One of the most frequently asked questions today is “What is the ROI of social media?”
Many have wrangled with this question. Some have developed their own ROI strategies.
Eric Qualman, author of Socialnomics, says that when he’s asked that question, he often replies with “What’s the ROI of your phone?”
Interesting reply right? Yet, Eric has gone one step farther and created another great video on the ROI of Social Media. Check it out:
This quote stuck with me:
“You can’t buy attention anymore. Having a huge budget doesn’t mean anything in social media…The old media paradigm was PAY to play. Now you get back what you authentically put in. You’ve got to be willing to PLAY to play.” – Alex Bogusky, Co-Chairman of Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Here are some of the stats that stood out to me.
1. Over 300,000 businesses have a presence on Facebook and roughly a 1/3 of these are small businesses.
2. Wetpaint/Altimeter Study found companies that are both deeply and widely engaged in social media significantly surpass their peers in both revenue$ and profit$.
3. Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI.
4. Customer support cost = $12 via the contact center; $0.25 cents self service
For a list of more stats used in this video, visit Socialnomics.
Forget asking about social media’s ROI. Go bigger. What’s ROI itself?
Ari:
Great question. Now I’ll be pondering that one for a while. Thanks for adding your comments.
By means of background to that question, take a deeper look at the I. You might be surprised.
Jeff, thanks for another interesting post. I presented a session on SEO for tradeshow websites around this time last year. At that time social media didn’t play too big of a roll in natural search results on platforms like Google. Man has the world changed in the past 12 months!
Over the summer, I did some additional research on SEO for event websites and found that top 10 Google results included about 30% of results from Social Media outlets like blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. These channels are key word/phrase rich, often provide meaningful links to additional content and provide for recency…all helping natural search results. Bottom line, smart use of social media definitely helps extends one’s reach and visibility.
Dave Lutz – @velchain
Velvet Chainsaw Consulting
@Ari – that’s a great post by Beth Kanter. I missed that one. Thanks for adding it.
@VelChain – Great points about SEO for meetings, events and tradeshows. I’ve attended two workshops by @Giovanni about Blue Hat SEO strategies and he’s got some great information to share. Check out his PowerPoint Top 10 Extreme Social Media Promotion Hacks from WordCamp 2009 Dallas.
Jeff,
Thanks for sharing. I like that it points out that the dollar investment is lower, but to be successful, the investment is in time and diligence. It almost reminds me of when everyone needed a website 10-15 years ago, but after putting up the site, it would be idle for months (if not years) what is the relative return on that.
Great post.
@Chris Valentine
Thanks for stopping by Chris and adding to the discussion. Yes, so many times companies and people jump into social media, struggle with getting started or finding their community and then leave. Once you’ve got a blog or site up, it’s imperative to take the next step and make sure you build that relationship and engage your customers.
A buddy encoraged me to look at this website, brill post, fascinating read… keep up the nice work!