Tag Archive for: social equity

Social Equity: How Google+ Adds Value to Your Business

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Many people do not believe in the power of Google+, but when it comes to Social Equity, the network cannot be ignored.

social equity google plus google+With regards to Google+, a great degree of the power of the network is derived from the reality that Google+ is owned by Google. Anything with the Google backing is automatically worth your consideration, and there is an inherent element of Social Equity added to your business because of it. But to simply say that the Social Equity of Google+ is derived from the fact that it is operated by Google is superficial and, more importantly, a misstatement.

In this Social Equity segment, we aim to define where the value of Google+ lies, and how businesses can profit from a presence on Google’s social network.

The Power of Google

As noted above, to simply state that Google+ matters because of Google is both true and false. It is the favouritism that Google will undoubtedly show signals coming from it’s own network over others that marketers need to be conscious of.

In last week’s Social Equity segment, we discussed the value added to your business from a linkage of SEO and social media. Google+ plays a major role from this perspective due to the fact that +1s on Google+ automatically register to the network as social signal backlinks. That’s a powerful feature. The fact that activity on Google+ can increase your search rankings means an inherent degree of Social Equity. But where Google+ truly stands out is in its Communities.

social equity google plus communitiesGoogle+ Communities

One of the main criticisms of businesses when it comes to Facebook has to do with the EdgeRank system. Effectively, the EdgeRank system is a complex filtration algorithm that prevents “unwanted” content from appearing in your timeline. Why does “unwanted” have quotes around it? Well, the EdgeRank system determines, based on engagement rates and other factors, what that content is; not you. So essentially, a page may publish a piece of content that you might be interested in, but because of the EdgeRank system, it may not show up on your timeline and the company might lose out on a prospective customer. Bad for business.

With Google+ Communities, there is no risk of this happening. When people join these communities, it is because they all share a common interest. Thus, it is assumed that everyone wants to see all of the content being posted to a group’s feed. So where is the Social Equity? Every bit of content you post to Google+ is seen by those who have shown interest in said content, whether that interest is by joining a community or following your page.

An unlimited potential for exposure means that you can constantly be targeting individuals who have come to you. Google+ is a pseudo-inbound marketing funnel. Considering inbound marketing is 62% more efficient than traditional marketing, it is no wonder there is value added to your business from a presence on Google+.

Despite the wealth of criticism Google+ is subjected to, it endures. The fact of the matter is, with the backing of Google and highly valuable abilities when it comes to social media for business, there is a degree of Social Equity involved with Google+ that no other network offers.

How do you find value added to your business as a result of Google+ marketing? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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Social Media: Week-in-Review, April 6, 2013

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In case you missed some of the topics we covered this week, here is the social media week-in-review!

Pinterest Marketing: Need-toKnow Updates [INFOGRAPHIC]social media pinterest

With the recent Pinterest updates, there is quite a bit social marketers need to be aware of. This infographic does an excellent job of outlining what new features exist, what features have been removed from the photo-sharing network, and how marketers should adapt to these changes.

Social Media SEO: The New Backlink Strategy

When it comes to SEO, social media is of ever-growing importance. Link-building has long been one of the foundational pillars of successful SEO, and with a proper social strategy in place, you can take your link-building to the next level.

10 Free Social Media Monitoring Tools

Success in social marketing is all about having an effective strategy in place, but tools can be a great compliment to your program. These 10 free social media monitoring tools can help you maxiomize your efforts in social marketing, and expand your reach considerably.

social media youtubeSocial Media Case Study: Gillette

In 2010, with the World Cup right around the corner, Gillette wanted to attract a new customer base in Italy – males under the age of 25. They knew that social was important, and aimed to expand their presence in this new market using YouTube. The results were outstanding and we highlight some of the key lessons for marketers in this week’s social media case study.

Social Equity: Social Media and SEO

Linking your social media strategy to your SEO efforts can have dramatic effect when it comes to Social Equity. In this week’s Social Equity segment, we look at the value added to your business as a result of having highly correlated social media and SEO strategies.

