People always want to know what they can expect with on-line marketing campaigns and particularly with Social Media campaigns. Everybody is “doing it” but does it pay for itself? What is the ROI? With this question in mind, I have ventured into the blogosphere to find some results. Justin R French from Social Networking San Diego reports: “Company A” received 26% increase in traffic in 2 months! “Company B” received a 27% increase in traffic in 2 months! “Company C” received a 75% increase in traffic in 2 months!
He does not tell us what campaigns were run or what it costs. Nor does he tell us if any of that traffic converted (Traffic without conversion is of limited value).
What are the Actual Numbers of Social Media Marketing?
Dick Pirozzolo reported that a top real estate marketing consultant and sales trainer who speaks regularly at major industry conventions around the US wanted to maintain and build on the relationships he established when he met people at industry events and seminars, so he turned to www.ning.com. Ning enabled him to create a new social network—an affinity group of building industry professionals, building products manufacturers, and construction company leaders who share information, observations and sales tactics. He uses the group to maintain a dialogue on issues that matter to them and can instantly discuss the impact of economic news. It is immediate and intimate.
Unlike advertising, direct mail or publicity—social media offers ongoing, two-way communication, which gives the feedback needed to refine your ‘product’ message and brand.
Jalali Hartman of Yovia reports the most impressive and complete numbers in his case studies that utilize Yovia’s Social Velocity™ Evaluation platform to identify and build on successful viral campaigns using the first ever People Network.
- JamsBio a start up company went from 0 to over 600 visitors a day and was recently purchased by MTV.
- Worldwide Fido Awards website had over one million page views in two months and will be a TV show.
- The website for Nate and Alex, received more than 14,000,000 page views in one year.
- Swagger of the South over a seven day period generated 1.942 million impressions across blogs, MySpace, Facebook and YouTube.
- A local Used Car company generated a 229% better response than the traditional message.
- The State of Tennessee’s Mind2it campaign generated 110,000 Tennessee visitors to their page in few short months.
What Social Web or Web 3.0 Is Telling Us
Maslow had it all along – 1st Food and Water, 2nd Safety and Shelter, 3rd Belonging – We are hard-wired to crave interactivity and community. We thrive on word of mouth referrals and the simple events in our life. Web 3.0 has provided the technology to expand our capabilities and voices. Companies will never be the same.
What Are the Social Platforms That Will Shape Our Future?
Clearly, I think the People Networks such as Yovia has developed will shape our future. Facebook, Youtube and similar sharing sites are going to evolve but will be around a long time. Twitter will either become very useful or very useless depending on the integrity of those using it. I think we will also see a much stronger push to more selective networks that allow us to truly interact with like-minded people.
In the interest of full disclosure, I was so impressed with the results and the founder of Yovia I decided to become a certified Community Manager for Yovia Social Velocity Engine. As head of strategy for Marketing Sherpa, Jalali developed the first methodology for conversion optimization. From there, he founded Yovia, and invented Social Velocity, a methodology that allows us to truly harness social media. Call me to find out how you can benefit from Yovia.