Between the Lines of Research
A month or so ago I happened to read a quick succession of reports on the business value of social media. This brought to the fore a thought that had been lingering back of mind for some time – where are the hard facts, the math of marketing ROI in social media that enable us to assess the Return on Marketing Investment (RoMI)?
Then last week I received HubSpot’s e-book The Social Media Data Stacks : A Research Collection for Marketers. Looking at the contents page I realised I had to crystallise their implied point for our clients and prospects.
You need to assess research of social media RoMI between the lines. Almost invariably over the last year, the plethora of research results was not couched in terms of RoMI. Rather, in terms of the belief or aspirations of the marketing professionals surveyed.
When you see terms such as ‘Females, 18-34, Most Active on SocNets‘, ‘Facebook: 281% Ad Spend Growth‘, ‘Social media was leading emerging channel for lead gen in 2010‘ – beware. These do not reflect hard conversion metrics. They reflect an optimism that might or might not be justified. A bit like the optimism that led to the GFC maybe?
Maybe. Except there does seem to be underlying value in the sheer volume and growth of social media. So I rather think some form of social media will be harnessed as an effective business marketing power. But the (near) absence of hard data indicates to us that we should be very wary indeed about substantial investment in channels that are yet to be proven.
The Promise of Social Marketing
Having said that, an hour before I was due to publish this, I received two very pertinent news items from Marketing Sherpa. Both Social Media Marketing: Analytics are free and plentiful and The promise of social marketing ROI driving client investment clearly support my case. Thankfully, the former gives us leads to applying metrics to social media marketing.
So stay tuned for developments in social media metrics but do filter out the static.
Social marketing and ROI
Category : Blog &Multi-channel &RoMI &Social media
