When Measuring Social Media’s ROI For B2B Don’t Chase The Wrong Goals
By Kipp Bodnar
Wed, Nov 4, 2009
You can measure anything as long as you have a clear goal to measure right? Sure, but what if you have the wrong goal? Well then everything you are measuring is wrong. As many have said before, measuring social media is not some magic spell that you have to cast just right to find the perfect answer. Instead, it is about having a defined plan, collecting data from start to finish, and making sure that you are looking at the data through the right lens.
Quality Vs. Quantity: B2B’s Biggest Challenge Measuring Social Media ROI
Most clients think big, and want “big.” They want more fans, subscribers, followers and this is all under the illusion that more is better. I am here to argue that especially for B2B, that is not the case at all. Often times with B2B social media less is more.
Why do you want 10,000 twitter followers if you only have 250 target customers and influencers in the world? This simply doesn’t make sense. The opportunity that social media provides is the opportunity to scale relationships.
What Moves The Needle
Numbers don’t move the needle, advocates do. Advocates support you brand, your products, come visit you at tradeshows, while numbers just sit in the column of a Twitter account or spreadsheet. Instead of chasing numbers, I suggest determining the people that can actually move the needle of transactions and brand advocacy.
A Guide To B2B Social Media Decision-Making
One of the reason that many B2B organizations chase the wrong kind of numbers on the social web, is because it is really easy to do it. In a world where shiny applications and friend counts rules, it is to easy to get distracted. When planning and executing your B2B social media strategy ask yourself these questions in an effort to ensure focus on the right numbers.
1. Does This Effort Help Me Connect With Someone Who Can Purchase My Product?
2. Does This Strategy Help Convert A Customer Into An Advocate?
3. Do The Strategies And Tactics Tie Into My Sales Funnel And CRM system?
4. Is My Strategy Leveraging The Support Of Internal And Existing Advocates?
5. Are Measurable Objectives That Drive Transactions Integrated Into The Entire Social Media Strategy?
I hope these questions help you get started. Additional I hope this post reminds you to chase the right goals. With B2B social media often the question for ROI needs to be “who” not “how many”.
How are you currently measuring the ROI of social media?
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Consider looking at the ROI of social media by considering and benchmarking the initial social ecosystem, current clients and contacts. After building a strategy and action plan to achieve business goals, and implementing the strategy, tracking those connections that become clients. This brings the ROI to a basic level.
They were not a client or contact before the effort began, they are when you get done. In social media we know so much about the people we connect with from their profiles. ROI at its most simplistic level is social contact and then moving to a customer.
Wendy Soucie
http://www.xeesm.com/wendysoucie
“Why do you want 10,000 twitter followers if you only have 250 target customers and influencers in the world? This simply doesn’t make sense.” Well said. I couldn’t agree more. Especially for B2B, if you chasing the big numbers your goals are wrong, your measurement lens is wrong, and your simply wasting money. “Who needs millions?” should be the mantra! (http://centerline.net/blog/?p=249)
Thanks for the great post.
@johnvlane