You want to measure your social media ROI. How do you know which tools are the best?

Define Objectives: Clearly identify what ROI means for your LinkedIn activities—brand awareness, lead generation, etc. LinkedIn Analytics: Utilize LinkedIn’s own analytics for basic metrics like engagement and audience demographics. If you switch on LinkedIn creator mode you can access a body of analytics that will help you with your LinkedIn efforts. Beyond this popular choices include Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and HubSpot for their extensive features and robust integration capabilities. The best tool depends on your specific LinkedIn strategy needs.

Work backwards to define your social ROI: - start with business goals - confirm how that differs by audience type - define social media objectives - outline key results or KPIs - drill into metrics (omnichannel e.g. social, web traffic and events; earned media value) Think about what you can measure vs what you'd like to be able to measure or attribute in the future. Then include likelihood factors e.g. strong engagement rate increases the likelihood of conversations and enhancing ROI. Followers are more likely to buy from brands they follow.

Initiating your assessment of social media ROI involves pinpointing your objectives and ensuring they complement your overarching business aims. Identifying what you aim to accomplish through social selling—be it boosting brand visibility, ramping up lead generation, nurturing potential clients, or securing more transactions—is vital. Based on these goals, it's essential to choose pertinent metrics and KPIs that will accurately reflect your achievements and guide your analysis. This foundational step not only directs your focus towards meaningful indicators but also provides a clear framework for measuring the impact and success of your social selling initiatives.

JUST CARE ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS, GET TO KNOW THEM AND FOCUS ON CREATING A COMMUNITY RATHER THAN A FUNNEL! The best about social selling is the opportunity to create a community and really solve people's problems rather than just making transactions like a robot. A community is the basic GOAL. Of course to sell and reaching the number is important, but it is far better to understand that the stronger the community, the bigger and smoother the sales will be, meaning more sales with less efforts.

Defining clear and measurable goals is essential for measuring your social media return on investment (ROI). Here are some key steps to define goals that can help you track and evaluate the success of your social media efforts: Identify your objectives: Start by identifying the overarching objectives you want to achieve through your social media activities. These objectives should align with your overall business goals and may include increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, generating leads, or boosting sales. Set specific and measurable goals: Break down your objectives into specific and measurable goals that can be tracked and assessed.

There are some great tools in LinkedIn analytics to track your progress. Whilst it’s useful to compare your results with ‘best practice’ - it’s even better to focus on YOUR progress. Are you seeing more: - engagements on your content - in bound connection requests - more profile views - greater impressions per post Everyone had different networks and different content strategies, so focusing on what is working for YOUR network and goals is key. Track if your results are improving and refine your strategy in line with what resonates with your network. “Stay in your own swim lane” rather than focusing on what works for others!

Tracking metrics is essential for measuring social media return on investment (ROI) and evaluating the effectiveness of your social media efforts. Here are some key metrics you can track to measure your social media ROI: Reach and Impressions: These metrics indicate how many people have seen your social media content. Reach measures the total number of unique users who have seen your post, while impressions represent the total number of times your content has been displayed, including multiple views by the same user. Engagement Rate: Engagement rate measures the level of interaction your content receives, such as likes, shares, comments, and clicks.

It is so important to measure success to make sure you're on being effective with your activity. Before you look at the actual tools to see metrics, you need to define what you are actually measuring. Here are most common indicators: Sales focused: - discovery calls booked (lead quality score) - conversion rate - referral partnerships created - sales cycle rate - revenue attribution Personal branding focused: - new followers - increase in engagement (likes, comments, impressions) - profile visits - content-driven inquiries Test, iterate, test again, pivot, iterate, etc etc. There is no one size fits all. Especially when a human is involved.

Just make sure what you're measuring is actually relevant. It's super rare that content or channel metrics are the thing you actually need to influence to achieve a business outcome. They contribute, of course, but mind you don't get caught up in focusing on something meaningless while the real world impact gets overlooked. This is especially important how sudden shifts in platform behaviours can change the numbers overnight. You don't want to JUST measure certain things and find yourself up the creek without a paddle one morning! Attribution is far more complex than many measurement tools would have you believe. Go into it with your eyes open.

To calculate return on investment (ROI) for social media, you need to compare the financial gains from your social media activities to the costs involved in executing those activities. Here is the formula to calculate social media ROI: Social Media ROI = (Net Profit from Social Media - Cost of Social Media Investment) / Cost of Social Media Investment x 100 Calculate Net Profit from Social Media: Determine the Cost of Social Media Investment: Plug the values into the formula:

Getting competitor benchmarks can be expensive, but there are 3 things all social teams should be doing for free: 1. Benchmark their own data, and compare key metrics month on month, quarter on quarter, and year on year. For example, you should be able to see how you stats stacked up for Q1 this year, compared to Q1 and Q4 last year, and whether this is above the benchmark for that metric/topic. 2. Use free data - use the platform benchmarks as a baseline, sign up to marketing info from the social platforms, attend industry events, and connect with peers who may be able to share some of their top-line comparable data. 3. Track best examples. Keep an eye on what the big players, award winners, and viral content have in common.

Benchmarking your results is an essential step in measuring your social media return on investment (ROI) and evaluating the effectiveness of your social media activities. By comparing your performance to industry standards, competitors, or previous results, you can gain valuable insights into the success of your social media efforts. Here are some ways to benchmark your results for measuring social media ROI: Industry Benchmarks: Research industry benchmarks for key social media metrics such as engagement rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, and follower growth. Competitor Analysis: Conduct a competitive analysis to compare your social media performance with that of your competitors.

To measure social media return on investment (ROI) effectively, it is essential to continuously optimize your social media strategy based on data-driven insights and performance metrics. Here are some key steps to optimize your strategy and enhance your ability to measure social media ROI: Define Clear Objectives: Establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives that align with your overall business goals. Track Relevant Metrics: Use social media analytics tools to monitor and track key metrics that align with your objectives and KPIs. Conduct A/B Testing: Experiment with different content types, posting schedules, ad formats, and audience targeting strategies through A/B testing.