I have been a member of CISV Sweden since 2005, when I went to Lyon, France through a program called Interchange. It was the first time I ever traveled without my parents. Instead I traveled with six friends my age, a “junior counselor” and an adult leader. I lived in a French boy’s house with his mother and sister, whom I had never met before. Four weeks (two in France and two in Sweden) later, I had grown from an insecure, shy boy who never talked to girls, into being able to actually have a conversation with girls my age. And I could do it in English as well! Pretty cool, huh?

In 2010, I was elected National Junior Representative (NJR for short) for CISV Sweden. With our several hundred “juniors” (members aged 14-27), it is a huge responsibility, and of course one of the most awesome experiences I have had. As an NJR, I’m constantly keeping track of all levels of the organization, and it’s giving me insight into how an international organization with nearly 60,000 members works.

So what is CISV? To put it into the Golden Circle à la Simon Sinek, starting with why:

• The organization strives to create peace through friendship.
• We try to educate and inspire our members (and others) to take action on any level, local through global, for a more just and peaceful world.
• This is mainly carried out through projects and camps all over the world, aimed at people ages 11 and up.

CISV is one of the most important parts of me, and the energy and passion I feel while working with all my volunteer colleagues all over the world is something I rarely get anywhere else!

Typical image from a Media Team meeting

Fun fact: While the average Facebook user has 130 friends, the average CISV member on Facebook has 390 friends. That’s the power of international friendship and social media!

We had a short tweet exchange about the matter, which continued in a chat discussion in the evening. To summarize the whole discussion including Twitter, it went something like this:

Joel: Just for fun, since I couldn’t be there: What are your favorite methods of analyzing ROI and metrics on your Social Media platforms?

Björn: Social Media is so much more personal that it is hard to measure Return On Investment. While I’m sure you somehow measure ROI in personal relationships, do you really do it with figures and graphs?

Joel: All social media is measurable. Look at it this way. Social media is really much like any lunch you might have with a client. Say you buy that client or partner lunch, that costs you $20, but what you might get from that lunch, might be much more valuable than the lunch you just bought your client. Say for example that the conversation during the lunch between you and client result in a new possibility of doing business or a prolonged contract. Now there suddenly you have a new business plan or a prolonged contract, paying back that investment of $20 ten thousand fold.

Björn: But what if you don’t get that contract? It’s still worth something, right? How can you measure that?

Joel: Lunch just like Social media is not about the investment you do in the actual lunch or the social media implementation but what you do with the conversation or the platform that you invest in. The more conversations you have and the more time you invest into social media, the more return you will see. Social media and lunches are not about instantly crunching numbers, but more about creating long term dialogues, discussions and collaborations. By just a small investment such as a lunch or a social media tool (which you often can get for free), you can start building long term dialogues resulting in return of investments in a not too far away future. With better understanding between companies as well as consumers through dialogue, greater business decision and greater return on investments will be made.

Björn: Great points, but the question still stands: Can you really put that into numbers? Obviously, a Facebook page filled with positive comments is a great thing, but how do you decide how much a comment, blog post or tweet is worth?

Joel: While there is value to simply measuring the amount of tweets and comments you get, the real value lies in what KIND of input you receive. To turn it around, you can think about how much you would have lost if you did not receive certain messages. If you start distributing a faulty product, some people will notice it, and the first place to complain today is in social media. Had you not been listening to what is being said online, the damage, both economically and reputation wise would have been much more severe. An example of this is the Kryptonite story, where someone realized that you could pick a bike lock in less than ten seconds with a pen, recorded it and put it on YouTube.

Björn: Super! So a way to measure the value of a good dialogue online could actually be to imagine the economic loss of missing out on key information to be found there. Awesome! Thank you Joel for a great discussion and input on this matter! High5!

A short note on the quote: although Albert Einstein is usually credited as the author, he is not, according to the blog Quote Investigator.

• No 55 – A creative regional council
• No 95 – Venues for all ages

High5 – We are off to a head start:

- Yesteday, Björn Kåberger and I wrote a blog post for ADA Sweden on finding the tipping point of social media. (We will add the link as soon as it is published.) We share our views on why we chose the intiatives on the list of 100 great initiatives presented during Handelskammardagarna in Göteborg October 13-14.

- We will moderate the workshop about how should schools and businesses work together in a regional learning environment in Göteborg (“Mötesplats Skola“) on November 1. We will also support in the handing out of awards to the schools with the best examples. The price ceremony will be held by Helene Odenjung. If you want to follow the event live and before/after find the conversation on Twitter #SkolaArbetsliv. Tickets are available here>>

Together Björn and I were first on set at the Press Office for the World Transplant Games. Follow us live/online today and during the week to come on @Awoque (Twitter) and on #wtg2011 (on Twitter). We will also appear on Facebook and on the official blog.

We interviewed Howard Dell from Team USA:

Stay tuned and have a great day!

• “Herregud vad har människan på sig?”
• Bästa shownummer med nakenchock
• “Jag som inte sätter en enda ton rätt”
• “Vinner rätt eller fel låt?”
• “Kommer mellanakten flippa eller floppa?”

Och på tal om det bjuder jag här på den bästa mellanakten so far i Melodifestivalens historia:

I lördags laddade vi med schlager på Spotify hela eftermiddagen. Maken hade varit gullig och köpt en tidningsbilaga med allt om festivalen. Festmåltid tillagades bestående av årets första grillade nötytterfilé, bearnaisesås och ungspotatis som avnjöts högtidligt strax vid kl 20. Till efterrätt popcorn och godis som flög lite varstans under kvällens gång. Kan det bli mer Svensson? (I love it.)Precis som en schlagerkväll ska vara.

När Danny´s låt nr 8 spelades steg temperaturen och hela familjen hade sin solklara favorit för kvällen. Vi spelade så klart in hela programmet och kunde titta om och om igen efteråt. Barnen och jag dansade oss svettiga.

Tur att det är fem program kvar att längta till. Vinterns väg mot vår är räddad. Vill du hänga med i min och andras Mello-twitter-social-media-dela-med-sig-av-vad-vi-tycker-anda. Kolla in Twitter och #mel2011.

Det första dök nyligen upp i mitt twitterflöde från Saltå kvarn-bloggen som handlar om deras genuina frågor kring deras produkter. De gillar att lära sig nya saker varje dag. Det gillar att få kommentarer och välkomnar dem med öppen famn. Guldmedalj till er ; ). Jag var redan supernöjd kund hos er, idag blev jag ett fan.

Tidigare i veckan bad jag er ta ställning till Donationsregistret. Igår morse skickade min driftiga kollega Björn Kåberger ett urklipp ur Metro. Läs här bredvid. Jag blir varm i hjärtat.

Vem hade du velat ge bronsmedaljen till?

Nu tar jag helg. Njut njut. Du märker väl att julstämningen smyger sig på… ; )?

PS. Missa inte chansen till gratis föreläsningar på temat “Nya vägar till affärer via sociala medier” i Skövde 23 november och Göteborg 24 november med mig och Ola Rynge. Du kan anmäla dig via kommentar här, ange Namn och e-post. Inbjudan ligger även här>>