[SPOILER ALERT - I haven't solved the problem of ROI in social media. In fact, I mostly whine about it. But if that sounds good to you, read on. ;-)]
I posted earlier about my experience at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston. Now that I’ve teed up the concept of the social business, I wanted to turn my attention to a favorite related topic: ROI. The very mention of those fearsome letters causes agencies everywhere to tremble in their [Whatever shoes cool people wear these days. It's been a long time since I knew.]
Since the concept of social inside a business is still relatively new, there’s naturally a lot of question about whether it’s a fad (like the internet) or whether it’s really here to stay (macrame classes at the adult education center). Erudite soul that I am, I figured I’d throw my hat into the ROI ring.
It’s certainly possible (although not always necessary) to spend a lot of money on "social" – depending how far you want to go. Every conference I’ve been to has had a bustling vendor area with folks who are eager to sell their wares into big companies – and many are buying. But the problem is that social technologies are disruptive technologies. And trying to measure the ROI of a disruptive force means that we’re trying to measure tomorrow’s business models by today’s standards.
In wikinomics, Don Tapscott argues that we’re entering the era of the collaboration economy – and exiting what we’ve come to know as the information economy. And if social/collaborative tools are what’s going to get us there, it’s kind of a fallacy to evaluate them based on information economy standards, isn’t it?
At the conference there were a lot of references to the fact that, after WWII, there was an enormous debate as to whether office workers should have telephones at their desks. Wouldn’t they just use them to waste time and gossip? And email – enormous amounts were spent on trying to study the ROI of email. And eventually the case was made that it would be better for people to HAVE email than NOT to. But the interesting thing is that people always debate and agonize over ROI before investments are made … but they rarely go back and actually see whether the ACTUAL results matched the PREDICTED results . . . it just sort of fades into history.
There are a lot of very knowledgeable folks (mostly in PR, perhaps not coincidentally) who’ve started bandying new terms about – terms like "Return on Engagement" and "Return on Interaction." And there’s a lot of relevance to what they’re saying. But it still feels to me like a partially veiled attempt to put a new economy square peg into an old economy hole.
As I declared up front, I haven’t licked the ROI problem. But I can say this: The answer is out there. I can feel it – and we’re all going to know it when we see it. In the meantime, I’m glad to work at a company that’s willing to invest in a future that it can sense, but not quite touch. And I think that’s enough good faith to give us a significant leg up on reaching an important (but equally nebulous) goal – to become a leader in the coming collaborative economy.
For those who are interested, I’ve embedded the video from the Enterprise 2.0 conference in which this was hotly debated:
Photo by Alex Dunne
Follow Me image by Limeshot
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
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I just returned from the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston — my first time there. The whole concept of enterprise 2.0 is a passion for me — so I figured that in the wake of the conference I’d talk a little bit about WHAT enterprise 2.0 is all about and WHY I think it’s a big deal.
While not everyone may be familiar with the e2.0 term, most people HAVE heard (ad nauseam) about Social Media and User Generated Content. And those concepts are related — although not the same. Social Media — and another favorite buzz-term, “User Generated Content,” — have already been disruptors in numerous industries. For example, “News” isn’t just what major media conglomerates tell us it is. It’s what all of us believe it is. And that has changed the face of radio, television, and especially newspapers, forever.
And while we all know what the news business ISN’T anymore, we don’t necessarily know what it WILL BE. We’re in a state of transition — that much is clear. And there was some really interesting dialog at e2.0 about the nature of that transition. Are businesses evolving? Or are we truly in a state of revolution?
Ross Mayfield, the founder of SocialText (and one of the most quotable guys you’ll ever see) had this to say in the evolution/revolution debate:
“Revolutions only happen when people don’t have a choice. Nice, easy evolutions occur when people have lots of choices.”
I found that pretty interesting . . . and it made me think about how that might apply to the healthcare industry. How much real choice do consumers have? For that matter, how much real access to information do they have?
Some folks at the Dachis Group whose thinking I admire just released a map of their vision for the social business (another, perhaps more sophisticated, way of articulating Enterprise 2.0).
