02 Aug How Do You Track Social Media ROI?

Social Media is rarely tied to direct, instantly measurable sales. What must be measured are influence, engagement and conversation. No easy task! Yet clients like to see numbers justifying the time and energy expended on Blogging, tweeting, and updating Facebook regularly.

Social media interaction tends to happen outside of the purchase process, either before or after. This type of contribution can’t be easily tracked and incorporated into a company’s ongoing metrics.

What metrics actually matter?

From a business perspective, what’s important is showing that your social media marketing is effective at achieving your business goals. Establishing tangible goals will help track your progress and allow you to tweak your social media campaign to improve its effectiveness.

Reach. Done correctly, over channels that make sense for your business, social media provides ways to share your message efficiently. You can start monitoring visitors, fans, followers, comments, and influence.  Long-term, these aren’t the end-all numbers that make or break the success of your campaign, but it’s a good place to start getting familiar with how your message is reaching your ideal clients or customers.

Actions. Your readers need to know exactly what you expect them to do. Without a clear call to action and trackable metrics behind it, it’s impossible to measure the actions of your prospects in this setting.  Getting your audience to join your list in exchange for a free report, watch your videos, or subscribe to your Blog are just a few ways you can take your reach to the next step.

Reputation management. In today’s real-time, 24/7 communications world where everyone’s a potential publisher, it’s critical to have some form of social media monitoring in place. While most businesses have a hard time with the fact that negative comments may occur on their Blog or Facebook page, social media provides the mechanism for quick response without the need for crisis management. Having an established social media presence provides the opportunity to minimize potential issues. After all, people will put their opinions and negative comments out there regardless – why not create a controlled place where you can monitor and respond to them immediately?

How do you measure the success of your social media campaign? Which mediums are harder than others to track? Let us know by posting in the comments below or on our Facebook wall!