Posted by Annalisa in I was recently invited by Digital Citizens co-founder James Fridley @fridley to be on a panel discussion entitled “Startups, small shops and bootstrappers: the real value in social media and digital PR for small business”. Digital Citizens is an inclusive, informal organisation dedicated to knowledge sharing and discussion of social, political, ethical and professional issues related to new technologies and the social web. So my first response was along the lines of “Are you sure you want me”? I don’t profess to be an SME, SMEG or any other acronym that gives off the illusion that I am some sort of expert with social media. But that’s precisely why I was asked.
I mean to be honest, I get really annoyed with social media, particularly Twitter where half the time I feel like I’m talking to myself and lack of response or retweets can really send me into a sulky tantrum and Facebook where I find I do get a lot of response time however constantly stalked by lonely men wanting to build up their online female friend list or potential “wannabe” friends only out to post and promote their business on my wall! Sometimes there’s no point to it but then I think about all of the connections and friends I have made and that regardless of the response/s I do have an impact on someone, somewhere, out there and that’s what’s important to me. It’s all about the connection. (Just as an aside, I must pay tribute to @iggypintado for flogging the whole “connection” thing as he taught me that).
So as nervous as I was to attend and speak (as the set resembled something out of Q&A albeit more relaxed), I was also honored that someone out there thought I was relevant and interesting enough to listen to and I was flattered to be sharing the panel with Jeremy Somers (@itsartdammit) designer and co-founder of We Are Handsome, Craig Macindoe (@chefmumu) head chef and owner of Mumu Grill and Lara Solomon (@LaRoo) creator of Mocks, and author of Brand New Day.
The plan was to take questions from the audience and online although the majority of the questions came from the audience who were an eager bunch wanting to learn more about social media success in your business and how you can attain it. One of the questions we all fielded was around “measurement of social media” i.e. how do we measure the fact that a sale or lead can be directly attributed to a tweet, how do you know how much time and effort to invest in order to get a return?
I could hear the sharp intake of breath when my answer to this was not as expected. No, I didn’t hook up my iPhone to a pocket projector and beam colourful charts and graphs plotting time spent being “social” (x axis) against dollars flowing into the business (y axis). My answer was simple, I don’t measure. While many strive for the magic social media combination and formula for me it is just about being me. I am the representative of my brand and fortunately I like to chat, with anyone, about anything. I can sense the puzzled look on your face!
For me anyway it is about building and maintaining connections which in turn become friends. Over time these maintained connections will be beneficial (mutually hopefully). I am sure it is something to do with six degrees of separation but from my connections I can summon all matter of things: tech help on my website, an invite to an event, opening a door to a new client and so on.
And you just can’t put a price on that!
One’s ‘brand’ is inextricably interwoven with ‘you’ and what better way to get ‘you’ out meeting a mass of potential new contacts than via social media ~
Social media DOES reap rewards on many levels – In black and white: We’ve recently ‘met’ on Twitter and now supply 3 new retailers, but in the multi-coloured spectrum, as you say, the introduction to a wealth of talents offering assistance to the harlequin nature of business, is priceless.
If you put an advert in a magazine you weigh up its worth in a cold hard $ amount ~
The investment is contained to that set figure -
After which you either say it was money well spent, or – pooh, won’t do that again LOL
I think the reason people keep asking about ROI on Social Media is that it can be a bottomless pit of time and energy -
BUT… if you apply $x of your budget/time and don’t get sucked into running over this commitment the rewards are there to be enjoyed on many levels.
Happy to have met you Annalisa in this social media world
Great response Linda! Couldn’t have said it better myself (and probably didn’t)
I think the investment in social media is long term and an ongoing process and the reward, to me, is in the relationships that you build. It’s the “journey” after all!
Excellent blog Annalisa and sorry I couldn’t be there to see everyone’s response to your answer.
To me social media is all about building relationships. Whether that is with a new friend or a potential client, I put the same amount of energy in.
I too have built a vast collection of connections and I’m constantly thinking about how I can help put those connections together via introductions, mentions or RTs.
My measurement is seeing the number of connections grow, but the connected web getting smaller.
Johanna
Absolutely Joh! Wish you could have been there also – I know you would have had a big proud smile on your face when I responded that I don’t measure!
Hi Annalisa
I enjoyed the Q&A night. Your answers were insightful, refreshingly honest, and pretty damn funny too boot.
I think it is challenging to measure the exact ROI from social. Social just makes sense. You don’t hear “how do I make money from the telephone”. Social is another way of communicating. Like the telehone.
