I've been walking around the Mashable! post "How to measure social media ROI for Business" for 2 days, being irritated by the fact people say we can't measure ROI of social media efforts. Aaron Uhrmacher, author of that post, is telling (you should be reading that post if not done already) there's no accepted metrics, statistics-based ones, to measure social media ROI. How can it be possible there's no accepted metrics? Return on investment concept is clear: for $1 I invest, how many comes up? Applied to social media efforts, for $1 I invest how much do I earn? or maybe a better way to say, how can I measure impact of social media on my company bottom line, directly or indirectly? Which then is possible.
As many say, it's a tough job measuring social media ROI. They're right. It's not easy to see what's the ROI of joining the conversation, it's hard to get the point in blogging or contributing in a social network, it's complicated to find a reason based on business objectives to create a community. And the main reason is because companies don't get it the right way, or because it's been not presented to companies the right way.
Social media is based on exposure and crowdsourcing. Exposure to Internet users and crowdsourcing leveraging intelligence and experience of Internet users. It's then all about visibility, share of voice, and thought leadership from one side, and relationship management, customer support, and stickiness to the brand and product from the other side. Which means Social media is aligned not just with PR goals as Uhrmacher may say, but aligned with the way companies want to get noticed by consumers, clients, and prospects. CRM, sales, marketing, PR, and R&D may be all involved in social media (remember exposure and crowdsourcing):
- Share of voice + thought leadership are related to PR
- Innovation + service enhancement are related to Research & Development
- Customer care + Customer support + Loyalty are related to CRM
- Sales + Word of Mouth are related to Sales and Marketing
- Brand equity + Brand image are related to Communication
You can step-up and measure all these items by using social media tools (blogs, community platforms, social bookmarking tools, social networks, embedded videos, ...). But you have to connect all these tools to permanent points of contact to turn every social media initiatives and campaigns into strategies to achieve objectives you've set.
All the above items are items and objectives shared by all companies. That means all companies have the same metrics to calculate their ROI, haven't they?
Photo Credit: _Massimo_
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By Romain Péchard
Fast.Fwd.Innov@tion