Measuring Facebook ROI is like bringing a metal detector to a beach littered with $100 bills.
It’s like pointing your telescope at the ground, looking for the stars- All you’ll see is dirt.
It’s like planting your vegetable garden and expecting to harvest veggies instantly. You need to be patient, and tend your garden carefully- otherwise you’re eating seeds for dinner, or worse- going hungry.
You can find some other analogies which demonstrate that full social ROI is the direct + indirect impact together- not just the immediate revenue directly tied to a Facebook click.
It’s about the time it takes to grow and nurture your brand’s audience. It’s a careful labor of love that you should take slow- there is no magic bullet to having an amazing rapport with your audience, and definitely not one for easy sales. Once your audience is aware of who you are, they’ll warm up to your message and willingly share it to their friends- increasing your brand’s reach.
Remember when Red Bull dropped the guy from space? It was the most popular event on YouTube last year, but they knew that ROI wasn’t people who bought Red Bull on the spot.
You have to build your audience over time, in the same way you’d not get married on the first date: Don’t force your audience to make tough decisions like buying without first knowing who your brand is and what you’re about. It won’t be divorce, but a really low engagement rate, which hurts your brands image and decreases EdgeRank.
You need a 3 campaign funnel system in place- Build your audience through brand awareness, keep them engaged with on-going conversation that is level with your audience , and once they are ready, you use dark posts tailored to their needs and convince them to buy- never just SELL SELL SELL.
Readers, how do you measure the ROI of your Facebook efforts? Do you believe each fan is worth a certain amount?