How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business

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Sometrics Combines Development, Analytics, and Ads for Social Apps

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You may have guessed by now that we at Blackbridge are following the Twitter zeitgeist with some zeal. And not without good reason. Anything that balances bite-sized engagement with guilt-steeped addiction has to be worth following. So, the minute we found out that there was a specific job listing angle being covered, it felt like an early Christmas. Twithire is a free job listing service for Twitter that’s geared towards helping employers promote roles to the ever-growing base of users worldwide. Content is geared very much to the US/development & technology community at the moment but it won’t be long before there’s an interesting tussle for supremacy. Tweets are free and anyone can post a job by creating a Tweet-key (go to www.twithire.com/key for details).

All of this geek-tastic excitement got us thinking, of course, about the unique way Twitter communicates with an audience. It’s easy to assume that a gold rush for a job-board style exchange exists. But the real beauty of Twitter is that any job-board can feed their roles to the site and build a following, much the same as they send candidates alerts by SMS. Nothing new in that, just a new spin on a familiar theme, you could say. But corporations can now feed their roles in the same way. The means to the market, combined with the messaging, is back in the hands of the employer.

As we enter the grip of a miserable recession abound with freezes and redundancies, the early-adopting recruiters will gain access to their audiences for free. Now that really is something worth thinking about…

I read a really interesting article on the problems with uptake on job search apps for social networking sites at the weekend. The general consensus is that it’s simply a problem with supply and demand. Destination sites like Facebook and Myspace may have phenomenal uptake on apps geared to dating, politics, music or the ritual throwing of animals to gain attention, but you’ll find take-up for job engines sadly lacking.

You can read the full article by Joel Cheesman, recruitment blogger extraordinaire, here. Worth checking and and joining the debate.

Unlike Cupid and Psyche, Zeitgeist and Research are usually uncomfortable bedfellows. After all, why flirt with the fickle, especially when it comes to the expedient ebb and flow of web technologies. I’m convinced that one of the key reasons why researchers have been slow to report on internet trends has to be down to frightening speed at which things become obsolete. And that means no one’s interested in putting their hand in their pocket to buy the results.

Forrester, an independent research company based in MA, is a notable exception to the rule. Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, both Forrester consultants, are responsible for Groundswell, the definitive tome on social media. Published last year to critical acclaim, it highlights real world successes in communication, from Sony’s use of blogs to Intel’s Wiki obsession.

They’re also responsible for the Groundswell Awards, which recognise excellence in accomplishing business goals with social applications. There’s a current call for entries, at which is where I sat up and took notice. The awards has its own fascinating system of appraisal. There are seven categories: LISTENING, TALKING, ENERGIZING, SUPPORTING, EMBRACING, MANAGING, and SOCIAL IMPACT. Of course, you need to have your copy of Groundswell to hand for the definitions, but you get the general idea. You can look at the runners from last year on the current Groundswell blog.

Personally, I found the analysis of these sites fascinating, mainly because it was all driven by real metrics and supported by hard facts, which is a rare thing to behold. It also got me thinking about the opportunities for building some genuine knowledge around the impact of social networking and apps and the employer brand. After all, if the commercial interests and benefits can be well documented and served up in useful chunks, there’s hope for us in the recruitment industry yet.

I feel compelled to write a brief entry here, as I don’t think I’ve been this excited since……. well, since Batman Begins was announced. Yes, I am as you may have guessed a truly massive Batman nerd, and have been eagerly awaiting The Dark Knight for almost two years now. Every review, trailer and snippet of info indicates that this may well be THE GREATEST FILM EVER MADE, and I urge everyone to go and see it immediately. Well, tonight I get to go to an advanced screening, and I am literally soiling myself with excitement. Seriously, I’m almost freaking out here.

In addition to this, in the wee hours of the morning after, I shall be heading off to Hamburg on a four-day, 10-man stag do (my own this time), for fun, frolics and amusingly large sausages. I am told by my best men that on Saturday we will all be dressing as pimps. Make what you will of this.