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Step 1: Set Goals
In order to measure social media marketing you need to set specific goals. You need to know how to measure your success. You can have a multitude of goals and you need to know how to measure each goal successfully. Here is an example list of some of your potential goals. Some of the items on this list may seem ambiguous, and it will be necessary to take these terms and directly apply them to what you want to get out of your social media campaign. Most approach social media marketing with immediate revenue in mind. That’s fine, but there’s a lot more you can get out of the luxury car than simply getting from point A to point B. Analyze all of your options instead of limiting the campaign to simply being about generating leads/conversions.
Step 2: Identify Concrete Metrics to Measure Social Media ROI
Since many are interested in measuring immediate revenue we will focus on 5 metrics that are essential to measure social media ROI.
1. Measure social media networks together and separately.
It is important to measure not only how your entire social media campaign is doing, but you also need to measure each site individually. One key metric to monitor is site traffic. Twitter may send more traffic, but may not be sending conversions. Facebook may be sending less traffic but those that visit your site are of higher quality. Linkedin may be sending people that are clicking around your site looking for your job board. Overall it is imporant to understand what kind of traffic each network is sending and if the traffic doesn’t meet up with your goals could they possibly be meeting other goals? For example Linkedin could be lowering your talent acquisition costs, but if you’re not measuring that then you may get rid of unknowingly successful campaign. It is imporant to see where the traffic is moving around within your site. What articles are they reading? Are they filling out lead forms? What are they putting on those lead forms?
2. Track visit-to-lead conversions
This is common sense, but you’d be surprised how many social media campaigns are simply measured by the number of likes their Facebook Page has and the number of followers they have on Twitter! If you’re tracking visits to your site that’s great, but you also need to understand how effectively these campaigns are turning those that are looking around into actual prospects.
3. Track lead-to-customer conversions:
For ecommerce sites they will be tracking visit-to-customer conversions, but for the lead generation companies; especially B2B companies need to measure lead-to-customer conversions. By monitoring these statistics you will be able to identify how much social media leads cost to acquire and how much they spend with you compared to other types of leads.
4. Score your social media leads
By scoring all of your leads and comparing them to your social media leads you are able to have your sales team properly prioritize their time. Not only that, but by measuring how long it takes social media leads to go through the sales cycle, but also how much time, effort, and money you should be pouring into social media marketing. You may find that social media marketing provides you with not only a substantial number of leads, but also leads that quickly make their way through the sales cycle and purchase more. Scoring your leads will allow you to identify the areas that are most successful so you can invest your time wisely.
5. Watch site behaviors from your social media traffic
Watch what pages they’re visiting, what they’re reading, and what they’re clicking on. Understand them so you can provide them with content that is most interesting to them and that helps solve their problems.
Step 3: Evaluate Your Results
If you’re reaching your goals it will be quite clear, but if you’re not reaching your goals you need to step back and analyze all the potential side benefits that you may not be measuring. Do you now have an audience who is willing to take part in research? What does long-term revenue look like? Does have internal communication advantages? You may be alerting your customers to changes within the industry and helping them feel satisfied with their choice of using your company. You may be alerting your own employees to changes within the industry and giving them a look at the big picture. There are a multitude of advantages that could easily be overlooked. Carefully examin the impact social media has had not only on your top/bottom line, but to your culture, and to your current customer relationships.
Step 1: (Didn’t w
e cover step one?) Get professional help!
There is a lot of tactical knowledge required to get everything in line to gather these data points to measure social media ROI. If you don’t know the “how” then we can help. If you want to put the campaign in a professional’s hands; then we can help. Do you have a specific question on how to measure social media marketing? Feel free to fill out a form on the right top side of this page and we’ll be able to examine your particular situation and show you how you can truly measure your social media ROI and not just Like/Follow numbers.
