Metrics & Improvements
Measurement of marketing’s contribution to the enterprise is the subject of much discussion. As the field of Social Influence Marketing has flourished, a number of tools have been developed to aid in measuring key performance indicators. Some representative key performance indicators (KPI) are:
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Comments
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Downloads
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Email subscriptions
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Fans, Followers, or viewers who "Like" you
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Key influencers
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Key page activity
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Posts
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Registrations
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Social media participation
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Time spent on various pages
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Time spent on the website
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White paper downloads
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Views of videos, blogs, ads, and images
In parallel, the desire to attach a number, a return on investment, on SIM is rapidly growing. Selecting the proper measurement tools depends upon the goals developed by your strategic plan for SIM. Typical metrics for a SIM program might fall into one or more of these categories:
- Audience engagement: For communities of prospects and customers, what fraction is engaged with your Social Media platforms? Is it growing? What is the rate of return visits to the site? What substantive feedback has been gathered, and how have you responded? What is the overall satisfaction level among the customers in your community?
- Prospect Management: What percentage of prospects in your Social Media communities become leads? What percentage of your leads are referred by your customers? How much revenue is generated from Social Media leads? What is the cost per lead generated by your SIM program?
- Thought leadership: What is the comment rate for postings on your blog? Is the rate increasing? If your company uses Twitter, what percentage of your tweets are re-tweeted to others? How often is your blog quoted by others, particularly influencers? Do you contribute to other blogs (e.g., industry luminaries)? What is your reception?
- Brand recognition and rating: How often is your company mentioned on Social Media sites? What is the general tenor of the comments?
- Effectiveness of SIM: Is Social Media effective for attracting prospects to your marketing programs, events, and website? What percentage of your event attendees were engaged by SIM? Which sites generate the most traffic to your website? What messages resonate best with potential customers? What types of offers result in the best prospects.
- Number of key influencers: Have you identified and attracted the key influencers that could be interested in your products and services?
Here is what the American Marketing Association said in advertising one of its Social Media webinars:
“Market researchers are salivating at the opportunity to analyze “word of mouth” comments from consumers. Every minute consumers are having authentic conversations about brands, products and policies on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, forums and other websites.”
Depending on the goals set by your strategy, these and other metrics can be tested, monitored, and reported, giving a rich source of data for evaluating your strategy, messaging, customer satisfaction, with all these suggesting improvement opportunities and possibilities for future directions. Conducting an ongoing dialogue with your key audiences and measuring the results can give you unprecedented insight into what’s working and what can be improved, all at a very reasonable cost.
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