Social Media ROI - How to Make It Count

Your Facebook Business Page is pristine. The header image is perfectly branded, the "About us" section contains all the necessary details and the images you're posting meet that pesky 20% text rule. But what does this mean from a business perspective? What is the expected ROI (ROI = (return – investment) / investment)? The answer to that is not so simple. You will need to spend time at the beginning of a new campaign determining the value of each action you are taking on social media. You will inevitably receive questions and comments from clients and your superiors asking to prove that the social budget they have in place is indeed translating into leads, downloads or profit.

First Thing's First: Choose Social Media Goals to Show ROI

Ask yourself these questions when starting on a new social media campaign:

1. What is your goal? What do you want to achieve with you social media campaign and ad budget?
2. What value will you assign to that goal?
3. How will you track that goal?

After you've answered these questions, you can then begin to determine the Customer Lifetime Value and other relevant data. To learn more about this, read this article by Kevan Lee from Buffer.

Learn from Tracking ROI

You're all set up with your goals and assigned values, now what? It's time for the fun part. Begin digging into the data and results of your social media campaigns to determine which platform and action is garnering the most ROI based on the goals you outlined in the first phase of the campaign. This knowledge will help you better tweak current goals to improve them as well as allocate time and energy into those platforms and strategies that are indeed making more money.

Understand What Social Media Activity Is Not Showing ROI

Just because you can't directly place monetary value on an outcome doesn't mean it doesn't hold value! For example, being active and present on social media channels gives your company and brand a direct connection to potential customers and the ability to communicate with them regularly. When your content is useful, informative and engaging it can spread like wildfire. For example, even when someone takes the simple action of liking a post you've shared on your Facebook Page, that post is then seen by anyone that is friends with them in their Facebook feed.  Social media also allows you to attend to customer service issues right away. One of the biggest benefits is having a presence on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter (etc.) humanizes your brand. It gives fans a peek inside what the company is like and what they believe in. In today's world and with today's buyers, this is such a big factor when deciding who to give your money to.

 Digitopia is passionate about helping businesses grow by tapping into the power of social media and SEO. To discuss how we can help you grow your business, contact us today!