By Samuel Scott
A lot of business and marketing is impossible to measure quantitatively but still widely regarded as valuable. Take branding, for example. Companies spend millions on logos, product appearance, communications, and guerilla marketing – among countless other tactics – to ensure that consumers think of a desired connotation when they think of a brand. It’s not a cheap endeavor – it can take years to build a solid brand.
By Josh Cline
Much as been written of the ROI of social media. While the value of strategic marketing should already be known, the ROI of online marketing should be recognized. Ultimately, with some still scared of technology, the ROI of social media might be as simple as “Will you be around in 5 years?”
What is the ROI of a marketing campaign? Unfortunately, there are some that still do not ask that question. However, in order to answer that question, one must first talk about marketing strategy.
I first blogged the latest edition of Socionomic’s now ubiquitous video about how the media landscape has changed to digital and its social implications back in December. Now, six months later, the world has changed again and Socionomics has come out with a new video called Social Media Revolution 2 (though not the second edition of their video, which has been around for over a year – an eternity in the age of the iPad).
A few facts, from Socionomics:
I’ve already written about social media ROI before, but this socionomics video further shows the economics of social media. As a recent HubSpot report showed, inbound marketing has a 60% lower cost per lead than traditional, outbound marketing. Companies that have a higher level of social media have higher sales. Gary Vaynerchuk was able to use the Internet and the power of video blogging to turn his father’s Shoppers Discount Liquors to the powerhouse that Wine Library is today.
Just a few stats from the video about how the Internet and digital marketing helps businesses save costs:
After writing my last post about the ROI – the return on inaction – of social media, one of the commentators challenged me to actually quantify the social media return on investment. This give and take is one of the challenges and benefits of social media. Companies can’t just stand behind pronouncements – they are challenged and forced to strengthen their claims.
The interesting thing about the question of “What is the ROI of Social Media” is that we can track this in ways that weren’t trackable with traditional marketing. Despite the fact that many people have difficulty giving real numbers to the ROI of social media, it’s actually far EASIER to track than traditional media.
Following up on my previous post about the ROI of social media, perhaps it’s worth explaining what social media is.
Social media is not so new. Even the technology is new and major social networks have been on for close to a decade. Facebook only started in 2004. Twitter in 2006. Blogger in 1999 and bought by Google in 2003, and WordPress also was first released in 2003. College seniors that opened up a Facebook profile in 2004 are now your 27- year old workers. Moreover, humans have been social since the first caveman shared pictures on the cave walls.
