Measuring Social Media

by Sarah Freeman

Finally!  Almost all businesses and organizations have reached the understanding that they must have a social media element mixed into their marketing communications programs.  But not everyone has grasped the ways in which to measure the R.O.I. for all of their social media efforts.  Do you fall into this pool?  If so, start by asking yourself – did you even start by setting goals for your social media plans?  If not, you haven’t given yourself a platform to measure.

Once you have established some goals, then you are in a position where you can begin tracking them.  First calculate the size of the audience you want to reach.  How many Facebook fans (a.k.a. “likes”) do you want?  How many e- mail subscribers should you have by now?  See where you’re at now and track this monthly.

Next, monitor the interaction you’re having with your audience on your social network platforms.  Make sure you are receiving monthly reports that figure the amount of times online users responded to a Facebook status update or a blog post, how many times your Twitter posts were re-tweeted by your followers, etc. You should also monitor the good, the bad and the ugly.  If you are receiving negative feedback from your social media connections DON’T IGNORE IT!  Here you get to be a fly on the wall – so take advantage of it and set your story straight!

Finally, you need to determine how many leads you scored or who you were able to convert into a customer or client after utilizing all of your social media whiz!

Now, what was your return?  Well, take into consideration all the time you’ve spent interacting and influencing your audience… hopefully you were jotting it all down!  You will need to figure what you’re time is worth and simply divide this number by your conversions and/or leads.

If you simply can’t find the time to do it right… Central States is here!  We’ll make you stop just “going through the motions” and put you in a position to see social media results!


If you find that Measuring Social Media is something that your company would like to know more about, feel free to contact Central States Media at info@centralstatesmedia.com or on the phone at (309) 693-2345.