In this session James will give you a practical guide through the realities of measuring social media in the B2B environment, looking at the metrics which will define the success of your strategy and determine the ROI. Session outcomes: Learn about the different types of measurement, both qualitative and quantitative; Learn which tools to utilise and how to get the most from them; Learn what to measure; see practical metrics and how they demonstrate success; Learn how to measure; which metrics will be most valuable when assessing the success of your strategy.

1. Social Media Measurement
Proving ROI and Measuring Social in the B2B Environment.
James Fairweather of Coast Digital
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@J_Fairweather

2. Where are we with social now?
•The B2B sector has embraced social media.
•We‟re getting customer service and support right.
•Many are struggling moving towards acquisition & lead generation.
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@J_Fairweather

3. Measuring Success is key
Some of the challenge lies in the breadth of social;
• Customer service
• Marketing & PR
• Market research
• Business development
• HR & Recruitment
The difficulty is in selecting relevant metrics beyond followers and shares to
represent success in these areas.
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@J_Fairweather

4. Measuring Success
•Marketers are still unsure how to calculate social media ROI.
•The bigger picture; would you measure the ROI from your telephone line?
•B2B marketers need to understand the value in what people are doing to justify
resource on social media.
•Biggest mistake is not considering what success and failure look like early
enough. IBM mantra; Fail, fast.
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@J_Fairweather

5. What are people measuring?
•Confusion between social media data, metrics (and KPIs) for ROI
•Last touch & direct conversion metrics.
•Vanity metrics.
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6. Vanity Metrics
•Follows
•Number of „Fans‟
•Likes
•Shares
• Visits
•„Influence‟ scores like Klout
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@J_Fairweather

7. Vanity Metrics – Some Pitfalls
•Hundreds of distracting social data points to wade through.
•Most of this data is actually nothing but “data puke”. - Avinash Kaushik
•Analysing this data is risky - they can hide the insights needed to understand
what actions to take.
•They can be relevant, however they don‟t always represent reality and mislead
from meaningful measurement.
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@J_Fairweather

8. Vanity Metrics – Some Pitfalls
•Reach, isn‟t really powerful unless you consider ‘influencer identification‟.
•Discover the most influential people in your networks and map them.
•Go on to build relationships online with those people.
•Track the quality of these engagements.
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@J_Fairweather

9. Vanity Metrics – Some Pitfalls
There can be a place for vanity metrics as part of a set of KPI‟s alongside other data.
Look into some of the metrics from in those tools, for example;
1. Reach & velocity.
2. # Of Retweets Per Thousand Followers, as measure of efficiency.
3. Messages Per Outbound Message, a measure of two way conversation, not just
broadcast.
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@J_Fairweather

10. Last Touch Analytics
• Last touch attribution doesn‟t allow Social Media activity to be credited with
keeping conversation going and leads „warm‟.
• If the final „visit‟ to the site isn‟t from a social source, last touch model doesn‟t
credit it at all.
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@J_Fairweather

11. What should you really be doing?
• Map metrics to business objectives
• Some metrics to consider
• Consider impact of social on SEO
• Create effective dashboards
• Use the right tools
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@J_Fairweather

12. Map Metrics to Business Objectives
•Focus on choosing a few metrics to use as your KPI‟s in the context of your
business.
•These should form the basis of your measurement framework and will map back
to your business and marketing goals.
•These KPI‟s should lead to action!
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@J_Fairweather

13. Map Metrics to Business Objectives
•Consider the impact of having a great customer service team.
•What is the ROI from not losing a customer?
•Or reducing your volume of call centre complaint calls by 50%.
These are tangible objectives and have associated costs and savings.
ROI calculation needs to account for how much better your customer
service is.
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@J_Fairweather

14. How do IBM do it?
IBM look at 4 metrics and not a vanity metric in sight!
1) # of leads
2) $ leads
3) Win revenue
4) Win rate
„Listening for leads‟ casr study; seeking out leads on twitter for IBM;
http://www.emarketer.com/blog/index.php/case-study-ibm-drives-millions-dollars-worth-
sales-leads-social-media/
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@J_Fairweather

15. What should you really be doing?
• Map metrics to business objectives
• Some metrics to consider
• Consider impact of social on SEO
• Create effective dashboards
• Use the right tools
Marketing you can measure
TM
@J_Fairweather

16. Some metrics to consider
Volume of conversation and share of voice – what proportions?
Social graphing - tools like Rapleaf can analyse your email database
Sentiment - analyse conversations around how your brand is portrayed.
Paid Value of Traffic – what cost might equivalent paid traffic be?
On site impact on social – do social visitors behave differently on site?
Lost Customer Value - what impact does a lost customer have socially?
Customer Lifetime Value – consider the impact of increased CLV.
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@J_Fairweather

