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Stu_Upton
09-13-2011, 04:01 AM
I was just wonding what measures others are using when it comes to justifying the investment in social media to employers?

Do people go for just the basic 'like's and followers, etc, or click-thru's, mentions and reTweets, or do some accept the increased visibility and customer service opportunities as an acceptable ROI, alternatively do some not worry about the measurable ROI instead just accepting the fact the an investment in social media is a business necessity?

vangogh
09-13-2011, 12:21 PM
I have the basics in place. I know how many followers and friends I have and I track how many times my content is reshared on different networks and how much traffic I get from those networks. I also track what visitors from social sites do once they land on my site. The followers/friends thing is tracked through the networks themselves and the rest is done through Google Analytics.

I don't worry about it so much in terms of direct ROI. For me many of the benefits are indirect. To me the value of social networking sites is in the increased brand visibility, the relationships I start and grow, the links I may pick up off the social sites from having my content seen by more people.

With social networking I also think much happens across sites instead of on a single site. For example there are people I may have first met through Twitter, that are now also friends on Facebook or LinkedIn and who I interact with more on Google+ It's hard to quantify the direct ROI of any one site since it's really the combination of all those sites that led to any return.

Social sites to me are essentially the same thing as networking offline, except that online we can reach many more people and interact with people we'd realistically never meet in person.

KristineS
09-13-2011, 12:28 PM
For us, it's about visibility. We don't do a lot of "traditional" advertising. We've tried it, and it didn't work well for our industry. We're mostly about making connections and getting the word out. I track things like retweets and shares, customers that come from a social media account, and are we being recommended to others, or asked for information. Social media is also a great customer service tool, and that's become increasingly valuable as customers start to use it more.

I don't do a lot of straight ROI tracking because I've never been hugely into all the metrics. I also think they're a bit harder to quantify for social media. If it turned out no one at all was listening to us, then it would be time to move on, but we get enough movement and response to let me know we're at least making a few ripples in the pond, and that makes it worth it, as far as I'm concerned.

stewane
09-13-2011, 01:39 PM
Interesting question. When it comes to social media, I think I'm more hardcore: My goal is to bring them back to my site and I don't care too much about re-tweets and other offsite metrics (personal opinion). My thing is this: Are they buying my services? If I tweeted something and those people end up opting in (submit email) as a lead, mission accomplished. What's the point of people sharing your stuff if they are not buying. In other niches, I like to create free reports and then distribute those via social media, and when those reports are shared, the intent is to get them to come back to my site.

vangogh
09-13-2011, 07:23 PM
One thing I forgot to mention that I track specific to Twitter is that I always have some saved searches going. I'll usually save a search on my latest post to get a feel for how well it's being tweeted and retweeted. I want to know which posts and post titles are doing better in order to help me craft the next one. I also have some brand related searches on my name and company name saved as well as some general searches for topics related to my site. The latter help me find new ideas for products, services, and content.


My goal is to bring them back to my site and I don't care too much about re-tweets and other offsite metrics (personal opinion). My thing is this: Are they buying my services?

The thing is social sites usually aren't the first stop in the buying process. If you're only concerned with tracking sales directly then you'll probably view social as a marketing channel that isn't worth the effort. Not that you can't get direct sales through social, but more likely is someone becomes familiar with you a Facebook or Twitter and then sees a page from your site listed in search results. Later they come across an article you wrote from a different site before finding another search result back to your site.

It could take several of these notices of you in some way before a sale is made. The direct line you measure probably isn't going to be the social site, but it quite possibly contributed a lot to that sale that you can't track.

The idea of getting people to come to your site makes sense though. That's how social should really be used and why I say it's not as important to directly track to see if the sale came from social. You distribute a report, which may ultimately lead to a sale, but you may not ever track it as being from social because the sale comes several steps down the line.

KristineS
09-14-2011, 12:11 PM
Also, I think we need to address the idea that "an investment in social media is a business necessity". It isn't necessarily that for every business. A lot of people think they can jump into social media and it will cause business to soar, without taking the time to discover whether or not their customers or potential customers are even using social media. I made that mistake when I first got the job I have now. We created a great new resource for our customers, put a lot of work and time into it, and then discovered that most of them didn't understand the resource and weren't online that much. Researching and knowing your market and how they communicate is key. If they're not using social media then there's no reason for your business to be there.

Stu_Upton
09-15-2011, 08:37 AM
Researching and knowing your market and how they communicate is key.

This is a fantastic piece of advice and I imagine gets forgotten in the fog that can sometimes get created around the "well everyone else is doing it" meeting. We have knocked out an incentivised survey to our existing client base to better understand their use of / attitude towards / employee use policy across the social media platforms, results are still coming in but i'm hoping it will be useful in identifying what channels will best service our existing clients and raise our visability with future clients.

KristineS
09-15-2011, 01:40 PM
I do some writing about social media for one of our industry magazines, and the piece of advice about knowing your market is the one I give most often. People forget that in the excitement of finding this great new tool that's going to make their sales explode. It won't happen if your customers aren't using that particular form of communication. Doing something because it's the latest cool thing isn't enough.

vangogh
09-16-2011, 11:03 AM
So true. Every time I read about a new social network it's closely followed by people thinking if they're not there then their business will fall apart overnight. Obviously I'm exaggerating, but it feels like that sometimes. It makes sense to open an account with a new network, but until you know if potential customers or clients are there, marketing through the network doesn't make a lot of sense.

KristineS
09-16-2011, 01:13 PM
Knowing your target market and where they are is such a bedrock principle of running a successful business, yet it's one of the things people most often miss. Just because you open a business or set up a social media account does not mean that people will flock to you. You have to know where your customers are and then go and find them and then convince them that you're what they want and need. It's a process, and time is precious, so don't spend it where your customers aren't.

And now I'm feeling another blog post for the magazine coming on. :D

vangogh
09-16-2011, 07:39 PM
Does the forum get co-author credit on that article? :)

It is a good topic. I remember when Digg first hit the scene. Everyone rushed to submit pages to Digg without really thinking what the community there was like. Those same people rushed off to StumbleUpon and Facebook and Twitter as each became the popular network of the moment. It does make sense to check out new networks you think might gain some traction with your market, but it doesn't mean you have to jump in head first without thinking about what's going on.

I've been thinking more about social networks less as separate networks too. Admittedly my business is on the tech side and so most of the people I'll network with are going to be on multiple sites. I don't necessarily worry about which site I connect with them. My goal is to connect with them. The where is often less important. I might spend a few minutes chatting with someone on Twitter and then later in the week continue the conversation on Google+

It's not much different than sending my mom an email during the day and then discussing the email later in the day while on the phone. It's the connections you make with real people that are important. All the different ways you can connect, the social sites, are just the means to accomplish the goal of connecting. The means can change at any time, the goal will typically remain.

KristineS
09-19-2011, 01:18 PM
Good point. I have a lot of cross platform contacts too. There are industry people I know from Twitter that are also on Facebook and LinkedIn etc. So, conversations do continue across platforms, and I think that's a good thing. The trick is to not get so insular that you ignore new ideas and new people.