Define the R in your ROI. To be able to prove the ROI, you have to have a tangible business goal to begin with. What is the return that you’re hoping to deliver? Why are you doing this? What is the problem you are trying to solve?

Define the audience. Who are you really trying to reach? It’s one thing to go out there and reach million people, but that’s not very meaningful if those million people are not really your target market. You may reach the world with their social media presence, but if the closest of your store is 70 miles away, you’ve got to have a lot of loyalty and engagement to win that part of the audience as customers.

You need to be brutally honest about your target audience and whether you are in fact reaching them, ‘There are no Benchmarks in social media.’ But that’s not really true; there are. There’s always your competition – your peers – which you can benchmark against”. Instead of asking how much positive sentiment you have, you’d want to know your share of positive sentiment amid all positive sentiment in the marketplace. Conversely, if your business operates in a controversial area, you could gauge your relative – rather than absolute – share of negative sentiment.

Once you have decided on the metrics you want to measure and track, there are social media measurement tools like Radr, which can make your business easy.

SaltSocial is a leading Social Media Product /Social Media Measurement Company From Bangalore.To Know more log on to www.saltsocial.com.

As online shopping gains momentum, shoppers are looking for online retailers to provide them with more personalized shopping experiences. Marketers can tailor these experiences to specifically defined target audiences by understanding the shopping personalities and buying behaviors of customers. Because when you’ve discovered what drives specific shoppers to buy, you’re able to increase sales and margins.

Shopping behavior data derived from a behavioral commerce analytic platform used by several prominent online retailers was analyzed to determine the 10 most common shopping personality profiles.

1. The distracted shopper: “When I shop online, I often begin the check-out process but for one reason or another I don’t always complete the purchase.”

Note: This type of shopper is frequently distracted and is prone to multitasking while shopping.

To close the deal: Offer 10 percent off the next order if she completes this one. You can also show her the types of products she was browsing to remind her to return and complete the purchase.

2. The premium shopper: “I only buy the best. I want premium name brands with the latest features and most advanced technology.”

Note: This shopper is a trendsetter who doesn’t mind showing off or inciting a little jealousy in her friends.

To close the deal: Show this shopper the newest products that have just arrived. Increase the average order value by throwing in a small offer if she reaches a high order value threshold.

3. The determined shopper: “I always research before I buy. I’ll view the exact item I want multiple times, looking for a drop in price, or a special offer.”

Note: This shopper wants to be absolutely certain she has made the right choice before buying.

To close the deal: Provide positive reinforcement during her shopping process. Let the shopper know that this is the right product by showing positive consumer feedback on the items she’s browsing and, if necessary, provide an incentive like $10 off to write a product review .

4. The active shopper: “I’m always browsing but not always buying. I’m not looking for incentives, but they can help me convert when I’m window shopping.”

Note: Active shoppers like the positive psychological effects of browsing products online across different sites.

To close the deal: Try secret sales, daily deals, or flash sales to get these shoppers over the finish line. Try offering additional items that complement what they’ve been browsing.

5. The free shipping hunter: “I like to buy online, but if the retailer doesn’t offer free shipping, I’ll leave and find a website that does.”

Note: This shopper is turned off even if shipping costs are minimal.

To close the deal: Offer free shipping to these shoppers to ensure that they complete the purchase.

6. The thrifty shopper: “I like to buy used or refurbished items. If I can get the same product used for much less, I’ll buy it.”

Note: For this shopper, the amount of savings can be more powerful than the product need itself.

To close the deal: Make used and returned items visible to them. Show her overstock and clearance items based on what she’s been browsing. Those products might be just as attractive to her based on the savings.

7. The loyal shopper: “I only purchase if I can join a rewards club or special rewards program. This often leads to me purchasing at the same stores.”

Note: This shopper likes to build up and then cash in points from loyalty reward programs. This type of shopper will generally spend more than others in the pursuit of rewards points.

To close the deal: Remind her how many points she’ll get for buying certain items. Provide extra points for items you’re trying to clear out. Offer loyalty club deals so club members feel they’re getting something in return for their loyalty.

