Social Media ROI: 11 FREE Tools for Measuring Social Media Success

One of the most challenging tasks in selling digital marketing to the C-Suite is defining the return on investment (ROI). It can be particularly challenging when justifying the budget for social media marketing (SMM).

Many SMM efforts lend themselves to brand building, community building, and customer service. Unlike "traditional" SEO, these activities aren't always transactional in nature.

Marketing ROI has traditionally been measured like this:

Return on Investment (%) = (Net profit / Marketing Costs) × 100.

Sometimes, cost per customer acquisition is the measure. As recently as 2010, the dawn of social media marketing, those in the C-Suite attempted to apply the tried and true transactional ROI model to SMM. The CMO Survey, as reported by Forbes, lists the most common metrics used to measure social media investment.

By 2013, only 9 percent of marketers were using traditional ROI metrics, down from 17 percent in the initial survey. The reason: many social media activities can't be effectively measured using a transactional formula. SMM is often best measured in terms of audience reach, engagement and sentiment.

That said, there are highly successful direct response campaigns that run on Facebook and other social networks every day. These approaches deliver an ROI that can easily be measured the old-fashioned way. Pam Dyer lists 10 here. If that isn't enough, Rob Petersen has another six examples.

Business Insider recently published a story on the death of social ROI. They claim that companies are starting to drop the idea that social media ROI can be measured.

I asked Nicole Harrison (@SocialNicole) about this and the importance of ROI in social media. She was adamant that social media done correctly will deliver results and recommended the following list of 11 free tools for measuring both ROI and social media success.

1. HootSuite

HootSuite is a good all around tool to use for management and metrics tracking. You can schedule posts from multiple social media channels as well as create over 30 individual reports. The free metrics are somewhat limited, but for beginners it's all you will need.

2. SocialMention

SocialMention is an aggregate tool similar to Google Alerts, but for social media, only. This will give you insight into not only what is being said, but who is saying it and what the general sentiment is.

You can set an RSS feed, email alerts, or even add a real-time widget to your website. You can also download a CSV/Excel file for further evaluation.

3. Klout

Monitoring influence isn't an exact science, but having a tool that helps you begin to gage someone's online presence can be useful. Klout is a free tool that will allow you to measure influence on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and several other channels.

4. Facebook Insights

The Facebook insights dashboard gives you all of the analytics data for your Facebook page. The insights allow you to understand your audience, what they are reacting to, and adjust your content to meet their needs.

5. Twitter Analytics

Twitter now has its own analytics dashboard. With Twitter Analytics you can track timeline activity, including tweets that were favorited, retweeted, and replied to. The tool also tracks number of mentions, new followers and newly followed. For more information, see "Twitter Analytics: A Beginner's Guide".

6. Google Analytics

With Google Analytics Campaign Tracking, you can set up links for campaigns with UTM parameters to track the campaign. Go here to create the link using Google link shortener for campaigns.

This is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to track success of a specific link within a campaign. It's also one of the most overlooked methods of tracking.

7. Custom Social Media Reports

Google Analytics does a nice job tracking the number of visitors to visit a website from different social channels. These custom reports give you additional insights as to how traffic is being driven to your website.

If you aren't blogging or creating new and useful content to draw people to your website, don't expect these numbers to be high. It requires a content strategy to really work people toward your website. These easy to install one-click reports are invaluable.

8. Bitly

This link shortener allows you track everything you share. This is a great way to see what your audience is interacting with and decide if the content you share is valuable.

Bitly also integrates into many third-party software packages, making it a great umbrella tool, as you can track within multiple platforms. For example, you may use Social Sprout, a paid management platform and Buffer both with Bitly then review data in individual platforms or as a whole through Bitly.

9. Buffer

Buffer is a great tool for scheduling content. You simply fill up your Buffer account each day and it will automatically post the content to the channels you select.

For metrics, you're able to look at a dashboard inside Buffer to see what posts are getting the most interaction, or attach it to Bitly to include in your general tracking. You can also attach UTM parameters to track traffic in Google Analytics.

10. TweetReach

TweetReach is a great tool for tracking a campaign or conversation on Twitter. Simply enter your search term or hashtag and allow TweetReach to search for the tweets to tell you reach, exposure, activity, top contributors, and more. You can look at the past 50 mentions for free.

11. Keyhole

Keyhole is similar to TweetReach except that it also tracks Facebook and Instagram as well as Twitter. This is a great way to track a hashtag or keyword for a campaign or event.

The free social tracker gives you a sample of what the tracker can do. If you signup you can get a three-day free trial, which may be adequate for an event or snapshot view of a campaign. To get a long-term view you can sign up for a monthly paid plan.

Summary

Measuring social media ROI isn't always easy. Building a brand and improving your customer service may not show up directly in your analytics, but these "soft" metrics can have a major impact on the bottom line.

Do you have any tools or measurable SMM success stories to share?

By Chuck Price.  Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2308870/Social-Media-ROI-11-FREE-Tools-for-Measuring-Social-Media-Success

Twitter's Direct Message failures driving you crazy?

Twitter’s Direct Message failures driving you crazy?

