Last week, I published an article revealing five key metrics you need to measure in order to ensure that you get the most of your social media marketing strategy. There are, however, other metrics you should monitor. Here are five more metrics you need to measure to ensure success on social media.
1. Followers and Fans
Although this statistic is very closely related to reach, which I wrote about in the last ‘five metrics’ article, it’s still an important statistic to keep an eye on. You should monitor not only the amount of followers and fans your social media profiles get, but also the demographics they represent.
You need to make sure that your content is reaching the right sort of people, people that are going to be interested in your company and products. When joining social media sites, users are encouraged to share personal details, such as age, gender, sexual orientation and marital status.
Of course, social media sites won’t share this personal information with companies, but you can check out what demographics your fans belong to by checking out their profiles when they like your page, follow you on Twitter or share your content. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on your audience: I’m sure you have a target audience in mind, but you might be surprised by some of the people who take a shine to your company.
2. Influence
Influence counts for a lot online. If you can prove your expertise in a certain field, other social media users will flock to your blog articles and profiles to learn hints and tips from you. If people trust your opinion, they will more often than not trust your company and products. The products of a hardware store, for example, are more trusted if the hardware store displays a keen knowledge of DIY.
It’s also a great idea to surround yourself with influential people. Detergent company Vanish created a YouTube channel, encouraging people to share their own tips on removing stains. The channel shows off Vanish’s products and makes the company appear knowledgeable.
Klout, a really handy website for every social media user, measures your influence online for your, giving you a score between 1 and 100. Klout also helps you to improve your influence online by interacting with other Klout users.
3. Return On Investment
Although social media sites are free to join, it takes time, effort and, hence, money to get the most out of your social media marketing strategy. Social media advertising, though often very successful, also costs money. You need to make sure that the time and money you spend on perfecting your social media profiles is worthwhile.
Monitor and measure the return on investment (ROI) of your social media strategy: if your profiles are not driving worthwhile traffic to your website, or encouraging people to do business with your company, then it isn’t working.
Social media has a lot of useful applications for businesses: Twitter is a great customer service tool, businesses can promote their products with pictures on Facebook and Pinterest, and they can network on Google+ and LinkedIn. However, there is no point in spending time on social media if you don’t take advantage of the great marketing potential it has by promoting your company and products to a huge, active audience.
4. Views
I’m not just talking about YouTube views, I’m talking about Page views, post views and any other measurable social media view you can think of. Keep an eye on how many people view your content and then compare it to the amount of engagement your content gets.
If your YouTube videos are getting viewed a lot, perhaps because you’ve optimised them for SEO and posted them in a number of highly visible places, but no one is sharing or engaging with them, then they are probably not being viewed by the right audience (or maybe they’re not very good).
You want your Page, page posts and videos to get as many views as possible, so you need to make sure that you promote them. However, if no one is engaging with them, then you’re probably promoting them in the wrong places.
5. Virality
Virality is closely related to both reach and views, but it takes the content itself into consideration as well as how many people have seen it. The virality of content depends heavily on its quality: whether it will interest and excite people on social media.
Content can go viral very quickly. You need to make sure that you’re prepared for such an eventuality so that you can get the most out of it as possible. Although virality is difficult to measure, there are a few things you can do to your content so that it’s more likely to go viral:
Add share buttons: if your content doesn’t have share buttons no one will share it.
Make sure your content starts a conversation: controversial content is far more likely to get shared.
Make content that elicits a strong emotional response, one that people will want to share with their friends.
For more information on how to increase your content’s chances of going viral, check out our article on viral marketing.
What metrics do you measure when your using social media?
Showing posts with label ROI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ROI. Show all posts
Friday, 6 September 2013
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Measuring Social Media ROI: The Basics
Measuring Social Media ROI is a top-of-the mind subject for most business owners. Today I want to talk to you about the basics of measuring your social networking followers.
There are two important things that you have to have in place before we can calculate the strength of your social networking followers. First, you must have some kind of call to action on your website that entices people to become a lead/customer for your product or service. This can be any form (preferably on your website) where people can submit information for you to contact them directly. Or, if you sell a product, purchase your product directly.
Secondly, it is important that you have some kind of tracking system in place that allows you to see how many visitors came to your website, how many of them answered your call to action, and where these people came from. Without this, you have to rely on communication and word of mouth to get a rough idea on how many people found you on social networking websites. I use Google's free Analytics service, which does all of that for me. Once you have those two things in place, you'll be able to do basic calculations on how many active followers you have.
