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I wanted to pick out some thoughts from one panel at SXSW concerning ROI in social media campaigns, otherwise seen pinging around the blogosphere:

“My Boss Doesn’t Get It: Championing Social Media To The Man

We all know that social media is the best thing since sliced bread, right? Then why is it so hard to explain the value of social media to people who don’t get it? Join our panelists, who have successfully championed social media initiatives, for a discussion of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to selling social media to your boss or clients. This panel is sponsored by Small World Lab.”

Panelists:

Miles Sims VP of Product Mgmt,   Small World Labs

Peter Kim Sr Partner,   Dachis Corporation

Michael Wilson Founder/CEO,   Small World Labs

Rebecca Caroe Sales & Business Dev Expert,   CreativeAgencySecrets.com

Christian Caldwell Web Interaction and Usability Specialist,   Small World Labs/American Heart Association

(info taken from the SXSW site)

It was interesting to hear Christian Caldwell note that reach is the most important metric whilst stressing there are no standard measurements of ROI in social media – they must be formulated around your individual company. I must admit that I did come out a little dissapointed as I was perhaps wrongly looking for more examples in practice of how the panelists succesfully negotiated the ROI issue for a particular social media channel. Yet esteemed ex-Forrester analyst Peter Kim is right when he notes that ROI is based on too many assumptions and from the marketer’s point of view it remains a formulaic science.

It comes down to the continuing fragmentation of social media driving too much complexity. The number of media channels available to marketers, agencies and consumers keep on growing and then the platforms you may have established some measurement for evolve (one example might be Facebook – conversations have now shifted to status updates). Proliferation of choice offers marketers new opportunities, such as social networks, mobile, and branded entertainment, yet each of these has its own success metrics and dynamics, making comparison and the calculation of ROI near impossible.

However, the panel did offer tips for a succesful social media campaign:

- Plan

- Measure and report results to ensure acknowledgement

- Build culture and seed it

- Articulate the metrics to set expectation

- Define what you plan to achieve up front

Some more SXSW reflections from blogs afar:

- Peter Kim, Reflections on SXSW ’09

- Nathan McDonald, SXSW Interactive Highlights
- Jackie Huba, 18 cool things at SXSW
- Rachel Happe, SXSW ’09 retrospective
- Alora Chistiakoff, Highlights from SXSW 2009
- Mack Collier, SXSW Recap – The Sessions
- Jeff Beckham, SXSW Scorecard
- Aaron Strout, Overheard: I Survived SXSW ’09 and Lived To Talk About It
- Marc Berry, 2,584 words on SXSW Interactive 2009
- Mike Stopford, SXSW Interactive 2009 – Reflections

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 at 11:12 pm and is filed under Events, Shipping News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.