Like all Media channels Social Media has to add value and be seen to be adding value to an organisation. In an era of Marketing accountability Social Media can compete for scarce resources such as budgets and be fully exposed to ROI metrics.
Firstly, Social Media has to be measurable. The IAB’s Social Media Ad Metrics definitions are a good starting point to consider the process of measuring:
- Social media sites: Unique Visitors, Cost per unique visitor, Page views, Visits, Return Visits, Interaction rate, Time spent, Video installs, Relevant actions taken.
- Blogs: Conversation size (no. of sites, links and reach of a conversation whose content includes conversation phrases relevant to the client), Site relevance (Conversation density, Author credibility, Content freshness and relevance)
- Widgets and Social Media Applications: Installs (no. Applications), Active Users, Audience Profile, Unique User Reach, Growth, Influence, Installs per User)
Secondly, in Social Media all actions are not equal as we are also dealing with peoples views and opinions aswell as their actions. So, an Online user's 'sentiment' and 'attitude' need to be also considered as they are positively / negatively reviewing, rating, ranking and recommending products. Thus, other factors should also be incorporated and accounted for;
Activity (Web Analytics of blog or site) Tone (Sentiment) Velocity (Spread over time, URLs, Trackbacks) Attention (Duration on site) Participation (comments, trackbacks) Qualitative attributes (comments, what did they say, what did they mean) Thirdly and finally, after measuring actions and attitudes against pre-set goals , the value of Social Media's contribution to the organisation can be determined against these measures. The pure transactional & financial metric of ROI can also be calculated taking into account all costs incurred and offset against the defined income generated
To energise the subject of accountability and ROI in the spirit of sharing consumer created Social Media, view this You Tube clip for some enticing ROI stats
Still not sure Social Media is viable for your organisation?
iParticipate will create a Social Media ROI calculator for you - just like the one below - if you contact us with a few nuggets of information to help us understand the basics of your business; bijan@iPSocialMedia.com
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