How the Pros Measure Social Media Marketing Success

From left: Sarah Hofstetter, David Rosenberg and Dexter Bustarde A lot of campaigns seem aimed at accruing Facebook Likes. But is that success? What's the point? Dexter Bustarde: Earning a Facebook Like, by hook or by crook, is a success, but it's a success at a very tactical level. David Rosenberg: The value of a Facebook Like is directly connected to the anticipated actions the brand hopes its newfound followers will take on behalf of the brand. Sarah Hofstetter: The question you’re posing is actually interesting in and of itself. What about Twitter? Rosenberg:There are different ways to measure success. With regard to total mentions and negative sentiment, it’s a larger discussion. Bustarde: If we frame Twitter (and social media in general) in the context of real world conversations, it becomes a little easier to understand how we should measure successes or failures. Are there certain approaches that seem to work better for different media? More Media Resources from Mashable:

Social Media: Measuring the Right Things - Online Fundraising, Advocacy, and Social Media - frogloop You’ve heard it time and again: Reports, analytics and tracking are critical to social media success. But why are they important? And what should you be tracking, exactly? Before we get to those questions, let’s define “social media success.” It’s a little bit of a misnomer, because your organization’s success is more important than any individual program’s or strategy’s success. Now, with that out of the way, let’s examine some questions about social media reports, analytics and tracking. Why are analytics important? Through effective analysis, you can determine whether your messages are resonating. The “right words, right time and right frequency” will vary between organizations, so it’s important to experiment. What should you be tracking? In short, track everything you can, but pay attention to a few key metrics: Performance of individual posts Track how many comments, replies, and retweets your content received. Clickthroughs Your power players Follows/”likers”/unfollows