Inbound Marketing Summit Live, hosted by Awareness, Inc.

If you couldn’t' make the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston this week, Awareness, Inc., with some help from moderator Mike Lewis and PermissionTV, made virtual attendance possible, through a streaming live session, featuring a panel discussion, with some of the top leaders in the social media space.   

During this session, panel members, including Chris Brogan (President, New Marketing Labs), C.C. Chapman (Creative Director, Campfire), Paul Gillin (Principal, Gillin Communications), Jason Falls (Principal, Social Media Explorer), and Brian Solis (Principal, Futureworks) sifted through the hype of social media, discussing case studies and anecdotes of companies—large and small—that are using social media to get business results.

Are the “Experts” Ruining Social Media?

Lewis opened the session, with a satyrical clip from the SocialMediaGuru video, which is making the rounds on YouTube. (Disclaimer: The video contains some strong language, but makes its point.) After the video, Lewis asked how much harm self-proclaimed social media “experts” are doing to more established social media consultants. Though some panelists expressed concerns that the self-proclaimed social media experts are damaging the perception of social media in general, others maintained that clients are able to see through those who do not have the experience to back up their claims. 

Measuring Social Media’s ROI

Lewis moved on to ask the panel about the measurability of social media’s ROI, which led to a lively exchange on whether it’s possible to standardize social media metrics. Jason Falls kicked off the discussion, saying that using social media represents a long-term investment in the life of your customer, and that there are no simple answers. C.C. Chapman responded that ”if you have not figured out how to measure sucess, you have already failed.” Several panel members, including Brian Solis, cited KD Paine’s metrics, as a starting point for determining social media ROI.

Paul Gillan responded that social media is the most measurable medium ever invented, as business decisions with these tools almost always result in a click. “All that’s necessary is tracking the click backwards and seeing where it originated,” he said.

According to Solis, 86% of companies are not measuring ROI at all, though he belongs to the remaining 14% who measure ROI, based on criteria defined up-front, such as ”clicks, views, referrals, or retweets on Twitter….” Solis explained that measurement criteria must be part of your overall marketing strategy, when defining a site’s call to action.

Chapman interjected that companies must get their own respective houses in order, before asking consultants to measure results for data to which they do not necessarily have access. As an example, he offered that it’s possible to track where leads are coming from for a particular download, through Salesforce.com or other ERP systems. 

Standardizing Metrics for Social Media

The panel further discussed whether it’s possible to standardize metrics for social media, with Brian Solis taking the position that is, while Chris Brogan, best-selling co-author of Trust Agents, maintained it’s not. Brogan said, “…the old standards are a lot of voo doo…” and by implication do not apply to new media. Gillan offered that while we can measure the ROI of content on particular platforms like YouTube or Twitter, it’s not possible to measure the ROI of social media, as a whole, across all platforms. 

According to Gillan, the whole question of standardized metrics for social media is a bit bogus, as ”we don’t have standardized metrics for PR or advertising.” However, he added, …”we have just been doing PR and advertising for so long, we have confidence that we will get a certain return”… ”Will we continue to pour money into old channels that don’t work?” he asked. For Gillan, it’s not a question of  “if social media works, but when.”

Case Studies

When pressed for examples of companies that are using and measuring social media the right way, the panel declared Cisco as the big winner, because according to Brain Solis, Cisco does its homework upfront, planning out its approach to social media. After providing Solis keywords, Cisco asked Solis to identify where conversation related to those keywords was happening. Solis found that most conversations about Cisco were occurring on message boards. This information helped Cisco set social media goals accordingly.

Other panelists pointed to Microsoft’s Channel 9, IBM’s use of video on YouTube, and the Spiceworks community as succesful examples of social media in action.

Business to Business: Still People

As far as business to business, as opposed to business to consumer companies, moderator Mike Lewis asked the panel how different their approach to social media is in settings where it is not one person, but usually a group of people in a decision-making role. Chris Brogan responded that “Social media is about connecting with people, and they are still people.”  

Too Much Transparency?

Another question raised by Mike Lewis was, “Is there ever too much transparency?” Gillan replied that we are in the middle of a shift in which everything was locked down, to the opposite, where people are sometimes going too far, jeopardzing even personal safety or their home’s security, announcing for example, their vacation plans and whereabouts in advance. In a business setting, Gillan stated that transparency doesn’t necessarily mean laying out your entire strategy. “What it does mean is being honest with your customers.” ”If you can’t be honest, then that’s a different problem with your business,” he explained. Citing Google’s beta model, Gillan expressed that social media helps companies make their process transparent. 

Have a Community. Now What?

Chapman provided advice for those who have already formed communities. “Give your communities something to do,” he advised, whether it’s a contest, developing your own Facebook application, or sharing photos.” In general, he recommends finding ways to entertain or educate your communities. ”If you are stumped what to do with your community, then ask them,” Chapman concluded. 

Getting Started

Wrapping up, Lewis asked each panelist to provide one piece of advice to someone just starting out in social media.  Here were the concluding takeaways:

• Brian Solis: Have a strategy outlined upfront. Social media affects every outward-facing part of an organization. Every team needs to figure out what to socialize.
• C.C. Chapman: Be human. Be yourself. Don’t speak in corporate-speak.
• Jason Falls: Don’t be afraid to be human. Our imperfections make us more marketable.
• Paul Gillan: Be passionate.
• Chris Brogan: Be helpful. If you are not helpful, you are not giving others a reason to come back for more.

Related Links

• Awareness Inc. Webinar: Using Online Communities to Create a World Wide Rave, featuring David Meerman Scott  ~ Takeaways
• Awareness Inc. Webinar: Building Digital Communities on the Social Web, featuring Larry Weber ~ Takeaways
• New Marketing Labs Webinar: How To Use Inbound Marketing to Get More Leads at Lower Cost ~ Takeaways
• MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2009: Measuring Social Media’s Value (with KD Paine)