Question #9: Social Media Value Index Calculation

A number of you asked to see the social media value index calculation again.

Here’s one measurement, one calculation you can start using today.

And I modified this from a suggested formula by a blogger named Jason Stamper.

What we’re doing is calculating a Social Media Value index (that’s the SMV) by this simple math.

On the top you have the average daily leads that your social media intiatives generates and you can track this through call to actions, special landing pages, etc. Multiplied by your average cost per lead (excluding cost per social media lead).

Then you divide by the average number of hours a person or your team spends contributing, multiplied by the hourly rate of the person (or people).

Anything under 1 means you are not getting a return on your investment. Anything over 1 means you are earning a return on your social media initiatives.

Comments

[Steve Gershik]

Maybe one reason we don't get pushback on our reports is that people are so thirsty for metrics, they are amazed we can quantify anything at all!

Seriously, one strategy we use is to use tracking or redirect links on everything inbound we do. It's an imperfect science, since it's impossible to track 1-to-1 an inbound link from say, a hit in the Wall Street Journal to a lead, but for the online pieces, where we do have some control over the link semantics, we do try to tie the inquiry back to the source.

[Katie Paine]

I'm curious how this is working for you.I like the concept alot, but I wonder your'e not getting arguments about whether the leadds were generated via social media, traditional PR, reputation or some other source. Anyone pushing back on that? and if so, how have you solved?