The ROI Conundrum

I was recently asked by a prospective client how we can demonstrate ROI within mom-market PR activities. Measuring the Return On Investment is a hotly debated topic within the marketing, PR and social media community because there isn’t an easy answer. There simply isn’t an accurate way or single, standard calculation that will prove the results achieved through PR and marketing equate to a higher value than the money it took to achieve them.

When it comes to spending dollars and cents, most business owners believe that in order to be profitable, there must be tangible proof or money made in order to justify money spent.

For results in traditional media, the PR industry measured impressions – how many articles/news reports and the size/length of the coverage – but it struggled with how to measure the quality of those impressions. You can compare an impression size and placement to the advertising value (how much would it have cost to place an ad that size) but as we all know, editorial is valued higher than advertising because there is a third party (reporter) involved. People read articles, listen to radio commentaries, watch TV news reports while they are likely to tune-out advertising. The question is (and still remains) how do you put a dollar figure on an intangible ‘higher value’ quotient?

In 2006, the CPRS (Canadian Public Relations Society) created the MRP system www.mrpdata.com which is said to measure any type of editorial coverage, provide clear metrics to evaluate media coverage, track total reach and cost per contact. This system “allows its users to qualitatively evaluate editorial tone and article content”. But, as some will say, MRP is not ROI.

For Social Media activities such as blogger outreach, facebook, twitter - all venues where moms converge and connect – the question of ROI is even more difficult because there isn’t a direct link from interaction and engagement (which is what you are doing with SM) to sales but rather an indirect link.

So, how do you ‘prove’ ROI?

I found a great discussion by a couple SM leaders - Jason Falls and Katie Delahaye Paine - which I encourage you to read & watch. But, to summarize their thoughts (which I agree with) here are few things to consider:

“The problem with trying to determine ROI for social media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable.”

“Ultimately, the key question to ask when measuring engagement is, ‘Are we getting what we want out of the conversation?’”

The way we handle this ROI question at limelitePR is we develop a benchmark so that we can determine if our efforts are effective. It's not like we don't want to measure things, it's just what and how do we measure them. So, we start by asking and answering questions like:

• Are you part of the online conversation – how much & where?


• Are your competitors part of the conversation – how much & where?


• What are people/moms saying about your brand?


• Are people/moms commenting on your blog? Are there certain topics that generate more response?


• How are you part of the mom community?

Once we have a benchmark, it's then possible to track and see the growth we’ve achieved through social media and traditional media PR tactics. It also provides us with information on how we can be reactive with our communications.

Really, the definition of ROI is in the eye of the beholder. “Return” is all about what you want to achieve and then developing and implementing a plan that will raise awareness, gain loyalty and ultimately put your brand into the hands of your consumers – moms.

If you want to learn how big brands are using Social Media, check out this presentation by Graco’s Lindsay Lebresco at Blogwell San Jose. She walks you thru Graco’s social media strategy and the tactics they've used.