How to measure a follower's value
o Look at the total number of clicks to your website from each social media platform in a month, and divide that by the number of posts you made. This gives you an average visit per post.
o Look at page views per visit, time spent on site and visitor paths to identify what percentage of social media visitors become leads or customers.
o Using these metrics, you can find out how many of your social networking followers actually show interest in your company, or, actually purchased from your company.
Now, this is a very basic way of calculating the monetary ROI (return on investment) of your followers, but also gives you a better idea on how many of your followers are interested in furthering their relationships with you, and your business. While you're doing these calculations, it's also not a bad idea to see how many people commented on or interacted with your social networking page. These people should not be forgotten when calculating the traffic generated on your website, the reason being is that most social networking websites publish a link to your profile on that person's profile when they comment on your business page. This can spark viral marketing, and possibly gain you more customers.
ROI measurements are another subject that goes very deep with social networking, and is too much to cover in this small report. Another important avenue to look into is the importance of customer retention for your company. You need to measure the effect that customer retention has on your company (what will losing a customer cost your company). Since social networking is a perfect way to build and establish relationships (and help people with their problems) you can use these new online measures as a form of customer service. Finally, you want to measure how many people are now actively talking about your community online, or interacting with you online. To get the highest ROI of social media marketing, you will have to measure each of these three avenues, based on your company's numbers.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5971655
There are two important things that you have to have in place before we can calculate the strength of your social networking followers. First, you must have some kind of call to action on your website that entices people to become a lead/customer for your product or service. This can be any form (preferably on your website) where people can submit information for you to contact them directly. Or, if you sell a product, purchase your product directly.
Secondly, it is important that you have some kind of tracking system in place that allows you to see how many visitors came to your website, how many of them answered your call to action, and where these people came from. Without this, you have to rely on communication and word of mouth to get a rough idea on how many people found you on social networking websites. I use Google's free Analytics service, which does all of that for me. Once you have those two things in place, you'll be able to do basic calculations on how many active followers you have.
How to measure a follower's value
o Look at the total number of clicks to your website from each social media platform in a month, and divide that by the number of posts you made. This gives you an average visit per post.
o Look at page views per visit, time spent on site and visitor paths to identify what percentage of social media visitors become leads or customers.
o Using these metrics, you can find out how many of your social networking followers actually show interest in your company, or, actually purchased from your company.
Now, this is a very basic way of calculating the monetary ROI (return on investment) of your followers, but also gives you a better idea on how many of your followers are interested in furthering their relationships with you, and your business. While you're doing these calculations, it's also not a bad idea to see how many people commented on or interacted with your social networking page. These people should not be forgotten when calculating the traffic generated on your website, the reason being is that most social networking websites publish a link to your profile on that person's profile when they comment on your business page. This can spark viral marketing, and possibly gain you more customers.
ROI measurements are another subject that goes very deep with social networking, and is too much to cover in this small report. Another important avenue to look into is the importance of customer retention for your company. You need to measure the effect that customer retention has on your company (what will losing a customer cost your company). Since social networking is a perfect way to build and establish relationships (and help people with their problems) you can use these new online measures as a form of customer service. Finally, you want to measure how many people are now actively talking about your community online, or interacting with you online. To get the highest ROI of social media marketing, you will have to measure each of these three avenues, based on your company's numbers.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5971655
Friday, 9 August 2013
5 Social Media Tactics to Increase ROI
Social can be one of the most challenging platforms for brands to measure return on investment. Companies that grew up on traditional advertising and metrics often have trouble making sense of the value of the online ecosystem. But with 52% of U.S. consumers using the web as their primary purchase tool, it's an area brands can't afford to ignore.
Last week the commenting and social curation platform Livefyre hosted an evening chat with a handful of influential analysts, marketers and publishers, sharing thoughts on need-to-know ROI growth tools. It's a formula Forrester Senior Analyst Kim Celestre calls "social depth," a fancy phrase for discovering, exploring and engaging with online consumers, eventually leading those conversations back to brands' websites.
Here's the social depth formula broken down into five, easy tips.
1. Engage
User-generated content, blog posts, videos, tweets and chatter are all over the web. Harnessing the power of brand advocates, addressing customer concerns and fixing problems empowers participation. It's easier to put out a fire than it is to ignore it.
People want to interact and create relationships with brands online. Catering to those fans via product giveaways, social interaction and real replies separate the companies that get it from the ones still in the dark.
"The consumer is boss, so we have to match that," explains Andrew Backs, P&G's manager for global business development. "Look for solutions to unlock the consumer voice."
2. Be Authentic
You can't fake it online, says Sid Shuman, who runs social media for Sony Playstation. "They can smell that a mile away."
