Companies are frantically jumping on the social media bandwagon. Blog posts here, tweets there. But not all are stopping to measure whether their efforts are actually having any sort of effect or not?
Actual bottom line sales from social media initiatives, can be hard to determine. People within the organisation will most likely claim sales for their own departments. A good social media campaign is defined by collaboration from all departments, so you probably won’t be able to attribute sales to any one division or employee.
But how does a social media strategist (or small business owner!) determine the best measurement methods for social media. Research has shown that over 65% of companies use “engagement data” as the key measurement tool; and only 22% taking actual product revenue foremost into account.
Other metrics are sentiment; the overall opinion of what people are saying about you via the social web. Increase in web traffic as a result of your social media efforts. Share of voice/ total mentions and conversions or leads resulting from the social web.
The key thing to recognise in all of this, is that you can have all the followers/fans in the world. But that in itself, is not going to increase sales or other calls to action. What is your goal for all of this increased traffic? How can your new followers and fans be actively engaged on a continual basis?