How Do Marketers Determine Social Media ROI
A lot of time and money is invested into social media, but how effective are these campaigns? There are a number of ways that marketers measure the return on investment of social media activities. The key metrics that are considered include:
• Sales
• Lead generation
• Social mentions
• Website traffic
• Number of followers or fans
Amongst these factors, the number of sales made through social media is the most important. However, many marketers measure their success by concentrating on the other four factors, instead of the one that really matters. So it won’t be much of a surprise that 73% of CEOs think marketers lack business credibility and they are not the business growth generators they should be. Also 77% of CEOs think marketers don’t talk about what really matters.
Social Statistics
Many businesses have used Twitter campaigns to increase sales, Facebook promotions to improve revenues, and grown their overall customer base by leveraging their Facebook fans and Twitter followers. All of these efforts need to be backed up by verifiable data to show the real direct effects of using social media sites for marketing a product or service.
Google analytics has a “social value” feature that allows you to correlate traffic from Facebook and Twitter to actual sales. Using such tools allows you to accurately measure social media conversions. Any company looking to successfully invest into social media has to make full use of the analytical statistics available to help drive the decision making in the right direction.
Best Ways to Get More Fans
Now you know the right method of measuring the ROI in social media, here are some ways of increasing the amount of followers on Twitter and fans on Facebook. First you should understand what motivates some to like a company or brand on social media networks. The top reasons include:
• To get discounts and promotional deals
• To show support for the company
• To get freebies such as free samples or coupons
• Keep informed about the latest news about the company
• Receive up to date information on future products
• To be informed about any upcoming sales
• To get access to exclusive offers and content
• Just for fun or entertainment
• They got a recommendation from someone
• Learning more about a company
• To Interact with the company and provide feedback
Content creation is the key to attracting more visitors and potential fans or followers. YouTube videos are an effective way of gaining thousands or even millions of view that can result in new fans and eventually customers. Tapping into the viral nature of the internet and social media with memes has been an effective marketing strategy for many businesses. If you need to convey a lot of data or statistics, then infographics are an ever popular means of getting your message across. A well maintained blog can drastically improve the number of followers and engage users to become customers.
Social media isn’t only valuable because of its ability to increase sales. It is a cost effective market research tool that can provide invaluable insight into your market and customer behavior. In addition social networks offer a new avenue for customers support to reach out to unhappy customers and quickly sort out issues before they escalate.
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