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INTRO
Does getting started in social media seem intimidating? Are you wondering where to find a qualified resource? Do you feel
social networks and media sites are difficult, if not impossible, to track?
Whatever your motivation, Omniture looks forward to guiding you through the social media realm, with the best practices you
need to monitor your brand online and measure the ever-evolving impact of social media.
In this workbook, we present a review of recent, insightful MarketingSherpa social media research; the ways National
Geographic measures and interacts with social media visitors; how to gauge and optimize on Twitter and Facebook; and how
to measure social media (at both the category and subcategory level) to understand the true monetary value of social media
using Omniture SiteCatalyst®, one of several robust solutions in the Omniture Online Marketing Suite. At points in the guide,
you will be asked questions to help you prioritize and influence your social marketing strategy.
This level of involvement is due, for the most part, to the relatively inexpensive nature of social media.
In this case, brand reputation and awareness top the chart. Overall, the results show:
»» Social media is a very effective branding strategy
»» SEO uses social media to improve rankings and drive traffic
»» Lead generation effectiveness may be lower on the list, but best practices are emerging rapidly
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
SEO has been a highly compatible tactic since the beginning of social media—a natural way to build links and add content
that influence search engine rankings.
In addition, social media and email are beginning to integrate more, as reflected by the rise in tools offered by Internet
service providers (ISPs) for sharing content from email to social networks.
The purchase process is much longer and more complicated for businesses; so, building relationships is the primary factor
enabling B2B to take the lead.
During the buying consideration process, from a home toaster to a piece of construction equipment, potential buyers are
looking for product feedback from current users. Then, they turn to company Web sites as the go-to source for specifications
and complete details.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
This cycle is based on convenience and has both pros and cons:
»» Web 2.0 tools enable easy sharing with friends and peers
»» Upside: sharing creates viral, exponential reach
»» Downside: negative conversations reach further
In the case of negative feedback, let’s see how your fellow marketers would react.
Like every other customer service interaction, you must carefully weigh the potential benefit or detriment on your unique
business situation before proceeding with a response.
The third is likely the most rational approach, but it begs the question: What is this ‘set of criteria’ they developed?
If you’re looking for a template, the best route is to benchmark similar companies; however, remember that your brand, your
tone and your business model will likely be different and require a customized touch. And, if you opt to involve your legal
advisor, don’t fill your policy and/or responses with legalese, which will only keep customers from reading it.
Tip: Be sure to involve your employees when communicating your social media policy, both new employees during orientation
and existing employees who may need solid clarification.
Now, let’s delve into each point to ensure you can implement successfully.
Do you have a corporate social media policy? If not, write down some basic tenets of what yours might include.
If you do, how might you change it at this point?
Employees must comply with the same ethical code in the office as in the social space.
This includes your own company’s blog, your Twitter account and your Facebook page.
With registered users that are being open with you, you should be open to the good and the bad:
»» Approve content whether favorable or unfavorable
Moderate only what you have to. Do so sparingly, being sure not to show bias against unfavorable information.
Since social media is so new, it’s challenging to find experienced resources, resulting in:
»» Lack of knowledge being a barrier to adoption and success
»» Misconceptions like inability to measure return on investment (ROI)
»» Social media ROI metrics requiring both qualitative and quantitative measurement
Tip: Don’t mandate individuals to blog or be excited by social media within your company; you will be far more successful by
simply identifying people who already “get it.” Empower them to lead your social media charge.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
What are the barriers that keep your business from using social media, or not using it more effectively?
Are the Most Effective Social Media Tactics also the Least Measurable?
There appears to be some misunderstanding about effectiveness.
For instance, blog and social network advertising is viewed as the most measurable but not highly effective; on the other hand,
blogger or online journalist relationships are viewed as the most effective but not highly measurable. This is simply not the case,
when you consider that it is possible to measure how a lead comes from a blog and is captured on a company Web site.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Tip: Use SMR templates for news distribution, which allows you to aggregate news content in a manner that is engaging to
people, like online journalists and bloggers, who want to quickly access information via social media.
The data shows that social media is presently tied to mainly online channels, but even that is limited:
»» Agencies more likely to integrate both online and offline
»» Integration with online tactics by simply adding a link
»» Tracking through buying cycle to conversion automated
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
How Well Does Social Media Fit with Other Tactics in the Mix?
By asking a similar question about potential, we see multi-channel strategies emerge.
