I work with brands to help them develop their social presence online and – although I truly and wholeheartedly believe in the relevance of my work – I do sometimes ask myself if a brand's digital and social interaction efforts actually affects their ROI (Return on Investment) in a significant way. I believe this to be a tough question because for brands such as Dell the answer is clearly yes, but for others, where the connection between online engagement and sales is less direct, the immediate financial gains are unclear (and often difficult to measure).
However, when thinking about the ROI of having an online social presence, I have cornered myself in the traditional and narrow-minded approach of determining economic benefits. After reading Stan Stalnaker's post in the Harvard Business Now blog titled A New Approach to Economics, it's clear that linear transactions are no longer the sole form of currency online. According to Stalnaker, in the social web:
"The value resides with relationships, not transactions. Maybe, instead of buying and selling more and more in a mad race for grabbing the most growth, the future will be about a collaborative, community-oriented regenerative growth model.
Eventually, in a regenerative economy, we learn to focus on kaizen--constant improvements, as opposed to an ever expanding volume of low-quality transactions and markets. Call it the co-op economy. It's the kind of economic system we always say we want but can't bring ourselves to build."
By coincidence, when I was later browsing videos on the TED Talks website, I stumbled across Joseph Pine's presentation from 2004 on What Consumers Want. I found the slide he referenced below to be particularly relevant, showing the progression of economic value over time. Would it be wrong to assert the next progression of economic value to be a Collaborative representation of the customization and commoditization of Experiences?
I am very much interested in this topic, and would much love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
