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CHAPTER 6

ON YOUR SOCIAL PAYOFF STRATEGY

Th e beginning is the most important part of the work.Plato

In the previous chapters, I shared about how social media has changed the business landscape as a tool for promoting your company, and a place for you to create a community of users, infl uencers, and other industry drivers that can help your brand grow. We have identifi ed the duties, roles, and responsibilities that are essential in making the social media marketing process work eff ectively. We have also talked about Th e C3 System, a framework that we use for every client so that they are able to plan a ROI-centric social media strategy.

Setting your strategic objectives and the timeline to achieve them is the fi rst of the steps under Th e C3 Systems Conversations stage. Doing this right will set the stage for the rest of your campaign. Many companies make the mistake of neglecting this stage, or setting

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ambiguous objectives that cannot be properly measured. As illustrated by this quote from John Wanamaker, Half the money I spent on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I dont know which half. Similarly, marketing should not just be about spending money, buying ads, and simply just getting awareness for your brand. It should also have a specifi c measured outcome.

Before jumping on the social media bandwagon, ask yourself this critical question in your role as a business owner or marketer: What do

you want to achieve from social media? Copyright Marcus Ho

For example, when I ask top executive management what their social media campaigns key business objectives are, the answer I get is usually more fans on my Facebook Page. Unfortunately, this isnt a key business objective. My friend Jay Baer has a popular quote, Th e goal is not to be good at social media. Th e goal is to be good at business because of

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social media. More fans is a social media metric, but it must relate to key business objectives. Without tangible objectives to guide your campaign, your social strategy will cause confusion, as your actions and decisions will not be guided by defi nitive targets.

All social media campaigns start with your business strategy. Everything else will have to t into the overall strategy of

your organisation. Source: Convince and Convert

Setting strategic objectives and timelines help you to keep track of your progress, maintain your direction in the complex social media environment, and allow you to remedy situations should errors or missteps occur in the midst of the campaign. Based on my experience, there are usually three diff erent key objectives that organisations want to achieve: Increase brand awareness, increase sales, and consumer retention.

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Once objectives are set, the next stage of The C3 System is to identify metrics to measure the success of your objectives. Copyright Marcus Ho

Once objectives are set, the second stage of the Conversations process is setting your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the campaign. Th is means getting into conversation with your management and team on what KPIs to use to measure the success of your earlier set objectives. Th ese KPIs will, in turn, allow you to determine your Return On Investment (ROI) or social payoff at the end of the campaign. Many companies have diffi culty quantifying their social media ROI due to the complex and often intangible nature of social media marketing. My team and I at SocialMetric have a social media ROI framework with 24 unique metrics to help you, based on the three key objectives of increasing brand awareness, increasing action or sales, and consumer loyalty.

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The Framework to Measuring Social Media ROI. Download the full version at SocialPayoffBook.com Copyright Marcus Ho

Brand Awareness ROI

Back in 1961, Russel H. Colley came up with the DAGMAR approach, which stands for Defi ning Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results. Ever since then, the DAGMAR model has been internationally recognised and used in many marketing departments all over the world. According to the DAGMAR model, each purchase prospect goes through four steps: Awareness, Comprehension, Conviction, and Action.

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To explain this in a little more detail, all advertisements begin at the Awareness stage, where consumers fi rst know about the brand. Th ey do not necessarily know about your products and why theyre diff erent yet, but at least your brand name will ring a bell in their minds. Th e next stage is where they start to comprehend your products, start to recognise and understand how youre diff erent from the rest of your industry. Once they are past that stage, then comes the Conviction phase where consumers will rave about you and prefer your brand over your competitors. And the last stage is the time they put their money where their mouths are, and eventually purchase your products.

Th e Social Media ROI model is built on this existing DAGMAR model with brand awareness on top, broken down into three phases: Awareness, Comprehension, and Conviction.

Awareness

Awareness refers to consumers ability to recall and recognise the brand under appropriate conditions, and link this memory to situations and conditions associated with the brand. For example, when most people

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think about fast food, they think of McDonalds, KFC, Subway, etc. Th e very fi rst step to achieving brand awareness is exposure. Most brands traditionally buy advertising spaces on traditional media to get exposure. Just walking along a popular shopping area will expose you to many advertising messages such as bus ads, posters, and banners. Th e downside to these traditional ads is that even though people may be exposed to the existence of the brand, they do not know the product benefi ts. Th ese ads are hampered by space constraints, and detailed product benefi ts are usually omitted as a result. Th is is fi ne, as the main goal of these ads is to gain mindshare and awareness.

