conversation

Why Asking About the ROI on Social Media is the Wrong Question

November 2, 2008 By Des Walsh

One of the many knowledgeable and articulate people I was privileged to meet and learn from recently at BlogWorld & New Media Expo is Jason Falls, director of social media for Louisville, Kentucky based brand-building agency Doe-Anderson.

Jason’s blog Social Media Explorer is a regular fund of information and fresh perspectives, as exemplified in his post last week on determining the return on investment (ROI) for social media.

The proposition he develops in that post is that:

The problem with trying to determine ROI for social media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable.

And says further:

To illustrate that point for all our measurement and metric geeks out there, what you are trying to do is assign multiple choice scoring to an essay question. It’s not possible.

As a former high school teacher of English and History, often envying my math teacher colleagues when it came to assessing assignments and I was ploughing through a mountain of essays while my math colleagues zipped through their multiple choice, check the box, assignment returns, that analogy summed up for me very neatly the way I had been thinking about measuring the effectiveness of social media investment in the enterprise.

But precisely because I recognize that I approach such issues with the conditioning and biases of someone with a more liberal arts than mathematical/science background, I have frankly been somewhat unsure of my ground.

Was I being too readily and unreasonably dismissive of a more quantitative approach to measuring the effectiveness/ROI of social media?

After reading Jason’s post a couple of times now and watching the excellent, embedded video interview with Katie Delahaye Paine, I think not.

In fact, I feel much more comfortable now about the way I have been explaining these issues to people, especially about continuing to frame or re-frame questions about effectiveness in terms of conversation.

I don’t mean that in any smug, self-satisfied way. There is a lot more to be discussed about the issue of assessing – as distinct (I would say) from measuring – the effectiveness/ROI of social media investment. And especially about how to communicate effectively about these issues with clients, many of whom will present as being much more comfortable with numerical assessments.

Which could be a difficult call, especially if you accept Jason’s contention that “every session on measuring ROI in social media is a waste of time”.

The stream of comments Jason’s post has attracted, still going some five days later, suggests that the issues are by no means clearcut, at least on the level of practical application of the principles espoused.

Looks Like Westin Hotels are Not Listening to the Conversation

March 24, 2008 By Des Walsh

We know broadband is a joke in Australia. Promising to deal with that was, putatively, one of the reasons for the massive vote for Kevin Rudd’s party to take government.

But even with what is currently available, you would think that a major international hotel group would be keen to offer companies using its facilities the best possible wireless for corporate presentations. Wouldn’t you?

Not so, it seems, at least for the Westin group, if Simon Chen’s Wireless Woes post, about a corporate presentation last week at the Westin Sydney, is anything to go by.

There we all were. All 300+ of us at the opening session of the Omniture Summit. Matt Belkin, the Head Of Omniture Consulting was struggling through his presentation waiting for the wireless in the ballroom to catch up to his requests.

I’m pretty sure they – Westin hotels – either don’t get what’s happening, in terms of people’s expectations, or don’t care. As I confirmed this morning with a couple of phone calls, Westin Sydney and the famed Westin St Francis in San Francisco’s Union Square charge extra for Internet access in rooms – even though the San Francisco establishment lists that under “standard amenities”. Standard? Extra? Oh, I get it, standard like a mini-bar, not like a “heavenly” bed, right? Could I have a good old terrestrial bed, with Internet access thrown in, please? No? I thought not, just askin’.

What I’m also thinking is that Westin is not only not part of the online conversation, they are not even listening. Otherwise there would be, at the very least, a comment by now on Simon’s blog, putting their point of view, whatever that is.

What makes this even more interesting for me, in terms of corporate use of social media, is that a couple of years ago the Starwood Group, which includes the Westin brand, launched a blog, theLobby.com. Admittedly that was targeted to their “Starwood Preferred Guests”, but it’s not as if they haven’t heard of blogs.

Just that they aren’t reading them, it seems.

For all their opulence, the Westins of this world are such a contrast to the neat hotel we stayed in last November in New York, the Pod Hotel at 230 East 51st St in New York, which as well as being very comfortable, conveniently located and with very helpful staff, provides wireless everywhere at no extra charge (the accommodation price being in itself a gift compared to other New York offerings). They get it.