Measuring the Business Impact of Social Media

THE GREAT RETUAN Measuring the Business Impact of Social Media Social media is no longer a stop-and-go investment, but rather a long term strategic channel that, when integrated with other marketing efforts, allows brands to connect with users over time. Results of a recent survey show marketers find social media efforts valuable in their ability to grow brand awareness and increase dialogue with customers. In addition to spending more time thinking about how to engage audiences, marketers will soon begin to measure social media's impact on the business through a more traditional ROI definition: attributable sales and costs. Brands move through a three-phase approach with social media efforts. 97% 75% GROW Currently, the market is focused on the first FAN BASE two phases while ENGAGE believe social media intend to increase monetization has yet marketing benefits media spending MONETIZE to be the focus. their business. this year. Social Media Benefits Hello! • SOLD Social Media has been focused on growth and most recently on engaging the fan base built from growth activities. Within the coming year, we expect engagement to remain of critical importance as well as to see monetization via increased sales and Grow brand Engage in Increase sales Reduce partnerships, and reduced awareness dialogue and partnerships costs costs to grow in importance. 188% 85% 58% | 41% Social Network Rankings While respondents ranked Facebook as their top social media marketing channel, we may see this change in 2012 with services like Twitter's branded pages, LinkedIn's developer launch, Google+ and the continued growth of blogging networks like Tumblr and WordPress. in Tube 94% 74% 41% 32% 30% 6% FACEBOOK TWITTER LINKEDIN YOUTUBE OTHER BLOGS/BLOGGING COMMUNITY Valuing Fans Many companies believed a Facebook fan has value for their business. The top three reasons cited are: 44% 18% 18% NEW CUSTOMER RECRUITMENT HIGHER CONVERSION RATES MORE FREQUENT PURCHASES #1 Nearly 70 percent of marketers surveyed believe Facebook fans are worth more than non-fans. Measuring ROI Marketers currently have no standard measurement of social media success. Top measurements social media marketers use for ROI are: As marketers move 38% I Like through the grow, INCREASED FANS, LIKES, COMMENTS, AND INTERACTIONS engage, monetize cycle, they change their ROI measurement 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 accordingly. 24% : INCREASED REVENUE 100% of those that did not 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 define ROI in the classical definition 15% [(gains-costs)/costs] INCREASED BRAND AWARENESS still believed that social media benefits their business. 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 EVERYONE WANTS TO GROW THEIR FAN BASE. Growing a fanbase without having a longer-range plan for how to engage them, however, can actually be worse for your brand than doing nothing. With sophisticated strategies and new tools to measure ROI, businesses can find greater connections between marketing efforts and sales to secure their bottom line. Wildfire is a powerful, easy-to-use social marketing platform to grow, engage, and Created By COLUMN FIVE monetize your audience across social networks. Learn more at wildfireapp.com. Results of a survey of over 700 social media marketers administered between September and November 2011