Good article. There is a lot of talk about the ROI of Social Media but nothing has yet been defined clearly. To try to put thoughts on a paper (or adding to the chaos…), I pulled together a Social Media ROI spreadsheet. It is based on work by Charlene Li (Forrester) and Bill Johnston (Forum One) in that it compares online and offline benefits and costs.

The spreadsheet is downloadable at http://dagholmboe.wordpress.com.

I am a firm believer that running a business, you need to define an ROI in basically everything you do. Some people might argue that Social Media is different and that calculating and ROI is impossible. There is some justification to their arguments - after all, how do you quantify engagement or sentiment? Nevertheless, it is simply not correct that you can not define an ROI.

The problem with Social Media ROI is that it is difficult to define however Li and Johnston have done a great job defining it. My spread sheet is simply just an extension of their work.

Best,
 Dag.

Understanding How Social Media Impacts the Purchase Path [link to post]

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Sorry it took me so long to get back around to you! The measurement and tracking of social analytics is really in its infancy, but bringing web analytics and social metrics one step closer together is a start.

The trick is always going to be in understanding that buying behaviors and influence factors aren’t linear. They’re a combination of things that include many of the metrics we’re tracking, but drawing a hard line of causality between X post and Y purchase behavior is always going to be a bit nebulous.

Instead, what we can do is better refine our filters to understand indicators and guideposts for behavior, and focus our efforts where they’re most likely to succeed. That also includes being willing to set clear objectives and measure against them from the start with a carefully selected set of metrics. A balance of quantitative and qualitative metrics is always going to be key, and we’re hoping that our partnership with WebTrends along with continued development of social tools and spaces will bring us closer to tying online experiences together across the web.

Thanks for your thoughtful post, as always.

Cheers,
Amber Naslund
Director of Community | Radian6
 @AmberCadabra

team #zed have a read of this: ‘Understanding how SM impacts the Path of Purchase’ [link to post]

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RT @CatalystAdv Reading- RT @ImpactWatch: Understanding How Social Media Impacts the Purchase Path - @adamcohen - [link to post]

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Reading- RT @ImpactWatch: Understanding How Social Media Impacts the Purchase Path - @adamcohen - [link to post]

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Understanding How Social Media Impacts the Purchase Path - @adamcohen - [link to post]

- Posted using Chat Catcher

Understanding How Social Media Impacts the Purchase Path [link to post]

- Posted using Chat Catcher