Four Metrics for Determining the Value of a Facebook Fan
How much is a Facebook fan worth?
There has been a lot of discussion about this topic lately, among brands and marketers alike, that are struggling to quantify the value of social marketing efforts. Here in Albany, a local car dealership has been advertizing a $50 incentive to become their fan on Facebook. Another company has come up with a formula that they consider to be a scientific method of putting a dollar value on a fan, while other marketers rebut this formula as inaccurate.
So, who is right?
Honestly, I don’t think it matters. And at the end of the day, will the perceived value of your Facebook fans help inform any meaningful strategic social marketing decisions?
Probably not.
To effectively use social media as a marketing tool, marketers must be able to demonstrate the value that a follower base delivers to their clients. At Media Logic, we are taking a more qualitative approach to determining how social marketing is benefitting our clients’ brands and bottom lines. Using four metrics categories, we paint a valuable picture of the marketing impact we’re making through our clients’ social channels, one that delivers valuable insights and actionable conclusions.
Loyalty
Loyalty metrics look at the behavior of repeat visitors and the actions that caused people to become repeat visitors. By understanding the actions that encourage loyalty we can refine messaging, target promotions, and identify similar audiences.
Sample Metrics:
- Cross-pollination between different channels (Facebook to website, website to Twitter, etc.)
- Visitor recency (how long since the last visit)
- Comparing trends between new and returning visitors
Engagement
There are many different ways that visitors can engage with your brand. The goal is to determine which of these ways provide the most value in terms of conversions and loyalty.
Sample Metrics:
- Top-viewed and top-commented posts (so we know the types of content people find most interesting)
- Conversion rate and conversion efficiency (would be applied if we were driving people to a certain action)
- Raw author contribution (which measures the overall quantity of new content)
- Conversation rate (number interactions per post)
- Media consumption (video & photo views)
Authority/Reach
Authority and reach measurements help to gauge how widely content is being found and consumed. To measure authority and reach we take an outside-in view of traffic coming to our site.
Sample Metrics:
- Number of in-bound links from blogs and other sources
- Fans and fan growth rate
- Page views and page view growth rate
General KPIs
Key performance indicators (KPIs) measure the overall performance and health of marketing campaigns. The metrics in this category are specifically chosen to measure success factors for individual businesses. In most cases, KPIs are measured against targets, which are pre-determined indicators for success or failure.
Sample Metrics:
- Demographic and geographic breakdown (to determine if we are hitting our target audience)
- Daily page view growth rate (measured against the number of followers to see if its keeping pace)
- Fan retention rate
To assign an arbitrary dollar amount to social connections, we would be underestimating the value of the very organic relationship between companies and their fans. And besides, every fan has significantly different levels of influence and engagement with brands and within their social networks. But by looking at patterns across the four metrics we’ve outlined, the real value of fans becomes much more evident, as we begin to understand why people choose to be a fan. And understanding what motivates consumers to action and advocacy on behalf of a brand is invaluable information for agencies and companies developing and refining social media optimization strategies.
