Alaa Rajeh JEDDAH – A professional marketing blogger aptly pointed out that business is anchored on pillars that ensure sustainability. These pillars are generally the outputs and the inputs or the expenses and the profits, he noted, adding that to earn profits, some marketing is required to introduce the product or service to consumers.Yet, it is imperative to understand the return on investment (ROI) – a measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments.And in the name of ROI, and with the aim of getting the positive results, media conduits are booming as technology and particular needs mount. Social online tools are becoming popular, too. However, for some, the rationale of ROI might be obscure. Accordingly, impacts are measured through easy schemes which can be number of likes on Facebook. On the contrary, there are significant measures which can judge the product or service qualitatively rather than quantitatively on a social media pursuit. Discussion forums and posts are very much similar to “guests' comment card" we see at restaurants and hotels. The forums evaluations' are more informative or opinion centric. It highlights any negative feedback which should be considered for improvement. Despite that, unfortunately, some companies, to a certain extent, reject or snub negative facts and alternatively tend to fantasize their offerings, ignoring that fact that criticisms could be much more profitable.Like in YouTube, there are performance metrics.It is highly recommended to follow the key performance indicator to measure the impact of social campaign – the determinant of the success or failure of the project, whether it is a tangible product or a service. There are also some wise metrics that evaluate each feedback to determine which post worked best. Just like in YouTube, it shows where videos are stopped, in other words, at which second the video is stopped. The resulting analysis of the viewership attitudes will finally identify target outcome.In short, ROI is not only about long-term revenues, but include reputation, availability, risk reduction, client education and retention, network growth, efficiency, creating opportunities, business intelligence, building trust, differentiation, brand association, exposure, perception of product, and environmental impact.— The writer is a PR manager based in Saudi Arabia
