Can You Achieve a Positive ROI on Social Media in 90 Days?

To put it succinctly, no.

Please allow me to repeat for emphasis, no!

NO!

A prospect asked me that question recently and I gave him the same answer.

OK, now, let me explain why.

First, let me note my qualifiers.

I work with small and medium sized organizations and my comments are intended for this audience.

Fortune 500 companies and their ilk play by their own rules.

Megastars in sports and entertainment have their own too.

Also, the latter categories can afford to make a few mistakes.

My clients can’t.

I work primarily with free and near-free social media tools.

You should always exhaust the free or near-free potential of social media tools before starting to spend serious money.

Squeeze every cent’s worth of value out of what’s free or near-free before moving up the social media food chain and starting to spend serious money.

In the market niche that I work in, overly optimistic (read unrealistic) expectations rarely pay off.

Most small and medium sized businesses generally have a unit price for their products or services that aren’t at nosebleed levels.

(Non-profits have limited funds and need to justify every cent that they spend.)

Social media is a numbers game. By that I mean, volume. It’s not one and done.

This can get expensive.

So, how many leads would you need to convert to real money to at least break even with your social media spend?

Yeah, I thought so!

See what I’m getting at?

I’m not saying that you won’t eventually be able to not only cover your social media costs but also generate a profit.

I’m just saying that it’s going to take longer than ninety (90) days.

And, you’d better be prepared to engage with your social media communities and create great, original content while you’re at it.

Also, starting out by using free and near-free tools to grow your social media communities means that you’ll have a smaller sunk cost number to cover.

So, why should you even be on social media in the first place?

The prospect actually asked me that and here’s what I told him.

There are three very good reasons to be on social media even if your ROI isn’t positive to start”

1. Branding
2. Developing a reputation as an influencer/social media expert
3. Social proof (Your clients saying great things about you and your work
4. Lead development over time (Yes, it ca happen, just not in ninety (90) days!)

Traditional advertising mediums (e.g., newspapers, magazines, Yellow Pages) are going away as their spend is being transferred to social media.

In closing, let me say this.

You need to be on social media.

Temper your expectations.

And, run away as far and as fast as you can from anyone promising you great results in under ninety (90) days!

If anyone has had positive ROI in under ninety (90) days, I welcome you to share your results and how you did it here on my blog.

Any takers?

That’s it for now!

Please check-out my 8 step approach for developing a social media program to get some more ideas on how to use social media.

Also, never forget to reach out to either ask questions or to ask for help from someone like myself!

In the meantime, thank you for following and reading my blog!

I look forward to any and all comments that you may have. I will reply to any comments made to this blog post as promptly as I can.