Yesterday, I shared my thoughts about social media ROI from the perspective of a small business owner. Now, it’s Shelby’s turn to take the She Said, He Said stage and share her perspective on the topic. And she loves having the last word since she’s always right, well until tonight’s #shehechat when I can rebut.
If you read Jim’s post yesterday about his thoughts on the return on investment (ROI) he realizes from social media, you’ll notice he focused on how his company ColorMetrix has benefited. While I have seen businesses grow and succeed in social media, I think it’s important to point out that there is such a thing as personal ROI too. I relate personal ROI to a good game of football. Let me explain.
Every team has a brand
When someone signs up for a personal social media account, they are also building a brand. If you think about it, the way social media works is all about branding. Most social media networks encourage you to choose an image for your avatar and write a short bio. That, my friends, is branding and your brand is whatever you choose to make of it. However, choosing not to upload a unique image and/or write a bio that accurately explains who you are or what you do is a choice that will hurt your personal brand and discourage others from interacting with you.
My play: I choose to use a fairly current photo of what I look like for my avatar in my social media networks. The bios on my accounts are all similar and usually include the phrase “shameless promoter of all things great.”
Building a good team
Since social media is in fact social, you need to create a team of followers who have similar interests related to your brand. Without followers, who are you going to interact with? A good way to find like-minded followers is to do a search on the chosen network with some of the key words you included in your bio. Of course, others will find you first in some cases and it’s easy to check their profile to see if they are someone you’d like to follow back.
My play: Actually, Jim wrote a good post last week and I agree with most of his strategy on this topic. I have many interests that range from Harley Davidson motorcycles to music to animals on the personal side. On a more professional level, I follow many in the printing, blogging and graphic design industries.
Every play needs a strategy
If you’ve met me, interacted with me in social media and/or read some of my blog posts, you know I’m a fan of developing your own social media strategy. What you put out there is out there forever and reflects on your brand and you as a person. To put it simply, every post or picture matters in the online world.
My play: My personal social media strategy includes not swearing, not discussing overly controversial subjects such as politics, religion or abortion and just generally not being negative. Sometimes that means not responding to people when they try to interact with me on these levels, but the positive far outweighs any negative feedback I’ve received.
How to know if you’ve scored in social media
Sometimes it’s difficult to determine if you’re scoring points in social media. There are networks like Klout that can help you figure that out, but you don’t really need Klout to keep score. Take a minute and look through your most recent interactions and the discussions that might have followed. Is it all mindless chitchat or are they meaningful conversations? Did you offer up advice, give a recommendation or share a link? If the answer is meaningful conversations and sharing information, you just scored in social media.
My play: I don’t care too much about my Klout score; although I do like looking over my most influential topics and those in the space that I’ve influenced. I think I have scored most of my points on Twitter lately. That’s where the conversations have sparked ideas and more work professionally for me.
Getting a good return on your brand
The key word in the ROI acronym is “investment.” As human beings, we invest time in everything we do and therefore we expect some kind of return on that time we invest. When we mow the lawn and tend our flower gardens, we expect a nicely landscaped yard as a return. Social media works the same way. You have to decide what you’re hoping to get in return for the time you invest in the social space. It could be that you just want to meet new people or keep up with your favorite sports team. Whatever you decide your preferred return is in social media, make sure your interactions keep the door open for it.
My play: I’ll give you an example from Twitter because that’s where I’ve been seeing the biggest return. Recently, a company tweeted to me “I have a hot project for you. Call or DM me asap.” I was on the phone within five minutes, meeting with the person within two hours and had a new paying project by the end of the day. If that’s not ROI, what is? Touchdown!
Tonight’s #shehechat topics
Join us tonight at 8 p.m. CST on Twitter by following the #shehechat hashtag. Our topics are listed below.
1. Social media ROI (return on investment)
2. Disaster reporting via social media. Does it work?
3. How different social networks sort streams. For example, Google+ places most recently commented upon posts first and Facebook lists most recent posts first regardless of comment activity.
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