Social media has introduced a whole host of new questions to the modern marketer. The two biggest that come up time and time again are should your business be on social media, and how do you track social media return on investment (ROI)? The short answer to the first question is yes, there are numerous benefits to having an online social media presence some of which you can find in this blog post. The answer to the second question is not as straightforward. Social media has different metrics that differ by platform but the major ones across the board are reach, engagement and website visits. Your goals for social media will affect how you track ROI.
Define your goal
Like any business process, you need to have a desired outcome to help determine success or failure of the said initiative. Social media is no different. Some common goals are: Increase email signups, receive more quote requests, more online sales or more web traffic. All of these goals are based on a specific action a user can take with social media that can be tracked on the backend through any social platform or google analytics.
Track your goal
Month over month see how social media is contributing (or not contributing) to your goal. If you are looking to increase online requested quotes for products, see how click-through rates on social media posts to landing pages are performing. If social isn’t helping your goal consider revamping your messaging strategy or using targeting methods to reach out to qualified people.
Track your spend
Social media is not free. While any business can create a profile it still takes time and resources to keep pages updated with content. Additional costs can be incurred if social media management or content creation is outsourced or if tools or platforms are used to help facilitate the process.
Measure ROI
The standard equation for ROI is earnings minus expenses. In this case, your earnings may be the average cost you equate to a lead or an additional email in your mailing list.
Once you have these steps in place, it is a matter of “rinse and repeat” until your inbox is full and your sales team is inundated with leads.
As with any marketing endeavor, there is experimenting to be done – it’s part of the process in order to find the right avenue, the right content, and the right spend for your business. Don’t be afraid to experiment. A low response rate isn’t a failure – it helps you better understand what doesn’t work so that you can find out what does resonate with your followers.