The question of whether or not social media drives ROI still plagues many marketers and brands. The issue is not always as straightforward as it seems, as there are multiple ways to measure the benefits of social media and it isn’t as simple as looking for a direct sales return at one end, with the social media imput at the other. Smart tracking and measuring is needed to fully capture the benefit of a social media campaign and while looking for direct ROI is one way to do it, there are other values to be measure from social media marketing. I’ve put together a list of case studies that prove the ROI of social media, both through direct monetary return, customer loyalty, repeat traffic and more. Viewing social media holistically to gain a better understanding of how it can work for you is more beneficial to any brand than looking for one single return. Remember that social media marketing is not the same as online advertising ; it’s not necessarily something that can be switched on and off to directly produce revenue.
Social media outperforms banner ads
An excellent way of ascertaining the value of social media is to look at how it performs compared to more established channels or advertising methods, such as banner ads. While you can’t compare this like-for-like on a purely cost basis, you can look at how both are actually performing for you in terms of the quality of traffic they drive to your site. In this case study from Ignite Social Media, they take one of their (unnamed) clients and compare a banner ad campaign firstly to a social competition, then a social game involving a sweepstake. In both cases the banner ad and social mechanic were driving traffic to the same website. In the case of the social contest, traffic driven to the site by the social game was 6.5x more effective in terms of cost per visitor than banner ads and drove 5.67x more visitors. More detailed findings can be accessed on the site. Importantly with this case study, the quality of traffic from the social media campaigns was found to be more effective than banner ads. So while it might seem like a good solution to buy in traffic via ads, it’s not necessarily going to provide long-lasting value for your brand.
Social media saved Cisco $100,000
Providing an alternative way of viewing the ROI from social media, this case study from Cisco shows how social technologies saved them over $100,000 on a product launch. Instead of looking at their traditional method for launching a product, which would have been a costly activity, they looked to social media instead, to do things in a slightly different way. While normally their product launches would involve flying in high profile execs alongside methods such as costly newspaper ads, for their new router they ran a launch that took place entirely online. They even turned to Second Life, staging a pre-launch concert in there. And while their online launch saved them money, it also allowed them to reach a wider audience, further extending the value of the campaign. In total, the online launch cost a sixth of their traditional product launches and produced better results. A great example to show how social media can be used to change the way a business typically operates, driving ROI where you might not expect it.
Old Spice put their money where their mouth is
To really see the value of a social media campaign and how it can drive ROI, it’s worthwhile taking a look at one of the most famous and successful social media campaigns so far : Old Spice. Through their campaign, which included sending personalised video messages to social media fans and celebrities, they’ve managed to gather some pretty impressive stats that show the money where the buzz is. The reach of the Old Spice campaign is not in doubt, but did it actually impact sales? According to the marketing agency behind the campaign, it did. Since the original campaign launched with ‘Mustafa’, sales increased by 27% year on year. But in the 3 months after the height of the campaign, sales were up by 55%, reaching 107% in the final month of the social media campaign. And of course, Old Spice is now the number 1 body wash brand for men. However you choose to look at the campaign, these figures stand up to show that a social media campaign, well executed, can drive significant ROI for your business.
Restaurant chooses closed social network
To show that social media can also drive ROI for small businesses, this restaurant is showing that social technologies can be used in different ways to drive customers. Houlihan’s is a restaurant chain in the U.S. which has around 100 restaurants, compared to their main competitor Applebees, which has over 2,000. With a small marketing budget but a lot of common sense, their marketing manager managed to drive sales directly from a private social network, run via Ning. The network was called ‘HQ’ and was launched in early 2008. By combining their social media campaign with email marketing, they managed to quickly build up 10,000 members of the network, allowing them to send exclusive discounts and promotions to customers. In one campaign that they ran for a Sex and the City promotion, they tracked, the restaurant estimated that “7,000 to 13,000 people heard about our newest promotion BECAUSE of an HQ member”. This shows the strength in running your own social network and how sometimes a private network may be the way to go, to offer people exclusivity and also encourage word of mouth.
