This document discusses measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing. It notes that 47% of marketers say the effectiveness of social media is still unclear. While many report metrics like increased followers or interactions, there is no established way to accurately measure social media's impact. The document recommends identifying clear business objectives, measuring awareness metrics initially, then tracking how awareness leads to actions like referrals using campaign codes. It also suggests using awareness data to refine strategies, setting SMART goals, and calculating a value for meaningful user actions to benchmark performance over time. In the end, social media requires investment to fully realize its strategic insights and potential.

1. Measurable Results
for Social Media
Do they really exist?

2. 47%
Not able to measure
“Jury is still out” on their investment
Econsultancy, Nov 2010

4. Results we’re reporting
• We increased our Twitter followers from 200 to 2,000!
• We increased our post-to-comment ratio 25%
• We had 600 referrals to our website last month
• We had 950 interactions this week: likes, comments and wall
posts
• We now have more than 10,000 friends on FourSquare

6. There’s no established way to
measure the effectiveness of
social media
37% of brand marketers
28% of ad agencies
Social media is not a proven/
tested strategy
19% of brand marketers
31% of ad agencies

7. Where to start
• Identify clear business objectives for each of your social
media engagements/tactics
• Start by measuring and reporting awareness
• Report how awareness turns into action
• Use awareness to take more action
• Measure and report on action and actual spending (if goal)

8. The social game
Why do you invest resources in social media?
What channels are you using to accomplish that goal?
Who is listening to your message? Who acts on your message?
How will you measure and report success?

9. Identify your objectives
• Travel to/within a destination
• Event attendance
• Room nights
• Change/reinforce brand perception
• Member/product awareness
• Generate leads
• Meet visitor expectations
• Community engagement/pride
• Industry/tourism engagement

10. Measure and report on awareness
Popular awareness metrics
1. Potential reach
2. Subscribers to content
3. Sentiment
4. Resonance
5. Mentions per time period
6. Inbound links
7. Share of conversation

11. Measure and report on awareness
Popular awareness monitoring and reporting tools
1. Facebook Insights
2. Swix
3. Raven
4. Twazzup
5. TwitterCounter
6. ScoutLabs
7. TweetStats
8. TweetReach
9. HootSuite
10. Social Mention

12. Where to start
• Identify clear business objectives for each of your social
media engagements/tactics
• Start by measuring and reporting awareness
• Report how awareness turns into action
• Use awareness to take more action
• Measure and report on action and actual spending (if goal)

13. Report awareness to action
Inbound Links
REFERRALS

14. Report awareness to action
The challenge with referrals
• Only counts referrals from open web pages
• Doesn’t track mobile applications like HootSuite or Adium
• No tracking beyond initial referral

15. Report awareness to action
Campaign codes
• Track source AND action on the website
• Time on site
• Pages viewed
• Goal conversion
• Cost per conversion
• Allow you to measure conversion of social media channels
and other marketing efforts
Campaign codes: Your ROI unicorn!

16. Awareness: Inbound Links
Campaign codes

17. www.mywebsite.com/campaign1
http://www.mywebsite.com/campaign1?
utm_source=TwitterEvent01
URL Shortener: http://bit/ly/cIUCI3
1. Create a tracking code
2. Use a url shortener
Web Address of Campaign Landing Page:
Web Address with Tracking Code:
Report awareness to action

18. Report awareness to action

20. Where to start
• Identify clear business objectives for each of your social
media engagements/tactics
• Start by measuring and reporting awareness
• Report how awareness turns into action
• Use awareness to take more action
• Measure and report on action and actual spending (if goal)

21. Use awareness to take action
Share of voice
22%
28%
25%
25%
New England
Vermont
New Hampshire
Maine
Massachusetts

22. Use awareness to take action
Share of conversation
36%
21%
33%
10%
New England: Fall Foliage
Vermont
New Hampshire
Maine
Massachusetts

23. Use awareness to take action
Set SMART campaign goals
• Specific
• Measurable
• Agreed upon
• Relevant
• Time-based

24. Where to start
• Identify clear business objectives for each of your social
media engagements/tactics
• Start by measuring and reporting awareness
• Report how awareness turns into action
• Use awareness to take more action
• Measure and report on action and actual spending (if goal)

25. Measure and report on action
Value Events (Audience, SITs) - Scoring
Estimate: actual, surrogate, research
Mentions: ½ point (or $X)
Tweet: 1 point
New Fan/Follower: 2 points
Repost/Re-Tweet: 4 points
Landing Page/Website View: 5 points
SIT: Email Subscriber: 7 points
SIT: Conversion/Booking: 10 points Specific
Measurable
Agreed upon
Relevant
Time-based

26. Measure and report on action
Calculate the number of meaningful actions and multiply them
by a weighted value or typical monthly cost to generate a
value of each campaign
Benchmark improved performance over time
Test to beat control/other campaigns

27. • Conversion Study – intercept survey & follow up
• Defines actual travel & influence of social media
• Validated & values Signals of Intent to Travel
• Travel generated: $99,404 Cost: $20,000
• ROI of Social Media Program: 4.97:1
Measure and report on action
Social Media Conversion Study

28. Measure and report on action
Hoot Suite
• New paid version includes integration w/ Facebook Insights & Google Analytics
Social Mention
• Free, 80 channels monitored, daily alerts, four categories of brand awareness
(strength, sentiment, passion, reach)
Radian6
• Monitoring and detailed analytics; works with a variety of channels; integrated with
WebTrends and Omniture
BuzzLogic
• Monitors where the conversation is taking place; reports conversation size and share
of conversation; blog-focused
Sysomos
• Collection, analysis and stellar reporting; conversations are their expertise
Trendrr
• Dashboards allow multiple search tags for your “brand,” sort by location, gender,
influence and sentiment; works with location-based channels

29. Measure and report on action
Hoot Suite All in one; integrates with some analytics
Social Mention Free; easy to use
Radian6 Integrates with analytics; great dashboard feature
Buzz Logic Best for blogger engagement and advertising
Sysomos Best for strategy: trends and conversations; reporting
Trendrr Best for engagement (listen, measure, respond)

30. Is social media worth it?
Monitoring and measuring is easy and cheap
Monitoring and measuring is not strategy and action
Social media delivers the best strategic insight, but requires an
investment of resources to maximize its potential

31. Questions?
Karin Mast, Publisher karin.mast@milesmedia.com @MilesMedia