uncovering the real value of social...

Uncovering the Real Value of Social Media

Uncovering the Real Value of Social Media • v15.012

Executive SummarySocial has multiple touch points across the purchase

funnel, and as such, merits an attribution model that takes into account its holistic capabilities. For measurement and metrics to be effective, they need to be deployed

and assessed across the consumer journey.

A comprehensive social strategy covers both soft KPIs, such as brand sentiment, as well as getting to the heart of bottom-line KPIs, like conversion rate or basket size.

In an exclusive survey from Brand Republic and Shoutlet, over 150 marketing decision-makers were asked to describe

how they currently navigate the social landscape and measure their output.

This expert report examines where some brands are leading when it comes to their social measurement

and where others are perhaps falling short.


Most marketers do not yet incorporate email address acquisition (63% of respondents) or user generated content metrics (76% of respondents) into their KPI mix.

Key Findings

Most brands currently assess the impact of their social marketing campaigns by measuring brand sentiment, conversation volume,

direct sales, and lead generation.

There is opportunity to connect the dots to revenue, only one-third of respondents track lead generation to revenue, and just 10% attribute social for email revenue derived

from socially sourced leads.

Brands should more quickly embrace social customer service to live

up to customer expectations. Over 60% currently do not have formal metrics in place for tracking social

media customer service.

Brands intend to build out social measurement systems in support of brand advocacy (29%) and client retention (34%) initiatives.

A majority of brands should revisit their social content mix to ensure it

is aligned with downstream business drivers. 65% of brands surveyed

indicate they direct social posts to their ecommerce sites or lead forms

less than 30% of the time.

Sophisticated analysis is lacking as just 25% of survey respondents

currently monitor the type of content that gets shared by brand

advocates in order to optimize reach and engagement via their

advocacy programs.

While many brands have embraced using social as a means to source ideas for product innovation and

gather new product feedback, only 1% of survey respondents track gross margin attributed to their

socially sourced new product ideas.

Monitoring share of voice can provide many marketers with

additional benchmarks to measure the impact of their social marketing

programs, yet only one-third of marketers currently track share

of voice for social media.


Responses

15.66% (13)

12.05% (10)

8.43% (7)

8.43% (7)

7.23% (6)

7.23% (6)

7.23% (6)

4.82% (4)

4.82% (4)

4.82% (4)

3.61% (3)

3.61% (3)

3.61% (3)

3.61% (3)

3.61% (3)

1.20% (1)

Total Respondents: 83

Answer Choices

Agency

Other (please specify)

Education

Technology

Media

Travel/hospitality

FMCG

Healthcare

Manufacturing

Services

Finance

Professional services

Entertainment

Telecommunications

Retail

Insurance

AGENCY

OTHER (PLEASE SPECIFY)

EDUCATION

TECHNOLOGY

MEDIA

TRAVEL/HOSPITALITY

FMCG

HEALTHCARE

MANUFACTURING

SERVICES

FINANCE

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

ENTERTAINMENT

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

RETAIL

INSURANCE

Q: WHAT IS YOUR INDUSTRY? Please tick all that apply / Answered: 83 Skipped: 25

0% 10% 20%

Sample:The survey was conducted with marketers from a wide range

of company sizes and industries.


What to measure?This report will look at the range of ways brands can quantify the

impact of their social output.

It’s no secret that most brands are running social marketing campaigns,

79% of our respondents stated that they regularly measure campaigns

to determine business value.

More than half of the respondents currently measure brand sentiment

and conversation volume. And 45% measure social’s influence on direct

sales and lead generation.

“Brand advocacy” is measured by only 28%, but an additional 42% identify

a need and desire to improve in this area. Brand advocates are the holy

grail of earned marketing, and as recent Nielsen research found, 84% of

consumers trust advertising messages that come from friends and family.

Customer retention is another area within the social mix that only 10%

of brands are measuring; but 34% of respondents want to improve their

social client retention metrics.

Employee advocacy remains an underdeveloped and unproven strategy.

