Clients often ask me about the ROI aspect of social media (sm) marketing. They want to know what to tell their boss and it’s a legitimate question ‘How do we measure the return on investment on social media activity?”
We all know that social media is a great marketing tool for brand building, online visibility and awareness, as well as community building, customer service control and engagement but at the end of the day clients need to know that they are getting a credible ROI on the activity created.
What they are really asking is whether or not sm marketing can increase sales and improve the bottom line.
Yes, is the unequivocal answer. However I have to add that as of yet there is not a relevant business model around social media. (Or perhaps I just haven’t heard about it yet)
Using social media enables a business to be more visible, it creates platforms for one on one conversation with consumers or group conversations if we’re talking communities so it is an appealing marketing tool even without taking into consideration the low costs involved in its application.
The real reason behind sm’s intrigue has to be the simple fact of low cost and dramatically huge reach compared to traditional media but to go back to the question of ROI you would first need to determine the criteria against which you intend to measure your campaign’s success.
When you decide to use social media as part of your overall marketing arsenal you need to remember that although relatively cheap in application it does require a constant feeding of content and in a unique and original manner if you intend to capture the time and hearts of the local market.
One great thing about it is that you can test concepts online using sm quite reasonably. Shoot a video, PowerPoint, storyboard and network them for comment on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube and track the whole campaign with a app like HootSuite. Just takes time and know how.
The ROI is easy enough to work out just remember why you’re doing it, who you’re doing it to and what it cost you to do it!
Please check our Social Media Pricing, Reputation Management PricingandSocial Media A La Carte Pricing to choose the right social media strategy for your profile or business.