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As the social media space continues to grow, marketers are looking at different metrics to prove the value of social media outreach and justify budget increases.
A recent CMO Survey indicates that when it comes to evaluating social media investments, marketers place more emphasis on customer relationship-based activities, while decreasing reliance on metrics that are strictly financial. The past year saw notable increases in the reported use of relationship metrics such as the number of followers or friends (up from 24% to 34%) and buzz indicators or web mentions (up from 15% to 20%). Conversely, fewer respondents reported using financial metrics such as sales levels (down from 18% to 13%) and revenue per customer (down from 17% to 10%).
The emphasis shift to these “softer” social media metrics may mean that marketers are looking beyond simply encouraging sales, and that they acknowledge the value of customer relationship management. By using social media to build relationships and create socially-engaged customers, their goal is to increase loyalty and positive word-of-mouth.
In such efforts to build brand ambassadors, messaging is key. Social media content must be compelling and relevant to your customers’ needs and interests in order to fuel their engagement. And while you can’t control the conversation, you can seed it with content that touches their passion points and consistently reinforces your company's messaging and personality. This contributes to a cohesive customer experience across all interaction points, making the most of your social media budget, as well as your overall communications investments.
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