By: Hillel Fuld (@hilzfuld)

So there I was, minding my own business in a Tel Aviv mall, trying to decide what to eat for dinner. As I walked through the food court, there were many options including burgers, sushi, pizza, and a Chinese restaurant that looked like the food was quite tasty. Then the person behind the counter of the Chinese place did something smart that could have easily been the “differentiator” that would lure me in to becoming a customer. He held out a little plastic fork with a piece of juicy meat on it for me to taste. As if to say “Taste this meat, see how delicious our food is, then come eat your meal here.” And so I did.

The meat was indeed yummy, which is of course why he chose that type to lure people in. I was half sold. I took a look at the variety of meats they have on display and my attention was captured by a different option laying right next to the one I just tasted. And so I said “Thanks, mind if I taste that one?”. At this point, I was 90% decided that I, along with the people I was with, would indeed end up eating here. Then it all went down hill.

The man who held out the fork was instructed by what seemed to be his superior to not give out more than one tasting per person. She said to him “Nope, no more for him.” Or something along those lines. To which I responded “You do realize that I am not just going restaurant to restaurant trying to get a taste of foods, but that I am genuinely interested in tasting that chicken and eating a meal here, right?”. She said “Sorry, no more than one tasting per person.”

At that point, I tried not to preach to her what a huge marketing mistake she was making, which, if you know me, you will know was not easy. I politely put down the fork they handed me and said “Thank you and you should just know, you just lost me as a customer now and in the future.”

And now back to our world. Startups, and companies in general, have pretty much two options when it comes to the way they market their brand and product on the web. The first one, which was clearly where this woman was coming from, is to count dollars and cents. To measure everything and make sure that every tweet, every piece of chicken is generating revenue. If something does not create instant ROI, then it is not worth their while. It goes without saying that if something costs the company money and does not cover its costs instantly, that it is a bad idea.

The other option and the reason that that man held out the piece of chicken to me in the first place is to offer value for free in the hopes, that in the “Long run”, this will generate branding, brand awareness, and eventually, lead to not only customers, but loyal ambassadors.This is obviously the form of marketing I believe is more effective.

If you write a company blog about your industry in the hopes that you will establish your brand as an authority in the space, you are giving the world a piece of chicken. If you do not see the value of Twitter or a blog because you do not see instant ROI, you are limiting your customers to one piece of chicken despite the fact that they are pretty much begging you to let them convert into a customer. You are shutting the door on them. Why? Because this will cost you money, albeit a little money. I mean how much is one piece of chicken, right?

So here is the bottom line. The days of measuring every single thing you do on the Web are over. Or as Gary Vaynerchuk would so famously say, “What is the ROI of your mom?” What does that mean? It means to try and quantify every time your mom told you growing up that you are beautiful or that you shouldn’t cry because you lost that baseball game because you will win next time, to try and measure that value is just plain stupidity. What is even more ridiculous is to say that because you cannot quantify each time your mother hugged you, therefore that hug has no value. That is insanity. The same goes for long term marketing using the social web.

Give a piece of chicken, a tasty one and believe in the model of “If you build it, they will come” because it works, but always remember that I might choose to eat steak this time, and next time I am in the mall, I will surely remember that juicy piece of chicken you gave me for free and yes, the one you LOST money on. In the long run, though, I will get to eat your tasty brand and you will have created a loyal customer.

And to the Chinese restaurant I say, you had a big opportunity here and you blew it. But at least you taught me and anyone reading this a valuable lesson so thank you for that.

Pardon the French in the Gary video below, but that’s Gary for ya…