Have a look through some of these great articles and enjoy your weekend!

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Social Equity: Social Media and SEO

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Social Equity stands to increase significantly as a result of the benefits social media has with regards to SEO.

social equity social media seo

The secrecy surrounding search engine algorithms has resulted in a great deal of conjecture when it comes to social media factoring into SEO. That said, allusions made by executives, such as Matt Cutts at Google, have led to inferences that social media is a major factor when it comes to optimizing your content for search engines. As a result, your brand’s Social Equity stands to benefit greatly due to the fact that SEO is still one of the most successful means of getting found.

In today’s Social Equity segment, we aim to show where Social Equity is derived from the incorporating of social media into your SEO.

Where Are the SEO Benefits from Social Media?

In order to understand how an intertwining of social media and SEO add value to your business, it is first crucial to understand where SEO stands to benefit as a result of social signals.

social media seo social signals

The chart on the left was derived from research conducted by Searchmetrics. What the data shows is how heavily social signals (data from activity on social media channels) weigh into rankings on search engines. (For the graph on the left, rankings in the U.S.) Last year, traditional link-building, one of the cornerstones of conventional SEO, had been surpassed by Facebook shares.

Essentially, social signals and sharing register with search engines as links (if, of course, what is being shared contains a link to your content or a landing page). Thus, as the popularity of social media continues to grow, the importance of factoring SEO into your social strategy grows with it.

This is where Social Equity comes into the mix.

Social Equity Derived from Social Media and SEO

A properly formulated SEO strategy that incorporates your social media will result in a tremendous value added with regards to Social Equity. This holds true for two reasons.

First, traditional SEO is an ongoing process that requires numerous man hours and ongoing expenses. With social media factoring as heavily as it does into the equation, you stand to save quite a bit of resources when it comes to your investment in SEO. Considering the strength of social sharing, the link-building process is both faster and collaborative. So there is a two-fold benefit here: both your audience and your search rankings are being built up as you invest in your social media strategy.

Second, for many verticals, SEO is still a major focus when it comes to determining market share. In fact, a study conducted by Optify showed that the top result on Google receive over 35% of clicks from a search. Social media activity allows you to rise through the Google ranks, and when you stand a chance to generate more than a third of all traffic for a given keyword (or better yet, multiple keywords) the value of your website and business as a whole stands to rise.

Traditional SEO is still of great importance to your business’s value. But when it comes to Social Equity and the value added to your business as a result of social activity, it is essential that you incorporate social media into your SEO strategy. Your shareholders will thank you.

Have you seen your search rankings rise since beginning your social media program? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

Social Equity: The Power of Pinterest

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Social Equity benefits from the hidden power of Pinterest.

One of the jewels of social media is Pinterest. Since its launch a few years ago, Pinterest has been an unstoppable juggernaut in the realm of social media, and the Social Equity your business can derive from Pinterest is as impressive as it is unique.social equity pinterest

Pinterest is not necessarily for every vertical, and it is important to understand that. While a presence on Pinterest can never hurt, it is not necessarily going to be your top generator of Social Equity if you do not meet the proper criteria – namely, that you are in a visual industry. Furthermore, if your business model is not necessarily apt for Pinterest (your average accountant may not be generating much revenue, Social Equity or referral traffic from Pinterest) you might be devoting precious resources to maintaining your account, when they should be focused on other social networks. Having said that, if you put together a social media strategy and recognize the potential for your business on Pinterest, the Social Equity you generate will be among the greatest of any of the networks we have discussed so far.

First, we should understand what makes Pinterest such a powerful tool when it comes to business.

The Business Potential for Pinterest

About a year ago, Shareaholic released a study that found something incredible: Pinterest was a greater generator of referral traffic than Twitter. Twitter. A month prior to that, it was discovered that Pinterest surpassed Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined for referral traffic. Since then, the social network has only grown in power, and with their recently launched Analytics feature, it is no wonder that we are discussing the Social Equity of Pinterest. Now Pinterest, too, recognizes the value it adds to business.

