(Blog-Off II Entry) Social Media ROI via Retweets and Forwards

As a marketer, you are constantly challenged with verifying the value of your efforts. Sometimes this is a simple task, by tracking communication directly to purchase behavior. Others, a deeper understanding of the social implications of your efforts must be taken into account to be able to relay the same ROI message.  The latter is often the case with regard to social media forwards and retweets; this also happens to be the subject of my Blog Off II competition posts - socially relevant marketing value from social media and traditional marketing.

One area some have trouble tracking ROI is in the aforementioned "twitterverse" and "blogosphere."  The executives in your organization might ask, "why should we be spending our time and dollars connecting and dialoging with prospects, rather than directly messaging them with an immediate call to action"? I answer them by saying social media does have immediate impact - via retweets and forwards.

How, you might ask, is this the case? First, I look at it from a sales perspective. Someone retweeting or forwarding your content is akin to them endorsing your message in a similar manner to the way a good sales call is an inherent endorsement. I remember being a young salesperson for a national auto auction group, and making a sale based off of a great conversation I had with a dealer. Even though he didn't give me his business, he made a call - on my behalf - and I was able to secure some business based off of his recommendation.

The point is, the plethora of endorsements received from content retweets and forwards can go a long way to building your credibility with people and businesses that have no reason to trust you, other than someone they respect validated your communication.  This creates quality impressions.

Quality impressions are what I view as a more important tool than any other to measuring true reach.  Reach, obviously being a traditional metric for marketers to gauge the potential effect of their communications, is important to understanding conversion rates. This can get us closer to a true ROI valuation C-level executives so ardently crave to loose the purse strings of time and money to your social media efforts.

To aid in the mathematical measurement of these phenomena, you have a multitude of tools at your disposal. Following is a list of some that can assist any marketer willing to invest the time (and sometimes a small amount of coin) to extract the value.

1. Forward Track - Allows your to track forwards, blog impact and facilitate social media.
2. Twitip offers a list of four different tools available for Twitter users searching for retweeted content.
3. Tweetdeck offers its on solution to retweet tracking.
4. Sitemeter is a tool that can be used to track the number of visitors to a blog, and the best two things about it is there is a free version and it's real-time.

So, the next time you're challenged by upper management to explain the value of your social media efforts, refer to the fact that being connected digitally is as strong a relationship builder as multiple dinners and ballgames with potential clients. Plus, it is less expensive and affords greater reach due to the high volume of information sharing nature of social media.

Thus, if you can explain a unique value proposition while spending the time to connect with your digital network you'll be well on your way to building measurable value from your social media impressions. What are some of your success stories and methods you use to track social media ROI?

Comments

[Ernita]

Great article and extremely relevant. We reccently covered the rising importance of social media efforts with our Dealers and Field team and they are all excited. Your article provides excellent information and leads regarding how to measure this new media tool. Thanks and keep up the good work!

[Julie Weishaar]

Great article full of specific, clearly-defined, relevant and much needed "proof" of the effectiveness of social media marketing. Consider yourself re-tweeted, bookmarked, etc. :) Thanks for sharing.

[Therran Oliphant]

Dennis:
Please email me at therran@oliphantconsulting.com so we can talk. I would like to learn more about your business needs and expectations before making any recommendations.

[Dennis]

Therran....We have a small consumer oriented business in metro detroit, who would you suggest we contact to get us involved in social media?

[Therran Oliphant]

Anelyn: That is great! Success stories like yours are why I enjoy writing and sharing.

Darlene: I am happy you were able to extract some value out of my work. I hope it propels your tweeting prowess forward.

Everyone: I appreciate the comments!

[Darlene Sabella]

Excellent article, I love twitter and try to spend some time finding out what's happening in the world. I find that some people are trying to sell me and they sell hard. I like to back tweet, or tracking successful tweets. I learned a lot from your post. Keep up the good work.

[Debra Stokes]

Very informative post, Therran. Because my company is small, I don't need to convince anybody of the value of social media. However, your post gives great ammunition to those in the corporate world who have to convince their bosses that social media is here to stay and they need to get on board. Nice research.

[anelyn]

I used your blog to generate new marketing ideas that could propel my company forward using social media techniques. The meeting was successful and opened the door to considering ideas never before discussed in our workgroup.

[Preston]

Excellent article and very well written. It provides some point’s that any business should consider.

[Therran Oliphant]

Janet: Great point, but it still sounds like you're measuring value. It just sounds like a lower volume and you have a system that works for you; that is great and good luck convincing your clients. We know it can be difficult.

Jim: You hit right on my point! I am of the mindset that social media really isn't any different than building other business relationships. The only thing that changes is the technological methods.

[Jim Pizzimenti]

Therran: Building a network, and the referrals that come with it, has always been a key element of any business growth strategy. What you have articulated here is that technology can speed up the process. Further, the data capture that is possible by leveraging the technology would seem to be priceles. Even those of us "C suite-ers" (past or present)with short attention spans will get that! Nice work.

[Janet Barclay]

Being self-employed with no upper management to report to, I don't use any formal measurement tools, but this is great information I can share with my clients who need to be convinced of the value of using social media.

My methods of measurement are much simpler: How many retweets did I get today? Which new clients learned about me from Twitter? and so on...

[Demega]

This is an excellent article and will help disspell the myth that the only way to market and measure is through traditional methods. Great info to help shift the paradigm.

[Tina]

Great article Therran. It was very well written and clear and to the point. Thank You for sharing!!!

[Jack]

This is the type of information I need to get my social media part of the business off the ground. I look forward to more blog posts from you.

[Therran Oliphant]

Sounds like there are people interested in learning about the ability to track value from Social Media! That is great as, "validity will only be given to those that can prove their worth." That's a direct quote from me; feel free to use it anytime - just give me a copywright credit. :)

Also, message me if you want some more in-depth assistance on getting the actual numbers. I'm happy to assist more companies gaining the tracking knowledge necessary to make an ROI case for Social Media. - therran@oliphantconsulting.com

[Tobias Braam]

@ Therran
Nice blog! I really like the fact that even very new things like twitter already can be measured. Keep up the good work!

[Tim]

My company is new to Social Media and Networking, now I do have some ammo ;). Great post and you have great writing skills. Keep up the good work. You can visit my post here.
http://www.communitymarketing.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/12/make-your-dream-a-reality-from-concept-to-action.html

[Therran Oliphant]

Thank you for the kind words. I hope this gives you some ammo and ideas to help make your ROI case. Good luck out there! Us SM types need it.

[Anelyn]

Thanks for this information on how to help my upper management understand social media activities. Cheaper, more effective, and infinitely more far-reaching than dining out or hosting sporting events? I agree.