According to a recent survey by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, very few professionals (16%) are measuring Social Media ROI.  Is this because most don’t know HOW to measure it? I would venture to guess that a lot of professionals are unsure how to start tracking Social Media marketing results.

Here are some other insights from the study:

• 86% of respondents to the survey of professionals from a variety of industries said they had adopted social technologies..
• 57% said they were using social media tools for marketing.
• More than four in 10 respondents did not even know whether the social tools they were using had ROI measurement capabilities.
• 3 in 10 reported using social media for customer service and support.

Measuring Social Media performance has been a hot topic of late among Social Media professionals. Google Analytics Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik, tweeted this rather funny quote:

“Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When it’s finally done there is surprise it’s not better.”

He is of course touching on the fact that often, the results of social media are hard to measure – and he is saying this from the viewpoint of an analyst.

In upcoming posts, I will take a look at some of the metrics you might want to consider when launching a Social Media campaign. Oh – and before you DO launch a Social Media campaign, make sure you know what your goals are… because those will be important when analyzing your campaign!

If you need help developing a Social Media plan, defining your Social Media goals, and / or measuring your Social Media ‘success’ and ROI, please feel free to contact me!