The ROI conversation
I met with a group of CEOs recently at a morning event and social media came up in conversation. More than several members of the group wondered if a social media strategy is worth the effort. In other words, how do we measure the return on investment (ROI) of our social media initiatives?
This is a topic that comes up a lot at Matrix Group.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic formula for calculating ROI on social media activities. Mashable says that you can measure the ROI in two ways:
Qualitative – Are you part of the conversation in your industry? Are you able to demonstrate that you or your organization is a thought leader? Is social media able to help you build better relationships with your target audiences?
Quantitative – Look to your usage reports, RSS subscriptions, e-mail opt-ins, e-commerce sales and registrations to see if social media is increasing traffic and transactions.
At Matrix Group, our social media initiatives include: a blogging strategy (this blog and participating in other blogs like Women Grow Business), Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. Here are the metrics we use to track ROI:
Qualitative Metrics
- Are prospects, clients and candidates mentioning our social media activities?
- Are our clients and prospects interacting with us on the different platforms?
- Are we getting mentioned?
- Do clients and prospects see us as a leader in our field?
- Do clients and prospects reference articles and posts from our Web sites?
- Are we getting recognized in industry and trade publications?
In this area, I’m honored that I made the Washingtonian’s list of Top 100 Techies and SmartCEO’s list of top 50 CEOs in the DC area. In addition, we’re getting lots of mentions and clients are referring to our social media pages on a regular basis.
(Image, Untitled, but what Women Grow Business thinks is great ROI on the photographer’s time, found via Creative Commons, Rayani Melo)
Quantitative Metrics
Number of followers
-on Twitter, fans on Facebook, subscribers to our RSS feeds, and opt-ins to our e-mail lists. This metric is important because these numbers represent the people who are willingly allowing us to communicate with them.
Increase in traffic
-to our Web site and this blog. We’ve seen a steady increase in traffic to our sites as we beef and promote our content. Interestingly enough, traffic to this blog recently outpaced traffic to the Web site, largely because of referrals from Google and social media sites, esp. Twitter, Facebook and StumbleUpon. We use Google Analytics, Webtrends and FeedBurner for these statistics.
Number of interactions
These interactions include comments on the blog, retweets and direct messages, and comments in Facebook. Over the past year, we’ve seen a steady increase in these interactions as we gain followers.
Ultimately, where the rubber meets the road is whether or not we are getting leads and converting prospects to clients.
Over the past year, here is what we have seen:
- We are getting 2-3 high quality leads per week from our Web site where we were getting 2-3 leads per month in the past.
- Traffic on our Web site and blog has tripled in the past 12 months.
- Twitter and Facebook are two of the top five referrers of traffic to our site.
- At least three clients in the past three months told us that they believe Matrix Group to be a thought leader in the interactive space for associations and non-profits.
- We closed our last fiscal year up 10% over last year.
No matter how you track it
We’re getting a positive return on our social media and that’s worth blogging about. How about you? Are you tracking the ROI of your social media activities?
What’s been your experience?
More from:
- The Chief Troublemaker’s series on small business success and social media at Women Grow Business.
Founder/CEO and self-proclaimed Chief Troublemaker of Matrix Group International Joanna Pineda is a Women Grow Business enthusiast. She is known for her visionary big-picture thinking and drive for excellence. Combining her broad liberal arts background and passion for technology, she started Matrix Group in 1999, today a leading interactive agency. As a trusted advisor, Joanna inspires and motivates her clients and employees alike to simply, “be better” with her mantra being: Do or Do Not. There is no try!
Thanks Joanna Pineda for sharing your social media ROI stories per the Matrix Files.
