Uncovering the Bottom Line: Finding the ROI in your

Association’s Social Media Strategy

Follow Along On Twitter: @InclineMktg @MarcCousineau2

The goal is value

More value = More investment

Information, Recognition, Networking

Does Social Media Even Do Anything for Associations?

Information = workshops, magazines, newsletters, etc

Members are living in the Age of Information

Social media is quick, easy way to provide quality info, and, therefore value to members

What Members Value: Information

Recognition is a big part of prestige

Social media is great at highlighting member accomplishments

Ie. Blog about long-time member, YouTube video on award winner, “Wall of Fame” on Pinterest

What Members Value: Recognition

SM makes networking quick, easy, accessible

Social media gives you opportunity to facilitate connections

Association can make it quicker, easier, more accessible

This equals more value in eyes of members

What Members Value: Networking

SM gives chance to highlight other areas of value

Ie. Infographic about money saved as member. A ‘timeline’ blog post of lobby efforts. Corresponding tweets, FB posts

SM can educate members about value of association

What Members Value: All the Rest

Social Media As A Loss Leader

What is ROI?

Calculating social media ROI is like giving someone flowers.

There’s no magic formula

What’s The Deal With ROI?

Meet Kevin...

Kevin is the communications manager at the Canadian Association of Donut Makers

He’s running the CADM’s social media for two years.

Twitter, Facebook and Blog.

Kevin’s a Great Employee...

No idea about social media ROI

Budget cuts threaten social media program

Needs to justify his job

Panic has set in

There’s Just One Problem...

Another way to define return is goals

Format overall association goals into social media goals

Kevin’s goals: Events, advocacy, young professionals

Know your goals to know your success

What You Need To Know- Your Goals

How effective and efficient is each dollar, each hour or each tweet

Kevin’s Input:◦ $48,000 salary (100% of time)◦ 25% spent on social media◦ Therefore $12,000 spent on SM ($4,000/platform)◦ Ex. Young pro tweets make up 15% of total

tweets, therefore equals a $600 investment.

What You Need To Know- Input

Become good friends with data

78 tweets with young pro content

Total spend / total tweets x relevant tweets = Input

$4,000 / 520 x 78 = $600

Case Study #1- The CADM, Twitter and Young Professionals

Total Interactions, URL Clicks, Year-Over-Year Engagement, Key Influencers

Interactions = retweets, favourites, mentions, clicks = value

URL Clicks = traffic

Case Study #1- Metrics That Matter

YOY Engagement = tracking progress

Key Influencers = Your Target Audience

Case Study #1- Metrics That Matter, Continued

Twitter Analytics

Bit.ly

Case Study #1- Getting the Numbers

78 tweets for/about young professionals

210 interactions

Average engagement rate of 2.4%

92 clicks

$600

Case Study #1- Assembling The Data

Money spent / Interactions Received = cost-per-interaction

$600 / 210 interaction = $2.87.

$2.87 (2014) vs. $3.49 (2013)

Case Study #1- Crunching the Numbers: Interactions

Money spent/URL Clicks received = cost-per-click

$169.23/92 clicks = $1.84

For every $1.84, one person went to the website.

Website is go-to resource for YPs, which = value

Case Study #1- Crunching the Numbers: URL Clicks

Interactions/Impressions x 100 = Engagement Rate

210 interactions/8,750 impressions x 100 = 2.4% engagement rate

2.4% (2014) vs. 2.02% (2013)

More efficient, more effective use of money

Case Study #1- Crunching the Numbers: Average Engagement

Cost-per-key-influencer

Determine who key influencers are

Count them (Kevin has 172 in last year)

$4,000/172 = $23.26 per key influencer

$23.26 (2014) vs. $34.78 (2013)

Case Study #1- Crunching the Numbers: Key Influencers

Only been in government relations for 3 years

Met with government officials 3 times in 2014

Goal is to bring awareness to advocacy and engage members in calls to action

40 posts (25% of total content, $1,000 spent)

Case Study #2 – Facebook and an Advocacy Strategy

Total interactions

URL Clicks

Engagement Rate

Post Reach

Case Study #2- Metrics That Matter

Interactions = likes, shares, comments, clicks

$1,000 spent / 310 interactions = $3.23 cost-per-interaction

$3.23 CPI (2014) vs. $4.02 CPI (2013)

More value for equal money = Better ROI

Case Study #2- Crunching the Numbers: Interactions

A like is “least you can do” scenario, a click means more engagement

75 clicks on 10 links

10 links = 10 posts = ¼ of total posts = $250

$250 / 75 clicks = $3.33 cost-per-click

Case Study #2- Crunching the Numbers: URL Clicks

Reach = 24,000 ($0.041 per person reached)

$0.041 (2014 reach) vs. $0.053 (2013 reach)

Better ROI than direct mail, email.

