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I am so very tired of hearing that social media is not trackable. This is simply not true. Whenever you post a link to your own site, whether it's to highlight products, news, events, etc you should track the inbound data.
Because Google Analytics is so readily available, I will use this program as an example and provide instructions how to measure inbound links to your site using Facebook.
The easiest way to create a link that is trackable via Google Analytics is to visit Google's URL Builder page and fill in the various spaces. I would advise being consistent for all of your posted links that you track. Otherwise, you will have a difficult time measuring your various web campaigns effectively.
Follow these Steps:
Step 1:
- Enter in the URL for the page you wish to share
Step 2:
- Enter in the place where this link will be shared (in this particular instance, I chose "Facebook")
- Enter in a "Campaign Medium". This will be the type of data that is being shared (in this particular instance, I chose "Text Link")
- Enter in a "Campaign Name." What is this link? How would you identify it easily within Google?
Step 3:
Step 4:
- Many social media sites (including Facebook, although it is more generous at 421 chars) offering "Status Updates" require character limits on any posts. Therefore consider shortening your URLs with a "Short URL" app. Depending on where I am posting my update, I typically use Twitpwr.com or tinyurl.com.
- Copy your "Short URL"
Step 5:
- Paste the link onto your social media page.Viola, that's it!
The following day (again assuming you used Google Analytics to track your metrics), log in and go to "Traffic Sources" > "Campaigns". Mid-way down the page, look for the "Dimension" drop down menu. You can cycle through various filters such as "Source", "Campaign", "Medium" as well as other dimensions.
Labels: Facebook, Link Tracking, social media, web analytics
Google Analytics (GA) allows the ability to segment traffic rather easily using their new "Advanced Segments" tool (currently in Beta). Log into your GA account and on the lower left portion of the side nav, notice "Advanced Segments". It's small text and if you blinked you may have missed it.
After you click on the link you will come to a landing page with some common, pre-determined traffic segments. For the purposes of this post, disregard these and click "Create new custom segment" located on the top right-portion of the screen.
Now you will see a tool that I can best describe as a visual boolean operator tool. This tool allows you to create custom reports using a series of dimensions and metrics combined with various and/or statements.
For the purposes of this post, click on "dimensions" > "traffic sources". Now click and drag "source" into the first "dimension or metric" area to the right.
If performed correctly you will now see a condition drop down menu and a value text input field. Click within the condition drop down and choose "contains". Within the value text field, type in "facebook.com" it may even auto-populate for you. You can then click "test segment" to ensure this segmentation worked correctly.
Assuming all worked as planned, name and save your traffic segment so that you can analyze it later. I named mine "Facebook Visitor Segment". Now repeat this process using any additional domains that you wish to monitor (Twitter, MySpace, etc).
To view this report go back to your main dashboard. Click on "Traffic Sources", choose the date range that you would like to analyze this data. Above the right-hand side date range selector you should see a drop down menu that says "Advanced Segments". Select this. Once expanded, you will see your newly created custom segment within the options. Select the segment you wish to analyze. You can additionally compare this custom segment to other data sources.Labels: Data Segmentation, Google Analytics, social media
This video is too brilliant not to share:
http://www.vimeo.com/1083838?pg=embed&sec=1083838Labels: social media
Obviously social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn are newcomers to the online marketing world. Their core focus is clearly evolving. Being that they are so new, it is easy to understand that most marketers are simply not experienced in marketing to these type of communities.
Unlike web analytic software (Google Analytics, ClickTracks, Omniture, etc) there is currently no widely accepted standard dashboard in existence that is able to monitor all forms of social media and in effect determine ROI. This process is left almost entirely to the marketer. There are many attempts to monitor conversations and measure overall buzz (Buzzlogic, TruCast). I have spoken with and demo'd the material of these two firms and they both measure conversations fairly well.
It seems to me that in order to measure success and inevitably ROI, you need to first establish your own objectives and determine which KPI's you wish to follow. I think it’s reasonable to believe that without indicators such as revenue growth and conversion metrics it is hard to determine overall ROI.
In the business world, ROI is typically determined by taking the amount of the total investment and dividing that by the amount of the return. Since social media marketing is based almost entirely on trust and dialogue, how can you measure this?