8. The methodical shopper: “When I shop online, I like to browse for the exact product I’m looking for. I often use site navigation until I find that perfect match.”

Note: These shoppers are tenacious and don’t like being distracted by marketing messages or product fluff. They follow site navigation and site maps to find the right product.

To close the deal: Present a message to these shoppers asking if they need help or have product questions if they seem to be getting lost within your site. Provide additional product suggestions combined with offers based on what they’ve been browsing to help generate sales.

9. The impatient shopper: “If I don’t find what I want immediately, I look somewhere else.”

Note: These shoppers are antsy to buy and be done with it. Making the navigation and checkout process fast will increase the likelihood of closing the sale.

To close the deal: Create a bold offer to grab their attention and maximize conversions. If they leave without purchasing, quickly present an offer combined with what they were browsing to try and win them back.

10. The wish list shopper: “I like to shop online, but I don’t always purchase. I add everything I like to the shopping cart to see what the total price will be.”

Note: This shopper needs help moving from fantasizing about products to actually purchasing the products.

To close the deal: Daily deals, flash sales, and secret sales work well for these shoppers. Add to their shopping excitement by showing additional items that complement existing items in their cart. This completes the visual picture for these shoppers and can drive them to purchase everything.

Social Media presence has become business requirement in last two years. Internet savvy customer looks for you on popular platform like Facebook, Twitter etc. If you are not present there you will fall behind in the race, if you just have a social media account and do not know how to go about it. So, to get the social media management armor for better ROI, you need to seek the help of professionals, who can help you to,

1. Manage your business profiles in social media like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
2. Devise and manage customized Twitter and Facebook marketing campaigns.
3. Update your website for better visibility in search engines, to drive more visitors and increase conversions.
4. Inform you about the newly launched social media platforms and create profiles instantly to drive more traffic from these channels.
5. Manage your online reputation and ward off negative publicity about your brand/products/services.
6. Post regular updates and develop your positive online presence in social media networks.

To use the social media management armor for better ROI, you need to consult with the social media managers and specialists to optimize your site and indulge in link building efforts through blogs and posts for higher page ranks, better traffic conversion and optimal business growth.

Every social media campaign is designed by the social media companies to fulfill specific goals, at each stage and the companies guide you to get highest ROI possible. In the world, today wherein people are expanding their business enterprises using social media, to equip you with social media management armor for better ROI is the sensible way to succeed.

SaltSocial is a leading Social Media Product /Social Media Measurement Company From Bangalore.To Know more log on to www.saltsocial.com.

If you are amid of selecting your analytics tool here are few tips to help you in process.

1. You should focus on a solution that is strong in customer-centric and multi-channel data — customer-centric analytics ties activity data to the individual visitor who took that action, rather than aggregating data in an anonymous way.
2. Assess your internal skills and resources. If you have a staff member with a background in analytics, you might do well with a robust enterprise-level tool that gives him or her ability to create customizable reporting.
3. Every channel you add to your marketing mix increases the sophistication of your strategy and adds an additional layer of complexity to your analytics. Is your organization ready for this?
4. If ongoing customer engagement and churn are a factor in your business, make sure that your analytics tool enables you to analyze customer activity in addition to prospect and lead activity. Look for an analytics solution that can integrate with your help-desk, CRM, and other post-purchase channels.

SaltSocial is a leading Social Media Product /Social Media Measurement Company From Bangalore.To Know more log on to www.saltsocial.com.

Reference: http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com

Consolidated Label, A/B tested a new design with a prominent call to action button on their test page. Their original web design did not have any call to action buttons so they tried making an A/B test with one. They did expect an increase in conversions but they didn’t expect it to produce 62% increase in conversions over the original design. The testing helped them gauge the difference a single button can make. Consolidated Label manufactures custom printed labels for retail products in a variety of markets including Food, Beverage, Health & Beauty, and Health markets.

Here are the screenshots of both the Control (original design) and the variation (new design).

