How Do You Measure ROI with Social Media?

The first step in measuring ROI with social media is defining it.

Are you trying to directly convert sales or are you more interested in brand awareness? Those two goals require distinct strategies and efforts in each arena should be focused on their respective ends.  

Trying to accomplish both goals within the same campaign can be detrimental, so we want to keep good 'campaign hygiene.’

A psychiatrist would see terrible results if they tried to 'hard sell' using social media. A person interested in finding a psychiatrist is probably not going to base their decision off a post offering 'the lowest prices in town.' Moreso, people do not select psychiatrists on impulse. It is a decision that people give a good deal of consideration to and they may even work through their insurance company. This dynamic does not mean that a psychiatrist cannot see significant return on investment in social media.

Creating content that positions the professional as a thought leader in their industry can do a lot for long-term reputation, and sharing some personal posts can humanize the them.

A video of a psychiatrist speaking at a conference would be a great idea even if it is not directly monetized. Time spent filling out a social media portfolio with content that helps differentiate a personal brand is a long-term investment that can pay enormous dividends with patience.

Success is dependent on a focused strategy, and determining whether brand awareness or sales better suits your use case is an imperative first step.

For a company with a merchandise sales model, publishing ads with specific value propositions would be a more effective strategy.

An auto-dealership, for example, may want to mix in some community building posts, but in the end, it is the deals that they can offer that drive sales. Put another way, price differentiation is a leading purchase que for consumers in the auto industry.

Therefore, a targeted ad campaign using social media could be a highly efficient method for reaching the right consumers with information on the hottest deals. Flash sales, holiday deals, and end of year closeouts would all be solid content for such a campaign. That said, an auto-dealer may also benefit from posting humanizing content with a message from the owner or an employee story, but such a narrative must be backed up by content that suggests a pricing edge.

One great thing about direct ad campaigns on social media is that you can pull data on the amount of traffic that reached your sales page through the link. That means measuring ROI in such a campaign can actually be boiled down to the numbers which is powerful for any business owner.

Once a company has identified what its ROI with social is, it can then begin measuring it.

The kind of ROI that is most attractive for a company or individual will depend on the audience and the nature of the product or service that the company offers.

A detailed conversation with your vendor or in-house social media manager on what differentiates your brand will help arm them with the information necessary to craft the most efficient game plan.

Fortunately, there are several platforms that have been designed to make the process more efficient. Platforms such as Hootsuite and Buffer offer powerful ways to measure success, and various plugins can be applied to your webpage's Google Analytics to present actionable data. Having a knowledgeable user who can definitively measure ROI can help you make critical decisions in determining your level of investment in social media.