One of the hotter topics right now in metrics is how to measure the success of social media. Many social marketers are looking for the answer to this seemingly simple question. The good news is that there is a lot going on here. As I’ve become involved in metrics and have spoken around the world on this topic I’ve learned that there are no easy answers. There is however a framework with which to develop an answer. (If you’d like, please visit www.marketing-calculator.com for information on a generalized marketing effectiveness framework.)
At one level the number of visitors to a social site can be one measure of success. At the next level we have to measure the level of engagement. Time spent on site, the number of comments, videos or other content submitted can be an indicator of success in the social media space. Unfortunately, these measures don’t determine how successful these social marketing activities are at delivering sales in the stores. Just like there is an indirect link between TV and in-store sales, so too, is there an indirect link between a consumers’ social media activities and sales in the store.
So we need a measure of transforming this emotional engagement into brand awareness/consideration and preference/purchase intent. Once we’ve done this, there are a number of tools that we can use to actually calculate the effectiveness of a social marketing activity.
But this is only backward looking. As marketers, we want to look forward into the future. How well will this next social marketing activity drive awareness, engagement and sales in the store? For this we need to use a number of different tools (not complex) and then put the pieces together. However I will address this in my next post. In the meantime if you’d like more information or discussion on this topic, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/guyrpowell) or at www.DemandROMI.com.
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