Measuring the ROI of social media is a controversial topic that many people find daunting and scary. But the key to ROI is to understand the fundamentals: you already understand what’s important to your business. Whether you’re in sales, marketing, PR, HR, customer service, product development or just about any part of a modern business, these steps apply to you.

I spoke this morning at the Social Commerce Summit in New York City, hosted by Business Insider. Here are the seven steps I shared.

1. Establish your goals in advance. If you don’t know what you want to do, you’re much more likely to fail. (As in life.)

2. Tie them to your existing business goals (leads, conversions, web traffic, customer satisfaction, sentiment, awareness, employee satisfaction, recruiting). It’s much easier to sell the C-suite on the idea of driving sales leads than getting more Facebook likes.

3. Understand that every department will have a different definition of ROI. A successful social media PR campaign will look different than a social media customer service initiative.

4. Decide in advance how you will measure success. What are the metrics that spell success for you?

5. Focus on campaigns. If someone asked you to define the ROI of your marketing activities as a whole, for instance, that would be a huge undertaking. It’s the same with social media. Break them down into manageable chunks: “We want to use Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to get more attendees to our next event.”

6. Make them trackable through your web analytics. You can create a unique landing page to drive your traffic; for instance, a landing page to register for the event. Create a unique URL for each social channel, and your web analytics will tell you how people came there.

7. Understand that, in the end, ROI is a formula and you need all the data to truly calculate it:

Gain – Cost / Cost

How much did the activity gain for you? If its a simple dollar amount like a sale, it’s not too hard. If it’s a new employee, what’s your average cost to recruit an employee through traditional means? And how much did you spend, including the cost of your time?

Any steps I’ve left out? Comment here or tweet us and include #socialcommerce.

If you don’t have time to read ten blog posts today, we’ve got you covered. When it comes to social media strategy, we write many blog posts each day but there are a select few that can bring your organization to social enterprise level. Much like last week’s top ten ebooks, we’ve selected the top ten posts that our community has found most helpful. Told you we’ve got you covered. Cue the easy button.

	100 Uses of Social Media Monitoring Starting out in the world of monitoring social media can be challenging, so with these 100 uses, you now have a big list of options. Broken into ten categories, the list makes it easy to find your areas of interest. We also created a presentation out of it. And since this is not an exhaustive list, another 100 uses list may not be too far away. Read this post
	30 Ideas for your 2012 Social Media Plan As a synopsis to the corresponding ebook, this post highlights the 30 ideas in a easy-to-grasp list. It’s a checklist to scope out your current and upcoming social media plans. Plus it’s organized into sections to help you find the ideas that fit your needs. Read the post
	The Future of Analytics – Not Everyone is  Numbers Person There are many people who find it difficult to synthesize measurement. And that’s ok. If you’re one of those people, this post might inspire you as the future generation of statisticians and analysts. Or you may just prefer a bedtime story to a pie chart. Read the post
	Training your Company for Social Media This post introduces the ebook, Training Your Company for Social Media, and both guide you through a training outline that will help you prepare your employees, whatever the number, for social media. This includes why training is so important, the steps to take, a training course framework and ongoing education. Read this post
	20 Ways Social Media is Like Your Crazy Ex Both social media and your crazy ex had you enamored at first, and then you realized how much time and effort it was going to take to keep things going. Like any relationship, the ones you have cultivated through social networks and new media require nurturing in order to be successful and stand the test of time. This post pokes fun but reminds you that social business is no joke. Read this post
	The Future of Analytics This post introduces the ebook, The Future of Analytics, whichs dig into where measurement stands when it comes to social media. What is the future of social media analytics? Why is it so important, and how can you start making it an important part of your business objectives? This post answers these questions and more. Read this post
	Dare to Be Different: 3 Ways that Social Media Can Set Your Business Apart Gleaning strong insights about your competitors can help you make smarter and more nimble business decisions, especially thanks to the fast moving nature of social media. But success isn’t always about going head to head with louder marketing. Social media provides companies the opportunity to take a few considered, practical steps toward standing out amongst the pack and providing value for the customers and prospects they serve. Read this post
	Social Media University Dell ensures that each and every employee is a fully functioning and engaged member of their social media strategy. They created an innovative and company wide social media certification program. This post is an interview with Amy Fowler-Tennison, Dell’s SMaC University Program Lead. It includes some great tips on empowering your employees in social media, and why it’s so vital to your organization. Read this post
	Top Ten Enterprise Social Media Etiquette Fails A crowdsourced post, we share examples of the most egregious violations of social media etiquette perpetrated by companies. From not following back to being pushy, this post shares what not to do in an effort to give you some helpful tips about engaging in social media. Read this post
	10 Simple Ways Social Media and Traditional Media Work Together This blog covers a lot of social media content, but traditional media is just as important. After all, those Times Square Billboards aren’t going away anytime soon. This post discusses the different ways to blend the online and offline space. Read this post

