For marketers, decoding the true value of social media interactions and PR coverage can be a challenge. In this article, we’ll be using Social Index to calculate the monetary value of any tweet, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat or YouTube post. Social Index calculates values using a proprietary algorithm to attach a specific monetary value per view, impression, like, comment—or customized selection of any combination of interactions.
Tracking A $680k Post
Post Malone may be the most well-known celebrity Magic: The Gathering fan, and certainly one of the most valuable to the brand in terms of user engagement. In 2022, Malone announced a challenge in which any player who could beat him at the game would earn a $100k reward. The event was live-streamed, with one fan beating Post Malone and winning the reward before an enthusiastic global audience.
But before the tournament, Malone’s Magic: The Gathering’s social post announcing the event delivered over $650k in earned media value for the sponsoring brand. Malone leveraged his considerable social media fan base and drove coverage that drove sales and repeat engagement for the brand well after the event.
That’s a strategy that any marketer or PR professional could adopt, but in order to identify the true value of any new social media or PR strategy, you have to start with measurement.
The ability to attach a specific value to a social activation makes it easier to adjust content or PR strategy to focus on channels that deliver the best ROI. It also helps marketers redirect their influencer budgets toward creators capable of delivering high-value content.
Measuring Social Media Accurately Allows Marketers To Direct Engagement Where Fandom Can Drive Revenue
Social media engagement—and the ability to measure it—can be critical for brand marketers whose brand, like Magic: The Gathering, has the potential to tap into a devoted fan base and promote DTC or other online direct sales.
Hasbro, which owns Magic: The Gathering, had a challenging Q1, with revenues declining by 14 percent year-over-year—a figure which made MTG’s earnings growth – 16 percent year-over-year—even more crucial for the company. MTG’s over $1 billion in sales, per The New York Times, surpassed those of pop culture icons like G.I. Joe and Transformers. While MTG cards can run to over $800k on the resale market, MTG’s revenue lift wasn’t dependent on collectors with deep pockets, but casual Magic: The Gathering players who can spend approximately $1000 for a popular 60-card deck.
Here are four reasons why the right measurement tools are essential for marketers seeking to drive customer engagement with
Per-action measurement allows brands to quickly assimilate new ROI data and shift strategy quickly
When Post Malone’s MTG post drove engagement around the upcoming tournament, social media or PR strategists could easily focus on engaging with those audiences, sharing Malone’s content across other channels, and providing links to product pages.
Social Index allows users to compare social media values across multiple channels
Social Index calculates total per-action value for multiple platforms – allowing marketers to compare an Instagram strategy with a TikTok launch and a Facebook post, among other channels. That means each social activation can be compared with paid media effectiveness in a single report, making budget optimization a much simpler task.
Here are some examples:
- A single Instagram post by Malone, which gained over 679k likes, generated earned media value of over $622k.
- A Tweet with about 1200 shares produced almost 21k in earned media value.
- An hour-long video featuring Malone playing with new cards from a recently released set garnered one million views and earned over $330k in earned media value.
- Another YouTube video, with over 2.4 million views, earned over $792k in earned media value.
Measuring social media value per interaction and view can help stretch ad budgets
As marketers face increasing ROI pressure, the ability to get more for less becomes a critical mission. A post that delivers as much or more value than paid media can provide an opportunity for brands to redirect spending toward influencers or creators who can drive direct sales or draw audiences to virtual events at a lower cost. Finding that perfect balance between high-value social engagement and paid media requires a tool that offers granular per-action insights.
Powerful single-post content can be repurposed and reshared—creating new ways to reignite audience engagement
There’s no reason that a post that saves the brand hundreds of thousands in ad spend has to be a one-off. Social Index allows marketers and PR strategists to identify their most valuable single posts across any time period and identify the components that delivered the highest overall level of engagement or a specific type of engagement sought.
What Social Index Offers:
- EMV Engine and algorithm refinement for improved accuracy
- Dashboard and EMV Visualizer
- Global EMV for key NA, EMEA, APAC countries
- Daily EMV updates
- EMV lookback window with 19+ months of historical values
- 1M+ values across 9 top industry verticals
- Values for 7 top social platforms – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube
Learn more about how Social Index can help you optimize your social, PR, or media strategy.
