I’m a big believer in the value of wildcat corporate initiatives.  And I get that sometimes those buggers are hard to quantify.  It can happen when you’re blazing new trails and surrounded by unknowns.

Despite the unknowns, you still need to put a value to the opportunity.  Doesn’t matter if you’re drilling a wildcat well in a new territory, developing a new product like an iPod, or diving into social media.

Why the need to access value?  Because when it gets right down to it, most companies are opportunity rich but still resource limited (especially relative to personnel).  And rather than throw money at any old opportunity, you need to find the ones that will give you the best return. 

Soooo, segue to an article I wrote on Social Media ROI at the end of October.

 

What’s coming – Social Media ROI course

My article received all kinds of attention and positive feedback and confirmed an idea Cynthina, my business partner, and I have been noodling around for a bit.  Several ideas in fact.

The long and short of it is I’m busy working away on creating an online course on The Business of Social Business (working title) and part 1 will center on determining the Social Media ROI.

Course attendees will be learn a quantifiable valuation process for social media initiatives ─ and also gain a means to compare the value of these initiatives to other customer-facing ones under consideration.

Here’s what you’ll learn from the course:

• A general methodology to perform economic valuations in the face of unknowns.
  
  
• An in-depth and specific approach to determine the economic valuation of your company’s social media initiative(s), incorporating:
  
  
  • Economic factors such as personnel costs, technology costs (licensing or subscriptions), training, and other factors.
    
    
  • Conversion of metrics to potential revenue or cost savings.
    
    
• Risk assessment for your social media initiatives, based on the level of uncertainty about your expected outcomes.
  
  
• Realistic expectation of how long will be required for your company to earned payout from your social media investment.
  
  

In short, the course will be a combination of information/education with a hands-on ROI calculator you’ll be able to use to determine the value of a social media opportunity for your company.

 

So stay tuned because you'll want to get in on this course.