Social Media ROI - What does it mean?

Measuring advertising success by ROIs is kind of different for each industry you look at and it's hard ot exactly pinpoint which advertisements help with an actual return. I think that Facebook "likes" and following on Twitter should be taken into account when calculating an ROI on advertising campaign. The whole point of advertising is to let the customer know what your product or service has to offer making social media extremely important. When I like a brand or follow their Twitter feed it means that I''m actually interested in the product and want to know the latest news about it so it's important to me that the brands I follow keep up to date information about their products on the web. I think the best way to build brand loyalty through social media is to simply keep the customer informed. Let me know whn Nike launches its newest Nike Free shoe or tell me that I could win a trip to Spain if I buy enough Pepsi. These messages are slightly annoying but they let me know the company is thinking about what I may be interested in, which definitely builds my loyalty.

Different people have their various opinions about social media ROI. I personally don't like the random and constant ads that pop up on my Facebook or when I mention something on twitter, like a product I just bought, the company starts following me or bombarding me with tweets about different products. A lot of people are using social networks like Facebook and Twitter not only to get the word out there about their company, but to also build relationships with different people. And in this day and age, that is the best way to do it. I'll admit, some companies that started following me or sent me tweets about their company actually made me want to learn more and buy more of their products. I'll even recommend a couple of them to people I know, so it's very effective. Companies may use social media ROI for different things. They may use it to measure how many times their product or their company is mentioned in a tweet or status. Or maybe they measure how many followers they can get on Twitter or how many "likes" they can get on their Facebook page. It depends on the company and the goals of that company. The way you approach potential customers or buyers has a lot to do with this way of branding. Some people like being attacked with 100 emails or tweets from one company per day, and some people absolutely hate it. Surveys are a good way of determining how a company or business should reach people. I found this article "5 Reasons you should Measure Social Media ROI" interesting. 

Honestly, it depends on what business you're in; however, no matter what business you're in, you need to provide content for your consumers. If you are a newspaper, put your stories on facebook and twitter. If you are a retailer, make your catalog and deals available, and so on. I feel that social media ROI should not only be based on likes and follows, but did those fans then go to your website and read more stories or purchase a set of headphones. Did they look up your store locator as Drabicky stated. Did they become apart of your email list. Basically it should be measured by what actions consumers took after they liked your page. 

When I like a page on facebook or follow somone on twitter it means that I like or respect that brand and I want more content from that brand. I liked Audi because the Audi R8 is my dream car and I wanted more information on it. I just followed Vic Drabicky on twitter because I want more marketing insight. For me, content is king.

The best way to keep consumers connected is to, as I keep stating, keep delivering content. Keep them involved in what the company is doing, keep them involved as far as sales, as far as development of new products or new facets of old products. The idea is to keep the consumer interested in your brand.

I completely agree that social media ROI should be measured differently than the more traditional ROI model. Social media is more active marketing and advertising, and adjustments should be made to compensate for the fact that “word-of-mouth” advertising on social media is far more public and visible and can generate substantially more buzz than traditional word-of-mouth promotion. While I believe a more active ROI measurement is warranted, I don’t think all of the traditional ROI measures should be lost in translation. Building awareness of a company, brand, or product and turning a profit on investment costs are still goals of a social media marketing campaign. 

I think it is also important to understand what it means to social media users to like a brand on Facebook or to follow certain companies or executives on Twitter. For me personally, I only like brands/companies if I am already loyal to them or think they are so unique that they are worth sharing with others. Based on the findings of how social media users perceive “liking” and “following” companies, there may be significant reason to weigh that social media presence differently with an updated ROI measure.  

I think that social media ROI should be determined by the goals of your campaign, and the results that it yields. I'm not sure of any other ways to do it, but a good way to track your ROI is to use Google AdWords. The tools and analysis tab takes you to google analytics. From there you can view the traffic on your pages, you can even set up goals for you campaign and track the behavior of the visitors on your page. Outside of using google adwords and google anaylitics, I can'think of any other way to measure ROI. Ultimately, measuring ROI is based on defined goals, and measuring whether or not people are behvaing how you want for every ad dollar spent.

