The Aberdeen Group conducted a study focused on the ROI of Social Media Marketing. The study identified three key performance criteria ( Return on Marketing Investment -ROMI- , Likelihood to Recommend and Customer Acquisition); after surveying 275 organizations using Social Media as marketing tools they identified three categories of businesses based on their maturity as users of Social Media as marketing tools. The study (sponsored by Visible Technologies, OpenText, ScoutLabs and Zuberance) is available on line.
A short summary: in the category of Best-in-Class performers (top 20% of aggregate performance scorers) in the past 12 months
> 95% improved the likelihood of customers recommending their products or services
>87% improved their ROMI
>95% improved their customer acquisition rate
The study found significant differences between this group and the other two categories: The Industry Average and the Laggards.
No doubt that such findings are impressive and without doubt will further raise the interest in Social Media marketing. The study seems to support the view that marketers must look to the Social Media much more seriously. Let's hope that we will soon see some more studies of this short also from the academic quarters.
