Now, social networks act as first-stop sources of breaking news, offering unparalled access to journalists and as-yet unseen speed of coverage.

Yet clearly our sector still struggles to quantify the impact of social media efforts to senior management. We’re therefore grateful to socialmediaexaminer.com for coming up with a useful take on ways to measure the ROI of social media activity, summarised here.

1. Cost per impression

When you show the change in the cost per impression with and without social media, you can make a compelling case for the impact of social media on your PR strategy. On Facebook, you can get impression data on Facebook Insights. It’s trickier to measure on Twitter, but try TweetReach and Simply Measured to assess the reach of your messages.

2. Cost per engagement

Social channels are unbeaten for engagement, which can be measured with shares, clicks, comments, likes and mentions. Aggregate how people engaged with content and divide this figure by the cost to determine the cost per engagement.

3. Cost per click

Online PR drives users to click on links shared via social media, delivering inexpensive clicks on your messages. It’s easy enough to count the clicks generated through your own messaging efforts (use stats from your URL shortener). Add to the mix articles containing links to your corporate website, and page views of the article from the publication that had a social media site’s referring URL.

Take the total number of clicks and divide them by the cost of the outreach to determine the cost per click.

4. Cost per site visitor

Measuring the cost per visitor site across channels is a very simple way to show the positive impact of social media. To calculate it, take the total number of website visits generated and divide it by the total cost of the outreach. How do the costs compare to your online advertising and SEO costs?

5. Cost per inbound link

Adding ‘backlinks’ to media articles can drive traffic to a website. So, another good metric is cost per inbound link, calculated by taking the total number of inbound links the article generated and dividing it by the total cost of the campaign.

6. Cost per subscriber

It’s one thing to woo visitors to your website, but they are worth so much more if they subscribe with their email addresses for follow-up marketing once there. The cost per subscriber is a useful metric for understanding how online PR performs in relation to your overall marketing spend. To calculate, take the total number of new subscribers generated and divide it by the cost of the outreach.

You can use these metrics to determine how social media and PR complement each other to deliver relatively inexpensive results. The goal, according to Social Media Examiner, is not to prove that social media is better than other marketing channels, but to demonstrate how adding social media to the mix drives PR performance.

Both social media & online content generation polled way ahead of old school media relations expertise which only 16% think is now key to winning new business.

However the poll did reveal a massive disagreement between the older and younger pollsters. In the 45+ age category media relations is considered most important and social media the least.

Search engine optimization came in last with 7%, underlining that clients do not expect SEO to lead the agenda in PR pitches.

Furlong PR CEO Ross Furlong commented; “The poll confirms that age is a massive factor in the perception of ‘new fashioned’ pr techniques. While the young clearly believe a social media ingredient is crucial to winning a PR pitch in 2011, anyone over 45 just as clearly thinks it isn’t. This is disappointing but not surprising. Convincing senior management of its value is the chief obstacle to adoption.”

232 votes were cast in the month long poll conducted on LinkedIn during April 2011. Full results of the poll are available here:

But when the man in charge of social media for global software giant SAP offered his personal thoughts, it seemed wise to take notes.

Ted Sapountzis, coming from a corporate perspective, spoke first and foremost about securing executive support. He advocated not even embarking on social media before having at least a few executives on board.

The marketing folk at Dell, for instance, are lucky enough to have social evangelist Michael Dell at the helm. It was founder and CEO Dell who first asked why his company didn’t run a business blog. Now with a stockpile of established blogs, this Fortune 100 company shows no signs of slowing, and in Dell’s words is “just getting started”.

Next into the mix is attitude: think carrots, not sticks. Sapountzis urged using creativity to get colleagues excited about social marketing and propel them to think beyond the persistent question of ROI.

At SAP, a funky, colourful infographic was created depicting how social channels work to inspire the entire company to get behind its social media programme.

There will always be some in a company who ‘get’ social more than others. Identify and leverage them, advised Sapountzis – have them tell your story.

Finally, don’t be afraid of failure. Think big, start small, fail fast. You may well slip up along the way, but you need to start showing results to get your company to invest in social media marketing. Remember, great things are often born from failures. With Facebook as their inspiration, the greatest success stories in social often required a hefty dose of chutzpah to get off the ground.

