Last week I had lunch with a colleague from the world of social media who is equal parts dreamer and pragmatist. This is what I’ve always appreciated about him – just when you think you’ve got this suburban Dad pegged, he starts to tell you about the screenplay he’s shopping, or the startup he’s incubating. I dined with both sides of him today, but the pragmatist stole the show with this one line: “When you’re running a social program, you have to remember to give people a reason to give a rip.”
(He’s also a hockey player and coach. You can infer that he didn’t use the word, “rip”).
But he’s right. Say you’re planning your social program, or your next social campaign, and you think you’ve got the perfect idea. Before moving forward, ask yourself the following question. When they come into contact with your campaign,
What Will Your Customer Do? (WWYCD)
It’s great if your consumer thinks what you want them to think, but in an engagement campaign, will they DO what you’re asking them to DO? I watched one campaign go from idea to execution recently where this question went unasked (or more specifically, was left unanswered). In the end, I’m sure the 20 consumers who engaged with the campaign thought the experience was fun, but that didn’t make the brand (who expected hundreds….upwards to a thousand) any happier with the results. When you put yourself in their shoes, have you given your consumer a reason to care, and thus to engage? Do they give a rip?
It’s entirely possible your consumer DOES give a rip. It’s also possible they just engaged with you on social channels to get $1.50 off their next mascara purchase. Consumers are going to engage with your program if doing so makes them smarter, funnier, happier, better off financially, more confident about their purchase, part of a cause, appear as savvy as their most savvy neighbor, or spiritually enlightened. Decide how your social campaign is designed to make them better off, and asked if they’re going to do what you’re asking in order to achieve that improved state. While you’re at it, ask someone else if they agree (because you / your team’s idea of funny / happy / smarter may not be the same as everyone else’s). If the answer to “WWYCD” aligns to the program you’re designing, green light the thing! If not, back to the drawing board. Better to figure that out now than when the metrics come back.