I’m sure your organization has a Twitter handle. Almost every brand and sponsorship selling property tweets, or has the ability to tweet. And there are probably lots of people who tweet about you. Perhaps you are on Pinterest as well, or Foursquare, or use YouTube, Facebook, or other social media platforms. The big question becomes, “What is it worth?”
When I ask this question, I am not only referring to the actual asset value that the Partnership Group – Sponsorship Specialists™ provide daily to brand and sponsorship selling property clients for them to effectively buy or sell sponsorships. I am also talking about the bigger picture. Have you tracked the time and money you have invested in these platforms? Do you have a way of measuring their success?
Just as last week, when I spoke about being able to effectively measure the noise levels for ROI, you need to know that your investment in social and digital media is paying off. In the same way you would look at your outdoor campaign or radio buy to determine if it drives traffic, builds your image, or engages employees, you need to do this for social media. In the same way you might review an employee, and if they are not performing, you might have to cut them loose or replace a supplier who is no longer delivering the service (or the price) they once did, you might have to find a replacement. The same goes for social and digital media. What are you spending on this in hard cash, employee time, and management time? What return are you getting—leads, donations, sponsors, traffic to the store, higher ranking SEO, and longer time spent on your web site? You need to look and see how that is all working in your overall organization, and marketing and PR plan. You also need to review this specifically within your sponsorship program.
As a brand, how is social media integrated with your sponsorship program, or is it a silo outside? Can you run a promotional campaign aligned with a sponsorship that is social and digital media based? How are you measuring that success? Every day, our three social media team advisors work with clients in this space. Every day, our regular consultants advise and support such plans.
On the other side, selling properties need to know the value of their tweeting about a brand. How do they calculate that? What is it factored by when it is re-tweeted? How valuable is the exposure of a logo on the property’s home page for a brand versus branded content in editorial? Where are the gaps for that selling property in the social media realm from a sponsorship perspective? If you can’t answer these questions, you need to find a way to do so. Recently, we worked with a property client and identified several gaps in its social media plan that were not being maximized from a sponsorship perspective. When we were able to identify concepts and ideas and fill those gaps, the property was able to sell more effectively and deliver better ROI for a sponsor, which results in more money for the property. Look into your social media program and how it integrates with your sponsorship program. Find the gaps and fill them.
It all comes back to the ageless question. It is the same for the brands and the properties. What is my ROI? You need measure outcomes to determine success or failure, or in the long run, you will fail.
These are just one person’s thoughts. Yours are welcomed as well. Please add your thoughts or comments below. Thank you for reading and your feedback.
Brent Barootes