Social Media ROI - Marketing Statistics

Marketing Statistics

Glad you could join me in this part 2 series. Hoping that part 1, proved valuable. I would like to hear from you on that. Today, lets look at some other ROI model.

Do you know that most organizations socialize their operations solely for marketing purposes? This happens to be the most important part of any social media program: thus the famous social media marketing discipline.

Then, what should you be on the lookout for? In as far as marketing statistics go brands should measure:

• Reach and awareness
•  Marketing equivalency

Reach and awareness

Find any social media strategy and you are bound to find, increasing brand awareness neatly written down as a goal. Brands (all) want prospective customers to know they exist. And not only that, but their ability to solve their (customers) day-to-day challenges. It is believed that the more people get to see or hear something about your brand, the more the likelihood of them seeking your brand’s services/products when a need strikes.

In the social realm, reach refers to the number of people who have seen your post. And just so you know content is what drives social media reach. Facebook’s algorithm takes your content and feeds it into your fans/followers newsfeed. The quality and freshness of your content determines if it will be seen or disappear into the content abyss.

Assuming that all factors are kept constant, then the total number of people who see your post, equals your social media reach.

This metric is categorised into paid and organic. According to Facebook, organic reach is the total number of unique people who were shown your post through unpaid distribution. Paid reach on the other hand is the total number of unique people who were shown your post because of ads. This implies that when you feel your content or page is not getting the desirable organic reach you set out for: you can always go the paid way.

Unfortunately, a study from Social@ogilvy explained how we are fast approaching the end of organic reach. And, true to their prediction: today before your content gains the traction it needs, you have to really…really offer value in every piece of content. Good news, you have a reason to explain your spend: paid reach.

Be careful not to lose out. Yes, you can get all the reach you want and in return awareness. But will you be pushing the brand goals forward? If you pair reach with key goals such as lead generation, you add value to the whole metric. Thus, reach in themselves do not count for much.

Marketing Equivalency

According to Liveworld, ‘Marketing equivalency ROI should reveal how social media costs compare to those of other media, ideally demonstrating that social achieves its goals more efficiently than other spend.’

In his book, Social Media Handbook, Peter explains how we can determine marketing equivalency. Simply measure your social reach and ask yourself how much money you would spend to reach the same number of people using traditional media.

Consider this: suppose a social media program runs 300,000 to reach 1 million people with 60 million impressions. You might calculate that it would cost 4 million to get the same results through advertising.

This is the value of calculating this equivalency. Once you calculate a campaign’s marketing equivalency ROI, you can go to your CEO and say, “Instead of spending 4 million on traditional marketing on that campaign, let’s spend 300,000 doing it through social channels, save a few million, and increase our overall social media budget!”

At the end of the day, companies are looking to save costs but achieve the same results. If you can prove value through minimal spend then what will prevent the management from giving you all the backing you need?

Brands spend a fortune on ads that might just not be as effective as social media programs. In addition, as all marketing objectives aim to drive more business, then why not be on the lookout for this metric.

What is your biggest challenge in as far as marketing statistics are concerned?

A chain is only as strong, as its weakest link. I have found this wisdom quite helpful in enforcing teamwork and the need to have everything laid out well, prior to taking massive amounts of action.

The same holds true when developing an airtight communications strategy. It is imperative that we know and understand what each element entails, before plunging into a mission that most certainly projects the future of the organization. So far, we have looked at strategic analysis and strategic intent. In this post, let us move a step further and look at strategic action.

Taking Strategic Action

‘Strategic action is concerned with the translation of the strategic intent’ says Cornelissen, ‘or chosen strategic option into action.’ Yes, we have done the analysis-fact finding mission; we have generated suitable options tailored to deliver certain key objectives. It is time we put the ideas into action.

Specify the Communication Objectives and the Role Communication Will Play

Before the suggested communication programs are implemented, it needs to be clear from the outset; the role communication is going to play in this instance. Is it a support or lead role? Having this in mind makes it clear on the direction to go and programmes to implement.

