Public social networking platforms (like Facebook and MySpace) offer a free space to cultivate connections and collect friends. The data is frequently erroneous and the site lacks reporting features. On the plus side it is free and available and comes with a site name that everyone knows.

Private online communities and membership sites offer your members the same robust, entertaining features and ability to connect, while providing your administration with something that we all long for — accountability. Reporting features within private communities deliver a strong level of accountability and allow you to monitor and export data on your members and their activities.

The number of friends (or fans) on your public site is not a viable measure of return on investment. In addition to bogus information/member data, the ease at which someone can become a friend or fan of your site actually becomes a negative for your organization as many individuals will merely succumb to the ease/pressure of pressing a fan button because their friend sent it to them, not because they have any interest in your organization. Becoming a member of a private online community is a much bigger commitment because it is an active approach and one that speaks (silently) to their intention.

The perfect fit for your organization may be a combination of both approaches — having a public membership site that funnels traffic to your private site. It’s often a good tactic to incorporate public social networking sites into your marketing mix. It’s certainly a good idea to fish where the fish are! But be sure to bring them home to your organization’s private community — where you can capture valuable member information and provide measurable value to them in return.

About YourMembership.com Inc.
Founded in 1998, YourMembership.com Inc. develops online member communities and web-based membership software for associations, non-profits, government organizations, corporations, congregations, secondary schools, universities, foundations, fraternal organizations and private social networking sites. Serving hundreds of customers around the world, YourMembership.com creates truly dynamic, secure and connected member communities with all product features, design, hosting, future product upgrades and customer service included for one low fee.

David L. Sieg
Vice President, Strategic Marketing
YourMembership.com Inc.

Author: David L Sieg
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Creditcard Currency Conversion Fee

© 2010, Tiffany Odutoye (@virtualpartner). All rights reserved.

ROI – Return on Influence

If you’ve not come across the term already, you might be somewhat surprised by the twist in the tail. Here you were expecting ROI to talk about Return on Investment, and what do you get? Return on Influence? What is that anyways? And why should you care?

Good questions. Let’s take them one by one.

What is Return on Influence?

Well, we have already established elsewhere what social media is. Connecting and sharing is at the heart of social media. So, what happens when you connect and share? Look all around you. People all over the web are talking about the latest gizmos and the latest developments. Millions are tuning in to these conversations. It’s what Google is all about. When you Google a term, search for information and take a decision based on that information, you have just put into action what Return on Influence is. Somebody shares their experiences with you and influences you to take a particular action. If you are convinced, you follow their lead.
When you take this into the world of small and big businesses, the reach of this influence is – to put it simply – overwhelming!

I mean, imagine if you were selling a product and your clients in Japan were unhappy with it, and instead of telling you about it, they were discussing your weaknesses all over the internet. Your sales would be squished and you wouldn’t even know what hit you!

That is why it is worth your while to BE the one who influences the thought process. People are talking about your product. You have two choices. A) Allow them to talk and become a victim of that talk (if they’re talking nice, you have an advantage) or B) Take charge of that conversation and become a part of it.

When you do the latter, you begin to influence others in that conversation. It’s what Blendtec did with their ‘Will it Blend’ campaign.

Will it blend?

The campaign kicked off with a video of the founder of the company blending some interesting stuff. The marketing director at Blendtec, George Wright says, “We put them (videos) on willitblend.com. No body knew willitblend.com and they didn’t know our name on YouTube. So we passed it on to all of our employees, customers and friends and told them to pass it on if they liked it. From the day we did that, literally one week later the videos had five million views.” Phew! Imagine 5 million views.

Now THAT is Return on Influence!

When people like you or your product, they watch or listen, they spread the word – and before you know it, you have more publicity than you could get with a $5 million ad campaign! In one smart move, Blendtec grew from a product no one knew about to a recognized brand. This brand has registered a 700% growth in sales and is now the leading maker of blenders, in the domestic and international markets.

That is Return on Influence.

If you notice, Return on Influence does not make you a million dollars directly because your are mobilizing the masses to speak for you, promote and drive traffic for you.  There are lots of tangible ways to track and monitor that activity and you should invest in them, so are FREE and some are paid.  Here are five tools:

So, you cannot really measure ROI in solid financial terms. But, the return is there, and though soft, it can propel you into the top league in your bracket. Return on Influence is very much real though quite intangible.

You know it’s there, you see it influencing your sales but you cannot put a finger on it. That is why, it’s important to start with strategy so you know clearly what your metrics are, then you’ll be able to measure ROI.  This is still very significant for your business development, and why you simply cannot afford to overlook it.

How can ROI help Small businesses?

Return on Influence is recognition of the fact that consumers and producers can influence each other, and together they can influence an entire community of consumers.

ROI does not subscribe to the “conventional” measurement of success through quantifiable numbers. Instead, it relies on personal interaction to get success from influence. For example the 80/20 rules says that you get 80% of your results from 20% of your effort.  The same is true within your social communities.  You may find that the majority of your traffic is generated by a few loyal followers who are major influencers themselves.

You cannot work on social media with the aim of getting ROI in traditional terms – that may be a factor, but should not be your only driver. The mindset comes first, ROI just happens. It might be positive or negative, but once your initiative is out there, you cannot predict how you are going to influence people or what return you are going to get.

Look at Burger King’s ‘Sacrifice a Friend’ campaign if you want to know what I’m talking about. The campaign was wildly popular, but many people who saw it swear that they had a sour taste in their mouths after this campaign!

So, Return on Influence is a two-way street really. On the one side, it is what you are doing and saying to influence your customer’s perception of your brand. On the other side, it is what you get from:

A)    Allowing your customers to influence you
B)    Allowing yourself to influence them

Important things to keep in mind while you’re using social media so you get positive ROI:
- Don’t fake the relationship, embrace it
- Connecting and sharing come before sales
- Develop your personal brand
- Nurture your identity so others connect with you instantly

Authentic influence happens when you allow others to know, trust and like you. People like and respect you when you create meaningful relationships. After all, Return on Influence is just the real life translation of the adage ‘The more you give, the more you get back’!

Resources:
Return on Influence
Measuring ROI

Related articles by Zemanta

• Visualizing Social Media ROI (socialmediatoday.com)
• How to measure your social media marketing campaign ROI (mediapress.co.za)

© 2010, Tiffany Odutoye (@virtualpartner). All rights reserved.