NETGENPR - Social Media Newsroom

Social media has finally hit the mainstream this year in almost every aspect of our lives. From my observations the focus has been primarily on how it can be used as a marketing or public relations tool.

The term 'social' when applied to media or any other technology for that matter implies something far more profound than enhanced marketing and PR in my humble opinion. It's the new ethos for how we communicate and work together as human beings. It's an ethos we lost during the industrial age and thanks to social technology we're slowly gaining it back.

This video hints at the possibilities of a social ethos taken beyond many of its current uses and into the heart of how we organize our institutions. The focus for me in 2010 and beyond is not how to devise better marketing and PR tactics to 'leverage' social media but for helping businesses understand and embrace 'Being Social' vs. 'Using Social' or 'Engaging in two-way exchange with your stakeholders' vs. 'Using social networking technology as a new broadcast mechanism'.

As individuals and organizations continue the transition from the industrial era information model to the social technology-enabled distributed-network information model there are concepts, principles and rules that we take for granted which are now clearly being turned inside out. The advent of ubiquitous, real time many to many networked communications has initiated such a sudden and dramatic shift in our most fundamental and common activities that it challenges us both intellectually and philosophically.

The bell curve of knowledge Dan refers to in this video reminds me of principles similar to Chris Anderson's 'Long Tail' concerning the elongation of distribution curves for goods created by reshaping of buying habits on the internet. Just as there now seems to be an almost infinitely divisible consumer base for niche products whereby obscure book titles can collectively outsell best sellers - there is also an infinitely divisible base of niche knowledge networks around which communities can form.

How do you measure return on investment in social media?

How do you measure the value of staffing a customer service center?
How do you measure the value of a CSR helping a customer to resolve a difficult problem?
What is the value of that customer telling their friends about their experience? How many dollars is that worth?

What’s the best method to measure positive word of mouth about an upcoming movie?
Is there a dollar value on a group of friends attending a film they’re excited about, then telling their friends to go see it?
How do you measure the ROI from the director making an appearance at a convention to talk about the movie and build excitement for it?

How do you measure the value of talking to a fan of your product or work?
How do you put a dollar value on attending a convention or tradeshow?
If you’re a PR person, what’s the exact ROI in dollars for attending a party with your clients or some journalists?

And one more time: how do you measure return on investment in social media?

This may very well be the best and most honest answer to this question I've seen yet.