Social media keeps the creme Brulee Man travelling
If you’re looking for a good example of social media ROI, then the Creme Brulee Man is a good place to look! The Creme Brulee Man is a food truck in the U.S. that keeps people up to date about its next location via Twitter. In this case, social media is actually keeping the business going, as it allows the owner to reach a new audience and alert people as to where he’s going to roll up next. This is a pretty good example of proving the value of social media, showing that it can actually support an entire business. In just over a year the truck’s Twitter account has gathered over 12,000 followers, which is an impressive number for such a small business with a relatively small geographic target.
Social media customers are more valuable
As well as looking at the direct revenue driven from social media channels, smart companies will be looking at the longer term impact of social media activity and just how valuable these customers are after the initial sale or contact point. A case study from CareOne is useful here. They introduced a new social customer care team, to use social technologies to reach out to current and prospective consumers. What they found was that customers that had come through one of these social touchpoints, filled out the customer consultation form at a higher rate than other customers, at 179%. They also completed their first payment through the company, at a higher rate of 732%. What this shows is that using social technologies can help you to qualify leads, but also drive more engaged traffic. The outcome of a personal contact through social media is that the customer will ultimately trust you more and will also be more invested in the company by the time they come to complete the sale, leading to an increased likelihood they will convert.
ROI from Facebook ads
Proving that ROI from paid social media activity also performs well, this case study looks specifically at the value driven from Facebook Ads. Vamplets is a small business that makes baby vampire dolls and they introduced Facebook ads as a new channel for driving revenue. Despite a fairly small Facebook ad budget of $250 per month, they’re generating an additional $1,000 in revenue, directly tracked to the ads themselves. This gives them a positive ROI of 300% and shows how cost-effective Facebook ads can be, particularly when you’re going out to a more unique or targeted audience.
Subway Slim Down Challenge
In another good example comparing social media to traditional forms of marketing, the Subway Slim Down Challenge has some impressive ROI figures. The case study released by Say It Social, shows how they used social technologies to raise awareness of the Slim Down Challenge and recruit speakers. The strategy included a social competition launched via the customised Facebook Page. This was part of a full marketing strategy for the campaign, but despite being active across a range of channels, they found that 71% of site traffic that went to the registration page, came directly from Facebook. This is an impressive case study in showing how social activity can stand up and outperform even established marketing channels such as TV and Newspaper ads, and marketing via websites within the network.
Reviews drive sales
it’s been widely discussed that opening up your products to reviews and even inviting negative reviews don’t necessarily impact negatively on your brand. By displaying both the good and the bad reviews you can help qualify out people that may not be suitable for your product but you also show that yours is a brand that can be trusted, as any issues people do have are clearly displayed, demystifying the purchasing process for brand new customers. An interesting case study from Cars.com shows that pages that had ratings and reviews introduced onto them had a 16% higher rate of conversion, and a 100% higher rate of traffic through to dealer’s sites. This shows the positive impact that social technologies can have when introduced onto your own site, to improve the purchase cycle.
Reducing customer service costs
Our final case study might be viewed somewhat negatively by some, as it looks at ROI from social media being directly driven by saving on staff costs. As more brands open up through social media however, they find the communities they nurture often begin to answer each other’s queries with regards to product questions etc.. In the case of InfusionSoft, they used social technologies to better inform their customers and keep them up to date. Whereas they previously would have had one customer service agent to 72 customers, through social media they were able to reduce this to 1 agent per 172 customers. Along with this the satisfaction rating also increased by 10%, which would no doubt lead to more repeat business for the company and more customer referrals. Though this might be a slightly alternative way of viewing ROI, it shows that social technologies can make real business savings, allowing money to be invested elsewhere, or in developing these technologies themselves.
