Friend, fan or follower: Not all social media connections are created equal

23 Aug 2010

Measuring your brand's social media equity can be a tricky business. Confronted by the multitude of platforms, buzzwords and measurement tools you might be tempted to simplify both your metrics and your strategies. After all, who's to say that a follower on Twitter is more or less valuable than a fan on Facebook?

The problem is that as seductive as this urge to simplify may be, it can land you in hot water. Just as in real life, social media relationships come in many forms, and have different sets of rules.

In order to be clear about how these connections differ, its useful to map them out for yourself. I've taken a crack at it below, using the three most popular social media relationships:
Fans - people who "like" your brand on Facebook
Followers - people who follow your brand on a social broadcast platform like Twitter, Tumblr etc
Friends -people who have added your brand (or brand ambassador) as a friend

Friend, fan or follower: Not all social media connections are created equal

click to enlarge

The metrics I'm using here are:

Cost - how much effort and / or marketing budget is required to establish the connection
Value - the potential benefit of each connection to brand (anything from clicks to sales)
Responsibility - how much individual care and attention each connection requires
Quantity - how many connections can be acquired and maintained by a single brand (this is inversely proportionate to cost)

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Source: Memeburn

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