With the newly launched analytics and insights feature for your Pinterest account, you can monitor exactly how your audience is interacting with your pins and the images on your site. Though it is still somewhat new and in its infancy, this feature can mean big things for the future of Pinterest for business.

Other Important (Often Overlooked) Features

People tend to overlook a lot of the important features in the backend of Pinterest when it comes to generating referral traffic and building Social Equity. First, one should note that pins themselves do not register with crawlers to help with your search rankings, but your boards do, so optimize them.

Second, add links and meta descriptions to your images, because if those are shared outside of Pinterest, all the better for your exposure. And if someone clicks on the image within Pinterest, they are headed right to your site.

Third and finally, by simply adding a price to your pin’s description, you can add a price to the top corner of your image and create a pseudo-catalog (for minimal cost compared to traditional print) and share it with your followers, updating it regularly.

Now if you apply these simple measures, you can start to understand the Social Equity derived from a Pinterest presence.

Social Equity of Pinterest

Captivating images are a great way to build a following. People do not necessarily like text, but they love visual explanations. Just look at the jump in the use of infographics to simplify complex, often dull bits of content.

Pinterest can be a tool to develop a social image for your brand outside of your corporate image. Social Equity is as much about the likeability of your brand as it is the direct value added to your business as a result of social activity. Pinterest is an avenue through which you can make yourself very likeable, very quickly.

pinterest catalog social equityFurthermore, on the advertising end of things, Pinterest can, as noted above, provide your brand with a cost effective means of showcasing new products, providing links to an e-commerce store whereby those who like your product can purchase it and, more importantly, save you a tremendous amount of expense when it comes to printing new catalogs. Of course, a business with a physical location would likely do both, but for those who cannot come to your store, imagine the added value of having a virtual version of your catalog that not only features prices and availability, but links directly to the item in your virtual store.

In our social media case study about Burt’s Bees posted yesterday, we noted the increase in online sales Burt’s Bees experienced as a result of simplifying the buying process for their Facebook fans. (You can read the full article here.) Pinterest allows you to do the same thing, and a simple purchasing process with few or no hurdles means more customers and faster conversions.

Pinterest is a constantly and very quickly evolving tool. But with each step Pinterest takes, the Social Equity it stands to generate for your business goes a step further as well. Furthermore, because of its youth, there is still so much that has yet to be tried when it comes to Pinterest campaigns and promotions, and when it is something visual, it is often something intriguing. First to the social media market typically means biggest gains, and that goes both for financial and Social Equity gains.

Where have you found the value added to your business from Pinterest? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

t2social social medis marketing strategies

Social Media Case Study: Burt’s Bees

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Social media selling is all about engaging with your audience, and Burt’s Bees has managed to build an engaged Facebook audience of 1 million fans and convert quite a few of them into paying customers.

social media case study burt's beesFacebook was one of the first social networks that businesses sought to take advantage of. As a result, Facebook adapted and created pages. Burt’s Bees, the notable personal care product line, saw Facebook as the perfect medium in which to engage with their audience, and the result has been a growing, highly engaged audience that converts to paying customers.

How did they do it? Burt’s Bees uses Facebook as a place to not only build an audience and share great content, but promote their products in a fun, engaging way that does not turn people away from the brand, and actually converts them into customers.

Selling on social media is a tricky grey area. People do not necessarily want to be bombarded with promotional content, but at the same time, many people follow a brand because they either use it, their friends use it or they want to keep up to date with specials and promotional offers. Burt’s Bees recognized this fact and modeled their Facebook marketing and sales strategy accordingly. In this social media case study, we aim to showcase the lessons social media marketers can extract from the Burt’s Bees brand in order to build an engaged audience on Facebook and convert that audience into paying customers.

