Digital matters, but the specific channel matters most

Last February, Ogilvy reported that, on average, brands on Facebook and Twitters only reach 2% of fans and followers and fewer than 0.1% of those fans/followers interact with each post. The graph below demonstrates that decline over time.



Marketers of big brands are still learning their way around social media, and the question of ROI on Facebook has plagued them for quite some time. What are the value of likes? What do these likes generate? How engaged is my user base? Do they want to interact with me on this platform? Ogilvy's study suggests that the answer is a flat out "no."

So what is the solution, since digital is so important? The report emphasizes two strategies:
1. Embed social tools into your own site
2. Do not make Facebook the center of your relationship marketing

So what does this look like? Interbrand's brandchannel identifies a great example of proper relationship building outside of Facebook: Sony and their PlayStation social microsite, GreatnessAwaits. "The site aggregated 75,000 social posts and drew 4.5 million visits at four minutes a visit, catapulting the PlayStation 4 launch to outsell its biggest competitor by nearly 2-to-1."




These are the type of tactics that marketers should be looking out for and striving to achieve. Digital matters, but the channel matters most. Ideally, that channel should be your own. Make it great and engage the community there.