how to measure social media

1

It’s Not BigfootYes, you can measure the impact and value of social media

September 18, 2014

It’s a Very Old Story

2

Once, we were in love with social media.

Flowers, candy, dinner, we took it to the airport…

And as always happens, love needed to get realistic.

“Where is this relationship going?”

“All we ever do is post memes!”

The bloom came off the rose as we were told that you can’t

measure social media effectively.

“You can’t just walk away! We have to talk this out!”

But we went with social media to a little couples therapy

and we got in touch with what we all needed.

“We understand what each other needs. “

“We don’t jump to conclusions. “

This webinar will cover what we learned in the process.

The Left Brain and the Right Brain

3

James EllisDirector,

Inbound Marketing

@TheWarForTalent

Tim SodkoDirector, Analytics

It’s a Good News/

Bad News Situation

4

Bad news: There is no single number that

confirms or denies your social media’s ROI

Good news: If you think strategically, you can

learn a lot about how well your social media is

performing

Why Social Media Is

DifferentOR

Why There Is No

Magic Number

5

6

7

9

10

11

Where Does Social Media Fit?

The Consumer Decision Cycle:

Where Does Social Media Fit?

The Job Seeker Decision Cycle:

Setting the Expectation

14

Social Posts

Social likely won’t be your top traffic

driver or be a leading source for

applications

Will likely see lower engagement on

career site

Will likely see lower conversion rates

Setting the Expectation

15

x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x

x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x

x x x x xx x x x x x xx x x x x

85% of conversions from social posts do not happen within the same

day of interaction

And… 30% of those conversions happen after 60 days

16

17

Data Overload

18

By Campaign

• Across all channels, how many

people clicked a link

• Across all channels, how many

people who clicked converted

• Across all channels, how long did

people who clicked stay

• Across all channels, how many other

pages did people who clicked see,

and how does that compare to the

average

• Within the campaign, what were the

relative conversion rates for each

channel?

• Within the campaign, what channels

drove the most traffic?

• Within the campaign, what channels

drove the best traffic?

• Within the campaign, what messages

drove the most traffic?

• Within the campaign, what messages

drove the best traffic?

By Channel

• Size of the channel's audience

(followers)

• Estimates of locations and basic

demographics of that audience

• Number of times people have seen

something on this channel

• Number of times people have clicked

on something on this channel

• Number of people who clicked on

something who you paid to have click

on it

• What messages drove more and

better clicks?

By Post

• Number of people who saw it

• Number of people who shared it

• Number of people who clicked on it

• Number of people who converted

relative to number of clicks

By Landing Page

• What channels drove the most traffic

to the landing page?

• What channels drove the best traffic

to the landing page?

• What messages drove traffic most

inclined to click the CTA?

• What percentage of traffic to the

landing page clicked something

besides the CTA? Did they later click

the CTA? (Did they need more

information before converting?)

19

20

21 Weight Blood Sugars Mile Speed

There is no shortage of data points.

Social metrics are everywhere.

The real question remains:

What Do You Want

Social To Do For You?22

23

Social Media Doesn’t Need to “Compete” with Job Boards

This applicant didn’t need social

media. They were actively looking for

a job you posted in your ATS, career

site and on job boards. Now that

they’ve applied, what good does

social media do them?

This applicant is at least 3 months

away from thinking about looking for a

new job. She hasn’t seen a job board

or done a search. This is exactly when

social media can catch her attention

and do some good.

24

Microconversions

25

It’s not the application, it’s the process of

getting the candidate closer to applying

How Social Media Supports Microconversions

Sorta Like A Funnel

Engages with

your social

media

Click

s

links

Applie

sAware of your

company

Unaware of

your company

Each Step Is a Microconversion

Aware of your

company

Unaware of

your company

Engages with

your social

media

Click

s

links

Applie

s

Each Step Can Be Measured

Number of

followers

Number of

engagementsVisits from social

Apply clicks from

social

The Closer to the Center They Get

Engages with

your social

media

Click

s

links

Applie

sAware of your

company

Unaware of

your company

Targets Identified

31

So what do you measure?

So What Should I Measure?

Microconversion One: From Unaware to Aware

Growth of followers

Microconversion Two: From Aware to Engaged

Number of likes, comments, favorites, re-tweets, etc

Microconversion Three: From Engaged to Visit

Number of clicks to your website

Clicks per thousand followers

Microconversion Four: From Visit to Click

Conversion rate of those who visited via social media

Click your Heels Three Times

None of these numbers are

probably new to you. You had

access to them all along.

The key is not in having them, but

understanding what you are trying

to measure and the context those

numbers exist in.

Or Look At It Sideways

Measure Your Channel Effectiveness

Number of Engagements per 1000 Followers (each channel)

Number of Clicks per 1000 Followers (each channel)

Measure Your Message

Number of Engagements per 1000 Followers (each message)

Across all channels/messages, which ones drove the most

clicks?

Measure Your Campaign

Across all channels, total number of engagements, clicks and

conversions for that campaign (requires tagging your URLs)

Measure Your Content

Conversion rate (resist the urge to compare social to non-social)

Bounce rate (resist the urge to compare social to non-social

The Future:

Attribution Modeling

34

Even cooler than it sounds

Attribution Models

35

Attribution Models

36

Attribution Models

37

38

Adding Content to the Mix

Measuring Web Content

39

Categorize your content to make the data more manageable

Determine an expected time spent on each page

See if people engage with multiple pages

Have a clear call-to-action… and measure it!

Measuring Web Content

40

5 min

3 min

1 min

Measuring Web Content

41

5 min

3 min

1 min

Social Banners SEM

So Now What?

42

Your clearest road to effectively using and

measuring social media is actually very simple:

• Know the role social media plays in your talent

acquisition strategy

• Establish useful microconversions

• Map out how a prospect might get injected into

the conversion funnel by social

• Build content that facilitates that funnel-injection

process.

43

James EllisDirector,

Inbound Marketing

@TheWarForTalent

Tim SodkoDirector, Analytics

Thanks!

For more on metrics, social, content

and a host of other talent acquisition

subjects, visit:

Meshworking.com