Social media: ROI (re?)defined

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Marketing taken seriously?!
Current perception of marketing all too often is inextricably linked to advertising, branding and creativity. For marketing’s declining reputation to be improved, it increasingly needs accountability and a closer link to tangible business benefits and financial objectives. This was the key finding of recent award-winning research by Verhoef and Leeflang of Groningen University, the Netherlands.

As new, promising kid on the marketing block, social media need to be accompanied by tangible ROI to be taken seriously by senior decision makers. As Calibrero’s Ewald Jozefzoon illustrates, sometimes ROI in social media seems to be replaced by eg ROE. Return on Engagement is defined as “the measurement of involvement in social media based on online interactions and relationships.”

Hard or soft ROI
It’s better, ‘cause it’s new. Isn’t that almost how some fast movers promote their new toothpastes, washing powders and detergents? As new element in the marketingmix, web 2.0 or social media are receiving an ever-widening audience and bigger attention. And a lively discussion is emerging as to how to measure their actual business benefits.

Tech Crunchies take the softer ROE stance, emphasizing the need for social media engagement and relative lack in control of who one reaches, when. In a recent blogpost they do include a handy overview of ‘All Social Media statistics and Facts’ that, quite consistently, largely falls in the ROE segment as well.

Even @equalman | Erik Qualman, emphasizes the value of Socialnomics predominantly in terms of means or inputs rather than business and monetary ends. He thereby confirms that social media in essence embody a new, highly successful channel, intelligence and communications instrument with a phenomenonal penetration speed.

Value of social media
Don’t get me wrong. I love social media as – depending on the time of day – the digital 2.0 equivalent of an inspiring newspaper or an Irish pub. I equally welcome trials and experiments in social media to separate best from worst practices and to refine its discipline. From that perspective, I’m inclined to supporting the notion by @MktgROIorDIE that “many of the activities of creating soft ROI are often stepping stones in achieving hard ROI.”

Over the next months and moving into 2010 I will be trying to uncover best practices in B2B, resulting in a tangible, measurable financially-sound ROI. I will also be keen to jointly discovering new insights to properly/ best (re)defining the return of social media. This might refer to either improving a company’s bottomline by leveraging cost efficiencies or its top line growth. And, with the relatively smaller customer base in B2B, what tangible contribution is the adoption of social media bringing to enhancing customer lifetime value? Your feedback, suggestions and experiences are highly appreciated!

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#TEDxAms & Social Media: ideas worth spreading?!

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Two days ago the first Netherlands-based version of the world reknown TED (Technology Design Entertainment) conference was held in Amsterdam. A rich blend of dutch and international speakers covered a wide array of topics ranging from eg architecture, the produce made from pig ingredients, human fears, diversity to sustainability. And inspirational talks and ideas they brought!

TEDx as powerful platform?
As the TED motto rightly says, good ideas are ‘worth spreading’. However a platform for some of the brightest individuals on the planet to my mind is only as effective as the influence one is able to exert as a result of this meeting of the brains and minds. I am convinced that a great deal of valuable networking took place in Amsterdam, contact details were swapped via bluetooth and intentions for new or further collaboration were nurtured on the day of TEDx. Yet wouldn’t TEDx be even more powerful a platform if and when the best ideas on say sustainability would be taken to the next level by the TEDx audience? Here’s where social media could to my mind lend a helping hand.

Social Media around TEDxAms
A brief and pragmatic analysis of the buzz surrounding TEDx Amsterdam was conducted thanks to TED participants and fans using the hashtag #TEDxAms. The analysis was done one day after the event, just before midnight CET November 21st 2009. Some 2810 tweets were made on TEDxAms according to Tweetvolume. The average number of tweets per day according to TwitterVen amounted to 335 for TEDx Amsterdam, somewhat higher than the score for the NY-based event Web 2.0 expo #w2e but frankly speaking not a big difference[1]. The noise generated by a powerful crowd of 400+ TEDx attendees, augmented by their followers, friends and fans objectively could be a lot higher than this. Yet one could argue, quality matters more than quantity. Browsing through the word cloud and some TEDx tweets, it becomes apparent that the majority of tweets either praise the TEDx organisation, reconfirm their happiness with attending the inspiring event or indicate their favourite speaker(s). Using Twitter StreamGraphs and screening for the last 1,000 tweets on TEDxAms, this picture is reconfirmed.

