I participated in a Social Business conference here in the North Bay area of San Francisco, which was on the whole a great experience; however, one particular roundtable discussion left me “unimpressed” — if not downright exasperated.

This technology company has had a pretty lackluster, stodgy reputation, so their “objective” was to become cool and hip. As a stockholder — in addition to being a social media strategist — I am disappointed to hear that this i.e., being cool and hip was the Big Goal.

They hired a college intern and asked him to come up with an idea, so he suggested and implemented a series of videos that went “viral” — and now the company is so happy with itself.

I asked if the company had measured any ROI from this campaign. With what little response I received, I take it there was nothing set up to evaluate.

The company “happiness” seemed to come from the fact that they had videos that went viral.

To my mind this is just plain silly.

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So I put the situation out there in several of my LinkedIn groups, and here were the responses:

Victoria Scott • I call this type of happiness “Ego Wallpaper” – makes the owners feel good, they can line the walls with numbers and there are no apparent hard results. Maybe it’ll turn into money eventually – any examples of success beyond the usual gratefully received!

Paul Violet • Seems we suffer from the same delusions on the east side of the great divide. Jumping on a bandwagon is not a recipe for success.

Louise Findlay-Wilson • Ego wallpaper is a great phrases. The example breaks all the rules of sound PR & marketing. Set some objectives, agree measures that truly tell you whether you’re getting closer to the objectives, and then measure, measure, measure. I can’t imagine why anyone would be happy to do less than this!

Alex Rodriguez • Well maybe not so much.
Viral means to me over one million in video views, and with views comes exposure which may lead to interest, now here is where the sales funnel begins from the million views what actions were created?
Knowing this is where we separate those arm chair specialist from the real ones.
Exposure=Traffic=Actions= ROI

Mark Longbottom • Just being happy at going viral smacks of not understanding why they are doing it other than a pat on the back. Also any agency suggesting they make viral campaigns should also be steared clear of, interesting and entertaining content can only be made viral by the audience. Numbers are a side issue based on the focus of the audience and customer base targeted by the orgainsation or busienss. They should definately be listening and monitoring activity around what they are doig to be deliver a more effective and continuous service.

By getting people to view the video and then share this with their networks there should be a call to action not a sales pitch but simply a way to engage and build a relatonship. Empowering them to tell more of their networks about what they have viewed, as well as giving you contact details to keep them informed of future information, products and services which they maybe interested in. Building a trusted and loyal following will maximise the ROI naturally.

What do you think?