While killing an hour or two down the rabbit hole of social media last weekend, I came across an interesting post to share with Measurement Matters' readers.  In "Web 2.0 Weenies and Bullshit Social Media Economics", Michael Gray argues forcefully (and entertainingly) that if you're not making real money out of your social media efforts and activities, then you're totally wasting your time. 

It's a well written opinion piece, the basic tenet of which I totally agree with - particularly this quote:

"Social media is filled with false gods and idols, who try to sell you their own “secret sauce” in get rich quick schemes..." 

To back up his point, he highlights the fact that Robert Scoble (as he describes him, one of the 'poster boys' of social media) has recently left FastCompany.TV.  I wouldn't agree with his use of the term 'fired' though, and I have no doubt the Scobleizer has some exciting new venture up his sleeve - which is of course ignoring the fact that his cheery mugshot is still peering out from the home page of FastCompany's site.  I'll certainly still be following his tweets avidly wherever he ends up.

The fact remains that these days most of us in the commercial world are under ever greater time pressures.  Organisations are cutting back and resourcing levels are often one of the first things to suffer.  If this scenario sounds familiar, more than ever you need to be asking yourself whether the time you spend listening, researching and participating on social media is brining you and your organisation real benefits.  And the real benefits shouldn't be measured in terms of numbers of followers, @replies, page views of your website or blog etc, but proper 'tangible' outcome measures focussing on monetising your time and developing your value to the business.

We're often asked by our clients to help them understand what's going on out there that matters, what doesn't, what can, and should be done about it, what the best approach to do this might be, and then what has been the ROI on their PR efforts.  Our advice is always based around this simple premise which holds as true for traditional media evaluation as it does for social media measurement - one size does not fit all.  Different blogs, sites, networks, people etc matter to different organisations. An approach that works for one company may not work for your company. Don't be afraid to make mistakes.  And make sure that you remain focussed on aligning your organisations benefits with your PR and social media outreach objectives.

Into this tough economic climate the vibrant and exponential world of social media has emerged.  The challenge to all of us is to keep it real - to make it work for our specific needs and to avoid the tempting honey traps that run the risk of draining so much of our precious time.  

If you have some tips on how you remain focus, we would love you to share them with us here.