12 Apr 2023

Increasing social media ROI:Brand vs Performance

@HughStephensToday’s slides are available at:

#AkoSMG14

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• Strategy– Communications– Social data– Digital channel integration

• Risk– Active / passive management– Review– Analytics

• Advisory– Analytics

• Audits• Trend analytics• ROI

About Dialogue Consulting

Strategy // Risk // Advisory

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• ROI review• Brand and performance• Data > tools• What to do about it– Evaluation periods / Audit– Interim monitoring–Make it part of planning

Agenda

Questions & Tangents always welcome!

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√Σπμ (!!!11!!

1!)

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ROI: A rapid review.

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You can measure anything.

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How ROI is defined mathematically

ROI is the balance between costs and revenues

• To increase ROI:– Decrease costs (!!)– Increase revenues/return

• Or simply: – Bang for your buck.

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Adapted from Larson & Watson, 2011

What are your Value

drivers?

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• Social media costs more than most people think.• Key areas are:– Staff hours / resources– Training / education– Advertising (?pay to play)– Tools / management platforms– Technology / devices– (Evil) consultants

Costs of social

You probably don’t know the true costs of social.

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• eCommerce would be (is) a great place to be, but government ≠ eCommerce.

• Common models– Business strategy execution (‘them’ vs ‘you’)– “Value of a Follower” – net present value through

discounting future returns (via user lifetime value)– Network analysis (‘them’ vs ‘them’)– Opportunity cost valuation

• Compared to display ads?• Compared to telemarketing?• Compared to …?

Revenues of social

You can identify the ‘revenue’ in many different ways

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Number line

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$$$$$$

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Brand vs Performance

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It all starts with strategy.

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It’s impossible to measure something you don’t understand

A problem well stated is a problem half solved.- Charles Kettering

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• ‘Brand’ activities are:– Usually long(er)-term– Usually related to equity, but can be internal

(risk)• ‘Performance’ metrics are:– Usually directly related to something– Often relate to a business strategy– Can be tangible (sales) or intangible

(diversions for CS)– Usually easier to measure

Defining ‘brand’ and ‘performance’

Are you focused on ‘brand’ or ‘performance’? (or ‘KPI’?)

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Quantifying use

SMROI helps identify where social media generates value

• Financial tangibility – is the return monetary (eg sales) or non-monetary (eg brand equity)?

• Time – is the return made in the long or short term?

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“Performance” “Brand”

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Data > tools3

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• Most tools simplify things to the point of worthlessness– “Likes” }– “Virality” } Are these ‘ROI’? No. Do they drive

it? Nope.– “Engagement” }

• Don’t create a Klout small clean data > big dirty data, models require some expertise

• What are you trying to measure?– Market research (formal/informal, social/nonsocial)– Analytics (FB/TW/GA/Omniture)

• Often require planning (URL shortening?)– Outcome metrics (call volumes/sales/leads)

• Focus on the data, not the tool.

Measuring your ROI

“Likes”, “Virality” or “Engagement” is not ROI.

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Identifying what works is harder than just a tool.

• Data collection– Volume data is easy to get– None of the ‘ready-made’ tools probably understand your

strategy– Detailed data much harder (Python , R )

• http://dry-atoll-9855.herokuapp.com/ -- ~40 mins.• Benchmark tools

– NPS– Consumer surveys

• Yours• Market

– Competitor analytics• Be weary of market drivers

There are some handy tools though…

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• Engagement can be a proxy for?• Clickthroughs can be a proxy for?• Enquiries can be a proxy for?• But proxies have limitations when

you extrapolate.

Proxy measurements

We use proxies when we can’t measure real numbers

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What to do?4

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• Go back to your strategy – what are you really trying to measure?– Brand or performance?– Short or long-term?

• Identify what data you have, and what you’d like to collect.• When can you do what?

– What would you love to have access to if you had the time and budget?• What is a proxy for ^?

– What is a proxy for ^?» What is a proxy for ^?

– Rolling analytics are great, but sometimes you have to do a ‘deep dive’

• ROI your ROI… (#meta)• Focus on the value drivers…

Work out what you can and can’t measure

Where to get started

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Dialogue recommends...

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Identify and understand your strategic purposes of

maintaining a social media presence

Recommendation 1

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Recommendation 2

Social media presences should be evaluated regularly.

Social media use should be justified, cost-effective and add

value.

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Recommendation 3

SMROI should be evaluated and help direct improvements to

better extract value from social media.

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Recommendation 4

SMROI should be undertaken carefully to ensure models, metrics and calculations are

accurate.

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Recommendation 5

To be valid and accurate, ROI models should remain fluid to reflect

changes in social media platforms, uses and users.

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Questions?