How to Measure and Maximize Social Media ROI

Published

Katrina Wong, VP Marketing

The most successful brands regularly, if not obsessively, adopt social media strategies to measure their Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn efforts. Marketers must leverage the tools and tactics necessary to better understand their audience, in turn implementing tactics based on campaign performance, message effectiveness and the messaging and content most likely to increase loyalty and drive sales.

Socialbakers entire platforms is built around providing a serve that enables marketers to measure and maximize social media ROI by understanding which content drives the most engagement, increases viral sharing and converts “fans” and “followers” into paying customer.

Fortunately, social media analytics is gaining momentum as more and more organizations are realizing the value in finding a way to measure campaign effectiveness. On April 17, we will be attending and speaking at the Social Media Analytics Summit in San Francisco. The entire event is dedicated to social analytics, which can be used to:

Enhance customer service
Improve brand and reputation management
Measure social media success for businesses
Identify the most influential online users in your community
Analyze your brand’s performance compared to competitor performance

For those unable to attend the Social Media Analytics Summit, we have listed the top metrics for measuring and maximizing social media ROI on Facebook – many of these tactics apply to all major social media platforms, from Twitter to LinkedIn to YouTube and Google+:

Fan Growth:

Track, monitor, analyze and maximize the number of people clicking on the “Like” button of your Page. By measuring and tracking the analytics, companies can better understand which content drives the most interactions and user engagement. This enables marketers to identify which content is most likely to be tweeted, re-tweeted, shared or re-posted with additional commentary.

Socialbakers is built to streamline this process through beautiful graphics and displays that indicate average Fan growth, speed of growth, most influential members and even metrics by day, week and month.

Engagement Rate (ER):

Marketers can measure the extent of Fan engagement. This is exceptionally important as it details the most influential fans, and the content they are most likely to engage with, including specific brand Posts that increase the number of “Likes” and comments.

Analytics systems like Socialbakers show the percentage of a brand’s Fan base that interacts on average with Posts and the average Engagement Rate is calculated by dividing the number of Likes and Comments by the number of Fans.

Response Rate (RR):

This is a key metric used to show how promptly a brand or marketing Page admin responds and reacts to the Posts sent to its wall. It is expressed by a percentage of how well the Page is doing in leading a dialogue with people.

However, marketers must enable the community honestly and openly exchange opinions between each other before entering the discussion – over-responding may actually lessen the community’s likelihood of engagement and commentary when a company appears defensive via social media.

Most Engaging Post Types:

Marketers can utilize this metric to better understand which of their Posts engage Fans and drive the greatest feedback, sharing and virality. Marketers and admins can then adjust strategy according to which Posts are the most popular with your Fans – do they engage more with your pictures, videos, links or questions?

Social analytics tools can even provide actionable insights about which content drives the greatest engagement – for example, do photos and albums achieve the highest Engagement Rate, as compared to status updates and links to articles?

Focus on Relevant Content, Including Location

One of the most common mistakes that lessens ROI and leads to a brand losing relevance with its online audience is the lack of localization and relevance. Social media is not a one-size- or one-message-fits-all game. Marketers must relate to their audience and cater to each of its specific needs.

How will an audience in Chicago differ from that of an audience in LA? What type of content can be featured that will increase engagement with consumers more likely to use mobile devices, rather than those likely to interact and consume information from a desktop or other Web-based platform.

Marketers must understand how their audience differs by region, age, demographic or even buying habits, and must implement social tactics and strategies accordingly.

The Future of Social Media Analytics

While the industry is in its relative infancy, social media analytics will become as much of a standard as customer relations management (CRM), financial analysis or personnel tracking. We are excited to see the topic evolve into a business standard, with events like the Social Media Analytics Summit drawing in the top thought leaders to discuss and plan for the future of the industry.

Marketers will identify key users. Brands will expand product and corporate messaging. Users will witness and benefit from the most relevant and engaging experiences with their favorite brands. Social media analytics will increasingly be the fabric that connects the Web’s stakeholders.

Sign up for a free 14-day trial with Socialbakers Analytics PRO to understand how your brand is performing on Facebook and Twitter.