The previous post of this blog series on establishing your Social Media Strategy focused on how to determine your goals and objectives – the question is…how do you measure the performance of your social media campaign?
This third part of this blog series will concentrate on how you can measure your work and how your campaigns can be deemed a success.
Firstly, refer to your original goals and objectives and determine what you consider to be a ‘win’. A ‘win’ or success may be determined by the number of twitter followers that you have gained during a specific campaign or the number of Facebook ‘likes’ you received.
If you are present on YouTube you may feel that an increase in video views or new channel subscribers gained would be the success marker – or how many came through to your website after watching a video?
Engagement within any social media strategy is key and is a great way to monitor your work so depending on what you are looking to achieve consider reporting on the number of Twitter Re-Tweets or mentions your receive, Facebook likes and comments made on your page, the amount of time people spend watching and commenting on YouTube videos can be a good indication.
In my experience, one of the most telling ways to determine your social ‘wins’ and engagement markers is through monitoring your web site statistics and reviewing the quality of new sales leads. I also find that if you have a busy LinkedIn group with relevant discussions which add value to your online community eases the time constraints of other departments within your business.
When determining your ‘wins’ have a think about how you will track the results – I use Google Analytics, Hootsuite, Social Mention, Tweetreach, Klout and insights. There are other monitoring and tracking services out there so spend time researching and playing around with a few to get an idea of which platforms will work best for you.
Once you have set out your goals, wins and tracking techniques ensure that the metrics can be reported in to financial metrics to show the impact that social media is having on your business. Depending on which factors you choose it may consist of generating a financial return on investment, new revenue generated or the amount of money it has saved the company through time or resource.
Remember, results on a successful campaign don’t just happen so take the time to find what works for your business, tweak if needed and think realistic results.
Social Media Strategy 