Why CMOs Will Focus On Social Media Metrics?
In 2012 CMOs will focus more on social media metrics, says eMarketer. We do believe that content is king, distribution is queen but metrics is the emperor…
The eMarketer study shows that CMOs were focusing on soft metrics in 2011, and feel they can’t gauge ROI.
And that might be strange, since from the early days of the internet, the prospect of detailed metrics fueled the promise that online advertising could yield unprecedented insights about customer preferences and behavior.
That promise has only partially materialized. Why would this change in 2012?
The Econsultancy report “The State of Social Media 2011” noted that 41% of marketers surveyed had no return on investment figure for any of the money they had spent on social channels as of October 2011.
Further, only 8%could attribute ROI for all their investments in social media. The survey sample was primarily UK companies, with some representation from other territories.
A 2011 MarketingSherpa study noted that only 20% of US agencies and consultancies surveyed said their clients thought social media marketing was producing measurable ROI.
However, 64% said clients were confident that this form of marketing would eventually deliver a return and were willing to conservatively invest in it.
In August 2011, the top method used to measure the success of social media marketing campaigns was tracking the numbers of people linking as friends, followers and likes according to a Chief Marketer survey. Much further down the list was tracking incremental sales attributable to social media.
In 2012, CMOs will need to look smarter in their boardrooms. And start to embrace metrics to get actionable insights around social video and their social media efforts.
In 2012 CMOs will need to focus more sharply on hard metrics to gauge digital and social marketing ROI. They will be pushed in this direction by economic and competitive forces, and by rising expectations from internal stakeholders who are more interested in the bottom line than in creative experimentation.
Up until now, marketers have been content to dabble in digital and social marketing out of curiosity, peer pressure, and need to get closer to the competition.
Bragging at the golf course; we’ve got more Facebook fans than you my friend, is one of the most important subliminal reasons, knowing that size still matters among male CMO’s.
But as stakes get higher, social video and social media will have to provide concrete business benefits.
And since close to all CMOs love one-way TV commercials, branded online videos and social videos will grow even faster in 2012.
Cool thing about social videos; they can earn attention, grow organic, spread virally, get higher reach at lower costs per contact, ignite conversations and increase active brand engagement. Now how would CMOs be able to achieve these benefits with their TVCs?
Last but not least, social videos show much smarter metrics than TV commercials. Metrics and ROI technologies like ViralTracker offer CMOs one dashboard with powerful videolytics, full social metrics (shares, likes etc.) and actionable insights on earned media value and ROI.
Our conclusions?
Many CMOs will focus at advanced social video metrics and social media ROI in 2012. And agencies will feel the pressure to make the CMOs look smart in their board rooms.
Your opinion?
How should brands and agencies evolve in this area in 2012? Share your thoughts in the comments below… or follow Igor Beuker on Twitter.
Source: eMarketer
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My problem with many of social analytic solutions out there is that they cost an arm and leg. They are definitely only for the size firm that can afford a CMO in the first place. I believe if small business want to be able to compete, they should pool together using Social Media Management and Marketing firms to cover them in solutions that allow for multiple analytics accounts. Measurable results are very important. Small businesses have an advantage in that they are already primed for social likability. If they lose the ability to measure and improve—the way big corporations are gearing up to—they will lose a foothold where they are clearly suppose to be a winner.
Hey Joshua
I partly agree on the arm and the leg. Why? There are many free tools that could help a lot.
And believe me, we work with many leading global brands, and they will not like what I will say next – but I will say it anyway:
Big is only good when smart! Otherwise it could mean: corporate, rigid, slow, risk averse, politics etc. Deep pockets and large budgets are often killing for creativity…
So for that reason i do like to work with challenger brands as well.
Small business, could indeed use their flexibility to outsmart most big ones: We now live in an era where you can still buy media, but you can no longer buy attention. You have to earn it.
And the power of small shops is certainly their service and personal relations with clients. That might fuel brand ambassadors, where the big boys are more likely to buy friends (on ie facebook and twitter).
Like in real life; real friends and respect should be earned.
Cheers
Igor
Hehehe, nice thoughts Igor.
But can you, please, name those free tools you have mentioned?
Thanks Recepti
They will be in a new blog post soon. Pls stay tuned.
Cheers
Thanks, Igor, I sure will!
Cheers