Sean Donahue

Monitor Web Traffic to Gauge Impact of Social Media Efforts

December 8th, 2008

Even though more B2B marketers consider a role for social media in their marketing strategy, I still hear them express confusion about measuring the impact of creating blogs or participating in social networks. Typical questions:

How do you measure engagement? What’s the value of one Twitter follower? What’s the direct ROI of that blog post you wrote?

My recent interview with Pam O’Neal, VP Marketing, BreakingPoint, about her team’s success using social media to boost lead generation, gave me the chance to ask for her thoughts on the measurement question. You can read that case study here: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30946

Her advice: Don’t overthink the task. Done right, social media efforts drive more qualified visitors to your website, where you can engage them with white paper downloads, e-newsletter subscriptions or any other lead-gen techniques you employ there. So, measure the growth and impact on your Web traffic.

“I think that where most people in our industry go wrong is that they’re trying to boil the ocean. They’re trying to measure and report on the whole picture,” says O’Neal. “They’re missing the point. You should measure the things that are fairly easy to measure, and then if you can correlate the surge in inbound Web traffic to enough conversions and revenue to pay for your investment in social media, that’s all you have to do.”

Check out the chart in the Creative Samples link of the BreakingPoint Case Study, which shows a nice, symmetrical upward trajectory for social media metrics, such as Twitter followers and LinkedIn group members, alongside Web traffic and leads.

Categories: Social Networking Evangelism Community Tags: , , ,



  1. Albert Maruggi
    March 28th, 2009 at 16:55 | #1

    ROI is fun eye candy. I worked in politics I can deliver any ROI you want. What’s the point? ROI is a crutch for creativity. When you are first there is no ROI and that’s the environment we are in today, fast idea to reality, shorter product cycles and by the time you have ROI, the leaders are on to the next big thing. Boil the ocean, that’s a good one Pam

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