The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media

Chapter 18. Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Social Media Marketing Plan

A report released in March 2009 by the Aberdeen Group^[115] stated that 68 percent of what it terms "best-in-class" companies planned to increase their spending on social media. The report also revealed, somewhat paradoxically, that "the investment in social media marketing is not always easy to justify in terms of financial outcomes." In fact, over half of all companies indicated that it was "either somewhat difficult (39 percent) or very difficult (20 percent) to make the business case for investing in social media marketing initiatives," said the report.

Though certainly in its nascent stages, social media marketing is still marketing, and is therefore, subject to statistical scrutiny. This chapter presents an attempt to close the loop on your three-step social media marketing action plan by providing some insight into how social media can be measured.

HOW SOCIAL MARKETING MEASUREMENT DIFFERS FROM OTHER FORMS OF ONLINE MEASUREMENT

Social media measurement is about return on investment, certainly. If it doesn't affect that metric, its usefulness, at least in the eyes of the CEO or small business owner, is marginal. The CEO has to answer to the board and the small businessperson simply does not have time to fool with things that have no bearing on profits and losses. While I hope that the many case studies and ...