When businesses first jumped onto social media, everyone was obsessed with one thing: follower numbers. The company that had the most followers “wins.” But that thinking is old now, super old; the number of followers a business has does not mean high business ROI. The “Social ROI” has changed quite a bit over the last few years. It can be tough trying to navigate through the changing times, so some platforms out there provide a service of boosting account numbers.
Quantifying Real Impact Matters
The problem with only focusing on followers is that it completely misses the point of why businesses use social media in the first place. It really isn’t just bragging rights; although I think some marketing folks tend to fall into some of those traps. ROI refers to return on investment, which means you make a certain amount of money from every marketing dollar spent. Getting a ton of followers who sit there and do nothing does not mean ROI; that many fake accounts could hurt business owners.
Instead of just tracking the follower number, businesses should monitor things that actually matter to them, such as leads, sales, and long-term customer value. These things are related to increased revenue, which means money goes into the bank. In general, those things are more important than someone just randomly hitting the “follow” button, although that can be a start in potentially earning a long-term customer.
Engaging is Creating Customers
Engagement is another big detail that goes beyond how many followers happen to be following a specific company. Are people actually liking, sharing, and especially commenting? Engagement is a much stronger marker when it comes to ROI. If the customer is writing insightful comments, it could mean that the business is connecting with them on a deep human level, and with that, the business could make a customer for life. Think of this analogy for a moment: with engagement, social media sites are the new shopping mall.
It makes sense that the more customers go into stores and look around, the more likely they are to buy the products on hand. Engagement makes great content more visible in any type of social media platform, meaning more chances to reach potential customers. It builds communities and ultimately turns those followers and viewers into people who actively buy a brand’s products.
Understanding Conversion Beyond the Click
Social ROI is also tightly linked to conversions. Are people clicking from the social pages over to your website? What actions are they taking when they get there? The focus is on how efficiently these platforms are turning the attention people are getting into tangible, and most importantly, profitable results.
It’s useful, even if a little old-school, to think of social media like a sales funnel; a large part starts as buying followers or organically growing, trickles down to engagement, and eventually results in the sale. Also, think of customers who come to these social media sites and see a product that they have never seen before. Suddenly, they are on the website looking to buy! That is the type of experience companies should be investing in.
Measuring the Right Metrics
To measure social ROI correctly, a business should use the numbers that are available to paint the customer experience. These platforms allow businesses the option of tracking customer and viewer actions, which helps optimize the overall effectiveness of their marketing strategies. But with these high-powered tools, that means more work is happening for business owners, which can get slightly exhausting.
Tools can help a company monitor the total customer value they have on social media. These metrics show the real financial gain of using the platforms and marketing effectively. Measuring the numbers and metrics helps these businesses to adapt to an ever-adapting social media landscape, which means more money for them in the long run.
Conclusion
Social ROI is much more than just follower numbers. The goal revolves around actually impacting leads, engagement, and sales, which is the overall revenue any business is ultimately trying to get. Instead of just chasing after fake followers or “likes,” any business should be prioritizing the human details in order to build and nurture its brand and customers. The end results not only impact marketing ROI, but they can also help ensure the stability of long-term business survival.
