Marketers Seek to Better Measure Social Media Success

Fan figures leave marketers at a loss when judging campaign effectiveness

Companies and marketers realize that amassing fans and followers is not the be-all, end-all of social media marketing. Yet the challenge remains how to measure success beyond counting these metrics.

Data from the August 2011 Chief Marketer “2011 Social Marketing Survey” found that only 26% of marketing professionals saw amassing total followers as an aim for social media marketing. More popular goals included driving traffic to a website (66%), generating sales or leads (48%), and identifying and addressing brand fans (47%).

So what have marketers been doing to reach these goals for social media outreach? The most popular tactic among survey respondents was including a social sharing button in emails or on a company website, with 69% of respondents saying they did that. Additionally, 59% offered unique content for social media fans and followers, 58% had a Facebook “like” button on their websites and social pages, and 54% posted videos to social video sites.

Despite the fact that the goals and tactics used by marketers focus on engagement, measurement tactics still focus on numbers. Chief Marketer found that 60% of respondents counted the number of friends, followers and likes as a leading method of measuring social media marketing success. Additionally, 39% highlighted sharing, forwarding, retweeting and posting brand content, while 35% said they track qualified leads from social media.

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Source : Emarketer