A first fundamental issue that needs to be decided upon before working out the content of the communications strategy, the communications programme, is the role that communications is to play in the overall corporate and market strategies for the organization. {Sic.}

Knowing the role communication will play makes it possible to determine the communication objectives as well as the communication tactics that are feasible to use. These objectives need to satisfy the SMART criteria, as do all other objectives. They need to be Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Targeted.

 Planning Communication Tactics

You have your objectives in place. The role communication is going to play is in check. What next? After defining the communication objectives and its contribution to corporate and/or market strategies made specific, the next step is to determine the elements of the communications programme: the stakeholder audiences to address and the message and channel tactics to use.

The stakeholder analysis we engaged in in the first elements helped us identify the key audiences we needed to target first, for us to achieve the desired effect. These showed us who the target audience would be of our communications programmes.

For our programmes to deliver the desired effects, we need to define the target audience. This is about media usage, usage of the company’s products, geo-demographic characteristics, membership of interest groups etc. Once we have a clear understanding of our target audience, anything, and everything about them: guided by our communication objectives, then we can determine the message to use in the communication programmes.

This will involve determining the main themes of the communications message (from which the specific copy can be developed), and the tone and type of response (awareness, attitude/reputation, behaviours) that the message will seek to evoke. The important factor is thus to decide what the message should say in relation to the organization’s identity, as it needs to reflect and be in tune with the values of the organization, as well as the stakeholder audience in hand. {Sic.}

Once we have our message, it follows that we need to settle on effective media channels to use. Knowing the most efficient and effective channel that will get our message across to the target audiences is as important as determining the message to deliver.

‘Discussion around media selection has recently centred or the notion of ‘zero-based’ selection, where the most appropriate medium in the light of the criteria selected is chosen, rather than a pre-fixed and standard choice for a medium that may have worked in the past.’ {Sic.}

Organizational Arrangements

‘Once the communications programme has been filled in – that is, when the objectives, message, media and audience are all specified – the next step is to consider the organizational arrangements that need to be made to carry out the programme and as such effectuate the communications strategy.’ Says Cornelissen.

These questions need answers:

• What budget is required for the envisaged plan?
• Who is to be responsible for carrying it out?
• What changes in organizational structure and design are needed to support and carry out the plan?
• What will different departments be held responsible for?
• What are the key tasks to be carried out?
• Are the practitioners involved up to the task, or is retraining necessary?

Answering these question brings to light the capability of the organization to actualize the communication strategy developed.

In developing a communication strategy, often professionals from different departments will need to collaborate. Thus, the need for an organization to have in place mechanisms and structures that support such interactions and collaboration.

Lastly, Cornelissen advices, ‘to take into account whether the proposed communications strategy adapts or builds on existing strategies – an incremental approach – or whether, because of the inadequacy of existing strategies or because management sees the need to change fundamentally the direction of the organization, a completely new communications strategy is suggested.

Are we ready to determine the message, media channels, and ability of the organization to implement the communications strategy? Let us find out. Shall we.

The post preceding this, talked about the 4 elements we need to consider when working on a communications strategy. I am positive that it gave you a solid foundation on the topic. In this post, we will look at each of the elements in detail. Read along; let us hone this skill together.

The first element we looked at was strategic analysis. An element that must precede all others in order to gain a solid understanding of the corporation. Without this element, you are like a ship without a rudder. 

Flickr | Simon Cunningham

When looking at strategic analysis, what are we looking for? This is the question, is it not? Strategic analysis does not stop at understanding the strategic position of the corporation. It goes on to look at any changes taking place within and outside the environment surrounding the corporation.

‘The aim of strategic analysis is, then, to form a view of the key influences’ says Cornelissen, ‘on the present and future well-being of the organization, and what opportunities are afforded by the environment and the competencies of the organization.’

These are the three analysis that comprise of this element:

Organization-Environment Analysis

Cornelissen says the organization exists in the context of a complex commercial, economic, political, technological, social, and cultural world. Moreover, as we know, these environment changes in a heartbeat. These unprecedented change, or otherwise can affect the company greatly.

We know and appreciate that change is inevitable. Thus, depending on the positioning of a corporation, these environmental changes might result into a lucrative opportunity or present a threat that will shake the very fabric of the corporation. We would rather be casualties of the former. Right?