Social Business Design Originally uploaded by David Armano While you’d have to read what David Armano or Peter Kim say about this to understand its full impact, what I can say is this: The social business is not about technology. And it’s not about PR. Or, more accurately, it’s about both of those things, but also much more. It’s about company culture. It’s about the way people work together. It’s about innovation — often open innovation. It’s about collaborating differently inside and outside your company. These are all things that we’re working through now at Humana.
So is social business an evolution or a revolution? If I had to make a call, I’d lean toward the latter. I think we’re coming to a place where new business models will reign — but we haven’t discovered those models yet. But in this economy, we’re running out of choices. And just ask Ross Mayfield what happens when people no longer have a choice.
Photo by Alex Dunne
Follow Me image by Limeshot
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
Quick… How can you get a whole bunch of corporate types into a room to talk about what social media means for their business?
Give up?
You can start by aligning yourself with the best thinkers in the business . . . and bringing in a renowned expert like Chris Brogan to host an all day boot camp that gets everybody in your business excited about what social can do for them.
That’s what we did last week, working in partnership with Doe-Anderson’s JasonFalls. We in the innovation center linked up with Humana’s HR and IT departments and brought Chris and company to Louisville to host his Inbound Marketing Boot Camp. Talk about an action-packed experience. I think that there was more energy in the room by the end of the day then there was when Chris got the crowd going in the morning. People were ready to move mountains.
Seriously.
If your organization needs a social shot in the arm, then here is a breakdown of our experience:
Chris Brogan – Provided off the cuff commentary on where social media is and where it is going in his signature style. Worth the price of admission alone… but wait – there’s more!
Rick Burnes, Hubspot - Ran everyone through the importance of optimizing blog posts for lead generation
Amber Naslund, Radian6 - Talked about listening and reacting to what people are saying about your brand on-line
Greg Cangialosi, Blue Sky Factory CEO – Gave a great talk on the value of direct E-mail marketing, metrics, and social E-mail
JasonFalls, Doe Anderson – Walked us through the art of Public Relations / Blogger outreach and relationship building
In addition to the direct benefits accrued from the knowledge that these individuals bestowed on the crowd, there were other, more subtle benefits to hosting an event like this one. Here are some that have occurred to me, in no particular order:
Social Media Awareness – Who better to bring in to talk about social media than an expert? And not just any expert, mind you. Chris’ draw was huge, both internally to our organization and regionally, with a packed house (right around 100 attendees) throughout the day. The Humana people I talked to after the event were all very excited to get moving with social after the boot camp and I heard nothing but great things about people’s experiences that day. If you have people in your organization who are on the fence about social media and your business, convince Chris to come to your place of business to throw a boot camp and watch opinions of social media change before your very eyes.
Outing Social Media Sympathizers – Let’s face it, whether they are engaged in social media or not, most people are at least curious to know what all the fuss is about. Throwing an event like this gets people in your organization talking, leading up the event. By identifying the people who are interested in the subject, you are able to find like minds who will eventually help your business become the social enterprise it longs to be… Extra bonus for getting them all in the same room at the same time during the boot camp itself.
Creating Community – We probably could have made it a Humana only event, judging by the interest we had, but by hosting the event and opening up the doors to non-Humana folks I think we gained a lot more as an organization. But social media is all about community and collaboration, and we wanted to share that experience with others outside our own organization. We had the chance to meet and mingle with social media professionals from other organizations, and the importance of that can not be overstated in my opinion. Social media cross-talk is key as we all feel our ways around integration into our business, and strive to support our members/customers in new and engaging ways. Huge plus.
Being the Conversation – A short-term benefit, but a benefit nonetheless, was the conversation that this event generated on Twitter. Participants used the hashtag #imbc and 76 people talked about it throughout the day, many talking about their first time experience with Humana as a company. You can find a list of those people here, thanks to Dave Lowe.
So all in all, as the title of this post states… the Inbound Marketing Boot Camp was a hit. I highly recommend it and can’t say enough about the experience. How are you bringing social to your organization?
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DISCLAIMER ALERT: The ideas expressed in this post came out of my own head, were researched by my own eyes and were expressed by my own hands. They are not intended to serve as medical advice in any way, shape or form. And they do not reflect the views of Humana Inc. or any of its subsidiaries. I take full responsibility if you think this post is awesome or not awesome.
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