Meta-ROI and social media engagement for brands


I want to believe.

Granted, I’m finding it less of a credulity-stretching exercise than taking UFO-ologists seriously,

Charlene Li’s post for the Altimeter Group about their study of how engaged major brands were with social media – called ENGAGEMENTdb – says that there is a link between how deeply an organisation engages with its customers in social media and its performance:

…we also looked at the financial performance of the brands, grouping the companies with the greatest depth and breadth into a group called “Social Media Mavens”. These Mavens on average grew 18% in revenues over the last 12 months, compared to the least engaged companies who on average saw a decline of 6% in revenue during the same period. The same holds true for two other financial metrics, gross margin and net profit.

Note that we are not claiming a causal relationship — but there is clearly a correlation and connection. For example, a company mindset that allows a company to be broadly engage with customers on the whole probably performs better because the the company is more focused on companies than the competition.

I *believe* that this is right. It will be a tough one to defend in the court of cyncicism though, or even against healthy scepticism.

Kathryn Corrick (@kcorrick) Twittered last night that “It’s one of those things that looks mightily convenient. To really know you’d have to see the data and understand other activity.”

Absolutely, an I hope Altimeter and the rest of the network apply some rigour to testing this fascinating hypothesis. Once I’m back to work I will be taking a closer look myself…

One reason it rings true for me is that it gives a path to explaining the value of social media engagement to organisations hat doesn’t get trapped in the cul-de-sac of direct ROI, that is “dollar in, dollar fifty out” marketing as they say.

It makes sense that the value delivered by social media engagement would be delivered at an organisational level, that it would be meta-value rather than transactional value, trackable only to point where individual interacts with brand. It’s meta-ROI, then?

Social media is not about just marketing, it touches the whole organisatioin. Engagement as we are beginning to understand it. Because the principles and processes that are required to engage in social media leads organisations to a philosophical, ethical, strategic position where they need to start being useful in their networks.

…that means creating thick value, as Umair Haque calls it, as opposed to thin value, which is about squeezing the last drops of value of out of markets, systems at any cost.

…as brands develop social web literacy, the pull toward creating thick value becomes ever more compelling. It’s hard to resist, once you begin to understand the power and potential of networks.

…that’s why Andy Lark, VP of global marketing at Dell, starts off talking about social media being the most important thing that Dell (which scores very high in the Altimeter report)

…that’s why Dachis Group, founded by marketers is a “social business design(TM)” company, not a marketing company.

… that’s why if you design an engagement approach (as we do with the social spaces framework at iCrossing) you cannot limit what you do to the group of people known as the marketing department.

: : Bonus link: On the purchase funnel and engagement side of things -which we shouldn’t gloss over at all – @kcorrick recommended listening to this McKinsey podcast “The consumer decision journey”s…


10 responses to “Meta-ROI and social media engagement for brands”

  1. Indeed, wouldn’t it be great if engaging in social media alone could propel your business to new heights? I think this is more about how well a company engages with it’s customers across any channel and the whole customer journey rather than just on social media.

    Companies who really get being customer focused, who have mapped out their customer journey and its touchpoints, who get the benefit of being open and honest with their audience are most likely to also be engaged in social media. Just doing social media alone though won’t create the success the report hints at.

  2. This is potentially a huge step forward in defining the value, and measuring the success, of social media.

    Value through organisational engagement is something we have all been preaching for sometime, but to have the stats that back it up, and to be able to confirm an immersive approach rather than focus on return on sales offers another, arguably more important, definition of success online that we’ve all been looking for.

    I agree further proof and hard data will be required to evidence the correlation and connections here, but hats off to Charlene Li and the Altimeter Group on ENGAGEMENTdb, and thanks for your insight and bringing it to my attention Antony.

  3. @Steve – yep, I agree. It’s engagement as a state of mind, or as an acid test or as a catalyst for change…

    Engagement can be taken as a clue, a signal of quality in an organisation’s whole approach and thinking…

  4. […] to miss the ENGAGEMENTDB announcement from Charlene Li at Altimeter the first time around, but Antony Mayfield’s post today on the subject has re-ignited the issue, and I’m taking the opportunity to get […]

  5. […] Meta-ROI and social media engagement for brands | Open (minds, finds, conversations)… there is a link between how deeply an organisation engages with its customers in social media and its performance (tags: roi socialmedia socialsquare strategy) […]

  6. […] Martin: Meta-ROI and social media engagement for brands | Open (minds, finds, conversations)… – there is a link between how deeply an organisation engages with its customers in social media and its performance […]

  7. Agreed – we need some more information on the link between engagement with social media and hard metrics such as sales, profit etc. And any ROI has to be at the meta, not the micro level. Diet is a good analogy I think http://richardstacy.com/2009/03/09/social-media-measurement-think-carrots/

  8. […] who engage more in social media perform better in the marketplace. I was drawn to this by a timely piece from Anthony Mayfield of […]

  9. […] Meta-ROI and social media engagement for brands – I want to believe, by Anthony Mayfield A review and thoughts on Charlene Li’s post for the Altimeter Group regarding the group’s study of how engaged major brands were with social media and the link between how deeply an organisation engages with its customers in social media and its performance. […]

  10. […] Antony Mayfield (Chair) – SVP Social Media, iCrossing […]

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