Relationship – A measure of success

At this month's PR-Net conference, attendees were treated to talks by Dave Duarte and Rob Stokes. The conference, hosted in the Sir Francis Drake Room at the Westin Grand, allowed for an intimate and elegant learning experience with these two eMarketing heavyweights. After a battle between Microsoft and Apple to see who could get the reluctant projector to comply, Dave gave us the low-down on what to tell your clients about Social Media (and how to bill them for it). Rob presented the concept of Online Reputation Management, which goes hand-in-hand with Social Media engagement.

In his presentation, Dave used a picture of a woman holding an old-fashioned sieve in front of her face. Unusual, but effective. The woman was peering through the sieve - conveying a simple truth about Social Media. The human brain works in a similar way. We filter or sieve the information we are exposed to every second, to avoid overload. We filter for truth, for knowledge, for the things we didn't know, and for the things we want to know.

What I 'sieved' out of both Dave and Rob's presentation, and especially the questions asked from the audience, is that the way in which we measure communication success has changed.

HubSpot produced some interesting statistics on the state of the Twittersphere:

• 79.79% failed to provide a homepage URL
• 75.86% of users have not entered a bio in their profile
• 68.68% have not specified a location
• 55.50% are not following anyone
• 54.88% have never tweeted
• 52.71% have no followers

I think one of the main reasons why we are finding results like this, apart from the fact that quite a few users do not understand Twitter, is that users have not gotten the social payoff they expected.

We all dream of having some sort of social success on the Internet, of being popular and having a 'following'. Yes, we all want to be rockstars. One thing I learnt from playing in a band is that the majority of people will love you because of how cool you make them look. And a small but a crazily obsessed, sell-their-grandmother loyal, group of people will love you for who you are and what you contribute to their world.

If I had to define success in Social Media, whether for personal or corporate investment, I'd say it is based on the relationships your engagement has earned you. I base this on the relational context of Social Media, the way networks form, and how information (or social currency) travels.

I leave you with a question: If success in the playground of Social Media rests in relationships, what kind of relationships do you want to have?