How to calculate the ROI of Social Media Marketing?

One of the questions that comes up most often when talking about Social marketingyou understand from this Marketing on social networks, it is sacrosanct ROI in Social Media Marketing (return on investment, return on investment in French). Of course, before we jump on the social media bandwagon and pay someone to take care of it, we want an estimate of what it could bring.

Unfortunately, unlike a normal media/advertising/marketing campaign whose benefits and costs can be measured more or less directly, these are much more vague in the context of Social Marketing. What statistics will you rely on? The number of retweets, likes, +1? We know that internet users tend to like a brand’s page and then never come back to it. The consumer, in fact, will have put his «Like» during a competition, a promotional operation, and then never return to the page unless he obtains satisfactory content again.

The comments add more. They indeed testify to the engagement rate of your community, but even in this case, how to classify positive and negative comments, how to separate the wheat from the chaff, how to know if the great spontaneous engagement of the previous week is actually due to the quality of your customer experience or if it is the unfortunate result of a Bad Buzz?

It is therefore this artistic vagueness that confuses many companies, fearing that their investment will bring them nothing in terms of return on investment. We are faced with three concerns:

• Today there is no tool capable of quantifying the ROI of Social Media Marketing. We can get statistics on your community’s engagement, but what monetary value does a tweet or like have?
• The fruit of your labor on social networks takes time. Businesses generally require a quick return on investment. This is not the case on social networks. It takes time and you will start to see a quantifiable return in the medium to long term.
• Finally, social media capitalizes more on customer relationships than financial returns.

It often happens that companies create a Twitter and/or Facebook account, start posting, never see anything after a few months and, discouraged, abandon their efforts.

That’s often the mistake dissociate social media marketing from the rest of your marketing efforts ! Why separate them? It is in fact necessary to set objectives, define which social networks best meet your objectives (you will not use the same networks depending on whether you want to improve your SEO and the traffic of your website, if you try to create a community and acquire new customers or even create an attachment to your after-sales service) and then develop the communication strategies adequate (and if you need it, that’s where I come in!)

Therefore, social media is never more than an arm online of your overall strategy. Therefore, we will not calculate the ROI in Social Media Marketingbut rather the improvement of your after-sales service, your brand image, loyalty or the acquisition of new customers.

Without a strategy, don’t launch yourself on social networks, the reputation of your business is at stake…

The risks

“How can you waste even one more day without enjoying the greatest changes of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be visible?”
Seth Godin

Keep one thing in mind, whether you are present on social networks or not, this will not prevent your name from being present on the web. Do you want others to speak for you, at the risk of reporting only negative experiences?

AND Social media does not generate quantifiable ROIit still offers unparalleled visibility and contact with your customers. Knowing how consumers live their purchasing experience, knowing their tastes, possibly the periodic criticisms addressed to your offer or product, etc. All this is undeniably rich because it is a source of improvement and satisfaction if you listen to the voice of your customers.

Yes, there are risks in social marketing, as in any ill-advised attempt at communication. But there are even more risks in not being there.

Studies have proven itThe Internet today represents 30% of media time consumed. At the same time, just 8% of marketing expenses are dedicated to it … This doesn’t shock anyone?

However, I will not leave you without hope. You can quantify part of your Online Marketing if you rely on a previously established strategy.

First, with tools like Google Analytics, you can track where your website visitors are coming from. This way you can group by social networks, see which bears the most fruit, try things out and calculate the performance. Again using this tool, you can then view the path of Internet users on your site.

Short link generators, such as Bit.ly, also let you know the number of clicks for a link. By using a different shortened URL on Twitter and Facebook, you will get statistics for each of the two social networks.

You can also offer discount codes on your Twitter or Facebook account and track its usage in your online shopping statistics. You will then have an overview of the feedback from your community. But if your main concern is a quick return on investment, take a different approach and focus more on an Adwords strategy, for example.

The real advantages of Social Marketing

Remember Apple’s maxim: “ Think differently! » It’s time to take responsibility for this little phrase and think differently. Marketing on social networks puts the customer, the consumer, at the center of your relationship. It gives him a voice, a channel to express his satisfaction or disappointment.

I think it’s an interesting change and brands that don’t know how to catch it in time and continue to treat their customers as a global mass without listening to them will take a backseat. I’m not telling you to stop thinking about your turnover or reduce investment costs, it’s partly the pulse of your business.

Without stopping to calculate the ROI of Social Media Marketing, also try to imagine your presence on social networks as a domino effect : From an immediate point of view, the financial interest is not entirely evident. However, the impact in terms of image, SEO, traffic, promotion, leads, customer relationships and visibility will sooner or later have a beneficial and quantifiable effect if you integrate these efforts into your overall marketing strategy.