We spanned the social media landscape from listening to analytics to crazy ex’s. What posts are helpful to you? What new posts would you like to see?

Every month we write an ebook or two to help you bring your organization to social media maturity. We’ve selected the 10 ebooks from our library that our community has found most useful.

	30 Ideas for your 2012 Social Media Plan Looking for fresh ideas to add to your 2012 Social Media Plan? We’ve sifted through our most-shared posts from 2011 and compressed them into 30 Ideas.You’ll learn how to integrate social throughout your entire business, train your employees, find the content sweet spots, listen for business intelligence, delight your fans, handle your detractors, and measure your growing influence. Get this free ebook
	Strategically Social: 5 Keys to Becoming a Social Business This ebook by Brent Leary highlights how companies can leverage social tools and channels to listen to and engage customers in a variety of ways. It’s more important than ever before to engage customers where they are. Coordinating all the interactions and conversations with transactional data, calls for a more integrated, systematic approach. Even the smallest of companies can leverage social and mobile technologies to create opportunities and more meaningfully connect with customers. Get this free ebook
	Social Media for B2B: It’s Not as Different as You Think Social media has seemed out of reach for many B2B organizations but that just isn’t true. Social media for B2B organizations can be used to increase awareness, capture customer feedback, generate leads, research target markets, and monitor competition. Social media in its purest form is communication, and communication keeps business moving, no matter how it’s facilitated. Get this free ebook
	Four Steps to Integrating Social Media Into Successful Campaigns Social media is making an impact on consumers’ purchasing decisions, so what does that mean for your business? And what does the future hold for your campaign efforts? This ebook looks at the changing landscape resulting from social media, how to create a new campaign that incorporates social right from the start, and how these changes will benefit your business.Are you ready to create new, impactful campaigns that reach social consumers? Read on! Get this free ebook
	Defining and Measuring Influence Influence is more than a social media buzzword; it’s a powerful means of getting your community to speak up on your behalf, and learning how to identify and measure influence is the key to making the most of the phenomenon. This ebook gives you an in-depth look at the definition of influence, how influence morphs in the online space, how to measure it, and how to work the process of influencer identification and outreach into your current social media processes. Get this free ebook
	Training Your Company for Social Media Unsure of how to prepare your team to tackle social media? Wonder why training everyone in social media use is so important? Looking to learn which steps you need to take to build and execute a social media training program? Look no further, your answers are right here. Get this free ebook
	The Future of Analytics Dig into where measurement stands when it comes to social media. What is the future of social media analytics? Why is it so important, and how can you start making it an important part of your business objectives? This ebook will explain to you why social media analytics is so important and how you can benefit from it. Get this free ebook
	Social Media Etiquette – Minding Your Manners on the Social Web Need insights on what is acceptable behavior in social spaces like Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and Forums? Curious as to what benefits you will reap by displaying proper social etiquette, or what approaches you should definitely steer clear of? And if you’ve ever wondered if there’s a difference between personal and professional etiquette, we’ll just say one thing – yes, there is. Get this free ebook
	Four Steps to Creating Content for a Social Media Community Ready for your content to spread throughout social media? This month’s ebook, Four Steps to Creating Content for a Social Media Community, combines content, strategy and community to showcase the steps, best practices and tactical approaches to making meaningful and sharable content. This will enable you to build and enhance relationships and empower your community to converse and share your content. Ultimately, this content experience could turn prospects into customers that stick around. Get this free ebook
	Getting the Competitive Edge with Social Media This ebook will show you how social media intelligence gathering can help you make definitive, today-based decisions about where your company is heading, and how to best directly compete in your marketplace. It will also lay out step by step ways you can analyze and use this information to find out what others in your marketplace are up to and illustrates how to take an honest look at how YOU are doing in relation to your competitors. Get this free ebook

