We were discussing social media ROI (return on investment) and how to calculate the profits from social media.

After blurting out my standard line:

Most people asking about social media ROI are really asking “How do I get my boss to let me do this?”

— Warren Whitlock (@WarrenWhitlock) October 21, 2012

We got into a serious discussion about the balance between asking for attention/sales and building real relationships that are far more profitable over time.

Is Asking for Social Media ROI Selfish?

This goes back to one of my most basic philosophies. The most selfish thing you can do in life is to be selfless.

Talk about a counter-intuitive headspin… Once you know that selfless is the best for your own interests, you realize that trying to ACT selfless is selfish. You have to BE selfless.. that is, you want to get to the point where you put your self interest on the back burner and think about it less and less.

Easier said than done.

Applied to marketing, we know that marketing that looks like marketing is 3rd rate marketing. Everyone has a BS filter and some people will attack you just because you have something for sale. (ignore them).

Mike Hill is a glowing example of getting it right. He runs a private group on Facebook with the best peer to peer advice around and hardly anyone gaming the discussion for lead generation or traffic (Imagine how crazy promotional a group of Internet promoters could be if they were all trying to sell to each other).

I love my wife 🙂 why is it this reminds me of us SO MUCH! She tolerates my stupidity and encourages my insa instagr.am/p/P98ZAglGO0/

— Mike Hill (@MikeHill) September 24, 2012

Mike set up strong rules against self promotion works hard work to police posts, he’s got a pitch free zone. When he posts or comments, it’s high level helpful advice. You’d really have to dig to even find out what he sells.

This is the best marketing Mike could do. If you ask him about the ROI on the group, I’d imagine his first response would be “Huh?” The thought of capturing an audience to push products to appears to completely missing from his motivations. I haven’t seen sales data for Mike, but know he continues to do well.

How much would Mike attribute to his social media efforts? Hard to say. It’s just part of who he is, and that’s what his customers are buying.

We have to calculate what works, even if our pure intent is to serve others we want it to be effective. All the influence and strategy serves that.

I study the tools, use them for profit, but now I’m learning to limit even the language of IM (ie. traffic, eyeballs, “killing it”) and speak in terms of how I might love my readers and customers more. I don’t just rely on what feels good. I know that my feelings could lead me to waste time in some places and ignore other in pursuit of short term advantages.

Being aware of this takes me back to the paradox of selfless/selfish which I now define as a life mission. We can measure the transactions and assign values to find out what works best, but we prosper more when we act in the interest of our network.

Using this metric, what’s your social media ROI?