17. Planning a strategy
1. Review and learn what works. Keep testing, React and refine.
2. Use A/B testing where you can to optimise performance.
3. Drop things that don‟t work and invest in a steady stream of new initiatives.
4. Always consider time as a key component. Social data may be instantly
available, but building a brand is a timely process.
5. Establish milestones and re-evaluate regularly.
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@J_Fairweather

18. What should you really be doing?
• Map metrics to business objectives
• Some metrics to consider
• Consider impact of social on SEO
• Create effective dashboards
• Use the right tools
Marketing you can measure
TM
@J_Fairweather

19. Social as a ranking signal for SEO
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20. 300 million twitter users.
Over 845 Million active Facebook users.
170 million Google Plus sign-ups.
Search engines can‟t afford to ignore this volume of usage.
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@J_Fairweather

21. “In the past year, traffic from social has grown from 3% - 27%”
via @timgentry
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@J_Fairweather

22. Social as a ranking signal for SEO
“We do look at the social authority of a user. This can add a little
weight to a listing in regular search results.”
“Yes, we do use it as a signal. It is used as a signal in our organic and
news rankings.”
“The purpose of any ranking signal is to improve overall search quality.
For +1’s and other social ranking signals, as with any new ranking
signal, we‟ll be starting carefully and learning how those signals are
related to quality.”
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@J_Fairweather

23. Social Media Optimisation
What are the effects of this cross-over now?
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24. Social Media Optimisation
Source: www.branded3.com
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25. What should you really be doing?
• Map metrics to business objectives
• Some metrics to consider
• Consider impact of social on SEO
• Create effective dashboards
• Use the right tools
Marketing you can measure
TM
@J_Fairweather

26. Use effective dashboards
1. Establish your analytics suite and form a good work-flow process
2. There are hundreds of tools and dashboards out there. Trial and test to find
the ones that work for you.
3. Establish a good mix of tools & services that can form your measurement
toolbox and automate where you can.
4. Some can integrate with CRM and other internal systems.
Don’t forget: social media monitoring is about a "team" rather than a "tool"
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@J_Fairweather

27. An example strategy
Metrics KPI’s
Dashboard – ROI Reporting
Reach
KPI
Reduced
Phone
Reliance KPI
Shares KPI
Marketing you can measure
TM

28. What should you really be doing?
• Map metrics to business objectives
• Some metrics to consider
• Consider impact of social on SEO
• Create effective dashboards
• Use the right tools
Marketing you can measure
TM
@J_Fairweather

29. Tools & Takeouts
The key to getting Social media „right‟ is more in strategy rather than the toolset.
In many ways, social monitoring is about a "team" rather than a "tool“.
However.... there are good services out there that can speed the management
side of social media up.
“Only 23% of UK marketers said they were able to update multiple channels from
one dashboard.” (Econsultancy)
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@J_Fairweather

30. Google Analytics Social Reporting
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31. Google Analytics Multi Channel Goals
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32. Identifying Influential Followers
Tools & Takeouts
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@J_Fairweather

33. Tools & Takeouts – Some useful tools
Hootsuite – http://www.hootsuite.com Social Media management dashboard
Tweetdeck – http://www.tweetdeck.com Facebook & Twitter account management
Twitsprout - https://twitsprout.com Twitter & Facebook reporting (although primarily Twitter)
Tweetreach - http://tweetreach.com/ Twitter reach metrics, statistics and analysis
Radian 6 - http://www.radian6.com/ Social media monitoring tools & social media engagement software
Alterian - http://www.alterian.com/ Social Conversation management
Brandwatch - http://www.brandwatch.com/ Social Media monitoring platform
Social Bro - http://www.socialbro.com/ Twitter management dashboard
Buffer (web client) - http://bufferapp.com/ Post scheduling tool
Addictomatic - http://addictomatic.com/ Buzz monitoring tool
Icerocket - http://www.icerocket.com/ Meltwater buzz monitoring
Argyle - http://argylesocial.com Enterprise social marketing platform
Sprout - http://sproutsocial.com/ Social Media management platform
Buto.tv - http://get.buto.tv/ Web Video measurement platform
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@J_Fairweather

34. Wrapping it up
Choose careful metrics & map to KPI‟s.
Measure them meticulously.
Calculate ROI as you would any other channel.
Review regularly & learn.
One size doesn‟t fit all.
Social should be a platform to support a comprehensive
and interesting content strategy.
Marketing you can measure
TM
@J_Fairweather

35. Social Media Optimisation
Private LinkedIn group for Q&A, http://linkd.in/socialmediaROIgroup
We've also got a free Social Media guide for the B2B marketer. If you'd like a copy,
connect with us online or leave some details.
james.fairweather@coastdigital.co.uk
linkedin.com/jamesfairweather
twitter.com/j_fairweather
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