Yesterday I attended my 1st organized Tweetup with a few social media analysts on #GartnerChat. During that session, the cost of social media came up, and how it can be measured for success. Later in the day, I caught the beginning of a content strategy meet-up in Minneapolis where @halvorson (Kristina Halvorson) Tweeted the first question posed to @kissane (Erin Kissane), “How can we measure the success of content strategy?”
Don’t get me wrong, I am a big believer in value-based metrics, and I understand that measurement and metrics are important to any organization. That said, I believe that asking how to measure social media & content strategy ROI and success is like asking, “how much do we spend on shipping and what is its value to the organization?” In today’s world, being social and having findable content that articulates your value is no longer an option. In 2011, it is the cost of doing business.
Let me tell you an old story, you have all heard it before, but in my version somebody does something.
This is a story about four CEO’s named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and A. Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that they would eventually get to it. Somebody was going to do it, but they had other things on their plate that took precedent. Anybody could have done it, but they waited to see what Everybody did. While all this was all going on A. Nobody just did it. When market share was lost, profits fell and customer satisfaction was at all time lows, Somebody blamed Anybody and Everybody was red-faced when they realized A. Nobody did and became a somebody.
Bob Dylan put it best, “The Times They Are a-Changin.” Last week, I commented on a blog about friction in the market, it read: “I think in these early days there is bound to be friction as processes become standardized, subject matter experts get asked why, fiefdoms fall and others rise.”
With that in mind, I think “we” need to change the focus from the price of “something” to the cost of not doing “anything.”
