How to Measure ROI on Social Media

 

Twitter can be optimized as a great business tool. Before you begin you need to set business goals and objectives and ensure to measure ROI on social media. It’s vital to be clear about what you wish to achieve and how you are measuring success on the Platform. Once you have established your goals you can then build your strategy to specifically accomplish those goals.

 

Typically your goals might be to:

 

o   Reach new customers

o   Increase engagement through content

o   Promote your products and business

o   Develop longer lasting relationships with your customers

o   Ultimately, generate more leads and sales

Measure ROI on Social Media

Measuring return on investment (ROI) is a major challenge for brands that are new to Twitter. Brands using Twitter to boost marketing efforts are still uncertain as to Twitter’s true value. According to a recent survey conducted by Social Media Marketing University, 45.1% of brands reported that ‘measuring ROI and results’ is their greatest challenge when using the platform for marketing, followed by ‘building an audience’ (42.1 percent) and ‘engagement’ (36.8 percent).

Ref: http://socialmediaimpact.com/brands-still-struggle-measure-roi-twitter/#sthash.ZIwgrqLl.dpuf

 

 

Define your Twitter Social Media goals:

The first step in successfully measuring ROI is to establish your goals and then build your strategy to specifically accomplish those goals.

Be “SMART”

 

o   Specific

Be specific in target results. For instance, use numbers and        action verbs — change, improve, complete, perform, etc. — when setting goals.

o   Measurable

Have a way to measure progress.

o   Actionable

Goals should be achievable by those assigned to work on them.

o   Realistic

Consider available resources and skills to make sure goals are not   impossible to achieve.

o   Timed

Set a deadline or timetable by which goals should be achieved.

 

Every brand should collect their data by means of a third-party tool or something that you’ve created internally, like an Excel spreadsheet. Data should be collected and evaluated on a consistent basis. Businesses need to measure Key Performance Indicators continually and adjusting their strategies accordingly.

 

KPI’s to track when marketing on Twitter:

 

o   Number of followers: the unique number of Twitter users who are following your account

o   Follower/ following ratio: how many followers you have over the number you are following

o   Retweets: This is measured on a post by post basis. The more one of your posts is retweeted, the better

o   @connects: both @replies and @mentions: Count and track both @replies and @mentions.

o   Brand mentions /URL mentions. Keep track of how often your business or product is mentioned on Twitter.

o   Click through rates: track, measure and analyze the click through rates of your links

 

Twitter now offers an internal analytics (Twitter Analytics) system  which involves setting up Twitter Cards & may not be for the small business. You could however use a number of third party analytics tools which are available such as Hootsuite, Buffer or Twitonomy. Pick out the tool most relevant to your business and test it out on your account, your competitor or a key influencer in your industry.

Here is a link to show how Netflix is preforming on Twitter: http://www.socialbakers.com/twitter/netflixuk

 

 

Always keep in mind that Twitter success is more than just the number of followers you have. It is about engagement, customer interaction, and creating emotional bonds with your clients and products. And ultimately, it is about more customers and more sales.

 

Case Study

 

Bord Gáis Energy (@BordGaisEnergy) is one of Ireland’s major energy providers. Bord Gais wanted to drive awareness of its title sponsorship of the U-21 Hurling Championship nationwide and extend the championship’s reach. It wanted to increase fan engagement and spark conversations. It used its brand account (@BordGaisEnergy) to launch a Promoted Tweet campaign asking Twitter users to vote for the Man of the Match during each live match broadcast. They used keyword targeting in timeline. This ensured that people tweeting or engaging with Tweets containing specifically selected words would be exposed to its content. To extend its reach, @BordGaisEnergy promoted the campaign across all media. It fully integrated a hashtag with live broadcasts, website and signage, and organised all conversations around it. @BoardGaisEergy embedded Lead Generation cards in its Promoted Tweets to collect entries for the U21 Score of the Year competition.

 

Results

o   69% increase in followers

o   5.95% engagement rate at peak

o   39% increase in Brand consideration

 

*Source: Onside Sponsorship, Bord Gais Sponsorship Research Programme, Wave 2 – December 2013

 

“Twitter And Twitter Ads played a major role in our activation of the U21 sponsership. Without Twitter we wouldn’t have exceeded our targets”

 

Eoin O Suilleabhain @eoinos

Digital & Social Media Manager, Bord Gais Energy

 

 

http://www.socialbakers.com/twitter/bordgaisenergy

 

The Power Of Twitter

 

 

Broke the record for most retweets with 1.7 million in less than an hour

 

 

 

5 Great Facebook Tips For Your Business

                                              Promoting your business on Facebook.

 

 

There are many ways to make your Facebook Page engaging and popular! We will explore some of these in this Blog. Before trying to promote your page to your customers try to get your Facebook Business Page fully customized and complete. This will allow you to use all its associated capabilities and valuable usage data statistics. Additional promotional Widgets should also be customized. Create a link from your business website using one of the promotional Badges which Facebook offer. Badges showing numbers of likes is a good way to encourage participants and further likes.

Major Events & Holidays are a great opportunity for engaging an audience with your company and promoting your business on Facebook.

