This has to be one of the biggest questions banging around marketing conferences, blogs and social media gatherings. ”How do we measure the return on my investment (ROI) for the time, money and effort we put into Twitter and Facebook?”
To truly answer that question, you need to define your own ROI. If it is a dollar for dollar equation, then you need to be able to quantify/tie a value to the time spent, calculate the dollars invested and then put the proper tracking/measurement tools in place to link your social media contacts/connections to actual sales.
Are sales the only worthy ROI? Probably not. Like all marketing — you start by knowing what result you want.
- Are you trying to create a community that will tell the world about your new book, product or ?
- Do you want people to sign a pledge or commit to a cause?
- Do you want email addresses because your sales cycle requires a lot of education and time, so you want to create a drip campaign?
- Do you want to identify like-minded business people so you can create a safe place to generate thought leadership?
I have nothing against sales. It’s how we all pay our mortgages. But I just want to remind you, there are many worthy outcomes of any marketing effort. And that’s certainly true of Twitter and Facebook. As Stephen Covey taught us, begin with the end in mind.
This infographic from InventHelp begins to dig at the question and explore potential answers. Take a look at it and then tell me — what do you want from your social media efforts?
