Last year I wrote about ‘You can’t bend the Return on Involvement rules‘ (November 09). But, as with most things, this is something that I want to write more about because it’s a metric that’s challenging to measure and therefore can’t be ignored.
The problem is that marketers and please excuse this generalisation, only like to measure things that are easy. Actually, this is another talking point as many marketers ‘fear’ social media in its entirity, because they don’t know where or how to start measuring its effectiveness in adding £s to the bottom line. But that’s a topic for another day…
‘Return on Involvement’ is a movement, a new paradigm if you like, that basically stands in contrast to the more well known, economically-motivated ‘Return on Investment’. The problem is that we live in an attention economy where people have to prioritise what they’re focusing their attention on! Think about it, how many advertisments and/or promotional messages do you see in a day? All of them trying desparately to get your undivided attention…? So, the ability to measure not only involment but the quality of the engagement is a very relevant metric to include.
There will be people out there that would argue the softer disciplines (e.g. marketing, branding, brand awareness, brand value chain optimisation) have long had a Return on Involvement principle, because at one time the number of ‘eyes’ that saw an advertisement was enough to warrant spending more money to produce more advertisments in more places so that the number of eyes increased along with everything else (thank you Seth Godin) – costs included. Then came digital and early involvement metrics included hits, clicks and visits. These have evolved into average time spent on sites, bounce rates, page views and unique views. The problem is that nothing has changed, these metrics are still meauring quantity…and that’s the issue!
The new digital economy (NDE), unlike the mass media economy, isn’t about size or quantity, the new digital economy is about ‘relationships’ and relationships are about quality.
The time to stop thinking about quantitative methods – how many – and for all of us to start thinking qualitative – how deep – is here…
You can’t bend the Return on Involvement rules
Related posts:
- You can’t bend the Return on Involvement rules
A common topic I get asked to discuss is ‘what not to do when using social media?’ It’s an interesting take, especially when there is so much emphasis on what... - An Investment In Involvement
In a recent research study completed by Omnicom Group’s OMD, it was determined that a viewer’s engagement with a commercial had a much greater impact on ROI than a viewer’s... - Return on Involvement: what people want
I talk about the new ROI (return on involvement) a lot – maybe too much? Not enough? I don’t know, you tell me…. But if I wanted to sum up... - Social Media Fear and the SMASBO
I asked this question last week at Be2Camp, “Are you afraid of social media?” After a few looks around the room people started to put their hands up – not... - The State of Now: #140conf London Meetup
Yesterday evening I was fortunate to attend the #140conf in London Meetup. What a great night and so well organised by Bernie Mitchell (@BernieJMitchell) and his team. NOTE: If you...
{ 5 trackbacks }
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Ding, ding, ding- can you hear that noise?? It's the noise of several nails being banged on the head!
You have hit this spot on Lee.
Particularly “marketers ‘fear’ social media in its entirity”- soooooo true. Cant wait for the post on that one
Its a metaphor for life isn't it? reminds me of the old adage- Its not about the quantity its about the quality. ( Which is what you said above.)
How true.