Monetising Social Media A case study in measuring the value of social media marketing online Ashley Friedlein CEO E-consultancy.com

“ The future of the social web ” “ Harnessing Social Media for B2B and B2C marketing campaigns” “ How UK Government approaches the web and social media ” “ Social and Professional Networking how marketers and users navigate in the Web 2.0 world” “ The impact and ROI of social retail ”

What is ‘Social Media’? Blogs Discussion Boards & Communities Product review sites Media-sharing Social Networking Bookmarking / tagging ‘ Social commerce’, ‘social news’ etc….

Blogs

Discussion Boards & Communities

Product review sites

Media-sharing

Social Networking

Bookmarking / tagging

‘ Social commerce’, ‘social news’ etc….

“ Internet-based tools and venues where anyone can communicate publicly”

Universal McCann Social Media Study

Great for PR BUT…

Q: Has Second Life worked for you? A: “It’s a lot more hype than reality.” Chris Shimojima, VP, Nike.om Q: How did the YouTube clip help generate pledges? A: “…i t's not a top referring site … in terms of pledges and uptake of products, we're not seeing that come through. ” Rob Merrington, Head of Brand Advertising, EDF Energy

Jerry Maguire, 1996

How do we make money? Advertising Average £20 per thousand page views / 2 ads per page / 3 pages views per visit Average advertising value per visit = 12p Commerce (Subscriptions, Memberships, Events, Training etc.) Conversion rate = 0.25% Average order value = £200 Average commerce value per visit = 50p

Advertising

Average £20 per thousand page views / 2 ads per page / 3 pages views per visit

Average advertising value per visit = 12p

Commerce (Subscriptions, Memberships, Events, Training etc.)

Conversion rate = 0.25%

Average order value = £200

Average commerce value per visit = 50p

Average Total Value / Visit = 62p

(but some visits are more valuable than others)

Direct Traffic Indirect Traffic (aka Google)

Top Referring Domains

7,000 visits a day from Google = £4,340 a day…

How many more direct visits can we get? Can we get more Google love? from ‘social media marketing’

Question 1 Should we engage with sites that deliver VOLUME (REACH) or INFLUENCE?

Answer 1 Both… VOLUME = VOLUME INFLUENCE = SEO = VOLUME

Question 2 So which sites would deliver volume (and the right prospective customers) And which (SEO) influence?

Answer 2 VOLUME / REACH INFLUENCE

Lots of sites…

Prioritised + How to approach

Go engage!

Links via Online PR

BBC Internet Blog

Multilingual Search Community

BazaarVoice Blog

Internetworldstats.com

Facebook

Links via Answering Questions

Yahoo! Answers

LinkedIn Answers

WikiAnswers

Wikipedia

Links via Profiles / ‘Channels’

YouTube Channel

Twitter Channel

Slideshare Channel

Dailymotion

Veoh

Links via Bookmarking / Tagging

Digg

Del.icio.us

Was it worth it?

Scores on the doors…

Cost Search Agency £3,000 Data / Tools Free (-ish) Internal Time 5 days worth of time Call it £10,000

Search Agency

£3,000

Data / Tools

Free (-ish)

Internal Time

5 days worth of time

Referred visits in last 6 weeks Stumbleupon 1,369 LinkedIn 669 Wikepedia 547 Del.icio.us 276 Twitter 106

Stumbleupon

Views = 1,746 No. referred visits = 5

No. referred visits = 77

Total no. ‘social media’ referred visits = 18,000

Value = 18,000 X 62p = £11.16k…

SEO impact?

Google Natural Search Referrals

Total no. incremental visits for SEO improvement = 72,000

Value = 72,000 X 62p = £44.64k…

ROI = (£11.16K + £44.64k) / £10k = 558%

BUT… (there’s always a but)

How many of these links came from this campaign ?

Do we really know the Google improvements came about from this campaign ?

(but some visits are more valuable than others) less

We assumed Average commerce value per visit = 50p

So how much did we actually sell?

£112k sold online in the period

‘ Social media’ referred sales… £2.4k (2.1% of sales)

And EVERY SINGLE ONE of those... ALSO searched Google on us before buying

Other Benefits Built PR contacts db Found high-performing new affiliates Found new partners (e.g. for contras, co-registration etc.)

Built PR contacts db

Found high-performing new affiliates

Found new partners (e.g. for contras, co-registration etc.)

Other Benefits Built influence / credibility

Built influence / credibility

Conclusion Worth it but Quite a bit of work Value in tangential areas Good-ish for traffic; less good for sales Indirect traffic via search bigger than direct traffic (and higher value) But mostly…

Worth it but

Quite a bit of work

Value in tangential areas

Good-ish for traffic; less good for sales

Indirect traffic via search bigger than direct traffic (and higher value)

But mostly…

Questions? E-consultancy Resources: Online Measurement and Strategy Report 2008 (with Lynchpin) http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/online-measurement-and-strategy-report-2008/ Web Analytics Buyer’s Guide http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/web-analytics-buyers-guide-2007/ Web Analytics Request for Proposal Template http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/web-analytics-rfp-request-for-proposal/ Web Analytics Business Case http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/web-analytics-business-case Measurement, Analytics and Optimisation Briefing http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/analytics-measurement-optimisation-briefing-march-2008/

Online Measurement and Strategy Report 2008 (with Lynchpin)

http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/online-measurement-and-strategy-report-2008/

Web Analytics Buyer’s Guide

http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/web-analytics-buyers-guide-2007/

Web Analytics Request for Proposal Template

http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/web-analytics-rfp-request-for-proposal/

Web Analytics Business Case

http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/web-analytics-business-case

Measurement, Analytics and Optimisation Briefing

http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/analytics-measurement-optimisation-briefing-march-2008/