1. ‘New’ is Intriguing

People are often curious about new products. There’s a certain mysterious quality about ‘new’ that tends to intrigue people. Burt’s Bees saw this and capitalized on it when it came to Facebook. One of the most prominent features of the Burt’s Bees Facebook page is their promotion of new products in fun and engaging ways. For example, one of the main ingredients differentiating their products is Cupuaçu. Nothing special about that. But when they wanted to emphasize the benefits of the new product, they took to social media to promote it by creating a video wherein they interviewed New Yorkers, asking them to try and pronounce the word.

The video is short, funny and the word stays on your mind. And there is little more than a branded sign off at the end. However, Melissa Sowry, Social Media and Content Manager at Burt’s Bees stated, “Through Facebook, we can introduce new products more interactively than in print or banner ads…and provide a space where [our consumers] can connect with one another.” So, what is this new product? People might like the word and the video, but they were starting conversations to find out more.

Lesson: Find a creative way to introduce new products and your audience will engage with your brand to find out more.

social media selling2. Social Media Selling

Burt’s Bees has integrated “Buy Now” buttons into their content and features coupons for Facebook fans. The result? Dramatically increased sales through social media.

Unlike many brands that may feature a product and a link to a store, Burt’s Bees allows users to click through to an e-commerce site from a product post that already has the product in a shopping cart. This may take a little customization on the part of the Facebook page and app designer, but any hurdles (e.g. clicking to the store, finding the product, adding to the cart, checking out, etc.) you can eliminate from the buying process means higher conversions.

Lesson: Help facilitate the buying process for your fans and you will see your conversions skyrocket.

3. Engaging and Influential Content

In addition to fun content like the video post above, one of the cornerstones of Burt’s Bees success on Facebook has come from their ability to engage with their fans in conversations. In an interview with eMarketer, Sowry said, “We also create opportunities for consumer education around skin care, for example, and sampling offers. We ran successful sampling programs on Facebook for our relaunched body lotions and new tinted lip balm.” Furthermore, the brand also asks questions and directly responds to user comments.

An active Facebook page is one thing, but to be engaging directly with your social media audience (particularly when that audience is nearly 1.5 million people large) will mean a returning audience, and that makes the social media sales process that much simpler.

Lesson: Engage with your audience and your products will sell themselves on social media.

4. Educate Your Audience

Burt’s Bees has increased their conversions on Facebook through education. By educating their fans on products and informing them as to which product best suits their needs and why, people want to buy from Bert’s Bees, and they don’t need to do too much research on their own.

The easier it is for a lead to learn about your product, compare it to the competition and ultimately make the decision, the higher the likelihood that you will see social media conversions when it comes to sales.

Lesson: Social media selling should be more about teaching people why your product is the best as opposed to simply telling them.social media selling 2

Burt’s Bees is one of the few examples out there of brands that has mastered social selling. It is not an easy task; not by any means. People do not necessarily want to be sold, but if it is done in the right way, your fans are more than open to the idea of buying from you through social media.

With regards to social selling, Facebook has been around a long time. But people still seem to struggling when it comes to engaging with their Facebook fan base and converting those fans into dollars. Burt’s Bees is a great example of social media selling done right.

What is your Facebook strategy with regards to social selling? Have you seen positive results? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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Social Equity: The Value of YouTube

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The Social Equity of your business is increased with a presence on each social network, but there is a three-fold value added that comes from YouTube.

social equity youtubeYouTube is among the most interesting of “social networks” due to the fact that it is not. Well, not in the conventional sense, at least. YouTube is a search engine. Like Google (YouTube’s owner), Yahoo! or Bing, YouTube is a medium in which people can post content and generate traffic. Where YouTube differs, however, is in the ability for an individual or brand to engage with their audience directly on the site. That is where the social aspect of YouTube comes into play and that is one of the three key generators of Social Equity when it comes to Youtube.

Today, we aim to pinpoint where it is that we see value added to a company as a result of having a YouTube presence, and how video marketing combined with the power of YouTube stands to increase your Social Equity more so than almost any other network.

