Did you know 77 percent of the American population has at least one social media profile? Around the world, over 2.34 billion people use social media, and this number is expected to continue growing. Therefore, it comes as no surprise social media is one of the most effective marketing platforms for virtually all types of businesses.
If you’re not doing everything you can to maximize your social media presence, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. It’s important to measure your results and make adjustments as needed. Here’s how to track the effectiveness of your social media strategy in just five simple steps:
5 Steps to Tracking the Results of Your Social Media Strategy
1. Decide What’s Important to You
The first step to measuring your success is deciding what you want to achieve. Some of the most popular goals include:
- Total customer spending or total number of online purchases
- Increased number of subscribers, completed contact forms or .pdf downloads
- Attendance at online demos or live events
- Number of contest entries or number of times your hashtag is used
- Post interactions like clicking on links, viewing videos, commenting, or sharing
Your goals will depend on what’s important for your specific business. This might also change at various times of the year or at different points in your business cycle.
2. Determine Which Metrics to Follow
Your metrics will help you track your conversion rates. Conversion occurs when a person or business who’s interested in your product, also called a lead, completes your goal. Some of the most common metrics that are tracked include:
- Number of likes, repins and retweets
- Growth in the number of followers you have on each platform
- Number of comments and mentions
- Total page views and unique page views
As these numbers grow, it’s a good indication your content is reaching people and your posts are resonating with your audience.
3. Systematically Track Your Metrics
Google Analytics and social media CRM systems are two of the most effective ways to track your metrics. These systems can help you precisely measure the performance of your campaigns. You can also determine the total revenue generated by each campaign and which customers are coming to you from multiple social media channels.
4. Evaluate Your Return on Investment
Use the information you’ve gathered to determine how much you’ve gained from your current social media strategies versus how much it has cost you.
Some expenses you’ll need to account for include:
- Cost of professional social media managers or dedicated employees
- Promotion costs including PPC expenses and Facebook or LinkedIn Ads
- The time and expense involved in content creation
- Technology expenses including apps, reporting systems and other tools
These costs should be offset by increases in revenue from additional customer purchases, increased customer loyalty and/or improved brand recognition.
5. Review Your Reports and Adjust as Needed
Determine a realistic frequency to review your reports. Decide what is or is not working, and make adjustments as needed.
Now that you have a firm grasp on where you are, you can start making progress toward getting where you want to be. For assistance with tracking the progress of your social media strategy, contact us at 702-270-8772 to schedule a free assessment.
