Social Media Metrics Part 1: Start with the Basics

Today’s evaluation and measurement of the ROI from social media is far from a science. Many marketers are stumped as to how Facebook likes turn into specific results that they can report to their management. There is a great deal of confusion as to how these numbers relate or compare to today’s “accepted” forms of marketing metrics—media impressions, open rates, click rates and conversion rates.

The good news is that metrics are readily available to measure social media today. The bad news is that most marketers haven’t yet fully incorporated social media into all their campaigns, so measuring the conversion rate and revenue driven by social media is still a challenge. Additionally, the unique features and capabilities within social networks create the opportunity to engage individuals in ways that aren’t available through other media. While these methods may help drive a brand’s influencers, social campaigns may not be a direct driver of revenue.

So, given these challenges, how does an organization measure their Return On Social (ROS)?

This ongoing series of blog posts provides insight into how organizations can begin and continue to grow their knowledge about the impact of Social marketing methods on their overall bottom line.

The Basics

We can all get into the analysis/paralysis circle, so before you get too heavily into your spreadsheet pivot tables, start with the building blocks you’ll need now and in the future. The basics. Note that no one metric will provide you with the answers you need, and another business’ metric may not be applicable to your circumstances.

Know what you want to accomplish. First, determine your overall business objectives and how social media will be used to drive those business objectives. This provides you with a set of clues as to what you need to measure to determine the level of success of your efforts. Use these clues to see how social metrics fit in to those success measurements and track those social metrics over time.

Use “traditional” measurements as a starting point. Media impressions provide organizations with a concrete, “apples to apples” measurement of different media types. Media or brand impressions provide you with the number of people that potentially saw your post on Twitter, your advertisement in a magazine or website, etc. Social media enables the organic growth of the number of media impressions through sharing, and the real-time aspect of the medium also enables brands to become a part of the conversation flow and gain momentum and impressions without a huge spend. At the end, brands can evaluate the cost and impressions to calculate ROI for each medium.

Use social metrics as your yardstick. Brand mentions, positive mentions, negative mentions, Facebook Likes, Facebook shares, Twitter followers, Twitter @-mentions, @-replies, Retweets and DMs—these social metrics enable you to measure your social results on a near-term and long-term basis. These are critical to understanding the health of your social presence and the public perception of your brand. Engagement metrics also measure the level of interaction with consumers. These statistics will help you understand the volume of social conversation and engagement around your brand. However, these metrics don’t track the quality of those contacts nor the level of engagement that you’ve achieved. These numbers are not the end, but the means to the end.

Measure whenever you can. ROI can come from a variety of sources. A single post from your Twitter account can lead to someone clicking through to your website; your post may not have had anything to do with your products, a coupon or a promotion, but it could have attracted the attention of a potential (or current) customer and prompted further action.

In future posts, we’ll start exploring how brands are identifying meaningful metrics for their social programs. Meaningful is the key here. Brands are focusing on their core business goals but also defining success metrics for their Return on Social that reflect the unique opportunities of the medium. One brand’s success factor may not apply to another, and you need to determine which metrics provide you with a clear picture of how your initiatives have performed based upon your business’ KPIs.

Margaret Donnelly (@mwdonnelly) is Director of Marketing for @meltwaterbuzz at @meltwatergroup. Meltwater Buzz is a web-based platform that enables businesses and brands to monitor social networks for relevant conversations, engage social individuals in direct communications and manage their social media presence.

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