The Ultimate (for now) Measure of Social Media ROI

I've been avoiding writing an article on how to measure ROI for a year or so, mainly because the landscape of social (and how this channel works in concert with a cross-platform marketing plan) changes so quickly and so often. What's the point of discussing the ROI when the clients can't decide on which type of metrics are the "right" metrics? For instance, many of my clients in 2010 were concerned with increasing the number of FB fans and Twitter followers, even though I knew that once the metrics got past the CMO to the CEO, the conversation would turn to how social has impacted sales. 

To head off those convesations, I would often bring the Social Metrics Pyramid (from Altimeter Group, below) to meetings to show that while many Social Media Strategists may consider social indicators like fans/followers important, and Client stakeholders often link success to engagement metrics like Share of Voice and Word of Mouth, the only thing that really matters to most CEOs is increased sales. 

I'd often end up having to give multi-tiered presentations on ROI that called out specifically how a social media approach could impact each role/metric level, and thereby satisfy the business objectives for each level as needed. Even though this was successful as a presentation strategy, it was ultimately frustrating to me because it just shed light on the silos that still exist within corporations, silos that often impede a company's evolution into a truly consumer-centric company. After all, the consumer isn't interested in how a company is internally organized. They just want a relevant, seamless consumer experience.

Additionally, the complexity of a multi-tiered ROI approach just seemed counterintuitive to me. As a rule of thumb, I belive the best approach is often the simplest approach, and a multi-tiered ROI framework seemed a little too convoluted to be the best solution to Social Media metrics. 

So after putting off my POV for so long, I can finally say I think I've landed on the Ultimate (for now) Measure of Social Media Success. This Ultimate Measure isn't dependant on Sales only. It's not a simple equation like ROI:

 (Image, Altimeter Group)

Instead, base your social media success on business value overall. Business value isn't always restricted to selling more, sometimes it can mean decreasing costly call center calls and improving customer experiences, or increasing consumer retention via better customer service or proactive support. These success measures may not map directly to sales increase, but they ultimately map to increased revenue. 

But how do you DO this, you ask? How do you measure this impact on revenue? Well, it's not easy. It's not effective to measure social in a vaccum, so you have to have an idea of which business objectives you will be priortizing to put KPIs toward. I think it's just this type of objective prioritization that causes the confusion in most businesses, because the businesses aren't internally organized in a consumer-centric manner, so they are only aware of their division's business objectives.

And this kicks off a reactive vicious circle between client and agency, where both organizations become paralyzed by the dizzying labrynth siloed metrics create. If acquisition is your goal and you are going to measure Share of Voice and new leads, you may create a program with high touch programs that build your new consumer base, but infuriates your existing customer base by over-messaging.

More to come on the practical application of social soon...Let me know your thoughts on this post in the comments please.

Is Social Media Strategist an Obsolete Title?

Back in February I went to the GSMI Social Media Summit in SF where Jeremiah Owyang did a keynote on the Career Path of the Social Media Strategist. (If you haven't read his full study on this topic, you can get it here.) He was a great speaker, of course. But I was especially drawn to the topic of his presentation as it focused a lot on the death of the title "Social Media Strategist", and this type of backlash is something I'd already seen in effect to some extent. 

Even back in 2007, when I first started consulting in Social Media I was worried about calling myself a Social Media Strategist (or, god forbid, "Social Guru" *cringe*), because I foresaw the obsolesence of the role. Actually, anything too niche always freaks me out a little bit. But now that 2012 is approaching, I can say with confidence that even if the title gets phased out, the duties of a Social Media Strategist are still very much in demand.

That said, I think the title is sometimes applied willy nilly across various roles, and I've seen many a Social Media "Expert" fall flat on their faces once they get into talking ROI, strategy compliance, and even best practices across platforms. So, it makes sense for any of us that are in the Social Media field to consider how the duties required in our current position are evolving, and how your job description could be tweaked to better reflect this evolution. Always be prepared, after all. Right, scouts?

In my current role as Manager of Social Media at SapientNitro, I spend everyday consulting with internal teams and their clients to ensure that we've thought about the consumer experience within any TV, digital, mobile, or social piece we're creating. A client wants to build an e-commerce website? Well, then how are we enabling the consumers to get advice from their trusted circle of friends or other thought leaders who may inform a consumer choice? Are we adding in social share functionality or integrating an open graph authenticator like Gigya? Or perhaps we're incorporating Bazaarvoice's Ratings and Reviews social commerce functionality (and adding to our SEO). 

So I mainly consult with agencies and companies on the value of including these platforms and the infrastructure to best facilitate their consumer/community experience. A deliverable for a standard project will often be a deck that outlines a roadmap toward getting a social plan in place, and some type of vendor vetting or analysis document.

I also spend a lot of time planning for Content Marketing and Content Syndication that promotes a Social Approach. This usually requires a few deliverables:

-A High Level Content Strategy (that may require a Social Media Management System to support if the Strategy is for an Enterprise sized company, so some vendor recommendations and vetting will be required)

-An Editorial Calendar with a cadence plan built in that combines larger pieces of multi-media brand content with a meta dialouge supported by social media conversation & content

-A very clear reporting plan that combines metrics from the .com site, all social platforms, and revenue indicators into a single dashboard to meausure success

-Some training guides and videos and potentially a governance plan to get field marketing going across regions or across global outposts

What don't I do? I don't really ever community manage for companies anymore, although I used to do quite a bit of that when I first started out. Nor do I concentrate mainly on uncovering Consumer Insights like a traditional planner might.

So with all this in mind, how is my title impacted? Personally, if I were to evolve my title, I may move toward something along the lines of Consumer Experience Advocate or Social Experience Planner.

But ask me a few months from now, and I'll probably have a new title in mind. Medias change so quickly these days...

Anybody else out there want to ring in on the "death" of Social Media Strategy as a title?

22 WAYS TO GET YOUR COMPANY/BRAND SOCIALLY UP-TO-DATE

First of all, I have to give tons o' props to Peter Kim for this post, as he is the Mastermind behind the list. But the fact is I've come back to this list again and again when doing my own social marketing audit for any companies I've consulted with.

The way I've used it, and the way I recommend you using this list is simple. Just cut and paste this list into your own personal document, and begin to fill in your own company's efforts in the corresponding area. You may not be utilizing all the tools yet, but even implementing a few more of them into your marketing stategy will help inspire a more lively conversation around your brand or company.

Here’s a framework of 22 tools to consider with notable brand examples:

1. Blogs (Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)
2. Bookmarking/Tagging (Adobe (), Kodak)
3. Brand monitoring (Dell, MINI)
4. Content aggregation (Alltop, EMC)
5. Crowdsourcing/Voting (Oracle, Starbucks)
6. Discussion boards and forums (IBM, Mountain Dew)
7. Events and meetups (Molson, Pampers)
8. Mashups (Fidelity Investments, Nike)
9. Microblogging (method, Whole Foods)
10. Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)
11. Organization and staffing (Ford, Pepsi)
12. Outreach programs (Nokia, Yum Brands)
13. Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)
14. Podcasting (Ericsson, McDonalds)
15. Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)
16. Public Relations – social media releases (Avon, Intel)
17. Ratings and reviews (Loblaws, TurboTax)
18. Social networks: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities (British Airways, Saturn)
19. Sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Whirlpool)
20. Virtual worlds (National Geographic, Toyota)
21. Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)
22. Wikis (Second Life, T-Mobile Sidekick)

And use this username check tool to see if your brands/preferred handles are still available.