The same die-hard brand advocates championing your product will be the first to call out shady behavior or content that doesn't reflect brand culture. When in doubt, ask your community for help when it comes to content. Shuman suggests crowdsourcing content for in-house interview and articles. Because they live and breathe the brand, fans "come up with better questions that we could any day," he says.
3. Keep Content Premium
Hitting "publish" is social suicide if the material isn't quality. Take advantage of Wordpress,Tumblr and social media to craft strong messages. Know the rules and follow them: Every network requires a specific approach and language (tweets are written differently than Facebookposts).
Stick to a calendar for posting, and focus on making followers feel part of the brand's family. Using platforms solely as selling tools quickly alienates customers. Hire professionals—and fight the urge to turn sites into content farms or automate feeds.
Peter Yared, CBS Interactive's CTO/CIO suggests using your sites to curate and amplify positive content about your company. "Find the interesting content that’s being posted and use it to bring value to your audience."
4. Integrate Real-Time Apps
Incorporate social into every aspect of what you do, says Jordan Kretchmer, Livefyre's founder and chief executive. Kretchmer's company reports 88% of businesses using Twitter feeds, comments, ratings and reviews on homepages increases user engagement. Forty-two percent boosted their average time on site.
It may sound painfully simple, but adding these tools are the equivalent of a restaurant showing off a top health code letter grade. It empowers consumers to interact and share content. Plus, constant updating improves search engine visibility much more than static pages.
5. Experiment
Nothing risked is nothing gained, especially when it comes to social. Fail and see what works. Test tone, style and new monetizing tools, such as native advertising, which serves sponsored content, tweets and Facebook stories. eMarketer reports 73% of U.S publishers now offer some form of native advertising. But be careful: This hot topic still often fails to hook users, as do most click-bait attempts.
Did we miss something? Engage with us and share your tips in the comments below.
Last week the commenting and social curation platform Livefyre hosted an evening chat with a handful of influential analysts, marketers and publishers, sharing thoughts on need-to-know ROI growth tools. It's a formula Forrester Senior Analyst Kim Celestre calls "social depth," a fancy phrase for discovering, exploring and engaging with online consumers, eventually leading those conversations back to brands' websites.
Here's the social depth formula broken down into five, easy tips.
1. Engage
User-generated content, blog posts, videos, tweets and chatter are all over the web. Harnessing the power of brand advocates, addressing customer concerns and fixing problems empowers participation. It's easier to put out a fire than it is to ignore it.
People want to interact and create relationships with brands online. Catering to those fans via product giveaways, social interaction and real replies separate the companies that get it from the ones still in the dark.
"The consumer is boss, so we have to match that," explains Andrew Backs, P&G's manager for global business development. "Look for solutions to unlock the consumer voice."
2. Be Authentic
You can't fake it online, says Sid Shuman, who runs social media for Sony Playstation. "They can smell that a mile away."
The same die-hard brand advocates championing your product will be the first to call out shady behavior or content that doesn't reflect brand culture. When in doubt, ask your community for help when it comes to content. Shuman suggests crowdsourcing content for in-house interview and articles. Because they live and breathe the brand, fans "come up with better questions that we could any day," he says.
3. Keep Content Premium
Hitting "publish" is social suicide if the material isn't quality. Take advantage of Wordpress,Tumblr and social media to craft strong messages. Know the rules and follow them: Every network requires a specific approach and language (tweets are written differently than Facebookposts).
Stick to a calendar for posting, and focus on making followers feel part of the brand's family. Using platforms solely as selling tools quickly alienates customers. Hire professionals—and fight the urge to turn sites into content farms or automate feeds.
Peter Yared, CBS Interactive's CTO/CIO suggests using your sites to curate and amplify positive content about your company. "Find the interesting content that’s being posted and use it to bring value to your audience."
4. Integrate Real-Time Apps
Incorporate social into every aspect of what you do, says Jordan Kretchmer, Livefyre's founder and chief executive. Kretchmer's company reports 88% of businesses using Twitter feeds, comments, ratings and reviews on homepages increases user engagement. Forty-two percent boosted their average time on site.
It may sound painfully simple, but adding these tools are the equivalent of a restaurant showing off a top health code letter grade. It empowers consumers to interact and share content. Plus, constant updating improves search engine visibility much more than static pages.
5. Experiment
Nothing risked is nothing gained, especially when it comes to social. Fail and see what works. Test tone, style and new monetizing tools, such as native advertising, which serves sponsored content, tweets and Facebook stories. eMarketer reports 73% of U.S publishers now offer some form of native advertising. But be careful: This hot topic still often fails to hook users, as do most click-bait attempts.
Did we miss something? Engage with us and share your tips in the comments below.
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