Comments on: Can Social Media Marketing ROI Be Measured?

By: Tristan Handy

Tristan Handy — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:44:04 +0000

Nick!! Finding your post just made my day. Let me explain.

I work for a software company whose main mission is to help clients measure and optimize their social media marketing ROI. Most people in the industry think that ROI is fluffy and that return should be measured in interactions or reach rather than dollars. Those that realize it should be measured in dollars still believe that it’s impossible (or prohibitively difficult) to do this. People that realize multi-touch conversion tracking (the solution you wrote about!) is the answer are few and far between, so we spend our days educating interested industry folks.

Our software provides basic multi-touch conversion attribution tied in with a URL shortener so that people can track their social-attributable revenue. If you’re curious on the details, we wrote a very down-to-earth white paper that you can grab here:

http://argylesocial.com/blog/2011/02/16/social-media-roi-whitepaper.html

Anyway, thanks for making my day. If you ever want to chat about this topic further please do email me

Tristan

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Thu, 26 May 2011 20:55:43 +0000

Thanks Michael for reading and the quote!

Take Care!
Nick

By: Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:26:29 +0000

Nick,
I love the post and just shared a quote of yours in my blog on Social Media ROI.
http://www.socialstrategy1.com/2011/05/26/selling-social-media-to-your-boss/

Keep up the great writing!

By: Selling Social Media to Your Boss | Social Strategy1

Selling Social Media to Your Boss | Social Strategy1 — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:02:14 +0000

[...] company right now can tell you they have an exact amount for their Social Media ROI, however that does not mean that companies can’t track sales increases in relation to certain [...]

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:15:59 +0000

Thanks for reading and for sharing your post, I will be sure to take a look!

Take Care,
Nick

By: Chuck Swanson

Chuck Swanson — Wed, 11 May 2011 21:16:45 +0000

Hi Nick,

I like your post and agree with you entirely. You can measure ROI from a social media campaign (one with a start and end date) but before you do that you need a social media presence, which is different than a campaign and one you can’t (and shouldn’t) measure monetarily.

I wrote a blog reiterating some of the points you made, and that blog can be found here: http://www.digitalc4.com/blogs/Measuring-the-Value-of-Social-Media-Marketing.html

Thanks Nick!
Chuck

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Wed, 11 May 2011 10:40:38 +0000

Hi Tom,

Thanks for reading and sharing the post about social media ROI, I will be sure to check it out…

Thanks!
Nick

By: Tom Pick

Tom Pick — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:41:08 +0000

Nick, I agree that social media ROI is highly challenging to measure. The primary reason is that it most often influences a sale, but doesn’t lead to one in a direct path.

Still, social media activities cost real money and have to pay their way. On that score, you might enjoy my recent post “20 Ways to Generate ROI from a Corporate Blog (http://webbiquity.com/business-blogging/20-ways-to-generate-roi-from-a-corporate-blog/). Would love your take on it.

By: Kurt Schlatzer

Kurt Schlatzer — Mon, 09 May 2011 15:35:57 +0000

Hi Nick – Have you seen Argyle Social? They are a NC startup with a very promising app that can measure social ROI. Worth a look. I haven’t seen anything close to it.

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Fri, 06 May 2011 20:44:16 +0000

Thanks for reading Dara and for sharing your thoughts!

Take Care,
Nick

By: Dara Schulenberg

Dara Schulenberg — Fri, 06 May 2011 19:12:52 +0000

Social Media ROI measurements are maturing in real time. I agree that today it is hard – but worthy – work to quantify the metrics. Being able to demonstrate ROI is a requirement of getting C-level buy-in (and budget approvals) for social media initiatives.

So roll-up your marketing sleeves and start evaluating the cost reduction and avoidance metrics at your disposal today around:
- customer service
- earned media
- R&D
- HR recruitment

Multi-attribution tracking cross platform have to improve to become reliable contributors to the process (hear that fb?).

By: souleye

souleye — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:07:05 +0000

I’m a web designer. as anybody who’s been on the web long enough, I understand the importance of marketing, though to start with, I wasn’t referring to it as ‘marketing’, rather as ‘search engine optimization’. I embraced social media, though I pick and choose. It takes time and you wonder if your efforts are well spent. for someone like me who does little real life networking, I wonder what it costs me to connect with new people with a few clicks. each new connection is someone exposed to your brand, and it’s free. you cannot beat that. does it work? the question is ‘does advertising work?’ it sure does, if done well.