Thought you’d be interested in insights into a social media ROI methodology geared specifically towards the PR agency world.

Check out the preso.

Each ROI calculator is a little different, depending on the industry and company.  However, the basic elements are consistent and building the methodology is the hardest part.  I’ve done the hard thinking to help you.

Thanks to Dr. Natalie Petouhoff for her thought leadership.  She’s the bestest!

Figuring out how to convert metrics into financial insights can be tough if that's not your area of expertise.  Contact me if you need help. Happy to.

While he values determining the return on investment (ROI) for social business initiatives, he also expresses a preference for the Return on Customer (ROC) which is a means to determine the total customer equity.

To me, ROC is the little brother to smROI because getting to the latter is influenced by the former.

Strip it back and the reason why the social business model is fundamentally important is because it supports how real people relate and do real business.

Why then are companies still confused about the social business model?  Why aren’t they rushing to implement it in their own companies?

I’m going to explore these issues in this white paper, although I’m going to come at the discussion from a little different perspective than most other thought leaders in the social business space.

Along the way, I’ll explore why the social business model is so important for companies today ─ and the potential impact on failing to pay attention to it.

Click here to read Simplifying Social Business.

It would be easy to blame the reps. But take a step back and ask yourself "how much of the service problem is systemic, resulting from managerial over-control of the customer engagement process?"

This article is featured on Customer Management IQ. Click here to read it in its entirety.

True confessions, though, I’m not completely comfortable with this idea.

The reason? The inequality in a relationship where one party holds more power than the other.

Some will say the point of social media is to give customers power back.  Yes, it’s true – and it’s one of the great things about social media.  However, I also have concerns about the pendulum swinging too far to the left, in which case a new problem arises.

Social CRM: The Social Media Plugin To Make Businesses Customer-Centric

Mike Boysen is a pragmatic SCRM thought leader who shared his thoughts on why technology follows SCRM strategy.  I agreed with my own take.

Is a Business Culture Change required to find value in Social?

Mitch Lieberman raises the questions and shares his thoughts on a few answers.  I added mine.

I started to post a response to Esteban’s article but as I watched the length of my comment grow, decided to post it here instead.

Esteban postulates:

[D]o we need Sensemakers, people who can make sense of the data — or can we trust the systems to make sense and make the decisions for us?

Esteban’s essential argument is the world is too complex and the data volume so high that computers are needed to handle such high volumes of information and then act on them.

My thought?  I agree in part with the Esteban...but with a big qualification.

Chris wrote,

[ValueRight is] an application that takes a stab at applying the numbers involved in Social CRM – both the expenses and the revenues – to draw a clear picture of the impact Social CRM has.

…

[The] presence of such an application is great news for the Social CRM space; marketing suffered for years without the ability to associate costs and revenues with their efforts. Social CRM is an even trickier nut to crack.

Read the full review here.

You can also follow Chris on Twitter at @bucholz.

Our Pathlight Solutions’ social valuation tools now come in two flavors – ValueRight Social CRM and ValueRight Social Media.

ValueRight benefits

No matter which edition you select, ValueRight will determine the true dollars and sense valuation (and ROI) for your social initiatives.  Use one of the tools and you’ll provide the information executives most want to know, including:

• Cash flow of gains and costs.
• Net present value of gains, costs, and net results across multiple discount rates (also known as cost of capital).
• Return on Investment.