Continuing from SMU, Lesson 1, How Social Butterflies Pollinate, and before we connect those “dots” in your social universe (called a “hive”), you have to know how to measure everything!  (After all, what good is nectar if you don’t know which butterflies you’re attracting?) Besides, how else will you know if your social marketing efforts have worked and you’re getting a return on that investment? This post will  show you:

1. How to track your Social Marketing Reach (the amount of traffic that you send to your website from your social media accounts such as: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or Blog; also known as “visits” or “visitors).
2. How to measure the number of people who visited your site and turned into leads or customers.
3. Know the return on your Social Marketing investment.
4. Get real-life examples of tracking templates that you can copy into MS Excel.

In the wild west of Social media marketing, it seems marketers and online retailers are both scratching their heads asking, “How do we measure our social media marketing efforts?” Internet Retailer Magazine recently interviewed me for an upcoming article in the May 2009 issue, asking me how to monetize Twitter (…for more on that topic, stay tuned in May for my forthcoming eBook, “Banking on Twitter.” If you subscribe to my blog, you’ll receive a FREE copy worth $49.99).  My response to Internet Retailer involved explaining that in order to monetize any marketing effort, marketers first need to know how to measure it.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention at least one tool which is trying to do some of this tracking for you.  But in my search, I haven’t yet found anything that tracking what I want all in one neat package. I’ll review some of these tools in detail in my other posts such as, “My Top 10 Twitter Tools” and “Twitter Tools that Suck,” but for now, I’ll simply mention Twittertise.  They have a very basic system that automates your scheduled tweets and provides rudimentary tracking for clicks and referrals.   I’m in no way endorsing this tool, but it may, indeed, be a good starting point for you if you don’t have an hour to learn my method  below.

All of that said, let’s get started.

The “right” creative

I advise my clients that there is really no “right” or “wrong” in online marketing. Indeed, there are only positive numbers and negative numbers.  These numbers — which are derived from copy, design and functionality — are all the proof I need that no one’s opinion really matters except that of the customers or leads who respond to those marketing tactics.  So when an argument over design, copy or user interface occurs (this happens often because everybody thinks s/he is a Web designer, copywriter and usability expert), I remind everyone in the room that the only way to know what works and what doesn’t is to try both and measure the results.

Side Note: Measuring results is also a much more effective tactic for resolving interoffice arguments involving creative.  It works far better than clapping my hands together twice  and telling my staff or CEO, “boys-boys…(clap-clap)…You’re both pretty! (three snaps in a circle!)”

Finding Google

One year ago, I would have told you that I didn’t know how to measure social media marketing without a lot of costs or a high-end web analytics system.  But that was before I found Google Analytics (enter Godly, I-have-seen-the-light-singing here).  Yes, it was sort of a re-birth for me. Now, I sing a much different song from days past, and I’ve been fully converted into a born-again-Googler.

Being Patient

Ultimately, social marketing takes time to percolate.  Example:  I spent almost 30 days building my Twitter account followers from 250 to over 2,500. (Stay tuned this summer to learn just how I did that.) I’ve spent a few good hours of time building that account and I want to make sure I see a return on that investment. I’ve also begun dabbling in other social media sites such as Flickr and StumbleUpon.  As my reach throughout this “social media” maze extends its arms, I want to make sure I have a viable system in place to optimize my efforts (and those of my paid staff members).  Don’t you? Well, there is only one way to do that:  TRACKING.

10 Quick & Easy Steps to Measuring Social Marketing

Step 1: Install Google Analytics on your website, including commerce tracking.

Step 2: Decide your naming conventions which you’ll embed into your Google tracking url:

• Campaign Source (ie: Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc)
• Campaign Medium (this is the actual domain or type of the campaign such as a “tweet,” a direct message, group posting, etc)
• Campaign Name (use this to name your campaign and source, so you can set your Google tracking to pull reports based on the campaign. Example: “Social-Twitter”).
• The Google tracking URL also allows two more fields to be populated – “Campaign Term” and “Campaign Content” which Google explains is for the keyword term (“term”) and to differentiate the ads (“content”). I have used these fields to embed priority codes in the URL string. This is something you need a developer to do, but it’s very helpful. to help me identify

For my own clients or social marketing efforts, I use the following conventions for each of the above:

• Source = Twitter (name of site)
• Medium = Tweet-mmddyyy (type of activity + date using month, day & year)
• Name = Social1-Twitter (my standard social campaigns always begin with 1 + reiterate the source)

An example of a Google Tracking URL to this website, from twitter, would look like: http://www.susanmckenna.com/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=tweet-041309&utm_campaign=Social1-Twitter.

