MEASUREMENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Erik Qualman, an American writer quoted that ‘’we don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is, how well we do it?” Social media is in the midst of changing and will keep on evolving in years to come. The platforms we are using now are purely different with the one been used in early 2000s and even our social media accounts in the year 2022 will again be more advance than the one we familiar with currently. This growth and movement are mainly due to the fast-changing innovation by the technology community and expertise. Users’ behavior and demand changes in social media context must be deliberately considered in delivering the expected outputs. Upcoming tendencies of the social media in healthcare aspect may be observed as ultimately significant with few new expectations to consider.

Every Ringgit invested will be measured accordingly by stakeholders in each marketing segment. It won’t and shouldn’t be a cost centre without any return of investment, either a measurable return or an intangible business advantage gained. The most common questions are ‘how much do we get in return on this campaign?’, ‘How does our social media page stand compared to the market?’, ‘How many postings should we do?’, ‘How do we measure our social media page effectiveness?’ and the list will go on and on. Social media marketing performance measurement should be viewed in a broader angle. We have to agree that the most common and fundamental benchmarking method is direct revenue gained through series of campaign done in any particular period. It could be more essential when the campaign is supported by FB ads (boosting) that require direct monetary investment with the intention of getting a bigger and wider campaign reach within the targeted market segment. There are thousands of ways to measure importance and effectiveness of the company’s social media initiatives.  However, these four main areas for benchmarking are mainly to look into all possibilities of social media development on top of the most common; revenue based return of investment.

Firstly, monetary based assessment. This measurement would be the most basic, fundamental method; invested value vs. revenue gained. This method could be used purely on direct sales campaign in one particular identified period. For example, to run a Cervical Cancer vaccination package promo in conjunction with Cervical Cancer Day through social media page and the campaign will be running for 3 consecutive months. An ideal FB Advertisement fees should be invested to get a better, bigger reach that could converted into higher chances of sales conversion. At the end of the FB Ads running promo campaign period, a direct check and balance on the campaign effectiveness through numbers of package takers and revenue gained will be the most ideal method to measure the success of each Ringgit invested.

Secondly, brand image monitoring. This is one of many ways each hospital could use to measure their brand perception among the targeted community. It is a pure qualitative measurement in benchmarking brand confidence in delivering the hospital products and services to the customer by taking public’s attitudes towards the hospital, the doctors and other deliverables. A simple online survey would be the best option to get useful data in measuring the identified areas that the hospitals wish to appraise.  On the other hand, brand confidence could also be measured through the page followers growth in each specific period. A high numbers of followers will directly creating a good public perception towards the hospital and vice versa.

Thirdly, risk management evaluation process. Social media platforms could trigger a wide variety of risk to the hospital. The risks are varied as for instance; unauthorized postings made, accounts been hacked by other irresponsible party or an unauthorized postings that ultimately misguided. This could create a negative perception towards to the organization and ultimately could be a plan for disaster in a long run. Although the current social media risk seems frightening, the hospital could diminish most of the risks by establishing and enforcing a strict policy to govern the activities in social media platforms. The established policy must be flexible and effective enough in catching-up with the fast changing digital world. A comprehensive team should be the process owner in developing and executing the policy in the social media routine; the most ideal members would be personnel from Marketing, IT and Human Resource. Each employee of the organization must be well-versed on the policy and fully understand on its parameters. The most important is to periodically revisit the policy in response to the changing trends and emerging of the digital world.

Lastly, digital traffic creation in all social media platforms must be measured accordingly. All platforms analytical report should be produced in ideal identified period. How good is the content? A good content will create more likes, shares and comments among the digital community that could bring the hospital to a better height in long term (brand image and revenue gathered). Hence, a good creative content is vital in getting the attention of the current page followers and prospects that could be transformed into customers in near future.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it!

Faizuddin Yusof

Marketing Manager

KPJ Klang Specialist Hospital