In terms of building loyalty and sales via social media, it's good to try to solve your consumer's problems, offer them something, create user inspired material and get them to engage with social media. For instance, Best Buy started the Twelpforce in 2010. Simply put, the Twelpforce delivers help to customers in a way that suits them best; social media. As a result of Best Buy seeking out the customer's problems and solving them via Twitter, Best buy has been able to enjoy increased customer loyalty and sales.  

For me, following and/or liking a brand it's been around long enough for me to know about the brand and like it. It also means that I use the brand on the regular and they have my support. As a brand it's good have people liking you because it establishes that your product is credible. In addition, it means that you have built a base of people who love your product.    

Social Media ROI can mean different things for different products, services clients and promotion. I don't really like ads popping up over what I am reading and will not click on them even if it is something I use or support. Social media should not only be used as a sales approach, but to build relationships with people who may become future buyers or users of a product/service. It seems that it might be hard to measure certain aspects of these new campaigns; while I might not be a buyer, I may like the product and send someone who is to that site, so would that count as a ROI? I'd be more willing to connect with a brand through social media if they did't bombard me with notices and messages; sometimes I unlike something or discontinue their emails because it is too much to sort through. 

I do not believe there is only one right way to measure the ROI of social media marketing because it really depends on the focus of your marketing. If it is to increase engagement then measure the increase in conversation. If it is to increase awareness then measure new likes or followers. I think it is easier to measure the ROI from an email signup because companies generally have an idea of their conversion rate.

I do not think my "like" carries much value because I would never engage a brand on Facebook and I rarely read their posts in my newsfeed. When I like a brand it is only because I want the brand to show up on my profile (band, sports team, etc). I think the best way for a brand to connect with me on social media is to post job listings because that is the only thing I am interested in right now. Every so often I see an opening on LinkedIn I like and I follow that company. If a company I regularly purchased from offered a well-developed rewards program I would probably connect as well.  

I think ROI is difficult to measure, especially on social media. ROI is usually measured by sales, but the goals of advertising are not limited to increasing sales. Mostly, the goals of advertising are to generate customer awareness, customer preference, and keep good relationship with customers. In social media, I think the effect of keeping good relationship with customers and inform customers for new product launching are best. So I think the formula of caculating ROI should have some change to fit the measurement. For example, in order to estimate ROI, advertisers should first know the goal of the campaign and measure ROI based on the achievement of the goal.  

Trying to measure the true ROI of social media seems nearly irrelevant. While costing principles and techniques demand that we know our profits and losses from each project, I don't think that there is a solid blanket approach that can be taken to model the ROI of social media. Every single brand/product/service is going to be unique in how it uses different forms of social media, and in turn, how it determines whether or not it was succesful is also different. I think that this is why GM pulled its advertising from Facebook, because trying to justify the costs was too farfetched. The correlation between Facebook/Twitter and profits is too thin. I think that the only way to justify if it works is being able to track purchases through that social media outlet. Even then there are a lot of factors in determining if it really was the social media advertising that led to a sale. The best brands on social media sites give something special back to the user. Twitter is so succesful because it shattered the barrier between normal people and celebrities. We can now (in one form or another) communicate with them. Brands need to create a special connection with their clients as well. Simply telling me on a Facebook post that Pro-V1s are on sale doesn't provide me with an incentive to go out and buy them, nor does it connect me with the Titleist brand. Communicating with me and recognizing me is the best way for a brand or product to connect with an individual on social media platforms.

When it comes to Facebook & Twitter the ways to reach me are completely different. Facebook is more of my social gathering place. I go there to be updated on my friends & family and not to be bombarded by brands. I use twitter as a place to update me about my interests and would probably be a brands best outlet to reach me. If its Facebook, coupons, pictures or videos are probably the best way to catch my attention. If its Twitter, I'm following you because I already like you and am interested in what you have to say. So, keep me interested, use some creative copywriting and I might just go online shopping. With the growing popularity of social media sites it seems inevitable that incorporating customer interaction into ROI is a must. However, using Facebook likes or the amount of twitter followers wouldn't give a very accurate number because often people like a page, but never return back to it. However, thanks to an awesome article by Dan Holmboe, a social media expert, "How To Estimate Your Social Media Return on Investment" these are some of the ways social media could accurately be measured:

1. By providing different coupon codes for each social media page and the amount of times a customer uses them could easily be counted into the returns from social media. 