Only 19% currently attempt to measure its business value, and just 21%

view it as an area worthy of advancement.

BUSINESSVALUE

BRANDSENTIMENT

CONVERSATIONVOLUME

SOCIALINFLUENCE

BRAND ADVOCACY

CUSTOMERRETENTION

EMPLOYEEADVOCACY


0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Answer Choices

Social marketing campaigns

Brand sentiment and volume of conversations

Direct sales and lead generation

Market insights

Social customer service

Brand advocacy

Employee advocacy/corporate use of social

Client retention


Responses

78.50% (84)

52.34% (56)

44.86% (48)

36.45% (39)

34.58% (37)

28.97% (31)

18.69% (20)

10.28% (11)

3.74% (4)


Q: WHICH OF THE BELOW DO YOU REGULARLY MEASURETO DEMONSTRATE SOCIAL MEDIA BUSINESS VALUE?

Please tick all that apply / Answered: 107 Skipped: 1

SOCIAL MARKETINGCAMPAIGNS

BRAND SENTIMENT ANDVOLUME OF CONVERSATIONS

DIRECT SALES ORLEAD GENERATION

MARKET INSIGHTS

SOCIAL CUSTOMER SERVICE

BRAND ADVOCACY

EMPLOYEE ADVOCACY/CORPORATE USE OF SOCIAL

CLIENT RETENTION



DEMONSTRATING VALUE

Based on the survey, 35% of marketers ranked tracking the efficiency

of social campaigns as the most important measurement. Not far behind,

with 21%, was tracking direct sales or lead generation. These are undeniably

obvious areas to measure, but do not complete the entire social

media value picture.

Overlooked areas, such as measuring marketing insights, client retention,

and online customer service also deliver value.

10-30%

30-60%

MORE THAN 90%

60-90%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Answer Choices

Less than 10%

10-30%

30-60%

More than 90%

60-90%

Responses

35.51% (38)

29.91% (32)

22.43% (24)

8.41% (9)

3.74% (4)


Q: WHICH PERCENTAGE OF YOUR SOCIAL POSTS AREDIRECTED TO YOUR ECOMMERCE SITE OR LEAD FORMS?


LESS THAN 10%

With the brands surveyed, 65% indicated that they direct social posts

to their ecommerce sites or lead forms less than 30% of the time.


Many brands are still keeping their strategic intent and actual results disjointed. They know that it is possible to drive measurable results from social media, with direct sales or lead generation measurement being one of their top priorities. However, most are still not making that link between social content and lead/sales generation. While brands must be engaging rather than salesy, there are subtle ways to drive fans to ecommerce or lead forms by offering them value rather than incentivising purchase. For effective results that will allow social marketers to prove their success, they should plan for more innovative content directing to measurable landing pages in at least 30-40% of all the posts they do.ADAM KAY, HEAD OF EMEA FOR SHOUTLET


SOCIAL METRICS

In order to demonstrate the true value of social media, marketers must

take a holistic approach that goes beyond brand sentiment, direct sales,

and lead generation.

Here are the key areas of measurement, along with their associated KPI’s.

Social Marketing Campaigns:

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Answer Choices

Number of engaged users

Audience reach

Campaign participation/entries

Direct sales

Email address/lead acquisition

Quantity of user generated content

N/A - we don’t measure this


Responses

72.29% (60)

72.29% (60)

55.42% (46)

38.55% (32)

37.35% (31)

24.10% (20)

8.43% (7)

4.82% (4)


Q: WHICH METRICS DO YOU USE TO MEASURE YOUR SOCIAL MARKETING CAMPAIGNS?Please tick all that apply / Answered: 83 Skipped: 25

NUMBER OFENGAGED USERS

AUDIENCE REACH

CAMPAIGNPARTICIPATION/ENTRIES

DIRECT SALES

EMAIL ADDRESS/LEAD ACQUISITION

QUANTITY OF USERGENERATED CONTENT

N/A - WE DON’TMEASURE THIS



The survey revealed that, on the most part, fairly basic metrics were being employed in this area. Reach, engagement, and campaign entries are the primary ways brands measure social campaigns. Most marketers have an opportunity to incorporate email address acquisition and user generated content metrics into their KPI mix.

