Many B2B companies struggle to measure their social media results, and wind up tracking insignificant metrics like number of followers and fans, or in some cases measuring and reporting on nothing at all. Social media can take many forms in business, but no matter what they are, they need to be measurable.

Start with your business objectives
Social media does not exist in a silo. It must support your overall business objectives. Not only is this important from an organizational point of view, but it is critical from a success metric point of view. For example if a key performance indicator (KPI) of your B2B company is to improve customer satisfaction, you must, and I did say must, determine how your social media efforts can improve customer satisfaction.

How to get started
Let’s say your B2B company is focused on increasing sales, which for many B2B companies is measured by number of leads generated. It is not always a straight path from social media campaigns and activities to leads, and you may not be able to get there in one step. There are many things that need to be put in place, one of which is access to data. All the data you can get your hands on, from things like trackable URL shorteners, web analytics and lead generation data. You also may not be generating leads from day one, so you need to track all parts of the process and set specific goals for each stage.

It’s like building a bridge
Think about how some bridges are built. You start on each side of the bank and build out towards the river from both sides. If your calculations are correct, you meet in the middle. Developing a set of social media metrics happens the same way. Start on the east bank with your social media efforts and start on the west bank with your business objectives. Work forward on one and backward on the other to come to a meeting point. Connect the complete process from number of clicks on a link to views of a blog post to clicks on a call to action to views of a landing page to filling out a lead form. These are all measurable activities, but they need to be tied together from a measuring and reporting perspective.

The buckets are the hard part
The last step in establishing these metrics is the hardest part. You need to bucket all your expenses on the social media side to understand common business metrics like cost per lead. If marketing activities are evaluated by these types of measures, social media needs to be put in the exact same terms. When talking to your VP of sales about the value of social media for your B2B company, unless you can show results (number of leads) and compare them to existing measures (cost per lead), adoption of social media will not get very far.

For more detailed examples of what to measure and how to get started establishing social media metrics, here’s an awesome eBook about Social Media Measurement and Analysis.

What are your biggest challenges in social media measurement for your B2B company? What are some of the ways you have overcome them?

Jeffrey L. Cohen is a social strategist at Radian6 and the co-author of the forthcoming The B2B Social Media Book. You can follow Jeff on Twitter at @jeffreylcohen.

Tags: B2B social media, lead generation, social media analytics, social media measurement