Comments on: Is there any return on investment in social media?

By: PR brain, social media pillars and dealing with online misinformation….

PR brain, social media pillars and dealing with online misinformation…. — Sat, 22 May 2010 19:21:08 +0000

[...] Heflin provides ten pillars of social media engagement. [Thanks to Sherrilynne Starkie for the [...]

By: Social media as the amplifier « Figure It Out

Social media as the amplifier « Figure It Out — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 01:08:50 +0000

[...] media, SEO There are countless debates surrounding social media. Does social media deliver ROI? If so, how do you measure it? Should it even be called social [...]

By: Is social media worth the effort? | LeadMastersUSA

Is social media worth the effort? | LeadMastersUSA — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 18:42:15 +0000

[...] Is there any return on investment in social media? [...]

By: Kathleen Gage

Kathleen Gage — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:42:15 +0000

Excellent information. I have found Social Networking to be a viable resource to build JV relationships, network with peers and build my opt in list by offering information of very high value.

Kathleen Gage

By: Janet

Janet — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:34:41 +0000

Thanks for the article - I look forward to reading further!

By: 7 September: PR top 5 | Strive Notes

7 September: PR top 5 | Strive Notes — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:54:23 +0000

[...] Ten ways to measure the ROI of social media; Charles Helfin has some really good advice on [...]

By: Is social media worth the effort? |

Is social media worth the effort? | — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 06:52:16 +0000

[...] Is there any return on investment in social media? [...]

By: Why does ROI in social media suck? |

Why does ROI in social media suck? | — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:09:49 +0000

[...] series that I am doing on gaining a return on effort and money spent in social media (ROI). In the last post in this series I had made the following statement: The level of success in social media (as [...]

By: Clocking the speed of content indexing |

Clocking the speed of content indexing | — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:52:30 +0000

[...] the speed of content indexing, this is nothing but a test. The regularly scheduled series, “ROI in social media” will continue in a moment. For now I want to test the speed at which new content on this [...]

By: Sylvia Buetow

Sylvia Buetow — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:35:17 +0000

This clarified my understanding a little more. I’d like to post a link to this article in my Social Marketing group on Facebook. They may or may not be at a level to understand.
Sylvia Buetow

By: Why does ROI in social media suck? by Charles Heflin

Why does ROI in social media suck? by Charles Heflin — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:31:41 +0000

[...] Comments Charles on Is there any return on investment in social media?flyfishingcolorado on Clocking the speed of content indexingRobert Worstell on Is there any return [...]

By: Charles

Charles — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:03:01 +0000

Thank you Robert,

Your comment adds a great deal of clarification to the overall point of this post.

- Charles

By: Michael S. Copeland

Michael S. Copeland — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:56:11 +0000

@Robert Worstell

You are right. Social Media gets you the relationship. They get to “know” you. But the real magic happens when you take them from a Social Networking site to your own place. Or hell even pick up the phone or direct email.

I’ve always said it… People buy from People. So use the Social Sites to be social and converse with your targeted market, but let them come to you. Your intention shouldn’t be to make the sale, it should be to genuinely help and bring value to that community.

when that is done, they will come. And when they do, they will be loyal and mostly evangelists!

That’s the formula.

By: Robert Worstell

Robert Worstell — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:49:40 +0000

Oh, another point - germane to the above. Marketing isn’t just sales. It has a great deal of promotion in it (as well as other actions), as several people have pointed out.

Example: I’ve said that social media can’t be used for marketing (or something to that effect) - better, it is that social media can’t be used for the “whole cycle” of marketing. Meaning, yes - you build trust and get people curious about you and what your company produces, but carrying out the conversion of leads to sales has to take place offline, out of the social media area proper.

Lots of deals may have been forged while on the golf course - but they weren’t playing golf at the time. They were doing a deal, even while leaning on that golf club or talking over mixed drinks at the club. But even then, the paperwork was concluded back at the office.

Social media promotion is completely acceptable - within the rules of that particular social media. Mostly, this is in the form of giving high-quality, valuable content - with a link to your website, blog, or email.

Digg used to be “hell on wheels” in this regard - stuff was voted out of existence and removed. However, it’s become so big that now you can digg your own stuff and it stays there for a long time with no one except the search engines noticing. Other sites are similar.

And you don’t have to be extremely popular to effectively promote your stuff - we are all mostly working on long-tail niches to be successful in online marketing after all.

The point is social media promotion, yes; full-cycle social media marketing, no.

Hope this clarifies…

By: Charles

Charles — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:56:31 +0000

@Dave and @James - There is such thing as social media advertising, I have used Facebook ads as an example. The funny thing about social media is … It IS what we make it to be so there is no single correct answer. Social media can be used for more than just social interaction without question.