How do you calculate social media ROI for your campaigns?

Qualitative metrics are important for measuring social media ROI. As the barriers to entry are lowered for many consumer facing industries, companies who prioritize embedding inclusive values into social media communications can build sustainable and scalable brand trust with earned and future customers. Brands intentional about establishing guidelines that support crafting messaging that respects the importance of accessibility and inclusivity position themselves to reap the financial benefits reported in research on organizations that invest in making DEIB part of the culture. Cultivating an equitable environment can prevent being labeled performative while defining qualitative metrics that influence social media ROI.

Few things to consider before calculating ROI: - Was the campaign goal SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely)? - It is very important to define beforehand, what range of ROI will be considered as good,bad or average. It is seldom difficult to define an acceptable ROI before camping delivery. In these cases , a social media marketer should consider the first campaign as an “test & learn” opportunity and define the ROI benchmark based on this learning - ROI measurement and benchmarking should always consider and be reflective of ongoing market trend, shift in consumer behaviour and latest developments in social media realm

In addition to the “How Many” metrics that are often considered Vanity, we should seek to track clicks all the way down to the “Who” - the individual person. While this type of tracking may be sun-setting due to privacy updates, for now, UTM tracking aligned with Marketing Automation platforms that are mapped to CRM’s can give us a powerful connection between social media and the actual dollar amount ROI on those efforts. Track every click, map every path, uncover real ROI.

I think there are ways that you can track and collect data on social media beyond just the numbers of likes, comments and impressions. There also needs to be interactions within your social media posting to entice that relationship build within your community and prospects. For example, we track and calculate interactions based on the type of social media posting. For instance, engagement posting that is specifically designed to entice others to join in the conversation (much like this article), has two measurements. One is the quantitative and the other is qualitative. It's a little more hands on, but tracking this can give insight on what social media to focus on for the best ROI.

This formula mentioned above is accurate in terms of Paid Social Media Marketing aka Return on Ad Spend. Organic Social Media ROI is harder to track because it serves multiple purposes including: 1) Increasing brand awareness and growing followers into potential customers aka Share of Voice and Traffic to the website 2) Increasing engagement with existing customers so they come back again Organic Social Media is a long-term investment that is focused on building loyalty to the brand and contributes to the value of the customer. So if it costs X to acquire a customer, if the customer doesn't come back again then that X cost was wasted. However, if they come back again with a friend then that cost has decreased and turns into a positive.

In my experience, when developing a social media strategy, it’s best to focus on content pillars or content buckets. Common pillars include entertainment, education, and promotion. When you understand your pillars, you can then determine the specific content for each of your social media platforms.