measuring social media success

Measuring Social Media

Success

Eric Melin@Spiral16 @SceneStealrEric

Robert Madison@Robert_Spiral16

Active Brand Marketing

“This is the approach that marketers must take to avoid extinction and thrive in the digital age.”

Active brand marketing - A flexible approach in which marketers respond quickly to their environment to align consumer and brand goals and maximize return on equity.

- Forrester research, CMO Mandate: Adapt or Perish

Adapting is a Challenge …64% of marketers experienced problems trying to

implement digital marketing initiatives.

Only 4% of marketing leaders feel that they are prepared to exploit digital marketing opportunities.

- Accenture Interactive 2010 study

…but it’s also a huge opportunity.

Photo credit: stasisconsulting.com

Now is the Time

There is a lot of excitement surrounding social media.

People are doing very creative things.

It’s not an exact science, but it is important to tie your efforts into supporting your company’s objectives.

Start With What You Know

You’ve identified your

company’s business goals already.

Now think about how you can achieve those goals through a

social media program

Company goals Social media program Success

Social Media Program is a Component

Use it to support your existing business strategy.

• Create a structure for your program based on the unique needs of your company.

• Build it from the ground up.

• The more customized, the better.

Social Media Program is a Component

“Ford doesn’t have a social media strategy —

Ford has a business strategy supported by social media.”

- Scott Monty

Social Media Isn’t Free.

It takes valuable time.

You need human resources for:

PlanningContent creationMonitoring Measurement AnalysisCreative insight …and more.

Free vs. Paid vs. Mixed

Companies using only free web analytics solutions experience a year-over-year decline in marketing campaign performance.

Why Social Media ROI is Tough

ROI = (Gain from Investment) - (Cost of Investment) Cost of Investment

Return on investment is a financial metric. That financial aspect is not clearly defined in social media—it’s not built-in.

But This Challenge Isn’t New

Calculating ROI for print ads and radio ads has always been difficult.

Metrics rely on the people influenced by print and radio self-identifying themselves or coupon codes being recorded and collected. Calculating ROI for social media is also difficult because it is integrated into your overall strategy—it is hard to separate.

The social media ROI equation is the ROI

equation.This (below) won’t help.

Image from glynndevins.com -- and modified

Establish a Customized Process

The Only Way to Measure Performance and Results

It is critical for creating a data-driven view of marketing results.

“This should be complemented with frequent reports to stakeholders within the organization, to build a clear picture of how marketing contributes to the health and success of the organization.”

- Aberdeen Group 2012 StudyWeb Analytics: Marketing Beyond Online Customer Data

6 Steps To An Effective Social Media Program

1. Identify business goals.2. Align goals with social media program.3. Establish benchmarks.4. Set realistic targets.5. Measure KPIs to determine success.6. Look at results, find ways to improve.

1. Identify Business Goals

Make sure your social media initiatives (nonfinancial)

are supporting your business goals (financial)

Think about this:

Where is the company now?Where does it want to be?What will it take to get there?

What Do You Hope to Gain? Increase Total Sales

Reduce Customer Service Expenses

Acquire New Customers

Reduced Cost Per Transaction

Increase in Qualified Leads

Higher Value Per Sale

Increase in Customer Satisfaction

Increase in Reach

Introduce New Products/Service Enhancements

Attract New Employees

Encourage Repeat Purchases/Build Customer Loyalty

2. Align Social Media Program with Goals

Avon tinkered with its well-known door-to-door and catalog-based direct sales model by empowering its salespeople with social selling tools like its Facebook eBoutique and iPhone app.

Social media platform Avon Connects virtually attaches consumers to their local Avon rep, at which pointtraditional face-to-faceservice begins.

Tools Are Not Strategies

• Twitter• Facebook/Google+• Blogs • Forums• YouTube• Foursquare/Gowalla• Flickr• Webinars• Podcasts

Being active on these platforms is only important if using them helps you reach your goal.

Listening GoalsWho is saying what, when, and where?

• Protect your reputation

• Facilitate customer support

• Invite innovation

• Build trust

• Market through conversation (promote and sell)• Gather business intelligence

- Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer

Measurement GoalsWhat are you getting out of it?

• Improve branding and awareness

• Improve reputation

• Build community or advocacy

• Increase customer satisfaction

• Harvest research & development• Drive sales or leads

- - Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer

3. Establish Benchmarks

What does your online presence look like

before the program? There are numerous free and paid tools to determine this.

Topic Total Pages Domains Date Range Pages/Day

Boulevard Brewing Co. 4148 1077 10/6/11 – 1/24/12 46

Chocolate Ale 1873 280 1/24/12 – 2/9/2012 144

213% Increase in daily Volume

From October 6 to Jan 24, Spiral16 searched “Boulevard Brewery,” “Boulevard Brewing Company,” “Smokestack Series,” and “@Boulevard_Beer” = 4,148 results

On Jan 24, we started another set of queries for “Chocolate Ale.” As of Feb 9 (in 16 days), that data set grew to over 1,800 results.

