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Chapter 8 Social Media Information Systems
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)QCN /GVTKEU
$TCPF CYCTGPGUU Total Twitter followers, audience growth rate, brand mentions in SM,
Klout or Kred score
%QPXGTUKQP TCVGU Click rate on your SM content, assisted social conversions

9GD UKVG VTCHƂE Visitor frequency rate, referral traffic from SM
Figure 8-11 7UGT GPICIGOGPV Number of SM interactions, reshares of SM content
Common SM Metrics

site each month. Twitter, for example, had 938 million total registered users in 2014 but only 241
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million monthly active users. Metrics that don’t improve your decision making are commonly
referred to as vanity metrics.
Figure 8-11 shows examples of possible success metrics for the goals mentioned in Figure 8-10.
Remember, in some circumstances you want to maximize the metric, while in others you want to
minimize the metric. It’s similar to sports in that respect: Sometimes you want a high score (basket-
ball), and other times you want a low score (golf). It just depends on what you’re measuring. Whereas
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you may want to maximize a metric like conversion rate, or the percent of people who achieve a
certain result, you will probably want to minimize other metrics like bounce rate, or the percent of
people who visit your Web site and then immediately leave.”

Step 3: Identify the Target Audience

The next step in creating an effective SMIS is to clearly identify your target audience. Chances
are, it’s not going to be everyone. For example, if you’re Caterpillar Inc. trying to use social
media to sell more D11 dozers, your target audience probably won’t include many teenagers.
Organizations go to great lengths to identify their target audience because it helps them focus their
marketing efforts.
Once you’ve identified your target audience, you need to find out which SM platforms they
use. Certain social media platforms attract certain audiences. For example, over 70 percent of
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Pinterest users are women, 46 percent of Tumblr users are between 16 and 24, 90 percent of
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Instagram users are under the age of 35, and 84 percent of LinkedIn users are over 25. Your
target audience will influence which SM platforms you use.
Step 4: Define Your Value
After pinpointing your target audience, you’ll need to define the value you’ll provide your
audience. Why should these users listen to you, go to your Web site, like your posts, or tweet
about your products? Are you providing news, entertainment, education, employee recruiting, or
information? In essence, you need to define what you are going to give your audience in exchange
for making a connection with you.
When cultivating a personal social Shopping is a good metaphor to explain how you can do this. When you go shopping, you see
media presence, always think about something of value and you exchange your financial capital (money) with the business for the item
your personal brand. For more you value. The same is true of social media. Your audience members are constantly browsing for
information, see the Guide on pages things of value, and they have social capital to spend. They may eventually spend financial capital
360–361.
at your Web site, but it’s the social capital that is most important. You need to define what you’re
going to offer users in exchange for their social capital.
Take LinkedIn as an example. It helps users find jobs, build a professional network, join spe-
cial interest groups, get introduced to prospective clients, and reconnect with past colleagues.
From an organizational perspective, LinkedIn allows recruiters to quickly identify and contact
potential hires from a large pool of candidates. This lowers hiring costs and improves the quality
of new hires.