interesting  report/
The 5 Golden Rules of Social Media
Facebook page? Check! Twitter account and dedicated hastags? Check! Competitions, discounts and giveaways? Check! Any real, measurable and abundant ROI from social media campaigns?

Guys,

A recent EyeforTravel survey of APAC travel brands shows that despite 67% claiming to have deployed social media initiatives, more than half admitted confusion or inability to effectively rack and measure ROI.

One respondent describes ‘For all its potential, social media keeps me up at night.. It feels a little bit like jumping in at the deep-end without arm-bands and being expected to swim’
Social media experts explain how brands can move beyond deploying social media for ‘engagement’ or to ‘raise awareness’ and instead concretely generate incremental revenue and real ROI. Excerpts below;

Hotel Social Media and Review Analytics for Service and Sales

1) Identify where social media will save you money

Social technology can increase efficiency. Using social media and review analytics could also save you substantial amounts of money in customer surveys, business intelligence, and market research. Exposure from social campaigns could replace some of your investments in advertising and PR, saving money from budgets there as well.

2) Count inbound leads from social media

Many hotels are using social media listening tools to pick up on conversations with people looking to buy what they are selling. Hubspot research showed companies that blog generate 88% more inbound leads than those who do not blog.

3) Measure for sales conversion improvement

Social media - and online customer reviews in particular - play a key role in optimizing sales conversion rates." Brian Ferguson, EVP at Expedia, quantifying the ADR impact as well: “A 1 point increase in a review score equates to a 9% increase in average daily rate (ADR).” Measure the increase in revenue directly attributable from using social media in the sales process.

4) Track progress towards business KPIs and strategic objectives

Insights from the social web can play a key role in reaching strategic business goals such as improving guest satisfaction or increasing the percentage of direct bookings. When you understand the financial impact of reaching larger business goals such as these, quantifying the contribution of social media towards reaching that goal becomes easier.
(EyeforTravel and Greg Tilston published a good overview of social KPIs on the EyeForTravel blog.)
“The online reputation of each of our brands is a key success indicator for us. Online reviews not only give us insights into our daily operations, they also directly influence our revenue and profitability.” – Luis del Olmo, EVP and CMO of Melia Hotels International

5) Measure campaigns

Driving email newsletter subscriptions? Need to increase the number of inbound links to your website for SEO purposes? Want to increase visitor time on your website? Campaign or project-based ROI might ultimately be the best measure of return on investment. Especially if you compare the cost associated with reaching a goal with what it cost you in the past using other tactics. Martin Soler at WIHP wrote a good article if you want to learn more about this: