Marketers are going to spend a lot of time and effort trying to determine the ROI of social media, when instead, they should just accept the fact that social media is an integral part of any brand marketing.
Measuring social media is like trying to determine the performance of one piston in an engine. We should be measuring our marketing against key brand objectives and stop wasting time trying to single out certain tactics. The only exception might be if one tactic is eating a huge chunk of your budget.
You need social media for two reasons. First, as listening platform to see what consumers are saying to each other about you and competitors, and second, as a customer service channel to answer questions or complaints from your customers. Social media can yield valuable insights, but you need a marketing person who can identify opportunities while they are still hot. Waiting, and having weeks of meetings to determine what should be done can lead to a wasted opportunity.
The person who executes your social media has to be empowered to both solve customers’ problems and make decisions so that minor problems don’t become huge issues leading to loyal customer abandonment.
Just accept that you need social media and while you can surely try and measure new social media initiatives stop wasting time trying to analyze it. [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””] The bottom line is that consumers expect you to be there when they need you and right now they have all the power.[/inlinetweet]
