Social Media ROI Means Much More Than ‘Likes’ and ‘Views’

July 1, 2013

by Michele von Dambrowski

Michele von Dambrowski“ROI should always be tied to dollars,” Chris Boyer, AVP of digital strategy for North Shore-LIJ Health System in Great Neck, NY, points out. “If you don’t measure ROI, don’t worry – your successor will,” quips Boyer, who also serves as an external advisory board member for the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media.

Boyer gave attendees of his session at the 18th National Healthcare Marketing Strategies Summit in Scottsdale, AZ, held in May, three ways to go beyond behavioral and attitudinal metrics to measure the financial impact of social media efforts.

One way is in the use of social media to drive growth of profitable services. “Social media is a great way to reach out to people and get them to do things,” says Boyer, such as visit a website to sign up for a seminar or com­plete another call to action. “All you need to do is to go to Google Analytics to measure attribution.”

Boyer uses the example of bariatrics, noting that Facebook members fre­quently discuss weight-loss solutions. A campaign launched by Boyer’s previous employer, Inova Health System, targeting a Facebook audience in­terested in shedding pounds, generated an ROI of 30-to-1. For a monthly spend of $479, ads led to a landing page and generated an average of 2,081 clicks each month. During a period of 24 months, 512 people signed up for a seminar and 23 percent of them opted for surgery, for an average contribu­tion margin of $3,000 or $353,300 in total.


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