For those of you who have been in the social space for a while, you may remember Gary Vaynerchuk making waves a few years ago with his now (in)famous one-line retort on the “ROI of social media.”
“What’s the ROI of your mother?”
If this is news to you, here’s the video from YouTube, as well as a blog post he wrote, summarizing his response (and speech).
Back in the day, it made more than a few waves. The “measurati” were pissed off (especially researchers, because their papers and theories never got this kind of attention), and the Millennials loved it.
And many people were both amused and exasperated at the same time.
Because while it was a great line, it was also a line that gave social media naysayers more grist to add to their mill.
Which made the jobs of everyone working in, or on, social media efforts that much harder.
From pants to parents
Gary wasn’t the first person to address the ROI question with a non sequitur. Back in the day, Shel Israel would argue with Katie Paine (and enjoyably so) about the ROI of pants.
Shel’s point being, there are some things you just know are useful, so why waste time and effort on trying to prove something you already knew?
Measurement continues to be one of the areas with which most Social PR pros still have a hard time.
When in Mumbai, wear pants
The day before yesterday, I taught a day-long workshop in Mumbai for SCoRe and SPICE on Social PR, to a group of incredibly smart, focused and dedicated post-graduate students (all of whom were wearing pants, btw).
And while we covered a lot of ground – literally, their eyes were rolling in the backs of their heads by the time we finished – the area that blew their mind was when we talked about measurement.
Because no one had really focused on that in their education thus far; tons of focus on tactics, tag lines, all the fun stuff. But measurement? Nah.
Why #measurePR?
This is, to a large extent, why I started the #measurePR hashtag and chat all those years ago. And while it still blows my mind that there are vast swathes of otherwise really good PR pros using AVEs to measure, I know we’ve come a long way.
But we still have a long way to go.
Jan 2017 #measurePR Twitter chat
To that end, we’re holding the first #measurePR Twitter chat of 2017 tomorrow, Jan. 12, from 12-1 pm ET << official event listing where you can “RSVP,” if you like.
As of now I have every intention of curating the chat, but just in case my internet connection is iffy, my friend and colleague Jen Zingsheim Phillips has graciously offered to co-host the chat… just so that there’s no dead air, as it were, in case I’m a no show due to technical difficulties.
Please join us if you can. We’ve been asking the “measurati” and others for their 2017 measurement predictions, and we’ll be sharing those during the chat.
We want to know what 2017 holds for you in terms of measurement, and how you plan to get there – and something you share might very well help someone else.
Save the date, better yet, show up
Again, it’s 12-1 pm ET on Twitter; just show up with your favorite beverage and a comfy pair of slippers. Pants optional. :)
And maybe we’ll be able to start moving past the ROI of pants and parents when it comes to measuring PR.
[…] this year (and in prep for last week’s #measurePR chat), I asked a range of pros for their 2017 measurement […]
Hi Shonali,
Thanks as always for another great post. But I think you are a little uncharitable toward the measurati. If they were pissed off at Gary’s “mother” observation, then their reason is more nuanced than, as you say, “because their papers and research never got this kind of attention.”
Shel’s “What’s the ROI of your pants?” question was indeed a hot topic among measurement experts quite a while ago. I ran articles about it in The Measurement Standard in 2006, and attended Measurement Summit conference sessions on it at about the same time. So, hard feelings among measurement types are understandable because Gary appears to have blatantly borrowed an expression that was already legendary in our field. And not just the expression, but the topic of discussion that it prompts. One that was hashed over long ago, at least in measurement.
Gary is very, very good at what he does, and justly successful at it. It’s obvious that his audience appreciated his reworking of Shel’s old measurement trope, and needed to continue the discussion of it. More power to him, and them. But I can well understand that some measurati might feel chafed when Gary’s selling t-shirts with his version of Shel’s expression on them. Are they, as you say, jealous of his success? Perhaps. But there’s more to it than that.
Thanks,
Bill Paarlberg, editor, The Measurement Standard, http://www.themeasurementstandard.com/
What a gift of a comment, Bill! Sorry it took me a while to reply, it was stuck in Moderation Jail (I didn’t put it there, promise).
I don’t think I’m being uncharitable per se towards the measurati; it was simply an observation which you yourself agreed with. I remember the whole pants thing between Shel and Katie (and that’s why I referenced it). And you’re right, it did precede Gary’s take on it.
Here’s the thing, though – 97% of the stuff that comes around has been done before and is a rehash. What makes people sit up and pay attention is if it’s rehashed in a different way. So a topic being done to death in a certain circle is all well and good, but if it doesn’t get any further then that circle, what’s the point? That’s what, IMHO, the measurati have NOT historically done a good job of, and which they are now trying to rectify – I do give them credit for that.
So that’s where I think Gary scored points (that he probably wasn’t even aware he was scoring). I personally was not a fan of the “ROI of your mother” line for the reasons I mentioned, but you gotta give credit where it’s due. :)