Now that you’ve created followers on your social media platforms, you may start facing serious questions from upper management – how do these numbers improve the bottom line? What was the ROI on this marketing platform? Understanding social media market trends and reports will help you answer these types of questions.
Measurements are shifting from looking beyond the “likes” previously relied upon to measuring social activation. Analysis firms Gartner, predicts 50 percent of all web sales will be driven from social media and mobile devices by 2015. In addition, recent studies found that sales increased 24 percent for companies who include Facebook in their social media marketing strategy. Measuring social activation and evaluating carefully each element of the activation step are going to be fundamental to achieving and evaluating your social media value.
For example, Fab.com receives 25 percent of its total website traffic from social media, by placing and engaging social experience at the core of its business. One third of the company’s sales are also attributed to social media. In addition, the company confirms that 50 percent of new customers come from social media marketing. The company’s lifetime value has doubled due to socially activated customers.
Another example is TripAdvisor’s claim that Facebook users are twice as engaged. This is a site that relies primarily on user engagement and content. Therefore, attracting and retaining socially engaged customers is key to the company’s overall success. CEO Stephen Kafer, confirms and emphasizes the role that Facebook is playing in building TripAdvisor’s brand and user base.
Social activation is the pivotal driver in social media. This is proven because social media platforms attract brand fans interested in engaging with valuable brand content. Social success only happens when your content is valuable and draws users to interact with that content. For example, what led to Fab.com and TripAdvisor’s success was the comprehensive view of social value which includes brand awareness, user engagement, and the ability to tie it with social marketing and drive overall sales.
Two of the biggest mistakes digital marketers make when measuring social media returns are relying on the “new” social metrics like “likes” and follows, or the “old” search advertising metric of last-click attribution. A Facebook and Datalogix study revealed that campaigns focusing on maximizing reach saw 70 percent higher ROI than those focused on clicks. You need to focus on measuring social activation of your customers, which includes discovery, interactions, and endorsements through your social media marketing.
Source: www.socialmediatoday.com
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