A Case for Social Media: The Web as a Content Ecosystem
Over the last two years as I’ve approached my clients with social media strategies many of these conversations were met with the skeptical “Where is the ROI?” I didn’t have one. My gut was telling me this was the right thing to do, but my clients, even though they trusted me, still required some “evidence” of why they should invest time and money into social media.
It’s a classic gut versus data debate. Therefore I’ve developed the following explanation that I’ve found to help clients take that leap and go with the gut. It does not provide specific ROI numbers, but instead presents a logical explanation of how social media fuels activity on the Web and drives customers to your business.
The case I make for social media begins with the concept that social media enables conversation and conversation is energy that ignites and grows a rich ecosystem of Web content. The concept of the Web as a Content Ecosystem is not new, I’m sure I’ve borrowed it from several folks, but it can be revitalized to illustrate how social media magnifies all of a company’s existing marketing and content efforts.
Once there was a phrase “content is king” and that seemed to be replaced with the buzz around social media, yet content is the nutrient that feeds the Web Content Ecosystem. Without good, quality content, we’d have nothing to talk about on Facebook or Twitter. In my discussions with clients, the following chart grew and evolved to the point you find it today… a point in which I’d like to solicit your feedback and insights to help bring this concept further clarity and instructional validity.
Click to Enlarge Graphic
First, the Web Content Ecosystem is not as clean as I would like, the argument can be made (and is correct) that Facebook is simultaneously a conversation place, a publishing tool, and a search tool; however, for the purpose of explaining this to someone without extensive knowledge of the Web /social media, I’ve attempted to streamline Web properties into three general categories and then acknowledge that there is crossover amongst these areas.
In the Web Content Ecosystem:
- Published content is the food of the content ecosystem, proving nutrients that fuel the activity on the Web.
- Conversations (social interactions) are the energy of the ecosystem, turning the nutrients into living, active organisms (e.g. viral).
- The Publishing Tools are mechanism to bring energy and nutrients together, e.g. connecting content and conversations.
- Search is the catalogers and organizers of the ecosystem, in some sense serving as a DNA imprint.
In this proposed ecosystem, the Company Web Properties is in essence a foreign species that can be successfully, or unsuccessfully, introduced into the ecosystem. The ecosystem can sustain itself without commercially produced content – that is the beauty of the Web. However, introducing good, valuable content into the ecosystem can create a viable new entity that is then fueled by the Conversation Places, shared on the Publishing Tools, and cataloged by the Search Tools. Introducing poor content in the system is essentially ignored and discarded, thus is the viral nature of the Web.
The Web Content Ecosystem is a never ending loop that fuels and feeds upon itself, and this is where companies can best leverage social media to extend their current Web content activities. I tell my clients: You’re doing 80% of the work already, why not add a little more elbow grease and push your content out to the places where your customers are spending the most time?
While this is an oversimplified visual of social media, content and publishing tools, I’ve found it to be a concept that most clients can easily and quickly understand. I’m looking to further refining this concept and I’d like your feedback. As a subject matter expert, how might you improve the chart? From a client perspective (e.g. a business person just learning about social media) what more can be done to clarify the concept? Please let me know your thoughts and comments.
Interesting concept, Raelin. I think the eco-system model will bring references to the “food chain”, and perhaps a natural hierarchy (of course leading clients to question where they fall in the food chain). It also may be subject to critics who talk about the quality of our collective “diet” of consumables. Some of us will be “living healthier” than others, but it will surely account for the large amount of fecal matter we see everyday
I struggle with explaining ROI, too. Measuring social media metrics helps as you can see a more objective needle move, and if what we do is “working”. Tools like Unilyzer.com have helped demonstrate that we’re getting more traffic to the client site, and longer engagement times with our content. We can also speak to brand impressions from Facebook insights, which have to be worth something, right?
It’s tough when we have to prove something we believe in. Religion and science have been at it longer than us, so what can we learn from them?
Nice thoughts — they take the model a step further, your two points raise good questions/issues that should be discussed with clients – the quality and amount of content needed to significantly impact the ecosystem. In this model being consumed (and consumed often) is a good thing, thus quantity of content is necessary. Also, providing a healthy diet, e.g. quality content, should be the number one goal. Self-serving, poor content can be thought of as a weed that overtakes the system, is viewed in a very negative manner, and eventually eradicated (by say a LinkedIn group administrator) or ruins the system (such as Facebook fans who will leave if the content is too commercial).
As far as science and religion, well … I think the take away is keep trying and never give up. I know we’re alike in that we constantly keep ahead and push our clients ahead… Thanks for your thoughts – very good discussion!
I like the concept “the web as a content ecosystem” and the way the different types of social media are connectted. About ROI, the point is that when we are talking about social media, we are talking about engagement and mutual trust and like the real life these two values required a long time to be grown consistently, maybe this is the reason why is hard to calculate a ROI review, the period.
Thanks for the feedback Juan. Very important point about trust… This is something many of our businesses have lost with their customers and their employees. The American consumer (whether they are buying in the “b from b” or “c from b” mode have grown very skeptical of “big business” but all business is made up of individuals and we need to show that, encourage personal values, give back to our consumer. Zappos and Virgin are to great examples of how that can be done and still be a widely profitable business.