Measurement practices for monitoring social media ROI for your business is still a controversial subject. While it is important to evaluate and monitor your effectiveness, it can be difficult to determine reporting parameters and the list of elements that would report successfully. Many businesses are still not clear on their use or how to use the reports to measure effectiveness within their overall marketing plan. This can leave businesses at a loss to know how to capitalize on these important mediums.
Measuring how your social media activities create a higher rank in the search engine is important. For example, with Google + the more popular you are in that social media arena, the more favorable you will become to Google Search Engine. That would tell us that social media is an integral part of search engine optimization strategies. What it will not tell you is what part of the people that clicked through to your site from Google were a direct result of how many Google +1’s your profile has that contributed to that.
Reporting on conversion rates is a valuable to way to determine what your social media efforts are doing in regard to ROI for your business. Conversion reports will tell you how many people clicked through to your site from social media and other sites, and what actions they took when they got there. It will tell you what page(s) they visited, how long they stayed and if they took action. The conversion report will also show you whether the action is a sale or signing up for more information. If the conversion rates are low, you can test new methods to increase them. Not all of your social media activity will have a specific conversion to report on though, similarly to the investment of business cards cannot be counted on for reliable sales reports.
There are a number of ways to increase the social media ROI for your business. Creating viral content that your fans and followers will then share with their fans or followers can create increased attention to your site. Creating engaging conversations based around your customers interests can improve the engagement at your site and build familiarity. While this may not show an immediate return on investment, people are more likely to do business with company’s they are familiar with. Raising the awareness of your products with special promotions or sales can also help increase the ROI. Make sure if you advertise though you use the social media’s advertising platforms, or remain subtle in your posts in regard to advertising.
