Social Media ROI

It's all about the relationships, baby!

That is not always the question you need to ask.  At least when it comes to social media.  When we are trying to convince people to do social media, the first question they will ask is, “What is the Return on Investment? As in dollars?” Well that is pretty difficult to measure.  

“The problem with trying to determine ROI for social media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable,” says Jason Falls from social media explorer.

In social media it is much easier to measure how many people are following you, linking to you and befriending you. The companies that are well known for successful social media marketing (SMM) campaigns will be the first to tell you there is value in SMM is just not always measured in dollars. The value is in the relationships that you create with your customers and community.  

The point of using social media as a company is to participate in conversations that will help you learn to reach your audience and keep them. As your community “gets to know you”, your relationships will strengthen and people will think of your name next time they are in the market for your product or service.  

The ROI of your conversation is going to be the knowledge you gain with from each “friend”, “follower” or “fan”.  Have you ever complained on twitter about your phone carrier and then saw they were following you?  Maybe they were just trying to make it right with you or learn from your experiences.  So let your social media buddies take you to school and listen up.  They have plenty to say.  How is that for an ROI?