Why is it tricky? Can’t you just apply the normal business formulas and then make a decision?
Yes you can, but those numbers don’t tell the whole story and the part they do tell is often irrelevant. Let’s take one of those formulas for a test drive.
First, determine the investment. Facebook doesn’t charge for Fan Pages, but creating one will use someone’s time. Then, depending on who does it for you, updates, posting and interacting will have some nominal monthly fee (again, your time or someone else’s).
That part is easy to measure. Next, assuming you have tracking for you pages set up properly, you call tell how many new online applications (as an example) originated from clicks on your Fan Page. This is the part of the story I was referring to a moment ago.
The rest of the story is harder to measure.
Here are five reasons your Fan Page and social media marketing is indispensable (and for all of them, determining ROI can be a moving target).
- 1. Individual Personal Connections – Social media is all about creating immediate engagement on a more personal basis with prospects and clients, something you simply can’t do easily through traditional media channels. It’s also about continually strengthening those relationships to add value to your business in terms of reputation, word of mouth, and becoming the “go to” person for knowledge and expertise. Now, there’s no apparent and immediate ROI on personal connections, is there?
- 2. Lead Generation – The marketing reach of the Internet extends far beyond any of the traditional media (print ads, radio, etc.) and at a far lower cost in terms of time and money. Think of it as paving a digital superhighway to enable prospects and clients to speed more quickly and easily to your business. In this case, we can work with numbers and see an ROI in terms of an increased number of leads.
- 3. Name Recognition and Goodwill – Through your web site, Fan Page, blog, tweets, etc., you have the ability to create and spread a highly positive image of yourself and your company. That image is one of the most valuable assets any business can possess. Your Fan Page can give you the exact same exposure on Facebook as any of the giant brands I named earlier. You can literally be the Amazon or Google of your niche, demonstrating your knowledgeability, personal attention, friendliness, and so forth. Although you can’t put an immediate hard-numbers ROI on your brand, you know that somewhere down the line that positive image will pay off in more deals and increased income.
- 4. Enhancing SEO – This is one of the most important benefits of your Fan Page and social media like YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Beyond your website and blog, they provide you with multiple sites to place information about your business, and that means more people have more ways to find your business.
- 5. Developing Partnerships – With with your Fan Page and other social media, you have the ability to connect with referral partners on a targeted scale. Agents, title companies, B2B partners, financial planners, attorneys are all out there on Facebook and other sites and looking for new ways to expand their businesses! Once again, there’s no immediate ROI on developing partnerships, but the right partners can be very profitable for your business.
In simpler terms, how much goodwill has been developed by your helpful, interesting and engaging posts on your Fan Page? How many existing customers stayed with you or renewed their orders because of your interaction with them? How many new customers were referred to your business by an existing customer who got their “connected” feeling because of your interaction and engagement with them on your Fan Page?
That’s hard to measure, if not impossible.
So even if you can’t attribute any new business directly to your Fan Page right now, would you seriously consider taking it down and saying goodbye to any likes, posts, comments and other interactions? If you’re in business, that thought should never enter your mind.
Remember, “You must be present to win.”
In conclusion, even if you are “old school” and are frustrated because you can’t determine a reliable ROI on your Fan Page and other social media, you need to remember that that this type of marketing is based on new rules of engagement.
Shift your focus from the hard numbers of ROI and work on ways to make Fan Page and Social Media Marketing an integral part of your business!
Ralph Watkins
www.webinaragogo.com
www.lofanpages.com
www.cheatersvideo.net
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