But there are ways of making measuring ‘social’ easier. “Google URL Builder” is a pretty easy way to tag links, which you can then use in a shortener like BITLY, and then send out in Tweetdeck. Analytics will then pick up that the traffic came from whatever channel you tagged it. And you can review many of the analytics metrics in the same way you do for, say, organic traffic.
I thought that the night could well have been split into SME crowd v Corporate crowd. As ROI requirements are so different across different size organisations.
Well done on the panel! See you soon.
Cheers,
Philip.
Very good point about the “telephone” Philip and thank you for taking the time to comment. I do have a somewhat mental note in my head of what has paid off and what hasn’t! For example, this particular event generated three quote requests thus far and a client conversion. We do use bit.ly and Google analytics to track general site traffic and referrers but do not drill down on social media specific visits, also it is only a small percentage of tweets where we plug our own site, same with Facebook. I tend to interect a lot and build friendships that may just remain that or may grow into business dealings. That interaction is hard to measure, it may not be an instant conversion but happens over time.
Thanks for the compliment also. I try not to take anything too seriously as you’ve probably noticed
Your blog is so pretty, I love the rotating cloud at the top! It’s awesome! I want one of my own… Appreciate your honesty and your no nonsense approach to the whole social media thing. I totally agree with you, it should be ‘natural’, it should come from some place ‘real’ as this post does. Look forward reading more!
Thank you for the compliment Damian. I’m glad you enjoyed the evening and even more appreciative of the fact you are fast becoming one of my favourite people – and what do you know? We met at Digital Citizens so social media does have a lot of value
I can show you how to create the cloud!
Annalisa
I could not have put this more perfectly. Social media is totally about engaging and connecting with people (my opinion) not just “flogging” your product. As a business it should be part of your marketing strategy to build that relationship with them, then add value once it is established via other channels.
Love you easy writing style. well done chicky, my first time to your blog.
Bec
xx
Like everyone else who is leaving comments, I am also very glad that we were able to convince Annalisa to speak at the last Digital Citizens event (#digicitz). Her identification of the different perceptions held by some people within the small/medium business community regarding the use (or lack there of) of metrics, points succinctly to the journey that many business face with social media. Finding out what works for you is a very personal experience, which most of the speakers on the night addressed.
While I would personally advise people to use at least some form of analytics (wearing my Tribe Research hat)[also pointing to Annalisa's comment "We do use bit.ly and Google analytics to track general site traffic and referrers"], I also know that time pressures for small business mean that is not always possible.
In any case, it is hard to argue with a focus on “building and maintaining connections which in turn become friends”…
Annalisa
Thanks for the honorable mention and you’re right on the money. Two comments from me seeing as you asked
Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter are social online “places” where people ‘go-and-gather’. Like the DigiCitz event itself, on social media you’re asked to present yourself in places where there are people you know, are about to meet and those you don’t. You can try and measure the value attending these events but – intuitively you know it’s more socially and commercially beneficial to attend.
Secondly, your brand is you – that’s all. Best summarised in a tweet @iconic88 just posted:
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” ~ Dr Seuss
Great post, Annalisa – keep ‘em coming!
Cheers, Iggy
Great blogg!
Love how you tell it as it is Annalisa!
Twitter can be frustrating but you’re leading the way in growing a great brand since I first met you!
Keep it up.
Cheers
Stephen
Hi Annalisa
Coming from regional NSW the measure of my foray into the world of social media is definitely connections and forming, building and growing a network of collaborative people who excite, inspire, support and just plain make me laugh!- how else would I have met *YOU*!!!
Ive also won business from social media connections – not by actively selling my brand but simply through engagement!
I spoke about social media to a group of dynamic business women in Orange a couple of weeks ago and they were so happy that finally someone was spreading the word out here – it was the biggest rollup of attendees the group has had since it established! Im also interested in bringing great speakers across the mountains – yes there is a world of business beyond Penrith!!!!
Social media excites me but what excites me more is the real friendships – I feel so lucky to be part of wonderful communities such as yours
Rock on Annalisa
Leanne
Maximising Your Business Profits
Annalisa,
I agree with you, and others, who point out that sorting out ROI in social technology is often very particular to an individual business. For myself – at the moment – I see social technologies as being a way to build and communicate with a network. At the core, it’s really not much different from networking IRL.
When it comes to metrics, of course they are important – you can’t manage what you can’t measure. It’s all too easy to get caught up in stats and forget that sales is where business starts. So in the end, what counts is whether we achieved the sales we targeted and if not, what action is needed.
All the web traffic in the world doesn’t make a jot of difference unless we are able to convert that to a sale. In the end, what matters is probably leads, conversion rate and sales made. How you get there comes down to your own business strategy.
Thanks for a stimulating post.
Kate
Great post. And you are very right about twitter and facebook.