business
• Cox Blue on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
• Get Started Podcast
• Content Pros Podcast
• Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content
• Steal the Show: From Speeches to Job Interviews to Deal-Closing Pitches, How to Guarantee a Standing Ovation for All the Performances in Your Life
• Jason Womack
• Uberflip
• Yext: Building Store Locators for SEO