Or can you? The good news is Yes, social media is measurable and here’s how: 1) Traffic is the most obvious way to measure a social media campaign. Google Analytics, Omniture and other tools can be very useful in showing the number of page views and the average amount of time spent on the site and/or landing page.
2) Consumer Interaction and engagement are two additional good metrics because they show how consumers are talking about your brand. Consumer interaction includes everything from measuring blog comments, Twitter traffic and participation in online forums.
3) Sales are of the most direct ways to measure a social media campaign. Use traditional advertising and PR to drive people to your social media channels. Use those channels to drive visitors to a campaign-specific landing page on your website. On the landing page, convert them from a prospect to a customer and voila!
4) Leads are a great way to measure social media, especially if you’re B2B. You can track conversions more easily by using Click Tracking and URL shorteners, such as bit.ly with click analytics.
5) SEO YouTube and Twitter can provide valuable search rankings on your brand search results.
6) Brand metrics are another way to measure the effectiveness of social media. Buzzmetrics and truCAST will help your company monitor and analyze what consumers are saying about your product or service.
7) Public relations is another way to measure your social media. Blogs, Twitter, discussion boards, forums, and online events.
8) Customer engagement is one of the most under-utilized ways to measure social media. For example, MyStarbucksIdea.com is their way of keeping customers engaged with their brand when they’re not in the store.
9) Customer Retention is another great way to measure social media. Research indicates that it cost 3 – 5x as much to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. By following comments on social media, you’re better able to respond to dissatisfied customers.
10) Profits. In the end, it’s all about profits. As customers engagement increases and customer turnover decreases, your revenue will increase as existing customers spend more money with your brand. Satisfied customers will recommend your brand to friends, family and online contacts and that’s the best!
*from the 60 second marketer