How do marketers measure the impact of their social media?

If you’re thinking about adding social media to your bank’s marketing plan, then you should consider how you’ll monitor its impact. But how are other industries measuring social media?

Marketing Sherpa queried 3,300 marketers from a wide selection of industries. They found marketers used traditional metrics like website traffic and search engine rankings, but they also looked at metrics that are specific to social media, such as the number of fans and followers. Some of the tracking mechanisms used are only available to more advanced evaluation programs.

Here’s what the marketers looked at when analyzing their social media campaigns:

• 85% - visitors referred to website
• 56% - reach of fans, followers & subscribers
• 54% - search engine ranking positions
• 54% - conversion rate (registrations, purchases)
• 51% - leads generated
• 44% - inbound links
• 35% - sales revenue generated
• 25% - value of fans, followers or subscribers
• 24% - brand sentiment
• 22% - social bookmarks
• 22% - strength or share of conversation
• 11% - customer service / support savings