The champagne corks are popping, cigars are being smoked and there are big smiles all round the office. Your latest social media campaign has generated 10,000 likes and the number of followers has gone through the roof. At first glance this is impressive stuff, you are a hit. Or are you?
What kind of social media metrics are really worth measuring with software? And what do they all mean?
Even the most switched on social media business #business owner can get caught up in the numbers, counting retweets, fans and shares. However, they are not telling the full story.
As social media becomes a bigger part of our business lives, consumer facing and B2B companies have become too engrossed in figures rather than on real engagement. Just because you have nearly as many social media followers as Justin Bieber it doesn’t mean that those people are advocating for you or indeed buying from you.
There are dozens of ways to ascertain the success of your social media endeavours, the challenge is knowing which ones are the most meaningful to you.
Failing to Measure ROI
Although there is a plethora of measuring tools many businesses are failing to monitor, measure and track their progress. In June 2013 Tata Consulting Services carried out a survey of 655 representatives from largely consumer-facing companies from Asia-Pacific, Europe, America and Latin America.
The results revealed that most companies are not measuring their social media ROI:
- 48% of respondents from North America haven’t measured ROI
- 52% of respondents from Europe haven’t measured ROI
The picture is better in Asia-Pacific and Latin America
- 32% of respondents from Asia-Pacific haven’t measured ROI
- 28% of respondents from Latin America haven’t measured ROI
Metrics do matter so here are a few suggestions on how you can track what’s working and what isn’t:
Engagement – the number of fans and followers is an unreliable indicator of success. Big numbers may be a sop to your ego, but they are worthless unless there is meaningful engagement. The endgame of your efforts is to generate more sales, but before the tills ring out you must start the conversation.
Engagement can be tracked by the sum of shares, comments and likes you receive in a given time period. Top social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest offer detailed engagement insights and analytics.
Traffic – one of the chief reasons for social media marketing is to drive traffic to your website. Fortunately, it’s one of the easiest metrics to measure. There are numerous analytics packages that allow you to see how many users are coming from channels to your website. You can also see which ones generate the most traffic and whether they convert into a sale.
Bounce Rate – are your social media followers leaving your website shortly after arriving? If so, that could indicate that your landing page needs to be improved.
Social Media Mentions – so, you have a large number of followers, but are they mentioning you elsewhere on the web? The holy grail of social media marketing is when people are talking to other people about your company.
Do you know how they’re talking about you, your offerings and your customer service? You need to listen to what people are saying about you to their friends. Measure and track positive and negative mentions, and their volume.
Conversions – when it comes down to it, there are only two numbers that really matter and that’s how many visitors turn into leads and sales.
Google Analytics provides reporting of traffic to your website as well as drilling down for more detailed information such as if your prospects are converting in the way you want. For example, purchasing a product or service, downloading an eBook, subscribing to a newsletter or filling out a contact form.
Key Business Insights
Collecting and measuring social media metrics can sometimes be overwhelming, but understanding them is critical to assessing the effectiveness of your marketing.
Simplify matters by using smart social media software solutions such as MavSocial. This cutting edge content management and scheduling system displays all your analytics on one platform and automatically gathers and receives reports on your campaigns.
By keeping on top of your metrics you gain key intelligence on social media activities that can be acted on to improve engagement and enhance profits. And many social media metrics can be measured by software like MavSocial does for our user’s campaigns.
But no matter what tool you do use, make sure you are checking the right metrics, and often.
From MavSocial | Social Media Marketing Software for Business
