emarketer webinar: measuring social media success

Social Media Measurement: Getting to the Metrics That Matter

Debra Aho WilliamsonPrincipal AnalystJ A N U A R Y 1 9, 2 0 1 2

Measuring Social Media Success

Sponsored by:

2012 eMarketer Inc.1

What well look at todayWhy its important to get measurement right

The four problems of measurement today

Metrics for success: Three things all marketers should do

How to take measurement to the next levelTwitter: #eMwebinar2012 eMarketer Inc.2

Whats wrong with social media measurement? A snapshotNot a single one of the vendors could help them justify the spend that theyd made in their tools, much less their social campaigns.

Big company

11 social measurementvendors

2012 eMarketer Inc.3The Importance of Social Media Measurement

2012 eMarketer Inc.4Global executives attribute 52% of their brands reputation to how social it is online today, up from 45% one year ago.

They project that 65% of their brands reputation will come from its online sociability in three years.

Marketers believe social media will bring a range of benefits if they can only unlock the key to success.

Source: Socializing Your Brand: A Brands Guide to Sociability, October 20112012 eMarketer Inc.5

Measurement and budget go hand in handMarketers need proof that social media works, so they can feel comfortable continuing to invest.

Trial: organization does not have a process or guidelines for performing social marketing. Transition: organization has an informal process with a few guidelines it sporadically performs. Strategic: organization has a formal process with thorough guidelines it routinely performs.Twitter: #eMwebinar2012 eMarketer Inc.6The rewards can be great, but the risks are high. Accurately measuring social media is a must.Marketers Top Two Digital Marketing Challenges

#1 Generating and leveraging deep customerinsights is a necessity tocompete effectively

#2 Managing brand health and reputation is harder when social media plays an important role in marketing

Source: McKinsey & Company McKinsey Quarterly, November 2011

Image: fotographic1980 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net2012 eMarketer Inc.7Social Media Measurement Today


Heres what marketers say:Social media measurement is not very effective. Even though there are many ways to measure, concrete success metrics remain elusive.Fan count is still a top metric. 60% of marketers use friends, followers or likes as a success measure (Chief Marketer, 2011).The ROI question is unanswered. Return on investment is a top challenge of social media marketing, making budgeting difficult.We dont know what tools to use. One tool or several?Twitter: #eMwebinar2012 eMarketer Inc.9

Marketers in their own wordsI wish I could say there are many best practices and case studies out there, but right now we are still at the infancy stage of defining a framework for social media measurement. I dont think anybodys really cracked the code about how these types of online tools directly impact revenue or ROI. Wed like to be able to say that because we launched a Facebook sampling tab weve increased our fan count and increased sales by a certain percentage, but were not in that place yet to have those sorts of metrics.

2012 eMarketer Inc.10Only 13% of marketers say they are very effective at measuring results

2012 eMarketer Inc.11Marketers are more apt to count fans and likes than sales

No change from 20103 points lower than 20102012 eMarketer Inc.12Measuring social media ROI is frequently cited as a challenge


Marketers do not know what tools to use to measure successTwitter: #eMwebinar2012 eMarketer Inc.14TKTK

Credit: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.netHow can social media marketers get to the metrics that matter?2012 eMarketer Inc.15

Measurement must move beyond the basics and prove business valueWe have gotten to the point where brands and companies are making decisions on whether to increase investment in a channel that is receiving a huge amount of consumer attention. Its very important to start to move toward measuring in a better, more business- value-focused way.2012 eMarketer Inc.16Three Things Every Marketer Should Do


1) Start measuring 39% of worldwide retailers dont measure social media marketing. (Economist Intelligence Unit, April 2011) 36% of UK B2B marketers dont measure. (PricewaterhouseCoopers, September 2011) 6.9% of high-revenue companies worldwide* dont measure. (CMO Club/Bazaarvoice, 2011)* half of respondents worked for companies with $1 billion+ in sales

Image: nattavut / FreeDigitalPhotos.netDont assume its impossible2012 eMarketer Inc.18The measurement landscape is crowdedbut navigable