Broadly speaking, the leading reasons for using social media have evolved since the last edition of the American Express OPEN “Small Business Monitor”. Most marketers were using social media for business specifically to maximise exposure back in September 2010. The latest survey suggests that they are now turning to social media for customer acquisition purposes.

And the majority of these efforts are being focused on the top social networking sites, namely Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The numbers, crunched by American Express OPEN for its Spring 2011 update, reveal that usage of Facebook for customer acquisition was up by 8% from September 2010. Meanwhile, LinkedIn usage was up 6% and the use Twitter marketing to attract new customers rose by a more modest 2%.

As well as the blindingly obvious perks of the big three platforms in terms of audience and reach, other social media tools are also continuing to attract marketers’ attention. Usage of blogs and YouTube to lure new customers has also increased by 3% and 4% respectively, suggesting their growing importance in the social media marketing mix.

And while small businesses are ramping up their social media strategies, they are in turn expressing a demand for niche expertise. Some 9% of the small businesses surveyed said that a social media expert would be the most helpful addition to their business, coming in as the second most popular choice after a bookkeeper.

Company websites and an effective SEO strategy remain the most popular online marketing tactics for small businesses, suggesting the ongoing need for top-notch website optimisation as part of a sustained digital strategy.

Yes, keywords can effectively act as bait, reeling in users and attracting them to your website, but the real ‘hook’ will always be quality content. So said founder of Audette Media and SEO veteran Adam Audette writing for Search Engine Land, adding that investing in quality is the best way to yield long-term results.

While there is certainly a case for paying attention to algorithms and the number of hits a website gets, Audette asserted that it is vital to focus on what visitors to an online portal actually want.

As SEO matures, a number of elements now influence how a site is scored – including but not limited to information architecture, user experience and web design.

The essence of Audette’s advice – to build your SEO strategy around your users – echoes a recent Econsultancy blog, advising that content written with SEO in mind must be consistently “interesting”, “useful” and “informative”.

Thinking beyond Google (or any search engine), effective SEO should have a subtle but important effect on how the site ‘feels’ to a user. A credible, high-quality site will not only attract one-off users, but ultimately have a long-term influence on site rankings.

While its results come as little surprise to us, Experian Hitwise’s report is yet another reminder that a smart social media strategy is no longer a luxury – it is a necessity.

The study, entitled Carpe Diem: Seizing the Moment in Social Media, finds that social networks including Facebook and Twitter have toppled entertainment sites into second place, with social media use accounting for 12.4% of all UK internet visits during January.

It is not only frequency of visits driving this sea change, but the way in which people are engaging with social media. Firstly, once logged in to sites like Facebook, users tend to spend an average of 22 minutes there. The second trend is connectivity – one in eight visitors to social networks are likely to visit another one straight after leaving their first destination.

According to Robin Goad, research director at Hitwise, this phenomenon is “encouraged by the connections that exist between the networks.

Facebook, for example, is a key source of traffic for many smaller social networks; while almost a fifth of people leaving Twitter go on to visit another social network”.

It’s worth noting that while social networks account for 13% of traffic sent to other sites, search engines still act as the primary source of traffic to transactional sites selling goods or services, such as travel or insurance.

“Successful transactional websites will be those that learn to harness the power of social networks, driving traffic through to their own websites,” Goad added.

When Wired.co.uk attended an event run by MusicTank, titled “It Started With a Click: How to Spawn a Viral Hit”, the site reported back with the best ways for musical artists to raise their profile using online video.

Scanning the list, we reckon there’s plenty there that applies to any brand or company looking to achieve viral success.

Here is a summary of the key advice from the event:

Have a strong creative idea

Irresistible entertainment is the key to a successful viral video. After all, you’re competing online with other brands, not to mention laughing babies, cute kittens and Charlie Sheen.

Wired.co.uk advises forgetting about focus groups or your core demographic. Just come up with a brilliant piece of content. Make it fun and something that people will actively want to share.

Make it as accessible as possible

Use the most-popular technology that’s available to upload your video, or in other words, use YouTube. It might not be as artsy as Vimeo or Muzu, but it has the broadest reach. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t also upload it to those other sites, if they complement your digital strategy. Ironically, sometimes being taken down from YouTube due to complaints (as happened with M.I.A.’s Born Free video about the targeted massacre of people with red hair) can boost a video’s viral spread.

