The enthusiasm for social media (and especially Twitter) has been stronger than ever, but we all seem reluctant to dampen that enthusiasm by talking about an uncomfortable fact – very few of us have really found a way to measure social media success.
That comes from a post at SEOmoz by Dr. Pete during this month’s PubCom Las Vegas. And that ‘uncomfortable fact’ has been bouncing around for too long – so let’s discuss how to measure the ROI of social media.
Traffic. Engagement. Quality. Sales. Conversion. Retention. Net Promoter Score. Average order size. Order frequency. Share of Wallet. Page ranking in organic search. Buzz.
Did I miss anything? Sure some are more direct than others but if your social media efforts are working, you should see improvement in these key performance indicators (KPIs).
But you have to remember to [a] establish baselines, and [b] track campaign performance.
For example, when you extend an offer via Twitter, do you have a way to track results? Do you drive them to a unique landing page? Do you give a special code that lets them get the free whitepaper or special price or access to the webinar?
If not, start doing that now.
Every time you extend an offer, do it in a way that allows you to track performance. I use bit.ly to help track performance – that little darling of a service tells me how many clicked on the link, where they are located (country) and what days the link was sent out and clicked.
Unique landing pages are key – and personalization helps too! They friendlier you are, the more likely you will get a little more information on the buyer so you can score, prioritize and determine whether or not the buyer is qualified, sales ready or in need of further nuturing.
But the bottom line is this – you already track other activities on the same KPIs, so start thinking about social media in the same way. Do that, measuring ROMI
