I've come up with a bullet-proof social media metric: the rate at whcih Red Bull is replenished in marketing and integration firms. At FG SQUARED, the rate at which Red Bull disappears is rising. Fast.
As the number of social application requests grows -- ranging from a widget to a seminar (Interactive Austin is tomorrow...) to an extension of a platform like Clearspace -- the number of cans of Red Bull moving in the general direction of the Recycle Bin (it is Austin, after all) is rising. What's even better is that the Red Bull Index can be calculated globally -- up 73% across the company since April -- or locally: FG SQUARED's West unit consumes Red Bull at about an 8:1 ratio compared with the East unit where caffeine and diet soda rule.
So, the next time someone tells you social media isn't measurable, just smile and ask if they're looked at their Red Bull Index lately. Then grab your wings and get back to it. We've come to win.