I believe that the metrics used in calculating the success of a social media marketing campaign area going to be unique. In short, a focus on lead generation and driving sales is going to have a different set of ideal metrics than a general focus on user engagement.
I am finding out in my own research, there are several ways to determine an individual's likelihood that they are providing influence to others - a common determinant in the success of a social media marketing campaign.
Metrics to consider: Do they have a blog? How many posts are within this blog? Do they have social network profiles? How many 'friends' do they have? How long have they been a member of a particular social network? How long has it been since their last login? Additionally, what kind of digital footprint are they leaving across the web?
Again, certain campaigns are going to follow a different set of parameters though it's a starting point.Labels: Buzzlogic, ClickTracks, Facebook, Google Analytics, KPI, LinkedIn, MySpace, Omniture, ROI, social media, TruCast, web marketing
I measure the success of any web initiative though clear use of metrics. I love analyzing "the numbers" because it gives me further incite into user data that as a marketer I may not have otherwise understood yet alone considered.
In my travels I came across a post by Rachel Happe. In this post she highlights methodologies for measuring social media success.
What I like the most about her proposed series of metrics is that for different individuals there are different types of metrics that should be analyzed. Great post Rachel!Labels: measuring success, metrics, ROI, social media, web marketing
In the several blogs and other online articles I read there appears to be some contradiction revolving around the motive of influencers. In a few cases there appears to be a general assumption that an influencer within a given marketplace is already a customer. While they can certainly fall into this category I do not believe this to be the case. Here's my fundamental reason why...
The primary objective for targeting influencers within a given market is that they quite simply have the power to sway your current customers and prospects. Which one of us goes around telling their friends about "product X" simply to talk about "product X"? While I am sure it does happen on a few occasions, I feel largely this is a marketer’s pipe dream.
Since an influencer is not likely to pawn products that they simply do not believe in the first place, a component of trust needs to already be instilled between a given influencer and their peer group. The influencer may bring up a particular product or brand however they are not standing by idly to market a desired brand. Instead it is more plausible that they are simply engaging in this dialog to help their friend.
Remember, when targeting influencers through online or offline initiatives, you are NOT looking to influence an entire demographic. You are looking to influence very specific people.
Therein lies the danger with targeting and then reaching out to influencers. Consider this scenario, as a marketer, I identify specific influencers for a client. (Which I am developing some software to do and will share this with you shortly.) I hand over the list to the client who in turn blasts out emails to every individual on the list. The vast majority of these individuals then respond with a one-word answer: "Unsubscribe". A death sentence for online marketers as the opportunity is wasted.
So you see, when people are passionately engaged, and when they are true believers in the brand they are promoting, viral campaigns will accelerate. And that is why the influencer theory of marketing continues to be one that is both useful and relevant.Labels: demographic targeting, influencers, internet marketing, social media, viral campaigns
 I just returned from DC where I attended the Graphing Social Patterns conference. Keynote presentations included representatives from Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo, & of course Google.
I must say that I went to this conference with no expectations. The CEO of Lorel joined me on Tuesday. In many regards I hoped there would be a good deal that he could take away from this conference. However at the same time I hoped that it would NOT be too introductory for me. For the most part I was rather pleased.
The first day of the conferences focused primarily on the business case for social media, the importance of widgets as well as general tactics in viral marketing. At night there was even an app nite focusing on demos of various developers.
Day two was extremely developer centric, focusing on "what's under the hood" of many of our favorite social media apps.
All in all, I was pleased with the conference, I learned a fair bit and networked like a mad man. My only minor criticism would be creating a business case for focusing social media based on different age demographics. We all know that the 15-35 crowd is a sponge, focusing on all forms of social media. However how do us marketing types reach older skewing age demographics? Our options are clearly limited as age skews.
Secondly and equally as important, I still question whether the long tail of social media will actually even exist within Facebook and MySpace? The concept itself has certainly become more main stream. Look at cnn.com for example with it's Facebook feeds and iReport capabilities. Love it or hate it, social media is here to stay.
For what it's worth, should Dave McClure and gang put on another show next year I will likely be there.Labels: conference, Graphing Social Patterns, social media, viral marketing
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