In this FREE Report, I reveal the Top 21 KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) your business or agency must be measuring for Social Media ROI
First– ask yourself a question:
Which of the 3 website goals am I trying to achieve?
Websites typically focus on these 3 objectives:
Increase website traffic
Increase leads
Increase sales (Or what we help do- increase conversion)
Second– ask yourself what is my cost per lead? Cost per customer? Remember: LTV of a customer (Or life time value)
Third: Understand Quantitative VS. Qualitative measurements
Now for the 21 KPI’s your business or social media agency should be measuring:
1. # of unique website visitors per month
2. # of Twitter followers & # of Twitter lists
3. # of mentions of your brand, product or service on twitter (see the tool www.tweetreach.com )
4. # of Facebook friends/ Fans
5. # of clicks on bit.ly links (find patterns in the time of day) this is FREE PPC! HUGE cost savings I’ve personally saved companies over 20,000$ easy that they would of spent on PPC (who says social media is free??)
6. # of you tube subscribers
7. # of you tube channel views/ videos views
8. # of newsletter subscribers (or blog subscribers)
9. Know which traffic sources are sending you the most traffic (Google Analytics)
10. # of quality inbound links (SEO)
11. # of blog comments
12. # of opt ins to your list
13. # of linked in group members
14. Avg. time spent on site (social media increases this) More time is better
15. Bounce rate (you want this % as low as possible) Lower is better
16. # of leads, sales, and conversions (Percentage) This is the MOST IMPORTANT
17. # of customers you retain from social media (staying engaged and on top of mind)
18. % of revenue increase from social media marketing
These are just some additional supplemental benefits of social media:
They reached 90X the audience at 1/6th the cost with social channels.
20. Social Media produces much higher QUALITY of leads than paid advertising
21. Social media produces better conversion rates than email, PPC, CPA, CPM, etc.
Last Point: Social Media is just simple communications Duh!
If you need an actual ROI Calculator, check out Dragon Search which we use quite often to show cost savings to clients. You can find here http://bit.ly/jFWilb
Entrepreneurs starting businesses in the current economic climate have a real challenge yet an opportunity at the same time.It separates them from others who would never take risks, especially when times are very tough.This sets them apart from the competition.Entrepreneurs start a business usually for one main reason: They see a problem, they are passionate about solving that problem, and will do everything necessary to achieve their goal of finding a solution to that problem.
My current start-up Social Networking San Diego was founded in January 2009 on the premise that majority of small business websites don’t generate traffic. I estimate 80% of small business websites don’t generate traffic. So with my technical, business, and entrepreneurial spirit, I vowed to solve this problem because o am passionate about helping the small business community. So far things are going great and we are helping many clients solve this challenge & all while increasing sales of their products & services and saving money. Like Barack Obama says “Small business and Entrepreneurs will be the driving force of getting us out of this recession”, and I couldn’t agree more.
As for how this analogy relates to horse racing, Well 90 to 95% of Entrepreneurs fail because lack of funding, lack of leadership/ management, lack of sales, or lack of proper marketing.Usually at the horse races (another passion of mine- I live 20 minutes form Del Mar Racetrack) I tend to put money on the long shots once in a while if I like the kckey, study work out times, know who the trainer was, etc.I do my homework first.Just like in business, when starting anew business venture, do your homework, and if you have a little luck or know the right people, you may just have a big pay day 😉
Does your business have a social media strategy in place? What is it?
To increase customer retention? Increase sales? Decrease lead acquisition costs?
Increase visibility?
I read a statistic today and I’ll try to find the link but it is important for you to know that only 50% of companies have an actual social media strategy or social media plan in place. And even LESS are measuring the results or ROI of their social marketing campaigns. Why? Because there is so much customization involved to develop and determine the proper key performance indicators, backwards engineer the campaign, and then establish the tools & tactics needed. Believe me when I say it- social media campaigns are extremely complex & customized around each clients business model and we LOVE a challenge. Something we love even more is when clients get results like winning the San Diego’s best green product installer contest or selling all their tickets for their fundraising event. Simply put, when your clients see results in social media and can measure ROI, they finally see the true value in social media that it can bring to their organization:
1. decreased online advertising expenditure
2. increased customer retention & satisfaction
3. much higher conversion rates than paid advertising
because of the trust factor (through facebook & twitter communities)
4. much cheaper lead acquisition compared to paid online advertising
What type of ROI have you demonstrated for your clients using social media? Are you a business using social media yet? What have been your results? I’d love to hear from you!
