It used to be a hard sell. You’d get the typical questions. Social media? How does it keep the costs down? How do you use it to make money?

I remember working with a group of engineers on a Web service a few years back. The engineers scoffed at the idea of Twitter and Facebook. They considered it a joke. Blogging was barely acceptable. And mind you, this was a Web product under development. That’s how deep the distrust has run in the corporate world for anything that can not be quantified. But it’s not about shaving costs anymore. It’s about the customer. That’s why you see the rise of such movements as vendor relationship management. It’s the idea that the customer is in charge and you need to service them very quickly.

That’s what’s a bit ridiculous about this infographic from Focus. It’s once again about the cost, not the customer. The customer is relegated to an accounting item.

The quantified cost of social media can be defined by calculating the labor required, the Web development and the return that an investment provides.

But it misses the point, doesn’t it?

So, when the customer asks about the cost of social media, you may want to start talking about speed. Customers move very fast. And they can run to you or away from you. That’s business these days.