Last week’s OMMA Social was a good event. Relatively intimate. Good insight. Encouraging discourse. Very well run and organized.
But the one takeaway I rather would not have gotten from the event was that some agencies in the social media category need an attitude adjustment. The level of defensive arrogance and condescension from select agencies who felt compelled to dismiss and degrade client wants and needs as it relates to the measurement (and associated ROI) of social media was astounding.
From the tired and meaningless riff “what’s the ROI of putting on your pants in the morning” to the astonishing comment “data will destroy social media,” the message I got was that client demands for placing a return/value on increasing expenditures in social media were not worthy of serious consideration. That asking for accountability and a better understanding of the value of social media within an enterprise’s marketing ecosystem was a drag and “will hamper innovation.”
And some agencies wonder why clients torture them so much?
OMMA Social was not intended as a gathering of social media purists. This was a conference for agencies, platforms, services, and clients who are in the BUSINESS of embracing and employing social media for marketing and conversational purposes. A business where C-suites in most organizations have begun approving investment in social media but expect a level of meaningful measurements and metrics to justify spend.
This isn’t to say all the agencies were obstructionist. I was intrigued by some of the ideas put forward about merging predictive analytics with social data and about measuring the value and impact of social investments by triangulating online chatter with integrated offline campaigns data. It’s good to hear that the grown up agencies are serious about trying to find a solution to client (and medium) needs.
I empathize with the lack of conclusions and simple explanations of social media measurement and agreed upon industry KPIs. There are lots of numbers but no firm insight into what they all mean. It’s tough. A work in progress. I get it.
But to not offer up ideas is unacceptable. I embrace the medium and understand the visceral and empirical power of social. And because I love what social is doing and can do for culture and business, I believe it’s imperative to figure out a measurement and analytics solution. Not doing this hurts the evangelicalism of and the marketing investment in social media.
To obstructionist agencies I say simply that if you don’t want to talk about the need to measure or the need for data or the demand for business conclusions, you don’t have to take a client’s money. Or we can make it even easier — we won’t give it to you. It’s really that simple.
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