I liked your tsumani comparison, though the one that sprang to mind when I was drafting the paper was “herding cats through Times Square”…

I liked your tsumani comparison, though the one that sprang to mind when I was drafting the paper was “herding cats through Times Square”…

Thanks to the shout out and the links to some great resources – and while you cover a lot of topics here, I'd like to add my perspective on the accounting aspect. Measuring performance is not particularly hard to measure if social media or community efforts are initiated to solve a specific operational problem… at least presuming those business problems are already measured in some way. The measurement is the same, the mechanism and dynamic is different.

However, there is also the issue of experimentation with social media and community to figure out what is possible and what it can be effectively used for. And experimentation is a valid goal – it's very much like the R part of R&D. In that case, measurement and success have completely different expectations attached and the time frame is very different.

The problem? Not everyone have explicitly defined whether they are executing on a specific business process or whether they are experimenting, leaving the rest of the organization confused about what they should be expecting.

And then, there is the ROI (direct cost/return) vs. realizing business outcomes (better research and opportunities). Two totally different ways of measuring. Also something companies need to be clear about. Some very valid business outcomes are difficult to attach a absolute monetary value to although you can estimate the relative cost saving from getting that outcome in a different way.

Not sure that answered any questions but I think companies should pause to figure out and communicate very clearly what they are hoping to do and what they are hoping to accomplish. It makes the accounting question much clearer.