Social Business Metrics and the Dangers of Misinformation

There are big dangers of social media misinformation says Doug Richards, Social Business Evangelist. We've been complacent for too long ignoring the seachange occuring around us. Richards of Centriq Training wants to steer the ship. He happens to have a map that few have access to: social business metrics.

He's here to educate the market. Most importantly he actually understands social business metrics and speaks about them in terms everyone can understand. No fancy gobbledygook! Just the facts.

For most of us metrics are hard enough as it is.

And we have established the reality that metrics can be misleading. After all, metrics are driven by what the business values. What is wrong with this picture? In most cases this does not include social media. So the metrics are biased.

Currently we aren’t seeing widespread adoption of social business metrics—but these second generation tools have arrived. The metrics will help us address two key questions: "Where are we going?" and "How are we going to get there?"

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There are dangers of misinformation—the software developers of social tools are often focused only on the development of the features. They forget the needs the user. Due to the demand for information many user-generated forums are created where customers teach each other the software and guess the intention of the tool.

Most companies are just not there yet but it’s time!

Most executives and marketers are not qualified to train others within the organization on the technology. They also are not qualified to be the voice of the platform or vendor.

Due to the slow growth economy there is a surplus of consultants who claim social business expertise. All too often the executive team signs off on the social business consulting only to get tools-expertise in a vacuum. Execs also receive poor information and flawed strategy.

So it’s time--we want to see you properly educated.

As an industry it’s time to start self-policing. This comes from the vendors and the information providers. The democratization of information is the key driving force behind social media-this will help power us forward into the next generation. Join us for this podcast interview for key information to start you on your social business journey.