Social Media and the ROI

On December 9^th we had the pleasure of attending our 3^rd IIMA event. The topic was, what everybody is talking about these days, Social Media. It’s a very hot topic for many people involved in big and small businesses alike, non-profit organization, political organizations, marketers, you name it. Of course, there are always the sceptics who prefer not to get involved, but usually time takes care of that when it comes down to new ways of doing things, especially when it comes down to business.

I mention the sceptics because there are a lot of questions surrounding Social Media and this IIMA event’s objective was to address an important one: Where is the ROI in Social Media?

The 3 speakers at the event were:

• Stephen Smith, the CEO of Webnames.ca, Canada’s original domain registrar.
• Warren Sukernek from Lift9, a social media consulting and research company.
• Darren Barefoot, co-founder of Capulet Communications who has recently co-authored a book called “Friend with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook”.

There were no promises or overblown expectations at the meeting. There were however 3 guys with plenty of experience in the field presenting some real life situations and their own opinion.

Here are some snippets of the presentation:

First of all, broadcast media is on the downfall. We are not going to throw fancy numbers out there but according to statistics TV, Newsprint and Radio have declined in demand about 30% in the last year. A lot of people are still watching TV of course but there are some factors that are less than ideal for businesses when it comes to traditional media. Two very important ones are the very high cost and the inability to measure accurately its effectiveness.

 In contrast, Social Media is highly measurable due to Internet technology. Businesses can reach their target easier and cheaper. Social Media is also very customizable and adaptable to your business’ needs.

Search plays a very important role in your business’ visibility. That is where SEO and Social Media start to mix. Today Google is the biggest search engine and usually they are the first to set example of how search should work. Google is always evolving around technology and they are widely embracing Social Media. If you post on your blog, comment on other people’s blogs, tweet and have a highly active facebook page then you are already increasing your presence on the web.

Here is the bottom line: Social Media is not the answer to your prayers, at least not the immediate one. Social Media will work for you if you already have a strategy laid out, if you are actively participating with other people on the web and if you have patience. This new marketing tool is all about the little things. Start small, think big.

Yes there is ROI in Social Media and there are already many examples we can mention but we’ll leave those for another post. The important thing is, if you are a business that wants to prosper and grow, and don’t have a clue about Social Media, now is the time to get involved.