Why is YouTube Important?

To understand where the Social Equity is generated from the video-sharing portal, we need to first understand what makes YouTube crucial when it comes to online marketing. Let’s take out the social aspect for a moment and look at some facts and figures that explain the importance of YouTube.

Raw Data
  • Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
  • Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
  • 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
  • 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
  • YouTube is localized in 53 countries and across 61 languages
  • In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth
  • Millions of subscriptions happen each day.

(Data taken from YouTube Press Center Statistics)

social equity youtube 2

There are constantly eyes sifting through the content loaded to YouTube, and by properly optimizing your YouTube videos, you stand a greater chance of reaching the people looking for you on the network. Furthermore, video marketing is a growing trend as it adds an entirely new element to your business.

Giving people a chance to attach a face and voice to your brand takes social engagement a step further with regards to humanizing your brand. People like to engage with personalities, not simply corporate entities. Video marketing is a way to offer this and YouTube is the medium in which to publish it (in addition to your own corporate and personal blogs). Enter the Social Equity of YouTube.

The Three Pillars of Social Equity Derived from YouTube

As noted above, there are three features related to YouTube that generate Social Equity for your brand.

Engagement

When it comes to being social, the ability to engage with your audience on YouTube is a huge asset with regards to Social Equity. As with any social network, people are reaching out to you when they watch your videos. Whether they like it, share it, comment on it or simply watch, they are in some way engaging with your brand on YouTube.

Social Equity is derived in part from the growth of your brand. Video marketing on YouTube is a way to do that. Furthermore, the free analytics made available by YouTube (and Google) in the backend of your account are invaluable. These measure everything from engagement statistics to traffic sources. Thus, by observing and analyzing these insights, you can efficiently and quickly modify your campaigns and strategies in order to maximize the return from your YouTube marketing efforts.

youtube marketing 3

Humanization

There is a humanizing characteristic associated with a corporate video. Even if it is as simple as an introduction, a YouTube presence gives brands a face and voice that people can relate to and appreciate. In our case study about Old Spice a little while back, we noted that through engagement (primarily with videos) Old Spice was able to increase their sales by 107% very quickly. Old Spice has been known to engage with their fan base using personalized videos, making fans of all kinds feel personally connected to the brand.

Old Spice is owned by The Procter & Gamble Company, a company with 2012 revenues of nearly $84 billion. But you wouldn’t know it by the attention Old Spice’s YouTube channel gives to its fans.

Direct Revenue

social equity youtube 3There are over one million advertisers buying ad space on YouTube and guess what: you’re selling it. By creating videos that people want to see and building a following on YouTube, you increase your chances of having ads placed on your videos and money coming in as a result.

There is constantly the question of direct ROI generated from social media. If this does not answer that question then nothing will.

YouTube is a fascinating network that adds value to your company at every turn. The growing popularity of video marketing and the industry-wide focus on marketing virality are two perfect reasons why every brand should have a presence on YouTube. Your Social Equity stands to benefit tremendously as a result.

Where do you find the value added to your business as a result of Social Equity from YouTube? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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Social Equity: LinkedIn and Your Business

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Social Equity is given quite a boost with a LinkedIn presence – and not just for B2B companies.

LinkedIn is widely known as the professional social network. So, it would make sense for people to assume that it is largely for B2B companies. While it is true that LinkedIn is one of the most beneficial social networks when it comes to B2B, the Social Equity a brand can garner as a result of having a LinkedIn presence – whether it is B2B or B2C – is quite high.

Today, we aim to explain where the Social Equity of a LinkedIn presence is found, and how you can determine the value added to your business as a result of having both a personal and company page on the social network.

The Benefits of LinkedIn

social equity linkedin t2socialTo understand how we can derive Social Equity from LinkedIn, we first need to understand what the benefits of a LinkedIn presence are to our business.

As we noted above, LinkedIn is often perceived as the professional network. As such, it is an arena in which professionals actively seek out industry influencers, leaders and authority figures. Therefore, it is one of the easiest niches in which to establish yourself as an industry-leader within your market. Social networks on the more general scale, like Facebook and Twitter, are mediums in which we can establish our brand as an authority with the general public, but for any company, be it B2C or B2B, LinkedIn is the best avenue through which we can build our credibility with members of our own industry.

On the other side of the spectrum, LinkedIn is an excellent network for seeking out the advice and tips of other leaders and professionals, and applying those bits of advice to our own strategies. Though LinkedIn Answers was a great feature in which to do this before it was removed, LinkedIn Groups are still a powerful tool, and include higher engagement rates than almost any other feature on social media. Contrary to many social networks, LinkedIn is a place where professionals are seeking out the opinions and inputs of others, and the element of self-promotion (not in its purest form, but close to it) is not only accepted, but in many cases encouraged.

So, how does this all add value to your business?

Social Equity Derived from LinkedIn

Having both a personal account and an active company page on LinkedIn can generate quite a bit of Social Equity for your brand. With a well-orchestrated strategy in place, we can quickly build our authority in a given field and begin driving referrals to both our personal pages and our websites. This holds true for both types of businesses. Even as a B2C entity, we are still looking to build market authority, and LinkedIn is one way of doing that.social equity linkedin influence

Say you are a local and online retail store, for example. Now say you create a profile on LinkedIn and begin sharing short articles you write about running a successful retail location, or a successful e-commerce website. By posting to your updates (your network), your company page and your groups pages about the retail industry, you will quickly see your influence, network and, most important for building business, your LinkedIn referral traffic begin to shoot up.

It is important to understand that in any industry, people want to associate themselves with the best. Whether you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or a retail-savvy basement blogger, industry leaders and influencers receive the most attention on a network like LinkedIn, and that translates to Social Equity.

The value added of a large professional and referral network is highly coveted. Consider not only the calculated value of your business assets, but the value added of an extended network, an established industry leader at the helm of your company and your industry influence. All of this is capable through the strategic use of LinkedIn.

How are you using LinkedIn to generate Social Equity for your business? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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Twitter Marketing: Build Your Brand

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Twitter marketing has evolved considerably over the course of the last year, and it is important, as marketers, that we understand how to build our brand on Twitter.

Twitter marketing is often one of the cornerstones of a social media marketing strategy. However, if you are not optimizing your Twitter page for your brand, you are missing one of the most beneficial features of the social network.twitter marketing brand optimization

Below are a few tips to help you maximize your Twitter marketing through brand optimization on your business’s Twitter page.

Design a Cover Photo

If you click on the small widget in the top right-hand corner of your Twitter profile and go to the Profile section of your Settings, you have the ability to add a customized header (Hint: 1252px x 626px in size.) to your Twitter profile.

A cover photo and the header section are great ways to showcase your business basics with a brief description or a Call-to-Action (CTA), your location and some fun, engaging photos that give your brand a personality. One of the more important factors that contribute to Twitter marketing success is the ability for people to relate to your brand and engage with the personality you create for it. The header section and the cover photo therein are a great way to do this on Twitter.

t2mktg twitter

Add a Custom Background

A custom background, once again, is another area where you can be optimizing your Twitter marketing with a CTA. There is no shortage of step-by-step guides detailing how to design a Twitter background, or services like TwitBacks that help you create backgrounds easily, and one should definitely consider taking advantage of these options when designing a branded Twitter page.

When it comes to Twitter marketing, you want to engage with people as quickly as possible. There is a constant conversation taking place on Twitter, and if your Twitter marketing is not grabbing the attention of your audience immediately with features like the background, then you risk losing that attention very quickly.

To get an idea of what we mean, take a look at these 17 captivating Twitter accounts from HubSpot and see what an engaging Twitter marketing strategy looks like.

SEO in Twitter Marketing

twitter marketing seo

The next major step when it comes to optimizing your Twitter marketing relates to optimizing your brand page for search engines. As we have noted in past blog posts, social signals are factoring more heavily in search rankings every time the Google algorithm changes. Therefore, it is important that we optimize our brand pages for search engines.

To do so for Twitter, we need to follow a set of simple but important rules:

 

  • DO NOT SPAM!
    • We cannot stress this enough. Spamming links to your followers will not only hurt your Twitter credibility, but it will also hurt your SERPs. This also has a lot to do with your handle. Google’s algorithm disregards handles with a long set of numbers in them (e.g. John123456) as these are typically used by spammers. Make your handle short, simple and professional.
  • Add Keywords to Your Bio
    • There should be at least one keyword in your bio on Twitter, as this registers to Google when determining search rankings.
  • If You Build It, They Will Follow…And Your Rankings Will Improve
    • As your network grows, it registers with the algorithm and help your search rankings improve when it comes to your Twitter profile.
  • Consider the Potential of Retweets
    • Retweets register to Google as pseudo-backlinks, particularly when they include a link to your site or blog. So consider the length of your tweets and leave some room for your followers to comment when retweeting (100 characters is your sweet spot!).

These are just a few tips that can help you optimize your Twitter marketing strategy. Each campaign, each profile, each industry and each step is going to be unique, particularly when you factor in what your goals are when it comes to Twitter marketing. But these pointers should help you quite a bit when it comes to putting together a winning Twitter marketing strategy!

How are you optimizing your Twitter marketing strategy? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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Social Media ROI: What to Measure

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Measuring social media return on investment (ROI) is one of the biggest grey areas when it comes to this emerging market, so what is important to look at when it comes to measuring social media ROI?

Social media return on investment is constantly a point of concern for executives and skeptics when it comes to launching a social media program. The irony, however, is that many of these skeptics claim that there is no means of measuring social media ROI when the fact of the matter is that, unlike many forms of marketing, every aspect of a social media program can be monitored and measured. The complexity of social media ROI factors in when one cannot decide how one wants to measure the success of a campaign (e.g. monetization of a fan base, growth of a fan base, increase in traffic, etc.).social media roi t2social

There are several angles from which one can look at social media ROI, and what we describe below are just a few. That said, we think these are some of the best ways to measure the success of a social media program.

Social Media Cost-Benefit Analysis

In the field of Economics, a Cost-Benefit analysis is one of the most common ways of measuring the return of a program. What is important to note is that a C-B analysis looks not only at what might be gained from taking an action, but also what one stands to lose by not taking said action.

Say, for example, you calculate that an unattended social media PR crisis costs your business $10,000 in lost sales, brand tarnishing, etc., and that your brand unknowingly suffers two to three of these crises per year. That’s a calculated loss of $20,000-$30,000 every year as a direct result of not attending to your customers on social media. Now, say that you put together a social media program designed to engage with dissatisfied users and help them solve their issues on the very public sphere that is social media. The result is not only the retention of a customer, but the build up of brand loyalty through social media.

Now, it would not exactly be feasible to suggest that social media engagement in the time of crisis will mean retaining every calculated dollar lost from not engaging on social media, but if you retain half of those lost earnings ($10,000-$15,000) and you are spending $700 per month on a small, customer-oriented social media program, you are looking at a yearly return measured as follows:

social media roi 2

While this is a very black-and-white example, measuring a social media program’s ROI can be as simple as a C-B analysis.

Setting Social Media Goals

social media roi goalsOn the less technical front, you might want to consider measuring your social media success through the use of established goals that you lay out at every stage of the program. These do not necessarily have to be monetary returns. In fact, one way of measuring the success of your social program is by measuring the growth and extension of your network. Effectively, the growth of your social network translates into the growth of your pool of leads.

So when building your social media strategy, create a set of goals that you would like to achieve and measure your returns by the growth of your networks. From there, once your networks have grown to your satisfaction, you can consider this next form of social media ROI.

