It is indisputable that social media has become the defining marketing mediums of our time. Everyone and their grandma now has a Facebook, and over a billion people log-in every day. While social media will never replace email or print marketing, it is certainly a valuable avenue for businesses to take advantage of.
A critical aspect of using social media effectively is measuring your results. This enables you to experiment with different approaches and techniques, figuring out what works best for your business. After all, every business is different! What works for one won’t necessarily work for another. If you can measure your social media marketing (SMM), you can adjust or revamp your strategy to make it the best it can be.
- First, identify your goals. You really can’t measure the effectiveness of your social media if you don’t know what it is you want to accomplish. Once you have a goal in mind, you can measure your social media results up against that. For instance, you might want to boost sales for a new product or drive traffic to an existing web page. We would suggest a conversion goal, such as filling out an online form, visiting a web page or ordering a product or service. Either way, a tangible, targeted goal will make it possible to measure your social media and it will also give your marketing a direction.
- Track your conversions. Do a little bit of research and find an analytics tool that works for you. The free version of Google Analytics has a lot of powerful tools to get your feet wet, but there are plenty of great tools online. Find one that works for you and start monitoring your social media.
- Put the data all together. After some time of monitoring your social media presence, report your data each time period. Think weekly, monthly or quarterly, whatever fits the time frame for your business. There are plenty of templates and resources online which you can look to for organizing the data. Include qualitative and quantitative data. This will make it easier for the next step, which is
- Analyze the data. After a couple reports on your social media, examine your results and see if you’ve met your mark or not. You can study what parts of your social media campaign may be working well, and what may be lacking. From here, you can tweak your activities to make it the best it can be.
Do you feel like your method of measuring your social media is lacking? Is there something missing from your process? Chat with our social media professionals to see how we can assist you in honing your social media marketing for the conversions you’re looking for. Give us a call today!