At the risk of exposing some of my own confusion about how to measure ROI, here are some ideas knocking around in my head as we lead up to Buzz2010 this Wednesday with Olivier Blanchard. There are a lot of different lenses to view ROI through. Typically, the most talked about (rose-colored) lens puts a PR slant on social media ROI. (Click on that last link…it’s got some golden nuggets from Don Bartholomew, VP, Digital Research at Fleishman Hillard.) For associations, our lenses might be a different hue.
- Membership recruitment — did social media help us sell new memberships?
- Membership retention — did social media help us renew current members?
- Public awareness — is social media a cost-effective means of building buzz?
- Government relations — is social media making our lobbying efforts more effective?
- Magazine publishing — is social media helping us drive ad revenue? Is it helping us reduce print costs? Is it helping us expand circulation?
- Book publishing — is social media driving book sales?
- Volunteer relations — is social media making it more cost-effective to manage volunteer groups?
- Local chapter administration — is social media making it more cost-effective to manage chapters?
- Continuing education and certification programs — is social media selling courses? Is it selling certifications?
- Conferences and trade shows — is social media selling registration? sponsorship? exhibits? Is it building buzz more cost-effectively around these events?
It’s complicated. That’s why it’s so important to collaborate, too. If you’re sitting in the membership department, focusing on ROI in terms of membership, you may miss an opportunity to showcase ROI in terms of all of these other lenses. Olivier will help us distill all of this to its simplest parts on Wednesday. We may even get to learn some calculations to back up our claims. Remember to register, and see you Wednesday.
Did you miss one of the breakfasts? Good thing we did video recordings of all three sessions.
