ROI (and CYA)

Since entering the industry, I've heard many variations on this theme: Marketing ROI is difficult. In the last five years, it has started to (almost) always be accompanied by the caveat, "...but it's necessary."

In context, the aughts were tough times, with the bursting technology bubble, 9/11, and the Great Recession topping the list of events that had significant impacts on the U.S. (financially, politically, and culturally). It was also the decade of Web 2.0. (Yikes, I'm way over my buzzword quotient already.)

And with a more social web, businesses were able to extract more data from their systems for analysis. Alongside this trend, companies also began to require more data from their employees in marketing. Nebulously referring to "brand awareness" was not going to cut it anymore. But how do you show marketing ROI? ...Especially if marketers as a group are perhaps closer to the art/language side of the equation than the math/science one (assuming for the purposes of this post that such a division can be made).

Regardless of the root cause, it seems fair to say that marketers were at least a little reticent to metricize their day-to-day--perhaps in part because of the dynamic concepts they deal in, and in part because of the freedom that comes with not being constrained by numeric analysis. But in the world we live in, justifying the ROI of your job (no matter what it is) can start to seem like a constant necessity, and marketers are no exception.

So in researching for this week's assignment, I came across a couple articles with some tips to help marketers dip their toes in the (math) water:

-The 10 Social Media Metrics Your Company Should Monitor

This article does a good job of breaking down some of the basics. Useful items to track include engagement duration, bounce rate, and brand mentions in social media. Examining these tactics can help marketers identify strategies to quantify what's happening in the realm of social media, and suggest related marketing opportunities. Once a core set of metrics has been established, marketers can also tailor their efforts/programs to enhance the numbers where they--or others within the organization--want to see growth. Which brings me to the second piece of content...

-Social Media Metrics

To me, this article/blog post was a good reminder that numbers aren't very useful without context. While not as heavy on practical information, the author emphasizes the importance of deciding which metrics to track based on specific objectives. I think sometimes people can get too caught up in all the pieces of data they can track and we forget that the numbers aren't an end in themselves. To me, this is especially true in an organization where different departments will have separate priorities.

Perhaps more significantly, the leadership team (and/or CEO) might have specific ideas on which elements of marketing they're interested in. Conversely, executives might come to you for guidance on which things the company should be tracking. Or some combination. The modern marketer needs to be knowledgeable enough to develop their own programs, but also flexible enough to tailor those programs to fit an organization's structure (and/or the proclivities of C-level personnel).

As Chris Brogan puts it, "Make up your own mind, [and] don’t ever let someone sway you that there are 'official' social media metrics that you must/should/need to track." So yes, make up your own mind, but don't be too surprised if someone more senior than you realigns your perceptions from time to time...