Four Seasons Hotel Case Study

Viewed primarily as a choice for business travel, the team looked to tap into a different demographic for the summer to increase revenue with a family friendly and child-focused Facebook Contest called #MaxineTakesManhattan.

Maxine, a green fuzzy stuffed toy, was selected to travel around New York City. Each week for 12 weeks, Maxine travelled to a new destination and Four Seasons fans guessed the location on their Facebook page. The hotel added each correct entry into a weekly random drawing and awarded one lucky winner a Four Seasons Gift Card. A range of social media was used, such as Facebook posts, cover photos, a Pinterest page, and a unique hashtag. The team supplemented the contest with Instagram posts and kicked off the promotion with Maxine’s own Vine video over Twitter and Facebook.

With hundreds of contest participants, an increase in family travel during the summer, and guests asking about Maxine at Reception, Four Seasons Hotel New York declared the promotion a huge success.

Shoutlet’s Social Canvas® and Social Contests feature was used to implement and manage the contest. The team developed the creative and entry pages in advance and scheduled each weekly contest to publish automatically, allowing the team to set it and forget it. Social Contest management made it easy to track contest entries, page views, and overall fan data and analytics, easing the process for everybody involved.

Fan/follower growth and year-over-year sales increases as a result of social campaigns should also be monitored.

• 5% revenue increase summer months YOY

• 10% increase in Facebook fans

• 19% increase in Twitter followers


Social Customer Service:


NUMBER OF ISSUESSATISFACTORILY RESOLVED

NUMBER OF POSITIVEAND NEGATIVE QUERIES

SPEED OF RESPONSE


0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Answer Choices


Number of issues satisfactorily resolved

Number of positive and negative queries

Speed of response


Responses

45.78% (38)

38.55% (32)

34.94% (29)

31.33% (26)

1.20% (1)


Q: WHICH METRICS DO YOU USE TO MEASURE YOUR SOCIAL CUSTOMER SERVICE?Please tick all that apply / Answered: 83 Skipped: 25

Over 60% of respondents are not currently measuring social customer

service. There is opportunity for more brands to measure:

• The number of positive and negative inquiries

• The number of customer service issues satisfactorily resolved

• The speed of response time to address inquiries

Successful social media customer service reduces call centre workload

and increases consumer satisfaction leading to repeat business.

Brands should break down organizational silos and work with their

Customer Service department to establish these metrics that will

further demonstrate social media’s value.


Peapod Case Study

As an online grocery store, social customer service made sense for Peapod.

The team’s goals include providing service when and where the customer

requests, and to respond to all customer service tweets within a day. By

meeting the customer’s needs on their terms, Peapod has proven increased

engagement with its customers.

The Peapod marketing team manages social media during business hours,

while the customer service team covers inquires the rest of the day. Using

social marketing platform Shoutlet, Peapod restricts the customer service

team’s permissions in their Shoutlet accounts so they can only respond to

customer questions and inquiries.

An important aspect of servicing customers via social media for Peapod is

providing important customer insights to the rest of the team, improving

their company’s online grocery store offerings.

Our belief is by meeting customers where they are and giving them the service where they want it, we’re encouraging loyalty and meeting their needs.SARA BROWN, MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA PLANNER


Brand Sentiment:

NUMBER OFPOSITIVE COMMENTS

NUMBER OFNEGATIVE COMMENTS

SHARE OF VOICE



0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Answer Choices

Number of mentions

Number of positive comments

Number of negative comments

Share of voice



Responses

50.60% (42)

49.40% (41)

42.17% (35)

33.73% (28)

33.73% (28)

1.20% (1)


Q: WHICH METRICS DO YOU USE TO MEASURE BRAND SENTIMENT?Please tick all that apply / Answered: 83 Skipped: 25

NUMBER OF MENTIONS

While over 50% of respondents measure sentiment by counting the number

of brand mentions, only one-third of respondents measure share of voice.

