Tweet-up and be counted: more social media ROI

Building on the blog return on investment example discussed at the previous SMCC event, and moving through the perennially low hanging fruit of microblogged client services, the boss also took a hard look at the calculations behind recent social media campaigns from Domino’s and McDonald’s, as well as the seemingly more robust social media ROI in integrated activity from the likes of Old Spice and VCCP’s Meerkats.

It seemed every presenter was eager to discuss how they’d measured the success of their work. One of the strongest examples was Reckitt Benckiser’s poweRBrands Facebook game, a high-end recruitment campaign currently being enjoyed by 20,000 players. No hires yet, but it’s surely a matter of time – the application is still in beta after all.

EDIT – see update, below

Facebook games are quickly becoming the new black at these conferences: John Cole of Adknowledge was among the highlights at the recent Social Collective event, where again ROI was to the fore, on that occasion in the form of virtual-currency-fuelled data-mining.

Much has been written about Facebook’s marcomms compatibility, not all of it wildly enthusiastic. But in an environment where casual gamers number in the hundreds of millions and consistently prove highly engaged, there is undoubted opportunity for the brands who get it right.

The key SMCC takeaway was that those who do get it right will have come to Facebook games having started from clear and measurable business objectives.

UPDATE 25/10/10: Claudia from RB has been in touch to point out that, contrary to what’s suggested above, poweRBrands currently has 20,000 fans and in fact more than 160,000 players. We should also stress that, while recruitment is one of the game’s goals, the overarching aim is that of raising brand awareness in the Gen Y demographic. Sorry for the confusion (and untidy notetaking), Claudia, and thanks for picking me up!