Leveraging social media as catalyst for influence
First of all why not limit the number of TEDx topics and speakers? Or swap the tail-end programme on TEDxUniversity dubbed by speaker @earlybird44 as an afterthought for further in-depth review of the content already on the table? The time won could then be re-allocated to have the TEDx attendees as well as other TED fans around the globe vote realtime and online for the best idea, and have them add their suggestions, contacts and tips as to how to make that best and brightest idea come to fruition. Crowdsourcing then would become a powerful instrument to refining both the best idea and moreover its deployment. Furthermore, assuming the power of social media is better leveraged one could use both the amount of votes for the best idea as well as the general buzz around TEDx to bring to the attention of decision makers or politicians that actually will be discussing next steps on that topic. The ROI/ Return on Ideas would surely benefit. With future TEDx events elsewhere and in Rotterdam, Netherlands coming up, please share your ideas and builds on Twitter or as comment to this blogged line of thought.

 

 

[1] PS Not significantly different/ higher from the combination ‘Frans, Verjaardag (dutch for birthday), Nederland (Netherlands)’ checking the amount of buzz surrounding my father’s 74th birthday yesterday November 21st. That combination’s score amounted to respectively 278, 747 and 2645 tweets ;-).

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Social media superstar transforms superwhiner into superpromoter

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Dine and whine?
Some people including @JeffJarvis in his great book What Would Google Do? wonder if overtime we don’t all end up as super whiners. The combination of the power that social media provide, examples like the Dell story that demonstrate the benefit of complaining as well as the need felt by so many consumers to be taken seriously might indeed fuel our society to develop a whining culture. Wining and dining then becomes ‘dining and whining’.

Culture of complacency
This risk is fuelled by the current prevailing corporate culture of complacency in too many sectors ranging from airlines, retailers, electronics manufacturers to public sector organisations like your local village or city. The economic recession seems to have had only small shake-out consequences let alone any real shift of perspective on how businesses should engage in improving customer relationships and offer really better products and services. In my home country the Netherlands this could become even worse because of the dutch calvinist perspective on life and the preference to believe ‘the glass is half empty’.

Social Media as corporate conscience
The ROI on Social Media is often questioned, but who can justify the multi million dollar spend of above-the-line advertising in billboards, newspapers and tv? TimesSquare therefore seems to represent the platform of corporate arrogance: my brand is so big we can spend a million per quarter just to get noticed. Yet as Buzz Bishop illustrates in a recent update of the Cyberbuzz blog explains there is room for organisations to really start listening to their key audience and engage in an authentic conversation. Social Media offer this opportunity and could almost act as a corporate conscience. Re-allocating above the line spend to social media expenditure, one could for instance kickstart a nationwide team of dedicated social media superstars to listen to individual consumers’ suggestions, needs and complaints. And then provide real attention which in turn can lead to real improvements in the way that brand is perceived and referred to. Real attention that in today’s manic world has increasingly become  a scarce resource yet to my opinion will be re-appreciated overtime.

Superpromoter
The Superpromoter currently seems to be the -all too often exceptional – customer that is not just satisfied but overjoyed with the company he has bought  a certain product or service from. Fathered by Rijn Vogelaar (@Rijn on Twitter), the superpromoter represents a new way of looking at a company’s key assets; its customers. Vogelaar claims it’s way better to focus a company’s attention on superpromoters rather than on dissatisfied customers, and refers to the power of enthusiasm. Reallocating former advertising budgets to social media customer engagement, I would argue also represents a healthy business case. Former superwhiners can indeed by turned into superpromoters, when one has the willigness to really listen and care. What about ROI? The Return of Investment (or perhaps we should rename it into Return of real Interest) will become clear to organisations really giving this their best shot and commit to listening to their customers now and in the long run – not just because it’s cool to be on Twitter or Facebook.

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Web 2.0: Rip or ROI?!

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Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Hyves and other so-called Social Media tools reflect a much wider phenomenon: customers around the world are increasingly taking control over their own lives. And of course that impacts the relationship with organisations that people choose to buy their products and services from or prefer to work for, for that matter. Research by InSites that came out earlier today showed that technology companies eg Amazon, Google and HP are preferred brands to talk about for Twitterers. It also showed the typical Twitter user to be male, in his thirties and working in media, technology or marketing. Exactly the same category of people first to adopt the web some 15 years ago.

Can B2B organisations, the public sector or organisations serving a non-male audience above 40 therefore shy away from Social Media? No. I’m convinced Social Media will revolutionize our world and is here to stay. Whereas the majority of attention on Web 2.0 and social media seems to go to B2C, my passion lies in B2B which of  course is just as much a people’s business as is B2C. Btw I’d prefer not to distinguish no longer between B2B and B2C and use P2P | People2People instead. To prove my point, I’m in the process of designing my PhD research with the draft hypothesis: “there is a measurable ROI in applying Web 2.0 to B2B – in particular when it comes to managing customer value”. I look forward to hearing your builds!

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