“I learned a lot about ROI. I learned that no one knows what ROI is for communities so I get to make up whatever i want.”
That is a quote heard by Patrick Courtney of Social Media Playground at the Online Community Unconference East 2009 at Baruch College in New York City. The sentiment expressed in the quote may scare you, but it also should empower you. Either way, it’s good to recognize that, with regards to community ROI, we’re entering a whole new ball game.
We know that ROI is thrown around willy-nilly today. Sometimes, it’s evolved to not even indicate an annualized rate of return; instead, it’s come to connote more of a general, “is this working?” feeling.
Courtney admits that the quote “defines an ever-present struggle of proving the worth of enterprise social networks. An online community is a living, dynamic strategy that can produce many valuable returns on your investment, not all of which will have direct financial impact.”
But he’s also provided three takeaways from his meeting, and we’re keen to share them with the rest of the world as well. The full post at the link below.
Define the R - It’s a good idea to define your goals and the appropriate strategy to achieve them before trying to justify the investment….
Quantify the R - After you know what you want and what you’re going to do, figure out how you’re going to measure it…
Wait for It… - Online communities take time to produce results.
The full story at Social Media Playground:
http://www.socialmediaplayground.com/social-media/my-roi-measuring-the-returns-of-social-network-marketing/2009/02/23/
