How to Measure and
Maximize Social Media ROI
May 2012
How to Measure and Maximize Social Media ROI
Today’s most successful brands not only leverage social media in creative ways, they also know
how to accurately analyze the performance of their campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and
YouTube. Leveraging performance metrics helps them improve their marketing messages and
develop the content that is most likely to increase brand loyalty and drive sales.
Calculating and maximizing your Return on Investment (ROI) from social media activities can only
be achieved when you have the right tools to track relevant performance data. Socialbakers’ entire
platform is built around enabling marketers to measure and maximize ROI by understanding which
content drives the most engagement, increases viral sharing, and converts “fans” and “followers”
into paying customers. By evaluating social media initiatives, businesses can intelligently allocate
resources and energy to improving their social media efforts.
According to a recent Aberdeen Group report on the ROI of social media:
76% of Best-in-Class companies, compared to 15% of Laggards, have improved their yearover-year performance with respect to customer retention.
58% of Best-in-Class organizations have dedicated resources devoted to social
media marketing.
41% of Best-in-Class companies, compared to 15% of Laggards, have defined performance
metrics for measuring brand advocacy/customer referrals.
Following are the top categories for measuring and maximizing social media ROI on
Facebook. Many of these tactics apply to all major social media platforms, including
Twitter, YouTube and Google+:
Fan Growth
Track, monitor, analyze and maximize the number of people clicking on the “Like” button of your
Facebook Page. By tracking the analytics, companies can better understand which content drives
the most interactions an user engagement, and which content is most likely to be tweeted, retweeted, shared or re-posted with additional commentary.
Socialbakers is built to streamline this process with easy-to-understand graphics and displays that
indicate average Fan growth, speed of growth, most influential members and even metrics by day,
week and month.
Get more information at
www.socialbakers.com
How to Measure and Maximize Social Media ROI
Engagement Rate (ER)
Fan engagement 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 platforms like Socialbakers show the percentage of a brand’s Fan base that interacts on
average with Posts. The average Engagement Rate is calculated by dividing the number of Likes
and Comments by the number of Fans.
Response Rate (RR) and Response Time (RT)
Response rate shows how frequently a brand responds and reacts to the posts submitted on its
wall. It calculates the percentage of how well companies are doing in leading conversations with
their communities, and where to focus the discussions going forward.
Response time measures how promptly organizations react to inquiries and comments from the
community, showing how actively they are engaged with their audience. Socialbakers provides
these necessary metrics so companies can improve their processes to stay engaged more
effectively.
Importantly, marketers should always allow for an open exchange of opinions between community
members before entering the discussion. Over-responding can potentially have a negative impact
on brand and customer service when a company appears defensive via social media.
Most Engaging Post Types
Marketers can monitor Facebook posts and Twitter feeds that fans are engaging with to determine
which have the highest feedback, what followers are sharing and which have gone viral. With
Socialbakers, they can even quickly determine which links and content their competitors are posting
to see where the community is responding favorably.
Regional Reach and Relevance
Social media is not a one-size-fits-all activity. Marketers must understand how their audiences differ
by region, age, demographic or even buying habits, and they must implement social tactics and
feature content that resonates with each audience.
How will an audience in Chicago differ from that of an audience in Los Angeles, or Paris? 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 laptop?
Get more information at
www.socialbakers.com
How to Measure and Maximize Social Media ROI
Socialbakers helps calculate the number of fans in a specific geographic region that are fans of a
particular page. Regional analysis can provide valuable metrics and insight for those looking to
expand to new countries or take advantage of a competitor that has not yet entered that region.
Competitive Growth Rate
Companies can benefit greatly by viewing a side-by-side comparison with their competitors of the
performance of Facebook page and post activity. Socialbakers calculates growth performance over
time to measure competitor momentum and highlights where organizations should focus in the
future.
Learn from Free Statistics on Socialbakers
You can also gain a wealth of knowledge and ideas for free by checking out a list of valuable metrics
from companies like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+ to understand how to effectively
measure and maximize social media ROI including:
Facebook Statistics – measure how many pages your competitors are creating and
updating including which topics fans are responding to in over 200 country-specific regions
around the world. Measure brand influence and learn about customer response rates all in
real-time to better manage your business.
Twitter Statistics – join the conversation and monitor twitter feeds and follower discussions
about brands, products, services, media and more. Gain insight into what the community is
following and more importantly how you can capitalize on this publicly available data that’s
out there just waiting to be harnessed.
YouTube Statistics – monitor key metrics including what content channels are gaining in
popularity and which specific videos the community is watching. See if your digital media
strategy is working in real time and benchmark yourself against your competitors.
Google+ Statistics – follow the followers and understand the strength of your competitors
marketing messages to more effectively connect with your own community. Measure
specific posts and comments while gathering competitive intelligence to build engaging
content for your audience.
Get more information at
www.socialbakers.com
How to Measure and Maximize Social Media ROI
The Power of Social Media
Performance Metrics
Social media analytics empowers companies to:
Strengthen their brand – monitoring preferences from key demographics and influencers,
uncovering insights and trends that will impact overall brand effectiveness.
Understand their audience – ongoing engagement with the community provides
actionable insights to keep social media activities on track while offering followers a platform
to provide valuable feedback.
Boost customer satisfaction – keeping pace with service or performance issues in real
time while understanding shortcomings almost immediately and quickly respond before
problems can escalate.
Build compelling content – identifying the right content for the right audiences enables
companies to keep a steady cadence of social media content and ideas flowing to followers
and the community.
Stay competitive – conducting a thorough comparison against key competitors results in
maximizing ROI, sparks creative new ideas, and delivers better value to customers and the
community.
Tools like Socialbakers that measure social media performance provide actionable data
organizations can use to quickly adjust marketing strategies and achieve the best results. You’ll be
in position to:
Engage – streamline your social media strategy and identify relevant conversations to
improve your brand awareness across the community.
Analyze – measure community feedback and build relationships that helps you attract new
prospects while retaining current customers.
Build – actively participate in the discussion to generate new business opportunities and
measure your organization against the competition to increase social media success.
Once businesses move from collecting basic data and information to incorporating social media
analytics into their business practices, they can quickly merge their strategy with specific
measurements and goals to maximize real social media ROI for their organization.
Visit Socialbakers
Get more information at
www.socialbakers.com