How much business do you get from social media?

We get many leads from engaging customers via Social Media that lead to new business. However, it's due to the nature and content of the interactions (ensuring customer success) not our mere presence in Social Media channels alone. Our legend grows and brings in new customers every time we use social media to help a customer. Word spread fasts via these channels but it begins with that customer centric effort.

We have gotten business directly from Social Media Mediums, including Twitter and Facebook, and it has also helped us in many indirect ways. The key to "getting" business from social media is to define your objectives and then determine the best way to use the different mediums to help you accomplish your objectives.

For example, a big part of our credibility as a firm comes from our ability to position ourselves as a thought-leader in our area of expertise. We, therefore, use social media to promote our content and other similar content that our target market values and appreciates. This has helped us attract the right kind of people with whom our message resonates.

Hope this helps!

Considerable sales but since I have been engaged in this for over four years it has become impossible to pinpoint where the results come from. Over time through trial and error I recognized where the major impact comes from social media and now I concentrate in but a few areas. So as to stoke the fire when the embers burn down....or change the batteries in the Everready Bunny.

However tracking is difficult in our case since we do not have a shopping cart or sales funnel. We just do not want to automate our sales process nor be a fulfillment center. Our call to action is for qualified prospects to use our contact form or to call us directly. We want direct contact for enhanced personalized services and upsells.

We can track our contact forms and orders from them but the majority of sales come from a telephone call we receive. We have made such a major impact through social media in a targeted, niche market, people simply do not recall what led them to one of our main sites in the first place and thus led them to make the initial call. We also get a lot of referrals.

The one bit of advice is to maintain the momentum and never give up (per W. Churchill) on social media . It will definitely work in the end if you persist and live by the rules. Too many give up just short of reaching their goals.

Social media is about building your online reputation, and that is just the same as building an offline marketing image. Can you tell the exact number of leads you got from one ad you put in a newspaper? Sometimes, but sometimes not. Just like traditional marketing, repeat exposure establishes an image which eventually generates leads.

I think Ken said it best -- you need to define your goals and objectives, then look and see what arenas will assist you in accomplishing them. In 2008 we implemented a social media strategy aimed towards increasing SEO (search engine optimization). It worked extremely well, and by the end of the year we had several projects from individuals who found us off Google. By end of 2009, 25% of our business came from people who found us on Google. By end of 2010, we expect about 40% of our business to come in this way.

We could have taken a different approach, and instead of SEO focus we could have worked at building our online repuation, sharing our expertise and information in order to establish relationships which might ultimately turn into clients. We've done a bit of this, and we have generated some leads, but none of these have turned into actual clientele. But then again, we haven't really focused our efforts there.

Decide what you want to get out of social media, then look within the opportunities to see what outlets will best help you achieve your goals.

You can track engagement, you can track "likes", you can track comments, you can track website visits, but the best thing to track is conversions (actual sales)

As an independent media strategist and marketing consultant, I manage the social media "presence" of 7 major clients located throughout West Kentucky. Results or ROI gained via social media like Facebook, Twiter, LinkedIn, e-mail campaigns and blogs varies depending upon the client, the message, the situation and the product or service, of course.

I've experienced amazing returns using Facebook and Twitter accounts for one particular medium-sized client, a previously obscure theme park. Just four months after starting its basic accounts with FB and Twitter, coupled with runnig a one-month series of Facebook and Adwords ads (at minimal expense), the client is enjoying 1500 fans/followers on each site, and more than 960 active page views each week. Traffic to the company website has exceeded the bandwidth on 6 ocassion - more traffic in one month than in the previous year.

Engagement and participation are high on both sites because the messages and content are real, authentic, personable and fun. We focus on our audience, not the company or sales.
By running weekly drawing and contests and constsantly monitoring the social "conversation," this client has significantly increased awareness of its location and attractions - throughout the state and beyond.

Traffic to the park attributed solely to Facebook this July, for example, was 5 times greater than in the same month last year (with no social media presence).

The client has reduced overall ad spending by 50% and increased revenue by 500%. That's a real return on investment!

You get leads from social media. Whether it turns to business is up to you and the client, and takes the same amount of work to close as a face-to-face transaction.

But think of social media as nearly free marketing and the most efficient way to spread the word about your brand and value proposition and you will be in awe of social media as JUST ONE MORE tool in your sales tool box.

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Our firm's primary focus is on "Customer Care" via learning how to work with customers from the "Customer Voice" this translates to extending their CRM systems to social media tools and networks to reach their existing and target customers to "listen" and learn.
Business today is still using the old push approach to both their customers and their sales. People are NOT buy in this type of relationship. They want to be heard and they want your product or service to really "fit" their needs.

Social media is simply an extension of our training services which we provide via guest speaking and "Key Note" under the Topic: "Customer Care via dialogue with social networks linked to CRM systems, policies and procedures".

Maureen McMeekin
Senior Partner
Right Launch Technology Solutions, LLC.,

Social media is an integral part of our market presence, as spoken earlier by other participants in this question, it's less about how much of our business comes from this source and more about how a business (ours) has integrated it into our complete marketing package. Each touch that our potential clients have with us, be they through social media, cold calls, physical marketing pieces, digital marketing, etc. build on one another, when our clients do finally choose us as a partner it is typically with exposure to two or more of these elements. Therefore we consider our entire marketing approach as a whole instead of looking for results from one individual area.