ROI of Social Media: Risk of Irrelevance

Social media is the most pervasive shift in communication in history.  It is permeating all aspects of society from inspiring citizens to organize against governments as in the Arab Spring to how students learn with communities such as the Khan Academy to how brands advertise their products.  There are 3.5 billion internet users world-wide.  There are 3 billion social media users world-wide (source). Social media is the communication format for the 21^st century and thus it is challenging to quantify its impact using 20^th century methodologies.  However, its effects can be clearly observed in its changes to human life.  That is why the ROI of social media is a Risk of Irrelevance.  Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, etc. are how 3 billion people across the world communicate with each other, governments and brands.  Not embracing this communication evolution presents a clear risk of being left behind by customers as they engage with brands that talk to them with this new technology as they are expecting them to do.  As with any other important channel, for a brand, if your customers are there, you need to be there.  Therefore, there is a clear mandate to participate in social media.  To learn about it and to harness the potential it offers.