Measure your social media marketing effectiveness

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Recognizing the subjective value of social media marketing (SMM) has becomes increasingly important, as companies search to quantify their return on investment (ROI) in this valuable segment of the digital domain. Measuring and tracking “soft metrics” will help you judge your SMM success, verifying social media’s value to your company.

Tweeting, posting and publishing are merely the early steps in the SMM process. You need to measure what happens after you take these early steps.
 

A kinder, gentler medium

Traditional ROI calculations within the social digital network world are being augmented with softer “conversation buzz” and “influencer metrics.” On the chart below, “The Social Media Measurement Funnel,” I’ve illustrated the possible flow of potential customers into the digital social networking pipeline. Consider the following factors:

■ The costs of SMM — There are two ways of looking at the cost of social media marketing. The narrow view looks to hours spent, pay per hour, consultant fees, etc. The broader view considers the opportunity cost, and includes the benefits of gaining social market share, search engine optimization (SEO) rankings, the digital consumer and societal shift to digital media. Eventually, all customers will be digital consumers who use the Internet to make most purchasing decisions.
■ The ROI of SMM — Clearly, social media ROI is far more complex than a simple cost vs. revenue lift equation. SMM just doesn’t fit the current marketing funnel, so we need to stop trying to cram it in there. It’s a square peg/round hole scenario. There are just too many variables to limit SMM to one fixed point along the customer’s path.
■ The ROI of social media is really a delayed ROI — I know it’s difficult for many PMPs to accept, but again consider the marketing funnel. It’s not just another advertising channel; it’s a critical part of an overall communications platform. It goes beyond marketing, touching multiple departments and roles in an organization, from customer support tweets to blog posts.
SMM may be just one leg of your overall marketing program, but if not nurtured — or worse, ignored, it will ultimately result in fewer leads, and less sales, revenue, growth, and profit.

Contact Goldglantz, president of Pest Control Marketing Co. and author of “Marketing Matters,” at hgpcmcinc@aol.com.