Social media isn't a fad. It's just media and customer karma.
It's funny to read all the speculation about the destiny of MySpace, Twitter, Digg, etc. It makes you picture boardrooms across America, nay, the globe, discussing whether their companies should start a Twitter account. Almost as plentiful are the articles giving advice about how companies should be dealing with social media, what it takes to be a "social media expert" (as if such a thing existed), or whether social media is replacing search.
The bottom line is this: there is one simple truth. The rules for social media are just like the rules for every other kind of media.
1. You decide what media your company should be in based on what media your target markets are in.
2. Your target markets and resulting media strategy will reflect the personality of your brand.
3. If you're testing your CPA (cost per action or cost per acquisition) across all media, you'll know when it's time to invest more in a particular media, no matter what it is. Whether the expense is a media buy or a staff to engage with your customers via social channels, you can still calculate an ROI. If you want to control the ROI, make sure your staff time-boxes their activities in that channel.
It really is as simple as that. The questions are no different now and they won't be any different when the next big thing comes along. I don't mean to come off like a crazed MBA and make it sound like numbers are the only thing that matters. There is something else. It's called customer karma, and that's where the exception comes in. The exception is in customer service and managing your brand image. The first part of which you are compelled to do in social channels regardless of that channel's marketing ROI.
And the second part of which is simply not possible. "Your brand is whatever your customers say it is."(1) So whatever else you do, you'd better get out there and listen, not just to what your customers are saying about you, but to what they are saying about your competitors, too.
(1) Marketing in the Groundswell by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff
