In our last post, we discussed the importance of developing a social media marketing strategy. Everyone knows social media contains a virtual gold mine of communication opportunity.
But, with so many platforms to convey your message across the vast and seemingly tangled universe of the web, how does one know what’s working and where?
How to Measure What’s Working
The following are 4 easy ways to determine whether your social media marketing efforts are working:
I. Referrals, referrals, referrals…
Look at the number of referrals your site is receiving. At DBC Digital, we use HubSpot as our primary tool in measuring the quantity of traffic being referred to our website via the social media that we use.
Another effective resource to measure traffic to your site is Google Analytics. With this free tool, simply click on the Traffic Sources tab, then on Referring Sites, then type in the name of the social network your want to measure (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), and you’ll immediately discover how much traffic is being generated from that platform.
II. Content Quality Review
Quality content is what drives your social marketing growth. If it’s not meaningful to your prospect, then it’s only another vehicle jamming the Internet Highway.
The best and clearest ways to determine the success of your content efforts so far are to count:
- The number of unique page views your site is receiving
- The time a visitor spends on your site
- The number of pages of your site being viewed by visitors.
If you are using Google Analytics to track your site’s metrics, click on the CONTENT tab and then select Overview. This gives you a total picture of your highest ranking content, along with the necessary statistics to determine what’s actually striking a chord with your target market.
III. Share of Voice (SOV)
Your SOV is just what you probably imagine it is; simply: how many people are talking about you (or your company) measured against the number of people talking about your competitors.
SOV is calculated by dividing the number of mentions of your brand against the total number of conversations about all the other brands in your market.
There are free resources like SocialMention which can help you with that analysis. Making this action a piece of cake…or share of the pie, if you will!
IV. Determine the “Love Me, Love Me Not” Factor
This measurement is almost purely subjective, but it’s vitally important to your success. Social media is about PEOPLE – emotions, motivations, likes and dislikes. For this measurement, simply look at the individual mentions of you (or your company) in each social media platform, and then mark each mention as either positive or negative. When you’re done, add up each group and compare the total number in each to see where you are on the LMLMN scale.
Use this measure over a defined period of time to help you determine where you are now and what the trend is.
Want more information and direction in succeeding with social media? Here’s our eBook that goes into more detail and specifics to help you get started the right way:https://dbcdigital.wpengine.com/enhance-your-internet-presence/
We wish you the best of success!
