Understanding social media ROI (return on investment) requires that companies know what their desired goal is when used for marketing. One of the biggest complaints and toughest goals that marketers face today is putting social media into a measurable ROI for companies. Most companies know how important social media can be to their company growth but demonstrating the returns is another matter. To understand and put ROI into perspective companies need a plan with quantifiable goals.
Understanding social media ROI with measurable goals in place then becomes a numbers game. Using numbers to measure ROI is one of the easiest methods to demonstrate growth or decline. Putting these numbers into graphs can help by offering a good visual of what exactly is happening with your social media strategy. This should be an ongoing process in order to determine when changes may need to be made in the companies’ social media marketing strategy for continuing growth.
One of the biggest issues when attempting to use various methods for demonstrating ROI is that not all who are involved will understand what the numbers may mean. Due to the fact that ROI is not immediately seen as an increase in money some may not realize exactly what social media is doing for the company’s growth. Ultimately there is most definitely an increase in money that companies earn from their social media efforts but in the beginning looking at other growth areas is most important.
Social media ROI can be seen when using tools that graph things such as growth in branding awareness, increased dialogue through social networks, and an increase in partnerships. Google analytics is an excellent tool to use when measuring results of your social media strategy. This is just one of many tools that can be used to demonstrate a company’s ROI however.
Marketing Sherpa surveyed marketing agencies and found that “social media clearly helps search results for many businesses. The largest majority of companies’ greatest benefit came from posting content on a company blog site.” There are many surveys available that demonstrate the importance of using social media as a part of a company’s overall marketing plan. What a lot of these surveys don’t achieve is explaining just how companies can demonstrate the benefits to themselves as an individual company. Because of this it remains difficult for marketers within a company to demonstrate ROI.
Understanding social media ROI can be difficult but with a little work and the use of good tools such as Google analytics it can be done. A lot of companies don’t have the money or man power to invest in creating the strategies and measurable outcomes to be measured. This is where Posse Social Media comes in: once using the tools to demonstrate results of your social media marketing strategies the rest will follow with increases in dividends.