Measure Social Media ROI

Is it enough to have a Facebook profile, a Twitter account, and a Youtube Channel?  To be putting original content onto each platform on a consistent basis.  To be monitoring for comments and likes that you can connect with and create relationships.  Maybe venturing out into less common social media channels like Pinterest or Google+.  To be collecting Fans, Friends, Followers, and Likes with a reckless abandon. Possibly promoting an occasional facebook post to maximize exposure.  Is that enough?  Perhaps it is to much.  The only way to know for sure is to measure social media ROI.

 

ROI

“The purpose of the “return on investment” metric is to measure, per period, rates of return on money invested in an economic entity in order to decide whether or not to undertake an investment.” – (wikipedia.com)

In other words.. is the amount of money and time that we are throwing at Social Media Marketing less than the amount of money or time that we are earning in return?

If it is not less, then we are wasting money or time.  If it is less, then perhaps we should dedicate more money and time to social media marketing.

There is a simple equation to use to figure out the ROI or Return on Investment:

For a single-period of time; divide the return (net profit) by the resources that were committed (investment):

Return On Investment = (gain from investment – cost of investment) / cost of investment

Much of what Real Estate Professionals and Small Business Owners will do with their Social Media Marketing is “Free” or does not require a fee.  It does require time.  So we need to know what our time is worth to create a proper “Cost of Investment”

 

Social Media ROI

The first thing we need to do to measure social media ROI is to have some clearly defined metrics for success.  Such as:  What is the dollar value of a facebook fan? 

7 Social Media Measurement Equations

Thank you to Salesforce.com for providing this handy sheet of equations.  These are just 7 suggested metrics.

1.  Determine Potential Reach of Social Media

This the approximate number of people that your campaign will touch or influence.

2.  Value of a Fan from Social Media

While having a large number of Fans or potential fans can be fun, we really want them to convert them into sales.  We can use our Potential Reach and divide it by the profit that was generated by that Social Media Channel.

3. Value of a Facebook Like

Again, having a large number of Facebook Likes is cool but what is a Like worth?

4.  Share of Conversation

This metric is important for increasing the aforementioned metric.  Meaning in order to get more fans that convert into more sales it is helpful to have people talking about us on Social Media.

5.  Social Media ROI

The Bottom Line

6.  Cost Per Resolution

This is assuming you are using social media to monitor Reputation Management.

“Online reputation management is the practice of monitoring the Internet reputation of a person, brand or business, with the goal of emphasizing positive coverage rather than negative reviews or feedback.” – (wikipedia.com)

Think of it as your Online Customer Service.

7.  Time Spent Resolving Issues

The more of this you can do via Social Media and not on more costly avenues is a positive.

 

Tools To Measure Social Media ROI

FREE

• Google Analytics Social Media - You may need additional Developer support
• Simply Measured - offers a host of free Social Media Analytic Tools
• Brandify – Microsoft offers a free product.

PAID

• Sprout Social - Intgrates with Google Analytics
• Simply Measured - Integrates with Google Analytics
• Adobe Social –  Possibly the most powerful of all the tools
• Raven Tools – A complete suit of tools

 

CLOSED LOOP MARKETING

HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing System. Try It Free for 30-Days! -  Hubspot offers an all in one product that will help you create what is called a Closed Loop Marketing model.

The idea behind a Closed Loop Marketing campaign is that all traffic is driven into a hub that monitors where the traffic came from.  When that traffic is then distributed to the sales team.  The sales team then monitors and records the outcome of that traffic. Using this system you can tell EXACTLY what your Social Media ROI is.

Download a Free Copy of Introduction to Closed Loop Marketing eBook Name Email *

 

Summary

No matter how you are using Social Media there is a way to measure its value.  Whether you interested in a general overview or you want to create a closed loop marketing campaign.  There is a system that will help you to Measure Social Media ROI.

 

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