Mark Wallace recent did a event with us and spoke about how commonground & EDR looks at ROI. Instead of ROI and spoke about “Return On Interaction”. The more buzz the commonground generates within the Environmental Professional industry, the more users and ultimately more business opportunities for EDR. Its this line of thinking that led me to think further about ROI and the different acronyms I have been uncovering in my travels. So without further ado, here is the list:
ROI (Return On Innovation) – Stale products are the biggest fear of any organization. If the marketplace passes your organization buy0- you are exposed. Many companies I work with are using Social Media to tap their customers, peers and partners on the shoulder to help them innovate their product. Many minds are more valuable than few minds! Proven fact! Having many minds (with a vested interest in the product) offering collaborative and constructive feedback on the future of a product, makes too much sense and simply works!
ROE (Return On Education) – Learning Management Systems (LMS) are evolving to include the use of Social Media to allow for peer based education. As Wikipedia proves, the greater wisdom of the many can be a very powerful tool if harnessed and empowered correctly. Learn.com effectively uses the best of old LMS practices and combines the use of Social Media to allow users to lean in a setting they are most comfortable in. College graduates continue to find peer learning and feedback to be the most valuable and effective way to process and learn. While older demographics still like to take a traditional approach. Learn.com offers the best of both worlds. Think about your business now! Most businesses have a learning curve that cost marketing dollars. What if you could empower your current batch of users/customers to teach the next generation of users and customers. Now, imaging taking both groups and empowering them to innovate future version of your brand?
ROC (Return On Customers) – Alumni and User Groups are evolving in Social Networking Communities. By dangling carrots of knowledge and value in the marketplace your current customers in your alumni groups/user groups can carry your brand message and value virally. This inspires sharing, word of mouth and ultimately new customers. The key to this avenue is content. Share content, empower you customers to spread the word. Example- Ford is using their customers to tell them what they want, and when they give them what they are asking for, they are encouraging their drivers to share. Please watch:
ROS (Return On Staff) – I have one client that is looking at every one of their staff members as mini-marketing tools. They are using Social Media two ways. One, creating an internal community to let everyone know what each department and location is working on. This helps the company be more efficient and lower churn. Less overlap and reduces over staffing and understaffing. Efficiency has spiked very positively.
Two, I have guided them to create a recognition rewards program to share knowledge, keywords and links in Social Media channels. Where there is a conversation happening about their industry or brand, the staff is getting involved and being proactive. It is amazing what happens when your entire staff works 15-30 minutes a day at interacting and posting links back to your brands site. I am not even touching on the positive repercussions from a SEO & Google/Bing perspective.
ROA (Return On Awareness)- I have found the lines blurring between SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Social Media in this respect. Traditional “white hat” SEO marketing can be better achieved through the use of Social Media. Putting together a plan to fish where the fish you want to catch or at least be seen buy is imperative. From there, a commitment to interact is critical. If you let up all the good will be lost, and you can track this in your Google rankings or Alexa rankings. Whatever tracking tools you currently utilize! I am fond of Techrigy. But a well thought plan, committed resources and execution will result in real exposure for your brand.
I am sure there are more, but these are the ones at the front of my mind. Feel free to comment if you have more!
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Wow- goldmine! My company is struggling with how to see ROI. But we have great deal of usage data. Also, mucho positive sentiment! This is exactly what I need. Case of square peg into round hole! We were being really stupid and trying to be the old ROI. Way too trigger happy on that, instead of looking at ROI in a different manner! Thank you for this blog, it made my day!
Hey Derek – thanks for posting this. Many companies are trying to figure out how to quantify ROI. I was asked to jump into a thread on MarketingProfs shortly after the session that turned into a great discussion about how to measure social media ROI. In no way, is the discussion around Social Media ROI done. There are many different, and valid, positions on this.
The one thing I would like to warn Ryan about, as well as others, is that most boards and CEO suites, still look for traditional ROI and metrics stats. Therefore, do not discount their importance and remember to report your social media success and failures often.
Thanks for posting this, I bookmarked it in delicious as a good reference.
I just had a(nother) client who wanted to know what the ROI was going to be before he even knew what he needed and wasn’t willing to put any effort into anything, yet was practically demanding numbers. These people make me want to pull my hair out.
Thanks for the great blog post. We are regularly encountering conversations with clients on the trackability of social marketing, and the potential return-on-investment. While it is easy to see the benefits of a strong social marketing campaign over the long-term, most businesses (especially in this economy) are extremely concerned with the short-term and immediate revenue stream. The information you’ve presented certainly helps to support that conversation.
I bookmarked you as well.
Thanks, Melissa