What the value of a like or a follower to a business?
This is a very common question. Businesses are seeking the elusive ROI. Thankfully this answer is easy enough to solve for, provided the right systems are in place and 100% accuracy is not expected.
Like and Follower value can only be ascribed if we’re able to link the Like or Follower to a purchase or to the referral of a purchase. Once a dollar amount can be assigned, we can calculate value. However, even if we do this, there are still unknowns (more on that in a moment). Let’s start with the simple answer:
If you can provide a pathway to take someone from a social media site to a website where they can make a purchase, or to make a phone call where they make a purchase, then you can assign that particular visitor/caller a value. So in Google Analytics (or other analytics platforms), we need to see where conversion traffic originated from. If we see that our website has gotten 100 visitors from Facebook and 10 of them purchased a product for an average of $10 each, we can assign a value to our own specific audience. We would see that 10/100 visitors converts: this is a 10% close rate. Multiple that close rate (10%) by the average sale ($10), and we get a value per like: $1.00. Assign that value to the total number of likes are you get the “value” of your audience.
So step one would be to make sure that your analytics are set up to match up conversions with dollar value and originating source of the visitor.
Now, let’s discuss unknowns:
- What happens when someone sees your post on Facebook and then Googles you?
- What happens when someone sees your post on Facebook and tells someone else about it, and that person comes directly to your website?
- What happens when someone gets your email newsletter, clicks through to your Facebook page, then clicks the link and buys something?
What we’re talking about here is “attribution” and it’s currently the biggest obstacle in social media measurement. Assigning a true and accurate value to a fan, like, or follower is only as accurate as the measurement tools available to us. We may never be able to measure those gaps.
So here’s what I’d advise:
Stop worrying about the value OF a like or follower and start worrying more about the value YOU PROVIDE TO a like or follower.
When you provide value to your audience, you’ll automatically have a more engaged and loyal audience and they will likely buy more and refer more new business and leads.