Dropping the ROI bomb in Social Media

If anyone’s tried to pitch a social media strategy to their boss, it normally goes like this. Everything’s going swimmingly as you surge through your presentation, dazzling them with the huge numbers engaged in this kind of thing, and how everyone else is doing it, and wouldn’t it be great if only they loosened their ties and got stuck in themselves – then someone drops the ROI bomb.

This great cartoon by Tom Fishburne: Marketoonist, who’s managed to turn cartoons into their own niche marketing channel, sums up the feeling brilliantly.

Why?

There’s no professional answer to this. It’s like saying, what’s the ROI of your pen.

Social Media is new space that’s opened up. The world pours in, and uses it how it wants, not how it’s told. But although the world never wants to be bothered by ads while it’s busy playing (check out AdAge’s survey showing how less than 1% engage with brands – but what sane person wants to be friends with a building?), it’s always open to interesting ideas and cool new stuff.

The only way to defuse the ROI bomb, then, is to focus on a particular activity you’re planning, not the thing itself.

What’s the ROI of your pen? Zilch, it’s just a tool. What’s the ROI of that campaign your pen’s writing? Now you’re talking.