I’ve been thinking a lot about social media lately. I know, you’re probably thinking, “Well, that’s good because it’s your job.” But social digs much deeper for me than just my job.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how social media has played a huge part in where I am today. I landed my job at Context Optional through LinkedIn. Almost every single one of my friends in San Francisco I’ve met through Twitter or this very blog. Social media is the reason I have a job – helping brands develop their social media presences.

I’ve watched social media evolve over the past four (ish) years. It’s come from being a place where you can connect with your friends, to a place where brands can market and connect with their customers (think: lots of customer service), to a place where brands advertise, and I think we’re taking another step. Some may think it’s a step back. Some may think it’s never changed. I believe social media is going back to its roots: Community.

The past year, I’ve watched (and helped many) brands focus their marketing and advertising efforts on social media. I’ve helped create content strategies based on marketing campaigns. I’ve helped brands develop a model for calculating social media ROI through conversions and engagement metrics.

We’ve been measuring it wrong. Sure, clicks and likes all matter, but what’s more powerful are the connections we’re making and the relationships we’re building with our customers. That’s what social is all about. It’s not a traditional advertising or marketing platform, and it shouldn’t be treated as such. If you do that, you’re missing the point.

I’ve always touted that “content is the key to social media success.” In fact, I’ve given several presentations about just that.

Content isn’t enough anymore.

It’s no longer only about the types of content you publish to your audience. It’s not even just about publishing the right content to your audience. Or the right content to the right audience.

Instead, we should focus on community. 

Building, growing, engaging, interacting with, and retaining your community.

I read an article about exactly this: The ROI of community. And I couldn’t agree more. We’ve all been so focused on social media increasing sales and conversion and monetarily building a business. And our focus has been misaligned.

I’m not naive enough to believe that money isn’t the end all for brands on the Internet and that social can and will contribute to revenue. But that’s primarily what advertising is for. Social is so much more than that. Our efforts should not be to “craft a message that will get people to click and buy a new TV.” They should be to build a community that trusts you, relies on you, and when it’s time for them to buy a TV, they’ll buy from you. And they’ll tell their friends to buy from you, too.

So, I’m changing my tune.

Relationships are the key to social media success.

Photo via and if you didn’t get my birds of a feather reference…