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Anyone who has seen the movie Forrest Gump can recall the break-through scene where Forrest is being chased by the bullies on bikes. Forrest still has his braces on and his gait resembles more of a toy wind-up robot than a boy.

At some point in the interaction, he decides he is just going to run like hell to get away. He just turns on the juice, his braces fall away and he discovers his first super-power; his ability to run really fast for long distances.

What if instead of running, Forrest stopped by the side of the road and did an ROI of his running vs not running. He would have to calculate the speed at which he would have to run to get away, factor in the weight of the leg braces, calculate the maximum speed at which he…

*BOOM*

The bullies just beat up Forrest. The movie is over, Forrest is dead and the results of the ROI are now meaningless, even if it showed that Forrest would be able to outrun the bullies as Jenny encouraged him to. Even as Jenny had faith in Forrest’s ability to run faster than the bullies could, the pressure to complete the ROI before acting would prevent him from getting away.

And that is what completing an ROI on the use of Social Media is like.

Just get up and run. Run as fast as you possibly can. If you are right and there is an ROI, then you are still ahead. If you are wrong and there is no ROI, then the marketplace might beat you up.

But if you don’t get up and run now, they will definitely beat you up. If I were you, I’d already be running.

Now, watch this video. The really smart stuff is said at the very end, but unless you watch the whole thing, you won’t know what the smart stuff is. Trust me.

Source: http://www.meshconference.com/meshtv/

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