The Fantastic Four Returns On Social Media

I know I’ve written a lot about Social Media recently, but I find sticking on a subject and forming it (like I did with PR last month) is useful for all of us, as we move past concept and get into framework. Sure, it doesn’t make for ‘high traffic’ articles, but this is about enabling us to do better, not raising my own profile.

Now I don’t call ROI anything else other than Return On Investment, because it’s not. But non-financial impact must not be neglected – whilst not being mixed up with ROI. Advocacy, for example, is not measured by ROI, but ask any real brand manager if they can do without it and the answer is no.

If you’re in the overwhelming large group of individuals-turned-consultants-turned-practioners (let’s call them ‘Social Media Solos‘) who are enterprising through social media, then ROI is not the sole aim of your social media efforts. Networking, exposure to ideas, community, collaborative projects, friendship – these are all vital for the survival of any Solo. I’m a living example – Like Minds is the result of these, not the result of finance and ROI. But then, by virtue of these non-financial impacts, we could generate revenue.

John Elkington coined Triple Bottom Line in 1994, but today I’m sharing four bottom lines – and with ‘Quadruple Bottom Line’ not being the most marketable phase, I’m going with a homage to a recent Olivier Blanchard post and rolling with The Fantastic Four.

What follows is a rather conceptual look at what people like me, and probably you, are able to draw from social media. Buzz words may be heavy, and measurement will be very tricky – but – they all play a vital part and must be recognised. Here they are:

1. Finance

This is the first bottom line. Without it, the other bottom lines are meaningless because we can’t operate. We must, must, must measure ROI – and social media does deliver it. Now there’s loads of debate on that statement I’ve just made, and it isn’t the aim of this post to enter into it, so I’ll just point you to smroi.net to get hooked up on that subject.

Just promise me you won’t take your eye off finance. Moving on…

2. Favours

“Where can I eat in … ?”, “Who has a beta invite to … ?”, “Who knows how to fix…?”, “Who has a power adapter I can borrow?” – these are valuable because you get answers to questions without a fee – and if you ask the right questions, you can get some incredible answers from experts – for free.

Do not underestimate the wealth of response you can get – favours – with social media. Make it your habit to Ask Twitter First, Ask Google Second, as you will often get sharper, more informed, more balanced, and more committed responses.

These favours also extend to carrying out basic research, litmus testing, experimentation, and even crowd sourcing. I’ve run a number of ‘favour tests’ and have found you should ask the same question worded slightly differently twice, about an hour apart. Don’t do this often, but this does work when you do.

3. Friendship

Yeah, I know. Friendship? Yeah. Friendship. Check out #cozytweetup and #tuttle – it’s friendship. Online tools are enabling offline and even online friendship. Why else is Twitter so addictive? Why else is Facebook so engaging?

Friendships like these – augmented friendships, if you will – become groups, communities, collaborations, tribes, etc, etc. These are the people who support you, provide trusted criticism and feedback, and will get behind your message. More often than not, they are your key influencers that extend your reach, creating a wider and deeper audience.

4. Fellowship

Perhaps the greatest return on your social media efforts (when you consider that most solos are not making money directly through social media) is fellowship, as in, ‘The Fellowship Of The Ring’ – people gathering around a mission.

I can’t begin to express the value in fellowship, particular in regards to social media. Thinking (yes, again) about Like Minds, the relationship I’ve built with Trey and Olivier by flying them over for 10 days is not one of just finance, favour or friendship – we have undertaken a mission together, and subscribed to a purpose of empowering new thinking that encompasses the other returns.

So there you have it – The Fantastic Four Returns On Social Media. Over to you.

Image courtesy of my friend, Trey Pennington. And yes, I was tired at that point!