During these stage use these two tools: DESTEP analysis and   SWOT analysis.

‘A DESTEP analysis is a broad analysis of the various demographic, economic, social, technological, ecological and political developments and factors that are expected to have an impact upon the organization and its operations.’ Says Cornelissen. This guided framework enables management to deduce the most pressing changes and foresee any future changes in the environment. 

A SWOT analysis on the other hand, stands for an investigation of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This involves taking a blank sheet of paper and subdividing into four quadrants and at the top of each quadrant, one through four indicate the titles strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Proceed to list what you factors you think fall under each category.

The first half of this analysis – strengths and weaknesses – examines the company’s position, its capabilities, operations, and products vis-à-vis stakeholders, competitor activities, environmental trends, and company resources. The second half of the SWOT takes this review further to examine the opportunities and threats identified within the environment, including, for instance, market opportunities, political regulation, and shareholder activism. {Sic} At the heart of this analysis, lies the need to know which groups will support the corporations and which ones would hinder any move the corporation might decide to make.

Remember that the whole purpose of organization-environment analysis is not to generate long lists of factors and points, but to provide a concise and to-the-point analysis of the organization and its current position within the environment, adds Cornelissen.

Market and Competitive Analysis

Corporations exist to meet the needs of certain markets. Conducting market research is a prerequisite when it comes to penetrating a new market. Once you are in the market, it follows that you would like to dominate the market. Thus the need for market and competitive analysis.

‘…identify what the competitive position of the organization and its products is within the markets in which it operates and whether the organization can target and serve those markets in a way that at least rivals, if not exceeds, its nearest competitors.’ advises Cornelissen.

Gone are the days of John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, where they monopolized entire industries.Today, competition is as alive as our beating hearts. And it would be a big mistake for anyone in business, to think that they are all alone. The business ground shifted in the favour of the majority.

‘An analysis of the structure of a market includes identifying the size of the market and trends within it, and whether the market can be further partitioned into different market segments. An analysis of the customers includes gathering data and drawing up a detailed profile of customers within the market or market segments in terms of their buying and consumer behaviour.’ states Cornelissen. This is what is referred to as market analysis.

In conducting competitor analysis, Michael Porter is the go-to person. His five forces model is often used to conduct a thorough competitive analysis. ‘The five forces – each with a different threat – are industry competitors (threat of intense segment rivalry), potential entrants (threat of new entrants), substitutes (threat of substitute products), buyers (threat of buyers’ growing bargaining power), and suppliers (threat of suppliers’ growing bargaining power).’ {Sic}

Stakeholder Analysis

The corporation exists to meet certain interests. It follows that cultivating and sustaining a great relationship between corporation and stakeholders is something we need to think of consistently and persistently. It is a fragile relationship.

‘Stakeholder analysis should at least provide some answers to the following questions: how will the organization’s actions affect stakeholders? What influence can stakeholders exert on the organization that may affect the realization of its goals? What type of consequences may result from either’s actions? What type of behaviours from stakeholders does the organization wish to encourage? What reputation does the organization have with its stakeholders?’ {Sic}

In conducting stakeholder analysis, these two tools come in handy. Stakeholder mapping and reputation research.

‘Stakeholder mapping is an analytical tool whereby managers start with identifying all stakeholder groups of an organization and display their relationship to the organization,’ says Cornelissen, ‘and one another visually in a map. This mapping exercise should enable the primary stakeholder relationships to be identified and the patterns of interdependence to emerge.’ Consider going on a journey to a new town-you will need a map to know which route to follow and so forth. That is the idea behind this stakeholder mapping tool.

Through qualitative methods of research, in-depth interviews, and focus group sessions, and quantitative methods of reputation research; the latter including a larger sample of respondents who are then asked to rate the organization on a number of pre-defined dimensions. The outcomes of such reputation research may be compared to a target or benchmark that the company has set for itself in terms of how it wants to be known and appreciated by key stakeholder groups.

Since strategic analysis is the gateway to writing an effective communications strategy, taking a considerable amount of time to have all your facts right is imperative. By conducting organization-environment, market & competitive and stakeholder analysis, you will be armed with information on which to make informed decisions. Consider this a shot in the arm. Lock and load.