Monday night I attended the Pub Club of New England’s panel discussion on tools, tips and tricks for social media success at the Microsoft NERD Center. On the panel was Janet Aronica (@JanetAronica), head of marketing for Shareaholic;  Eric Leist (@EricLeist), emerging technology strategist for Allen & Gerritsen; George Snell (@HighTalk), vice president of digital and social media at Weber Shandwick Worldwide; Andrew Teman (@AndrewTeman), vice president of social media strategy at Hill Holliday; Anne Weiskopf (@AnneWeiskopf), vice president of business development at The Realtime Report; and it was moderated by Ted Weismann (@TedWeismann), senior vice president of client service of Lois Paul & Partners.

Taking social media programs to the next level is part of our mission here at 451 Marketing and I was excited to hear what the diverse panel had to say about the topic. Boy, I was not disappointed. Refreshingly, the panel had varying views on almost every topic, which made for a lively and interesting discussion. Ted asked the panel a variety of questions, from how to convey the importance of social media campaigns with C-level executives to how to handle the unavoidable influx of customer service issues that come through the channels that are being run by public relations executives.

Some of the most debated points are as follows:

Q: Measurement of social media campaigns: Is it possible? Is it worth it?

George’s stance was no; there isn’t a way to measure it in a way that C-level executives will appreciate and that “fans” and “followers” aren’t really an accurate measure of how effective your campaign is. However, he said that cultivating them creates marketing opportunities because fans and followers “opt in” to receive marketing messages. He urged the audience to remember to have consistent messaging to make the most of the opportunities.

Eric offered a different way of looking at it. He felt that saying you “can’t measure the ROI of social media” is closing yourself off to opportunities. It’s important to try different campaigns out, have a budget for testing new tools, do your research and see what’s effective.

Q: Has social media killed journalism?

Anne said no. Social media is now forcing journalists to bring their A-game and that we live in a world where the publication of a story is just the beginning of its life – it’s no longer the end.

Andrew said no, too. Having content online and accessible journalists on Twitter, etc., has him consuming more content than ever.

George offered the opposite opinion and said “Absolutely.” Journalism as a profession has taken a huge hit over the past few years and thousands have been laid off. He felt that reporting is now a commodity and that anyone is able to do it. People aren’t willing to pay for reporting anymore. Aggregators such as The Huffington Post and Google News are receiving the revenue now; not the journalists.

Q: How does engagement stack up when measuring the success of a social media program?

George was a fan and said that engagement that is consistent is the key. A plan is necessary and a plan and need to engage constantly across all channels. Don’t think of it as a social media campaign, think of it as a campaign with social media elements.

Andrew’s take was that relying on engagement as a metric isn’t always the best bet, because it isn’t necessarily positive and gave Bank of America as an example. There is plenty of engagement happening, but it isn’t all something they can package up as a successful program. Andrew said you need to “pay your taxes,” meaning that you need to take a minute to figure out what exactly makes your company tick and how social  media can help them achieve their goals.

Below is an image I took from the panel discussion at the event.

All in all, the event was a nice reminder that all of us communication folks are dealing with the same issues, but that there are an infinite amount of ways to handle a situation. It served as a nice reminder that every “best practices” rule has an exception and that different social media platforms are not one-size-fits all. Andrew warned us of “shiny object syndrome” and did a great job illustrating that just because a new social media platform is the biggest/coolest/newest thing, doesn’t mean it’s an appropriate fit for your client. For example, an Instagram program may not be the best strategy for a business intelligence software company– but there are always exceptions.

One thing that all panel members agreed upon was regarding the recent land rush for Google+ business pages. No one seemed to know what Google+ offers that other platforms don’t already provide and I’d love to hear your opinion on that. What are your thoughts on Google+? Is it worth it and does it offer unique content? Or, do you think it’s headed the way of MySpace?