Alex Wain, co-founder of So Bad So Good, talks to SMK about what he does, why he does it, and how he gets social media to work for him and his advertising partners.

When people ask what you do, what do you say?

You’d be surprised at how often people actually ask me that! I’m an online curator; I share, create, promote & highlight content online.

By “content” that can be the humble blog, a YouTube clip, right through to establishing the tone for a brand online, creating debate or communicating my outlook and opinions. 

What’s the motivation behind what you do?

I truly believe that all social change comes from the passion of individuals. Make no mistake, I dedicate a tremendous amount of my time to being online—but that’s because I can see the tangible benefits from doing so.

Giving individuals the ability to inform themselves, feel empowered and stay inspired is my driving motivation.

What are the qualities you look for in a sponsor/advertiser?

Long-term our business model for the site will be based around premium advertisers who are integrated into the content of the site rather than just around it. 

The qualities are the same, we want someone who is relevant to our audience and understands our editorial tone. We won’t ever let advertisers dictate our editorial direction, but we’ll always be open to working with them on solutions that give them tangible value.

We’re talking to a few agencies currently about selling our inventory on the site so we’re moving in the right direction.

Has a Google+ presence helped increase SoBadSoGood’s readership/advertising revenues?

I think it’s definitely helped readership, not in tremendous numbers (as a referral site it’s quite a way down the list), but it is exposing the content of SoBadSoGood to another community of individuals who, though smaller in numbers, are more engaged.

Also, having your content on G+ just generally helps with search ranking and visibility so for us there’s benefit in being on there. But it’s not a gold mine of traffic, yet.

How do you approach social media strategy?

The first part is to listen to what people are saying before you proceed. Last year Qantas—who had grounded all domestic and international flights and caused utter mayhem for thousands of passengers in the process, causally started a Twitter campaign called “Qantas Luxury” where they asked, “What is your dream luxury in-flight experience?” The prize for the most creative answer was (no joke) a pair of Qantas pyjamas.

Now the last thing anyone wanted to hear about at the time was a “Qantas Luxury In-flight Experience” when they couldn’t even board a plane and were sleeping on the floor in the terminal. As you can imagine it backfired spectacularly.

The other foundation is to be constantly active and involved. People are online 24/7 and they expect you to be. That means updating consistently, responding to problems promptly, being human and approachable in your tone, right through to making sure you’re tracking all links, clicks, mentions and that content is without typos and is accurate.

How do you monitor the returns on social media engagement?

That depends on the metrics you measure which you value the most. For me when I look at returns and measuring success, there are two components:

Brand Loyalty—This is where companies need to stop thinking about “campaigns” and start focusing on “conversations.” Every brand knows that nothing is more powerful than an endorsement from a trusted source and engaging on social media is a huge part of that.

Brand Voice—Monitoring the kind of feedback you receive online will help you develop a positive brand reputation. I personally wouldn’t want my community or customers complaining about my service to the entire world, I’d rather they come directly to where we’re able to deal with it. Being silent on social media is the worst thing you can do.

Stats and Facts:

Established: July 2010
Views: Approximately 43,000 views per month
Demographic: Pop-culture consumers
Contact: Alex Wain @alexwain on Twitter