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?

Our trip to Mecha

Thinking I made a stupid typo? Our company has recently merged with another corporation with a large office in Mechanicsburg PA. So, Monday and Tuesday (September 10-11th) we made a pilgrimage together to Mecha not Mecca. Interesting concept... Lots of symbolism.


What was the purpose of the meeting and gathering. Revelations, communication, and the evangelizing of how WE are going to revolutionize and change the way everyone communicates, markets, and conducts business through enterprise social networks.

We have a lot to do and a short time to accomplish our aggressive but important goals.

I can't wait to explore the future, have fun and make money!

Double Down on Enterprise Social Networking

I mentioned the "We are Smarter than Me" project in a blog entry a couple of months ago. Well, the first revelations are in the process of being fine tuned into a book that was written by the crowds. I am extremely privileged to have an copy of the compiled book. My prediction is it will be the Fall 2007, "Good to Great" for the business world. I am not going to give away the end or even a sample of the case studies that are included. You are just going to have to read it for yourself. Remember, the proceeds of the book are going to charity.

I was working on a project today with the manuscript while getting a pedicure and manicure. It got me to thinking about the history of community and the Internet. It made me want to "double down" on my bet of the future of enterprise social networking. I feel like my company has two aces with a dealer on a bad luck streak. Time to double down!!

Having moved around the past couple of years, I have consistently had to depend on the members of the new community to provide counsel and advise on EVERYTHING. I ask colleagues, neighbors, and strangers for recommendations on landscapers, doctors, nail salons, hairdressers, mechanics, and restaurants. I relied on the community for my immersion into a new environment.

I observed a small example of this while in the nail salon today. I had just finished reading a small blurb in the text about people have historically depended on their communities for direction .... think of the bazaars and farmers markets still in existence in the third world. This is a place for shopping for information and goods and services.... Don't by fish from him for x reason or the stall over two has a great price on widgets.

Today, three perfect strangers were swapping restaurant reviews about area restaurants. The top spoons go to Good News Cafe in Woodbury and Thomas Moran's Petite Syrah and Forsythia's in Washington and New Milford respectively with a communal nod that the Cookhouse was certainly a great establishment. Weren't we all lucky to have so many great options? Then it happened! The oldest member of this gaggle of women and the youngest started talking about Restaurant.com. "Isn't it great? You can rate the restaurants, read reviews, see menus and make reservations." said the Matriarch EUREKA! This is socialized networking and enterprise networking .. and more than that a multi channel community that restaurant.com had in a nail salon.

There are people which believe that this is a bunch of hooey. I know them. As a person that respects and consults history to predict future social behavior, I bring up the history of email.
Question, did you have a personal or professional email first? Most people had an AOL or CompuServe account? Before your time? Sorry, I am an old timer for personal computers. I had one of the first TRS-80's from Radio Shack prior to getting out of middle school. I also one of the first email accounts of my friends. I wasted more time than I want to admit in the 1990's waiting for the words "You've Got Mail". My husband and I developed our relationship through emails prior to meeting in 1999 and spent hours "IM'ing" each other during the day. My love notes disappeared into the oblivion when I closed the conversation...

In 1999, the company I worked for did not have corporate email. This was all done on a laptop and email account I personally funded. My boss was nice enough to have a data line installed in my office when she realized the impact of Monster.com on the recruiting industry was starting to have. Imagine someone trying to do placement and HR recruiting today without email? Role forward just eight years. EVERYONE has email.. personal and professional. I get my email on my Blackberry. I have a crackberry problem. I am not looking for therapy or sympathy. I love it. The non corporate environment demanded access to email from their companies. The same will be true of the people that are accustom to FaceBook, Friendster and My Space for companies to employ Social Networking as part of their overall customer communication, product development and customer retention.

My mind went nuts about other examples of communities that have spread like a virus on to the Internet. I am sure you can all think of examples. Do tell! Hit the comments link and share. Be part of my community. I dare you...