Is there an ROI to Social Networking?

I recently read an article titled “The Squishy ROI of Social Networking” by Andrew Conry-Murray in InformationWeek, one of the IT Industry trade rags that I still get after a long career in that industry. This article focused upon the use of SN software to create corporate SNs inside of companies and asked what, if any ROI there was to those networks. The SN software discussed and in use inside companies included FaceBook-like nets, Blogs, Wikis, Twitter and the like.

In most cases the SNs are set up inside the company, away from the public view, and meant only for the use of employees. The promise (or hope, as the case may be) is that employees using these networks will somehow improve company efficiency or save the company money or come up with new ideas or do something that adds some value to the company. Most of the article focused upon how hard it is for most companies to measure any ROI on these networks.

One thing that I noted in the article and which I have opined about before, is that the focus was on the Return side of the ROI equation, with little to no real information about the Investment side and what that means. It appears from the article that many companies just set up the infrastructure – the software on the company intranet – and step back and wait for the magic to happen. Even the five best practices mentioned in the article had nothing about the Investment that the company must make, and more importantly the users must make, to make SNs work and have value.

I believe that is the key to success for both companies and individual users of SNs – invest in them through participation. For companies that means doing a lot more than just having everybody sign up and fill out a profile. It means doing the education necessary for the users to understand how, when and why to use the new tools and to understand what good may come out of it all. It also means giving the process time – time to build up a meaningful database of posts and blogs and discussions and Wiki entries, so that there is something worth searching by someone else.

If you hope to leverage the quality experiences of all of your plants, then you have to give the plants the encouragement and time to maker posts about their best practices. If you’re a Realtor hoping to find new ways to improve your business, then you should ask questions in discussions and blogs and read the answers. It’s really amazing what people are willing to share, especially if they hope to get back something some day when they have a question.

So, the key is to encourage investment, not just of the money necessary to build out the technical infrastructure, but of the time of the users, so that the real value is realized through shared knowledge. Is the ROI really “squishy?” I suppose for some that will be the case, but for those willing to invest in the process it can be quite real and likely measurable. What’s your feeling on the return on the investment that you make in Social Networks? Are they worth your while?