Establishing and optimizing a share of voice metric is a key way to remain

competitive and relevant.

Sentiment is the conduit to nurturing brand advocates, or nipping issues

in the bud. However, without a sophisticated technology system to sample

and interpret keywords, phrases, and social behaviour, this is a challenge

for many brands to ascertain.


Brand Advocacy:

Just 31% of respondents indicate they currently have a brand advocacy

measurement system in place. Reach of brand advocate posts was indicated

as the most frequently used metric for advocacy.

Many brands can start to make inroads measuring brand advocacy simply

by monitoring the number of advocates they have on a monthly basis.

Sophisticated analysis is lacking, as just 25% of survey respondents currently

monitor the type of content that gets shared by brand advocates in order

to optimize reach and engagement.

REACH OF BRANDADVOCACY POSTS

FREQUENCY OF BRANDADVOCACY POSTS

NUMBER OF ADVOCATES’POSTS ENGAGEMENT

NUMBER OFBRAND ADVOCATES

TYPE OF CONTENT SHAREDBY BRAND ADVOCATES

OTHER(PLEASE SPECIFY)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Answer Choices


Reach of brand advocacy posts

Frequency of brand advocacy posts

Number of advocates’ posts engagement

Number of brand advocates

Type of content shared by brand advocates


Responses

40.96% (34)

31.33% (26)

30.12% (25)

30.12% (25)

27.71% (23)

25.30% (21)

2.41% (2)


Q: WHICH METRICS DO YOU USE TO MEASURE BRAND ADVOCACY?Please tick all that apply / Answered: 83 Skipped: 25



Sales or Lead Generation:

CLICKS CONVERSIONRATE

NUMBER OFCLICKS

RESULTINGREVENUE


EMAIL REVENUE FROMSOCIALLY SOURCED LEADS

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Answer Choices

Number of orders/lead forms filled

Clicks conversion rate

Number of clicks

Resulting revenue


Email revenue from socially sourced leads

Responses

49.40% (41)

40.96% (34)

34.94% (29)

33.73% (28)

25.30% (21)

9.64% (8)


Q: WHICH METRICS DO YOU USE TO MEASURE SALES OR LEAD GENERATION?Please tick all that apply / Answered: 83 Skipped: 25

NUMBER OF ORDERS/LEAD FORMS FILLED

There remains an opportunity to connect the dots to revenue. Only

one-third of respondents track lead generation to revenue, and just 10%

attribute social for email revenue derived from socially sourced leads.


To start measuring social content, marketers must firstly ensure that every link to their website (whether this is to a direct ecommerce page or not) included in a social post is trackable. Technology like Shoutlet ensures this URL tracking is added automatically to every link. By connecting your social content with your website analytics tool, you will be able to see the entire journey from social to website landing page and whether these fans end up making a purchase. Many times, however, fans won’t make a purchase directly that day, but might come back another day. This is another tracking difficulty that Shoutlet comes to solve as it captures social data from all the fans who interact with your brand, so if these fans who first interacted in social will eventually purchase, marketers will have the visibility to match social and purchase data to analyse success.ADAM KAY, HEAD OF EMEA FOR SHOUTLET

$2,344.50


Customer Retention:

There is a 60% to 70% chance of selling to a previous customer whilst the

possibility of selling to a new prospect is anywhere between 5% and 20%.

What is remarkable, is that in the post-purchase stage the majority of

respondents are not tracking metrics that pertain to customer retention.

