The State of Social Marketing: Industry Trends in Social Media Measurement

Because there are many ways to quantify the value of social media, marketers continue to struggle with social measurement. Based on the collective response of over 320 marketers reflected in our fist annual report on The State of Social Media Marketing: Top Areas For Social Marketing Investment and Biggest Social Marketing Challenges in 2012, we are starting to see clearly see measurement patterns based on industry, which are driven by the way they define social marketing success. In this blogpost we identify key social measurements that are most popular by industry.

Social Presence

Most industries use social presence (number of fans, likes, followers, etc.) as one of the ways to measure social marketing success. This is especially true among the Accommodations and Food Service industry. This is likely because it is one of the easiest things to measure, even though many have pointed out the limitations of using just this method.

Social Media Lead Generation

Many companies look to measure social marketing efforts based on lead generation results. Professional and Technical Services and the Information industries lead the pack in terms of lead generation measurement with 16 percent and 15 percent respectively. For these industries, online lead generation is a mainstay.

Social Media Impact on Sales

When it comes to measuring social media efforts in terms of impact on sales, the Retail industry is most active, with 18 percent of respondents reporting sales as their key social marketing success measure. With Social Commerce expected to grow to $14 billion in 2015, and an estimated 90% of all purchases subject to social influence, retailers are pushing hard to make the connection between social marketing efforts and the cash register.

As marketers continue to invest in social marketing 2012, they will focus on top three priorities- increased presence across social marketing platforms, increased frequency of content publishing, and robust social marketing management and monitoring. You can read our report highlights here ordownload the full report for free.

Do you think your industry is leading or lagging? Are you planning to add a social media management toolset to your marketing arsenal? Do you need help assessing what would work best for your team? Ask us and we shall answer – in the comment section below, on Twitter (#Awarenessinc), Facebook at Social Media Marketing Best Practices, or LinkedIn via the Social Media Marketing Mavens Group.

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