Justifying development initiatives within the social, mobile and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) sectors could be a challenging sale within your financial department and CFO. It is a challenge because you really don’t have a tangible item to hold on to or an easy way to measure the ROI. To have an ROI with your existing online investments in the “connected/online” world you must not ignore the three most important sectors: social networks, mobile platforms and SEO.

What these “people” don’t understand is that the online world is now part of our lives and that will not change any time soon. Additionally, all mobile phones are now “connected”, meaning you can now use your phone as a laptop and your time online has increased drastically compared to few years back. It is now much easier to read product reviews, research pricing differences, cons and pros, availability, and much more from the palm of your customers’ hand.

Having access to the internet from mobile devices is one third of the equation, the other third is the social side of the online world. Being social is not just Facebook or Twitter. Social websites are popping daily across the world, making communication much easier than ever before. Within twenty-four hours your product or company can be known around the world or it could also be destroyed. To be successful now days you need to embrace the social side of the internet, and accept it as you have already accepted emails, fax machines, and standard postal services. Understanding social websites is extremely powerful because it will tell you exactly how your company and products are perceived by the customers. No need to create questionnaires, or focus groups. Instead understand social media and read what the “word” on the street is about your company.

The third side of the equation is SEO. When you type on Google or Yahoo! the name of your business or product name does it come up as number one on the search results? How about on the first page? Understanding how to promote your website and online presence is an art and every company needs to pay attention to this and not take it for granted. After all, Google will only show the pages that they “think” are important, and if your website is not too relevant to them, they will ignore it and you will never be found.

To justify the investment into these sectors have the following goals in mind:

• Increase brand awareness
• Improve reputation
• Focus on specific benefits you want
• Cross-leverage your social media profiles

How is your company embracing these new technologies? Cons, pros, ideas, thoughts, suggestions… share them, we all want to learn from you.

Useful links on this subject:

• Social Media Networking and ROI: How to Maximize Value and Minimize Cost
• Predicting the ROI for Future SEO Efforts
• ROI for SEO: Proving Value to the CFO
• Learn the SEO + SEM = ROI Equation from the CEO and Founder of Wall Street’s GetMeOnTop