I think this is a problem; companies shouldn’t be investing THAT much money in their social media. Sure, social media takes some resources, mainly in the set-up, and the time to post and engage the visitors, but the two main things that should be driving it and giving it momentum are: 1. The users (customers, constituents, fans, etc.); the idea/model behind social marketing is USER-generated content and 2. Your other marketing/branding efforts should be driving/feeding it.

It is hard to measure something subjective by objective means, and I don’t think social media was ever meant to be measured that way –that is to say, quantitatively. It was meant to be a qualitative space. This is a place where the sorely neglected right brain gets to come out and play without the confines of traditional business and marketing constructs – primarily dictated by left-brainers.

Having a successful social media presence comes with building trust (social currency), listening to the consumer, and integrating their feedback into the business. Additionally, there is something to those “making the bus on time” posts because they build a level of camaraderie and create a level of humanity. Consider Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos – I’ve read tweets from him on Twitter that talk about his ride in a taxi, a basic action that people do. Human behavior tells us that we buy from two types of people: those who are most like us (because they are less risky and don’t engage fight or flight) and those whom we are sexually attracted to (hoping self-explanatory). Creating a sense of being humanity reminds those that are interested in our business that we aren’t much different from them and we can be trusted. We can either increase that trust or we can destroy it based on how we continue to behave.

Organizations too should be hiring people they trust to represent the organization personally and fire the paper-pushers. If you require a staff to use scripts to solve problems and don’t empower them to help customers to their greatest ability (online or in real life) – you are doing your organization and customers a disservice. If you have a choice between two great job applicants – hire the best writer. When engaging in technologies like Twitter or Facebook, an organization should fully engage. As an example, AFLAC can be found on Twitter. Their support team remains faceless behind the Twitter account merely jumping in the conversation when they see a negative comment, yet they have never posted an actual tweet on their account – being completely reactive rather then engaging with customers.

Since the 80′s and the “decade of the MBA” many organizations have been biased to the idea of measurement and ROI, claiming that “if it can be measured it can be managed” (a quote often incorrectly attributed to management author Peter Drucker, who never actually said it). Customer happiness has been a mystery long wished to be measured. Though because of its subjective definition and the biases consumers have in surveys (likely to never give a perfect score) most attempts remain unreliable. Before worrying about the numbers corporations should be focusing on building happiness and delight in their customers making them passionate about engaging with the organization – that will continue to build them success both offline and online.

Sincerely, GravityFree