Cashing in on social media… it’s the question of the moment facing companies’ marketing departments because all C-level executives are asking them “What is the return on investment for all this creativity?”
Until now, the companies that have ventured into unproven territory and experimented with blogs, social networks, and related technologies did so without a clear revenue model behind them. However, thanks to their efforts patterns are emerging and research is connecting the dots that spell out how to calculate the ROI of social media.
The most crucial aspect is to not treat social media as an experiment, but rather like any other business initiative with a comprehensive plan and organizational goals. Then, tie that plan into metrics from other channels so everything is integrated from a technical standpoint.
Standard social media metrics are:
General Social Media Sites:
- Unique visitor counts
- Cost per unique visitor
- Page views
- Visits
- Return visits
- Interaction rates (number of conversations)
- Time spent
- Actions taken (contest entries, videos viewed, downloads, invites sent, etc.)
Widgets and Applications:
- Installs
- Active users
- Audience profile
- Unique user reach
- Growth rates
- Influence (friend installs, “forward to a friend,” etc.)
- Longevity / lifecycle
Blogs:
- Conversation size (links to and from posts, monthly visitors)
- Site relevance
- Author credibility
- Content freshness and relevance
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