social media communities – organic v paid

Over the past month we have had the pleasure of working on some large facebook campaigns involving rapid scale in conversations / fan growth. Some of this growth was paid for through traditional and social media marketing / advertising. In other cases, the growth was down to competitions and promotions to drive fan growth. (a user couldn’t enter the competition unless they became a fan of the fan page)

What I’m trying to figure out is what industry we are in. It seems to be a blend of media buying for social media with the new version of direct marketing using social media promotions. I was recently involved in a talk to some up and coming digital entrepreneurs in Dublin and this exact issue came up. My current personal view is that it is ok to blast buy your immediate fan base. Assume that 30% to 50% of these fans will fall away and plan your future conversations against the remaining group of people

What I’m struggling with is the value of this “purchased” community versus a traditional organically grown community. These are decent brands, with good messages. Maybe I’m just a purist (naive?). Either way I do realise that the real challenge lies in keeping this audience engaged once you get their attention in the first place. This requires a pretty honest view on your brand, who you are and where you are going. Thereafter it is all about decent creatives, solid metrics and some form of road map of where you want the conversation to be in 3 year’s time.

It’s clear to me that there is a new set of rules and metrics emerging on how to engage with consumers through the use of social media. At its most fundamental level it is all about having the channels in place to amplify positive word of mouth messages from your customers / influences. There is no better advertising medium than social media to maximise word of mouth.  Positive word of mouth comes from honesty and a thought through social strategy. 

Declan