Return of Campaigns

You may be focused entirely on the monetization of your social media program. That’s fine. Businesses aim to be as profitable as possible, and there’s no better way to measure profit than with monetary gains. So the final and most straightforward way you can go about measuring the ROI of your social program is through the monitoring of returns from your campaigns. Be careful, however. There is something that a lot of people overlook when it comes to measuring the monetary returns from converting a client. This once again factors into a Cost-Benefit analysis.

Say you have managed to convert a lead into a client on social media. Well done! Now let’s say that this client has a lifetime value (LTV) of $120 with three $40 purchases. Then let’s say it cost you $50 to convert this client (between time, resources, expenses, etc.). You’re looking at a healthy lifetime profit of the converted client with a value of $70. Way to go! Now, let’s look at the alternative – this is where people often lose out without even realizing it.

Let’s say you spend that same $50 to convert a lead into a client on social media, but now, a client’s LTV is a one-time purchase of $40. This means that for every client you convert, you are losing $10. So the more conversions you see, the more money you lose.

It is extremely important that we measure not only how much we are making when it comes to social media, but how much we are spending. And this includes time (our most precious resource), expenses, opportunity costs, etc. If we are only measuring the returns and not the costs, we are missing the entire concept of profitability. So keep that in mind when you are measuring the success of your social campaigns.

How do you measure the ROI of your social media programs? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!Social Media Marketing Social Media Strategies

Social Equity: The Benefits of a Twitter Presence

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Social equity garnered as a result of a Twitter presence stands to add quite a bit of value to your brand.

As with any social network, Twitter adds an entirely new degree of Social Equity to your business. However, where Twitter differs with regards to the Social Equity added to a brand is the ability to use it as a broadcast medium (to a degree) which makes it unique when it comes to social networks.

There are a few statistics of note with regards to the demographics and business capabilities of Twitter. Let us first begin by examining these figures, then incorporate the numbers into our discussion of Social Equity derived from a Twitter presence.

Interesting Facts and Figuressocial equity twitter

On Twitter, American users have a higher median income than the average American population – the largest demographic with regards to income falls in the $50K-$75K range. Furthermore, more than half of the 500 million Twitter users follow a brand, company or product.

With regards to business, 79% of US-based Twitter users are more likely to recommend a brand or store they follow, and 67% of US-based users are more likely to buy from a brand or store they follow on Twitter. How does this translate? Companies using Twitter average twice as many leads per month than those that do not. This is especially true for B2C companies. Those with more than 100 followers (not a difficult goal to reach with a proper strategy in place) have 146% more leads per month because of their activity on Twitter.

Lastly, 58% of consumers following a brand on Twitter say they have praised a brand or company for a product, service or interaction.

Social Equity Derived from Twitter

As a pseudo-broadcast medium, Twitter allows brands to both engage with users and market themselves on the social network. It is for that reason that we see the numbers above. Twitter allows brands to engage with users talking about their niche, establish themselves as experts or industry leaders and drive conversions directly from the network.

Effectively, what this means is that Twitter is a realm in which brands can target leads and work to drive conversion all in one space. Granted, the main goal of Twitter should not be to market your brand. That is an added benefit of the network. The real goal should be to build your brand’s authority, which in turn will result in increased leads and conversions.

social equity twitter 2With regards to Social Equity, Twitter acts as an international platform on which to grow your brand’s reputation both on the widespread market and on an individual basis. The figures above suggest that Twitter is a medium in which people seek out industry leading brands and not only do two-thirds of these users have the potential to convert, but nearly four-fifths are going to recommend these brands to their peers.

As we noted in last week’s Social Equity segment on Facebook, true equity can be measured not only in the value added, but also in the losses incurred as a result of not having a presence on Twitter. With such a vast marketplace at your fingertips and the ability to grow your brand’s authority on both the personal and overarching levels, it seems almost counter-intuitive to not have a presence on Twitter.

Do you use Twitter to engage with your audience? How are you measuring the Social Equity derived from a Twitter presence? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!Social Media Marketing Social Media Strategies

 

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