It’s all too easy to get lost in the volume of metrics and Big Data that comes with having a social media presence. Social media can be an effective direct marketing platform, but only when you’re measuring the right metrics and focused on the right objectives. Many marketers routinely measure Facebook followers, retweets and other popular social media data, but there are other metrics that are even more important that many people ignore altogether. This presentation shows how you can use data to improve your social media marketing efforts. Presented at the 20th annual Advanced Integrated Marketing Symposium hosted by the Detroit chapter of the Direct Marketing Association.

1. How To Use Metrics To Improve
Your Social Media Marketing
Presented to:
Direct Marketing Association of Detroit
AIMS 2016
Prepared by:
Chad Wiebesick
Director of Social Media and Interactive Marketing
Twitter: @Wiebesick
April 13, 2016

2. Does Social Media Work?
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

3. Measurement can overwhelm.
Don’t measure every social media
metric you can.
• Define your goals
– Once you know how social media marketing fits into your
business’s overall objectives, you can work out what results
you’re looking for. This gets you one step closer to choosing
useful metrics to measure.
• Choose a good metric
– The difference between a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ metric really
comes down to how useful it is to you. If you pick a metric
that is hard to understand, or one that seems disconnected
from the goals you’ve chosen, this can make it difficult to take
action on the results you get.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

4. Use tools, but focus on the results
you’re aiming for and not the tools.
• Free
– Simply Measured
– Hootsuite
– Tweet Reach
• Paid
– Radian6
– Sprout Social
– Digital Roots
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

5. @Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

6. Align Your Social Strategy
To Your Business Objectives
Pure Michigan is majestic, mythic and magical – a place with
abundant natural beauty and authentic destinations.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

7. Pure Michigan Ranks Among Top 10 Travel
Destinations Worldwide for Its Social Media
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

8. Pure Michigan’s Social
Engagement Ranks #1
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

9. Move beyond ‘likes’ and ‘follows’
to look at real business metrics.
Our social media ROI is tied to business metrics:
•Social media makes a “head in bed” more likely. 95% of
fans of the Pure Michigan Facebook page say they’re likely to
visit Michigan in the next 6 months. The main Michigan.org
website does well too (90% of visitors to it say they’re likely to
visit Michigan in the next 6 months) but a social platform does
even better.
•Social media creates more informed visitors. 70% of fans
say that Facebook posts have made them aware of places to
go or things to do that they did not know existed in Michigan.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS Source: Foresee survey of Pure Michigan social media community

10. Does Pure Michigan Work?
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

11. @Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

12. @Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

13. @Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

14. Pure Michigan Results
• The state made $6.87 for each dollar spent on Pure
Michigan advertising in 2014
• $12.4 million in out-of-state advertising
• Motivated 4.1 million trips to Michigan
• 2.2 million from the region (IL, IN, OH, WI, MO, Ontario)
• 1.9 million from outside the region
• Those visitors spent $1.2 billion at Michigan businesses
• Those visitors paid $85.4 million in Michigan sales tax
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

15. Michigan Hotel Data 2014
• Occupancy: 58.9%-Up 2.3%
• Average Daily Rate (ADR): $91.72-Up 5.1%
• Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR): $54.00-Up 7.5%
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

16. 3 Common Business Objectives
and The Social Metrics To Look At
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

17. Goal #1: Sales and Lead Generation
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

18. Goal #1: Sales and Lead Generation
Social media metric to measure: Traffic from social media to
your website.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

19. Facebook is Top 10 source of
traffic to michigan.org, but it wasn’t
always that way.
• Out of 3,000 sources of traffic to michigan.org, Facebook
is among the Top 10.
• In every post we include a link back to a key page on
michigan.org that highlights the city or activity in the post.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

20. One simple thing we did increased
our social traffic by 183%. Here’s how.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

21. Most Popular Blog Story in 2014
This blog story received four
times more traffic than the
homepage of michigan.org.
Michigan.org had its biggest
one-day spike in traffic in three
months.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

22. Story Went Viral On Social Media
• 48% of traffic is “direct” vs 33% of traffic is “social”
• Really? It can’t be direct traffic because the story is too
new for people to bookmark, and the URL too long for
people to remember.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

23. Google Is Under Reporting
Facebook Traffic by 40%
By default, Google erroneously and automatically attributes
traffic from mobile apps like Facebook and Twitter as being
“direct”.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