When you’re done reading, please let us know what tips and tricks you found useful — and what new ebooks you’re hungry to see.

Industry events are a perfect opportunity to engage in conversation, build relationships, and get new eyeballs on your content. Why? Because they do half your work for you: getting people to talk and think about topics on which you’re an expert. All you have to do is glide into that slipstream of reduced resistance.

Let me share a still-warm Radian6 example with some ideas you should steal.

Last Monday, January 23, was Community Manager Appreciation Day, an annual event started by Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) in 2010. The event has caught on quickly; this year it garnered over 11,000 social media mentions.

Most of our users are community managers, so we decided to run a full-court press. We published 9 blog posts by 9 different team members that day including:

• Separate posts for multiple industries: agencies, financial services, communications and media, CPG and retail, healthcare, and travel
• A recap of the #DellHangout on Google+
• A Community Manager Resource Pack of blog posts, ebooks and webinars.

Each team member also tweeted why community managers rock, under the #CMAD hashtag and we asked our community to do the same. That also turned into a blog post the following day.

The results? Our blog traffic jumped 50%. Our community team processed triple the normal Twitter and Facebook mentions. Most of our team members enjoyed a significant increase in followers.

Event organizer Jeremiah Owyang retweeted plenty of our content, thanked us for a great job, and asked if we could run a report and publish it on #CMAD mentions — which we did the next day.

Best of all, we gave a public pat on the back to seven community managers we love working with, and our user base enjoyed a level of appreciation they really deserve all year long.

Here are 7 things we learned that you should apply when your next industry event rolls along.

1. Plan well in advance. Don’t be caught scrambling the night before. Prepare your topics and resources beforehand. Have all your posts written. On the day of the event, you’ll only have to time to hit ‘Publish’ and then engage.
2. Serve the event. Watch what the organizers are doing and align yourself to that. Brainstorm ways you can make the event more delightful for everybody. Don’t hijack the conversation.
3. Talk about your community more than about yourself. Express your gratitude for what your users and fans have given to you.
4. Be courteous to outsiders. We noticed afterwards post titles with the #CMAD hashtag didn’t fare as well as the others, probably because they confused people who didn’t already know about the event. Make it easy for everyone in your community to participate.
5. Offer up useful content your community will consume and share. You don’t need to produce something from scratch; our Resource Pack was a set of handpicked blog posts and ebooks.
6. Get the whole team on the court. Not only will it spread out the workload, you’ll come up with fresh perspectives and a wider engagement than one person could provide.
7. Surpass yourself every year. The first time is always awkward, but you’ll begin to learn what works and what doesn’t. Document both, and refer to your findings when you start planning next year’s event.

Flickr photo credit: wwarby http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/

All community managers make the world a better place by giving their companies a human voice, resonating their customer opinions and feedback, embodying empathy, stimulating meaningful discussion, gracefully admitting when their company has made a mistake, taking pride in helping others, and eagerly solving difficult problems… among many other things. Being a community manager for any company isn’t always easy, but as Robyn Tippins of ReadWriteWeb puts it, “Community Management is the hardest job you’ll ever love.”

Today we’re acknowledging all of you who take customer service to the next level by representing your companies on Facebook, in forums, on blogs and beyond.

