Ron Jones from ClickZ shares 5 ways to ensure that social media efforts are achieving measurable results. Because consumers are more likely to purchase goods or services from a brand they’ve engaged with, measuring the penetration of a brand’s social media influence can help show social media ROI — something every marketer struggles to do. Jones’ approach, while not groundbreaking, breaks down these measurement tools succinctly. He highlights several ways to measure brand awareness in the social sphere, share of voice and sentiment, influence (or ability to inspire action), brand engagement, and popularity. Marketers should identify the specific goals of their brand’s social media strategy, and choose the individual metrics that best fit those goals.
Measuring social media can be a challenge because the medium is conversational in nature. Identify those metrics that best fit your situation and integrate them into your analytics processes. As with any analytics practice, set aside a consistent amount of time to do this and stick with it. The insights you gain from this will help you drive your social media strategy to success.