How to Tell If Your Social Media Marketing Strategy Is Working
Have you jumped on the social media bandwagon yet and started an account for your business on the top sites (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest)? If so, congratulations! But...
how can you tell if what you are doing is really working? Are you getting any return on the time and effort you put into posting? To find out, there are a number of online tools to help determine if your social media marketing efforts are reaching the right people and engaging your target market.
Take a look.
Social Media Monitoring Tools There are many internet marketing firms that will offer to monitor your social media accounts and compile a long report full of statistics on how well you are engaging your friends and followers.
Chances are you don't have a budget for that! Luckily, there are loads of free tools you can easily access that will give you much the same information.
Here's just a few: · Facebook insights - as soon as you've gathered 30 likes on your Business page, Facebook will start tracking statistics.
A quick download of those statistics will tell you which of your posts were most popular, which were shared, which received the most comments and a whole host of additional insights.
· Pinterest Analytics - this new feature (available when you verify your website) lets you see the number of pins and pinners from your website images, how many times your pins were repined, how many times your pins were viewed, the number of times someone clicked through to a link on your pin, and the most popular of your pins.
· Twitter @ Connect - how many people are retweeting your posts? How many @ mentions did you get last month? You can see this information, including conversations you had with followers and "liked" posts, simply by clicking on the @ Connect button on the top menu of your Twitter home page.
· Google Alerts -wondering how often your name or your business name is being mentioned on the internet? Simply head to Google.
com/alerts and type in the name you want to monitor; Google will send you an email anytime it finds those words included in any discussions from specific sites, such as Twitter.
com or Facebook.
com.
Note: word is that Google will be doing away with Alerts; if so, try talkwalker.
com to replace it.
· Google Analytics -to view social media traffic, go to your Google Analytics account, then click on Traffic Sources, Social, Overview.
The overview gives you access to metrics for social engagement, social action and page trends.
You can also drill down on demographics and find out which social media site results in the most click-throughs to your website.
What Key Performance Indicators Do You Need to Track? Using these tools is one thing; but what exactly are you looking for? Here are a few KPIs that will help you determine if your social media strategy is working: · Reach: how many fans, followers and blog subscribers are following your content? This helps gauge the size of your "tribe.
" · Engagement: measuring how many times your content is retweeted, commented on, viewed, downloaded, etc.
helps determine what posts are most engaging to your target market.
· Competition: it's always a good idea to keep on top of what your competitors are doing so you can gauge how much social media share they are taking away from you.
Do they have more followers than you? Is their brand being mentioned more often? · Branding: do your customers love your service or think it's annoying? Are your products working as they should or are people getting frustrated by problems? This is the kind of valuable brand feedback you can find by reviewing social media statistics.
· Conversions: are the people you are engaging via social media becoming paying customers? Check to see if they are being added to your sales funnel.
It's not enough that your small business has a Facebook page and a Twitter account - it's important to know if they are doing anything to help your bottom line! Use these monitoring tools and look at these KPIs to find out if your social media strategy is working as it should.
how can you tell if what you are doing is really working? Are you getting any return on the time and effort you put into posting? To find out, there are a number of online tools to help determine if your social media marketing efforts are reaching the right people and engaging your target market.
Take a look.
Social Media Monitoring Tools There are many internet marketing firms that will offer to monitor your social media accounts and compile a long report full of statistics on how well you are engaging your friends and followers.
Chances are you don't have a budget for that! Luckily, there are loads of free tools you can easily access that will give you much the same information.
Here's just a few: · Facebook insights - as soon as you've gathered 30 likes on your Business page, Facebook will start tracking statistics.
A quick download of those statistics will tell you which of your posts were most popular, which were shared, which received the most comments and a whole host of additional insights.
· Pinterest Analytics - this new feature (available when you verify your website) lets you see the number of pins and pinners from your website images, how many times your pins were repined, how many times your pins were viewed, the number of times someone clicked through to a link on your pin, and the most popular of your pins.
· Twitter @ Connect - how many people are retweeting your posts? How many @ mentions did you get last month? You can see this information, including conversations you had with followers and "liked" posts, simply by clicking on the @ Connect button on the top menu of your Twitter home page.
· Google Alerts -wondering how often your name or your business name is being mentioned on the internet? Simply head to Google.
com/alerts and type in the name you want to monitor; Google will send you an email anytime it finds those words included in any discussions from specific sites, such as Twitter.
com or Facebook.
com.
Note: word is that Google will be doing away with Alerts; if so, try talkwalker.
com to replace it.
· Google Analytics -to view social media traffic, go to your Google Analytics account, then click on Traffic Sources, Social, Overview.
The overview gives you access to metrics for social engagement, social action and page trends.
You can also drill down on demographics and find out which social media site results in the most click-throughs to your website.
What Key Performance Indicators Do You Need to Track? Using these tools is one thing; but what exactly are you looking for? Here are a few KPIs that will help you determine if your social media strategy is working: · Reach: how many fans, followers and blog subscribers are following your content? This helps gauge the size of your "tribe.
" · Engagement: measuring how many times your content is retweeted, commented on, viewed, downloaded, etc.
helps determine what posts are most engaging to your target market.
· Competition: it's always a good idea to keep on top of what your competitors are doing so you can gauge how much social media share they are taking away from you.
Do they have more followers than you? Is their brand being mentioned more often? · Branding: do your customers love your service or think it's annoying? Are your products working as they should or are people getting frustrated by problems? This is the kind of valuable brand feedback you can find by reviewing social media statistics.
· Conversions: are the people you are engaging via social media becoming paying customers? Check to see if they are being added to your sales funnel.
It's not enough that your small business has a Facebook page and a Twitter account - it's important to know if they are doing anything to help your bottom line! Use these monitoring tools and look at these KPIs to find out if your social media strategy is working as it should.
