I got an (unsolicited) email offering a webinar to teach me about how to measure, and the importance of measuring, the ROI (return on investment) of social media.
I got an (unsolicited) email offering a webinar to teach me about how to measure, and the importance of measuring, the ROI (return on investment) of social media.
It was a total joke, and a bad one at that.
Social media, business social media, is running wild – with or without you. Your customers and prospective customers are posting on Facebook whether you have the balls to have presence there or not.
And I am not just talking to companies but also individuals.
Consider this: Of all the grassroots revolutions that have occurred on social media, none of them were started by companies or governments.
They were all started by people – people who were excited, people who were afraid and people who wanted change and spoke up.
They spoke over CEOs, media, newspapers, government, lobbyists and politicians.
Here’s what they should measure: LRI, or lost revenue (and goodwill and customer loyalty) of idiots.
While big department stores are measuring ROI, smaller more tech-savvy players are delivering value, connecting with and responding to customers one on one and building empires.
Webinars on the subject of ROI of social media are likely to be run by the same people who thought Amazon.com would not make it.
Amazon has total market dominance based on leadership, vision, and technological excellence. It is the same with Apple. Microsoft used to laugh at it, now its employees all have iPads and iPods at home.
It is time to invest resources in social media, without trying to measure it. You just have to do it. It’s way too soon to measure.
If they had measured the ROI of TV, or the computer, or the automobile, or the telephone, or the internet after five years, no one would have become involved, and we would be in a technological bog – sinking.
Wake up and smell the opportunity.
People guarding nickels have no idea of the power or the value of business social media, much less social media.
They have no idea of the lost opportunity or the lost revenue. They have no idea of the perception and participation of customers.
My bet is people who measure the ROI of social media have never tweeted.
I define these people as the ones who still have a small rubber circle in the middle of their keyboard – completely out of touch with what’s new and trying to prevent the unstoppable force of progress and customers.
Blackberry measured ROI on smart phones and Microsoft measured it on music players. Billion-dollar ‘mis-measurements’.
Bank of America did not measure or understand the power of Facebook. They were instead measuring increased revenue from debit-card customers. Their billion-dollar loss paled in comparison to their complete loss of goodwill. I doubt they will recover in a decade.
All of those companies are, or were, foolish.
There’s one company you want to take its time, measure nickels, rely on lawyers and stick its big toe in the water before getting involved – that one company is your biggest competitor.
An easy plan to get rolling in a week or two:
1. Gather the email addresses of everyone in your world.
2. Create a first-class, well tagged with key words, business page on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
3. Start a YouTube channel by inviting your customers to film why they bought from you.
4. Map out a strategy and goals for engagement, for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.
5. Assign someone to monitor, post, and respond to all who engage.
6. Create six value-based messages, two each for Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
7. Shoot two to three value-based (something your customers could use) videos and post them on YouTube.
8. Invite all of your customers to join you by sending examples of your value messages. I recommend one campaign per media for four weeks – but have links to all in each email.
9. Post something every day on Facebook. Tweet something every day. Link with two to five people every day. Post one video a week.
10. If you really want to create some buzz, convert your contacts to Ace of Sales (www.aceofsales.com) – and send emails that differentiate yourself from the competition.
10.5 Only listen to your lawyer if they tell you what you can do.
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on selling and customer service at www.trainone.com. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com
He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail salesman@gitomer.com © 2012 All Rights Reserved. Don't reproduce this document without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer. 704/333-1112 www.gitomer.com.
