How can you measure the effectiveness of using Social Networking sites to promote your business?
As we wrestle with the concepts of promoting business through the medium of Social Networking sites, the most obvious question is; ‘how will we know if we have been successful?’
Everything we do as a business is executed in a manner which allows us to measure, and therefore assess, performance. We work in partnership with our clients to make ‘a measurable difference to their business’. This implies we have some way of measuring what we do for them. If we assist a client with a Social Networking campaign, what is going to be our ‘yardstick’? What results do we want and what are we going to measure?
How many Facebook friends/fans the business has?
How many people say ‘I saw your company on MySpace’ when we remember to ask them how they found us?
How many ‘conversations’ or ‘relationships’ your business has online?
How much profit changes over the period the campaign runs for?
Ultimately for a commercial organisation it comes down to profit - hard cash! You get profit from satisfied customers. Social networking sites might be one place to find new customers you can satisfy. But this is just a tad crude and we’re not sure yet what the time lag will be. How can we effectively monitor performance as we go along and be confident we’re heading towards having more satisfied customers giving us more profit?
Is it about ‘audience’ numbers or should there be a focus on the level of participation?
Do we need a range of measurements to match our clients goals?
Is it really that different to measuring other marketing activities?
These ,and others, are questions that many people are struglling with;
Facebook Group - Social Media Measurement
MeasurementCamp
Chinwag - Measuring Social Media
I actually found lots of places where this question is raised - has anyone got ideas about the answers???
I think social networking sites are best for…social networking. Saratoga sponsors BomoCreatives, which is a group which connects many self-employed people in the Bournemouth and Poole area. We’ve managed to create lots of events and boost attendance through Facebook.
People get to find out what I do through my Profile, but it hasn’t brought me any business. In fact most business networking groups don’t bring me any business. The best advertising is word of mouth from satisfied customers. All these new-fangled technologies promise lots, but I’m yet to be convinced that they can deliver very much.
Thanks Brian for contributing to this discussion.
I have addressed some of your comments in todays post
I agree that the most effective form of advertising is recommendations from satisfied clients. These recommendations encapsulate so many things marketeers try to emulate artificially in other ways: you get a real life example of how the compnay meets a need/provides a benefit and you get an instant dose of credibility.
Can these clients not be encouraged to spread the word about you and what you do via their online social networks?
Feedback received by e-mail:
I have taken the opportunity to discuss this with colleagues and here are our views on the question you pose:
Social networking is a massive net innovation, and it is just that a social network. In principal it is a good idea and usually a free marketing tool. As a means of business engagement or development we don’t think it is very effective. The majority of people who use these sites are there for pleasure or as an ‘escape’ from work. They are also reliant on ‘friends’ networks so you can’t just blanket advertise all those connected to that site.
I hope this is helpful
Kind regards
Duncan Kerr
Economic Development Officer.
Borough of Poole