A lot of people (and companies) get caught up in the need for numbers with social media, as if they need to prove that communicating and connecting with people is a worthwhile activity. This drive for numbers creates social media statistics like number of followers, number of friends, pageviews, post-to-comment ratios, etc. (the list goes on and on). All these numbers do have a purpose, but many forget what they’re trying to measure.
Start with Your Business Goal
Every time I talk with clients about their Internet strategy, the first thing I ask is, “What’s your business goal?” Unfortunately, this often gets met with a blank stare. The only reason to do anything in business is because it helps you get closer to reaching your goals (or you’re required by regulations or laws). Without a business goal, how do you know whether something is worth the cost? The answer is, you don’t. If you don’t have a business goal for the next 3-6 months (one that’s a real goal and achievable), then get one – soon.
How social media can help you reach your goal
Now that you have a business goal, think about how you can get closer to that goal using social media. For example, if your goal is to increase sales by 5%, this probably means either finding new customers or increasing sales from the ones you have. Either way, it means connecting with people, which social media can help you do.
Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Social Media
Now you need to tie in what you’re doing with social media to how its directly helping you reach your business goal. In the example goal above, one way to find new customers is to find a way to generate a sales lead, meaning that you get someone to indicate that they’re potentially interested in what you’re selling. A great way to do this online is to offer some really great information for free, in exchange for a name and email address. While most of your use of social media should be to engage and connect with people, it’s ok to occasionally throw your own stuff in there, such as a link to this great information you’re using. Using url shortening sites, such as bit.ly, you can use different urls from different social media to track where traffic is coming from (your web analytics software should help as well). Now you know where traffic is coming from, so you know how effective each place is. By comparing the amount of traffic to the amount of leads actually generated you can get a direct link from social media use to your business goal. Track how many of these leads convert to actual sales to finish the links in the chain.
More Than One Way
There are many different ways to track the effectiveness of social media. How you use it depends on your particular organization and what you’re trying to achieve (what your goals are). There’s also something to be said for the so-called “soft” metrics of social media – which are harder to measure. These “soft” metrics are related to how many different people you can connect directly with using social media, which may eventually lead to a sale – either directly or from someone they refer to you. Since customers are more likely to trust a recommendation from someone they know, rather than a company, these are pretty valuable metrics to follow as well.
How do you link social media to your business goals?
(photo by lepiaf.geo @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: networking, marketing, sales, social networking, business, reputation, branding, brand, brand strategy, brand management
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