Is This Stuff Even Working?
There's a lot of information on the web about what you should and shouldn't do when it comes to social media marketing for your business. Even if you do everything you should and avoid everything you shouldn't how do you know if it's actually working? Think how important this is if you head up the social media team and are responsible for reporting your teams progress to the big cheese. Simply telling your boss that "everybody's doing it" probably won't cut the mustard. There's nothing worse than going to a meeting and trying to explain the importance of social media without having any data to back up your assertions.
Don't fret! We've put together a short list of metrics you can measure easily and compare over time so those reports you put together not only impress your boss but convince him/her that social media marketing is an invaluable piece of the entire marketing puzzle.
Simple Head Count
This refers to the number of people that are following you on Twitter or that "Like" you on Facebook as well as connections you have in your LinkedIn account. Obviously the more the better in this case. Having a better overall reach with your social media increases your odds that more people will have your posts in front of them. A recent update to Facebooks business pages shows the number of people that have seen your post and a corresponding percentage of your total "likes" for the same. Hubspot also has a great "social media reach" tool that comes standard with their software that tracks your growth in this area over time allowing you to segment out by site with a graphical representation. See screen capture of their tool below.
Traffic Is Ter-rific!
Using your analytics data whether it be Hubspot, Google or some other tool, you can determine the source of your traffic and create reports that you can compare month to month. Take note of not only where they came from but also where they landed so that you can determine how well the links on that landing page are working. If you are actively updating your social media sites with fresh content, new promotions, event noticiations and polls, just to name a few, you should see click-thru traffic begin to spike over time.
Mom Always Encouraged Me To Share
Is the information you post on your social media sites being shared? This is a very important metric to pay attention to. Sharing content always helps your audience to grow. Tap into the connections you have and encourage them to retweet or share your posts with their connections. Give them incentive. If you jot down the dates of your internet marketing events (posts, blog posts, etc.) and then check when you're retweets and shares seemed to spike you'll be able to determine what type of events seem to be triggering your audience to share most often. Focus on those types of posts and watch your sharing begin to skyrocket!
It's Better To Give
You've been providing a ton of helpful, quality content through your posts and tweets,right? Is your audience "thanking you" by giving you information about themselves in return? If you are seeing a strong click-through rate from your social media accounts but not a comparable increase in your leads, it's time to check your landing pages and offers. Things to consider are:
Are you being consistent from the post through to the landing page?
Are you encouraging them to download or sign up for something?
Are you stressing your privacy policy so they feel comfortable giving you their information?
Are your offers helpful in solving a problem for your audience.
You can learn more about lead generation in our Inbound Marketing section.
Sales. Are sales numbers increasing from visitors clicking thru from any of your social media sites? This one is pretty straight forward. Using your analytics and your conversion tracking you can determine what percentage of your total sales are coming from your social media accounts. If you're not already in the habit it's a good idea to segment your reports to mimic your company's department structure. This makes finding strong growth in your department as well as trouble spots much easier. When this number starts going up you can rest assured the boss will be puddy in your hands. Can you say job security?And The Grand Daddy...
Our friends at SocialMediaExaminer.com have a great article on this subject which includes some social media marketing tools you can use to help track and improve your social media success.
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