Benchmark

Common Metrics

Frequency and volume of:• Twitter followers• Retweets• Facebook likes• Brand mentions • Blog comments• YouTube views• Number of check-ins

Are these things important?

Ask yourself which ones matter to your business.

Advanced Metrics

Share of voice

Increase in online traffic

Chocolate Ale Volume

Boulevard Volume

Volume of mentions

Advanced Metrics

Positive/negative sentiment ratios

Opportunity!

Positive/negative volume over time, correlation

Advanced Metrics

Advanced Metrics

Penetration of marketing keywords

Channel-based language correlation

Advanced Metrics

Advanced Metrics

• Identify influencers in your topic or around your brand• Discover how brand messages spread across the Web

Advanced Metrics

• Learn what types of sites are the most relevant

Twitter accounts for the majority of Boulevard’s online presence, with nearly 60% of the total volume.

4. Set Realistic Targets

Set specific targets based on your company goals:

Increase total sales by 5%

Increase cost savings by 15%

10% increase in qualified leads

Convert 5% followers and “likes” to transacting customers

Grow online community to 10,000 members

20% increase in customer satisfaction

Increase total transactions by 7%

5. Measure KPIs to Determine Success

Look only at the metrics that concern your goal.

• Website metrics/traffic• Social audience metrics • Fans/Followers/Friends • Conversions • User-generated content • Comments • Ratings/Reviews • Downloads

• Volume of conversation• Search metrics• Sentiment & tone • Backlinks• Competition comparison• Share metrics • Referrals • Click throughs

- Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer

Correlate Traditional with Online Metrics

• Actual sales• Retail traffic• # of transactions• New customers• Amount per transaction• Leads• Surveys

- Social Media ROI, Olivier Blanchard

This process requires detective work.

It isn’t always obvious.

Patterns reveal themselves as you sort and filter results.

Put Results on a Timeline

Verizon – Xoom volume, 1st month after launch

Did you see spikes in sales in correlation with your social media efforts?


Verizon – Xoom sentiment, 1st month after launch

What other patterns can you identify?

Correlate with Events

Xoom volume sentiment, 1st month after launch

AT&T announces takeover of T-Mobile

1st Xoom update rolls out enabling Flash, iPad 2 released in U.S.

93 more positive reviews appear, totaling 593 for first 9 days

Try Relative Date RangesUsing a relative date range, you can correlate volume.

Xoom volume/sentiment, iPad 2 volume 1st month after launch

Launch Comparison

Xoom volume/sentiment, iPad 2 volume/sentiment 1st month after launch

Add sentiment and you can see both products together.


Xoom volume/sentiment, units sold 1st month after launch

Adding in traditional metrics is key.


Xoom volume/sentiment, units sold, and new subscribers 1st month after launch

93 more positive reviews appear, totaling 593 for first 9 days

1st Xoom update rolls out enabling Flash, iPad 2 released in U.S.

AT&T announces takeover of T-Mobile

Measuring Social Media Programs Can Find Real

Savings

In 2009, Ford built early awareness for the Fiesta with influential bloggers who tested and wrote about it

In 2010, Ford launched the Fiesta Project, an effort to capture user-generated video.

As a result, Ford learned it could reduce cost of subsequent launches by as much as 90%.

- Forrester research, CMO Mandate: Adapt or Perish

6. Look at Results, Find Ways to Improve

The great thing about web measurement is …

You don’t have to wait for all your results.

They update as the program continues.

And you have every opportunity to view those results and make changes to your program along the way.

Connect the DotsDo some detective work.

What caused spikes? Tie them to real events, your initiatives.

Why are there flat lines?

What part of the social media program had no effect?What part did?

Connect these numbers to your business objectives.Analysis creates the narrative.

Ask questionsTie back to your goals.

Did you meet/exceed your goals?How close were you to your targets?

What gains did you make?

What did you learn about customer perception?Did you increase the reach of your marketing?

Did you reduce costs?Did you increase loyalty?

Use the ROI Formula

ROI = (Gain from Investment) - (Cost of Investment) Cost of Investment

How much did the program cost? (Cost of tools/platforms/employee time.)

Make estimates.

What financial gains did you make?

It’s Not Always Difficult

Sometimes just being able to illustrate that you have the ability to create business gains through social media is enough …

…to reach your goal.

Thank you from

Eric Melin@Spiral16 [email protected]

Robert Madison@Robert_Spiral16

[email protected]

measuring social media success

Technology