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To Love Beth Kanter is to Hate Beth Kanter, or How's Your NPO ROI?
As per usual, Beth has written one of the most amazing, insightful blog posts ever. This brings me to today's blog title - to know Beth Kanter, and appreciate her contribution to the NPTECH realm, is to love her for being so damn insightful and prolific. At the same time, to love her is to simultaneously hate her for being so much more insightful and prolific than you are.
How does she do it? How does this super-power-enhanced thinker/strategizer/implementer do it (yes - I know that "strategizer" isn't a word)?
I want to be able to do it like she does! My admiration is tainted with envy!
I want my Golden Ticket now, daddy!
Beth's amazing post takes a look at the Nonprofit ROI (rate of investment), and how this should be considered/assessed when taking into account implementing social media strategy.
In the comments section of the post, you'll be able to find me rambling on about paradigm shifts - and how - generally - ROI has too-long been based on short term gain rather than long-term sustainability. In order to contextualize any social media strategy by way of NPO ROI, it first must be taken into consideration that the ROI should not be based on an old paradigm in which a new generation of is left unspoken to (let's put a half a mili into print ads and not reach anyone under 30!) and that it should be based on a new paradigm that embraces social strategy.
Further, I understand that it is our understanding of this very fact that brings us to these spaces - that makes us early adopters, as it were. However, I've heard story after story, and had experience after experience, in which an organization hears the case for social media - and sees the various metrics - and assesses organizational gains by expanding how they maintain a new openness and approach to interacting with and engaging their base, and then ultimately spends somewhere between a couple of thousand and a couple of million dollars into sustaining business-as-usual approach and propping it up with an old-school outreach campaign (old paradigm).
In response to my comment, Beth says:
"My Head is spinning with so much that is new or needs to be taken apart and put back together again ... Amazing, isn't it?"
That's the most exciting part of my day to day - knowing that tomorrow, it might all be different again.
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i also love Beth..
great insightful article she wrote indeed! her openness to topics and deep words captivate my heart in so many ways.. i guess, loving, uhm her, and her work is just right. :D
I already posted this comment over at Beth's Blog ...
...
And I hope she doesn't mind the bit of recycling.
(I'll likely post a chunk of this in response to my own post as well - I hope you don't mind the recycling effort):
I had one conversation with a somewhat traditional branding guy (about the aforementioned topic - figuring out ROI for NPOs, but, more generally, for potential clients) that I'll sum up here to the best of my ability:
Me: Regarding the services you offer, how do you illustrate projected ROI?
Him: Very little of that happens. So much of what we do is ultimately gambling. We largely rely on references, portfolio and skill. So often, we're making such a subjective product, so it's tricky. Since we're not doing placement of ads and media buys, so we can't promise traffic of any kind.
Me: Right - but do you have any research that you present that illustrates studies that show that people respond well to a particular branding strategy over another - beyond theory, do you stay on top of studies regarding how your service is responded to by consumers? If so, does this help to persuade potential clients? Or is your entire base based on word-of-mouth, thus there never has to be a "sale."
Him: No - we are pretty much just making it up. Our clients come to us with strong ideas of what they want. We usually have to push back and say "why?" It is [in this exchange] where we prove our worth. We show them that they don't know what they're doing. They trust us and write checks.
Me: So basically they come to you and say, "We want all of our neighbors to know, without a doubt, that we are good Christians," and they write you a check and you tailor for them a really pretty crucifix?
Him: Yeah. Kind of. We look at the other crucifixes in the area, figure out how to make theirs unique and then we make it stand out. Then we make the case for our proposed approach ("See how yours has gold trim and none of the others do?")
Me: I ask because what social media people are running into is this situation: There is this big shift away from old paradigms re: most forms of PR, marketing, advertising, branding, customer relations, etc. But when businesses are looking to make the shift, they want to understand what firm ROI they'll get in the social field. In the social field, the paradigm is itself a perpetual paradigm shift, thus it's tricky to say that X+Y will always equal Z. As a result, there's a near obsession with figuring out matrices, ROI models, etc. in order to contextualize successes, best practices and so-on.
Him: Right. I think that's because they finally have a general understanding of what all the old mechanisms do. Demanding a solid understanding of ROI is their way of saying "I don't have time to understands the value of this approach no matter how tangible so please a number on it so I can qualify it."
Me: Right. "And at the same time, I just came to have unquestioning faith in the mechanisms of the old paradigm - do you have a package that will help to create the same unquestioning faith in the new paradigms?"
Him: Exactly!
---
Alex Steed
Writer, Doer & Collective Action Enthusiast
p. (802) 999-2050
w. www.alexsteed.com
Hello alexsteed, I must
Hello alexsteed, I must appreciate your comment for this article. Forsikring
I feel like Mr Hyde now ..
Thanks for your kind words. Here's how I do it --I invest an hour a day in thinking and writing on my blog to exercise my mind - usually after I've spent an hour at the gym. Of course, I couldn't measure that - well maybe through an MRI - but it has paid returns.
Anyway, some further thoughts on ROI - the more traditional view.
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2009/01/roi-results-on-insights-of-on...
Off to think about your comment ..
You helped us find a way to create our first App, Beth!
We read your post about Appmakr and poof, we quickly made Green Map iPhone App to showcase the work of Green Mapmakers around the world from a fresh new perspective. Though we did not use the coupon you posted, there's a new one celebrating our launch, 50% off with GoGreen thru February. Find out more in our blog (yes, there is a new mobile website too) and Take Green Map With you!
best wishes, Wendy & all at Green Map.