In the fourth of four social media webinars I’ve been following being given by Matrix Group International, I learned some great tips for “Measuring the Return on Investment of Social Media for Business.” CEO Joanna Pineda and her staff reviewed common ways of measuring ROI on traditional marketing campaigns, but noted that 84% of programs that use social media don’t measure ROI (per Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, August 2009).  There ARE ways to set goals for social media campaigns to determine ROI. The webinar had some great tips regarding what one can track and how.

Quantitative numbers you can track include traffic to your website as well as number of:

Mentions of your organization across the Web (web, blogs, Facebook, Twitter)

• @ mentions and RT (retweets) on Twitter
• Facebook and Twitter followers
• Comments on your blog
• Comments from your organization’s members or feedback from customers
• Subscribers to your RSS feed
• Opt-in e-mail addresses

You can also track hard returns like direct sales, donations, new members, and event registrations. Regarding the how, the presenters were big on Google Analytics, as well as usage reports, marketing codes, URL tracking, and alerts (Google, Twitter, Facebook, RTs and @mentions, blog mentions). The webinar ended with several illuminating case studies and Q&A. See the Matrix Group International, Inc. website to learn about upcoming webinars and events.

Image courtesy: vechtrack.com