Step 3: Create your Google Tracking URLs for each social media site you have a profile, manage a group, page or otherwise.  Don’t forget to include discussion boards or groups which you don’t own, but for which you are a member and might make a post back to your website.  Often, these will bring in the most traffic to your site.

Step 4: Shorten your tracking URL using a URL shortener. I prefer TinyURL, but there are many available. Just Google the term “url shortener” and find one you like. Make sure it’s compatible with Twitter, Facebook and the other social media where you intend to use it on.  Sometimes, they are not.

Steps 5-7: Using Microsoft Excel, create your tracking templates as follows:

(Step 5)  CAMPAIGN DASHBOARD (All sites in the campaign, Year-to-Date)
This is your snapshot of your results, year-to-date (YTD) for each social campaign.

1. Header:  Campaign Name, Year (example:  Social Marketing – 2009)
2. Across the top of the spreadsheet, label your columns:
   1. Site or “source”
   2. # of visits
   3. # of leads
   4. # of sales
   5. Amount of sales (from Social)
   6. Average Sale Amount
      • This key metric reveals which social channel is the most lucrative per sale
   7. Lead Conversion Rate (from social)
   8. Sales Conversion Rate (from social)
      • Divide the # of visits column by the number of sales column.
      • This column is a percentage with 2 decimal points. Example:  2.54
   9. Total # of Sales on your website ($$)
      • We need to know this metric in order to tell us how well our social marketing is doing in relationship to the site overall
   10. Percentage  sales from Social
       • This metric tells you what percentage of your website sales originate from your social marketing campaign
       • Subtract your costs for your campaign, and you have a “Return On Investment” (ROI) for your social marketing campaigns!
   11. Campaign Costs
       • Enter what you spent on building and/or maintaining this website.  I like to amortize the setup costs over 12 months, then get a monthly fee for these efforts, that can be multiplied based on how many months have passed.
   12. Gross ROI

Master Tracking Template for Social Marketing

(Step 6) SOCIAL MARKETING REACH (by Month)

This report tracks the “reach” of your social marketing efforts, by month. In other words, this report answers the question, “How many people are seeing my message?”

Social Marketing Reach - Tracking Template

By my example above, I hope it’s self-explantory in terms of how to set it up.  You are tracking the number of people who are following you in your social universe (your “hive”). Yes, there’s cross-over.  Just how much is tough to say.  But why does that matter here?  We don’t try to measure crossover in other channels (ie: Websites, Broadcast, etc), so let’s not focus on that here either.

(Step 7) URL & PRIORITY CODE KEY (Each Site)

This worksheet helps you stay sane and keep track of all your Google Tracking URLs, destinations URLs, TinyUrls and priority codes to name a few.  Categorize the by destination.

1. Name of the Link (ie: Facebook Group #1)
2. The URL on your website that it your TinyURL/Google Tracking URL points to
3. The Google Tracking URL you have created
4. The shortened URL (Ie: http://tinyurl.com/a9q6cl)
5. Priority Code (this is from your internal system)
6. Last Posted Date
7. All posting dates

Social Marketing URL Tracking Template

Step 8: Set up your Google Tracking Links and Tiny URLs for your destinations.  Or, in other words, fill in that last tracking template.  Once you’re done creating the links, make sure your staff has your key, so that any link from Social Marketing will be tracked properly.

Step 9: Find your information in Google Analytics.  This is found in the “Traffic Sources” section and the “Referring Sites” sub-section.  Once you’re on this page, set your date parameters (top right), and use the search at the bottom “Find Source” to locate your social marketing tactics.  In the example below, I’ve typed in “facebook” below to pull reports for all of facebook.  It’s here that I can see how many visits, transactions and revenue I’ve generated from my social marketing efforts.  In the test account below, I can also see my conversion ratio for those visits, which is a health 2.56%.

Google Anlaytics for Measuring Social Media

Step 10: Customize Your Google Analytics Reports to be sent on a schedule.

To set your reports to send to you or anyone else in your company automatically, click on the “email” link on your Google Analytics.

Then, select the “Schedule” tab and follow the directions.

Congratulations! You’ve now prepared and scheduled your first Social Marketing Report!

Assumptions & Prerequisites

1. You already have a Google account and can easily add Analytics. If not, get one by going to Google and signing up.
2. You have a web programmer who can help you follow these steps for installing Google Analytics with commerce tracking.
3. You are familiar with website analytical tools and/or  know how to read the basic reports contained Google Analytics
4. You know how to use MS Excel, including how to create formulas