fLO specializes in helping small businesses and non-profits determine the social media/online content tools that are the most effective for their unique business and customer. They provide both high-level strategic planning and mechanical implementation of online content/social media marketing programs
Tying Social Media to Revenue
“How will content marketing affect my bottom line?”
Some variant of this question comes up invariably comes up whenever I meet with a prospective client. My answer to this question is often the deciding factor between who chooses to work with fLO or not. The hard truth is, it is still incredibly difficult to draw a direct line between online content marketing activities and direct sales data. This is not to say that measurement of any kind is impossible - there are a number of ways to draw conclusions based on the data that is available. However the results are just that, conclusions that can be justified by the data, not proven by the data.
So what can we measure?
Altimeter released this fascinating report on Monday that investigates how 38 brands are measuring their social media ROI through a variety of methods. Most use a blend of top-down (anecdote, correlation, multivariate testing) and bottom-up (links & tagging, direct sales) data to arrive at their conclusions. (Just as we do at fLO) Few felt they were effective at tying social media activity to revenue and the majority stated that the most positive outcomes had to do with customer relationships and insight.
What this means is that (for now) business owners who see value in customer insights and interactions are more likely to appreciate the quantifiable results of social media and content marketing activities.
So how do you effectively measure the results of social media? Altimeter’s “Decision Matrix” is a great starting point to determine if you are looking at the right metrics for the type of program you have in place and the type of business you run.
