ROI and Social Media – What You Need to Know

Most business leaders don’t understand the connection between ROI and social media, which is too bad because it’s like everything else in the world. Social media is the tool. What’s the ROI of a hammer?

Recently I read a blog post from Gary Vaynerchuk that was brilliant. Vaynerchuk runs a 400-person social media agency for Fortune 500 companies and is widely regarded as a thought leader in the industry. He drove this point home in a blunt and easy-to-understand way.

What’s the ROI of a football? To me, nothing. To Adrian Peterson, about 100 million.

What’s the ROI of a microphone? To the normal person, the value of watching your buddies embarrass themselves during karaoke night. For Jay Z, about 500 million.

What’s the ROI of boxing gloves? Probably has a negative ROI for me due to hospital visits. For Floyd Mayweather, it’s 170 million.

You can apply that same logic to billboards, television, and radio advertising. The ROI depends on who is using it.

If you’re talented, understand the platform you’re using, and have specific goals, the ROI of social media can be lucrative. However, if you’re like most business leaders, it will be a negative ROI because they don’t understand how to use the platform. That’s why Gary Vaynerchuk’s social media agency is doing so well: his team understands how to drive business goals using social media.

Remember, it’s not the tool, it’s who’s using it.