How to measure social media in 6 easy steps

Can you measure social media? Of course you can, but it’s not always easy. Follow these basic steps as you create your measurement plan:

Step 1: Understand how social fits into your company.

What makes measuring social media tricky is that how your company uses it determines the metrics that makes sense for you.

Remember, the goal is not to be good at social media, but to be good at business because of social media. Thus, you first have to understand your business level objectives, and how social media can support them.

Step 2: Know what you can measure.

Not every company has access to the same metrics. If you’re an e-commerce company, you can measure elements of your social program that other companies can’t measure in theirs. Understand what is possible, and remove irrelevant metrics.

Step 3: Choose ROI or correlation.

There’s only one way to calculate ROI (return on investment): sales minus expenses, divided by expenses, expressed as a percentage. There is no other formula. But, finding true ROI can sometimes be difficult.