Most effective social media tactics

Around these halls, we spend alot of time talking about how to measure ROI for our clients’ social media efforts. And from all reports, we are not alone. Here’s a recent breakdown of effectiveness according the MarketingSherpa Social Media Marketing and PR Benchmark Survey (December 2008).

Advertising on blogs or social networks: Measurability 32% Effectiveness: 16%
Online news release distribution: Measurability 18% Effectiveness: 36%
User reviews or ratings: Measurability 15% Effectiveness: 47%
Blogger or online journalist relations: Measurability 11% Effectiveness: 46%
Forums or discussion groups: Measurability 11% Effectiveness: 42%
Blogging on company blog: Measurability 9% Effectiveness: 34%
Profile on professional/social networks: Measurability 7% Effectiveness: 22%

Clients will continue to demand proven value in this particularly tight economy. However, as marketers we can’t ignore the fact that some emerging channels are valid, regardless of how hard they may be to track. But giving up all hopes of delivering effectiveness AND measurable ROI is simply too easy. So this leaves us considering whether we are right striving to creatively “adjust” the channels themselves to be more measurable tools, or rather to educate clients in adjusting their measurement methods for these new channels. (I am not expecting there to be one right answer.)

That social media has graduated from trend to force-to-be-reckoned-with is old news. But that force IS still a new one. It will be interesting to see how it ultimately answers the ROI question.