It's Okay to Talk About ROI and Social Media

Social Media Marketing and Analytics

If someone tells you that you can't measure the ROI on a social media campaign, don't believe them.  There are some key differences between a social media campaign and traditional advertising, but to approach any campaign without clear analytics goals is a mistake.  I'm going to quickly go through 3 things that I think are important to keep in mind as you get started on your next online marketing campaign.

The Value of Friends
Think about how this goal sounds:  "I want to double my company's Fans on our Facebook page." Pretty good, right?  But what does that number mean?  How are you actively engaging your Fans and encouraging them to view your page again and again?  There is strength in numbers, but not if the end result is just a good-sounding amount.  Have a plan to do something with all those fans.  Remember also that you can't directly message fans on a Facebook page even.  To broadcast out to them, they'd either need to subscribe to SMS alerts or you would need to create events to invite them to.  (If they regularly check status updates of friends/pages they would see your status updates as well)

SEO: The Forgotten Benefit
As you're planning your social marketing campaign, don't forget about the hidden benefit of any wide-reaching campaign:  Search Engine Optimization.  You are not only trying to go 'viral,' but for your SEO efforts, you are trying to get inbound links from high-ranking Web sites.  Since most of your social media targets are among the highest-traffic sites on the Web, take full advantage of it and get links with keywords back to your Web site (not just that Facebook page).

The Payoff
I will be the first to tell you that there is a great long-term benefit in building networks on social media sites and engaging in meaningful conversations with current and potential customers.  But I also believe that any online marketing campaign needs to have both immediate and long-term goals and measurable objectives.  Make sure you identify both before you start your next campaign.