Social media is quickly becoming a way of life… and a way of business as more and more companies are realizing they need to integrate social media into their marketing strategies. We can’t, however, expect to do “business as usual” and succeed in building an eager audience around our brands.
If you want to continue to reach your market in this social media age, the marketing focus needs to be on building relationships, and metrics need to expand beyond ROI (Return on Investment) to include ROR: Return on Relationship™.
–Return on Relationship™… simply put the value that is accrued by a person or brand due to nurturing a relationship. ROI is simple $’s and cents. ROR is the value (both perceived and real) that will accrue over time through loyalty, recommendations and sharing.—
Most measurements and empowerment stats that are used with regard to relationships (i.e. number of Facebook fans, Twitter followers, retweets, site visits, video views, positive ratings and vibrant communities) are not financial assets, but that doesn’t mean they are worthless. Instead, these are leading indicators that a brand is doing something that is creating value that will be with you for the long term and will drive ROI if developed and used effectively.
So how do you build and strengthen relationships with your audience (as a whole, and as individuals) to increase your ROR?
1. Listen
If you want to be heard above the growing social media “noise,” you need to first listen to your consumers so when you do speak, you get it right. What are they saying, what are they feeling, what are their pain points, what solutions do they need?
2. Make it be about THEM
First think about and first address what matters most to your audience. Give them a platform to show you what they need, want, are interested in, and expect. Whatever matters most to them should become what matters most to you! We marketers like to think that social media is primarily a set of tools for our marketing purposes, but in reality, social media is also a strong set of tools our consumers use to share and influence opinion about our brand. Our consumers now have “the channel of me.” Consumers’ opinions now create the “reality” of the brand — if enough consumers say negative things about your brand, your brand loses its credibility, and (thankfully) vice versa.
3. Ask “How can I serve you?”
Taking the “ME” mentality one step further, when we are advertising instead of building relationships, we are focused on what our consumers can give us instead of how we can best serve them.
Your consumers will recognize in a heartbeat if you are simply trying to get something from them – and they will not stick around. It’s not that you aren’t allowed to want anything from your consumers, it’s that there must be a give to go along with every take. If you truly want to make an impact, aim to always put more energy and attention in your “give” column than in your “take” column. It will pay off.
4. Aim for Ongoing Engagement
Building relationships is about starting meaningful dialogue and taking the time to thoughtfully and genuinely engage in ongoing conversation. Relationships focus on getting to know your consumer and giving them reasons to stay engaged — not just getting them to react. This needs to be all the time… not simply campaign or initiative based. That is the biggest mistake being made today by marketers and brands… with consumers, and especially with influencers.
5. Know the People in Your Audience
Short and simple: if you are only focused on the money, you risk completely overlooking the people. Don’t make that mistake! If you don’t know who your people are, you might as well toss your marketing money down the drain.
Relationships ARE the new currency – honor them, invest in them, and start measuring your ROR!
Originally posted at Content to Commerce
Interesting idea, Ted. The truth is, customers are the primary “raw material” in every business’s process for earning a profit. And if we don’t know what our Return on Customer is – that would be like now knowing how much your ROI is on an investment.
Martha Rogers and I wrote a book about it, proposing a serious financial metric, Return on Customer, in 2005. ROC is the profit you make on a customer during a financial period, plus the increase in that customer’s lifetime value during the same period, all divided by the original lifetime value.
Do the math, you’ll find that this is the same financial quantity as Total Shareholder Return, when applied to the entire customer-and-prospect base. See: https://www.returnoncustomer.com/
Thanks for reading, and for the input Don. Really appreciate. I have been a fan for many years since being introduced to your book “The One To One Future” in 1997 by Seth Godin, when I worked with him at his start-up Yoyodyne. I have two copies on my shelf. Your metric is great and directly related to ROI, if not the true ROI itself. My premise is a bit more broad and goes beyond strict financial metrics. Please fel free to reach out anytime. I just followed you on Twitter and RT’d the the following… ~via @TedRubin… YES! #RonR RT @DonPeppers: Only a psychopath would consider friends to be valuable only in financial terms. #extremetrust
Investing in Social Media is very useful but it’s not the only thing to do when designing your prospecting plan. Social Media investment is more about marketing than selling.
A seller doesn’t have the time to stop in front of his social audience and reply to Facebook friends or followers on Twitter or whatever.
This concept is very important and should be widespread because a lot of selling and marketing guru are boosting Social Media as the one and only future for prospecting.
This is not true when thinking about people that have to go out there and make sales and that should consider this kind of prospecting as their only source of new leads.
Thanks for the input Giuseppe. Not sure which “gurus” you are listening to, but you may want to start listening to those who understand this all works together. Do not think you saw that advice on my blog 🙂
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ROR and building my relationships with audience was really a problem for me as in my work as an engineer I have from time to time to convince technicians and workers about how the idea would work and make easy for them to understand. Your article help me well to analyze to problem and strengthen the relationships with people around me, thank you so much.
Evan
So happy to hear that Evan. Thank YOU for letting me know.
Thanks for finally writing about >Return on Relationship™:
The New Measure of Success – Ted Rubin, Professional Keynote Speaker, #RonR <Liked it!
No… thank you for reading. ROR, #RonR: Return on Relationship™… simply put the value that is accrued by a person or brand due to nurturing a relationship. ROI is simple $’s and cents. ROR is the value (both perceived and real) that will accrue over time through connection, loyalty, recommendations and sharing… and is used to define and educate companies, brands, and people about the importance of creating authentic connection, interaction, and engagement.
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Translated to the best of my ability… As Ted Rubin said in its blog: “social media is becoming a way of life” (this is supporting the hours you spend the day users of some social networks, already above the consumption of TV in Spain).