Taking the 'Boo' Out of Measuring Social Media

We just moved into a new house so Halloween was an exciting time. Having no idea how many costumed visitors we’d have, we emptied the candy aisle. We refused to be those “new people” that ran out of candy and turned out the lights at 8:15 Halloween night.

We ended up getting six legitimate trick-or-treaters. There were some superheroes, a couple of witches, and a princess for good measure. Fun was had by all.

Before you ask for the leftover candy, we don’t have any. After the legit trick-or-treaters put their bags down for the evening, the teenagers arrived. You know the ones--a flannel shirt for a Halloween costume (I thought those were still in style ...) and a loud thump at the door. After a couple of these “just give me your candy” raids, we gave the entire corn-syrup mess to two girls dressed as, well, themselves.

Too often, I hear remodelers say social media really doesn’t generate any leads. But social media is indeed “social:” It is an opportunity to have a conversation with our community. That has to be the driver behind our social media activities–not leads. For legit trick-or-treaters Halloween isn’t about the candy. It’s about dressing up, mingling with the neighbors, and the gooey fun of cleaning out pumpkins. It’s obvious when it’s just about the candy and it just isn’t fun.

We use a series of social media “dashboards” (see below) to help track the conversations we are having with our community. They don’t track leads or revenue; they focus on the community building aspects of each site. If we have a large and engaged community, we believe good things will happen.

If we invested in social media just to generate leads, our community would see right through our motives and they would not engage; they would just leave us with the entire corn syrup mess. And that’s a scary thought.—Bruce Case is president of Case Design/Remodeling, in Bethesda, Md. [email protected]

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

Pinterest