社群媒體的具體投資報酬率雖然難以直接衡量，以下由知名科技部落格The Next Web所收集的10個例子，卻能充分說明社群媒體的好處：
1. 社群媒體超越橫幅廣告
Ignite Social Media研究機構所進行了一份調查，將一位客戶的橫幅廣告和社群競賽活動作比較(兩者連結到同一個網站)，結果發現以每位訪客所耗費成本的觀點來看，由社群活動所導引的流量比橫幅廣告有效6.5倍，而且帶來了5.76倍更多的訪客。
2. 社群媒體替Cisco省下了$10萬美金
傳統來說，Cisco在推出新產品時會動用到像是報紙廣告等昂貴的方式，不過在一款新型路由器上市時，他們改用完全線上宣傳，甚至還在知名線上遊戲Second Life第二人生上，舉辦了一場上市前演唱會，結果成本不但是傳統行銷的六分之一，接觸到的群眾也更廣。
3. Old Spice帆船紅色警戒香水沐浴乳把錢花在口碑上
這個社群案例至今仍是史上最熱的病毒行銷之一，借助針對粉絲及名人打造的個人化影片訊息，3天內就超過了2000萬的YouTube點閱率，最後銷售也增加了107%，Old Spice更變成了男性身體沐浴乳的領導品牌。
4. 餐廳選擇封閉式社群網絡
美式連鎖餐廳Houlihan’s運用Ning平台的服務，在2008年初打造了一個私人社群網絡HQ，並借助社群和email行銷，讓會員人數快速累積到了1萬人，以提供獨家的折扣和促銷給客戶。Houlihan’s也曾進行一個慾望城市宣傳活動，結果估計有7000到13000名用戶，都是因為HQ會員而得知這個消息。
5. 社群媒體讓焦糖布丁攤販老闆生意源源不絕
如果你是沿街叫賣的食物小販，該如何讓客人知道你今天會在哪？美國的一家焦糖布丁攤販老闆，就聰明地利用Twitter宣布他每天的工作地點，一年間創造了超過1萬2千名跟隨者，此外他還在Twitter上告訴人，他會在哪一天賣什麼口味的焦糖布丁，並詢問客人意見，因此成功地和他的跟隨者們建立了良好的個人關係。
6. 社群媒體客戶更珍貴
看護公司CareOne導入了一個全新的社群客戶照護團隊，運用社群技術來接觸現有及潛在的客戶，結果發現經由任何一個社群接觸點而獲得的客戶，填寫顧客諮詢單的比例，是傳統客戶的179%，完成第一筆付款的比例更是732%，顯示社群媒體所提供的個人接觸，能增加客戶的信賴度，它們因此可能願意投資更多。
7. Facebook廣告的投資報酬率
Vamplets是一家製造吸血鬼娃娃的小型企業，他們引進了Facebook廣告這個引導營收的新管道，雖然每月的預算只有$250美金，卻帶來了額外的$1000美金收益，也就是300%的投資報酬率。
8. Subway的減肥比賽
Subway在Facebook的客製化頁面上推出了一個減肥比賽，並經由電視及報紙廣告等各式各樣的管道宣傳活動，但是卻發現有71%的註冊頁面流量，都是直接來自Facebook。
9. 評測帶來銷售
線上售車網站Cars.com發現擁有評比和評測的頁面，有16%更高的比例能將來訪數轉換成銷售，連結到經銷商網站的流量比例也高出100%，顯示評測對品牌的整體影響是正面的，負面評論出現反而能過濾掉不適合的顧客，開誠布公的態度也將能贏得信任。
10. 降低客服成本
行銷自動化及客戶關係管理軟體InfusionSoft，運用社群技術來更有效地通知客戶並讓他們隨時獲得最新資訊，也因此，過去每位客服人員平均只能對口72位客戶，藉由社群媒體的幫助，數字卻能提高到172位，達到節省企業成本的效果，而顧客滿意度也增加了10%。
When writing copy for any medium, it’s easy to drown in a sea of lead-ins, clever anecdotes and introductory sentences. There’s hardly time for that on the web. Marketers don’t have the luxury of leading up to anything. The only option is to be direct.