24. Use Google Analytics URL Builder
To Track Social Traffic
Create unique tracking
URL’s to properly credit
social media mobile app
traffic arriving at your
website.
http://www.michigan.org
Becomes
http://www.michigan.org?utm_source=f
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

25. TIP: Use Vanity URL Shortener to
Reinforce Your Brand
This
http
://www.michigan.org?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&ut
Becomes
http://www.puremi.ch/1kLHW4U
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

26. Now, Our Social Traffic
Is Properly Attributed
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

27. If you use social media to sell,
remember to follow the 80-20 rule.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

28. And be timely. This tweet went over
about as well as you'd expect.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

29. Really?! Kenneth Cole jokes about
tragic international event to sell
shoes again.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

30. And another example
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

31. Epicurious sends individual apologies, though half-
hearted copy-and-pasting is disingenuous.@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

32. Lesson Learned: Don’t make light
of serious situations to sell your
products or services. If you make
a mistake, apologize authentically,
not as lip service.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

33. Goal #2: Generate Awareness
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

34. Goal #2: Generate Awareness
Social media metric to measure: Follower growth, brand
mentions.
• Within 15 minutes of
Super Bowl 2013
grinding to a halt
because the lights went
out, Oreo sent this tweet.
• Generated 15,000
retweets and 8,000 new
Twitter followers.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

35. “Here’s how by reacting quickly to
an obscure tweet, Pure Michigan
generated $17 million in PR buzz.”
@Wiebesick

36. Dec 6, 11:49 am
@Wiebesick

37. TravelWisconsin.com
@Wiebesick

38. Dec 6, 2:45 pm
@Wiebesick

39. Dec 6, 7:17 pm
@Wiebesick

40. What, If Anything, Do We Do?
• 1 tweet
• 11 retweets
• 1 story in Kalamazoo Gazette
@Wiebesick

41. Dec 7, 11:45 am
WhoIsTheRealMittenState.com
@Wiebesick

42. @Wiebesick

43. @Wiebesick

44. Dec 7, 4:43 pm
Statewide News
@Wiebesick

45. Dec 7, 7:23 pm
Wisconsin Releases Another Mitten
Travel Wisconsin put up a new version of the mitten in the green and
gold of the Green Bay Packers, boasting the football team's unbeaten
record and ribbing their rivals, the 7-5 Detroit Lions.
@Wiebesick

46. “Is Michigan or Wisconsin the Mitten State?”
Google AdWords
@Wiebesick

47. Dec 7, 10:20 pm
National News
@Wiebesick

48. Dec 8, 9:03 am
@Wiebesick

49. Dec 8, 9:46 am
@Wiebesick

50. @Wiebesick

51. @Wiebesick

52. Dec 13
@Wiebesick

53. The Mitten Drive Prompted
More Conversations
@Wiebesick

54. Dec 14, 2:20 International News
@Wiebesick

55. Results
• Over 300 news stories from state, national and international
radio, newspaper and TV
• 396 million media impressions
• $17.7 million in earned media value
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

56. Cost to Promote
• ZERO costs other than staff time
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

57. Winner of U.S. Travel Association
Mercury Award
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

58. “It’s quality, not mere quantity of
fans that’s important.”
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

59. New York State Has The Largest
Number of Facebook Fans
• Yet, only 0.9% of their fans are talking about the page.
• The most popular age group are 13-17 year old teenagers.
• Most of their fans live in New York City.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

60. State of Florida Has Far Fewer
Fans, But More Engaged
• Average age of fans are 35-54, a demographic more likely
to have budget to travel.
• Most fans live in out-of-state, a more lucrative traveler.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

61. Another Reason to Not Focus on
Number of Fans
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

62. Goal #3: Customer Engagement
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

63. • Social media metrics to measure: likes, shares, comments,
retweets.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

64. Be careful how you try to engage.
The Internet is littered with brand
fails on social media.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

65. What does this tweet mean?
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

66. He’s probably the first person fired
for poor emoji use.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

67. Lesson learned: In the heat of a
moment, take time to think how
others might view your tweet.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

68. Know your audience when
seeking engagement.
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

69. What Single Post Caused People To Unlike
the Pure Michigan Facebook Page?
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

70. What Should We Do?
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

71. Let Your Advocates Support You
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS

72. Thank You!
Chad Wiebesick
Director of Social Media and Interactive Marketing
Email: wiebesickc@michigan.org
Twitter: @Wiebesick
@Wiebesick #DMADAIMS