Just when I thought our inaugural chat last week was going to be the peak of its existence, even more of you showed up for the second #smmeasure weekly chat.  The total number of tweets almost doubled from 400 last week to 700 this week.  I want to thank everyone who participated and helped spread the word.  A big thanks to Sysomos’ Community Manager Sheldon Levine @sysomos for co-hosting the chat.

Last week, we started the chat with high-level questions.  This week, we changed it up a bit to discuss the number of followers and fans versus brand-mention debate.  Below is just a small taste of the great conversation we had.  A full transcript is also available.

Q1: What’s more important to you? Followers/fans vs. brand mentions?

Followers/fans are more important

• @photojunkie:  “Chicken/Egg. hopefully it’s your followers that bring your brand mentions to the medium. That’s the ideal.”
• @Marketwire:  “Building followers is just as important. Having an audience increases the opportunity for mentions.”
• @GetPushing:  “having a sizable aud/following is good for initial looks too. Could persuade som1, potential brand ambassador to follow.”

Brand mentions

• @BrandEngineers:  “While both are important, mentions reveal advocates of the brand and valuable engagement with the audience.”
• @MichaelNus:  “Mentions cuz while you may have many fans, if they are not engaged they just stagnate. If they are talking, your reach multiplies”

Both

• @EvolveTom:  “Both are important. Brand mentions could be potential fans.. just need to convert them so you can deliver messaging directly.”
• @GetPushing:  “Difficult b/c both have value. Fans/followers = more chance ppl “hear” what you put out. Mentions means there’s discussion.”
• @theelusivefish:  “It depends on the goal? Build channel? Then fans/followers. Broader awarenesss? Then brand mention.”
• @40deuce:  “Having mentions means people are talking about, while having fans means people are also listening to you”

Q2:  Which ranks higher on the priority list? Growing followers/fans vs. growing discussions?

• @brightmatrix:  “I say growing discussions. I’ve seen followers build naturally over time, if you have good info & content to share.”
• @brightmatrix:  “Followers w/o discussion from them is strange. Like standing in a room with a bunch of folks just staring at you.”
• @nigellegg:  “through growing discussions you will grow followers organically”
• @hust0058:  “discussion is where the magic happens, not as important if they don’t turn into followers IMO”
• @casiestewart:  “if you generate good content and discussion your following will grow along with your engagement”
• @KyleMcShane:  “growing discussions is much more important. a follower without engagement is nothing. also convos will lead to more followers”

Q3:  What would you rather have? Having a few key people mentioning your brand vs. having masses of random people?

• @safekidszone:  “I would love masses of random people mentioning my brand. Especially since some among them will be key people. Easy answer.”
• @marketwire:  “A user with 200 followers might be an influencer outside of Twitter. My answer: masses rather than a few key influencers
• @nigellegg:  “through growing discussions you will grow followers organically”
• @hust0058:  “discussion is where the magic happens, not as important if they don’t turn into followers IMO”
• @casiestewart:  “if you generate good content and discussion your following will grow along with your engagement”
• @KyleMcShane:  “growing discussions is much more important. a follower without engagement is nothing. also convos will lead to more followers”

Some bonus tweets that I had to include.  When you join a chat full of insightful, informative and amusing Twitter users, this is what you get:

• @danperezfilms:  “Gaining thousands of followers = Good. Getting to know your few hundred followers = better”
• @tamara:  “D.E.S.I.R.E.D = Disclose Engage Support Integrate Reward Evaluate Deliver. And the objs & measurements assoc w/ each”
• @Marketwire:  “Be S.M.A.R.T = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant, and Timely”
• @casiestewart:  “people would rather hear from ‘person at x company’ than just ‘x company’ – business need to get this!”
• @MichaelNus:  “Another good acronym for engagement F.A.R.T = Friendly, Active, Relationship-building, Tangible”
• @TsarKasim:  “K.I.S.S.: “Keep it simple, stupid.”
• @theblogstudio:  “Engaging Online While Also Engaging Offline is Best Strategy.”

Check back here every week for #smmeasure announcements and weekly questions.  If you have any questions or specific topics that you would like us to discuss in the future, please tweet @smmeasure or @marketwire.  Keep track of all of the #smmeasure chat recaps.

Join the Social Media Corner LinkedIn Group and Marketwire Facebook page and let’s continue the conversation again next Thursday, 9:00 am PST, 11:00 am CST, 12:00 pm EST.

Until next time,

Nick

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Tags: #smmeasure, social media measurement, social media tools

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