In addition, I’d like to give my very own high-five to all the community managers who work at agencies. You extra rule.

Here’s why:

Community managers who work for agencies are chameleons (hat tip to @TDJaxTim of Dalton Agency for putting it this way). They do all of the above, but for multiple clients across multiple industries – sometimes all within a given day. An agency community manager masters the ins and outs of each client’s industry and company, and then replicates that knowledge online through engagement with client customers and prospects. Agency community managers have to stay up to date on more industry news, and be able to toggle between their different communities at a moment’s notice. On top of all that, agency community managers may have to jump through additional hoops to get to the information their community needs since they’re external to the company itself.

Radian6 appreciates all that you’ve done to not only transform your clients into social enterprises, but educate and guide them all along the journey. Thank you for being nimble, for working long hours, and for bringing our industry forward (en masse).

If you work at an agency, go give your social media and community managers a big pat on the back. They deserve it!

Throughout today, Radian6 supported Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). Check this blog post and Twitter (@radian6) for more content around this day.

Financial services is a tough industry for implementing social media on account of the intimidating regulations, and community managers in Finserv compliantly strategize and work around these regulations on a daily basis in order to give their financial organization a warm, valuable voice. This provides efficient customer service, creating and sharing helpful content for their customers and community, and generally provides a friendly face to their company’s name.

On behalf of Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD), here’s a few Finserv community manager rockstars that truly deserve a pat on the back.

David Nosibor

He’s Mazars Group’s in-house social media expert. When he’s not managing Mazars’ social media actions and engaging with the community, he’s busy providing internal training sessions on using social media and developing unique and innovative social strategies.

Veronica Ortega

Veronica is undoubtedly a community ambassador for SunTrust Bank. If you’ve ever been on a community thread discussing banking, chances are you’ve run into Veronica. She actively participates in community conversations while reading community threads and ensuring questions are answered, stimulating existing topics, and starting new industry-related discussions.

Dawn Melesko

Dawn from Webster Bank not only spearheads the development and execution of Webster’s social media strategy, but she is also educating Webster executives on how to use social networking effectively for business results. She engages directly with customers, and she’s consistently finding and creating new content to help Webster’s customers, which of course, increases positive sentiment and buzz around the bank.

These are a just a few of the financial industry’s talented and innovative individuals that respond to customers online – provide excellent customer service, engage with industry influencers, manage groups and forums, and most importantly – develop and foster long-lasting relationships with individuals within your community that will, without a doubt, create brand ambassadors.

Throughout today, Radian6 is supporting Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). Check this blog post and Twitter (@radian6) for more content around this day.

On this Community Manager Appreciation Day, I wanted to take stock of all the different kinds of community managers I interact with day to day and the things they do to serve their communities and the companies.

Everyday I check in on the Twitter handles from the major television networks that are promoting their programs. Some keep it high level and tweet out promotional information and behind the scenes photos to keep social buzz alive. Some like Syfy’s official Twitter account, which is administered by Chris Engler, one of Syfy’s chief executives, take to their account to answer questions from their community directly.

In the world of publishing there are a number of publishers that make use of community managers. Penguin Books is consistently interacting with their community to promote their books and authors and give back to their community through contests.  Of course, there are community managers for book review blogs that aren’t attached to a publisher but help direct people to their favorite titles. These community managers gain the trust of their followers and help foster online communities for book lovers out of a passion for the written word.

When it comes to media and journalism, the best community managers are often the journalists and reporters themselves although they may be unaware of this fact or even deny it. The reporters who take to Twitter help drive their stories and promote themselves but in so doing they provide their followers with information straight from the source. In New Brunswick, two of the best journalistic community managers (although they’d likely dispute this compliment and refer to themselves as participants) are the CBC’s Jacques Poitras and Dan McHardie. These two journalists consistently interact with their followers and when not reporting, take part in the general conversations related to New Brunswick news and politics.

