Measurement of ROI Lacking in Many Social Media Programs

Business professionals are more likely to use social media for marketing purposes over any other business area according to a recent study by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education. 4 in 10 respondents reported they had used social media to help with internal collaboration and learning. 30% of professionals utilized social media for customer service and support, followed closely by use in sales and human resources at 25% and 21% respectively.

The vast majority of businesses had social media applications integrated within their existing websites. A little less than half of respondents noted that they deployed their social technologies through either a standalone community site or as a social widget from third-party sites.

Many businesses, however, have failed to implement any sort of protocol or system for measuring and tracking ROI on any of their social media programs. Only 16% of professionals claimed to have employed any methods to determine the success of their social media endeavors.

The main issue behind the lack of ROI measurement stems from the fact that many professionals were unaware that certain social applications had any ROI measurement capabilities at all.

Available applications such as Facebook Insights and Google Analytics can be useful tools in determining the success of your social media campaigns. Other basic methods such as counting the number of Fans or Followers can give you a rough idea of the ROI that your company may be obtaining.

Source: eMarketer, September 22, 2009