Measuring the performance of a marketing campaign has always been critical.

Social media is no different.

While social interactions may not match up directly to sales (though this is possible with the right tools and diligent tracking), you can determine which social interactions led to different important actions. If you know the value of these actions, you can determine the ROI from your social interactions that lead to these actions.

Be sure to add web analytics tracking code from Google Analytics (or your preferred web analytics tool) so you can measure this down to the individual post level.

7 Ways to Measure Social Media ROI

1. Newsletter sign-up – especially if you have topic or product specific newsletters.
2. Contact form – pretty obvious
3. Phone call – can implement phone number tracking, or try adding unique 1-800 numbers to your social profiles.
4. Twitter Retweet – promotes you as a thought leader in your industry. It’s essentially a mini endorsement.
5. Twitter Follower or Facebook Fan – essentially a mailing list add, only with more legs since friends can see see these as well while only that individual will see your emails.
6. Liking or commenting on a Facebook Page post – Again, this is interaction with your company, a clear sign of their interest in you.
7. Endorsement or Thank You on any network – helps position you as a helpful thought leader in your industry, which has huge value.

Be sure to assign a dollar value to each of these conversion points. Is a phone call worth more to you than a newsletter sign-up? In which of these mediums does your sales team work best? What is the cost of your social media program (usually this is personnel time)?

Finally, there is no ROI if you don’t set Goals in advance. Know what you want to achieve with social media before you dive in.

Got more ways to measure? Chime in!