A lot of business people may have trouble with the basic metrics for their websites: pageviews, visits, unique visits, etc. (hits usually get thrown around), but when you talk about how to measure social media success, they look a little scared. Social media (when used well) is a great tool for connecting directly to customers in a way that’s never been affordable for most of us. We can have conversations, we can get our ideas out there and we can see what people are saying about us. So how to measure all that?
Measuring social media is evolving just as measuring tv ads or radio ads evolved. When radio first came out and companies started advertising, they knew it was important, but they didn’t know how to measure it. Then someone decided that maybe we should just ask people – and Nielsen ratings was born.
At the end of the day sales and clients are what drive our businesses. Getting sales and new clients are why we market and advertise. But selling is also about building relationships. People buy from people, not from companies. We know social media is important because it helps us build those relationships.
So I think one way to measure success is in how many new relationships you’re able to build online. And then you can figure out where they stand as far as the sales funnel. Sometimes you can figure that out from long-term conversations. Sometimes you’ll know by the questions they ask.
Every social network has a different way to measure relationships. On Facebook, it’s fans or friends. On LinkedIn, it’s connections. Twitter has followers. Etc. But, we need to take into account the quality of those relationships. If you have 30,000 followers on Twitter, how many of them do you have conversations with? How many of those would ever be interested in purchasing from you (this can be tough to answer).
A lot of people have a lot of thoughts on how to measure social media success. I’ve given you a few thoughts of my own. This is an evolving process. No one has all the answers. So, I’d also like to hear what you think. How do you measure social media success?
(photo by chovee @ FlickrCC)
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