Lori Howe posted this comment today on one of our older posts on blogging mistakes, and I thought it was so good, we’d do a whole post on it:
I get that blogging is part of an integrated social media & web marketing strategy and that it takes time and patience to see results. and that it’s difficult to compare to how PR or paid advertising is valuated. However, I’m curious to know if there is any measurement that represents the value of blog posting for a company’s product/service on relevant industry blogs? Like it on not, we live in an ROI-driven business world and some business folks simply need a measurement. Perhaps they’re not a good fit for social media?
ROI is always a hot topic when you’re pitching social media to businesses, especially if the business in question is used to dealing in traditional media marketing with traditional, measurable results. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that social media isn’t a good avenue for that business to take. Any business can benefit from social media interaction, if it’s done correctly. The hardest part is often selling the idea to the people at the top of the company heirarchy.
So, how can your ROI be measured when you’re dealing with social media? The first and most important step is to outline what your goals are. This gives you a benchmark against which you can measure your success.
If you want quantitative results, the best way to measure the impact of a social media campaign is through analytics. Some things you can look at:
- How many unique visitors does your blog have? How many comments? How about subscribers?
- How many times have your posts been submitted to Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, and other social news sites?
- How big is your Twitter following?
- How many fans are there on your Facebook page?
You get the idea.
By analyzing these numbers, and by tracking the number of folks who click through to your site by way of your social networks, you can start to get some hard data to deliver to the bosses to prove that your social media efforts are paying off.
Along with your quantitative results, you’ll also want to be able to demonstrate the quality of your social media activities. Some things to consider:
- Is it easier to connect with existing and potential customers or business associates?
- Are you participating in conversations you couldn’t take part in before?
- Are the conversations surrounding your business and your products positive?
- Have these conversations been valuable to you in evaluating the way you do business?
- Are you better able to manage your online reputation?
- Is your social media presence helping you with branding?
Answers to these questions, along with the hard data from your quantitative measurements, should help you get a clearer idea of how your social media campaign is impacting the success of your business or organization.
