How One Company Assessed ROI on Social Media

By Beth J. Bates, New Media Special Correspondent

In the past, I've written about what to expect when attempting to determine your social media ROI. I still believe that results are largely qualitative and for some companies difficult to assign a number. However, I found a great example of putting the numbers to the test.

Computer World recently ran an interesting article about a small company — Reality Digital — that publicly assessed the ROI of its social media campaign. Reality Digital did a great job of not jumping in with both feet and got tangible results. CEO Cynthia Francis and her management team analyzed why they wanted to use social media and established specific goals. They determined their online audience and researched how the audience preferred to communicate. Then they selected tools that would help them reach that audience. It's clear they really understood that they didn't need to be in every social media community or spend every minute updating their profiles. And it worked.

Their social media marketing campaign resulted in:

• Total investment for social media programs (including technology costs and PR agency hours): roughly $3,000 per month
• Total sales leads generated in April, May and June: 72
• Average sales leads per month: 24
• Average cost per sales lead: $125
• Lead conversion to sales opportunities: 11.1%
• Lead conversion to closed deals: 1.4%

Francis noted that a single closed sale covers the annual cost of their social media campaign.

Not all companies will be able to roll up their ROI into a neat little bundle, but this study shows that there are ways to evaluate your success by taking a look at the numbers.

Beth J. Bates consults with Hinge on social media tool selection and strategy and helps its clients find effective ways to leverage these new mediums to meet business goals.