Social Media is now an essential driving force behind any business; but how do you go about measuring the success or your Social Media efforts? There’s no doubt that Social Media can have a huge impact upon brand awareness and sales; but this cannot be measured in traditional ROI terms.
Social Media can add a lot of value to a business; but it is not measured in the traditional ROI terms. It’s all about engagement, and cultivating an audience for future updates. So what can we measure to assess success?
Reach
The reach of your Social Media campaigns is often the most vital measurable metric. Not only does reach allow you to assess the number of people who are viewing your content, it also allows you to gain new followers and potential customers. So what can be measured to assess your reach?
- Followers/Likes
- LinkedIn Connections
- Size of Google+ Circles and LinkedIn Group Members
- Page views
There are a host of tools out there allowing you to measure and visualise these statistics, and the Social Media networks often have their own analytic tools. When assessing your following, it’s reported around 16% will see the content you share, and 1.6% will click through. That seems low, but that’s why measuring and altering your campaign is vital to your business.
Whilst focusing on creating content and Social Media campaigns for existing followers, you can always shift the focus onto gaining more via different means.
Engagement
Engagement is the key to Social Media campaigns, as it’s no good if you’re not getting potential or existing customers to engage with your updates. If customers are engaging with you on Social Media, then they may turn into long-standing customers, who engage with your brand, and continue to purchase your products or services in the future.
Of course, not everyone is going to share or like your updates, but it’s still a great indication of who truly cares about what you’re sharing. This doesn’t only involve shares and likes, it can also involve:
- Rating Videos
- Mentions on Twitter
- Direct messages
- Commenting on posts
One simple trick to measure your Social Media engagement success, is to give a points system to each network. For instance, a retweet is worth more value than a favourite; so add a value of 2 points to any retweets, and 1 point to a favourite. Then, after or during the campaign, you can add up the points made via different efforts, and quantitatively deduce what works best.
Traffic
Up next, traffic is a vital statistic when it comes to Social Media marketing. After all, Social Media is all fine and dandy, but the aim of these Tweets and Updates is to direct people towards your businesses website or blog.
It’s not about direct links from Twitter to sales; it’s about broadening awareness of your company. The number of views on an ad on a Social Media platform can be a measurement of awareness, and the number of click-throughs would demonstrate the interest from your customers.
Leads
After traffic, generating leads are the next target. Sales are results, and that is the end aim of this game in the long run. If the reach and views generated by your Social Media campaign is not generating leads, then something needs to be done. If leads come through via the phone, you can always ask where they heard about you; and there’s a chance it could be because of your Social Media campaign.
Conversion Rate
For a start, you need to work out what conversions goals you want to achieve. Do you want customers to get in touch? Or do you want them to act upon so-called Desired Actions you have set-out? These can include:
- Downloading a White Paper
- PDF Downloads
- Video Views
- Newsletter sign-ups
- Online purchases
- Filled-out contact forms
By quantifying these aims, it makes it much easier to analyse, and you’ve also converted anonymous visitors into named leads. With the end goal of acquiring customers, you can also measure this with the number of inquiries, appointments, or requested quotes. Similar to engagement, these can be attributed points compared to how much they’re worth to you and your business, allowing you to review the campaign more effectively. And this can all be done with tools such as Google Analytics, and creating trackable links.
Social Media Success?
Of course, if you are not a household name, or a major corporation, you’re not likely to have a colossal following on Social Media. But that can certainly be changed by using Social Media effectively, and being sure to engage with your target audience, and people within your industry or field.
There’s untapped potential to engage with existing and new clients; updating them on what’s happening with your business, and constantly remaining in their field of vision. Do not underestimate the power of Social Media, as it is now integral to daily life, for business and personal purposes.
If you need some Social Media Tools to help measure your Social Media Campaign Metrics, then check our Top 20 Social Media Marketing Tools here.
How do you measure the success of your Social Media campaigns? If you think Xanthos could help your Digital Marketing and Social Media, get in touch. Share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below!
