using Social Media to generate ROI

If you know the equation, all I need to know from you is: how did you get it?

My definition of Social Media: If you are reading this then you are living in the 21st century & therefore should know a little bit about it. If you never heard about social media, then I'm sorry but you might need to read :
"Social Media 101 for dummies"
It is forgiven if you don't have time or just lack the resources to learn about social media. There is no reason why there shouldn't be special programs designed to educate managers and CEO's on social media tools.

It is very important to learn about social media. Especially today for two main reasons:

1- There are always newer tools being launched.

2- Promising returns on Social Media.

Don't waste your time exploring every tool but rather find the one's that are relevant to you and your business.

Here is how to work social media:

Companies should launch a blog/twitter/forum/etc. separate or on the same website and allow comments. Customers can express them selves. Sure you will have negative comments which is why you need to add this:

Have PR to respond to customers and moderate the integrity of the posts.

By using social media, companies are not just creating wealth. More importantly and ethically, the company remains connected and maintains a relationship with its customers.

Now, the tricky part about all of this is how to measure ROI of social media. The short answer to this is: you can't.

Return On Investment ROI can be found on the financial statements of Accountants to measure success or failure. In the case of social media ROI does not have to carry a numeric value.
When you have a conversation, you can not give it a numeric value. Different ratings can be interpreted differently by different people.

Social Media Social media is a golden opportunity for businesses to get involved with customers rather than just creating more wealth. Even if the case was to measure the ROI on social media, it is still difficult to establish a correlation between social media and the end results using current measures.

As always, your comments are welcome

Twitter

Honestly, I have never heard of Twitter before reading the assignment for this week. After reading the posts that our Professor tagged, I now have an initial understanding of Twitter although I know that for our next lab, we will create a Twitter account and will explore its tools. This means that after this Wednesday, I will gain a better understanding of Twitter.

Let me share with you my first impression of what I read about Twitter and how I feel about it at this point.

First and far most important, as always, I have many questions about Twitter. I have not and will not explore for answers to my questions because I do not want my thoughts to be satisfied, at least not for the time being. Perhaps after the lab on Wednesday, I will have a change of heart as I'm sure that I will change some parts to this post to reflect a better more informative experience that I gained about or after using Twitter.

My second point to my first impression is that only after reading the first few lines of the assigned readings, Twitter appeared to be just another social utility like facebook. I honestly do not like favebook and have closed my account as a result. I feel that since I got into the social networking era, it became a hard habit to leave and very time consuming.

Third and last point for this post. I find Twitter a social networking utility with a large potential to grow. At this stage, the company is struggling a bit with its IT staff and keeping the system running without glitches. As any and even current www company, those challenges are just part of the nature of being online. Another reason why I think that Twitter will grow in popularity is because this company has different uses that can actualy be useful and make the lives of its users easier and more convenient.

If you would like to read more on my thoughts, come back and visit after Wednesday when we complete our lab on Twitter.

Social Networks

Social Networks. What is the first thought that you got now?

The first thought that I got is facebook.

I read the last posts of my fellow classmates who are with-in my blog circle. Those posts' main topic is on social networks and specifically about facebook.

In the blog posts, my fellow classmates are complaining about facebook.

Among the posts that I read, the most common reason I found when using facebook was the issue of privacy. My initial response to any internet site is: privacy.

Basically, the internet has no privacy. Even of you have the most secure site in hisotry, it's just a matter of time before someone breaks into your site and find what you are hiding. There are special task forces with the highest available intelligence that deal with hacking and encrypting 24/7 365 days a year.

Why my classmates complain about the privacy of facebook?
I think because it is the most site that they and the people they know use. Actually, the most used site for them is Google.com but facebook contains more sensitive information. If they were to spend as much time on any other site that contains some sensitive (personal) information beside facebook, again, they would complain about this new site.

ITEC-335 1st week-progress

often in the business world, we hear an echo of : "sometimes, its who you know, not what you know".

One of the most important tools leading to business success is connections. As demonstrated in the academic curriculum at the American University in Washington DC which is led by bright individuals such as Professor Melander, Social Networking is a course that often runs out of space before classes start.

Students like my self, are realizing how important it is to stay in touch with one another and how fast and easy it has become to communicate, thanks to technology and social networking.


“On my honor, all posts on this blog are my own”