Monetising Social MediaA case study in measuring the value of social media marketing online

Ashley FriedleinCEOE-consultancy.com

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“The future of the social web”

“Harnessing Social Media for B2B and B2C marketing campaigns”

“How UK Government approaches the web and social media”

“Social and Professional Networking how marketers and users navigate in the Web 2.0 world”

“The impact and ROI of social retail”

What is ‘Social Media’?

• Blogs• Discussion Boards & Communities• Product review sites• Media-sharing• Social Networking• Bookmarking / tagging• ‘Social commerce’, ‘social news’ etc….

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“Internet-based tools and venues where anyone can

communicate publicly”

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Universal McCann Social Media Study

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Great for PR

BUT…

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Q: Has Second Life worked for you?A: “It’s a lot more hype than reality.”Chris Shimojima, VP, Nike.om

Q: How did the YouTube clip help generate pledges? A: “…it's not a top referring site … in terms of pledges and uptake of products, we're not seeing that come through.”Rob Merrington, Head of Brand Advertising, EDF Energy

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Jerry Maguire, 1996

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How do we make money?

• Advertising– Average £20 per thousand page views / 2 ads per page /

3 pages views per visit– Average advertising value per visit = 12p

• Commerce (Subscriptions, Memberships, Events, Training etc.)– Conversion rate = 0.25%– Average order value = £200– Average commerce value per visit = 50p

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Average Total Value / Visit

=62p

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(but some visits are more valuable than

others)

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Direct Traffic

Indirect Traffic(aka Google)

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Top Referring Domains

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7,000 visits a day from Google

= £4,340 a day…

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How many more direct visits can we get?

Can we get more Google love?

from ‘social media marketing’

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Question 1

Should we engage with sites that deliver VOLUME (REACH) or

INFLUENCE?

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Answer 1

Both…VOLUME = VOLUMEINFLUENCE = SEO = VOLUME

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Question 2

So which sites would deliver volume (and the right

prospective customers)

And which (SEO) influence?

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Answer 2VOLUME / REACH INFLUENCE

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Lots of sites…

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Prioritised + How to approach

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Go engage!

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Links via Online PR

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BBC Internet Blog

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Multilingual Search Community

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BazaarVoice Blog

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Internetworldstats.com

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Facebook

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Links via Answering Questions

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Yahoo! Answers

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LinkedIn Answers

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WikiAnswers

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Wikipedia

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Links via Profiles /

‘Channels’

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YouTube Channel

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Twitter Channel

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Slideshare Channel

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Dailymotion

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Veoh

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Links via Bookmarking /

Tagging

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Digg

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Del.icio.us

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Was it worth

it?

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Scores on the doors…

Cost• Search Agency

– £3,000

• Data / Tools– Free (-ish)

• Internal Time– 5 days worth of time

Call it £10,000

Referred visits in last 6 weeks

Stumbleupon 1,369

LinkedIn 669

Wikepedia 547

Del.icio.us 276

Twitter 106

Views = 1,746

No. referred visits = 5

No. referred visits = 77

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Total no. ‘social media’ referred

visits =

18,000

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Value =

18,000 X 62p = £11.16k…

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SEO impact?

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Google Natural Search Referrals

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Total no. incremental visits

for SEO improvement =

72,000

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Value =

72,000 X 62p = £44.64k…

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ROI =(£11.16K +

£44.64k) / £10k = 558%

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BUT…(there’s

always a but)

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How many of these links

came from this campaign?

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Do we really know the Google

improvements came about from this

campaign?

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(but some visits are more valuable than

others)

less

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We assumed Average commerce value per visit = 50p

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So how much did we

actually sell?

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£112k sold online in the

period

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‘Social media’ referred sales…

£2.4k(2.1% of sales)

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And EVERY SINGLE ONE of those...

ALSO searched Google on us before

buying

Other Benefits

• Built PR contacts db

• Found high-performing new affiliates

• Found new partners (e.g. for contras, co-registration etc.)

Other Benefits• Built influence / credibility

Conclusion• Worth it but

– Quite a bit of work – Value in tangential areas

• Good-ish for traffic; less good for sales• Indirect traffic via search bigger than

direct traffic (and higher value)• But mostly…

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Questions?E-consultancy Resources:• Online Measurement and Strategy Report 2008 (with

Lynchpin)http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/online-measurement-and-strategy-report-2008/

• Web Analytics Buyer’s Guide

http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/web-analytics-buyers-guide-2007/

• Web Analytics Request for Proposal Template http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/web-analytics-rfp-request-for-proposal/

• Web Analytics Business Casehttp://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/web-analytics-business-case

• Measurement, Analytics and Optimisation Briefinghttp://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/analytics-measurement-optimisation-briefing-march-

2008/