2) Dont wait for the silver bullet

Because businesses use social media for so many reasons and goals, there may never be a single success metric.Twitter: #eMwebinar2012 eMarketer Inc.20Every social media effort should start with clear goals and KPIs

Experienced marketers use multiple metrics2012 eMarketer Inc.21

3) Demand that your marketing partners play a larger role The bigger consultancies and agenciesout of self-defensewill start to develop some pretty good methodologies and mental models for social performance and social ROI.Erik Huddleston, Dachis Group CTO The days of recommending social as an add-on without a clear set of goals are gone

2012 eMarketer Inc.22Some are already stepping up to the challenge

2012 eMarketer Inc.23How to Take Measurement to the Next Level


Three goals for increasing measurement sophistication in 2012Its not the fans, its what you do with them. Understand who your brand followers are and how influential they can be on your behalf. Go beyond brand metrics. The more marketers can work toward understanding how social media impacts actual business, the better. Integrate social analytics and marketing analytics. Understand how social media can make other media spending more efficient, and how online buzz relates to overall marketing performance. Twitter: #eMwebinar2012 eMarketer Inc.25

1) Its not the fans, its what you do with themUnderstand who your brand followers are and how they can be influential on your behalf.

Focus on measuring leads, sales and revenue.

2012 eMarketer Inc.26Only 28% of marketers track the number of people who contribute to a brands social community

2012 eMarketer Inc.272) Track more than just brand metricsAwareness and engagement may be easier to measure, but social media can do more. Harder metrics can show socials contribution to business results. Make sales an objective. Only 17% of marketers use sales or leads as a success metric. (Econsultancy/SEMPO)Sales are what matter to our agents. You can only measure how many people or how many positive comments for so long before people start to question it, especially in this economy.


Questions:

How does an increase in positive online buzz impact CPG sales? How does negative buzz impact sales? How long can the effect be expected to last?

Methodology: Gathered point-of-sale sales data and online buzz for two brands: Lays chips and Skinny Cow ice cream

Case study: Measuring the impact of buzz on CPG sales

Twitter: #eMwebinar2012 eMarketer Inc.29

Case study: Results

Finding #1: Incremental sales increases correlate to the amount of online buzz

Finding #2: An ad campaign can trigger online buzz, which in turn can cause a sales surge

Next steps: Study campaigns with less social activity to determine the influence of buzz Incorporate ad campaign data to better filter out the impact of advertising vs. buzz

2012 eMarketer Inc.303) Integrate social analytics with other analytics to help build future business

And save money, too?

Can buzz generate leads? 2012 eMarketer Inc.31

Jim Farley, Fords global marketing chief:Were shifting the timing of our [ad] spend. Social media allows us to start to build a community months before a vehicle goes on sale. We learned this with the Fiesta Movement and we are continuing to perfect the model.If a social campaign drives broad awareness we can take the traditional media [spending] down a notch.

2012 eMarketer Inc.32Marketers have an opportunity to integrate social analytics just as they have integrated social media into marketing

2012 eMarketer Inc.33Key Takeaways


Getting to the metrics that matterSocial media measurement has evolved, but still doesnt satisfy most marketers. The effectiveness question remains top of mind.

Measurement and budget go hand in hand. Marketers need adequate metrics to be able to determine budget allocations.

Marketers are still too reliant on counting what is easy to measure. Counting fans and followers is fine as a basic benchmark metric, but marketers must strive to understand what those hand-raisers do for them.

Marketers must apply business-level analysis to social media measurement. Understanding social medias effect on a companys bottom line is critical. As SymphonyIRI and Ford have shown, its getting easier to consider the relative influence of social media on lead generation and sales.Twitter: #eMwebinar2012 eMarketer Inc.35

CFO vs. CMO36Powerful Intelligence For Social & Search Advertising

Real-Time Data So Marketers CanProve ROIMake Better Ad DecisionsSurface Customer Insights

38Clickable 4.0 WorkflowCompanyGraph

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Measuring Social Media Success

Questions & Answers

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Presented by:Debra Aho WilliamsonPrincipal Analyst, eMarketer, Inc.

Sponsored by:

2011 eMarketer Inc.