Trying to place a marketing value to social media

When I was thinking about this topic I am reminded about the story from the late 19th century about the man who ran the U.S. patent office. It would seem he wanted to close the office because everything that could be invented, has been invented. A century and then some on we are still inventing stuff at a breathtaking pace. The question now is not so much one about invention but more about how to make money off of someones recent invention.

Take for example the social media explosion of the past few years. There is a great deal of controversy regarding how to best make money off it. There are as many ideas on how to do so as there are grains of sand on a beach. I would suggest that the only way to determine how to make money from any Web 2.0 technology is to determine if the technology fits your business model and if so, how does it?

As we saw in the late 1990's with the Internet, there was a stampede to get on board with a web site and to start selling on the web that very few people really were successful in doing it. The focus was on the end of the route that no one bothered to figure out how best to get there. The few organizations that were very successful on the web were the ones who spent the time, and money to figure out how best to build infrastructure and in the end marketed not the fact that they were online, but that they were an easier and possibly less expensive alternative to your local book store or flea market or whatever.

The emergence of social media and the potential to generate revenue from it is bedeviling a great many organizations. What brings a chuckle to me is that we are seeing a repeat of the late 1990's without the rush of cash from venture capitalists. Companies all want to be on Facebook and Twitter and Youtube but offer no great value to a consumer there. For example I am a fan of Coca-Cola on Facebook. I am told all sorts of trivia regarding Coke and its products but there is nothing for me as a consumer.

No I think as a marketing person, any new technology needs to understand what it can bring to a consumer before there is a mad rush to add a Facebook following or start putting videos up on Youtube. Ironically, very few organizations reward consumers for following them on social media sites or utilize them to build a stronger relationship. It is in many cases a practice in numbers for the sake of numbers.

It is very simple, social media offers marketing people a tremendous value. They have the chance to reach out to customers who want to be reached out to! The rate of success on a direct mail campaign is at best 5 percent, with social media it should be much higher since it is an opt-in strategy. Design programs that allow you to reach out to your followers online and most importantly, give them a reason to purchase your product and bring more potential customers!