This document discusses monetizing social media through a case study measuring the value of social media marketing. It details an organization's social media campaign targeting sites for volume/reach and influence. The campaign cost £10,000 and generated £11,160 in direct traffic value and an estimated £44,640 in indirect traffic value through SEO improvements, for a 558% ROI. However, only £2,400 or 2.1% of £112,000 in total online sales were referred from social media. While beneficial for traffic, social media was less effective for direct sales. Indirect traffic from search was higher value. The conclusion is the campaign was worth it but indirect traffic is more valuable.

1. Monetising Social MediaA case study in measuring the value of social media marketing onlineAshley FriedleinCEOE-consultancy.com

2. “The future of the social web” “Harnessing Social Media for B2B and B2C marketing campaigns” “How UK Government approaches the web and social media” “The impact and ROI of social retail” “Social and Professional Networking how marketers and users navigate in the Web 2.0 world” 2

3. What is ‘Social Media’? Blogs Discussion Boards & Communities Product review sites Media-sharing Social Networking Bookmarking / tagging ‘Social commerce’, ‘social news’ etc….

4. “Internet-based tools and venues where anyone can communicate publicly” 4

5. 5

6. Universal McCann Social Media Study 6

7. Great for PR BUT… 7

8. Q:How did the YouTube clip help generate pledges? A: “…it's not a top referring site … in terms of pledges and uptake of products, we're not seeing that come through.” Rob Merrington, Head of Brand Advertising, EDF Energy Q: Has Second Life worked for you? A: “It’s a lot more hype than reality.” Chris Shimojima, VP, Nike.om 8

9. 9

10. Jerry Maguire, 1996 10

11. 11

12. How do we make money? Advertising Average £20 per thousand page views / 2 ads per page / 3 pages views per visit Average advertising value per visit = 12p Commerce (Subscriptions, Memberships, Events, Training etc.) Conversion rate = 0.25% Average order value = £200 Average commerce value per visit = 50p

13. Average Total Value / Visit = 62p 13

14. (but some visits are more valuable than others) 14

15. Direct Traffic Indirect Traffic (aka Google) 15

16. Top Referring Domains 16

17. 7,000 visits a day from Google = £4,340 a day… 17

18. 18

19. How many more direct visits can we get? Can we get more Google love? from ‘social media marketing’ 19

20. Question 1 Should we engage with sites that deliver VOLUME (REACH) or INFLUENCE? 20

21. Answer 1 Both… VOLUME = VOLUME INFLUENCE = SEO = VOLUME 21

22. Question 2 So which sites would deliver volume (and the right prospective customers) And which (SEO) influence? 22

23. Answer 2 INFLUENCE VOLUME / REACH 23

24. Lots of sites… 24

25. Prioritised + How to approach 25

26. Go engage! 26

27. Links via Online PR 27

28. BBC Internet Blog 28

29. Multilingual Search Community 29

30. BazaarVoice Blog 30

31. Internetworldstats.com 31

32. Facebook 32

33. Links via Answering Questions 33

34. Yahoo! Answers 34

35. LinkedIn Answers 35

36. WikiAnswers 36

37. Wikipedia 37

38. Links via Profiles / ‘Channels’ 38

39. YouTube Channel 39

40. Twitter Channel 40

41. Slideshare Channel 41

42. 42

43. Dailymotion 43

44. Veoh 44

45. Links via Bookmarking / Tagging 45

46. Digg 46

47. Del.icio.us 47

48. Was it worth it? 48

49. Scores on the doors… 49

50. Cost Search Agency £3,000 Data / Tools Free (-ish) Internal Time 5 days worth of time Call it £10,000

51. Referred visits in last 6 weeks Stumbleupon 1,369 LinkedIn 669 Wikepedia 547 Del.icio.us 276 Twitter 106

52. Views = 1,746 5 No. referred visits =

53. No. referred visits = 77

54. Total no. ‘social media’ referred visits = 18,000 54

55. Value = 18,000 X 62p = £11.16k… 55

56. 56

57. SEO impact? 57

58. Google Natural Search Referrals 58

59. Total no. incremental visits for SEO improvement = 72,000 59

60. Value = 72,000 X 62p = £44.64k… 60

61. 61

62. ROI = (£11.16K + £44.64k) / £10k =558% 62

63. BUT… (there’s always a but) 63

64. How many of these links came from this campaign? 64

65. Do we really know the Google improvements came about from this campaign? 65

66. (but some visits are more valuable than others) less 66

67. We assumed Average commerce value per visit = 50p 67

68. So how much did we actually sell? 68

69. £112k sold online in the period 69

70. ‘Social media’ referred sales… £2.4k (2.1% of sales) 70

71. And EVERY SINGLE ONE of those... ALSO searched Google on us before buying 71

72. Other Benefits Built PR contacts db Found high-performing new affiliates Found new partners (e.g. for contras, co-registration etc.)

73. Other Benefits Built influence / credibility

74. Conclusion Worth it but Quite a bit of work Value in tangential areas Good-ish for traffic; less good for sales Indirect traffic via search bigger than direct traffic (and higher value) But mostly…

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76. Questions?E-consultancy Resources: Online Measurement and Strategy Report 2008 (with Lynchpin) http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/online-measurement-and-strategy-report-2008/ Web Analytics Buyer’s Guide http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/web-analytics-buyers-guide-2007/ Web Analytics Request for Proposal Template http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/web-analytics-rfp-request-for-proposal/ Web Analytics Business Case http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/web-analytics-business-case Measurement, Analytics and Optimisation Briefing http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/analytics-measurement-optimisation-briefing-march-2008/