"When asked what the return on investment of social media is, Scott told Business Insider, “What’s the ROI of wearing pants?” I don’t know, Scott, but if I’m a company spending hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on marketing, I want to know what I’m getting, pants or no pants."
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A somewhat incendiary post, but as Mendelson gets into the science of manufacturing virality, the piece gets better.

Social media may finally be dying, but the BS around it hasn’t | PandoDaily


"Yelp shit, Reddits shit. Every shit."

"Tess further underscored the “we live in public” theme with this astute comment: “I don’t believe that if I were to turn [my social networks] off that people wouldn’t be able to get my info. It’s already out there."

"It’s success theater, and we’ve mastered it. We’ve gotten better at it because it matters more. You never know who is looking or how it might affect your relationships and career down the road, and as a result, we have become more cautious about the version of ourselves that we present to each other and the world."

The What, The Why And The Who – How Are Brands Using Social Media? [INFOGRAPHIC] - AllTwitter

According to Ragan, only 3% of organizations outsource all of their social media work. Bad news for social agencies?

"The “Mad Men” days, where brands will have an ad agency in charge of coming up with ad creatives, (have passed). It’s almost like the content part of the brand is actually separate at ad agency. But what social is — word of mouth really — it’s finding your organic content that works and simply amplifying it so there’s actually less of a need to come up with this witty, creative ad, it’s more about which of your organic content is already growing and just amplifying this message. I think this is the main difference between social ads and display ads or TV ads as we know it."

"With little control over the way our customers experience our brand on sites like Facebook, differentiating ourselves becomes problematic. That’s the problem with social media that we don’t own – its value is constantly at risk."

"If you’re creating apps for big cities and expecting tricklenomics in technology, then I think you’re hustling backwards. I don’t care if it works now. The purpose of technology is solving problems now and for the future. Social is no longer a problem. Of course, there’s grounds for improving it but there has been nothing of note in regards to improving social in the last five years."

"Agencies have always adapted to a changing media world. Just as brands some eight decades ago began seeking ad services that facilitated both print and broadcast, companies may soon routinely expect that digital services (display, retargeting, search, etc.) and social get packaged together.
…
“Social is a totally different discipline,” he countered. “It’s part SEO, it’s part [audience] development, it’s part advertising and it is part PR. There’s a lot of interest in specialists out there."

"

No longer does ROI stand only for return on investment. Today, ROI also stands for return on impression, which encompasses two primary values — a hard metric and a soft metric. Together, those two values are far more powerful for measuring marketing performance than the single dollar value provided by return on investment metrics.

But the new ROI of marketing goes even further than investments and impressions. It also encompasses return on engagement, objectives, and opportunity. Today, people share information via the social web faster and more frequently than ever. Traditional ROI analysis is just the tip of the iceberg. The really interesting part of the story is what happens beneath the surface of the water. The hard metrics related to return on investment barely touch the surface.

Return on Impression = Eyeballs

"

"

“Most social networks feed primarily on vanity, in that they allow people to share and tailor online content that makes them look good. They can help people communicate to others that they’ve attended impressive schools, built amazing careers, attended cool parties, dated attractive people, thought deep thoughts, or reared cute kids. The top-level goal for most people is to convince others they are the individuals they want to be, whether that includes being happy, attractive, smart, fun or anything else.”

[Mark] Hendrickson nails it. Social networks cater to our emotional desire need for validation. It’s why, as my follows argue, that we strive to get As on our report cards, go to church or value trophies so highly.

I argue that modern society’s emphasis on validation has skyrocketed though, thanks to the rise of social media. We have entered the Age of the Validation Society.

"