Why we need a new definition of conversion

Those of you who work in a Marketing capacity already know what a conversion is. For the others, a conversion is the process by which a marketer manages to get a prospect to perform a desired action. For instance filling up a form to obtain a whitepaper or purchasing a good after receiving a promotional e-mail.

Conversion has traditionally been the objective of every marketer. If scoped and executed well, the conversion process gets him closer to his ultimate goal: nurturing a contact into a lead and passing it on to sales. A lot of things are measured against it. Most ROI calculations for a given marketing activity involve the conversion rate (the percentage of contacts who ultimately performed the conversion action out of the total initial base). To say it’s at the heart of every marketer’s life is an understatement.

Enter Social Media.

If there’s one thing that Social Media is changing forever, it’s the very act of “converting”. How do you measure conversion in social media ? What is a conversion in this new reality ?

Certainly not the fact of filling up a form and register. After all, the individual and his/her identity (you and your audience) is at the very heart of the social media activity, so there’s no need to play hide and seek anymore. Does this new conversion consists in getting someone to attend an event, download a piece of content or click the purchase now button? That’s certainly part of it, but if it’s your only way of measuring conversion, you’re missing the entire point of social media.

Conversions have become conversations.

That, in my opinion, is the key to social media marketing. It’s not about blindly pushing content or offers in the arms of your audience praying for some of it to stick. It’s about triggering (sometimes), provoking (often) and participating in these conversations. You can’t ‘convert’ contact anymore these days (or let’s agree less and less), but you can certainly ‘converse’ with them, and that is a lot more powerful than any other devious marketing scheme you could come up with.

What do you think ? Are conversations the new conversion ?