Social media is compatible with all other forms of media; it simply depends where you wish to focus:
»» Social media a better fit with online tactics than offline
»» Social media has become an integral component of SEO
»» Combine targeting of email with reach of social media
Example: Here is a recent Dentyne campaign that integrates traditional and social media tactics.
They designed their print message to resonate with social media users, knowing that group would be more likely to act on
the invitation to view the video. The genius is that it not only garners impressions in print but also results in exponentially
increased exposure online through social media sharing.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
And if you think that’s a lot, consider the other definitions you may stumble across online:
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
So, how can you make sense of all those definitions, and which one should you use at your organization? The answer is to
accept the diversity and decide, as a company, what social media means to you.
Which social media outlets are important to your company? List as many as you can think of and why they are important to you.
When it comes to classifying your sources of traffic and determining what is and isn’t a social media site, don’t dwell on the
little things. With so many different referrers, focus on establishing basic rules to get started. You can always make strategic
adjustments later.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Even after this initial exercise, they could see that organic search was a big contributor at 42 percent.
Instead of looking at only percent of total traffic, we can also see engagement and revenue metrics per visit for these categories.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
National Geographic can now easily see the increasing impact of social media on overall site traffic. In June 2009, for
instance, visitors from social media sites accounted for 8.4 percent of traffic—the highest percentage ever. In addition,
visitors from social media sites more than doubled since June 2008.
Again using SiteCatalyst, they can compare categories of traffic to see how they perform over time.
For instance, you can see social media’s influence is lessening the demand for pay-per-click ads.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Social media visitors are viewing an average of 4.2 pages per visit, while National Geographic email visitors are exploring an
average of 13. 6 pages per visit.
What referrer categories and key referrers would you identify for your business?
»» Use key referrers to lump together subdomains and tracking codes into one value
The Key Referrers Report in SiteCatalyst offers more granular reporting. It allows you to see traffic from a particular
referrer over time to determine how that audience is interacting with your site.
With the dozens of subcategories for just social media, the analysis would be incredibly challenging.
National Geographic was looking for something in between social media in 30 minutes and social media in 30 seconds. Their
“just right” option came from social media guru, Danny Sullivan:
Note the five subcategories. The only changes National Geographic made were to enhance “social sharing” to “social media
sharing” to denote video and photo sharing sites, and to move Twitter to the social news sites subcategory.
By doing this, National Geographic quickly saw that half of all their social media traffic comes from the social news sites
subcategory.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Then, with the Campaign Type Report in SiteCatalyst, National Geographic could see how visitors from these social media
subcategories are interacting on their site.
This is pivotal for tracking pages and revenue per visit at a more finite level, so that you can determine where to
meaningfully invest future resources in social media endeavors.
As you may recall, National Geographic’s overall social media page per visit average is 4.2. However, breaking down
social media into subcategories reveals that, while social bookmarking is low at 1.7 pages per visit, social media sharing is
significantly higher at 8.2 pages per visit—close to their 10 pages per visit average.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
It is interesting to see how they are performing on a daily basis, particularly the notable spikes in the social news and social
bookmarking subcategories.
This is largely attributable to the fact that all of National Geographic’s news stories are distributed using an SMR template,
and they often include videos and photos.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Although they may not get the same robust level of traffic, National Geographic’s channel and magazine sites also perform
well in page views.
When the album was forwarded via social media, nearly every user who visited it viewed every photo.
Even a story from 2002 can be rediscovered and virally shared with a new audience via social media.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
This is further proven by comparing social media visits to other site visits.
In fact, visitors from social media (42 percent) are twice as likely than the average visitor (21 percent) to land on a photo
page of the National Geographic site. What is more notable about this trend is that social media photo submissions are
mainly driven by users, specifically power users, not the company.
Another phenomenon National Geographic recently discovered is that Digg users are now linking directly to a jpg or graphic,
rather than the html page associated with it. This is challenging to track, without delving into miles of server logs, and it
creates a pattern of “ghost” traffic that visits the site without any marketing interaction and then leaves.
Of those, 10 pages accounted for 20 percent of those visits, and 100 pages accounted for 60 percent of those visits.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Looking at social media from a global perspective, National Geographic verified that they captured the key sites and ensured
those sites were reflected in their SiteCatalyst reporting.
Increasing social media traffic leads to a parallel increase in questions about revenue potential.
Comparing category to category, pay-per-click ads are far above average, being five times more likely to order than the
average visitor. This makes sense since these individuals are being directed right to subscription forms or the online store.