NUMBER OF ENGAGEDCUSTOMERS

NUMBER OF RETURNINGCUSTOMERS ACTIVE ON SOCIAL

NUMBER OF POSITIVE OUTCOMESFROM SOCIAL INQUIRIES

CROSS SELLS/UP SELLSDRIVEN THROUGH SOCIAL


0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Answer Choices


Number of engaged customers

Number of returning customers active on social

Number of positive outcomes from social inquiries

Cross sells/up sells driven through social


Responses

51.81% (43)

26.51% (22)

26.51% (22)

20.48% (17)

12.05% (10)

2.41% (2)


Q: WHICH METRICS DO YOU USE TO MEASURE CLIENT RETENTION?Please tick all that apply / Answered: 83 Skipped: 25



Market Insights:

MARKET TRENDS

TRENDINGINDUSTRY TOPICS


COMPETITORINTELLIGENCE

PRODUCT FEEDBACK

CUSTOMER/PROSPECTDATA INSIGHT

GROSS MARGIN ATTRIBUTEDTO SOCIALLY SOURCED...

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Answer Choices

Market trends

Trending industry topics


Competitor intelligence

Product feedback

Customer/prospect data insight

Gross margin attributed to socially sourced product innovations

Responses

45.78% (38)

33.73% (28)

32.53% (27)

32.53% (27)

28.92% (24)

22.89% (19)

1.20% (1)


Q: WHICH METRICS DO YOU USE TO MEASURE MARKET INSIGHTS?Please tick all that apply / Answered: 83 Skipped: 25

The beauty of social engagement is that it is not simply a sales driver, but can

offer feedback and insight into products, innovations, and consumer preferences.

For a long time now, community managers have actively garnered feedback or

formally run beta testing with connected ‘would be’ consumers to great effect.

Many brands use social to identify market and industry trends, as well as

gather competitor intelligence and product feedback. Yet there remains an

opportunity to tie these market insights back to business drivers. Only 1%

of survey respondents are tracking gross margin attributed to their new

products ideas gathered through social media.

With today’s proliferation of social, there is a real-time crowd sourcing

opportunity to acquire market insights.


Employee Advocacy:

Nearly 60% of respondents note that their brands do not formally

measure or apply employee advocacy metrics. Of the brands that do,

the top two metrics are the amount of content shared by employees

and the reach it produces.

EMPLOYEE SYNDICATION(CONTENT SHARED...)

REACH OBTAINED FROMEMPLOYEE POSTS

NEW PARTNERSHIPSSOURCED FROM SOCIAL...

NEW HIRES SOURCEDFROM SOCIAL MEDIA


0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Answer Choices


Employee syndication (content shared by employees)

Reach obtained from employee posts

New partnerships sourced from social media

New hires sourced from social media


Responses

60.24% (50)

22.89% (19)

19.28% (16)

13.25% (11)

10.84% (9)

2.41% (2)



Q: WHICH METRICS DO YOU USE TO MEASURE THE EFFECT ON EMPLOYEE ADVOCACY/CORPORATE USE OF SOCIAL?



ConclusionMarketers employ a wide variety of metrics to demonstrate

the value of social media. While most marketers have systems

in place to track social marketing campaigns by measuring

brand sentiment, conversation volume, direct sales, and lead

generation, there remains significant opportunity to add KPI’s

that demonstrate the depth and breadth of social media value.

Additional steps, such as tracking revenue attributed

to socially sourced email addresses, must be taken to fully connect

social media’s influence on revenue. And it’s not just new business

revenue, metrics must be put in place to track social’s influence on

retention/repeat purchase as well.

Most brands have the opportunity to employ social media customer service

metrics, such as the number of issues resolved, and the speed of response.

Customer service is key to any company’s success. Happy customers lead

to repeat business and brand advocacy. Customers that advocate and

spread positive messages on your behalf should also have metrics behind

them in order to further demonstrate what social media is delivering for

your company.

Social KPIs, such as share of voice and gross-margin on socially

sourced product ideas, are under utilized and provide opportunities

for marketers to advance their social marketing impact.

One key to advancing social media KPIs is to collaborate across

departments on relevant social metrics. For example, involve

customer service with social care and talk revenue with your

analytics team.

What’s clear is brands have only begun to scratch the surface

of defining measurable, socially driven business value; but many

are rapidly implementing processes to successfully do so.

uncovering the real value of social...

Documents