#SMWSynthesio was one of the first events at Social Media Week’s 2015 NYC conference. And my very first SMWNYC event ever! For a little background, Synthesio is a social insights software, tracking conversations and monitoring social audiences to get real knowledge about your brand’s presence on the web.

Since it was my very first event, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Getting to the Highline Stages was challenging as the subways from Brooklyn to Manhattan were in a bad mood, and getting inside was overwhelming. Plus it was FREEZING. But Synthesio’s fantastic presentation, “Answering The ROI Question: Connecting Social to Business Impact,” served to highlight the usefulness of the host’s product without feeling like a straight-up sales pitch. And I seriously appreciate that. At one point, Matt Zito (who I first mistakenly tweeted @ Matt Ziti, thanks autocorrect) responded to a question saying, “In the interest of full disclosure,” the research he was presenting was of clients that Synthesio had worked with and really benefited from their services. In my humble opinion, an honest response gets my brand loyalty in a way impressive data just can’t.

So by presenting the problem that large brands were having, or holes they needed to fill in the world of social ROI, showing how they had resolved these problems, and saying, hey, we did that for them. That’s a great sales pitch to me.

Zito took us through some different ways to think about audience segmentation, how social listening and insights can help you develop a better relationship with your users on social than ever before. By studying not just what stage of the consumer cycle is in, but WHERE and even when they’re getting the info to move onto the next stage, it can help you put your best content in the most relevant space and moment.

Zito also talked about performance indicators, which were really important to me because Company B is constantly looking for better ways to serve up exactly what each of our clients wants in terms of growth. And as any good marketers knows, that varies from person to person. He recommended “developing business-facing KPIs for each stage of the customer life cycle.” So you have to tie certain social social goals to KPIs you already have – intermediate business goals you already use to measure growth, or new ones that can determine how your social is being received. Advocacy rates, web traffic, support call and customer service reviews, overall customer satisfaction. Even comparison to competitors. All things you’re already monitoring (or should be!)

A lot of the things Zito said made sense to me. If customer loyalty is a big goal for your brand, (and again, shouldn’t it be?) then figuring out not just where a consumer is on that sliding scale, but how they got there and how they typically move on, it opens up a world of possibilities to you. You can provide exactly what your audience wants from you, exactly when it will benefit them most.

So if you have a template for measuring your company’s KPIs already, why not add things like social growth, social engagement and overall social listening into your plan? Makes sense to me 🙂 How do you measure ROI? Share your story here!