A quick glance at this post’s title might have you thinking that I have lost it; reality is I haven’t, but had an ah ha moment. Anyone that is a practitioner of social media or SMPR, has faced some kind of obstacle on describing what the value of a Tweet, post or plug on a social network is worth. My friend Keith Trivitt wrote up a two-part post (part 1, part 2) on this subject over at the PR Breakfast Club that got me thinking both times.  While sitting in a bank conference room over the weekend I was thinking about it some more.  While looking for words do verbalize my thoughts, I got a chuckle looking at a fortune that was sitting in my wallet that summed it up for me:

Theories get you thinking. Sweat gets you results.

Now take a minute to look at those words and digest them. When looking at social media and looking for a way to define it for a manager or an executive break it into two separate areas that they can visualize.

Theory – Now there are a number of theories and schools of thought that you can go with, but at the end of the day they are just that. Pick the metric that you want to move the needle whether its sentiment, Retweets, link views (use a shortener to track clicks) or some other metrics – own it and live and die with it. While you might be tempted to look at doing everything, keep it simple and towards a metric that your boss understands very well. Do this even if the metric means little to you; this will help you gain a champion with some weight behind them.

Sweat – This doesn’t mean to break out your headband from high school basketball, but rather showing your manager that the only way to make a dent in social media is by getting your hands dirty. Rome wasn’t built overnight and neither was your company’s brand, so why should your presence in social media? Strong communities are built over time so the toughest battle here is showing your superior that you can’t just throw a bucket of money at it to make it work. For marketers, it is a hard pill to swallow, but as a flack your tool box has some tricks to help the medicine go down smoother. The battle won’t be easy, but its another way that you’ll have to put in the sweat to get the job done.

Have you had a fortune cookie that clicked with you in a similar way?

A quick glance at this post’s title might have you thinking that I have lost it; reality is I haven’t, but had an ah ha moment. Anyone that is a practitioner of social media or SMPR, has faced some kind of obstacle on describing what the value of a Tweet, post or plug on a social network is worth. My friend Keith Trivitt wrote up a two-part post (part 1, part 2) on this subject over at the PR Breakfast Club that got me thinking both times.  While sitting in a bank conference room over the weekend I was thinking about it some more.  While looking for words do verbalize my thoughts, I got a chuckle looking at a fortune that was sitting in my wallet that summed it up for me:

Theories get you thinking. Sweat gets you results.

Now take a minute to look at those words and digest them. When looking at social media and looking for a way to define it for a manager or an executive break it into two separate areas that they can visualize.

Theory – Now there are a number of theories and schools of thought that you can go with, but at the end of the day they are just that. Pick the metric that you want to move the needle whether its sentiment, Retweets, link views (use a shortener to track clicks) or some other metrics – own it and live and die with it. While you might be tempted to look at doing everything, keep it simple and towards a metric that your boss understands very well. Do this even if the metric means little to you; this will help you gain a champion with some weight behind them.

Sweat – This doesn’t mean to break out your headband from high school basketball, but rather showing your manager that the only way to make a dent in social media is by getting your hands dirty. Rome wasn’t built overnight and neither was your company’s brand, so why should your presence in social media? Strong communities are built over time so the toughest battle here is showing your superior that you can’t just throw a bucket of money at it to make it work. For marketers, it is a hard pill to swallow, but as a flack your tool box has some tricks to help the medicine go down smoother. The battle won’t be easy, but its another way that you’ll have to put in the sweat to get the job done.

Have you had a fortune cookie that clicked with you in a similar way?

A quick glance at this post’s title might have you thinking that I have lost it; reality is I haven’t, but had an ah ha moment. Anyone that is a practitioner of social media or SMPR, has faced some kind of obstacle on describing what the value of a Tweet, post or plug on a social network is worth. My friend Keith Trivitt wrote up a two-part post (part 1, part 2) on this subject over at the PR Breakfast Club that got me thinking both times.  While sitting in a bank conference room over the weekend I was thinking about it some more.  While looking for words do verbalize my thoughts, I got a chuckle looking at a fortune that was sitting in my wallet that summed it up for me:

Theories get you thinking. Sweat gets you results.

Now take a minute to look at those words and digest them. When looking at social media and looking for a way to define it for a manager or an executive break it into two separate areas that they can visualize.

Theory – Now there are a number of theories and schools of thought that you can go with, but at the end of the day they are just that. Pick the metric that you want to move the needle whether its sentiment, Retweets, link views (use a shortener to track clicks) or some other metrics – own it and live and die with it. While you might be tempted to look at doing everything, keep it simple and towards a metric that your boss understands very well. Do this even if the metric means little to you; this will help you gain a champion with some weight behind them.

Sweat – This doesn’t mean to break out your headband from high school basketball, but rather showing your manager that the only way to make a dent in social media is by getting your hands dirty. Rome wasn’t built overnight and neither was your company’s brand, so why should your presence in social media? Strong communities are built over time so the toughest battle here is showing your superior that you can’t just throw a bucket of money at it to make it work. For marketers, it is a hard pill to swallow, but as a flack your tool box has some tricks to help the medicine go down smoother. The battle won’t be easy, but its another way that you’ll have to put in the sweat to get the job done.

Have you had a fortune cookie that clicked with you in a similar way?

A quick glance at this post’s title might have you thinking that I have lost it; reality is I haven’t, but had an ah ha moment. Anyone that is a practitioner of social media or SMPR, has faced some kind of obstacle on describing what the value of a Tweet, post or plug on a social network is worth. My friend Keith Trivitt wrote up a two-part post (part 1, part 2) on this subject over at the PR Breakfast Club that got me thinking both times.  While sitting in a bank conference room over the weekend I was thinking about it some more.  While looking for words do verbalize my thoughts, I got a chuckle looking at a fortune that was sitting in my wallet that summed it up for me:

Theories get you thinking. Sweat gets you results.

Now take a minute to look at those words and digest them. When looking at social media and looking for a way to define it for a manager or an executive break it into two separate areas that they can visualize.

Theory – Now there are a number of theories and schools of thought that you can go with, but at the end of the day they are just that. Pick the metric that you want to move the needle whether its sentiment, Retweets, link views (use a shortener to track clicks) or some other metrics – own it and live and die with it. While you might be tempted to look at doing everything, keep it simple and towards a metric that your boss understands very well. Do this even if the metric means little to you; this will help you gain a champion with some weight behind them.

Sweat – This doesn’t mean to break out your headband from high school basketball, but rather showing your manager that the only way to make a dent in social media is by getting your hands dirty. Rome wasn’t built overnight and neither was your company’s brand, so why should your presence in social media? Strong communities are built over time so the toughest battle here is showing your superior that you can’t just throw a bucket of money at it to make it work. For marketers, it is a hard pill to swallow, but as a flack your tool box has some tricks to help the medicine go down smoother. The battle won’t be easy, but its another way that you’ll have to put in the sweat to get the job done.

Have you had a fortune cookie that clicked with you in a similar way?