Th e social media equivalent of awareness can be measured by the number of Likes on the Facebook Page. A Facebook Like is equivalent to consumers giving you their email address, as you will gain access to the consumers News Feed. Do not underestimate the value of a Facebook News Feed. Half the battle is already won, since you can publish content relevant to your consumers and start building a relationship with them directly. Another metric to determine awareness is the total reach. Reach refers to the total number of people who have viewed a particular piece of content posted on the Facebook Page. When a consumer engages with the content you post, it is likely that friends of that engaged consumer, who share strong affi nity scores, will also see the post and get exposed to your brand. Th e third and fourth metrics to measure awareness are viewers and web traffi c, which are not related to Facebook. Most companies today have YouTube channels, where corporate, event, and advertising videos are housed. Th e number of visitors to your website from your diff erent social equities also impacts your exposure levels. You can fi nd out the number of visitors through a free and amazing tool called Google Analytics. And to close the loop, the fi nal awareness metric is cost-per-impression, arguably the metric that best explains the diff erence between traditional and social media. Cost-per-impression means the total cost required getting 1,000 eyeballs to your advertising message. If you measure your cost-per-impression across all marketing channels, traditional and social, you will be able to come to a conclusion to determine whether social media is a more

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eff ective and cheaper channel in reaching out and gaining awareness as compared to traditional media.

One of our clients Cost-per-Impression ROI calculations. Copyright SocialMetric

Comprehension

Awareness is the fi rst step to achieving brand awareness, but note that it only means letting your target audience know of your existence. Once they become aware, it is time to engage them and to get them to understand more about what you are offering to the market. Comprehension means reaching out to your consumers and letting them know more about your brand, products, and services. Traditional counterparts in this advertising phase are roadshows and exhibits where you can directly interact with your consumers.

In the social media space, the People Talking About Th is (PTAT) score of your Facebook Page is one metric to measure that level of

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engagement. PTAT basically means the number of people who engaged with your content by Liking, Commenting, and/or Sharing it. Th is can be likened to a passer-by who asks an employee at a roadshow about product benefi ts. Th e next possible metric to measure comprehension is Retweets on Twitter. A Retweet is basically like forwarding an email. If an airline company, for example, tweets about a promotional off er, you can Retweet it, and it will be seen by all your followers on Twitter. Content conversations is the next metric people commenting on the content on your social channels. Social brand mentions is measured by the number of times your brand is mentioned on your consumers social profi le. It is useful to measure your content conversations and social brand mentions on a monthly basis, as this will allow you to fi nd out if consumers are interested in your brand. Th e cost-per-engagement metric will tie all your engagement initiatives together. By taking the total amount of cost, including manpower and logistics, divided by the amount of engaged consumers, you will get your cost-per-engagement score. Once again, measure this across all your marketing eff orts, and you will realise that social media off ers you the lowest cost-per-engagement.

One of our clients cost-per-engagement calculations. Copyright SocialMetric

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Conviction

Th e fi nal stage in measuring brand awareness is conviction, which refers to how much a consumer feels positively about your brand. Lets say a friend asks you which smartphone brand he should purchase. You carry a Samsung phone and you are pleased with the experiences youve had with it, so you would defi nitely recommend the Samsung phone to your friend. You have just infl uenced your friend to fi nd out more about the benefi ts of Samsung phones, which may lead to a purchase. To measure such convictions traditionally would be extremely costly, starting at around $100,000 through mass surveys. And even then, the results may not be quite accurate because everyone has diff erent agendas when fi lling up survey forms.

To measure conviction on social media, the fi rst metric is positive social brand mentions, meaning how many connected consumers are talking positively about your brand online. Th is can be done using social monitoring tools like Th oughtBuzz, Meltwater, or Brandtology. Th e next metric, Category Share of Voice, can also be determined by social monitoring tools. Category Share of Voice means fi nding out which brand is the most talked about within the same category or industry on social media. Th is is important as the more people talking about your brand, the more infl uence your brand will enjoy.

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Category Share of Voice research as shown in the screenshot above. As you can see, Chanel is the current market leader at the point of the conducted research.

Another metric you can use is Category Share of Search, which means which brand is the most searched for within the same category or industry on the social web. Research from GroupM has shown that a person is 2.8 times more likely to Google a brand if he/she has already been exposed to the brands social campaigns. For example, if they are already fans of your Facebook Page, they are 2.8 times more likely to Google your brand name. Many conclusions can be drawn from this, but what is certain is that brands who are Googled more often are more infl uential.

In the screenshot example above, it shows that the search volume for LOrals nail polishes is competing closely with OPI. You can fi nd out the same for your industry at Google Th ink Insights.

Action/Sales ROI

ConversionsTh e next key objective for a social media campaign is to increase sales. First of all, all the brand awareness has to be converted to sales. Th e fi rst metric to measure conversion is sales-intended traffi c from social equities. If you havent done so already, install Google Analytics for your website. It is free and extremely useful in giving you valuable insights on your sites traffi c fl ow. If you are in the retail industry, you will want to fi nd out which pages your consumers are accessing through social

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media, and whether those pages are sales-related ones, like your online order or outlet location page. When consumers visit sales-related pages, it means that they have the intention to buy. From those insights, you can calculate your cost-per-visitor score. Take the total amount spent on growing your Social Community (Facebook ad spend, promoted posts) plus the total amount spent on engagement (creating content, running word-of-mouth campaigns), and divide the number by total visitors on your sales-related webpages. If your company is not sales-based, actions taken by consumers is a good metric to gauge conversion. Th ese actions include providing email addresses, phone numbers, subscriptions, donations, and RSVPs. All these actions can also be measured using the cost per-visitor-formula, by replacing the visitor number with the relevant action number.

