If what you measure, matters what do the preliminary results of our 2012 social media survey tell you?    In response to the question about measuring ROI, 63% of business owners said they didn’t measure.

This surprises me because other responses indicate they are spending more time then ever on various social media platforms.  And the growing industry of social media professionals tells me they are probably spending more money too

What about you?  Are your measuring the impact of your social media activity?  We want to know.  Please take a minute to complete the survey below.    This is our third annual study and you can find last year’s this year’s report here:

Of those who do track social media results, we asked them for more information about the kinds of things they were tracking.   Most people were looking at the big numbers:

• 78% of respondents track the number of friends and followers on their  various accounts, while 76% track web traffic.
• Far fewer companies are tracking more actionable measures, such as email subscriptions (42%), form downloads (33%) or RSS subscriptions (14%).

What People Say:

• Have a social media plan; do not just do it because everyone else is.
• Your strategy needs -term goals.
• Get out and try things, then monitor results. Repeat the things that work.
• Identify your goals. What do you want to accomplish through your social media program? Once that’s identified, develop the program  around the goals. And incorporate metrics into the plan, or don’t bother!
• Get measurement into the equation EARLY. It really helps to be able  to count your wins early in the game. Start by counting fans/friends, email subscribers, and ESPECIALLY web traffic.