ROI of Social Media: How to Improve the Return on Your Social Marketing Investment

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PUTTING VALUES TO THE “R” AND “I” OF ROI IN SOCIAL MEDIA

WHY ROI?

There are a number of dimensions of ROI. Sometimes, we need to look backward to determine how successful our marketing was. Sometimes we need to look forward to determine what the estimated or planned ROI could be in the future. Both of these calculations are important for organizations in general, and marketing specifically. Although marketing is usually more interested in allocating marketing investments properly in the face of uncertainty for the future, they also must look in the rear- view mirror to see how they've done and how they might improve.

Although the past isn't always a perfect indicator of the future, it does help to understand what worked in the past and how to glean insights in order to improve the future. Secondly, it is important to know how successful the marketing results were in the past in order to survive the internal decision-making and budgeting process. Unfortunately, many marketers often focus on the wrong measures when trying to justify their budgets and results, but without a hard and fast connection to the lifeblood of the company—revenue and profit—the eyes of the non-marketer glaze over and at the end of the discussion marketing budgets are simply cut. Marketers must show and prove their connection to revenue and profit or they will lose control of their fates when they come to the budget.

PUT MARKETING IN THE CRITICAL PATH TO CORPORATE SUCCESS

With hard numbers, with solid analytics ...