Social Media and Business Expectations

Goals what are they?
In my last post one of my comments was that companies should "Set up some reasonable goals" if they are going to enter the social media web space. One of my clients asked what are realistic quantifiable goals and how can you measure them?

Two Types of Goals:
My answer was that there are two type of goals. The first type of goal can be describe by the nebulous term "Brand Awareness". Those goals relates to how many people are talking about your brand/product/service or how many places is your brand/product/service mentioned (positively or negatively) in the social media web space.

The second type of goal is financial - either return on investment or return on time invested. How much business has social media brought into the business.

Measuring Awareness
Brand awareness on the internet and in the social media web space is always hard to measure because it means different things to different people. Is it the number of times people mention your product? What about links back to your site, or post? How about how many people are following your tweets of are your friend on Facebook? Pick one or a combinations which works for you.

Don't get hung up on numbers.
Odds are that you will not have as many followers/friends as a rock star or pop-culture icon. (When I wrote this SearsDeals had 1400 followers wallmartspecials had just over 2300 followers and Britney Spears had over 1.7 million followers.)

I suggest tracking trends and comparing your product to that of competitors. There are several free or paid services that let you track how many times a brand is mentioned on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, or social media sites. Here is a short, but not exhaustive list of some services: Jodange, Trendrr, Facebook Lexicon, Down Jones Insight and Overtone Open Mic. Here is a list of more tools/services.

Measuring Dollars
While tracking money seems easier, after all everyone knows what a dollar looks like, determining what dollars came from which source can be harder. This usually involves setting up business processes to track dollars. How you do this, or if you can do it will depend on your situation.

One clever solution I've seen is by NetTrack Marketing they have a system for their clients were the phone number on a web site changes based on the referring web site's URL/Domain. That way when someone calls their 800 number the client can tell what the online source was for that call/order.

The Final Word:
Sorry, but there is none. As social media keeps evolving so will technology and business practices. Keep up with the latest trends and keep informed.