Publicly traded companies in the US sit on a pile of nearly $2 trillion in cash. And that pile of cash only grows. Link. That makes them not only king of their domain, but king of the credit markets, kings of their industry, their marketplace, and...our economy.
Wanna know where the jobs are? On their balance sheet in the Current Asset item labeled Cash.
For now, anyway.
That's not what inspired me to write this post.
What inspired me to write this post was the continuing series of articles and blog posts about the power of social media as measured by interesting metrics like: clicks, like followers and likes, like views and visits and RTs, trending topics and mentions and Klout. Oh. And my favorite is members. Members, not customers. members pay nothing....which as the members of Instagram found out was the ultimate sucker pitch. They paid with their digital, personal lives when Instagram sold all of them to Facebook for about a billion dollars. (And now, Facebook's secret advertisers harvest the details of those lives for their gain. Psyche! )
Those are all important. Temporal but important. They are stepping stones to what, class? Cash. That's right. If all those metrics don't lead to an increase in cash on your balance sheet....those metrics are meaningful only to the agency who showed you have exciting they can be....temporarily (they whispered that).
Now in defense of ad and social media agencies, they cannot control what you, their client, do with clicks and members, likes and RTs, followers and comments. They can only control how those are generated, through their campaigns they design and administer. And which you pay for. And which they then tout as signs of their power. So, of course, they'll discuss those metrics.
I bear no grudge, understand it, understand it's fair. That's what their paid to do. Would do the same in their place.
But, if they cannot explain how those metrics ...cold hard cash for your business, to make you King of your domain and all it includes, then their advice is....not worth a dime. They may be great people, incredibly smart and creative and chock full of awards from their successful campaigns...as measured by those metrics. But, if they cannot help you see how to translate those treasured relationships into cash....those treasured relationship are probably only a treasure for them and their reputation. Not yours.
Clicks are nice. Conversions are even better. Conversions generate cash flows and cash on your balance sheet.
Cash is [Still] King. Cash flow keeps you King. Remember that.
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