2. Predicting sales before a social media campaign and comparing them to actual sales during the campaign, the company could then use the difference to account for their social media returns. 

3. Using web analytics programs that follow the users from where they first started up to the online checkout, if they started on a social media site, then count it. 

I think social media ROI needs to be thought of in terms of a consumer's typical purchase cycle for the product or service. When I like a brand on Facebook or follow them on Twitter, it usually means that I've bought their products before and am interested in purchasing again, or am interested in finding out more about the brand so that I can make my first purchase from them. A Facebook "like" or a new twitter follower may not initially have a value in terms of dollars and cents, but their potential value is quite high. Once the "like" or "follow" occurs, the brand has the opportunity to put good content in front of their potential buyer in order to turn their potential value into actual value. Social media ROI could be considered a step in the right direction to driving actual ROI.  

I feel like Social Media ROI should be measured by how many times people go on the site and how many times the liking button is click on the site. What it means when I like a brand on facebook or follow them on twitter is that the brand is either creative or original or I am a loyal customer to that brand. I like to share with others the type of brands I like and open up their eyes to something new and having them potentially liking the brand as well. The best way for a brand to connect/build loyalty with me in Social Media is being creative and original, which means standing out among competition.

I think that social media ROI should be measured by how interactive people become within the site. Sure there is some value to a simple like or follow but what really should be taken into consideration arethe number of comments, posts, retweets, favorites, and any other interactivity throughtout the site. Some people may just like the site or start to follow a brand but then never return or overlook posts and tweets. This can through off the exact ROI. Progress and customer loyalty shoudl be measured by their involvement on the brand social media sites. I rarely like brands on Facebook, but when I do it is mostly for TV shows so that I can keep up-to-date with new episodes and previews. I don't like to follow brands on Twitter because they tend to overwhelm my newsfeed with posts that don't generally interests me. The best way for a brand to build loyalty on social media sites is by constantly giving out coupons, deals, games, and other activites that can entertain me.

ROI should be measured as it currently is, but with an extra step of comparing the ROI of website advertisements to those of TV and Print ads. Since a greater amount of advertising is beginning to switch over to web-advertising, I think maybe a more direct reply from the social media users should be implemented. For example, instead of just asking customers to fill out a survey when they like or follow a page, they should put out an incentive. This will not only measure the amount that like or visit, but marketers can keep track of how many loyal customers there actually are.

When I like a brand on Facebook, I usually only do it if I really like or use the brand in real life. Once in a great while I'll like a random name that I see on the sidebar if I see other friends of mine have liked it too. I think that's also a big reason why likes are given and not followed up on. I also like only certain brands because I know that their information and updates will show up on my newsfeed, and it would be annoying to see random pages and advertisements pop up on my newsfeed that I don't care about.

I think incentives are key when it comes to brand loyalty on Social Media. Give them a reason to really LIKE you.

I believe it would be very difficult to measure a social media ROI. Some people will like Facebook pages or follow on Twitter, then do not make any purchases. However, likes and follows increase brand awareness. Even if a purchase isn't made, more people know about the company and their friends and followers can see that and a chain reaction can begin.

Even if the first "liker/follower" doesn't make a purchase, their friend might. Brands could try to measure the likes and/or follows to purchase ratio. Companies could look at how many people in x-amount of time made a purchase through their social media pages (customers could use a separate link provided by the site to make a purchase), and how many people in the same x-amount of time liked/followed their page. This can show if there is any correlation between the social media awareness and changes in the amount of purchases. 

When I like a brand on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter, it means that I am a user of that brand. I hope to receive information on product updates and coupons/specials since I am a loyal user. I believe the exclusive and/or quickly updated information through these social media sites are the best way for a brand to connect and build my loyalty.