Get influencer endorsement

While video can go viral totally organically, it’s well worth seeding the content to online influencers. Target wisely, choosing popular industry bloggers or news sites that will be interested in your video.

Be extremely polite and respectful. If you are even remotely pushy or unfriendly, you run the risk of creating negative publicity.

Don’t assume a viral hit equals sales

The best viral videos spread because they are funny, quirky or cute – not necessarily because the viewer likes your brand. While virals may not create instant profits, they do have the power to build mass awareness, and can help bring down your spending on traditional marketing.

The final word comes from Matt Smith, director of strategy at The Viral Factory:

“Don’t make it too intellectually demanding . and never underestimate the power of kittens.”

Running down the top five opportunities for maximising customer relations via social marketing, this list identifies some of those that have nailed it.

Customer loyalty

Recognising the need for active participation within social media, airlines including Virgin Atlantic have built a strong community presence by launching official Twitter and Facebook pages.

“This gives us an opportunity to help out whenever we can and answer a question or resolve a small issue before it becomes a larger complaint or results in a dissatisfied customer,” says Kyle Thorne, social relations manager, Virgin.

Deal tracking

The potential money-saving benefits to consumers of seeking out airlines via social media are massive. Following airlines on Twitter or liking them on Facebook can often mean being the first to see and access the best deals, maximising on rewards programmes, and enjoying special offers often limited to social media.

Low-cost German airline Germanwings integrated Facebook and Twitter into its direct marketing mix in 2009, enabling its followers to receive real-time company news as well as current deals.

Planning, sharing & connectivity

Social media channels not only provide a space for airlines to connect with their customers, but also for customers to connect with each other.

“Our passengers also want to share experiences and get travel advice from others in their networks – that’s nothing new, but we try to facilitate that information exchange so our passengers inspire one another to travel,” adds Thorne from Virgin.

Crisis communications

Last year’s weather disruptions and ash clouds put airlines to the test when it came to troubleshooting. Use of social media allowed them to provide consumers with instant updates literally as they were happening. Most recently, when December’s snowstorms left thousands of planes grounded, airlines turned to Twitter to communicate with their passengers, in an attempt to ensure they never felt stranded or abandoned.

In-flight communications and entertainment

Airlines including Delta, US Airways, Virgin America, and United Airlines all now welcome free access to Facebook through in-flight WiFi.

On the ground, Malaysia Airways’ MHBuddy system lets passengers check-in and print out boarding passes, and enables them to see if other Facebook friends are on the same flight. They can then message flight plans to those friends and change seats so they can sit together using the same tool.

Trends supplied by Cheapflights.co.uk

To learn more about Twitter and travel, visit

http://www.cheapflights.co.uk/travel-tips/twitter-for-travel/

Interactive marketing services company ExactTarget has researched the issue, and here we present some of the foremost stats and tips to encourage your online relationships to thrive.

Of the 73% of Facebook users surveyed, a majority of 64% claim to be ‘fans’ of, or have ‘liked’ a company or brand.

Despite this, 55% of those fans find they no longer want to view your posts, and 51% rarely, if ever, visit your business page on Facebook after liking it.

Excessive posting accounts for 44% of the decisions to ‘unlike’, while 43% of Facebook users feel that their account is too crowded with brands.

38% say marketers aren’t offering fresh content, while 26% say claim that all they were interested in were offers and discounts.

Of the 17% of consumers with a Twitter account, 56% have followed a company.

Almost half of those have however stopped doing so, citing repetitive, boring tweets (52%), tweet streams overcrowded with marketing posts (41%), and over-frequent posts by companies (39%).

Some 27% only followed a brand on Twitter to take advantage of a one-off offer, while a similar number found the amount of offers to be inadequate.

So far, so challenging. But the good news presented by the study is that Twitter users are perfectly comfortable with using Twitter as a platform for interacting with brands. As well as being the most active and connected of all social network users, they are far less likely to ‘dump’ brands once a connection has been made.

According to the study, only 41% of Twitter users are likely to opt out, compared to 55% of Facebook users and a whopping 91% of email users, making it the social medium of choice for ongoing conversations.