awe.sm’s core speciality is tracking the ROI of each social post. Fundamentally, we do this by attributing goal conversions on your site back to the specific posts that caused them.

So far, so good, but what’s a good goal to track?

It’s pretty straightforward for an online retailer — you’d probably make a conversion goal out of completing a shopping cart transaction. (We make this easy, even if you use a third-party shopping cart like Gumroad.) But what if you don’t have transactions on your site? What goals should you track to measure the ROI of your social media marketing? You could track a brand’s endorsements, (e.g., Facebook likes), the value of which is still up for debate. But is that it?

Don’t overlook comments. Learning which social posts, and which pieces of content, attract visitors to engage with your site’s comments section is an invaluable tool for understanding the dynamics, and ultimately the ROI, of a social media marketing program.

Starting today, if you’re among the 2.5 million websites that use Disqus to manage comments on your site, it’s easier than ever to see the big picture:

• Which social network posts are successful at attracting site visitors who leave comments?
• How did a given commenter arrive onto your site? Which specific social post brought her in the door?
• Do people who comment on your site re-share your content with their own social networks? When they do, what happens next?

This is the first time anyone has had this level of understanding about the relationship between social network posts, site traffic, and commenter engagement. It’s powerful stuff, and we’re pretty excited to help you get it set up.

Check out our tutorial for code samples and technical documentation, or drop us a line.

*Originally published on the awe.sm blog.