1. Fails to Reach the Proper Target Audience
2. Generate Targeted Traffic
3. Have A Proper SEO Foundation
4. Have A Blog
5. Have An Integrated Social Media Marketing Plan
Yes, it’s there, it’s pretty, but is anyone looking at it? Is it bringing you new business? Is it generating leads? What is your conversion rate? Whats is your ROI on your monthly online marketing budget? Are you paying for online marketing software every month and seeing a return on this investment? Is it exposing you to a new market? Building your brand? Are you monitoring your personal or company reputation?
“Your website is only a billboard. You can have the most beautiful website in the world, and without traffic, it might as well be a billboard in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa.”
Contact us today and see how a social media marketing campaign can drive targeted traffic to your website while increasing click through, conversion, and decreases online adversing expenditure.
With internet marketing, you make your marketing dollars work more effectively online by establishing a CONSTANT presence on many sites. Over time, your customers will either do business with you or purchase from you when they are ready. We help your website pop up on search engines; you should have blogs on your website with updated content meant specifically for your prospect. Suddenly you’re a trusted source for information on your products/ services. You have a Twitter feed that keeps the consumer updated throughout the day on news and events pertaining to THEM and their specific interest- reminding them that YOU are their dependable source.
Ultimately everything comes down to the bottom line – drive revenue, lower traditional marketing costs by using Internet Marketing to generate traffic to your website, measure your ROI, and have a sustainable online marketing system that becomes more powerful over time.
So it’s time. Time to make that website work for you, time to embrace the future of social marketing with a company like Social Media San Diego that has the integrity, credibility, and track record of results to help build your online brand and improve your companies performance in all areas. Time to get online. Time to get it done right!
Social Networking San Diego will get you there- We offer the Fast Track
Social marketing campaigns are the current trend but what are some key points your business can follow?
Social media and social marketing campaigns have become the norm today. Social marketing campaigns such as Twitter, linked-in, and Facebook and have given people the chance to communicate with family, friends and colleagues too without spending a single penny. Individuals are also making use of social marketing campaigns for business and to make new friends who are like minded and share the same information as them.
Online marketing and social media have come along a long way. Industry professionals have come to realize this potential and social media agencies are now targeting certain sections of individuals to market products, services and even clients to various people who do show some interest.
The whole idea behind social marketing campaigns is that an effective social marketing campaign should give the individual users the resources so that they can share topics or any related data and information with other like minded people. Blogs, videos and even images are some of the ways to use the social media to get the interest of the targeted individuals.
If you have made up your mind to start a social marketing campaign, then here are a few points that you should note beforehand:
Key Point #1
Sit peacefully and decide the purpose of your social marketing campaign. What is the scope of this particular social marketing campaign? Do you want to change the attitudes or beliefs of a certain group of people? Does your campaign affect the masses or does it target specific group of people?
Key Point #2
Make a team and set your target and goal. Assign responsibilities right in the beginning and clearly define your goals. You have to do a bit of research even though you are not trying to sell a tangible product or belief. Statistics and facts have to be gathered and try to talk with industry experts so that you get valuable information that will help you later on.
Key Point #3
Product, price, place and promotion are 4 “P’s” that will go a long way in making this social marketing campaign a grand success. You should first target the required population for a successful social marketing campaign. The social marketing campaign should be highly personal. The message should be effective and target the required audience. Identify the key gatekeepers and stake holders who will partner with you this campaign. Position the product effectively i.e. understand the target audience’s views in order to maximize benefits. If the product is properly positioned the correct awareness in created and the desired message is sent across effectively. It should of course have a direct call to action.
