I was reading a blog by Sandrine Plasseraud from we are social last week about Clients needing to be able to prove ROI in order to buy in to a Social Media idea. It was a really interesting blog post that centred on the fact that not all things need return on investment to be worthwhile, quoting the Scott Monty line “What’s the ROI of putting your pants on in the morning?”
I think a big point the article didn’t touch on, and one that a lot of people are failing to recognise right now is that not all returns need to be preceded by a £ sign. I understand that clients have accountability to their superiors and shareholders, and that they need to prove they are not throwing their money down the drain, but it is not the be all and end all.
Without customer feedback we never would have moved on from a sales led economy, where production was dictated by a higher force and the consumer just had to deal with what they got. We now, thank god, have customer support and feedback centres. They cost money to set up and to maintain, but can every piece of budget put into them be directly attributed to a sale?
I doubt it, but we now realise that it costs much more money to win a new customer than to keep an old one, so we know that by investing in a customer complaints procedure and process to deal with their problems, we are actually saving money in the long run.
The same goes for Social Media. You get so much out of it and even though not all of it counts towards sales, this doesn’t mean it isn’t having a positive effect on the success of your business. It is important to stop thinking in terms of cost, and instead start thinking about investment.
Buzz, sentiment, consumer engagement, awareness, and feedback can all be measured using Social Media. Do you not think that any of these count as returns on your investment?
The point I’m trying to make is that not everything can always have a monetary value placed on it that reflects what it is truly worth. So before worrying about what Social Media can’t give you, have a little think about what it can.