Control

Variation (with call to action button) 62% increase in conversions

On asking what lessons they learnt from testing, this is what Tracy Gamlin of Consolidated Label had to say:

Make your desired conversion goal obvious, but harmonious to the rest of the design.  Also, giving people a few places on a page to get to the conversion accommodates different types of users.  For example, the people who just want to get a quote get their button at the top of the page, whereas people who need more substantiation get the opportunity to quote further down the page after they’ve read more copy/seen more images.

SaltSocial is a leading Social Media Product /Social Media Measurement Company From Bangalore.To Know more log on to www.saltsocial.com.

Social media is the most nascent channel for dialogue with our publics and therefore the one most shrouded in awe, unknowns and confusion. Here are five common myths it’s worth taking time to dispel:

Myth 1: We can measure everything digital precisely and instantly.

The world of online marketing has been suffering from a delusion of precision and an expectation of exactitude. Firstly, most business isn’t ‘done’ online. The ultimate outcome / action of which you aim to convince your publics likely involves some non-digital action such as getting people to your high street store, or changing their preferred coffee shop, or test-driving a particular make of car, or recommending the movie to mates down the pub, or prescribing one pharmaceutical drug over another, or revising their approach to recycling or their regard for your stock or charitable cause. Secondly, even when the outcome does entail the unmistakable click of the “Buy now” button, how might one attribute this sale to all the touch points your new customer has had with your organization and brand over the weeks or even years running up to that moment? Don’t fall into the “last-click attribution” trap (and don’t let your marketing colleagues take full credit for that last click, either, when PR likely had some impact along the way).

Myth 2: All digital metrics are useful. Just because you can measure it doesn’t mean you should. In our opinion, this myth has possibly been the biggest distraction on the road to best practice to date.

Myth 3: The new popular compound score must be useful.

Innovations such as Technorati authority, Klout score and Peer Index ranking appear sexy on first review, but they can only be useful to you if you understand them and they are relevant to pursuing a specific strategy. And the assertion here that you must understand them is no trivial point. In our experience, too few practitioners do not know what the numbers represent, nor then do they know how to interpret the quantities and ensure they are not misapplied. This confusion can be fuelled by the purveyors of said indexes falling far short of a reasonable explanation of their machinations, either with an eye to maintaining trade secrets or perhaps lending their divination more mystical attraction. In conclusion, one should always approach compound, proprietary measures with extreme caution, and always caveat any application accordingly. We’re not saying they are useless, just that they are of no use if opaque, misunderstood or poorly applied.

Myth 4: One metric will do.

How useful is a speedometer without an understanding of the direction of travel? What use measuring calorie intake without quantifying exercise and other lifestyle variables? BP had a great year in 2010 if one tracks volume of mentions alone. One metric never suffices. You will need a balanced portfolio of metrics.

Myth 5: The more followers / friends the better.

The number of followers and friends indicates popularity, but as Tim states in his presentation above, popularity isn’t the same as influence. Moreover, taking the number of followers / friends in isolation does not account for context, nor the number of faux followers and friends (for spam-like purposes).

Salt Social is a leading Social Media Product Development Company from Bangalore. To know more about our product and services please log on to www.saltsocial.com

FLICKR, as one of the most popular social media sites, has been highly regarded for business promoting, real social activities and more. For business using, thousands of companies are using this magic site to get attention and gain profits. Before your company start to use FLICKR for business promoting, make sure your products are seductive enough.

1. First tip is to know your products and your company.
2. Select best photos only. So best way is to create a separate FLICKR account and upload only the best ones.
3. Add title and description to your photos. People come to share your moods when you take the photos, so replace the default “DSC29456″ to some descriptive title and description.
4. Invite as more friends as possible.
5. Be active in groups. FLICKR is a social community site, so you cannot get enough notice without any social activities.
6. Be a real friend on the site. People come to FLICKR firstly for sharing photos and seek common interest, so try to be a real friend on FLICKR. So comment on other’s photos could also be a great tip on FLICKR, FLICKR works on an unwritten principle. If you comment on photos of other people, at least they will pay a courtesy visit to your photo stream. Have some good photos for such courtesy visits.

Salt Social is a  leading Social Media Product company from Bangalore .To know more log on to www.saltsocial.com.