Key Point #4
Last but not the least you have to get financial support for your social marketing campaign. You can take the help of an ad agency, a social media marketing team of consultants, or a government organization and sell your social marketing campaign concept to them and hope to raise the sufficient funds. Getting the funding these days to run a successful campaign are most seen with the big brands like university of phoenix, whole foods, jet blue, zappos, etc. But for small and mid-sized business which we focus on helping with social media, we continue to work on campaigns and are developing and improving upon our turn key systems for this market, so please stay tuned.
Is there anything that you are currently doing in your social media campaign that you need help with? Contact us today HERE and let us know any struggles you are having. We have been in the trenches consulting on these projects now for 9 months.
Social marketing campaigns can be basically implemented in a local, regional or national level or a combination of any of these levels. Each social marketing campaign can be custom made to reach the desired targeted audience regardless where they are located.
The initial concept of social marketing was a result of blending ideas and principles of commercial marketing with the public health’s desire to promote and provide social behavior in individuals. At present, social media sites are seeing a virtual explosion and you have to be in touch with the virtual world to stay in touch with these instant message networks and relevant information for your market and industry. Try and target specific groups or individuals during your social networking campaigns to ensure that your product reaches the right people.
Social marketing campaigns aim at influencing the ideas, attitudes and behaviors of target individuals in order to improve personal as well as social welfare through commercial marketing technologies especially using the internet. The term “social marketing” and “mass media” are used interchangeably but the main difference is that social marketing uses a wide range of communications method to influence and benefit society and not merely to increase sales.
Just like the process of commercial marketing, social marketing deals with four aspects of a consumer and how they deal with products. For example,
1. What product is required for this consumer?
Social marketing serves to pinpoint and enforce consumer needs like medical procedures, heath initiatives, or health ideas like preservation of the environment and recycling. Here social marketing serves as a research tool to find out what the consumer needs and possible products to make them to take action towards achieving it.
2. What would be the ideal price of the product?
The price of the product is determined to allow the consumer to decide what they would be willing to pay for a product and using social media marketing or social marketing can provide quick feedback. Social marketing allows vendors to listen to the audience feedback on what they might be willing to pay for such products or services.
3. Where can they get the product?
Through this aspect of social marketing campaigns, consumers are assured of a good supply of the product along with distribution systems, warehouses and retail outlets where the product is sold and will be readily available. Social marketing ensures that the customer will have up to date and relative information of the product as and when he or she requires it once the product or service is ready to be released to the market. Don’t forget the social media strategy of building up the “online buzz” prior to product or service launch to generate more interest much quicker than traditional marketing mediums.
4. How will you be Promoting the product?
Although this is the least important aspect of social marketing, it’s often the most visible and thus mistakenly considered the most important. Using social networking and social media for business to promote products and services to various online networks is a science that must be communicated in a marketing combined with an engaging way with the audience. This can be critical to the success of the online marketing campaign, and with the right strategy, social networking san diego can help your form a successful social marketing campaign.
These questions basally are the building blocks of the social marketing campaign. A social marketing campaign should provide additional information to the audience’s so that they can take the ‘next step’ forward in the buying process. Almost all social marketing campaigns are a long term investment, as society needs time to accept changes and changes cannot be made by individuals overnight. A strategic social marketing campaign may require a lot of time to reach the particular objective but we help do the work for you by the many proven research techniques we use. This is why clients partner with us and trust us to help conduct these campaigns and get them trained to be involved in their online community.
Connectivity and engaging with people is the most essential feature for social networking campaigns to gather momentum and keep going. If there is no interaction, social marketing campaigns fail to perform up to the expected levels and do not go viral. Marketing efforts over the social media have seen positive as well as negative impacts with larger audiences.
Addictive and viral campaigns often catch the public’s attention sooner, but blow out faster if they do not interest and engage the customer. Designing the proper online marketing strategy is like a science, with many variables.
Take the case of Facebook. This social network is more of a communication between friends, colleagues and relatives that has becomes very tough for the marketing community to monetize. The majority of Facebook users do not like the marketing advertisements that pop up as it causes a distraction to users who are more interested in chatting with long lost relatives and friends.