Lyons Tea used both St Patrick’s Day and Mothers Day to promote their products and encourage engagement and achieved 404 likes for their St Patrick’s Day post. Avonmore Milk reminded their followers of the arrival of Easter & suggested that followers prepare to cook up some Easter Dishes. They provide a link to their Website and lots of recipe ideas. They also posted lots of tempting photos on Pancake Tuesday & asked followers to share recipe ideas & favorites. This post received 99 likes & was shared 31 times. In January they got 747 likes, 193 comments & 269 shares for their Slimline Milk competition! It is essential to decide on your Facebook goals. ROI can be measured in a variety of ways: through customer acquisition, lead generation, clicks, revenue, contest entries, etc. It all depends on your goals. Before you can track and measure your ROI, you need to determine your goals so youknow which factors you’re measuring and what success looks like. A good realistic goal to start with would be to drive traffic to your website. This can then be measured in Google Analytics by using Tagged Links for all your social media postings. The Facebook insights dashboard gives you all of the analytics data for your Facebook page. The insights allow you to understand your audience, what they are reacting to, and adjust your content to meet their needs.HootSuite is a good allaround tool to use for management and metrics tracking. You can schedule posts from multiple social media channels as well as create over 30 individual reports. The free metrics are somewhat limited, but for beginners it is quite sufficient.

Promoting your Business on Facebook is best achieved with a mixture of organic growth and targeted Facebook ads.

Using a combination of these two options will lead to success because you’re actually growing your community with people who are interested in what you have to offer. Not sure what content your fans want? Well test and see! Post different types of status updates and see what fans are engaging with the most. Then give them more of what there looking for! Remember to keep your content fresh and interesting. Use photos, images and video to engage your followers. Post to your Page at least one every day to keep it “live” and current. Make sure you respond to comments and try to build a professional relationship with followers. Its ok to be a little light hearted and not appear to be only interested in your business or product. Encouraging likes or comments ensures that this activity appears on their wall for friends to see, thereby encouraging them to join your page. A Facebook Like Campaign is a good promotion strategy to quickly increase page likes. Facebook Like campaigns could include such ideas as photo contests, prize draws etc. Giving your visitors more ways to interact with your business will assist in spreading the word about your Facebook Page being a valuable Page for visitors to like. Your Facebook Page can also be used as a communication tool for distributing “Facebook Only” promotions, discounts and special offers.

Using images in social media marketing

Let’s look at how a business can use social media for marketing

As a business it is essential to use social media for marketing. Using images can be a very effective way of enhancing your marketing drive on social media.Have you ever heard the saying ‘ a picture is worth a thousand words’? I’m sure you have! Well in social media terms this could not be more true. We are now in a phase where visual communication is almost supplanting the written word. Our brains process pictures so much faster than text. This means that when your brand shares a picture on social media, your fans decide in an instant whether they want to see more. People upload millions of photos to Facebook every day and Twitter has also become much more visual. Other image-rich sites such as Pinterest, Instagram and Flicker have grown enormously and savvy social media marketers are using these to maximum effect in there campaigns. It is important to remember that visual messages are interpreted differently by each viewer. It is therefore important to ask yourself whether your picture, image or video communicates your message before publishing on your Blog or social media platform. Remember that these channels help to tell your stories that create engagement, build communities and nurture brand loyalty and relationships with customers.

1. Use social media for marketing to show you human side

Why not show your brands human side with a peek into your everyday life. Your fans already know what you look like on the outside so why not make a deeper connection with them by showing an alternative perspective. This is a more personal way for them to connect to your brand. Showing informal spontaneous moments conveys the culture of your brand better than a perfect photo shoot! A look behind the scenes helps your brand to connect on a personal level.

2. Give life to your products

Pictures and video help to emphasise how your products fit into customers lifestyles. Customers want to see how products can be used in everyday situations. Pictures are your storefront to lure potential buyers in and customers just want to make there lives better. Use an outsiders perspective and consider what they might find interesting about your business and what shows off its personality. Fans of your product could also be encouraged to share there experiences by uploading there own photos or video.

3. Acknowledge your customers passion

The most successful campaigns tell visual stories customers want to hear. Why are your customers so loyal? What is the lifestyle that goes hand in hand with your brand? Try to highlight things your customers love and share what is close to your heart and what inspires you. Remember that images evoke emotion and that often people want to be entertained. So why not entertain viewers and offer fun, even if your business is serious.

4. Use video to bring your brand to life

Use video to create the story behind your product by not just showing off its features. These videos can show why they are used, who came up with the product idea/design and the factors that influenced its manufacture. Employees can be included in photos or video or may even post there own photos. Videos can often be used to demonstrate problem solving. Many people don’t read the manual, and video can provide a solution to this. Remember to wow your audience and show them what you know they are interested in.

5. Cater to your particular audience

If you try to spread your message to wide you end up not reaching your target audience. Remember to tell stories that are relevant to them. Different channels should be used to reach different demographics ie Tumbler for the 16-24 age group and Pinterest for women. Don’t forget to drive traffic back to your landing pages or particular sections of your website. We can now use Social media for marketing to great effect. It is a great resource for marketers and a perfect way to tell your story. You can now tell a story in more interesting ways than ever before and reach a much larger audience. Using images and video to tell your story gives a new dimension to your brand and builds closer relationships with your fans, followers and subscribers.