If you’re using Facebook ads to help you ramp up your Facebook marketing efforts, here are the 20 Facebook metrics you need to understand to measure and improve your Facebook ad performance. This article lists some of important Facebook Ad metrics marketers should know.

1. Impressions: Impressions tell you how many times your ad has been shown to a Facebook user. Watch this number closely. If it stops increasing, your bid may have fallen out of the suggested range.

2. Social Impressions: Social impressions tell you how many times your ad has been shown to a Facebook user with social context (i.e. with information about a user’s friend(s) who connected with your page, event, or application). This is applicable only for advertising within Facebook, such as for fan pages, events, or apps.

3. Social %: This metric shows what percentage of the total impressions were social impressions.

4. Clicks: The actual number of clicks on the ad. A click is also counted if someone ‘Liked’ your fan page right from the ad itself.

5. Social Clicks: This shows how many clicks you received from an ad with social context (i.e. with information about a user’s friend(s) who connected with your page, event, or application). Again, this is only applicable when you advertise within Facebook for fan pages, groups, or events.

6. CTR (Click-Through Rate): How many times your ad was clicked, divided by the number of times your ad was shown (impressions).

7. Social CTR: The number of social clicks divided by the number of social impressions. Theoretically, this number should be higher than the general CTR, because the ad was targeted at a personal friend who’d already ‘Liked’ the page, thus demonstrating social proof.

8. Actions: The number of people who took the action desired from the ad itself, such as ‘Liking’ your fan page or responding to your event.

9. Action Rate: The number of actions divided by the number of impressions.

10. Conversions: Measurement of how many people responded to your call-to-action. This counts actions from the ad itself and includes when someone visits your fan page and then clicks ‘Like.’

11. Cost-Per-Conversion: Calculates your cost per conversion, so you can see how much you pay for a new fan, an event RSVP, or a new group member.

12. CPC (Cost-Per-Click): How much each click you received cost you. This number is calculated even if you didn’t bid on the cost-per-click model. It considers how many clicks you received (even if you’re paying by impression) and calculates how much it cost you for each click.

13. CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions):Even if you did not bid using the CPM model when you placed your ad, Facebook Reports will calculate it for your reference. This is helpful if you decide to switch to the CPM bidding model so you can compare how your ads are performing between the different bidding models.

14. Spent: The amount you spent for that time summary you chose in the report: daily, weekly, or monthly.

Saltsocial is a leading Social Media product Development company from Bangalore.To know more about us please check: www.saltsocial.com

1.) Running an A/B test when you should run a multivariate test. Make sure you’re running the right test for your needs.

2.) Not establishing the criteria for success.  Hypothesize what the changes you’re making will result in, and know which metrics will indicate success.

3.) Starting your test with crazy web pages. The design, layout, and copy you choose for your first pages shouldn’t just be a shot in the dark. Base your decisions off of best practices so you’re not wasting your time with designs that based on hundreds of thousands of tests from other websites.

4.) Not performing a radical redesign.  The pages you’re testing should follow best practices, sure, but they shouldn’t still look exactly like one another. Move the form from the right side of the page to the left; dramatically change the size of your header; test the response to totally different language; experiment with different images.

5.) Performing tests on pages with too little traffic.  Make sure you run tests on pages that are either highly trafficked, or if you’re running this test on new or buried pages, that you run the tests for longer than you do on your more popular pages to ensure you have enough data points for a meaningful evaluation.

If you want to tar and feather your sworn enemy online using social media, now’s the perfect time to do it! Blog, tweet, and Facebook your pain or accusation; make a chastising video, post it, promote it, and kick it to viral! Want to get sweet, sweet revenge, a once-a-year opportunity is upon you … New Year!

We’re entering a time when most companies — and people — are ill-prepared to defend their online reputations while they’re spending every last minute of their “use it or lose it” end-of-year vacation time! Losers! From now until some time in January. If you’re interested in making your voice heard, it’s time to put all your resources online.

Disclaimer: At time you should know the power of occasion you should not misuse it. Being a good guy always pays in log run. If you are in India don’t try to write against government because you know Uncle Sib is watching!