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According to the study, "65% of respondents said that their companies have not increased revenue or profited using social media." When asked what their biggest challenge was, 36% responded that lack of valid metrics and data to develop ROI was to blame.
So what are the successful ones doing differently? They were twice as likely to have a social media strategy and twice as likely to have a dedicated person managing the media. They also were more likely to say that social media was valuable to their company and not many believed that time invested was pointless.
The reason I think this is interesting is that it validates a piece of best practice that experts have been clamoring about for a while--you need to have a plan before you jump in, and you should have someone responsible for management. How does that relate to those of us who are one-man communications shops?
Somebody asked me this week if it is necessary to have a social media policy/strategy if you are the only one in the department using it. An emphatic yes. It won't be long and you'll have a coach or two that want to use social media to brand their programs, no matter how small you are. Better to get out ahead of the rush and have your purpose defined and guidelines in order. Besides, I want to be one of the 35% that say social media has a measurable impact on our bottom line, whether it's ticket sales or fan conversions. Defining a plan and setting up some measuring devices will drastically increase the chances that social media will have a positive, measurable effect.
Do you think it's necessary to have a strategy/policy if you are a one-man shop?
5 comments:
Thanks for the thought provoking post Chris. I think it's particularly important to have a strategy for using social media, no matter what size your business is. For a start, the medium is so vast you'd quickly get lost without some kind of strategy in place. It's also so niche - you can't just try and reach everyone about everything.
We have very successfully used a social media strategist - Kathie Melocco - and she has helped us focus our use of social media with great results. While I agree measurement of ROI is difficult, you can measure website hits and blog readership. Also underestimated is the "long tail" of social media - it's one of those marketing investments where the ROI increases exponentially over time.
Love your comment--you are right--ROI tools are out there, and there are many good curators of the info as well. The good news is, a lot of the good tools are free.
I think it is more important than ever to have a strategy/policy if you are a one-man shop! What better reason? This was a great article and of great interest to me.
A few weeks ago I attended CABMA (College Athletic Business Management Association) in conjunction with NACDA in Anaheim, CA. There was much discussion about social media and how our association can go a better job reaching out to members and potential members.
Not to be cliché, but social media is not the future, it is now! The principles you write about can be applied universally.
Great job!
Jude Caserta
Athletic Business Manager
Canisius College
AthleticBudgetCoach.com/blog
There are many companies who doesn't know about social media power or some misuse the social media tool that why companies doesn't increase their revenue as they believed.In 2011 social media influence has increase on companies so be aware
I do agree that there are many companies who doesn't know about social media power or some misuse the social media tool that why companies doesn't increase their profit and they start loosing their market share.
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