What if the answer to socal media’s daunting ROI question has been in front of us the whole time? This thought came to me tonight after reading this Chris Brogan post, followed by this post from Louisville’s own, Todd Earwood.
- Image by jtyerse via Flickr
Chris’ post talks about the need for our current crop of social tools to actually achieve business objectives, whether that business is sales or savings. I agree and commented to the fact that web traffic isn’t paying the bills which echoed his sentiments. Todd’s post talks about Angie’s List sending him a bag of M&Ms because he has a big mouth and told a lot of people about the site. Cool move, by Angie’s List BTW.
So where’s the connection?
Its got to be the shoes
Have you heard of Zappos? Of course you have, who hasn’t? After reading Zappos case study after Zappos case study, it dawned on me a while ago that this whole social media thing is really about getting consumers to talk to each other about you with social tools. The tools allow them to communicate easier, they also allow for something else…
Let’s face it, you talking about you is ok and it needs to happen to some extent, but you don’t want people saying: “You know, so I’ve heard a lot about you… mainly from you.” They need to hear the news from their trusted network(s) for it to be optimal.
I was able to confirm this fact with Emanuel Rosen, author of The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited and super down to earth great guy, during a Social Media Club Louisville meeting two months ago. <gratuitous name drop ALERT> I rub elbows when I can.
Stay with me here…
So if awesome customer service is the key to getting people to talk about you with their social graphs via socia media, proved time and time again by Zappos, then the only thing missing is tying those communications to an ROI metric.
In Zappos’ case, their growth has been a pretty good indicator of their success with customer care, but how can it be tied back directly?
How does Angie’s List track the new customer they get who talked to someone who had a friend who knew someone’s sister that got a bag of M&Ms for telling her hairdresser about how cool Angie’s List is? Or even better, how will Angie’s List know when I use their service two days, three weeks, or even six months from now because I read Todd’s post? Or that you did the same thing, after reading my post that refers to Todd’s post.
Mind blowing? Perhaps. Impossible? Maybe today, but it can’t be forever. Social tools allow people to communicate more efficently AND they allow those efficient communications to be tracked.
Your turn
What do you think? Will tracking word of mouth be the next big breakthrough for social media and business? I’m in the “Yes” camp. Where do you sit?
