Tasty nibbles on the web - #1

Life has never been easy for the health conscious. You are awash with choices. Yet you never savor those rare organic delicacies lying hidden in the sprawling forests of the Web. 
Starting with this week, I am trying my hand at the most ancient mode of subsistence known to mankind:hunting and gathering. Here's what I gathered this week.  

Social Media, ROI and all that jazz - Part I

"Social Media is all glamour and glitz offering no real value", my friend teased me wickedly over a cup of coffee, fully aware of my high-caffeine interests in things social. I didn't respond. I smiled smugly, attempting to make peace with his premature judgment. Or so I thought. Little did I realize that it would start an intense journey of introspection, drilling through the neural mine of my innards for value deposits worth sharing.


I paused. I could clearly see the reasons behind his dismissal. The tribe of Social Media gurus, ninjas, samurais are driving the social gold rush, sprouting all over like weeds, sucking the immediate hype value from the fertile soil.This tribe drives social as the proverbial hammer to which every problem ailing today's organization is the nail. Before you have understood the problem, voila! the solution is right there, defined in terms of collaboration and engagement, shouting and spitting loudly at your face. The tribe hasn't moved on from those heady days when Social Media was all about voluptuous statistics and Viva La Revolucion! 


As I introspected further, I realized that it was essential to address the elephant in the room : Social Media ROI. While there have been several pundits [for the lack of a better word] who have been addressing this question in earnest, I realized that there is lack of clarity in understanding the fundamental nature of social data. Here is a quick primer before we address the nagging question of Social Media ROI.