The Minefield of Social Media Metrics

 Measuring Social Media, SMEs, Social Media, Social Media ROI, Social Media Tips  No Responses »
May 272013
 

Measuring social media can be a minefield.  For some businesses it seems to be an obstacle that is challenging to overcome.  Without tangible outcomes, it is difficult to justify increasing the social media budget so SMEs are overwhelmed on how to move forward.

Every day millions of people around the world are interacting and engaging on social media.  And as more people do so, not utilising social media is no longer an option for businesses.

So can social media ROI be measured?  The answer is yes and no and it depends on what you see as your return.  Here are a few things for business to remember:

There is no Silver Bullet

Just like everything in life there is no one key solution for anything.  For business they need to communicate their measures of success and formulate strategies and tactics to attain this success.  This requires strategic planning and comprehensive knowledge of your business agendas and audience.

What is the True Value of Social Media?

When it comes to social media ROI it really comes down to first impressions.  It is the opportunity to let people know about your brand and develop the possibility to create a new relationship where there wasn’t one before.  Engaging and having a conversation with the audience is where the true worth of social media is.

Social Media Metrics don’t Show the Full Picture

The benefit of social media is in the conversation so listen and engage in the exchange of dialogue.  Business tends to forget that social media is first a ‘social’ and ‘communication’ channel which has become a business marketing tool. It is not traditional media so stop using it as such.

What is important to note is that not every referral or relationship can be measured and not everything fits into a nice sales funnel but this doesn’t make social media any less effective!  So experiment and see what works for your business.

 

Thanks for reading!

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 Posted by on 27 May, 2013 at 9:33 am

How to Get Your Message Heard in Social Media Marketing

 Online Content, Online Media, Small Business, SMEs, Social Media, Social Media ROI, Social Media Tips  No Responses »
Feb 112013
 

With an ever-increasing number of online platforms, businesses now have so many choices when it comes to social media.  This can provide the false impression that so long as businesses engage with the networks, everything will fall into place.  This is not the case and it is important to create a social media existence that is purposeful and strategic.

1. Develop a Strategy

A clear strategy around your reasons for using social media and what you hope to achieve is vital.  The strategy needs to combine other business and marketing goals to be part of the overall marketing and communication strategy.  This way everything is interconnected and social media platforms are linked to the main business website and vice versa.

2. Social Media is a Marathon, not a Sprint

Social media is about building relationships and this takes time.  It requires consistency, engaging with others and learning to listen to what individuals are saying.  Spending time having a two-way conversation will be more productive in the long run than forcing a message in a one-way direction.

3. Make it Different

Obviously the usual things apply when on social media, such as add value, have a clear purpose, complete your profile, show personality and so on, however, to stand out, there needs to be an element which is diverse.  Try the following:

  • Use humour
  • Have a cleverly designed infographic
  • Use vibrant colours, easy to understand language
  • Use bold graphics, images, phrases, or titles

Once you have a concept to promote any number of tools can be utilised to make your message stand out.  It is just a matter of experimenting and seeing what works.  Try one of these and see what happens!

 

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

 Posted by on 11 February, 2013 at 11:04 am

Social Media ROI

 Online Marketing, SMEs, Social Media, Social Media in the Workplace, Social Media ROI, Social Media Tips  No Responses »
Nov 212012
 

As more organisations use social media they invest more time and money.  This may point to the fact that business will want to ensure there is some return on investment on their commitment of time and money.  To date, there is no clear formula that can be used to measure ROI.  And although social media ROI may be challenging it is not impossible.  Here are some tips:

Determine Costs:

At a very basic level, you can assess the costs of your social media strategy by determining how many hours are spent on social media activities and then multiplying these hours with the appropriate hourly dollar value of the person who is active on social media.

Soft Metrics:

Likes, comments, shares or followers are known as ‘soft metrics’ in social media.  They are easy to measure but they are not entirely accurate.  However, they shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.  They can provide an general brand awareness evaluation that is difficult to quantify but has an effect on the social media platform.

Benchmarking:

Establish your goal/s with a starting point of data.  This can then be used to measure the effectiveness of the goals over a period of time.  Future data can be measured against this original data to measure the value of what has been achieved.

Know the Purpose of your Social Media Platform:

When you know what your social media platform is being used for, then you will have some idea of whether your purpose is being met.  For example, if you want to use the platform to provide customer service each problem solved is a tick in the ROI.  What do these ‘ticks’ mean.  Well what is the financial value of successfully solving a customer problem?

 None of these approaches are complete but are a starting point to use as business adapts to social media usage.

 

What do people think?

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

 

 Posted by on 21 November, 2012 at 11:57 am