Marketers are under constant pressure to precisely measure the results of their initiatives. Consequently, they often default to tactics that are more easily and accurately measured in terms of ROI. The downside is they may ignore the merits of tactics like social media marketing which often requires qualitative measurement in addition to quantitative metrics. Indeed, according to MarketingSherpa, marketers cite "inability to measure ROI" as one of the most significant barriers to the adoption of social media tactics by their organization.
A chart recently published by MarketingSherpa revealed that while 32% of marketers felt they were able to measure the ROI on blog and social network ads "very effectively," only 9% felt they were able to measure the ROI on company blogging "very effectively;" the percentage for profiles on professional or social networks was 7%.
But an inability to measure ROI on blogging and social marketing efforts hardly means those channels don't provide value. To the contrary, argues MarketingSherpa, monitoring the quality of feedback such as comments to content published through these channels often reveals a considerable return when measured on a qualitative basis.
In such channels, a key intangible value commonly realized is the establishment of new relationships that lead to substantial new business over the time as these relationships are nurtured and strengthened. On that note, lawyers with blogs and active in social media may want to keep track of the first "touchpoint" they have with a potential new client in order to pinpoint the source of new business should that prospect become a client.
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