Yes, But Will Social Media Make Me Money?

People often say, “Yes all of this social media may be great, but I don’t have the time and besides, how do I know if it will make me any money?”

I loved Erik Qualman’s recent blog post, where he says that when people ask him the ROI question, sometimes the appropriate response is “What’s the ROI of your phone?” For social media is a way of relating and responding to people, not a Brinks truck pulling up to your customers’ or clients’ pockets. But at the same time, that doesn’t mean you can’t make money using social media as one way of engaging your customers. Qualman has posted this slide show on his site that gives example after example of companies that have grown their revenue using what are essentially free tools.

But in the end, it’s not just jumping on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or the zillions of other social networks out there that is going to work anymore than when I worked in traditional media relations and people would say get me an article in the Toronto Star or Globe and Mail. That will solve it. Sure, it helped! But they still needed an ongoing communications/marketing strategy of how to reach their chosen audiences.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. (The more things change, the more they stay the same.)