DISQUS

Chris Heuer · 1 year ago

of course, because there is little real investment (in capX terms at least)

however, the ROR, Return on Relationships, is effin HUGE!

samantha · 1 year ago

Great post. I circulated it to several clients.
Thanks!
-- @fein

Scott Monty · 1 year ago

Great point. How many times do companies ask their employees for the ROI of their telephones? Or the ROI of email? Exactly. Social media is just another communication method.

Jacob Morgan · 1 year ago

@chris
exactly, relationships or more valuable than any dollar amount. i still don't like using the term ROR because it sounds too much like making friends is a business decision and not so much a personal one. i prefer to simply use, friends.

@samantha
why thank you very much, im glad you enjoyed it :)

@scott
yep, the term ROI is becoming a cliche, we need to accept that when it comes to relationships ROI is not a metric we should be looking at.

Johnster · 1 year ago

I'm still torn. In a perfect world it would be about relationships and fun and everything would be grand. But this takes time for companies and time is money, so they want some sort of ROI/ROP/whatever you want to call it. And each company is different so it's dumb to try to set a standard metric...

I agree that people SHOULD think about social media the way you've laid out, but it's not always practical or possible.

Paula Thornton · 1 year ago

I'm not going to suggest you've gone too far to the 'other' side, but there are some distinctions needed. Social, relationships: related. But look at all of the equations and variables. How I relate with family/friends, different than industry colleagues, different than immediate team members, different than companies I do business with.

Capitalizing on and optimizing all of these distinctions IS the opportunity that stands before us.

Jacob Morgan · 1 year ago

@paula
good point, i don't thin i've gone to the other side as the title of the post is sarcastic. social media is extremely valuable, but thinking of it in terms of a dollar amount or roi is just not the right metric to use. thanks for reading and commenting!

ash · 1 year ago

Corporates stopped spending money on visitable branches and real employess (nationals of the country) answering phone calls and delivering good old fashioned customer service which was an opportunity for interaction with customers and helped shape, enhance or maintain people's views of them.

As the pace of customer alienation increases - catalysed by online purchasing (in part driven by customer's need for convenient and cheap) is social media a cheap way of clawing some of that relationship management back?

ROR huh. Cynical and call center hardened old me thinks the corporates dont want to be my friend but sidle up to, caress or lighten my wallet with minimal complaint. So i wont be placated by or enthralled with any pointlessly blogging CEO/MD or minion thereof - unless he/she displays humility, accountability, dependability and can listen, understand and take action - then social media has real value to all. Then we have ROI and ROMI - return on *my* investment in their business/product.

Was that a bit ranty for a sunday night!

@Stephen · 1 year ago

But I like the term "return on participation"

jacobmorgan · 1 year ago

ya, there are so many names for it, i think every company will have it's own "return."

thanks for reading and commenting!

Amber Rae Lambke · 1 year ago

Amazing post and perspective! this is still so misunderstood in the advertising and marketing field, and you captured it beautifully.

jacobmorgan · 1 year ago

hey amber, thanks for the kind words im glad you enjoyed it.

thanks for reading and commenting, hope to see you around here more often!