Specific Customer Behaviors – As Social Media evolves, the measurable behaviors will grow but for now there are tweets, re-tweets, Fans, Followers etc. I think that once a benchmark is established versus the competition, or versus your own baseline, a trend can be established and results demonstrated to management. This will help rationalize resource allocation.

Sales/Revenue – It seems that the revenue side is less distinct and harder to measure especially for larger companies. For smaller to small/medium companies, where there may not been much “marketing”, the company can probably attribute an increase in sales to these efforts. Generally, in larger companies, for sales related activities, Social Media is part of an integrated strategy. Therefore, it is harder to attribute specific results solely to Social Media, and the project or effort needs to be paid out on a total basis. The ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts”

Expense Reduction – The expense reduction side seems somewhat easier to quantify. For example, if the company counts the # of customers it helps or services, this can be quantified based on the cost of answering an incoming e-mail or call. A customer’s retention value may be able to be quantified if the customer had a serious issue, then the lifetime customer value can be used. This seems straight forward and can help rationalize the human expense associated with Social Media.

In short, I believe that Social Media is part of the marketing mix and can be quantified through innovative and focused thinking. This quantification will help Management, as well as Team Members, help to understand its value to growing and retaining business, and thus justify the expense.

Can’t wait to see what more you have to say on the IMC front!
.-= Megan O’Malley´s last blog ..Vitamin IMC turns one year old! =-.

Giles, absolutely…also, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to ‘sales-oriented’ companies versus ‘market-oriented’ companies, which is also another big factor. As for the complexity of management, if the C-Suite doesn’t embrace the concept of integration, it will be tough to send it downstream to other line managers.

David, thanks buddy!

Perhaps part of the challenge too is the complexity of managing so many channels and having the resources to determine the best ones then manage them?

Great to see you back Beth and glad you’re focusing on “integration” – truly it’s key.
.-= Giles (Webconomist)´s last blog ..Social Media Use in Atlantic Canada: 2010 Report =-.