Social Measurement

On the bell curve of social strategy adoption, there are the early adopters and those that want so much proof of a roadmap of success they will forever being playing catch up to their competitors. If you are one of these companies, I ask you to answer this question. Do you know what every customer is worth to you over their lifespan? I am guessing the answer is no. Even with customer loyalty programs and CRM systems, I am positive most rank and file employees do not know this number. 
In a case study in "I Love You More Than My Dog" by Jeanne Bliss, she highlights Zane's Cycles. They know that each customer is worth $12,500 over their life span of purchasing bicycles and associated products. (More in our case given my husband and I are avid cyclists) As a result, they are rabid about service. Ms. Bliss isn't the only one to notice this as Zane's is also a featured business in American Express' OPEN Forum. This is a community targeted at the small business owners with OPEN cards to interact with each other to share best practices. Getting noticed and having the over the top success is a wonderful achievement for Zane's. Let's be honest, they are located in Connecticut. Our winters are as conducive to year round cycling as say a shop in Texas.

If you want to know if a community is going to drive and product ROI, understand the worth of a community member (insert happy customer or valued customer). Also, by understanding what a well educated customer worth to you walking in the door, you can understand the importance of a welcoming and nurturing first impression is to your business. Your first impression is often what they see on the web. Think about how many times you "Google or Bing" a business prior to purchasing an item or walking in the door. A community for your customers discussing your business is a wonderful way to welcome existing and new customers looking to verify prior to trusting you with their hard earned capital.

Let's do some math. I am going to use some base line numbers. A new community is a first year investment of $75,000 - $100,000. An average customer spends $600 a year with you. This is $50 a month. (I drop that easily at a local nail salon.) This means a social community must produce an extra 175 customers to be profitable a year. How is that for an ROI number?


If you are a large enterprise, that is an easy number to commit to achieving. Say your average customer is worth $5,000 a year. That is only 20-25 customers you have to secure. A more realistic target is adding 100 more customers. That is ½ million in gross profit. Have I got your attention yet?


More math (sorry), add this to the number of community members that will increase their annual spend with you or not be as swayed by the competition because of the relationship and value you are expressing to them. Let's get scary… So your biggest competition deploys a robust uber friendly community and lures 200 customers away from you. What is that worth?


If you are looking for ROI, seek no further than the worth of one customer and divide it by the cost of deployment. It really is peanuts. I will ask it again... Do you know what every customer is worth to you over their lifespan?

INgaging in Social Prospecting

Today, the terms "Social Media", "Social Networking", and "Social Marketing" are part of the business conversation.   I have talked about in previous posts how I leveraged my network successfully to assist in my job search earlier this year.  This could be considered the advent of "Social Recruiting" or "Social Hiring".   This equates to leveraging information available through Search Engines and INgaging your network for additional resources and references.

I use same techniques daily in my role as a professional sales person and really, "Advisor" to companies looking to enhance their social footprint. The information is available online to complete a picture of who a prospective company is and who may be the players I need to access to be successful.  Can I identify gaps in their social strategy which my business solutions can be accessed for mutual success? If not, why I am I bothering them, because that is what I would be is a pest!   Gone are the days of Arthur Miller's famous character, Willy Lowman,  knocking on doors without an understanding of the needs of the consumer behind the keyhole.  Cold calling just got harder and easier at the same time...depending on your tenacity. For me,  the information available today makes for more robust first conversations and solid pipeline of people looking to make the journey to being more proactive in the social marketplace.

Translate this into an overall company strategy.  How is your area leveraging social channels to improve how it performs?   Is your R&D department harnessing the power of crowdsourcing to assist and vet new products and service enhancements? How is your HR department using the social realm to make better, faster, and cheaper hiring choices in the global war for talent? Is your Customer Care team listening and solving the challenges your customers are laying down for you on consumer social networking channels.  How does this effect the corporate brand?

Understand, not only is there solid data that companies with women on there executive team are more profitable, companies that have mastered the social conversation with their constitutes are winning on the valuation side hands down.   There is an solid ROI opportunity in every business from your local mortgage company to the Fortune 100.  The offerings I represent mostly translate to mid to large corporations.  However, there is value there beyond them.  It is my task to find the missing piece and translate into a business solution.   Leveraging the social channels helps me get smarter about the companies I choose to INgage with daily.

How are you using social applications to move your career and company forward?