On the other hand, the average visitor is 20 times more likely to purchase than someone coming from a social media site.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Digging deeper into the social media subcategories, we see that the average visitor is 50 times more likely to order something
than someone coming from either social news or social bookmarking origins.
If we break this down even further, using the Key Referrers Report from SiteCatalyst, you can truly identify which site visitors
are more likely to buy.
This is helpful in planning online media buys. For instance, Digg is coming out with an advertising program in the next few
months that will allow you to place a story within their natural results. Judging by the data in the graph above, National
Geographic will likely not pursue that option.
A better place to focus marketing energy may be Twitter, with visitors who are 20 times more likely than Digg visitors to place
an order.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
During the holidays last year, they chose to promote a special $15/year subscription price for Facebook users. It was not at all
successful in the social media realm.
However, what was interesting was what happened in March. Someone took the tracking code for the promotion and placed
it on deals network, resulting in thousands of orders in a single day—far exceeding the performance for the whole previous
season. This was, in fact, more orders in a single day for a subscription online than any other day in 2008.
One visitor may only look at a couple of pages, but if they happen to bring 1,000 friends along to visit the site, page views
becomes inconsequential.
So, where do you focus your time to influence people who are influential to your marketing goals?
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Yes, celebrities recently discovered it, and Twitter is quickly becoming mainstream. More importantly, consider this persuasive
point made by Forrester Research:
In short, Twitter is especially valuable for real-time feedback. All you have to do is listen.
It is a fantastic way to step-in as a brand ambassador to efficiently assist your customers in interacting with your company or
resolving an issue. It’s also a great mode for promoting products and establishing thought leadership.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Is your organization being represented on Twitter? What are some ways your business specifically could leverage
Twitter? What information could you convey, or what issues could you address from your customers in this medium?
Once there, you can filter tweets for specific keywords such as phrases, company or product name.
You can set alerts to notify employees or stakeholders of significant changes in tweet activity; yet, they don’t have to be on
Twitter Search all the time.
And you can group authors by brand status to identify brand detractors and advocates.
It conveniently organizes Twitter data into one location, where you can sort, analyze and act on it.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Now, you can measure popularity and usage of Facebook applications (apps). This gives marketers insight into correlation
between Facebook apps, site traffic and other online channels.
»» Problem: Uncovering the relationship between Facebook app usage and conversion via other online channels
Omniture solution: SiteCatalyst and App Measurement for Facebook enables marketers to gain insight into the
correlation or relationship between Facebook apps and other online channels, such as Web, mobile and video, to provide
a single version of truth
Net result: Measure Facebook app adoption and usage to determine social media campaign effectiveness, while better
monetizing Facebook app investments.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Example: Let’s say a company called Media Universe is creating a Facebook app to allow their users to engage with content.
They could run several different reports within SiteCatalyst to look at what’s working.
For instance, here is an App Sections Report that shows what sections of the app are receiving the most page views.
In this case, video is the most popular; so, they should optimize the app to take advantage of that interest.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Looking at an Invites Report, they can see how many people are inviting others to use the app.
Moving on to an Application Conversion Funnel, they can see from in-app product searches all the way down through checkouts.
This identifies how many orders are being placed and the resulting revenue being generated, thereby showing how the
Facebook app is contributing to the overall marketing mix.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
Social media’s unique network created a special need for relationship reporting.
In the User Segments Report above, they can segment Facebook users according to the number of friends they have. As the
data shows, users with 500+ friends have a much higher level of invites and shares, while also being more engaged with
the content.
Determine how social media is contributing to your overall marketing mix, compared to tactics like direct visits and email,
in order to define the appropriate level of resources and budgetary investment.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
CLOSING THOUGHTS
»» Social media both levels and changes the playing field
»» Enable conversion metrics and classifications on your referrers data
»» Categorize your traffic sources data offline, and upload to create custom reports
»» Use National Geographic’s referrer categories as a starting point
»» People love linking to cool photos and media
»» Compared to other social media sites, social news and social bookmarking sites are great for traffic but poor for engagement
»» Overall, visitors from social media sites are not as engaged as the average visitor
»» Social media visitors can, however, trigger a domino effect on other social media platforms
***
If you would like to learn more about social media measurement, contact your Omniture Account Manager or call
(866) 923-7309. For internationally-located businesses, visit Omniture.com for the office information nearest you.
Measuring the Impact of Social Media
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Measuring the Impact of Social Media
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