Social Media. Does it work?

Yes it does!
I was wondering the other day as to why such a question would even need to be asked as the answer always seemed obvious to me. So I recalled the two recent instances in corporate Ireland where I came across resistance to the suggestion that it works. I did this in order to see if there was some commonality between them. Was it technophobia? Fear of the unknown? Laziness?

Case one was  a moderate size company with over 200 employees, €30m turnover, Politically well structured .But Struggling to survive The decision as to use or not of Social Media rested with the Marketing Manager. He was a well paid individual who worked long hours but seemed to produce very little in the way of visible promotion such as Press,TV or Radio. Given budget constraints and the cost of same, that was hardly surprising. However a SM campaign by  Facebook or Twitter would hardly have cost more than the time of a moderator to answer queries, remove offending posts,etc.  Yet there was no Facebook page, no Twitter and a resistance to the suggestion that either be employed.

Case two company had no Marketing Manager. Instead they outsourced to PR and Marketing Consultants to the tune of €150K per year. All of the Consultants rejected suggestions that SM was a good idea for the company and either refused to use it or said they would and didn't. The company took the initiative to hire a SM officer Part Time to create a Blog, Facebook and Twitter account to spread it's message. The Consultants always competed to take credit for any success generated in media or marketplace and soon even started to claim credit for profile generated by the SM officer.
However the success of the SM campaigns was easy to measure as there were definite footprints that could be traced. A Cost/Benefit analysis was then easier to conduct. the losers were the consultants who had their hours and rates slashed. The winner was the company. The cost of the SM officer was small in comparison and the results were real and measurable.

So, what problem with SM did the two resistant parties in the two respective companies have in common?
Laziness? No, they all worked long hours.
Technophobia? No, they were both progressive in most areas of their operations and MIS.

Both were expensive and found it difficult to demonstrate tangible results.
Social Media is low cost and in case two worked effectively and demonstrably improved revenues for the company.That is why there is resistance in many businesses to employ Social Media to spread a company's message. Companies pay dearly for the excuses. Dearly in financial terms and dearly by way of missed opportunity.

BALD EAGLES.( Not just a numbers game.)

The Bald Eagle is a Bird with powerful symbolic relavance for the peoples of North America. Long before it was adapted as the Seal Of The US Presidents office, The Bald Eagle was the ultimate symbol of power and majesty for the North American Natives.
Bald Eagles are at the top of their food chain and have few natural enemies. They live mostly by fishing in the lakes and rivers of North America and are known for their spectacular hunting skills.
However, it has been observed (Hope Ruttledge 2001) that Bald Eagles are only succesful in one out of every nineteen dives into the water in pursuit of fish. He expends considerable energy in these forays and risks drowning or death by hypothermia if dragged down by a fish. He must combine judgement, skill, experience, focus and strength if he is to survive. He cannot waste energy and must be mindful of that when selecting his targets.
In the world of sales we can adapt many of the eagles' behaviours. It is not merely a numbers game. We need to be measured and focused as to where we expend our energy and like the eagle, we need results to survive.
One in nineteen is a perhaps too low a bar to set ourselves, But I generally expect a one in ten success ratio/result. If we exceed all the better. It's about judgement.