Do We REALLY Measure Social Media Success?
Monday, May 10th, 2010
It’s become clear in recent months that most companies are jumping on the Social Media bandwagon in some way or another. Whether they just dip their toe with a fan page on Facebook and by posting the occasional Twitter update or whether they throw themselves wholeheartedly into the blogging and Social Media phenomenon. So with Social Media and blogging having become part and parcel of most PR and Media campaigns you would think that the buzz around the measurement and evaluation of Social Media activity would be at an all time high but a recent survey by eMarketer.com, suggests that 84% of it’s respondents don’t measure the ROI (return on investment) of their Social Media activity. What is even more worrying is that 40% of these respondents didn’t know that they could measure ROI of Social Media activity and many indicated that they wouldn’t really know where to start.
Considering that as consumers we are bombarded by social media activity on a daily basis, to think that the ROI of this activity is not being measured is worrying. Can you imagine a company spending money on a traditional PR and marketing campaign and not asking for a ROI projection or a post campaign evaluation? That would be unheard of, but many companies seem happy to engage in social media with no question about the value that it adds to their existing strategy.
The main worry in all of this is that if companies are unaware of the value that can be added by Social Media activity then surely this activity will be the first to go if budgets get tight, they may see Social Media as a fad that will soon be overtaken by another new and innovative approach.
As a child of the 21st century and someone who has grown up with universal access to the internet and various other communication tools it seems strange to imagine a world without Social Media. The landscape of communication is changing, bloggers are the new journalists, Twitter is the new home of the brand ambassador and the internet has well and truly become the instantly accessible portal to whatever you need so I don’t think Social Media will be going anywhere for a while.
So if you’re not measuring ROI you might want to get to grips with your Google Analytics. You’ll need to know the difference between TweetMeme and HootSuite. And if all of this sounds like a foreign language come back soon for more information of how to track the latest Twendz.
XoXo
theprgeek