Community ROI
Received an E-Mail asking me to participate in a questionnaire that would help set a ROI benchmark for any kind of community-related online effort, or so. Here’s a quote:
Die Professionalisierung von Social Media Angeboten erfordert eine Bewertung des Return on Investments und damit eindeutige und vergleichbare Analysekennzahlen.
In other words, “professionalisation of social media offerings require a valuation of the ROI, and thus clear and comparable analysis benchmark data”. Or, in my words, “we are trying to define parameters for a ROI which will make the various community-related online offerings comparable”.
Obviously, creating an industry benchmark bears its (economic) advantages, but I do have to question whether a) it is feasible and b) worthwhile pursuing at all. Even in “old” industries – let’s pick banking of automotive – there are zillions of various ways of measuring ROI, and that’s for a product that is much more comparable than something as intangible as an online community.
For instance, a brand-centered or managed community might have a totally different underlying business model than a social network in the purest sense. Whilst a “car owners club” or executive travellers’ club needs not be a profit centre, a social network does, especially if it’s not integrated with other media.
Second, why the need to benchmark? I can’t really think of any group other than investors that would stand to benefit from this, and they surely must have their own in-house valuation mechanisms.
Also, a typical €€€-ROI would stand to totally leave out any umeasurable qual elements, and these can be of much more importance than quant. For instance, user feedback and dialogue can result in the development of new products. There’s a “guts” side to business, which in my opinion tends to be quashed in favour of numbers-driven targets. Wrong, over and out.
No related posts.
comments
One Response to “Community ROI”
Leave a Reply
-
Welcome
Welcome to Irakli West's personal pages on the Web. I am Danish, live close to Munich in Germany, and run FWnetz, an online magazine and training resource for firefighters. In real life, I am Regional Manager Northern Europe for Paratech, teach Heavy Rescue (it's fun, challenging and serves a good purpose) and try to learn more about USAR. I am a member of the Munich Volunteer Fire Department as well as @fire, a USAR and Wildfire NGO outfit.
-
Twitter
-
Pictures
-
Video
Do we need a universal "community ROI"? http://tinyurl.com/dyzppx