Having a large fan base is great, but it is hardly an effective way of measuring social media success. Today, CMOs are looking for measurable proof that social marketing programs are effective. So, how do you engage your followers and amplify their voices to build truly meaningful interactions?

That was the question posed as part of a Social Media Week New York session hosted by EngageSciences and featuring:

• Brad Spikes, head of social media and influencer marketing, Nokia;
• Mike Hutney, director of emerging media, The Stelter Company; and
• Richard Jones, CEO of EngageSciences.

The panelists discussed how social content and social data can drive performance across multiple marketing channels, as well as the strategies and tactics they are implementing.

Following are highlights from the session:

Brad Spikes, Nokia

Spikes offered the following tips:

Engage on every page. Engagement is a key piece of what Nokia is doing. Make sure every page actually engages your readers. It’s not enough to build a fan base – you have to build a quality fan base.

People trust real people. To get the right types of fans, be authentic, genuine, open and honest.

Be playful. Do things that “wow” the audience – e.g., share infographics with interesting tidbits. Those are the types of things they like to share with their circles.

Use your social pipeline effectively. Cross-post on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, etc. You don’t want too many campaigns going on at once.

Be helpful. Anticipate questions to quickly solve problems -- and make sure everyone in the company has the information.

Reward your best fans. Have prizes for your biggest fans and advocates, or spotlight them on the website.

Embrace your heritage. Post memes, stories that bring back memories and strong emotions.

Think offline. Hold meet-ups and in-person events, like Nokia did at CES.

Choose the right tools. Use social engagement platforms, like EngageSciences’.

Use word-of-mouth and friend referrals. Recommendations from people your users know mean so much more. Word-of-mouth is the most trusted form of advertising.

It all comes down to doing three things:

• Supporting: Be there for the people that use your products.
• Entertaining: Make it social, a fun space.
• Educating: Show your fans the power of your brand.

Mike Hutney, The Stelter Company

The Stelter Company is a marketing firm that helps nonprofits in the U.S. with fundraising, specifically with estate and leadership gifts. Because fundraising is a numbers game, their efforts are driven by research and analytics. “We pride ourselves on being nerds,” said Hutney.

The company uses the following metrics:

• Recency: when was the last time they donated;
• Frequency: how often do they donate;
• Volunteerism: how active are they;
• Monetary: how much do they donate.

This helps them identify off-the-radar donors that they can approach to be advocates on the nonprofit’s behalf.

Hutney also shared a case study with details of a campaign they did for the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS):

HSUS has 1.6 million likes on Facebook, and 180,000 followers on Twitter. With such a large following, it is difficult to sift through and find 50-100 advocates in order to really extend their message. So how did Hutney and his team do it?

First, they leveraged Facebook campaigns, like one on cruelty-free product testing. They posted a quiz, and saw who shared the campaign to their network, and then how much further the campaign was extended outside that network. The goal was to find out “who cares about us the most,” said Hutney.

Once possible advocates are identified, the communications department can then reach out to them.

Takeaways:

• Life online is an open book.
• An army of advocates is within your reach. You just have to identify them.
• Concentrate on finding your brand’s “soul mates” – that’s where you’ll really make a difference.

Richard Jones, EngageSciences

EngageSciences is a social marketing activation platform that focuses on the “now what?” They help clients turn their fan base into something that brings real value to the organization.

“Measurement is everything,” said Jones. “You can’t miss what you can’t measure.”

He shared the following tips:

Use the right tools. “Last click” is and post engagement is a basic metric, not the best way to measure social. It doesn’t matter where the conversation happens. What is of real value is who is engaging, and how often. The only way to measure that is to put a metric in place that tracks the interaction of each and every fan.

Insights need to be seen – and understood. Communicate results to the right stakeholders. Use infographic-style reports to make the information easy to consume.

Have an app strategy. Use apps in addition to driving content. Apps will help you stimulate direct friend-to-friend sharing and inviting through viral app campaigns. Apps also give you data – you’re learning from users’ behavior.

Learn from email marketing. The “deadbook” problem (having a lot of Facebook fans, but a limited number of engaged fans) is just bad management. Your total number of fans means nothing – it’s the number of engaged fans that matters. Manage your social database like an email database. You need to think beyond “How many likes did I get?” and look at how you are engaging your audience.

Relationships matter. Do you know who Jane is and what she means to your brand? It’s all about the data. Track their behavior over time to see how valuable they are to you.

Understand the value of advocates. On average, 4.7 percent of your fan base drives referrals. They have 176 times the reach of an average fan. You want to know who that 4.7 percent is – and, even better, turn that 4.7 percent to 5.7 percent. See who is commenting, foster advocates, reward top fans, build social loyalty.

Use gamification principles. Think about using gamification principles, like badging and points, to drive engagement and audience activation.

Amplify your fans. The voices of advocates increase conversations.

• Monitor social advocacy: Define keywords and filters to see what your fans are saying about you.
• Post social content. Social content is the future of websites. Publish the best of what your fans are saying.

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