The "i" is little, but It's Essential to ROi from Social Media

By Tom Collins

I keep wondering if we'll ever get to the point where social media will be understood as a communication tool. Will people who "demand" an ROI analysis for their business to use social media get strange "how-long-have-you-been-off-planet" looks from everyone, just like they would if they said it about having a phone or an email address for your business?

But I digress. Go read the Forbes article, Yes, I'm a CEO Who Really Uses Twitter, by Communispace CEO Diane Hessan. Read it again. Print it out and pass it around.

It's full of lessons for how to get started in social media. Don't think of it just as a Twitter piece. Much of it applies to any social/business networking endeavor — even offline.

My ROi point here relates to the one investment that must be made in any business use of social media: time and attention. Small, but essential.

Here's a taste of what Diane says she — and her company — got out of her first six months using Twitter:

"Twitter has brought me new ideas and new friends, and it has connected us to a world of people who are trying to be adventurous and innovative. I have gotten free consulting, new clients, new alliance partners, lots of PR and a vehicle for getting our insights out into the marketplace."

She went on, but if you can't find any high-value "Return" for your business in that list, I question whether your business will survive long in our hyper-linked world.

And here's her explanation for the investment that's required:

"As with anything else, just dabbling is a less time-consuming but often fruitless approach. I dabble in Facebook, but my daughters, who have thousands of Facebook friends, can't live without that social network. They use it for the business of life--e-mailing, setting up events, sharing news--and it's of much more value to them than it is to me, because I haven't really spent the time. That's what I learned from my Twitter experiment. What once felt like a useless exercise has become a highly leveraged tool for me and for our company."

The "i" for engaging in social media is (relatively) little. But without some investment, you won't get the potentially enormous Return.

Comments

[Diane Hessan]

Thanks for the shoutout, Tom. There are so many great social media tools out there for companies, but alas, I think that the Era of Dabbling And Expecting a Payback is over. :)

[Tom Collins]

Diane,

You're welcome, and thanks for stopping by.

I agree completely that a strategy and some investment of time and attention (and yes, some money, too) will get business folks to the rewards much faster.

But I'm consistently surprised when a major "payback" comes along that we never could have planned for or expected. It always takes me back to what everyone knows about a startup business plan: all the numbers and projections - and most of the plan itself - are wrong, at best.

I love those surprises and think social media is the best tool yet for being on the lookout for them.

Tom