The world is going tech savvy and by the year 2015, nearly half of all purchases will surely have some web-based element in them. The purchase could be offline or online, it does not matter at all. It could merely mean that the customer is reading or browsing for a new product on a blog, website, then reading news updates and simply comparing prices of the product online or through a networking site. But almost all sales will be related to the internet.
Social networking campaign specialists like Social Networking San Diego can utilize social networking campaigns and ensure good word of mouth sales for their clients chosen products. Just getting people to talk about the product is not enough. You have to clearly define whether the existing technology is sufficient or whether you should focus on discussions, videos, voting, PPC, etc. to promote your product. Companies big and small can take part online now and develop social networking campaigns and strategies to promote their business whether a product or service based business, we can develop and implement your social media marketing campaign the right way.
Ready to get started? Get a FREE Website Evaluation and see where your website ranks compared to your competitors now (Click Here- FREE Website Evaluation)
Many business and marketing people keep talking about social media and social marketing and how businesses can get into this new online marketplace, but I have some actual non-theory lessons from ACTUAL consulting on about 12 client projects we have worked on over the last seven months.
Social Networking for business is hard stuff. You have to be both technical, psychological, sociological, business savvy, marketing savvy, sales savvy, a good communicator, good writer,…… The list goes on. 1 full time employee or college intern handling social media marketing will not cut it I guarantee it.
My TEAM (together everyone achieves more) of Business consultants and I have been doing workshops, tweet ups in Carlsbad, tele-seminars, conference calls, coaching, training, blogging, strategy building, assessments, webinars, and consulting on social media and social networking for business for the last 7 months. (I have been doing various business and technical consulting for about 10 years)
I remember my first blog post on how i predicted that social media and social networking will save small business and STILL stand by that prediction and remember it like it was yesterday. I also remember each and every client experience, where WE went wrong, and what changes we made in our “process” to improve. I must say right off the bat that I could NOT be in this “Social CEO” position with out my twitter network. I learned more on twitter in 2 months from just listening, paying it forward, and helping others achieve what information, resources, or knowledge they cared about which in return they taught me what I needed to know to help formulate Social Networking San Diego. Consider it a PHD in internet marketing from twitter for FREE just 20 days a month on-line till 4am investing my time (video proof here).
I laugh at the colleges now trying to charge thousands of dollars for certificate programs for social media marketing and internet marketing (even Masters Degrees) when all people would have to do is just apply themselves a little bit, spend some time doing internet research, and start LISTENING! Also, we are in a HUGE recession, and colleges are in fact a BUSINESS too trying to stay on the trends and make MORE money off students. But I digress…..
Here are some tips about what to be careful of in the trenches of social media and social networking consulting for businesses:
1.ROI– If they ask you “what will be my ROI”, ask them, “what is your CURRENT ROI on marketing/ advertising?” Tell them to give you a fraction of that (at least 10%) show them some results in the first quarter or six months, and then ask them for a larger budget (if you can perform)
2.Don’t under charge– Your time is valuable, and just because they might not see the REAL value in social media and social networking for business development purposes and lead generation, you still want to attract the clients who have a “perceived value” in social media. This can be hard, but where are you looking??? Our first couple accounts we did FULL SERVICE for less than 1000$/ month AND worked on these accounts probably 80 hours per month. Talk about hustling! And you know what, they left because they didn’t want to “spend the time” in social media because they were too impatient and wanted overnight success. And they felt the training was something an intern could do. Do you really want an intern handling your corporate message and controlling your brand perception online???? Let me stress to you that being in the trenches now for 7 months, this will require your client to commit to 9 months to 1 year to make it worth your time. That is if you provide a comprehensive and holistic approach to social media and social networking for business. This is VERY time consuming and a lot of work I assure you but the BEST practices approach for building a lasting community around your client’s products and services.