As many of you might of already noticed, Twitter is currently experiencing problems with their Direct Messages and have published the following message:

This has caused problems for Twitter users everywhere and of course our very own SocialBro users. In true Twitter style a debate has sparked and Twitter themselves have apparently dismissed speculation that these errors are their way of trying to crack down on spammers, insisting that it is just a temporary technical issuecaused by a bug. Whichever it is, it’s a huge inconvenience for business users and we understand the importance of being able to communicate with your community, which of course includes being able to direct them to your website/ blog/ event sign up page etc. In order to help you guys improve communication with your community during this period we have created this post to outline a few tips of ways that you canalter your links to allow them to be sent.

Twitter’s attempt to crack down on spammers?

One of the main ways spammers make use of Twitter is to send users links to websites either by public tweet or a direct message. In a past blog post by Twitter they stated: 

“At Twitter, we see spamming as a variety of different behaviours that range from insidious to annoying.Posting harmful links to phishing or malware sites, repeatedly posting duplicate tweets, and aggressively following and un-following accounts to attract attention are just a few examples of spam on Twitter.”

Previously users could only send DMs to their followers but recently Twitter changed their rules and allowed users to opt in to being able to receive DMs from any user. The DM problems kicked in after this change which has lead to some believing that Twitter is trying to prevent spammers from taking advantage of this new opportunity, however it could well just be a bug as a result of the new roll out.

SocialBro’s tips to send your links

We have found that Twitter is still allowing users to send links to certain websites that Twitter deems as “safe” for example Youtube, Instagram, Twitter etc which backs up theories that this is part of Twitter’s plan to prevent spam. If this is the case, while we appreciate Twitter going to such great lengths to improve their user experience for everyone, the inability to send potential customers and clients links to your own pages is a huge inconvenience and something that could greatly hinder engagement, relationship building and as a result sales etc.

We’ve been busy here at SocialBro HQ investigating ways that you can manoeuvre around this issue both by experimenting with different types of DMs and by doing some research on the web. Here’s a couple of ideas for how you to avoid failed error messages and failed DMs.

1) Add an extra slash in your URL

Using three slashes in your URL (e.g. https:///www.socialbro.com) will mean that it is not recognised by Twitter as a link and your message will be sent. The downside however is that the link can not be clicked from the DM, the user will have to copy and paste it into their browser which will then eliminate the extra slash and send them to your destination.

2) Send users to your destination via a whitelisted web page

As mentioned above, URLs from some major websites have been whitelisted meaning you can still send users DMs containing links to their webpages. Youtube is one of these websites which just so happens to have a redirect service meaning your link will appear to Twitter as though it will take the user to Youtube, which it does but it gives the user the link that you are actually trying to direct them to which they then have to click. To use Youtube’s redirect service change your URL as shown below:

e.g. From:

https://www.socialbro.com

To:

http://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=socialbro.com 

3) Use a link to a tweet in your DM

Twitter is allowing users to send DMs with links to Twitter itself. As a result of this, users have managed to bypass this problem by sending a public tweet containing a message and a link to their website/ blog etc and include a link to this tweet in a direct message to desired recipients. Please be aware however that spammers are currently using this method and we advise using our best practices (such as personalising the message and making sure you only send DMs to those users who will value them) to make sure your tweets are successful and your community do not think you are trying to spam them. 

4) Avoid URL shorteners

There have always been pros and cons of using URL shorteners in your direct messages. URL shorteners such as Bitly make it easy for you to track the number of clicks your link has received and therefore allows you to judge the successfulness of your campaign. On the downside however, some users will view these links as suspicious and will avoid clicking on them as the destination is unknown. While Twitter is experiencing these DM problems, we advise against using URL shorteners in your direct messages.

Although these methods are not ideal, neither is a bunch of failed DMs. We’ve tried these ideas and they worked for us and we recommend using point one or two and not using a link shortener (these points are also detailed in our user guide). if you have any other tried and tested methods we would love to hear them!

By SocialBro.  Article Source: http://blog.socialbro.com/2013/11/twitters-direct-message-failures.html

4 ONLINE MARKETING TRENDS FOR 2014

Every good Internet marketer knows there is only one valid rule for online marketing, and it’s this: Tomorrow, the rules will change. The digital world is constantly evolving, with new technologies arriving to kick the old ones into the gutter, and consumer behavior shifts as the choices expand.

Your website may be working … but is it working hard enough? Online marketers not only have to keep up with the current landscape, but also look ahead to anticipate what the future might bring.

Here’s what’s likely to happen in 2014 as the Internet continues to change.

1. Content marketing still reigns supreme

Providing consistently valuable content has always been a staple of online marketing, and it’s going to become more important than ever. Two recent changes to Google are driving factors in the rise of content marketing.

First is the new Hummingbird algorithm, which changes the rules for mobile searches and makes all of them more intelligent by using a “conversation-based” engine that finds information based on the way people talk.

Then there’s across-the-board secure search. Previously employed only when a searcher was logged into a Google account, the search engine giant has now implemented SSL for every search — and at the same time pulled the Google Keyword Tool. Now, paid searches through AdWords are the only ones being tracked by keywords.

