Now you can check the bang for the tweet

ANN ARBOR, US: ForeSee Results has added a Social Media Value Calculation to its core product offering. The Social Media Value Calculation allows ForeSee Results’ clients to understand the impact of their social media marketing efforts on revenue.

“Most businesses have accepted the marketing value of social media without any real proof points,” said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results. “We can count how many Facebook fans, how many Tweets, how many complaints, and how many people click through ads on social sites, but we haven’t had a way to calculate a tangible return on investment for social media efforts, not to mention other marketing initiatives. Now we can.”

ForeSee Results, as per a press release, uses a scientific methodology created at the University of Michigan to measure customer satisfaction and assess its impact on future behaviors. Using this proprietary methodology, ForeSee Results has created a way to link influences on customer visits to a website, store or call center with what they actually spend. The resulting Social Media Value Calculation helps businesses understand how much revenue is being influenced by social media versus traditional advertising, marketing emails, brand awareness and other factors.

Using the voice of customer methodology already provided by ForeSee Results surveys, companies can find out what influenced a customer’s visit to their store, branch, website, or call center and link it to behavioral data tracking how much that customer did or didn’t spend. A brand website, financial institution, nonprofit, or B to B (or other non-retailer where there is no purchase) can tie what drove the customer visit to any other valuable, business-specific outcome such as opening a new account, signing up for a newsletter, requesting more information, etc.

“Linking what drove a customer to visit with what they actually spent or did as a result allows you to actually calculate a return on social media investment,” said Drew Bennett, senior product director at ForeSee Results. “You can accurately compare what you spend on social media marketing against the direct revenue it generates to see if you’re investing wisely in social media.”

Jim Sterne, author of Social Media Metrics and founder of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit sees ForeSee Results' approach as a social branding investment analysis tool. "The ability to capture which social sites prospects and customers associate with your company and then tie that to purchases provides a fresh perspective for directing social media investments."

Preliminary research done using this model is showing us that ideal investments in social media vary vastly from company to company. Some companies are spending millions in advertising their social media presence and staffing a team to oversee it, only to discover that social media is influencing one per cent of all purchases. Meanwhile, promotional emails have been neglected in favor of social media, and emails are influencing 32 per cent of purchases. Other companies are seeing social media as a primary influencer of five to six per cent of all revenue with a relatively modest investment.