You Cannot Guarantee Success in Social Media

I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of measuring success in social media. It is an extremely hard thing to do. Many people (social media gurus and consultants) shrug off ROI and claim that they can reach heaven using Facebook and Twitter.

I know because I have done it. I have promised it.

Trying to measure just social media… without integration with other tools… is plain STUPID. There are plenty of great examples of AWESOME social media campaigns out there but we are still lacking in the world of actual metrics (like direct mail and telemarketing).

You can’t just guarantee success in social media. In order to give a more balanced approach to my content, I decided to quote Brian Solis from a recent blog post.

From the foreword by Brian Solis of Social Media Geek-to-Geek:

“As much as I would love to tell you otherwise, there is no social media playbook for guaranteed success. There is no template to consistently satisfy customers. There isn’t a common recipe for delivering ROI.  The only set of instructions that matter are those that you write based on the reality of your business, the needs of your customers, and the state of the market.”

We tend to be really good at writing strategies based on the reality of the business world… however… we are terrible at actually listening to the customer. The customer, market, and your opinion of the strategy should lead the measuring of success in social media.

As much as we would love to give a proven value to social media… it has yet to be discovered. However, one thing is for sure…

Success is based on your ability to change and adapt with the marketing… and show a return on that shift.