Did that title grab your attention?  Of course it did, that is the magical formula that everyone is looking for.  But how do you get value or determine the ROI of something?  You have to track it with metrics right?  But, in my opinion that is the first mistake.  There are always ways to game the system with metrics.  You want to measure likes/followers, okay I’ll just pay some money to a third-party service and buy them.  It’s easy to see when a company does that you say…ok, you want to measure the likes/followers of “real’ people.  Well guess what, there’s a service that will serve those “real” people to you on a silver platter if you pay the price.  Content is king you say, there’s no way to get around that because if you don’t have content there is nothing to like or follow.  Yep, there’s a service for that too.  Engagement is key, you can’t fake that.  Sure you can, you can pay a company to comment, share, click on the content that another service has provided to you.

My Point is there is always ways to game the system and that is why no one will be able to give you that magic formula.  But what you can do is be genuine and honest and create your original content.  Once you do that those real people will comment, share, and engage with you.  If you are a brand, chances are that will put you leaps and bounds ahead of your competitors.  Before you know it you have this new following through social media that is there to defend you when someone says something negative about your brand and is there to promote all the good things you have to offer.

To me, that is the value of social media.  I always want to hear what you think too, so leave a comment and tell me how you value social media.

Thanks for reading!