Can Social Media Be Accountable?

Social media has fast become an integral part of digital marketing activities, as the focus in marketing shifts away from traditional outbound strategies.
Many businesses understand why they should be present on social networks, however what remains challenging is to quantify exactly what is to be gained from this investment.
A recent survey of Chief Marketing Officers found that 49% of respondents were unable to quantify the impact of social media on their business, and 66% said boards were increasing the pressure to measure ROI. So can social media be as accountable as any other business functions? We think it can, but it all depends on what you want to achieve.

First: Define Your Goals

Firstly, you will need to clarify the goals of your social marketing strategy; this will help you decide which metrics are important. It is tempting to interpret an increase in Facebook ‘likes’ as success or get excited by retweets, but are they contributing to your bottom line? And is this what matters to you?

The most common goals of a social media presence are:

To drive visitors to your site.
To increase your brand’s awareness.
Gain influential followers who will spread the word about your services.
Engage with customers on their preferred networks.
Improved ranking of your website in organic search results, leading to more traffic.

Social impact is now an important factor in search engine algorithms with organic backlinks helping you rank better in search engine results pages.

Leads and Conversions

You can use the free Google Analytics tools to track conversions from social networks. You will first need to set up some goals. If you need something that is easier to use, and produces ready-to-use formatted reports you might consider paying for services such as SproutSocial, a cross-platform engagement and ROI service that offers presentation-ready analytics reports.

Whichever of these tools you use, you should check your analytics data frequently. Doing so will allow you to develop a feel for the kind of content that drives conversions on your website, and which types of promotions are worth investing time in.

Social Media and SEO

Digital marketers are turning to social media as an alternative to organic traffic, as the evolution of Google’s algorithms impacts on traditional SEO tactics. However, Google, and probably other search engines, are using social impact as an important ranking signal. If your website has many Facebook likes, is tweeted about, or shared on Google+, the search engine concludes that it is probably high quality, and it is likely to rank well.

Natural backlinks are still a major factor in ranking, and ones obtained through social networks are particularly valuable. Track the number of backlinks to your web pages, and the diversity of domains linking to you from your Google Webmasters Tools account. Google Analytics allows you to monitor how much organic search traffic you are getting. You already monitor how you rank for your keywords, so you will be able to see whether your rank improves after the implementation of a new social media strategy.

Brand Awareness

A crucial pillar of social media is the relationship you are building with your customers. The connected customer is more discerning and empowered than ever before, using social channels to connect with brands and businesses they like with a high expectation of engagement - research shows that 42% of consumers complaining on social media expect a response within 60 minutes (Source).

Superficially this is a very easy metric to obtain, since social media sites readily provide you with data about the number of followers, likes and retweets. There are a number of tools available on specific networks, for instance Facebook Insights or Pinterest Web Analytics, that provide reports on the impact of your content on these platforms. You could also consider a social media dashboard system like HootSuite or Buffer to track these indicators across multiple networks and accounts.

Beyond Revenues...

We’ve outlined a mix of metrics and associated tools that can help you measure certain results of social media but thinking on the subject is still emerging.

A report published by Business Insider recently highlighted the trend for social media reporting moving away from strictly financial indicators to audience-building, brand awareness, and customer relations results. Notably, the report found that between 2010 and 2013, the percentage of marketers using a revenue-per-customer metric on social media went from 17% to 9%.

An interesting blog post from Distilled takes this a step further and offers a more fundamental explanation of the difficulty of measuring social activity using traditional revenue metrics – social networks are simply not revenue generation channels and should be viewed as a means to communicate with customers, raise your profile and manage your digital reputation.

Measuring Success - Your Way

So is social media accountable? It can be more difficult to attribute a traditional ROI model to social activities but when it comes to monitoring brand perception and customer engagement, there are some great services to help you track social media referrals to your site, measure audience engagement and reach and monitor your digital reputation.