How do you measure your return on investment (ROI) with your social media efforts? It’s not as simple as analyzing the Facebook weekly reports, the number of Twitter followers your company has or the number of connections you’ve made on LinkedIn. ROI means many things to many entrepreneurs who are looking for ways to determine whether the time they’re spending on social media platforms is helping them convert “likers” and “followers” to customers or sales.
It’s not impossible to measure ROI. To know how well it’s working though, you need to know your starting point so you can measure growth. Some business owners measure their ROI by the way they increase their numbers; others measure the ROI by customer retention, traffic driven to the website, and additional sales.
Entrepreneurs know they need to be in on the social media conversation but now they are looking for ways tomake sure their efforts and engagement are bringing money in the door.
Measuring ROI
Your best way to measure your social media ROI is to know where you’re starting from (100 Facebook likers) and where you want to be/want to accomplish with your social media. If your ultimate goal is to increase the number of mentions your social media garners your company, you need to know how many you receive now so you can properly understand when you’ve exceeded your baseline. If your goal is to increase the number of fans for your page or followers on Twitter or connections on LinkedIn, you also need to have your baseline numbers in place before you begin your social media campaign efforts.
Measuring the increase of followers shouldn’t be your only metric to measure success. Work with your social media consultant to achieve your goals. If you’re looking to drive traffic from your social media platforms to your website you will need to have a measurement tool in place to track those numbers. If, for example, you have an ebook or other e-product to sell, use a specific link from your social media platforms to your website. With this link, you can definitively measure your social media efforts. Consider implementing Google Analytics or the analytic tools offered through Hootsuite or even bitl.y to help your marketing department track click throughs on specific links.
Pulling it all together
You’ve got the tools in place, you’ve identified your baseline and now what do you do with all the data? Is an increase in sales your bottom line metric to measure social media success. If your social media efforts lead to sales, your marketing plan is likely a viable one.
Measure and track which of your social media posts are best engaging your clients. If asking a question in a status update garners many comments, that should be part of the plan; if you post about current events and that results in engagement, again track that and make it part of your overall strategy. Offer giveaways and coupons – use those as another way to measure whether your efforts to engage are fruitful.
Bottom line
Remember, social media engagement will not happen overnight and it is the slow, steady and timely that wins the race. If you’re finding your efforts at Tradesource networking events are bringing customers in the door, add that to your social media ROI stats — entrepreneurs oftentimes forget that social media includes face to face engagement as well as virtual engagement.