Sales are a false goal

Yes, that's my point.
If you get into Web 2.0 pratices to generate sales, you may be on the wrong track.
I do not mean that at the end of the day, you are not generating sales, but this is not the goal you must have in mind when tackling this world.

We do not forget that sales are and will be more and more related to a brand or a company image, to the post sales experience, to several other factors that are influenced by the customers opinion.
An opinion crucial as never before because it travels across the web all over the world in few seconds, crushing space and language barrier.

So, set up your goal in a different way.
This is the thought I tried to deliver in the workshop about WOM and this is something I can see in this interesting post from Mediapost.

Metrics

Don't rely on metrics to claim your community is successfull.
Use metrics to understand your community better.

The safe way in troubled times

With recession hitting the markets and a quest for accountability of each single dollar spent in communication, there an interesting trend that I wish to understand better.

Communication budegt for online is the less affected by the downspending trend.
But within the allocation, Sem is getting the biggest share.
Now, my question is rather simple:

Is Sem the top choice because it works?
Or it is the choice because of predictable results, while others are still missing reliable metrics?

This is key interpretation to me, because it may design a conservative approach to marketing online while, quoting David Ogilvy, testing is crucial in any communication activity.

Will the companies that have already embraced and tested online activity gain momentum while the others are lagging behind?

Is the adoption of the Web 2.0 only a tactic to save money?

With troubled times ahead and a slowing if not crashing economy, I sometimes think that one of the most powerfull selling tool for the Web 2.0 vs traditional media is the cost.
A tv campaign does cost x times more than a buzz activity, as well as the implementation of a blog does cost much less money than a billboard campaign.
But is this a key fact to sell a project to a client?
Are we tarnishing the inner value of the on line activity making it cheap?

Indeed cost control is crucial and to tell the truth on line metrics are still at an early stage to detect the contribution of each single activity to the bottom line.

What's your opinion?

Le Roi est mort

Is Roi still a valid definition to measure the result of the activity on the Web?
I believe it's not.

We talk about engagement, trust, conversation and still define the return on the investment.
therefore I suggest to use new definition: Return on engagement, Return on trust.
I will talk about it at the first ever conference about Wom in Italy, on April 2/3.
I run the morning workshop about it.
I called it: Roi and his brothers (quote from a famous Luchino Visconti's movie Rocco and his brothers).

The issue of metrics is crucial in developing clients' trust and a bunch of players are throwing in the market their own solution.
But it seems the war of format between Sony and Toshiba: which standard will prevail?