3.DON’T DO PAY BY PERFORMANCE– Do you like working for free? I sure as hell don’t, and we tried that and learned NOT to do it again! On a few clients, we agreed to pay by performance model and you know what happen, we worked our A$$ off, did the research, the set-up, got them leads, and they still weren’t happy. (we don’t work for the company, we get you leads, its up to you to close your deals, we are not your sales team) I would advise AGAINST bartering as well, tried that too 🙂
4.Social Media and Social Networking is not for EVERY client– Every business is different so be sure you analyze the prospect in depth BEFORE taking them on as a client. If they have a 4 year old website, why would we want to drive traffic to it? So we recommended a new website FIRST, then we will drive the traffic. (they thought they could get a good site done for 500$ so I said be my guest, then they came back for a full word press site from us)
5.Make your deliverables clear– Make sure you specify where the hours will be allocated for the project so the client is clear about what THEY will bring to the table, and what YOU will bring. We ask our clients to commit to X amount of training per month, X amount of content submissions, articles, etc.
I hope this helps clarify what life has been like for the non-theory preaching social media enthusiasts (I used to be one too, and still am a little, but businesses need help so we are rolling up our sleeves and helping what businesses we can, and who have the budget of course)
Any thoughts on your experiences? I know we have many readers who are in this industry, so feel free to leave some insight or feedback on your experiences in the trenches of social media consulting,
Thanks JustinRFrench
CEO Social Networking San Diego
Have any questions- hit me up on the G-Voice 760 – 576 – GOLF oh yeah!!
P.S. Get a copy of “Social Media Survival Guide for Business” The FAST TRACK
$9.95Click Here to order: (if you have time to read it) But this will be a helpful guide for you and your business as you journey into Social Media and Social Networking for Business. Enjoy
We as CEO’s know the game is changing. It’s not doing business as usual any longer. Old styles of marketing such as direct mail, telemarketing and even email marketing are producing diminishing results. The companies that will be in business in the future MUST take advantage and diversify into an on-line marketing approach that embraces social media and social networking (especially twitter) and formulate a strategy around their products and services.
Believe it or not, the numbers are showing these on-line marketing tactics cheaper than traditional methods (Better ROI) and with shrinking budgets and a need for new ideas, what better solution than social marketing? Now this is easier said then done. I have been in IT and Business for over 10 years and for marketing, lead generation, and sales, departments MUST understand how to use these tools for those purposes. Its not what tools are out these, but how your departments are trained to use them. I conduct workshops for various corporations and have given companies the fast-track approach to social media and help structure the workshops in layman’s terms so everyone understands their role and how it fits with the company culture. Strategy is the most important, and not too many people in corporations have the business and technical sense because of the dis-connect among departments that exists.
Typically, no one in the company even understands all these various on-line mediums, which is why CEO’s will need to bring in outside help to re-shape the company culture around these new paradigms.
Here is a helpful video i put together that gives the following talking points:
1. Old Style of Marketing VS. New Style of Marketing
2. Two Buck Chuck Example (blue ocean strategy)
3. Whole Foods Example (blue Ocean Strategy- Online & Off-line)
4. How you will need outside consultants to help re-shape corporate culture
I would appreciate some of your thoughts / insight on this discussion post.
What challenges is your firm facing with formulating a social media strategy?
I would Appreciate your any feedback
Thanks
JustinRFrench CEO Social Networking San Diego
Email me at “snsdjf@gmail.com “> with any questions you may have and i would be happy to offer some advice
4. Trust is very important. We have gained the trust of many clients by always doing what we say and communicating with them regularly and measuring the success of our social marketing strategy. We may even have to make adjustments with the keywords or messaging. It is definitely a process and takes months to lay the proper foundation. Consider it sweat equity or “building brand equity” as Gary Vee says; you are investing in the long run for big payoffs months down the road. I assure you there is no quick fix or get rich quick scheme that can help your business achieve long term growth and success online. Right now we are solving on-line marketing challenges companies are having and leveraging social networking and social media tools as means of meeting and achieving business goals. Social networking used to be just for personal use, but now we have identified how to leverage these mediums to help corporations become more competitive, more visible, and more profitable. As business consultants who happen to be very technical, this has given us an advantage to be able to leverage cutting edge technology for our clients that gives them a competitive edge. That is exactly why clients continue to see the value in working with a highly technical team who is first and foremost business minded and continues to produces on-line social marketing results.
Call 760-576-4653 to schedule a FREE Discovery Session!