How Do You Measure Your Social Media ROI?

Still feeling lost in the whole ROI of your online marketing?  Still believe you can’t measure it?  Actually, measurement is one of the fundamentals of online marketing strategy, once you understand “how to”, you can instantly and continuously improve your efforts.  Read on…

You must understand the ROI equation of your online strategy, or face dire consequences.

Don’t hire a social media expert, hire an online measurement expert. Understand how to measure your efforts first.  Understand thoroughly ‘why’ you are online. Create your ROI equation, understand how you will create and measure value within your strategy and then look toward tactics, tools and platforms.  A little education can go a long way.

Don’t be a Business, be a Human

Next you need to make your company social (friendly), as it says in the Now Revolution, you must “answer the new telephone”.  People will talk about you and it’s your choice to listen.  You even have the opportunity to address problems before they escalate into detrimental word-of-mouth. But even more important, you have the opportunity to say thank you.

It’s a potluck on the internet, what are you bringing?

Now you must create something, do something, share something. You now know how to measure success (because you understand your ROI equation, right?) so experiment until you find something that works no, experiment continuously, find what works and keep improving it based on what the data tells you.  You don’t have to guess at what people like to see on your website, you can test that out.  You don’t even have to name your products yourself anymore, you can test and see what vast amounts of people like better for relatively low cost.  No experimentation has a very large opportunity cost regarding the long-term growth strategy of your company.  If you’re not constantly looking towards the next opportunity to build trust, the next innovation, or another way to make your customers happier, you may be surpassed by someone who is.

Never forget about ROI

Stop counting your follower and start keeping track of how much traffic Twitter generates your website. Stop counting “Likes” and start keeping track of how many customers are asking questions and buying your product on your Facebook page.  Don’t blog for SEO purposes, blog to show your customers how insanely passionate your staff is about your company.  Get my drift?

Don’t focus on the tools, focus on the goal, the ROI equation, and ask the difficult questions.

Why are you online?

Why is the goal of your website?

What is the purpose of your Facebook page?

Answer honestly.

If you have further questions about your ROI equation please don’t hesitate to contact me or Tweet me.