HOW TO Measure Your Social Media ROI: Part 4 (If you missed it, check out HOW TO Measure Your Social Media ROI Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Let’s face it, most business owners starting to utilize and leverage social media want to know what the return on investment is with social media.  Honestly, social media lacks easily and clearly measurable characteristics of other investments, but it IS very much possible to see and track the monetized return from engaging in social media.  Every person using and utilizing social media should always remember, however, that social media is most importantly about building relationships; companies that don’t understand this simple fact will likely not feel the full and complete benefits of Social Media.  So how does one actually visualize the effectiveness and ROI of social media campaigns?

Tip #5: Understand Page Rank

As your site draws in increasing traffic, it will apply more effectively to organic search engine algorithms.  Committing to specific keywords with your tweets, posts, and other public communications will help naturally raise your website and social media presence in the rankings, so paying attention to this is a solid step toward managing your ROI for social media.

Other less understood ways to get your website to grow is through interacting with other websites in your niche.  Commenting on blogs almost always provides you with an opportunity to link back to your website; blogging and commenting on blogs is a necessity for strong social media presences.  Commenting on other blogs is also a great way to identify yourself to a targeted group of people as a clear and intelligent voice on topics in your field.

HOW TO Measure Your Social Media ROI: Part 2 (If you missed it, check out HOW TO Measure Your Social Media ROI Part 1)

Let’s face it, most business owners starting to utilize and leverage social media want to know what the return on investment is with social media.  Honestly, social media lacks easily and clearly measurable characteristics of other investments, but it IS very much possible to see and track the monetized return from engaging in social media.

Tip #2: Keep Track of Your Interactions

As each year brings new and innovative applications and 3^rd party tools that can interact with our online personas; measuring results is easier than it ever has been before and social media is no different.  There are several tools to measure the influence, clout, and impact of different social media platforms, but a simple spreadsheet managed by a person (rather than an automated system) goes a long way.  Keep track of every single message, @response, interaction, blog comment, and more.

Maintaining good records of how many people are interacting with your social media accounts provides manageable information that clearly shows growth.  This process also helps to clearly indicate who interacts the most – providing extra attention and gratitude to these people embodies what social media is truly about: developing and cultivating relationships.  A well developed online relationship founded in digital interactions has proven time and time again to be a successful practice in business.  Remember, social media doesn’t start overnight, but with some patience, practice and hustle you will see just how effective this investment can be.

3 Elements provides solutions for your social media needs.  Contact us to discuss how we can bring your business into the conversation.

2009 was absolutely incredible. As I look back I feel like I made things happen! I started a social media company called 3 Elements LLC in May, I lived in New York City for almost 2 months, and I traveled all over the country from Los Angeles to Dallas to Chicago to New York. I met the beautiful and wise Ellen Burstyn, the fun and energetic Linus Roache, saw the cast of Glee sing Christmas carols, listened to Jenny McCarthy announce the world’s largest Elf Festivity and partied in the streets to Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys and Michael Buble (just to name a few) as we counted down the lighting of the breath taking tree at the Rockefeller Center.

I’ve met and befriended people from Argentina, Turkey, Columbia and Tibet and have learned from them how different and diverse the world is; giving me a peek inside another culture and way of living; creating an internal craving for diversity within my life.

What my eyes have scene, my nose has smelled, my hears have heard, my mouth has tasted, my body has felt and my mind has experienced in one year is incredibly overwhelming in the most amazing way. I feel truly blessed and fortunate to have experienced what I have in 2009.

From my experiences I have learned so much about life, people and myself. I have found new passions to learn another language, travel the world and help others in need. I have learned the importance of following your heart and trusting yourself; finding love and strength from within. I have understood the importance of a good, genuine friend.  I have experienced such openness and beauty within myself and others that brings tears to my eyes and touches my soul. Words cannot explain what I have scene and experienced in 2009, but all I can say is I am extremely thankful for my life, for my family, for my friends, and for the opportunities.

For 2010, I can feel amazing things to come. I feel love, growth, strength, wealth and happiness. I’m so anxious for the next 365 days but I am trying to focus on today, and live it to the fullest both personally and professionally.

I’m excited to help conscious business owners tell their story to the online world and I’m thrilled to be a part of their businesses. I’m anxious to be a part of something larger than me, being challenged and therefore gaining insight and wisdom to pass along to someone else.

Today is the first day of 2010 but it is another day adding to my 24 years of age. It’s an addition block to the building that I have been working pretty damn hard on and it feels good to feel what I feel for the future.

So cheers! Here’s to today, here’s to tomorrow, and here’s to the opportunities that we will be presented with and hopefully take advantage of; giving us greatness. Happy 2010!

While the idea of face to face meetings is ideal for any business, the reality of global business and relationships makes that entirely impossible to have with every customer or consumer. Blogs enable people to talk to each other in a direct, informal manner. Bloggers make grammatical errors, often change their train of thought, challenge arguments, make suggestions, basically everything that would typically happen in a conversation- happens in a blog. The blog is the work of a real person, no BS, no fluff, in other words, it is- what it is. This is important and attractive to a lot of people because most people don’t trust big corporate companies because there seems to be no connection and trust, and this is exactly where and how blogs emerged. It is just a typical conversation with the idea that it is all presented on an equal level playing field.

In blogs you can loosely connect to other blogs or websites through the use of hyperlinks. The linking from blog to blog paves the way for it to become a part of the blogsphere. Even if you have 1 visitor or as many as 100,000 daily visitors with hundreds of links, your blog is a part of a huge circulation of findable information. But regardless of the circulation, the most important aspect of the blog s that it is conversational and personal.

So why do businesses have or need to have blogs as a part of their online marketing campaign? Because blogs are just another way for business to build trust, they humanize companies and give prospective customers an idea of the people who are running the business. Going back to the older blog post I wrote about Joel Comm’s 4 step sales process, know me- like me -trust me -pay me, the blogs are the perfect outlet for your potential customers to get to know you a little bit, perhaps enough to want to do business with you.

Blogs are among the most powerful two way internet communication tools thus far. They can help your company tremendously and although about one third of blogs started may be abandoned in one year, the overall growth of blogging is among the fastest of any technology.

So, if you choose to join the ongoing conversation that is taking place a great deal on the internet you should know that your company is good for it and your customers will be better-off. Also, you end up saving so much money on marketing campaigns that are really expensive, don’t work, and straight up just annoy people.