Finally, the heavy hitters of community managers in this industry are most definitely those men and women who man the corporate accounts in the telecommunications industry. These are the people in the trenches; knee-deep in customer questions, complaints and, of course, the occasional praise. These people live and breath brand advocacy and customer service.

So with that, a very happy Community Manager Appreciation Day from myself and the Community Team here at Radian6!!

Throughout today, Radian6 is supporting Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). Check this blog post and Twitter (@radian6) for more content around this day.

As part of Community Manager Appreciation Day, there is so much that Community Managers have to be thankful for. Dell has taken a great step in showing their love for Community Managers by hosting a #DellHangout on Google+ . We loved it and wanted to share some of our favorite tidbits with you.

The hangout was broken into 3 Topics:

1. Chief Company Pinata & Cat Herder – Beyond a Day in the Life of a Community Manager

The panelists for this session were: Amy Muller, Mark Harrison and Patrick O`Keefe.

Sometimes Community Management can be an orphan in an organization since it can be challenging to know which department they belong to. Always looking on the bright side of things, the group also indicated that this provides the Community Manager with the opportunity to bring the different departments together.

Often trying to be all things to everyone and keeping everyone happy is a challenge faced. To ensure this doesn’t happen, it’s important to focus on people who care about what you do and are interested in the topic you are sharing.

Top 6 Skills the Group Felt were Necessary to be a Community Manager:

1. Communication
2. Empathy
3. Humility
4. Attention to detail
5. Patience
6. Passion for Community

2. No Matter B2B or B2C; It’s P2P! Whether Business to Business or to Customer; it’s always People to People

The panelists for this session: Jim Storer, Vanessa DiMauro and Lionel Menchaca

Some of the top takeaways from this panel:

1. Get outside of just tactics and think bigger business objectives.
2. When measuring social media impact, one of the big things is focusing on what business process you want to impact. Knowing this will make measurement straightforward.
3. Tie to objectives from the beginning. It’s important to measure in the same language we are already using and draw conclusions based on those metrics.

How do you get Execs Excited about Social Media and Community?

• Get the execs to the “aha” moment. Connect them with folks at their level who have been there and done that.
• Spend some time clarifying  business use cases in social media. Make what you are building clear using examples and case studies.
• Consistently put qualitative and quantitative examples in front of execs. Not always overall numbers, but individual comments as well so they can see anecdotal information.

3. Evolving a Social Business – The Future of the Community Manager Role

Panelists for this session: Jeremiah Owyang and Bill Johnston

Why is the Community Manager role mainstream?

Bill – It may be now, but it was long suffering to get here. Online communities have been around for a long time, but there has been a gradual reinvestment in previous years. It’s about bridging the gap between customers and companies.

Jeremiah – Community Managers are often the largest portion of SM team and social media is the most commonly used medium for customers now. It is also a cost effective way of communicating.

What advice do you have for 3^rd party moderation on Social Media?

Bill- At the end of the day internal staff should be touching the customer/prospect. Outsourcing can be an effective way to compliment, but outsourcing needs to be very limited.

Jeremiah- Outsourcing is happening effectively, but it’s important that the internal strategist is aware of what is going on.

Those are just a few of the great pieces from the Hangout. You should really watch the whole thing when you have a chance! We hope you are still having a fabulous #CMAD!

Throughout today, Radian6 is supporting Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). Check this blog post and Twitter (@radian6) for more content around this day.

Oh and also, Happy Birthday Bill!

Today is the third annual Community Manager Appreciation Day, when we show our appreciation for the people who give brands and organizations a social media voice. Community managers are a dedicated bunch – they truly enjoy engaging with their communities, have the skills to deal with any social media situation, and play a large part in creating the personality behind a brand. In honor of community managers everywhere, here’s a shout out to the ones in consumer packaged goods and retail who have inspired me.

