The Question of Quantifying Social Media | Rock the World (tm) Book Series

I am always taken aback when people ask about quantifying the ROI of social media.

Social media is a relationship-building endeavor. It’s being willing to put yourself out there in public on the Internet and interact with potential customers/clients while sharing worthwhile information.

Can you quantify how many times a person/company interacts with you before buying your product or service?

A comparable question might be:

Can you quantify how many times someone has to view the same full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal (at a cost of how many thousands of dollars per ad?) before deciding to buy the advertised product?

Five or 10 years from now almost every company in the U.S. will be effectively using social media. But right now many, many companies are behind the eight ball.

The June 24th Wall Street Journal article “How Twitter and Facebook Can Get You Better Service at Hotels” by Sarah Nassauer was quite interesting. But what I found most revealing was that some hotels in the same hotel chain use social media while others do not. I’m assuming it depends on the open-mindedness of whoever is at the top of each individual hotel unit.

If I headed a company that has yet to embrace social media, including using it to provide exceptional customer service and to attract more business, I’d think seriously about how I’ll feel when my company is left so far behind in the dust by competitors that I may never be able to catch up.

We’re no longer talking about early adopters when we talk about using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook for business. We’re now talking about mainstream American business practices. And if you’re not in the mainstream you’re in danger of being totally out of it.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. Miller Mosaic has a program with Doron Orenstein of Magnetic Webworks to build social media-friendly WordPress websites. See www.magneticwebworks.com/services/ultra-pro-websites/

Tagged as: Facebook, ROI of social media, Twitter

http://www.DenverCopywriter.Blogspot.com Brian Ochsner

Good point about Social Media being less expensive than Old Media advertising like WSJ and similar publications. However, I don’t agree with the statement: “Five or 10 years from now almost every company in the U.S. will be EFFECTIVELY using social media. But right now many, many companies are behind the eight ball.”

Very companies use ANY marketing medium EFFECTIVELY – just because they’ve used it for several years or more doesn’t mean they’re good at it. I know a lot of companies that don’t use e-mail marketing or their website effectively to generate qualified leads… and convert a decent number of those leads into customers.
http://www.millermosaicllc.com/blog Phyllis Zimbler Miller

Brian –

I stand corrected by you. I should have said: “Five or 10 years from now almost every company in the U.S. will be trying to effectively use social media.” You are absolutely correct that many companies do not effectively use the marketing tools they currently have.

Thanks for sharing this comment — I appreciate it.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller
http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller