ROI for Social Media - The Holy Grail?

In the past year, in over 70 speeches we have given, there hasn't been one where someone doesn't ask the question about "what's the ROI on Social Media?"  Since our audience is primarily CEOs, Business Owners, Top executives and other Business Leaders, would you expect anything less?

In the beginning, this used to make us nervous.  Today, there are some good answers.  Not necessarily the ones everyone was expecting or wanting, but some good answers.  There was a good article, "Why doesn't Social Media Pay Off?", where Jay Deragon shares his views - a different but relevant perspective.  We agree.

Social Media is NOT about the tools, even though many out there pushing this notion.  Instead, it is about taking what we know works best and using these tools to create massive leverage of these tried and true principles.  Take Word-of-Mouth for example.  When we ask CEOs the best way to attract new customers the answer is always the same - word-of-mouth from their current customers, suppliers, partners and ultimately their advocates.  This world hasn't changed.

We encourage you to think beyond the hype - measure what is important to growing your business - more customers and more revenue per customer.  If you can increase these two and decrease your cost of sale to obtain these results, who is going to care about the specific ROI of a "tool".  The best companies, as Jay puts it are "craftsmen" - the ones that take the tools and turn them into money.  Social media is no different.

Focus on building solid advocates that continually spread the word about you and you won't have to worry much about the "ROI hype" surrounding social media - you can laugh all the way to the bank!