Building on yesterday’s post, one comment suggested social media isn’t much different than viral marketing, spun out of control. After all, does business really convert business (e.g. turn leads into sales) using social media?
It is a valid question. In the past 18-24 months, social media for business seems to have really gained steam. And, this question is perhaps the most frequently asked. And, it remains the one with the fuzziest of all answers. The problem is, its still so new, still so fuzzy, that it’s hard for most companies to truly calculate an ROI. Even if they could, would they want to share? If it seems their competitors are still on the bench or stumbling in the dark, they won’t.
This reminds me of the late 90s. My then-CEO, Carol Bartz, echoed Andy Grove’s sentiment over at Intel, that, "…all businesses will be internet businesses within 5 years, or they’ll be dead." I remember thinking at the time: But, somebody’s got to -make- something, to add value. Everyone will have an internet ‘component’ to their business, but they’ll not ‘be’ and internet business. Sure enough, a decade later, that’s basically what’s happened.
Social Media in my view is following a similar path. Right now everybody’s all a titter over ‘gotta be doing social media—or I’m dead." I know two years ago, I spent an inordinate amount of time myself, ramping up and learning about SM.
Time continues to move forward. Social Media, for me and I suspect others, has become a component of how we interact with others, how we build a following, how we transact business. These past 18 months I’ve had 3 consulting opportunities come to me, plus speaking engagements, directly related to my activities online.
Is ‘social media’ my business? No. But, like the telephone 20 years ago, it’s very important to how business is conducted and relationships are built now. By the way, social media is today’s telephone. How do you calculate the ROI on the phones your business uses?
(photo credit: Dmitry Mikheyev)
