Social Media & ROI

I’ve been reading a lot lately about people questioning or waiting to see what the “ROI on Social Media is” and if it can actually help a company’s ‘bottom-line’ before they go ahead and start using and investing time in it.

Let me ask you this- Can you measure the return-on-investment on a relationship?

Times are changing from the day of the “ME” organization where companies can dictate how things should be to “Customer-Centric” organizations where the voice of the customer is equally as important. Today as consumers, we have all the tools in our hand to voice our opinions about what we feel, think, want and demand from companies. Slowly a new economy is emerging.
The new economy is all about real-ationships. People want to do business with people they know or have been referred to by people they know and trust. The currency in this new economy is trust.

So how does social media build relationships? On it’s own it doesn’t. But it provides a whole new way to find and foster relationships with people in your backyard that you may have never had the opportunity to meet.

Like any relationship, there is effort and time to be invested. You have to connect, engage, interact with people and put yourself out there to be found. Remember it is called ‘social’ media, the platform may be different but the same rules apply. If you were meeting face to face, you wouldn’t just broadcast your business or details, you would introduce yourself, listen, talk and connect on some level. Same goes for tools like Twitter.

Going back to my initial question-my answer is that you can’t measure the ROI on a relationship because a relationship is not finite and will continue to grow as long as you invest it, and you will continue to reap the benefits beyond this quarter, next quarter or the last quarter. The conversations about your brand will continue to happen whether or not you choose to participate, so why not at least listen to what’s being said? Or use the medium as way to position yourself as a thought leader or network with other like-minded individuals. The possibilities are endless.

So don’t wait for the reports, the analysts or the predictions-dive in and build those relationships!