Every cent counts

Case Study #2- Crunching the Numbers: Reach

24,000 impressions, 310 interactions

310 / 24,000 x 100 = 1.29%

1.29% of people saw the post and engaged with it

1.29% (2014 rate) vs. 1.33% (2013 rate)

Look at consistency, overall reach for ROI

Case Study #2- Crunching the Numbers: Engagement Rate

7 out 25 CADM blog posts were event-focused

SM Goal = increase awareness, drive traffic

$4,000 spent on blogging

$4K / 25 posts X 7 event posts = $1,120 investment

Case Study #3- Blogging and Increased Event Attendance

Definitely use Google Analytics

Sessions

Session Duration

Landing Pages & User Flow

Case Study #3- Google Analytics 101

Number of times a page was visited (not unique visits)

644 sessions for 7 conference posts

$1,120 (money spent) / 644 (sessions) = $1.74 (cost-per-session)

$1.74 for each visit to the conference blogs

Case Study #3- Crunching the Numbers: Sessions

Session Duration = how long people stay on your posts

Longer Duration = more value, higher ROI

346 seconds (avg. duration) x 644 (total sessions) = 3,713 minutes

$0.30 = cost-per-minute

Case Study #3- Crunching the Numbers: Session Duration

Landing Page = The page that website visitors entered through

User Flow shows flow of traffic from landing pages to other pages

Examining both metrics is key to determining a page’s effect on another area of your site

Case Study #3- Crunching the Numbers: Landing Page/User Flow

Landing Pages & User Flow

Determine date parameters

400 landed on blog, 110 went directly to registration page

205 others visited the blog, 43 went directly to registration page

Total flow-through rate from blog = 25.3%

Flow-through rate to registration page from other pages = 14.2%

Case Study #3- Crunching the Numbers: Landing Pages

Calculating ROI is only ¾ of the battle

Reports give direction of goals, resources, effort

At least quarterly, at most weekly

What Now?: Creating Social Media Progress Reports

Summarize Key Numbers

Followers, retweets, mentions, clicks, impressions, etc

Significant Interactions

What Now?: Creating Social Media Progress Reports

Analyze new followers (quality over quantity)

Cost-per-key-influencer

Final Analysis (summarise data, ROI, goals, plans)

Add glossary

What Now?: Creating Social Media Progress Reports

Kevin’s Goal: A Twitter chat for YPs

Use Twitter Analytics to determine optimal time

Data will point to certain times, days with higher engagement.

Data will point to topic people have engaged with in the past

What Now?: Moving Forward With Twitter

Kevin’s Goal: Increase reach of letter writing campaign

Character count of 150-250 received better ROI

Posts with media received better ROI

Links posted before 10am, after 5pm had better ROI

Optimal posts had 150-250 characters with media, posted in morning or evening

What Now?: Moving Forward With Facebook

Kevin’s Goal: Increase buzz, traffic to registration site

Posts with interviews had better ROI

Posts with direct links to registration site within the post had better ROI

Kevin’s Plan: An interview with a long-time members with a link to registration site

What Now?: Moving Forward With The CADM’s Blog

If you provide value, members will pay for that value If you can provide that value through social media, social

media becomes an asset 1st step to ROI of social media is knowing your goals 2nd step is knowing your input 3rd step is collecting the numbers that matter. 4th step is comparing data with input, gauging bang for

buck 5th step is writing it down and presenting it to your

colleagues/boss/board and so you can fine tune strategy 6th (final) step is drawing on the ROI data to improve

strategy ROI isn’t all about numbers or a magical formula; it’s about

discovering value, measuring value and costing value

The End of the Line: A Summary and Conclusion

It’s Your Turn: Questions or Feedback?

Inclinemarketingservices@gmail.com

Twitter: @InclineMktg + @MarcCousineau2

Facebook: Incline Marketing

Website: Inclinemarketingservices.com

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