Amy Jones – Boundary Bay Brewery

When I started engaging within the CPG community, Amy Jones was one of the first community managers I connected with. She oversees the PR and social media for Boundary Bay Brewery and is the voice of the brand’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. Amy does a fantastic job of conveying her personality and engaging with the Boundary Bay community on a variety of topics, making the brand memorable and approachable, and forging friendships in the process. As an aside, I recently discovered that Amy and I have a mutual love of Pinterest. If that isn’t fate, I don’t know what is.

Christina Anderson-Heller – Lynfred Winery

I first heard of Christina Anderson-Heller, the Marketing Director at Lynfred Winery, in this blog post, and have followed her efforts with interest ever since. Christina pioneered the social media voice at Lynfred Winery when she first started with them 12 years ago. She has been instrumental in growing the brand’s social media presence. She is feisty, fun, adventurous, and brings an innovative spirit to the Lynfred Winery brand. Give her a follow and ask for her recommendations on ice wine.

Kim Musgrave/Customer Satisfaction Team – McDonald’s

I was lucky enough to connect with Kim Musgrave and the rest of the Customer Satisfaction Team last year and was immediately impressed. The team is truly customer oriented and focused on providing great customer service, which you can easily see by taking a look at Kim’s Twitter feed. They are genuine and friendly and convey enthusiasm and appreciation for their customers. With over 300 thousand social media mentions a week to track and respond to, being a McDonald’s community manager is no small task, but Kim and her team make it look easy.

Check out the other members of the Customer Satisfaction Team including Brittany and Katie.

Jenny Cisney – Kodak

Last Thursday, Kodak announced it was filing for Chapter 11. Soon after I heard the news, I came across this tweet from the company’s Social Media Manager, Jenny Cisney. The link took me to a well-organized and comprehensive microsite dedicated specifically to providing information around the filing and answering stakeholder questions. In addition to this proactive approach, Jenny also responded to tweets throughout the day, serving as a reassuring and informative presence for the Kodak community and putting a human face to the Kodak brand.

These are just a few of the community managers who have inspired me. Be sure to take five minutes today to thank the community managers in your life and let them know they are appreciated. They deserve it!

Do you have any community managers you would like to give a shout out to? Feel free to share in the comments section below!

Throughout today, Radian6 is supporting Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). Check this blog post and Twitter (@radian6) for more content around this day.

We frequently write about the value of community building, but in no industry is that potentially more rewarding than in healthcare.  Community, especially in the social media sphere, involves bringing like minded people together and encouraging dialogue. Patient communities abound now and today’s engaged patient wants to be involved in active dialogue with their healthcare providers.

As a large part of your organization’s voice, community managers in the healthcare field must possess some key qualities.

Intellectual Curiosity

Community engagement entails both joining and initiating health discussions of interest. We’re all listening for topics of interest within the industry and adding our voices to the discussion.  A good community manager doesn’t need to have all the answers, but must be willing to toss a question out there. Community managers should constantly seek to further their own understanding by spurring discussions.

Big Ears

We talk about the value of listening quite often but with regards to community management, this is absolutely imperative for a community made up of engaged patients. When people discuss their health issues, they need to know that their healthcare providers are listening.  As the face of your organization, a healthcare community manager has to be vigilante, ready to respond with personalized replies (versus blanket statements and scripted responses).  Community Managers need to show they are actively listening and replying thoughtfully to community members.

Passion

As the face of your organization, community managers need to show a passion for not only your brand, but your role, your industry and your community members.  The key to building a community of passionate advocates is to model that passion for your audience.  Be the brand ambassador your organization needs.  Tout its virtues, put your brand’s stamp of approval on others’ content and not just your own, and keep the chatter going when it begins to ebb. Your passion, whether you realize yet or not, will reflect the passion of your organization as a whole. When it comes to our health, we want to see everyday that the people in charge of our physical well being are passionate (and thus fully engaged) in what they do.  Set the example and model that passionate in your online activities.

Are you a Community Manager for a healthcare organization?  We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.  Happy #CMAD!

Throughout today, Radian6 is supporting Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD). Check this blog post and Twitter (@radian6) for more content around this day.