The big question of social media marketing ROI
When it comes to social media marketing may it be Facebook or Twitter, there is no straightforward approach in proving ROI (Return of Investment). Unlike other forms of marketing investments, social media ROI is often hard to prove with sales and goal conversions alone.
If you are opting for such web marketing solutions such as Facebook marketing, it is important that you understand social media is about so much more.
The value of social media management can be described as multifaceted from the recognition of specific brands to reputation, customer satisfaction and trust. Social media marketing offers online business some notable benefits that can’t easily be quantified. However, there are certainly various factors that you could look into that would help assess social media ROI and come to a decision of whether the investments you’ve been making are actually worthwhile
Assessing social media marketing ROI
Indeed there are various ways to assess the value of the investment you’ve made in social media such as Facebook marketing. This includes among other things, sales – measuring and keeping track of sales prior to and after a social network marketing campaign can provide you with a clear indication of ROI. You may also want think about making use of domain tracking tools like Google Analytics to keep track of goal conversions, polling. In the case of Facebook, you can use Facebook Insights which would allow application fans to make purchases directly.
It must be made clear however, that you can miss out on several factors with this particular method. For one thing, the seasonal ups and downs experienced by online business can naturally affect ROI. Same goes for market changes, reputation management problems, technical difficulties and similar issues. Although the figures acquired from keeping track of sales are nowhere near being absolute, an assessment made over long period of time can reveal patterns that contribute to failures and success.
Reach is another benchmark that one could look into to assess the success of your social media marketing efforts. With Facebook marketing and other forms of social networking, online businesses can reach out to a large number of people at the most affordable cost.
If you compare the expenses associated with mass media and catering to a large audience in social network marketing, the latter would certainly cost you a lot less without compromising effectiveness. Thus it can certainly be one of the most cost-effective online marketing solutions you can tap into.
Last but not least is customer retention. Users of social media often end up making use of their personal accounts to complain or give praise to a specific brand, products or services. It is again difficult to quantify such complaints or praises but one way to assess the effectiveness of your social network marketing efforts is to keep track of these sentiments.
Needless to say, it is important to quickly and effectively address any issues and humbly accept mistakes if any which would make you authentic and reliable in the eyes of potential consumers.
