Social Media Is Not Free - Measuring ROI

I have always preached that for Interactive Marketing, if you can't measure it then it's not worth doing.

Survey results released this week by Alterian found that "Thirty-seven percent of respondents said they are not able to measure ROI when it comes to the socialization of their brand, and 42 percent reported to be only somewhat able to measure ROI."

A year ago eMarketer reported that "84% of respondents said they don’t currently measure the ROI (return on investment) of their social media programs."

Measuring the ROI of social media activities is difficult because there are so many factors to measure and track. Below is a slide show by Olivier Blanchard that does a great job of explaining what ROI is and how it relates to Social Media.  Spoiler Alert! Although this story has a happy ending, your results may vary.

Olivier Blanchard Basics Of Social Media Roi

View more presentations from Olivier Blanchard.

See also:

• Can Social Media Help Small Biz?
• Industrial Marketers Shift To Online Marketing
• How The Mayo Clinic Uses Social Media

Google Allowing More Search Results From Each Domain

Until now, search results in Google would only include one or two results from a single domain. 

To dominate the results for a brand name query you had to use sub-domains or create multiple sites with unique content that focused on that brand.




Google announced, "Today we’ve launched a change to our ranking algorithm that will make it much easier for users to find a large number of results from a single site.

"We expect today’s improvement will help users find deeper results from a single site, while still providing diversity on the results page."

This could have a profound effect on strategies for online reputation management, social media marketing, affiliate marketing and the proliferation of microsites.

"Free" As An E-Marketing Strategy

Everyday I download "free" white papers from the Web in exchange for my contact information. I usually read the "free" newsletter that inevitably follows, at least once, but I never answer the follow-up calls that ring on my fax machine. Occasionally I make a purchase as a result of this exchange. This is how the "free" economy works for me and the businesses who court me.

Twitter continues to be free. But Twitter hasn't ruled out charging for future services or keeping it free by adding advertising. Hopefully Twitter will conclude that "free" can be a successful e-marketing strategy much as Google has with Mail, Analytics, YouTube, etc.

In a 2008 special report in Wired Magazine titled “Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business“, author Chris Anderson presents a few case studies in detail that still make sense today. The article includes an analysis of six broad categories of business models leveraging the free economy:

• Freemium: What’s free: Web software and services, some content. Free to whom: users of the basic version.
  
• Advertising: What’s free: content, services, software, and more. Free to whom: everyone.
• Cross-subsidies: What’s free: any product that entices you to pay for something else. Free to whom: everyone willing to pay eventually, one way or another.
• Zero marginal cost: What’s free: things that can be distributed without an appreciable cost to anyone. Free to whom: everyone.
• Labor exchange: What’s free: Web sites and services. Free to whom: all users, since the act of using these sites and services actually creates something of value.
• Gift economy: What’s free: the whole enchilada, be it open source software or user-generated content. Free to whom: everyone.

A related article can be found on trendwatching.com. The Amsterdam-based trendwatching agency, published a Trendreport titled “Free Love” which is all about the ongoing rise of ‘free stuff’, and the brands already making the most it. The report is free to read online or to download as a PDF.

In a soon to be release book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, Chris Anderson makes the compelling case that in many instances businesses can profit more from giving things away than they can by charging for them. Free is the business strategy that may well be essential to a company's survival.

In Free, which will be released on July 7, Chris Anderson also points to the growth of the reputation economy; explains different models for unleashing the power of Free; and shows how to compete when your competitors are giving away what you're trying to sell.

Companies Fail to Use Voice of the Customer for Competitive Gain

Despite overwhelming agreement on the importance of customer experience and word-of-mouth, senior marketers admit their companies are failing to take decisive, company-wide action to integrate customer voice and experience into key business and marketing processes, according to a new study by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council.

The CMO Council study underscores critical deficiencies in the way companies measure, optimize and leverage customer experience to drive loyalty, improve brand value and increase business performance and growth, including:

• Availability and aggregation of real-time customer experience data across touch points that should be shared across the organization
• Use of customer interactions to collect insights and intelligence or maximize up-sell and advocacy opportunities
• Lack of Internet processes and systems to track online word of mouth and drive customer advocacy