Determining the ROI of Social Media Marketing

Whether you're a social media maven looking to maximize your return, or you're preparing to dip your toes into the social media waters for the first time, it's important to understand what you're getting in return for your social media investment. You'll find that there is certainly no shortage of metrics to measure your social success, but determining an accurate ROI can be quite tricky unless you know exactly what your goals are and how best to track your success. The good news is that with some practice, you can discover what's working, what isn't, and how to invest most efficiently in your social media presence.

Social Media ROI and Maximizing Your Marketing Investment

When you're dealing with social media, one of the biggest challenges is that there is no single data-point that makes it easy to determine overall ROI. Building an accurate picture of your social media ROI will require an understanding of your goals, the tools you use to accomplish them, and the results of your social media marketing.

Page and post likes?

The simplest social metric to measure is looking at the number of "likes" for your business page, and how many people follow you on a social channel. These numbers can provide some basic insight, but they don't always tell the whole story. A small group of active, devoted followers may provide a better return than a large group of less engaged followers.

Brand Awareness

One of the big benefits of social media is the way that it positions your brand in a place where it's most likely to be seen by your target audience. Quantifying brand awareness is difficult, but a look at how many people are interacting with your pages, commenting on your content, and sharing your posts will help you understand how your social media marketing is growing your real estate brand.

Understanding Engagement

The biggest returns on your social media investment will often come in the form of engagement, whether that means a follower is reading your content, interacting with your brand directly, or getting involved in a contest on your page. You're ultimately trying to turn followers into customers, and good engagement shows you're on the right track.

From Follower to Customer

Are you tracking which of your social connections ultimately become customers of your business? If your content, social media presence, and interactions are consistently generating new business, then you're likely looking at a solid return on your social media investment.

Website Traffic

Ideally, your social media pages will lead prospects to your real estate website, where they can learn about your team, scout your listings, and check out all of the great content on your blog. So, if one of your goals is to generate website traffic, then analyzing how much traffic comes from your social pages is a great place to start.

A Numbers Game?

Sort of. You can certainly learn a lot by crunching your social media numbers, but that only goes so far. Understanding what your goals are and how your social pages help you achieve those goals is the name of the game. The better you understand your strategy and goals, the easier it is to find the right metrics to prioritize when analyzing your social media ROI.

To view the original article, visit the Delta Media Group blog.