These changes mean that online marketers will have to rely on organic SEO generated by strong content to boost search engine rankings.

2. Social media gets wrapped up in SEO

Traditional inbound links still carry more weight than social media mentions, but that dynamic is shifting. With search engines seeking to return the most relevant content with the highest quality, social shares are becoming a valuable component for search engine rankings — because the more people choose to share a piece of content, the higher its perceived quality.

For this reason, diversity in social media will also be important. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are still the Big 3 of social networks, but rising stars like Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, and Tumblr look like they’re here to stay — and they’ll add weight to your social signals. Currently, only a third of CEOs have any presence on social media sites, meaning that we have a long way to go before social reaches its saturation point within the business executive community.

In 2014, blending social strategies with SEO will help businesses enrich their content marketing efforts and drive organic search results.

3. Images are essential for success

As online consumers have become desensitized to banners and frame ads, the sheer number of advertisements has increased in a bid to gain attention. The emphasis today is on content that’s easily digestible; and great images help your content stand out.

Attesting to this is the rise of sites like Pinterest and Buzzfeed, the immediate popularity of infographics, and the fact that the most popular articles and blog posts with the most social shares contain clear, well-placed images. The visual nature of the Internet means that incorporating images can only help your marketing efforts.

Properly labeling images with relevant file names and ALT tags will also strengthen your SEO and improve the accessibility of your content.

4. Mobile matters more than ever

The shift toward mobile is undeniable. There are now more active mobile devices than adults in the US, and consumers are using their smartphones and tablets to research products and services, find businesses, shop directly, and more. Forbes reports that by 2017, 87 percent of connected devices sales — a category that includes desktop and laptop PCs — will be smartphones and tablets.

Next year’s Internet marketing battlefield will play out largely on mobile devices, as a growing number of users expects to access products, services, apps, and information on smartphones and tablets. Your business needs to have responsive design in place, and online features that cater to a mobile audience, in order to remain competitive.

By Drew Hendricks.  Article source: http://tech.co/4-online-marketing-trends-2014-2013-11

Related posts:

5 Online Marketing Trends Affecting Small Businesses Beyond 2013

The 16 Most Important Social Media Updates of 2012 by Rachel Sprung

Mapping World Social Media Trends

5 Social Media Etiquette Tips to Follow this Holiday Party Season

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  REUTERS

The world got a dose of social media etiquette from Mark Zuckerberg’s older sister, Randi, this week with the release of her new book Dot Complicated: Untangling Our Complicated Lives.

And despite being related to the Facebook (FB) founder, that doesn’t mean she’s  immune to social media gaffes. After posting a picture of her family last year at Christmas on Facebook she got upset when it was later re-posted on Twitter (TWTR).  To show her frustration, she tweeted:  “Digital etiquette: always ask permission before posting a friend’s photo publicly. It’s not about privacy settings, it’s about human decency.”

Social media has blurred the lines to what is appropriate when it comes to sharing, over-sharing and interacting with friends, family and coworkers online, but etiquette experts warn it’s user’s beware.

“We have to assume, even among our closest family, that anything we post on social media can be reposted,” says Diane Gottsman, owner of the Protocol School of Texas. “Not because [the re-poster] is doing it in a contrarian way, but they may want to share it with a friend, who then shares that with their whole network. Anything that is within a private domain may be retweeted or reposted.”

Ahead of the holiday season, which is peppered with work, social and family gatherings, here are a few dos and don’ts for your social media account:

DO: Connect with friends and family online. Social media can help to update and re-connect with friends and family during the holiday season you may not have had time to chat with throughout the year, Gottsman says. “It’s a great way to share family photos and greetings with people you wouldn’t normally share holiday greetings with [via mail].”

DON’T: Be overly political or religious online. No one wants to be inundated with political or religious postings during the holidays--or anytime, for that matter, Gottsman says. “We don’t need a step-by-step account of your holiday,” she says. “Share holiday updates without getting too political or religious.”

Jacqueline Whitmore, founder of EtiquetteExpert.com, also recommends avoiding rants during the holiday season. “That is a fast way to get deleted,” she says.

DO: Be cautious of leaving people out. The holiday season is full of parties and social gatherings, and posting photos and status updates of the festivities could leave some of your followers with bruised egos, warns Gottsman.

“People may ask, ‘why wasn’t I invited?’” she says. “There is always the chance of offending people.”

DON’T: Post photos of your boss or coworkers without permission.  Be sure you ask colleagues, and especially your higher-ups, before sharing photos of them on the web, says Gottsman.

“You always need to ask permission, especially at the office party,” she says. “And be sure not to post pictures of your boss in what may appear to be a compromising position.”

DO: Be mindful of security settings. Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites are often updating their privacy settings, says Whitmore, so be aware of any changes made as you share.

“These things change rapidly and you may not be sure if your posts are secure, so regularly check your settings,” she says.

By Kate Rogers. Article source: 

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/11/08/5-social-media-etiquette-tips-to-follow-this-holiday-party-season/