http://www.spiral16.com Social media ROI is tough to calculate because its a financial metric, and social media's value is not inherently financial. But the challenge isn't new -- finding ROI is difficult in other programs and campaigns as well. This presentation gives you 6 steps you can follow to measure an effective social media program.

1. Measuring Social Media: Where’s the ROI? Tracy Panko @TracyPanko @spiral16

2. Social Media is a Game Changer It gives people a voice. Social media is radically changing cultures all over the world. *Egypt revolution, TedNguyenUSA.com

3. The Ability to Share Experiences Isn’t Going Away An average of 900,000 blog posts a day 4-6 million tweets an hour on average Over 30 billion pieces of content (videos, notes, status updates, pages) shared on Facebook in a month * AIGA.org

4. Social Media is Transforming Business Culture & Methodology “In the future, there will be two types of companies: Those that are agile and adapt to consumers’ changing business behavior … and those that go out of business.” Of the 500 original companies listed on Standard & Poor’s 500 in 1957, only 17% remained in 2007. - Forrester research, CMO Mandate: Adapt or Perish

5. Active Brand Marketing “This is the approach that marketers must take to avoid extinction and thrive in the digital age.” Active brand marketing-A flexible approach in which marketers respond quickly to their environment to align consumer and brand goals and maximize return on equity. - Forrester research, CMO Mandate: Adapt or Perish

6. Adapting is a Challenge … 64% of marketers experienced problems trying to implement digital marketing initiatives. Only 4% of marketing leaders feel that they are prepared to exploit digital marketing opportunities. - Accenture Interactive 2010 study …but it’s also a huge opportunity. Photo credit: stasisconsulting.com

8. People want to be part of a community.

9. People don’t want to be marketed or broadcast to. Photo credit:www.flickr.com/photos/sadaiche/

10. Start With What You Know You’ve identified your company’s business goals already. Company goals Social media campaign Success Now think about how you can achieve those goals through a social media program

12. Build it from the ground up.

14. Why Social Media ROI is Tough ROI = (Gain from Investment) - (Cost of Investment) Cost of Investment Return on investment is a financial metric. That financial aspect is not clearly defined in social media—it’s not built-in.

15. But This Challenge Isn’t New Calculating ROI for print ads and radio ads has always been difficult. Metrics relies on the people influenced by print and radio self-identifying themselves or coupon codes being recorded and collected. Calculating ROI for social media is also difficult because it is integrated into your overall strategy—it is hard to separate.

16. There is no way to calculate social media ROI with a one-size-fits-all equation. Image from glynndevins.com -- and modified

17. 6 Steps To An Effective Social Media Campaign Identify business goals. Align goals with social media program. Establish benchmarks. Set realistic targets. Measure KPIs to determine success. Look at results, find ways to improve.

18. 1. Identify Business Goals Make sure your social media initiatives (nonfinancial) are supporting your business goals (financial) Think about this: Where is the company now? Where does it want to be? What will it take to get there?

20. Reduce Customer Service Expenses

21. Acquire New Customers

22. Reduced Cost Per Transaction

23. Increase in Qualified Leads

24. Higher Value Per Sale

25. Increase in Customer Satisfaction

26. Increase in Reach

27. Introduce New Products/Service Enhancements

28. Attract New Employees

29. Encourage Repeat Purchases/Build Customer Loyalty

30. 2. Align Social Media Program with Goals Avon tinkered with its well-known door-to-door and catalog-based direct sales model by empowering its salespeople with social selling tools like its FacebookeBoutique and iPhone app. Social media platform Avon Connects virtually attaches consumers to their local Avon rep, at which point traditional face-to-face service begins.

32. Facebook/MySpace

33. Blogs

34. Forums

35. YouTube

36. Foursquare/Gowalla

37. Flickr

38. Webinars

39. PodcastsBeing active on these platforms is only important if using them helps you reach your goal.

43. Paid monitoring solutions – Lithium, Radian6, Sysomos, Trackur

44. Online listening & research solutions – Spiral16, Crimson Hexagon, Cymfony, ConsumerBase

46. Retweets

47. Facebook likes

48. Brand mentions

49. Blog comments

50. YouTube views

51. Number of check-insAre these things important? Ask yourself which ones matter to your business.

58. Social audience metrics

59. Fans/Followers/Friends

60. Conversions

61. User-generated content

62. Comments

63. Ratings/Reviews

64. Downloads

65. Volume of conversation

66. Search metrics

67. Sentiment & tone

68. Backlinks

69. Competition comparison

70. Share metrics

71. Referrals

72. Click throughs - Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer

74. Retail traffic

75. # of transactions

76. New customers

77. Amount per transaction

78. Leads

79. Surveys- Social Media ROI, Olivier Blanchard

80. Put Results on a Timeline Did you see spikes in sales in correlation with your social media efforts? What other patterns can you identify?

81. Measuring Social Media Programs Can Find Real Savings In 2009, Ford built early awareness for the Fiesta with influential bloggers who tested and wrote about it In 2010, Ford launched the Fiesta Project, an effort to capture user-generated video. As a result, Ford learned it could reduce cost of subsequent launches by as much as 90%. - Forrester research, CMO Mandate: Adapt or Perish

82. 6. Look at Results, Find Ways to Improve The great thing about web measurement is … You don’t have to wait for all your results. They update as the program continues. And you have every opportunity to view those results and make changes to your program along the way.

83. It’s Not Always Difficult Sometimes just being able to illustrate that you have the ability to create business gains through social media is enough … …to reach your goal.

84. Conclusions Goal: Understand that social media represents a new set of measurements that can be correlated with your traditional financial metrics. Challenge: Figure out which social media metrics can support your business objectives and be correlated to increase your ROI.

85. Thank you from Special thanks to the organizers of NAMA Tracy Panko @Spiral16 @TracyPanko