Best Practices for Driving Measurable Results Via Social Marketing Programs

Below are the metrics that should be tracked on every social referral program:

• Number of advocates: Program participation is measured by the number of customer advocates sharing the program. The number of advocates will vary based on the size of a brand's existing customer base.
• Shares per advocate: Program amplification is measured by the number of times each advocate shares.
• Number of social shares: Program reach is measured by the total number of social shares. Social shares can come in the form of email, sharing a PURL, tweet, Facebook post, Google+ post, etc.
• Number of friend clicks: Friend clicks reflect the volume of new referral traffic driven by a social referral program.
• Clicks per share: The clickthrough rate of a social referral program is measured by the number of friend clicks per social share, which vary based on the sharing channel.
• Number of conversions: Conversions are the number of new friend sales, opt-ins or redemptions resulting from your social referral program.
• Friend conversion rate: The friend conversion rate reflects the number of sales per friend clicks and varies based on the sharing channel.

Every brand should be thinking about a strategy to harness the power of their social advocates. The goal is to get your customers to market on your behalf. By implementing the best practices listed above, marketers can drive measurable social results in the areas of participation and amplification, friend clicks and referral traffic, clickthrough and conversion rate, and even improved search engine rankings.