The ROI of social media marketing | some answers

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Once in a while, I peruse the questions asked on LinkedIn in the Marketing and Business Development sections. Earlier today, the 1 million dollar question on social business was raised: “How will you measure the actual ROI from social media campaigns?”.
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Dependent on the campaign, objective and industry, to my mind Social ROI is either measurable as a KPI that initiatives can be attributed to or part of the broader mix and more difficult to measure. At eg Philips the social programme in B2B differentiates between a number of online & social KPIs to track the success of the campaign down the various stages of the funnel (reach, image, traffic, subscriptions etc) in the short & medium term whilst measuring NPS/ net promoter score in the long run. Using a benchmark of social vs non social (campaign with or without, comparable hotel on Booking.com with or without social shares/ recommendations) may also enable you to build insights into 2.0 ROI.
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Social adepts will refer to ROI as the equivalent to Risk of Ignoring (social media). Whilst I’d agree with that notion, most decision makers nowadays will want to see a business case and KPIs backed up by relevant numbers also.
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For some KPIs useful to assess social ROI in the various steps in the funnel, see this model below (click to expand view).

ROI DutchmarQ | Business Development B2B


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Light World Tour | new ‘best job in the world’ social competition launched

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Over the past few months I’ve had the privilege of working as marketing programme manager with Philips Lighting on a new social initiative in B2B. Today June 1st, the time has come to reveal more details… For information as to how the Tour evolves, please follow @PhilipsLight and my blog over the next few weeks & months.

Philips is announcing the launch of the 2011 Light World Tour, an initiative designed to share visual inspiration in the professional lighting design community.  Individuals who work on or are touched by lighting design are invited to win a three-month tour to search for and visit the most inspiring and innovative lighting sights on earth.  The winner is required to share the journey through daily blogging, photo and video uploads and tweets, developing a social media following of fellow lighting design professionals and enthusiasts.

Participation starts by uploading examples of which lighting designs inspire the entrants most, from natural wonders to professional installations and events such as the Guangzhou tower or the Australian Light in Winter festival.  They can use the site’s social media features to drum up support for their entries.  Site visitors and entrants’ supporters will vote for their favorite entries via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to propel contestants into the list of ten finalists.

Supporters and anyone who shares a passion for lighting can also use the site to recommend specific destinations for the winner’s travel itinerary.  By uploading photos and videos of their favorite lighting sights, they will help Light World Tour create a permanent, shared online “sketchbook” of stimulating views and ideas for the global lighting professionals community.

User votes will determine the ten finalists and the winner will be selected by an international panel of experts chaired by Philips Lighting Vice President and Design Officer, Rogier van der Heide.

The winner will enjoy a trip of a lifetime around the world to visit the most compelling lighting sites, installations, and events.  The chosen traveler will also have the opportunity to conduct interviews with leading designers, architects, technology experts and artists in the field.  The traveler will use the Light World Tour website to make daily reports of the experience in writing, photo and video.

Rogier van der Heide, Vice President and Chief Design Officer, Philips Lighting: “Light World Tour is this year’s greatest opportunity for lighting professionals, lighting designers, architects and enthusiasts alike to visually share the planet’s best lighting inspiration.”

Detailed criteria for entries and online submissions for the Philips 2011 Light World Tour award can be found at www.lightworldtour.com.

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#TEDxAMS 2010 | towards ideas worth doing

After a bit of a slow start (perhaps caused by the sudden snow), this year’s edition of TEDx Amsterdam took off at the proper impact and speed. It was not just the incredible Claron McFadden’s bird-like singing performance but speakers like mister ‘evergreen’ Peter Westerveld on re-greening the deserts that made the difference. In the end, TEDx should be a platform for ideas to share, flourish and find their way to become reality in some shape or form. Whereas most people would stress other people’s adoption of ideas, Alef Arendsen stressed the need to start with yourself. People only do those things they really like to do. In terms of spreading products and services in sustainability, companies need to stop playing the guilt – ‘the world is coming to an end’ – card. And should adopt proven marketing concepts based on the ‘me first, then the world’ principle.

Last year my blogpost on #TEDxAMS touched upon this very topic and called for ideas to be taken to the next level. Good stuff this year’s edition also called for ‘ideas worth doing’. I look forward to experiencing the 2011 edition. To those interested in ideas taken to the next level of fruition, please check out this TED nephew.

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Chance favors the connected mind | in B2B & beyond

It may come as no surprise to you that collaboration helps to shape new ideas. This video by author Steven Johnson perfectly shows how that works. Take your time, switch off your cell phone and shut the door for just a few minutes and allow yourself to plunge into the following thoughts come alive through an amazing cartoon.

The concept is that you have a partial idea or hunch that needs to be combined with another hunch to form a fully-developed, great idea. Sometimes patience and thought will get you there just fine. Generally your great thought will occur thanks to the combination of your idea with someone else’s. Johnson argues that one needs to place oneself in environments that foster good collaboration. He argues that while the web can often be a distraction, it can be a great environment to jointly develop great ideas as well. Your next great idea may therefore come to fruition by finding an (online) community that helps you to complement your ideas with other people’s feedback and ideas.

I especially like the motto shared towards the end “chance favours the connected mind”. The only element that seems to be somewhat implicit in Johnson’s perspective is the one of diversity. People and turtles are pictured in a uniform, stereotypical fashion. Wouldn’t diversity often provide an essential little nudge for chance to come about?

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Shifting the B2B mix

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Results of a study amongst 132 B2B marketers jointly conducted by Booz & Co, American Business Media (ABA) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) was presented last week. Assuming the findings are (or will soon be) relevant for the European and Dutch marketplace as well, this survey made me wonder.

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