How to compute social media

One matter that come out in discussion a lot is how to compute the efficiency of a social media marketing campaign.

The small answer to that title is yes it is, and this is how we measurement within the ROI of the social media campaigns we operate.

Set Campaign Goals

Prior to you start on any campaign the first move is to always set up the goal(s) for the campaign. Is it to rise sales, visitors to a website, RSS subscribers, etc? Once you have the goals it is much easier to set up tracking. Notice that none of the goals from any of our campaigns is to just increase the number of followers or fans that we have on Facebook or Twitter. These are not goals that give you a high-quality ROI!

So here are quite a few potential Social Media campaign goals and how you can efficiently calculate them.

Increased Visitor Numbers

This is the easiest and further clear-cut goal to compute. What you are asking is “Are there more visitors to my site now than there were before the campaign began?” By using a high-quality analytics program you can rapidly and easily break down the visitors by channel using transfer data. Who are they? Where are they from?

Increased Revenue

This measurement is amazingly simple to compute. What you are asking is “Is the business generating more revenue than before the campaign started?” To successfully measure the ROI of a social media campaign, you can use tools like social media only URL’s links or coupon codes that can only be seen on sites like Facebook or Twitter. Or campaign particular 800 phone numbers? These tools discrete the sales from other channels and let us to concentrate only on the increased revenue that came from social media.

Increased Links

Does the web site, or pages within the web site, have more links directing to them than before the campaign began. Google Webmaster Central and Yahoo Site Explorer are good sources for before and after numbers.

Increased Brand Awareness

This is the beloved of marketing agencies as it is most likely the most complicated portion to compute. What you are asking here is that while the campaign was going on, were more people talking about your company and/or brand than before the campaign? Measuring buzz is hard, but some dissimilar ways to compute it are mentions on Twitter, Buzz Metrics, and Blog Pulse.

What are you using to compute the effecitiveness of your socal media campaigns?