How to measure the results of your SMM campaign.

With all the push for businesses to invest in and create social media marketing campaigns, more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon. And this is definitely a good thing. But there is a common misconception that a social media marketing campaign can yield highly scalable results in a short period of time. Yet this is something that needs major clarification.

The fact is, it’s just not feasible to completely quantify the results of your social media marketing campaign.

It’s an issue that www.doshdosh.com draws attention to in this blog about ROI and social media. The blog explores the benefits of social media marketing, and how to use it to your advantage. But most importantly, it says that the results of your SMM efforts are “not direct and immediate.”

What does this mean? Social media marketing is a great tool when used properly – it just takes a little time and TLC before the results can be seen. To some degree, results can be measured by paying attention to the number of hits to your websites from social profiles, social bookmarking sites, forums, and other sites where you are connecting to your audience through SMM.

However, the difficult part to measure is the “general PR effect” of your campaign – meaning you have no way of knowing who passes your information around or who remembered your brand name weeks later after reading a cool article on Digg. Unfortunately, without personally tracking each customer down and insisting they tell you exactly how your social media marketing campaign has affected them, it’s hard to get true tracking on your campaign.

So what do you do?
Even though collecting complete stats for your SMM campaign can be tricky, you can still get a good feel for what’s working. First, you need dedicate yourself to giving each SMM tactic a good run. Keep at it. Since your campaign typically won’t start a buzz overnight, push your campaign hard for six months to a year. Keep your social profiles updated, post blogs often, respond to any feedback you get, and build as many relationships as you can. The longer you push, the more of a presence you will create in the industry. Establish your brand in every way you can then “measure” which of your techniques are working best.

After a year, you should be able to concentrate on the areas that are drawing the most attention. If your online articles are getting tons of feedback, devote your time to writing more of them. If people are swarming to your LinkedIn profile, keep on connecting with them. Maximize your time and campaign by focusing on the marketing outlets that are specifically working for you, and you’re likely to watch your clientele grow immensely.