How to calculate your Cost-per-Visitor score. Copyright SocialMetric

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Sales Figures

Th ese methods of quantifying sales may not be relevant to all companies it really depends on the industry and type of business you are in. To track sales, put up off ers and promotions exclusively on your brands social media channels. It doesnt matter which platform you choose, just remember to make it exclusive to social media. Facebook Off ers is a new tool launched by Facebook and it has proven to be very useful for every retail company that we have worked with.

And if youre in the retail business, you can also use a Whisper Code, which is a secret word that is only announced on specifi c social platforms with a specifi c off er. In order to claim that off er, your customers must softly whisper the secret word to the cashier at your retail outlets.

Another possible way is through the social connectivity of customers. Th is means connecting all your customers on a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform so that you can see an accurate amount

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of increase in sales from customers socially connected to your business. To make this happen, there are many CRM companies and tools that would be able to integrate your Point-of-Sale systems with your social presence. Th e outcome for you is to be able to tell if customers who are socially connected with you are spending more versus customers who are not socially connected.

Consumer Loyalty ROI

Some companies are happy with the amount of brand awareness and sales revenue they enjoy. Th eir main objective is to retain consumer loyalty so that sales revenue will remain constant. Consumer retention can be measured by actions taken from your top engaged users. Social CRM platforms like AgoraPulse allow you to fi nd out who are your most engaged fans based on the interaction they have with your Facebook Page. Th e more times they Like, comment, and Share your post, the more engaged and loyal they are considered to be. Th is group of loyal consumers are your brand champions, and are likely to speak positively and promote your brand to their own friends.

This is one of AgoraPulses main features: the Facebook CRM tool. From this, you can tell who are your topmost engaged fans and further

cultivate brand advocacy from them. Source: Agora Pulse

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Such Facebook CRM tools can be extremely helpful in cultivating more consumer loyalty. We showed the top 20 most engaged fans to a particular client in the business of distributing a very well-known haircare product across Asia. Th ere was a lot of potential from this, and the fi rst action step they took was to bring their top 20 most engaged fans (not surprisingly, all of them were ladies) out for a Sunday brunch. During the brunch, they distributed a couple of their sample haircare products to these ladies and asked them to test them out. In the following months, some of them sent in their positive feedback about using the sample products and the brand manager made an eff ort to stay in touch with all 20 of them. Being in the distribution and retail business, the company also had to do mystery shopping once every quarter, and they relied on this same group of 20 ladies to mystery shop (which some ladies would be happy to do for free). Likewise for certain focus group sessions, the company relied on this same group of top most engaged fans. Just by leveraging on these relationships, the company was able to save more than $50,000 in expenses. When there were questions or negative feedback on their Facebook Page, one of these 20 top most engaged fans actually answered on the companys behalf! Imagine the same scenario for your business: You having your own group of brand advocates. How much cash do you think you can save?

Th e next metric is Net Promoter Score (NPS) of socially connected consumers. You can fi nd out your brands NPS by asking one simple question: On a scale of 0-10, how likely is it that you will recommend [your company name] to a friend or colleague? A score of 0-6 means that these respondents are detractors, 7-8 means they are passive, 9-10 means they are promoters. NPS can be calculated by the percentage of promoters minus the percentage of detractors. Th is model can also be used to improve customer service, as it gives you opportunities to engage with your detractors and fi nd out how to improve their experiences with your brand, turning them into promoters. Companies like Agoda (the hotel booking site) are known to use this very frequently, especially after you book your hotel. Th is can possibly decrease your company expenses

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as well, as less complaints means less manpower and budget allocated to customer service.

How to calculate your NPS. Copyright SocialMetric

The Action Plan

All these metrics may be a little overwhelming. You may be wondering why it is so tedious to measure social media ROI. It is actually not that diffi cult and you can avoid the analysis paralysis. For a start, you need to understand and follow Th e C3 System, especially the Conversations stage, where you set your objectives and KPIs. Once you decide on your objectives, whether to increase brand awareness, increase action or sales, or whether it is consumer loyalty, determine which stage of the social media ROI framework your brand is currently at. From there, pick three metrics and measure it for at least three months. Progress through the diff erent stages, and select diff erent metrics to measure your ROI. Th e results you get will certainly be worth the eff ort.

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REFLECTIONS

Does your companys social media metrics support the overall business objectives?Pick three metrics from the Social Media ROI model and measure it for at least three months.ROI is key to every social media campaign. Always be mindful of achieving the best possible ROI in whatever strategy you implement. Brand awareness is a largely vague term used loosely by many social media agencies. Familiarise yourself with the three phases of brand awareness (Awareness, Comprehension, Conviction) so that you will have a clear idea of what actually constitutes the term. If your companys objective does not include monetising through social media, other metrics, such as email addresses acquired, can be used to measure the campaigns ROI.