[Charlene Li (l) and Shirley Owyang. Holy Grail not included.]
Charlene Li, my favorite social media analyst, continues her pursuit of blogging's Holy Grail--a simple solution to measuring ROI. There is no social media consultant who does not get hammered on this question when talking to corporate audiences. Yet not one of us has a solid, quantifiable way to answer.
The truth is that to date the question cannot be answered. Social media as a category is still in its formative stage, experiencing enormous dynamics. Measurement historically only get accurate after things settle down, after markets become more stable.
While corporate adoption of social media continues to grow, it has not done so at the pace Robert and I thought it would when we wrote Naked Conversations. My guess is that no way to quantify or measure the results of social media campaigns is among the top two reasons for this, the other being a top down love for the illusion of message control.
Charlene has worked harder and gone further than anyone else or so it seems to me. Her recent blog is a progress report on the framework she is building as well as a closer look of how to institute different measures for different corporate strategies. It seems to me, the process she's undertaking will become more complex before it gets simpler--and it will need to be stop-dead-simple, before the massive adoption many of us envision will occur.
Make no mistake. I still believe that corporate adoption of blogging and social media is hurtling forward at a rapid rate. I also believe that companies that do not dip their toes into the blogosphere soon will be hesitating at their own peril.
But until we have a way to measure and quantify results, the progress will be made based on Guy Kawasaki's observation of many years ago. "Some things must be believed to be seen."
